Introduction to Zechariah chapter 14

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2016 9:49 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro to Zechariah 14

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 14

            Message of the verses:  What I will be doing in this introduction to Zechariah 14 is similar to what I have been doing in all of the introductions to the different chapters in Zechariah and that is give some quotes from John MacArthur’s sermon that he did and in this case chapter 14.

            “The basic theme of the book of Zechariah, just to remind you, is the sweep of Israel's history from the time of Zechariah when the nation returned from the Babylonian captivity right on till the establishing of the millennial kingdom on earth. That is the subject of this fourteenth chapter, the establishing of the millennial kingdom. We started out in chapter 1 with Zechariah dealing with the people as they had come back, were endeavoring to rebuild their city which was in rubble, to rebuild the wall, etc. And Zechariah came along as a great prophet of comfort, a great prophet of hope and his message was to tell Israel that God was going to let them rebuild, God was going to let them restore their city. But more than that, God had an incredible future for them way off in the distance when all of human history came to its climax.

“Now as we come to the fourteenth chapter, we really come to the climax, the final establishment of the millennial kingdom, the end of human history, as it were. And it's a tremendous chapter, it's just loaded with prophecy, some of it is very, very amazing. Some of it is very difficult to understand with our own limitations. But I do feel this way about it, I want to reaffirm this as we approach it. I do feel that we must interpret the fourteenth chapter literally. I read about five commentaries this week on this chapter that do not interpret the chapter literally. But they make it a symbolic chapter. They do not wish to have a restored Israel in their theology. They do not believe that God has anything left for the nation itself. They do not see a restoration of the people to the land in prophecy. They do not see an actual setting up of an actual earthly kingdom. And so there's some question about an actual battle of Armageddon, etc. So they want to make these things figures or symbols rather that literal reality. And in so doing they are left with some very, very, very difficult problems.

“So, what I'm saying is the best way to approach it is simply to take it for what it says in its clearest literal meaning and leave it at that and let the Spirit of God worry about how He's going to bring it all to pass. Because when you try to make symbols out of it, your guess is as good as anybody else's, and none of really makes much sense.

“In 1919 there was written a commentary on Zechariah by a man named David Baron...B-a-r-o-n. In my judgments, probably the finest work that's ever been written on the book of Zechariah. And David Baron took a literal approach. He took a literal approach to interpreting this book when literal approaches to these kinds of things were not really very popular, simply because it looked impossible for these things to happen. This is what David Baron wrote in 1919.

“"First of all, we have to suppose a restoration of the Jews into their land in a condition of unbelief, not a complete restoration of the whole nation which will not take place until after their conversion, but a representative and influential remnant will return. It seems from Scripture that in relation to Israel and the land, there will be restoration before the Second Coming of our Lord, a very much the same state of things as existed at the time of His first coming when the threads of God's dealing with them nationally were finally dropped, not to be taken up again until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled."”

“Now let me stop at that paragraph just to say this. Baron predicted a literal actual return of Israel to the land, a restoration of the nation in unbelief prior to any conversion experience. He goes on:

"There was at that time a number of Jews in Palestine representative of the nation but compared with the number of their brethren who were already Diaspora among the nations, they were a mere minority and not in a political independent condition."

“Now this is what he's saying. He's saying when they come back in the end times, it seems to be the indication of Zechariah's prophecy that the whole nation will not come back initially, but a portion of them will come back and the remainder of them will stay scattered all over the nations as they were in the time of Jesus. That is precisely what has happened. There is a remnant that has gone back. There is a great number that has gone back. But not comparable to the amount that still remains scattered around the world. So Baron was exactly accurate in his interpretation literally of Zechariah.

"So it will be," he says, "they will be at first as compared with the whole nation only a representative minority in Palestine, and," he says, "a Jewish state will be probably formed either under the suzerainty(??) of one of the great powers or under international protection." Baron predicted the establishing of a Jewish state by virtue of his understanding of prophecy. Well in 1919 he was still a long ways off but he was right. And he said it will be done probably by some cooperation of a politically...or rather of an international protection agency. And you know as well as I do that the basic grant for Israel's existence in 1948 was given by the United Nations. So he was right again.

"And what follows after a brief interval of prosperity, there will come a night of anguish. What occasions the darkest hour in the night of Israel's sad history since their rejection of Christ is the gathering of the nations and the siege predicted in this fourteenth chapter."

“Now in 1919 David Baron then predicted they would go back, only a minority would go back while the rest would remain scattered. They would go back in unbelief. They would go back and establish the nation. They would establish the nation under some kind of international protection. And they would remain there in prosperity for a while, until finally a great holocaust would come upon them from which they would be delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ and at that time they would see Him for His Messiah and they would enter into faith and salvation and the Kingdom. What he said in 1919 so far has come to pass step by step without missing a button because he took a literal approach.

“Now the only reason I bother to tell you these things is because I want to reaffirm in your minds that you can take a literal approach to the Bible and be vindicated. And that's precisely what David Baron did and so far he has been vindicated in his interpretation. So we make no apology for taking this very literally.”

We will continue looking at this introduction from MacArthur’s sermon in our next SD on Zechariah.

10/31/2016 10:04 PM

 

 

 

           

PT-1 "The Profound Experssion of Christ's Love" (John 13:31-33)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2016 10:34 AM

My Worship Time                              Focus:  PT-1The Profound Expression of Christ’s Love

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 13:31-33

            Message of the verses:  “31 Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; 32 if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. 33 “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ’Where I am going, you cannot come.’”

            When we ask the question “What describes loves highest expression?” we can say that the answer to this question is what our Lord said in John 15:13 “"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”  Jesus we also tell His disciples that they are His friends, and so He will lay down His life for them, and all who will come to Him in repentance excepting the sacrifice that He made for them.  John also wrote the following in 1 John 3:16 “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 

            Now as we look at these verses we see the word glorified in them in some form four times as I have highlighted and so we need to understand what He is talking about here.  The death of Jesus will be what glorifies Him and also glorifies His Father and so both will be glorified.  The crucifixion is seen as the point of Christ’s greatest humiliation “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:8).”  This event, His crucifixion is seen where Christ is most glorified as seen in John 17:4-5 and Phil. 2:9-11.  This is the greatest reason for Jesus coming to planet earth to be crucified, paying for our sins and all those who will receive Him as Savior and Lord, waking by faith in Christ after they have been saved.

            As we have mentioned “when he had gone out” meaning Judas, that Jesus began to give His farewell address to the remaining eleven disciples and since John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote it in his gospel we have the privilege of being able to read and study it, to see the love of Christ that is seen in this section all the way to the end of John 16.  Imagine that Jesus knew He was about to die in a very few hours and yet He takes the time to prepare His disciples on what they should be doing after His death and resurrection.  John was probably around 90 years old when he wrote this and yet his memory was as clear to him as if he was right there going over this event sharing it with us so we can learn about the wonderful love that Christ has for us.

            John MacArthur writes “The first statement, ‘How is the Son of Man glorified’ (cf. Dan. 7:13-14), refers to His death on the cross the next day.  The cross appeared to be a shameful, disastrous defeat for Jesus.  Yet it was through the cross, where He gave His life for sinners, that Christ’s glory was displayed most clearly.  In Acts 3:13 Peter declared to the very people who had crucified Jesus, ‘The God of  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.’”

            I want to look at how Jesus was glorified as we conclude this portion of this SD.  The first was that His death purchased salvation and also it satisfied the demands of God’s justice for everyone who would believe in Him.  God’s satisfaction had to be meet by the death of Christ in order for salvation to be paid for, so if God’s demands were not meet then Christ’s death would have meant nothing.  Let us look at Colossians 2:13-14 “13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” 

            Next the death of Christ also destroyed the power of sin by “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3b).”  Let us look at Romans 6:6-7 to help us better understand this truth:  “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.”

            We will look at how God was glorified in Christ in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that I am reminded of the great, great love that Christ has for me along with seeing it in my Spiritual Diaries that I am posting from the book of Hebrews which also shows me of His great, great love He has for me by being my Great High Priest who understand the trials and temptations that I go through each day and interceding for me when I fall.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to see me through some things today and tomorrow that will cause my IBS to possibility give me troubles.

Memory verse for the week (again” (Romans 6:15 “15 What then? Shall we sin because we are no longer under law but under grace? May it never be!”

Answer to our last Bible question:  “Leah” (Genesis 29:32).

Today’s Bible question:  “The book of Matthew was written primarily to what people?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/31/2016 11:22 AM

Intro to John 13:31-38

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/29/2016 10:04 AM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  Intro to John 13:31-38

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 13:31-38

            Message of the verses:  “31 Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; 32 if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. 33 “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ’Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

    36 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later." 37 Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You." 38 Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.”

THEY WILL KNOW WE ARE CHRISTIANS BY OUR LOVE

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity will one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah they'll know we are Christians by our love

We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And…

We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love.

            This is kind of the essence of our verses that we will be looking at over the next few days as this begins a section that goes all the way through chapter sixteen that shows us what the Lord was telling His disciples what they will need to know after He is taken out of the world.  In Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on the gospel of John he contrasts Judas and Jesus in the later part of the verses in chapter thirteen.  Judas was the selfish one who only thought of himself while Jesus is about to go to the cross and die for those whom will receive Him as Savior and Lord.  Judas did the most heinous thing that has ever been done while Jesus did the greatest thing that was ever done.

            In his commentary on these verses John MacArthur writes about the love that Jesus displays and also the love that true believers display which as the song say above that people will know that we are Christians by our love, not the fact that we may have a bumper sticker on our cars with a fish symbol on it, or the fact that we go to church every Sunday and perhaps even go to Sunday school.  We may have a coffee cup with a Christian symbol on it, we may even teach a Sunday school class, but none of that proves that we are believers.

            MacArthur writes “Love for our triune God is most clearly demonstrated not through lip service, but through obedience.  Jesus Himself explained to His disciples, ‘If you love Me, you will keep my commandments’ (John 14:15), and later told them, ‘You are My friends if you do what I command you’ (John 14:14).  To a crowd of Jews who had purportedly believed in Him, Jesus said, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’  Obedience is the visible demonstration of genuine love for Christ.”  We can ask the question “Why do true believers obey the Lord, and the answer is because we love Him, we have been changed from the inside out, we have received the Holy Spirit into our lives when we believe, and this changes everything, nothing is the same any more, nothing.  2Co 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (KJV)

            MacArthur later on asks and answers the question “What makes false disciples so difficult to detect is that they often have the outward trappings of genuine disciples, such as visible morality, an intellectual knowledge of the Bible, and even a level of involvement in the outward life of the church.  But such things are neutral; they neither prove nor disprove the geniuses of a person’s faith.”

            We will now look at the last two paragraphs of his commentary to show us where we will be heading as we finish up the 13^th chapter of John’s Gospel.

            “Beginning in 13:31 and running through the end of chapter 16, Jesus gave a farewell address to the eleven apostles (Judas having been dismissed [13:27, 30]).  The Lord’s final charge to the men who would carry on His work included instruction, promises, warnings, and commandments.  In this opening section of that address, the Lord highlights the premier mark of those who are His true disciples—namely, sincere, selfless love.

            “This passage emphasizes the supreme standard of that love by focusing on the person and work of Christ Himself.  The profound expression, preeminent example, and powerful extent of Christ’s sacrificial love are each displayed in these verses.  They illustrate the quality of love that is to characterize those who call themselves His disciples.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to remember the truth of the verse from Hebrews chapter four that I looked at this morning and posted on my other blog to give me encouragement “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”  Knowing that my High Priest is Jesus who went through all the temptations that I will ever go through and because of this He sympathizes with my plight encourages me a whole lot.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Be thankful of my sympathizing Great High Priest.

Memory verse for the week:  (Romans 6:15) “15 What shall we say?  Shall we sin because we are no longer under law but under grace?  May it never be!”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Haran” (Genesis 27:43).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which of Jacob’s wives was the mother of Ruben?”

Answer in our next SD.

 

 

           

Israel will be Saved from the Devastation of Slaughter (Zech. 13:8-9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/29/2016 7:57 AM

My Worship Time                              Focus:  Israel to be saved from the devastation of slaughter

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 13:8-9

            Message of the verses:  “8 “It will come about in all the land," Declares the LORD, "That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it. 9 “And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ’They are My people,’ And they will say, ’The LORD is my God.’"”

            I think in many ways that this is a very two very sad verses for this will take place during the worst time that will ever take place on planet earth and Jesus said of this time that if He did not return that no life would be left on planet earth.  We of course speak of the tribulation period which is spoken of in Revelation chapters 6-19, and many other places in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  It is a seven year period of time that takes place after the Rapture of the church when God once again is dealing with His people Israel. 

            These verses in Zechariah speak of two out of three Jewish people losing their lives and the one third being saved but will go through a time of refinement.  We have written about how the Jewish people have been the most persecuted people ever to live on planet earth.  I mentioned the Movie “Fiddler on the Roof” as an example of this persecution that has taken place and is still taking place today even today, but it will be far greater during the tribulation period.  I have also mentioned that once the tribulation period begins that 3/4^th of the people who are alive on planet earth at that time will be killed during this awful time, and now we see that two thirds of the Jewish people will be killed.  I once heard a Bible speaker talk about the great earthquake that will take place in Jerusalem during the tribulation period as seen in Revelation 11 where it records that 7,000 people will die and the rest of the Jews will give glory to God as they finally see the truth of their Messiah being Jesus Christ and fulfill what Paul writes about them in the book of Romans where he wrote “all Israel will be saved.” 

            I truly believe that this one third will be the remnant of Jewish people who will be going into the Millennial Kingdom.  John MacArthur quotes Isaiah who says “Shall the ransomed of the Lord return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy on their heads.  They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighting shall flee away.” 

            He goes on to conclude his sermon on this 13^th chapter Zechariah by saying “Beloved, I would say this in closing. God is a God of forgiveness. God will forgive His people Israel even though they were a part of those that killed His Son. God will forgive you because that's His nature. Who is a pardoning God like that? Do you know any other? Do you know any other God on the face of this earth who pardons and forgives those who kill Him? No other God, so pardoning. And because we are the sinners we are, we cannot tolerate a God less than that because only He can take away our sin.

“The fountain is open for you. No need to wait. Some people of Israel may wait too long. They may be in the slaughter of Armageddon and never get to the fountain that's opened at the end. Don't you wait!”

10/29/2016 8:19 AM

 

PT-2 The Traitor Addressed (John 13:26-30)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2016 10:20 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 The Traitor Addressed

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 13:26-30

            Message of the verses:  “26 Jesus then answered, "That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him." So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly." 28 Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. 29 For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, "Buy the things we have need of for the feast"; or else, that he should give something to the poor. 30 So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.”

            We left our SD yesterday with Judas crossing the line as he did not want anything to do with Jesus and so Satan entered him after he had eaten the morsel.  Now Jesus tells him “What you do, do quickly.”  Now we have mentioned earlier that His disciples did not realize what Judas was going to do thinking he was to give something to the poor or buy more food or something like that.  Now I want to focus in on this phrase “do quickly.”  We have discussed the time line that had to be followed for the death of Jesus Christ as He had to die exactly when the Passover lambs died, but this was not the plan of the Pharisees for they did not want this to happen until after the Passover celebration because there were as many as one million people in and around Jerusalem for this feast and they feared that the crowds would cause a problem, but instead they got on board with having Jesus crucified.  God’s plans always work out exactly on the timetable that He desires them to work out, and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ would work out exactly according to His plan.

            Now as we look at the last phrase of verse 30 we see “and it was night.” According to my Online Bible program and in the NASB95 version there are 298 uses of the word night from Genesis to Revelation.  Now things were different before electrify was found and night was certainly more dark then than now, but my point is that if something was going to happen that was not good it usually happened at night.  Jesus said that He was the Light of the world, and when we first began this study of John we talked about the fact that light is power, for you cannot get light without some kind of power.  In the eternal kingdom described in the last chapter of Revelation we see that there will be no need for the sun or the moon for God is the One who will make things light and it also says that there will be no more darkness.  Light and darkness can, and do many times in the Scripture talk about spiritual things and as we look at our reference in verse thirty it can refer to both physical and spiritual for Judas had decided to remain in spiritual darkness and would never see the light of day again and also the spiritual forces of darkness would come about in order to have the Son of God crucified, so yes it truly was dark, but take courage for Sunday morning will bring about the resurrection of the Son of God with spiritual light offered to all who will receive Him.

            We will conclude with some lessons that we can learn from this story of Judas and his betrayal as written by John MacArthur in his commentary.  “First, Judas is history’s greatest example of lost opportunity and wasted privilege.  He heard Jesus teach day in and day out.  Further, he had the opportunity to personally interact with Him.  He witnessed firsthand the miracles Jesus performed that proved He was God in human flesh.  Yet Judas refused Christ’s invitation to exchange the oppressive burden of sin for the easy yoke of submission to Him (Matt. 11:28-30).

            Second, Judas is the foremost illustration of the danger of loving money (1 Tim. 6:10).  Money meant more to him than eternal salvation.

            Third, Judas typifies the vileness of spiritual betrayal.  In every age that have been Judases, who professed to follow Christ but turned against Him.  Judas’ life is also a sobering reminder of the need for self-examination (2 Cor. 13:5).

            Fourth, Judas was living proof of Christ’s patience, mercy, and loving-kindness.  Even when he arrived with the mob to arrest Him, Jesus still addressed Judas as ‘friend’ (Matt. 26:50).

            Fifth, the example of Judas shows that the Devil will always be at work among God’s people.  Jesus illustrated that truth in the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43).

            Sixth, Judas proves the deadliness of hypocrisy.  He was a fruitless branch, cast into the eternal fire of hell (John 15:6).

            Finally, Judas demonstrated that there is nothing sinful men can do to thwart the sovereign will of God.  Out of the seeming tragedy of the cross came the triumph of redemption; Satan’s apparent victory was in reality his ultimate defeat (Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8; cf. Gen. 3:15).  God used Judas’s treachery for His own glory (cf. Gen. 50:20).

            When Judas sold Jesus to His enemies he was in effect selling his own soul to the Devil.  In the words of the poet,

‘Still as of old

Men by themselves are priced—

For thirty pieces Judas sold

Himself, not Christ.’”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you fail the test?”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord’s plan for my life and the country that I live in are all on schedule even if I have a problem with what is going on.

Memory verse for the week:  (Rom. 6:15) “15 What then? Shall we to continue in sin because we are no longer under law but under grace?  May it never be!”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Balak” (Numbers 24:11).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did Laban live?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/28/2016 11:10 AM

 

 

               

Israel is saved from the Dispersion of the Sheep (Zech.13:7b)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2016 10:30 PM

My Worship Time                                     Focus: Israel is saved from the Dispersion of the Sheep

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference: Zechariah 13:7b

            Message of the verse:  “7  "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate," Declares the LORD of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones.”

            First of all don’t be afraid of the title of this SD, and don’t get mixed up about the highlighted portion of this verse for we know that this was indeed a prophecy that was fulfilled after Jesus was arrested as seen in the gospels, and especially in the gospel of John for once Judas kissed Jesus to identify Him He asked who they were looking for and once they said Jesus the Nazarene all the people who came after Him fell to the ground and so now that He got their attention He said that He would come with them, only let the others go, meaning His disciples which fulfilled this last part of Zechariah 13:7.  However we are going to look at this is a different way in this SD. 

            Now we know that not only were the disciples scattered after the arrest of Jesus, but in 70 AD when the Romans came in and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple the Jews alive at that time were also scattered and many of them are still scattered to this day even though we now have the nation of Israel and in that nation we have the Jews having sovereign control of Jerusalem. Now remember when the Jews were taken to Babylon beginning in 605 BC and in the 9^th chapter of Daniel were are told that God was going to bring them back to Jerusalem 70 years after that first deportation.  The problem was that many of the Jews did not want to return because they were comfortable living in Babylon.  We have the same problem today, and even now over half of the Jews are now living in Jerusalem many of them are still living in the United States and other countries because they are comfortable living there. 

            There is coming a time, and I believe it is very close when all of the Jews living will return to Jerusalem and Paul writes to the Romans that there will come a time when all Israel will be saved.  Now we know that during the Millennial Kingdom that all of the Jews who made it out of the Tribulation period alive will live in Jerusalem and the surrounding land around Jerusalem, for all of the land that was promised to Abraham will be a part of Israel at that time and Jesus, their Messiah will rule the whole world from Jerusalem for 1000 years.

            Now I will quote from MacArthur about the very last part of this 7^th verse:  “And then he adds an interesting note at the end of verse 7, "I will turn My hand on the little ones." Who are the little ones? Well, it's hard to be positive about this, but I think the best answer is this, the little ones are the believing remnant of this age and of the church age. You know, there were some Jews that turned to Christ, weren't there? Some of them were Apostles and some of them were in that early church in Jerusalem. And by the third or fourth, fifth chapter you have at least 20,000 of them and they're still Jews today who are saved. From the very beginning there were some little ones. They're the same as the poor of the flock in chapter 11 verse 7. They're the believing remnant. And while the whole thing is scattered and they're all scattered it says God is going to put His hand, turn His hand on the little ones.

“You say, "What does it mean?" Now listen to me. That phrase "turn His hand upon" is uniformly without exception used in the Old Testament to refer to chastening and judgment. Now you tell me. What happened to the early church? What was the first thing that happened to them once they got grounded? Chapter 8 verse 1, "Against the church Paul breathed out threatening and...what?...slaughter." What was characteristic of the early church? Persecution. And God says even the little ones are going to be persecuted. The idea of placing His hand on them, as I said, is uniformly used. Check it in Amos 1:8; Psalm 81:15; Isaiah 1:25 and Ezekiel 38:12, in those places uniformly it's used to speak of chastening. So God then is going to scatter the whole flock of Israel, and even the little ones. Even the poor of the flock, the believing remnant, they're going to hit the persecution. You remember in John 15? Just after Jesus had made such wonderful promises to His flock and told them that He would do so many wonderful things for them, He would cause them to bear fruit, He would give them His Spirit, He would give them His peace, and all this, then He says this to them, "If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you." And then He says, "If they persecute you, remember they persecuted Me." And then He says in verse 2 of chapter 16, "They shall put you out of the synagogues, the time comes that whosoever kills you will think that he does God service." You're going to get it, he says, just like I did. The little ones were persecuted.

“So, the message is simple. The Shepherd's going to die. And when the Shepherd dies for the sins of His people, they'll be scattered because of their rejection. And even the little ones, the Lord will allow to go through suffering and persecution that the church at its birth might be pure. And then in the day of cleansing, God's going to gather all that scattered group right back. And so we see that they'll be cleansed from the defilement, from the deception, from the dispersion all through the death of the Savior.”

10/27/2016 10:52 PM

 

PT-1 The Traitor Addressed (John 13:26-30)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2016 9:54 AM

My Worship Time                                                                    Focus:  PT-1The Traitor Addressed

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 13:26-30

            Message of the verses:  “26 Jesus then answered, "That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him." So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly." 28 Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. 29  For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, "Buy the things we have need of for the feast"; or else, that he should give something to the poor. 30 So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.”

            We can believe as we look at the answer that Jesus gave to John that he was the only one who heard it, but it surely became known to the others a short time later.  Judas was sitting at the place of honor next to Jesus, and because of this we can see that Jesus still loved him even though he was going to betray Him.  As mentioned this is something that I have a hard time understanding and yet it is true.  Now as far as what the morsel was the Greek/English translation just say it is a bit, something small, but the implications of this small piece of what was probably unleavened bread was very large indeed.  This bit or morsel was a part of the meal they were eating and they would dip it into a dip that was prepared for this occasion. 

            Now I have highlighted “after the morsel” for I really had not seen it in the way that I see it today, for after Jesus gave Judas this morsel salvation was truly over for him, he could not be saved he had passed over the deadline at that very moment “for He says, "AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU." Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION’ (2 Cor. 6:2).”  We read next that “Satan then entered into him.”  It was all over for Judas as far as ever becoming a believer in Jesus Christ and what a shame, what a waste as Jesus said it would have been better if he would not have been born, and yet he was born, he did spend over three years with Jesus, and Jesus knew all of the time that this was going to happen, and yet He still loved him.  MacArthur write about Satan entering Judas “(The Devil evidently gained direct control over Judas on two occasions: just before the betrayal was arranged [Luke 22:3], an now as it was about to be carried out.)  Divine mercy gave way to divine judgment and Judas was in essence handed over to Satan (cf. 1 Cor. 5:5; 1 Tim. 1:20) He had spurned Christ’s love for the last time, and his eternal doom was sealed.  F. F. Bruce writes ‘Jesus’ action, in singling Judas out for a mark of special favour, may have been intended as a final appeal to him to abandon his treacherous plan and play the part of the true disciple.  Up to that moment, the die had not been irrevocably cast.  If Judas wavered for a second, it was only to steel himself to carry out his fatal resolution, to become the willing instrument of Satan whereas he might have been the free follower and messenger of his Master.  Satan could not have entered into him had he not granted him admission.  Had he been willing to say ‘No’ to the adversary, all of his Master’s intercessory power was available to him there and then t strengthen him there then t strengthen him.  But when a disciple’s will turns traitor, when the spiritual aid of Christ is refused, that person’s condition is desperate indeed.’” 

            I think after reading what F. F. Bruce has to say here that it is a good time to stop and think about it, especially anyone reading this who has not trusted Christ as their Savior and Lord, to think about this and perhaps the Spirit of God is tugging at your heart for you to repent of your sins, realize that you as all people were born with a sinful nature and that is the reason why you sin, and understand that as stated you need to repent and trust Christ to save you for after all He died in your place.  By all means think about this and hopefully you will understand that Christ loves you and desires to save you from your sins, and then find a believer and tell them so that you can get connected with a good local church that preaches the gospel and helps people grow in the Lord.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Realize more about how great a love the Christ has for me and for all people, and will love them as He loved Judas until Judas made the decision to run from that love and died in his sin.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to pray for those who are not believers who read these Spiritual Diaries to become believers and for believers to grow in the Lord and also have a great revival given to them by the Spirit of God.

Memory verse for the week (Romans 6:15) “15 What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  May it never be!”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  (Micah 5:2).”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘I said I would honor you greatly, but behold, the LORD has held you back from honor?’”

Answer in our next SD.

10/27/2016 11:03 AM

Israel is Cleansed through Christ's Death (Zech. 13:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2016 11:30 PM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  Cleansed through Christ’s Death

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 13:7

            Message of the verses:  “7 "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate," Declares the LORD of hosts.”Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones.”

            We move from the death of the false shepherds to the death of God’s Shepherd and as we look at this verse we see something that some may find a bit confusing and that is who is it that kills the Shepherd?  I have to say that when I first became a believer in Jesus Christ I has some pretty weird ideas of who Jesus really was.  I used to think that all of a sudden Jesus came along and so while He was on earth He died on the cross for me.  The thing that is true is that it was all in the plan of God, and God had to be the One who would put His Son to death in order to bring about redemption to those who would confess Him as their Savior and Lord.  MacArthur writes “Who calls for the sword?  God does. ‘Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is My fellow, saith the Lord of armies, Smite the Shepherd.’  Listen, who called for the death of Jesus Christ then?  Who did?  God did.”

            MacArthur goes on to say “You know, Jewish people, and I understand what they feel in their hearts, have for years wanted to make sure nobody blamed them for the death of Christ. I don't know why. God even takes the responsibility Himself right here. The envy, the hatred of Satan, the blind fury of the chief priests, the contempt of Herod, the guilty cowardice of Pilate, all of these things put together only accomplished what God had designed to do from the very beginning before the foundation of the world. He was the lamb slain. So God did it.

“And I want you to notice the Hebrew here because the Hebrew syntax emphasizes the word "O sword." The sword is in action. This is a figure of the death of Christ. And the word "awake," it's as if the sword has been sleeping. It's as if it's been set aside. And you know, Isaiah says it's God who does it in Isaiah 53, I think it's verse 10, it says, "And it pleased God to bruise Him," remember that? It was God who took out the sword. It was God who struck it at Calvary. The cry comes from God, "Smite the Shepherd."

“Once weeping Jeremiah called to the sword of the Lord. He actually called to the sword of the Lord. The sword is kind of like a vivid symbol. And he called out to the sword and Jeremiah 47:6, he said, "O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put thyself in the scabbard and be still." Jeremiah had seen enough of the sword. But in this case, God pulls the sword out to be used against His own beloved Son. And I love what He calls Him, He says, "Against My Shepherd...My Shepherd." We're not talking about false prophets anymore, oh no...oh no. False prophets aren't His shepherds. His Shepherd was Jesus Christ. Take the sword against My Shepherd. He's speaking of His possession.

“And then, people, there's a fantastic statement following that, you've got to get it. "Against the man, My fellow." Now in the Hebrew you don't really see...until you know the Hebrew, I should say, you don't see what this is saying. The word "man" here is an uncommon word for man in the Hebrew. It doesn't just mean man, it means a strong man or a mighty man. So we're not just talking about an ordinary man. He says, "Take the sword against the strong man, the mighty man," and then the phrase, "My fellow" is literally of My union. Take the sword against the strong, mighty man of My union.

“You say, "What do you mean by `of my union'?" The Hebrew could be translated this way, the man, the mighty man who is coequal with Me. The man, the mighty man who is My equal. The man, the mighty man associated with Me in equal status. That's what the Hebrew really means. What a fantastic statement about the deity of Jesus Christ. Take the sword against My Shepherd, the mighty man, My equal...that's what He's saying. My equal.

“This is a prophecy, beloved, of the wonderful statement that Jesus fulfilled when He said, "I and the Father are one." The mighty man, My equal. Listen, Jesus is God. He's God. How else can you have Him be Micah's baby born in Bethlehem and Isaiah's the Father of eternity? Unless He is God. Jeremiah calls Him Jehovah Tsidkenu, Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 6. He is the man who is equal to God. He is Jehovah Tsidkenu. And what that means is powerful, the Lord our righteousness. He is God.

“Israel in order to be cleansed must have a sacrifice for sin, the Shepherd must be smitten. “

10/26/2016 11:51 PM

 

More about Judas

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2016 9:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  More about Judas

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Various Verses

            Message of the verses:  This SD will be a bit different as it seems to me that the Spirit of God is directing me to a quote that comes from John MacArthur’s commentary that I did not use a few days ago.  It is my desire to use this quote in this SD and then to talk a bit more about it, for as I read it and actually highlighted it in the commentary I thought that it would be best to go back and look at it in this SD.  We went over the section that this quote appears on 10-23-16.

            “Judas had every opportunity to turn from his sin.  Much of Christ’s teaching applied directly to him, such as the parables of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-13), and the wedding garment (Matt. 22:11-14); and Jesus’ preaching against the love of money (Matt. 6:19-34), greed (Luke 16:13), and pride (Matt. 23:1-12).  Judas also heard the Lord’s candid declaration of the Twelve, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?’ (John 6:70), and His warning of the fearful judgment that awaited His betrayer: ‘Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!  It would have been good for that man if he had not been born’ (Matt. 26:24).  And he had just heard Jesus declare that not all the disciples were spiritually cleansed (v. 10).  But all of that left Judas unmoved.  He resolutely hardened his heart and refused to repent.”

            A few months ago while listening to a sermon on John by John MacArthur he mentioned his new book (at that time) which was on the parables of Jesus.  I purchased the book from his website and have slowly been reading it at night before falling asleep.  When I read this quote from his commentary talking about some of Jesus’ parables having to do with Judas it caught my eye and so I wanted to look at the parables that MacArthur is talking about that have to do with Judas.  For the rest of this part of the SD I will quote those parables.

Parable of the unjust Steward from Luke 16:1-13 “1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 “And he called him and said to him, ’What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ’What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 ’I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ 5 “And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ’How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “And he said, ’A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ’Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 “Then he said to another, ’And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ’A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ’Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 “And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9  "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 “And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’”

Parable of the Wedding Garment Matthew 22:11-14 “11  "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, 12  and he said to him, ’Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. 13 “Then the king said to the servants, ’Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.’”

            Now as far as the other teaching of Jesus which are not parables that are seen in this quote you can take the time to look them up and see how they apply to Judas, and perhaps some of the may be things that we all need to work on in our walk with the Lord, the differences is that Judas was not a believer even though he had every opportunity to be one, and those of us who are believers know that these things are perhaps problems that we face but they are not part of our being as they were to Judas and to some who are not believers yet.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and do the things that He is prompting me to do.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to give me peace about our election.

Memory verse for the week:  (Romans 6:15) “15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Peace” (Romans 5:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “When the wise men sought the place of Jesus’ birth, what Scripture gave them the answer?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/26/2016 10:13 AM

PT-2 The Deception of Sham Prophets (Zech. 13:3-6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2016 12:13 AM

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  PT-2 The Deception of Sham Prophets

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 13:3-6

            Message of the verses:  “3 "And if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who gave birth to him will say to him, ’You shall not live, for you have spoken falsely in the name of the LORD’; and his father and mother who gave birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies. 4 “Also it will come about in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a hairy robe in order to deceive; 5 but he will say, ’I am not a prophet; I am a tiller of the ground, for a man sold me as a slave in my youth.’ 6 “And one will say to him, ’What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will say, ’Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’”

            As we look at verse three remember that the cleansing aspect of Israel has already been done and we read that if anyone still prophesies will be put to death by their parents.  Why would the parents want to kill their offspring?  Well as we look back in the OT, the earlier part of it we read that if the children get to the point where they are so disobedient that the parents must execute them, and so I think that in this case if the parents see that their son is giving false prophecies then they must put them to death, for after all there should not be any reasons to have a prophet, and certainly no reason to have a false prophet since the Lord Jesus Christ has returned from heaven to rule the world from Jerusalem.  We not only read about disobedient children who should be executed by their parents earlier in the OT, but also false prophets are to be killed, to be stoned by Israel for prophesying falsely.

            As we look at verse four you may wonder what the term “hairy robe” means, and this must refer to the prophets like Elijah as that is what he wore, some kind of a goat skin garment made into leather or perhaps a camel’s hair garment which is what prophets wore. 

Let us look at Micah 3:7 “The seers will be ashamed And the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths Because there is no answer from God.”  This goes along with verse four of Zechariah 13.  What we see is that no one wants to wear the clothes of a prophet for fear of their life.

Verse five shows us what they are going to say “’I am not a prophet; I am a tiller of the ground.”  Now this part of the verse makes me think of the prophet Amos since he was a shepherd, not a tiller of the ground, but not really wanted to be called a prophet, especially he was from Judah and was prophesying in the Northern Kingdom.  However these men really don’t want to be called a prophet and will do anything to show they are not.  Now as we look at verse six we see that the people around them do not believe them because of the wounds between their arms and on their hands.  MacArthur answers what this is all about:  “Let me show you some Scriptures.  Deuteronomy, 14:1 says ‘Now you’re the children of the Lord your God, you Israelites, so you shall not cut yourselves.’”  Now this is what the pagans did, remember the incident with Elijah on Mt. Carmel and all the false Baal prophets were cutting themselves trying to get their “false” god to answer them, so this is what Zechariah is writing about in verse six.

MacArthur concludes “Now what are you saying here? back to Zechariah. I'm saying that it was a custom among the pagans to cut themselves. And so while this guy is saying, "I'm no prophet, I've just been a farmer. I'm not into any of that pagan stuff, I'm just a farmer." Somebody's going to say to him, "Well, why are you all cut up then?" And literally the Hebrew says this, "What are these wounds between thy hands?" And most people have determined that what that means is between the hands is here...and so it's in the torso. Some have stated anywhere on the arms or across the torso would be where these pagans would cut or it could mean actually in the hand. But pagans cut themselves in their religion. So the question is, if you're not a false prophet, why are you all cut up? And he's caught and he says, "Well, these are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my lovers," ahab(?) in Hebrew, lovers literally.

“You say, "What are the lovers?" I agree with Luphold (?), the commentator who says "The lovers are the idols that he loved." These are the wounds of my idolatry. You see, he can't escape it, he has to admit it. I was wounded in the house of my lovers. I was wounded in idolatry. There's no alibi, there's no way out when God begins to deal with the sham prophets in the day of Israel's cleansing, and so Israel will be cleansed from the defilement of sin and the deception of sham prophets.”

10/26/2016 12:41 AM

Twelve Astonished Disciples (John 13:22-25)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/25/2016 11:43 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Twelve Astonished Disciples

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 13:22-25

            Message of the verses:  “22 The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. 23 There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. 24 So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, "Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking." 25 He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, "Lord, who is it?"”

            I have been mentioning in our Spiritual Diaries about not one of the disciples realizing who the traitor was and how important that is in our lives today especially in the church for remember Jesus telling the parable of the wheat and the tares and how instructions were given to the farmer’s servant not to tear up the weeds until they could properly be identified?  This tare is about to be identified as being Judas who Jesus actually calls friend, and that is something else that has been hard for me to understand as mentioned in our last SD. 

            I will quote from D. A. Carson from MacArthur’s commentary:  “The Twelve were already somewhat disoriented by Jesus’ allusions to his suffering and death, categories they still could not square with their conviction that he was the promised Messiah.  Doubtless reference to betrayal and treachery seemed similarly obscure. Perhaps some wondered if Jesus were referring to disciples just outside the ring of the Twelve; others might have wondered if betrayal would be inadvertent (not deliberate).  Perhaps the notion of betrayal did not seem very threatening to them, since their Master could calm storms, raise the dead, feed the hungry, heal the sick.  What possible disaster could befall him that he could not rectify?”

            Now we know that there was a lot of things that were happening to the disciples at this time as they had just received a subtle rebuke at their foot washing, and then they began to realize for real that Jesus was going to die which disturbed all of them as they had just been arguing about who would be the greatest in the coming kingdom, and now they learn that they had a traitor in their midst’s, a traitor of a monumental kind.  Yes these men had a lot on their plate.  I think back to a couple of verses that have something to do with what is going on here:  “24  But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25  and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man (John 2:24-25).”  Next “Jesus answered them, "Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?’ (John 6:70.”  I have to believe that Judas did not realize, nor any of the rest of His disciples realize who Jesus was talking about, and yet Jesus knew all of the time as John 2:24-25 teaches us.

            Yes it was a mystery to all of them until Satan would enter Judas and then he would leave, but even then the eleven did not realize it.  Let us look at Luke 2:23 “And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing.”  Do you wonder what comments were made by Judas at this time? 

            Peter had to find out who it was and so he asks John to ask Jesus to tell him as John was actually lying next to Jesus at the table.  Lying means that He was propped up perhaps on His arm as all were as they did not sit on chairs but reclined at the table.  We know who it is, but we won’t go into detail as to what happened next until our next SD.

            Jesus loved Judas we know but Judas did not love Jesus as he was about to betray Him.  Remember what Jesus said as He was about to die on the cross?  “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  If it were not for the wonderful grace and mercy of Jesus I would be in the same boat as Judas.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To appreciate more the love that Jesus loves me.

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:15) “15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under Grace?  May it never be!”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  I will give this answer so we can better understand it:  “45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high.”  (Exodus 25:10 NLT)

Today’s Bible question:  “When one is justified, he has what from God?

Answer in our next SD.

10/25/2016 12:20 PM