SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/20/2017
7:29 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2
“The Request For Sanctifying Purity”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
17:17-19
Message of the
verses: “17 Make them holy by the
true word: your word is the true word. 18 Even as you have sent me into the
world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for them I make myself holy,
so that they may be made truly holy (BBE).”
Let us look at the words “True Word” from verse seventeen
and understand that this is referring to all the words that are found in the
Word of God and all the words that Jesus was speaking for because of the fact
that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh means that all the words that He
ever spoke while on earth were true for it is impossible for Him to lie. All the revelation we find in the Bible is
true for all the words in the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God,
and therefore are true. Now I might add
that this speaks of the original writings of the Word of God, however we have
many, many copies of the Word of God, and so it can be said that when you read
your copy of the Word of God you are reading truth. When Jesus was making this statement which
happened probably some sixty years before John wrote it we know that if John
was left on His own to remember this perfectly that He would have failed, and
so He was inspired by the Holy Spirit as were all those who wrote the words of
the Bible were from Moses, the Psalmists, the prophets, until we get to the NT
writers, all their writings were inspired by the Holy Spirit and as we read the
Word of God there is no conflict with any of the different writers. Jesus was praying for His disciples and some
of them were soon to be inspired by the Spirit of God to write the words that we
find in our New Testament. I want to
look at this point to Psalm 19:7, then 119:160 “7 The law of the LORD is
perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the
simple.” “160 The sum of Your word is
truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” MacArthur writes “And all of it [the Word of
God] is necessary for the believer’s sanctification (cf. Eph. 5:26; 2 Tim.
3:16-17).” “so that He might sanctify
her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word (Eph.
5:26). “16 All Scripture is inspired by
God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in
righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every
good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).”
As believers we need to be in the Word of God each day of
our lives in order to be feed by it as Peter wrote many years later in 1 Peter
1:22 “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it
you may grow in respect to salvation.”
The Psalmist wrote in 119:11 “Your word I have treasured in my heart.” Paul told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:32 “It
is the word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you the
inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” We have mentioned that as food is for the
physical body is needed to keep it going so the Word of God is needed for the
Spiritual part of you to keep it growing.
It was in October of 1980 that my wife and I went to a
conference that taught the importance of being in the Word of God. The speaker was not there, but was seen on
video camera and this conference went from evenings of Monday through Thursday
and then all day on Friday. One of the
things that I remember about it is that the speaker asked how many people would
be willing to make a vow to the Lord that they would read the Bible at least
five minutes each day. I was convicted
that I needed to do this and so I made that vow on that Friday and the Lord has
caused me to keep that vow all these years as I think that I have only missed
less than ten days in all those years of reading the Word of God at least five
minutes a day. I remember there were
times when I had to stop my car at five minutes before midnight to read my
Bible as the Lord prompted me that I had not done it that day.
I heard a story that goes along with this story that I
have never forgotten and that is there was a man who was faithful in reading
the Word of God each day and another man asked him if he remember each day what
he had learned. He told his man that he
did not remembered what his wife had cooked for him all the many years that
they had been married, and yet he knew that whatever she had cooked for him
each day sustained him throughout all those years. I have to confess that I don’t remember what
I have learned from all my years of reading the Word of God, but God has
sustained me throughout all these years from His Word as He has promised He
would. It was the desire of Jesus for
His disciples to do the same after He had gone back to heaven, and I am sure
that they would all remember the words that He has spoken to them which surely
sustained them through the difficult times that were in front of them, just as
it does for all believers.
John MacArthur writes “Only sanctified believers are
ready to be ‘sent into the world’ as the Father ‘sent’ Christ ‘into the world.’ These words, directed at the eleven, served
as a preview of the Great Commission the Lord would give these same disciples
following His resurrection (Matt. 28:18-20; cf. Acts 1:7-8). Having been set apart from the world and
transformed by God’s grace, the disciples would be the heralds of that same
grace to the very world that hated them.
In the same way that they were disciples of Jesus, they were to ‘make
disciples’ of Christ in ‘all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
[Christ] commanded [them]’ (Matt. 28:19-20).
Just as Jesus had been sent to the world by the Father, so now the
disciples were being sent to the world by Jesus. Through their witnesses, the world would be
exposed to the gospel and many would come to saving faith.”
Now as we look at verse nineteen we see “"For their
sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. How
would Jesus do this? Jesus would go to
the cross and die for their sins and also pay the price of all who would come
to Him in repentance looking to be saved.
MacArthur adds “For the disciples’ sakes Jesus would sanctify Himself;
that is, He would set Himself apart to righteously obey the Father’s will by
dying on the cross. It was only because
He atoned for their sins that they themselves also would be sanctified in truth
(cf. Heb. 10:10; 13:12). Having been
justified through their faith in Him (cf. Rom. 5:1, 8), they would be daily
conformed more and more into His perfect image (Rom. 8:28; cf. Phil. 2:12-13;
3:21).”
I have mentioned that Jesus prayed for the predetermined
will of the Father, which is also seen by Daniel in the 9th chapter
of Daniel when he prayed that the Lord would take the children of Israel back
to their land after 70 years of captivity they had in Babylon, which Daniel
knew was prophesied in Jeremiah 25:11.
So here is an example that we can follow, that is find promises in the
Word of God and then pray that the Lord will fulfill those promises, and the
following is a good example for us to pray for and that is the soon return of
the Lord Jesus Christ to gather His church to take to heaven.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Philip” (Acts 8:30).
Today’s Bible
question: “Near what city did Jesus heal
blind Bartimaeus?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/20/2017 08:17 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment