SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/1/2017
8:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Faith”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
16:27b-32
Message of the
verses: “27b and have believed that
I came forth from the Father. 28 “I came forth from the Father and have come
into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father." 29
His disciples said, "Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a
figure of speech. 30 “Now we know that You know all things, and have no need
for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God." 31
Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? 32 "Behold, an hour is coming, and has
already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me
alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”
Let me begin by saying that there is a difference in
human faith and true Biblical faith, for true Biblical faith has an object and
that object of course is God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. We exercise human faith each and
every day, things like faith that the food we eat won’t kill us, or the water
we drink won’t kill us. Driving over a
bridge means you have faith that it won’t fall down, things like this, but
Biblical faith as mentioned is much different.
Hebrews 11:1 states “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the
conviction of things not seen.” When
Jesus had risen from the dead and had seen all of the disciples except Thomas,
Thomas said that he would not believe them unless he put his hands into Jesus’
side. Jesus came and spoke to Thomas and
said to Him “27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and
see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be
unbelieving, but believing." 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, "My
Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed?
Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."” Now all true believers since that time fall
under that category of not ever seeing Jesus like His disciples did. Perhaps Paul cannot be in that group for he
mentions when he is defending his apostleship that he had seen the risen
Christ.
John MacArthur writes “the believer’s faith is firmly
rooted in the love of God manifested in the person of Jesus Christ and recorded
in the Scripture. The Lord’s words ‘I
came forth from the Father and have come into the world’ expresses the central
doctrines of the Christian faith. That
He ‘came forth from the Father affirms Christ deity (John 1:1, 14), and apart
from embracing that doctrine, no one can be saved…Jesus warned those who
rejected Him, ‘Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for
unless you believe that I am He [i. e., Yahweh of the Old Testament; cf. Ex.
2:14] you will die in your sins’ (John 8:24).
To reject the biblical truth that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh is
to believe in another false and damning gospel (Gal. 1:6-9).”
Now because of some time restraints that I have this
morning I must stop here and we will pick up tomorrow where we left off this
morning.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The Rapture.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What did God call the
Firmament?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/1/2017 8:49 AM
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