SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/11/2016 10:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 The Fatal Causes of Unbelief
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 12:37-43
Message of the verses: “37 But though He had performed so many signs
before them, yet they were not believing in Him. 38 This was to fulfill the
word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR
REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?" 39 For this
reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR
EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES
AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM." 41 These
things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.
“42 Nevertheless
many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were
not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;
43 for they loved the approval of men
rather than the approval of God.”
I have to
say that perhaps I should have said in our last SD, but as I once again look at
verse 37 I can see that John is bringing the conclusion to the ministry of
Jesus with that verse and then he goes on to tell why the people in Israel did
not come to know Him as their Savior and Lord, and this is still going on
today.
Now we have
to talk about some of the difficult issues that we find from the quotes that
John uses from the book of Isaiah. John
MacArthur writes the following “Israel’s unbelief and rejection of Jesus Christ
was not, of course, outside of God’s plan.
On the contrary, it ‘was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet’ as
the purpose clause 9included by the Greek conjunction hina) that begins verse 38.
Predicting Israel’s unbelief, Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53:1 (NKJV), ‘Lord,
who has believed our report?’ The answer
is, very few (cf. Matt. 7:13-14; Luke 12:23-24).” I know that we have been over this ground
before and people will say that God can’t do this but that is putting God in a
box, for if one thinks about this clearly, one can see that when God made man
and then the woman that a short time later they both sinned and God could have
just destroyed them, the planet and all of His creation, but He did not, as He
had planned before ever creating His creation that He would send His Son to
earth to pay for the sin of those who would confess Him and believe that He did
this for them. Like I said yesterday we
have to look at Deuteronomy 29:29 to help us make sense of this.
Now the
reason that the people could not believe is seen in this prophecy from Isaiah
where he states “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT
THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE
CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” I know that
again is hard to understand, but nevertheless it is true. We spoke of Pharaoh yesterday who hardened
his heart and then God hardened his heart to the point where he could never
come to Him for salvation.
Now in the
sovereign grace of God He has brought good out of the rejection that we see
here as Paul writes about it in Romans 11:11 where we see “by [Israel’s] transgression
[that] salvation has come to the Gentiles.”
We will
next look at a “footnote” that John uses in verse 41 where He writes “These
things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.” As I was listening to a sermon from John
MacArthur the light came on as to what John is talking about when he wrote this
verse and we have to go back to the 6th chapter of Isaiah to see
when Isaiah saw the glory of God. “Then
I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the
LORD of hosts’ (Isaiah 6:5).” Since John
applies this verse to being Jesus Christ we see that He is indeed God. MacArthur adds “Further, it reveals that
Jesus, in keeping with His role as judge (cf. John 5:22, 27, 30; 9:39), is the
one who judicially hardened Israel.
Finally John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, attributed both quotes (6:10;
53:1) to Isaiah. That makes it clear
that he was the author of the entire book (as opposed to modern critical scholarship,
which attributes Isaiah to multiple authors).”
We have
another cause of Israel’s unbelief to look at and we will look at that in our
next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: God’s ways are not always my ways, but God’s
ways are always right.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord even when I
don’t understand what is going on.
Memory verse for the week (again): (Romans 6:13) “13 and do
not go on presenting the members of your body as instruments of
unrighteousness; but present yourself to God as those alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Deborah” (Judges 4:4).
Today’s Bible question:
“What word did Paul use to describe the Galatians?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/11/2016 10:53 AM
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