SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/13/2016 9:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Jesus
and Unbelieving Jews
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 12:37-50
Message of the verses: I am not going to quote the verses in this SD
as we have been looking at some of them for the past three days. What I want to do is give a rather large
quote from Dr. Warren Wiersbe on the verses mentioned in the reference part of
this SD. For those who have looked at my
SD’s in the past know how much I greatly appreciate Dr. Wiersbe as I have
followed his commentaries to help me better understand the Word of God.
“The key
word in this section is believe; it
is used eight times. First, John
explained the unbelief of the people.
They would not believe (John
12:37-38, with a quotation from Isa. 53:1); they could not believe (John 12:39); and they should not believe (John 12:40-41, with a quotation from Isa.
6:9-10).
“In spite
of all the clear evidence that was presented to them, the nation would not
believe. The ‘arm of the Lord’ has been
revealed to them in great power, yet they closed their eyes to the truth. They had heard the message (‘report’) and
seen the miracles, and yet would not believe.
“When a
person starts to resist the light something begins to change within him; and he
comes to the place where he cannot believe.
There is ‘judicial blindness’ that God permits to come over the eyes of
people who do not take the truth seriously.
(This quotation is found in a number of places in the New Testament. See Matt. 13:14-15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10;
Acts 28:25-27; Rom. 11:8.) It is a
serious thing to treat God’s truth lightly, for a person could well miss the
opportunity to be saved. ‘Seek ye the
Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near’ (Isa. 55:6).
“There were
those who would not believe and there were those who would not openly confess
Christ even though they had believed (John 12:42-43). Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea belonged to
this group initially, but eventually came out openly in their confession of Christ
(John 19:38ff). In the early church,
there were numbers of Pharisees (Acts 15:5) and even priests (Acts 6:7). It was the old struggle between the glory of
God and the praise of men (John 12:25-26).
It was a costly thing to be excommunicated (John 9:22), and these ‘secret
believers’ wanted the best of both worlds.
Note John 5:44 in this regard.
“In John
12:44-50 we have our Lord’s last message before He ‘hid Himself’ from the
people. Again, the emphasis was on
faith. A number of the basic themes in
John’s Gospel run through this message:
God sent the Son; to see the Son means to see the Father; Jesus is the
Light of the world; His words are the very words of God; faith in Him brings
salvation; to reject Him is to face eternal judgment. In fact, the very Word that He spoke will
judge those who have rejected it and Him!
“It is an awesome thought that
the unbeliever will face at the judgment every bit of Scripture he has ever
read or heard. The very Word that he
rejects becomes his judge! Why? Because the written Word points to the Living
Word, Jesus Christ (John 1:14).
“Many
people reject the truth simply because of the fear of man (John 12:42-43). Among those who will be in hell are ‘the
fearful’ (Rev. 21:8). Better to fear God and go to
heaven than to fear men and go to hell!
“The word judge is repeated four times in the
closing words of this message, and a solemn word it is. Jesus did not come to judge; He came to save
(John 3:18; 8:15). But if the sinner
will not trust the Saviour, the Saviour must become the Judge. The sinner is actually passing judgment on himself, not the Lord!
“As you
studied these twelve chapters of the Gospel of John, you have seen Jesus Christ
in His life, His ministry, His miracles, His message, and His desire to save
lost sinners.
“You have
considered the evidence. Have you come
to the conviction that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God, the Saviour of
the World?
“While you
have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light’ (John
12:36, NKJV).
Those who
read this quote from the pen of Dr. Warren Wiersbe can understand why I love
his writings as I have mentioned before that he puts the cookies on the shelf
where you can reach them, and for that I am thankful.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I think back on the things that the Lord
brought into my life before He saved me in Jan. 1974 there was one that sticks
out and that was a trip the I made to Florida in late 1972 with a stopover in Atlanta
where a young couple, about my age at the time, came up to me to talk to me
about the end times, and thus a seed was planted. Fourteen months later God reached out to me
and saved me in an instant, as there was no time to argue with Him about it as
it just happened, and that is the way God works at times, while at other times
it takes a long period of time for someone to be saved. I am thankful for the way God dealt with me
to give me eternal life.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to give me the
right words to speak at the meetings that I am to attend this evening at Church
as I surely need to depend on Him to make my part in this Stewardship program
successful.
Memory verse for the week:
(Romans 6:13) “13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body
as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “All who pierced him and all kindreds of the
earth.”
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said ‘I am innocent of the blood of this person’?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/13/2016 10:58 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment