SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/10/2017
7:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Christ’s Supreme Love”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 18:7-9
Message of the
verses: “7 Therefore He again asked
them, "Whom do you seek?" And they said, "Jesus the
Nazarene." 8 Jesus answered, "I told you that I am He; so if you seek
Me, let these go their way," 9 to fulfill the word which He spoke,
"Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.’”
We have been looking at the great love that Jesus has for
His disciples and the fact that His prayer in John 17 is answered that will be
answered in the way that He prayed it, that is for protection for the eleven
after He is arrested. “To fulfill the
word which He spoke, ‘Of those whom You have given Me I lost no one.” Now let us look at some other verses from
John’s gospel that goes along with this one.
“John 6:39, 40, 44 “39 "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that
of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40
“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and
believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the
last day." 44 “No one can come to
Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last
day.” John 10:28 “28 and I give eternal
life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My
hand.” John 17:12 “12 "While I was with them, I was keeping
them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of
them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be
fulfilled.”
I suppose that when we read the account of Jesus’ arrest
and that His disciples eventually ran away as He said they would that we don’t
think about the fact that the Pharisees would have loved to capture them too,
but as we are learning from our study in this part of John’s gospel that Christ
was totally in control of what was going on here as all of this was planned
from eternity past and would be fulfilled just as it was planned. We have also learned from our study in John
17 that each was a gift from the Father to the Son.
“37 “All that the Father
gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast
out. 38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the
will of Him who sent Me. 39 "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of
all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 “For
this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes
in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day’
(John 6:37-40).”
MacArthur adds “He will not lose one! The implication is that if they had been
arrested, their faith would have failed and they would have lost their
salvation. The Lord knew that the trauma
of being arrested, imprisoned, or perhaps even executed could shatter the
disciples’ faith. Therefore He made
certain that they would not be taken.
“Does this means that salvation can be lost? That faith can fail? If left up to us, of course. But we will never be lost nor saving faith fail,
precisely because our Lord keeps us secure.
He never allows anything to come upon us that would be more than our
faith could handle.”
You don’t have to be a believer for long to understand
like the disciples that all believers are weak and are venerable apart from our
Lord’s protection, something that Martin Luther knew much about as God used him
to bring about the Reformation and you know that he would be tempted by Satan
because of this great work that God had given him to do. He wrote the following song “A Mighty
Fortress is Our God”
“Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His name
From age to age the same;
And He must win the battle.”
The following is the Psalm that Martin Luther based his
son “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” on and he and whoever was working with him,
when things got hard would “sing Psalm 46.”
“1 For the choir
director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to Alamoth. A Song. » God is
our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will
not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the
heart of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake
at its swelling pride. Selah. 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the
city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst
of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
“6 The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms
tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted. 7 The LORD of hosts is with
us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. 8 Come, behold the works of the
LORD, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. 9 He makes wars to cease to the
end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the
chariots with fire. 10 “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be
exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." 11 The LORD of
hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.”
MacArthur concludes “Believers can be confident that God
will always keep His promise never to allow them to be tempted beyond their
ability to endure (1 Cor. 10:13). Their
eternal security does not rest in their own strength, but in Christ’s constant
intercession (Heb. 7:35; 1 John 2:1-2) and unceasing love (Rom. 8:35-39) for
them. ‘For if while we were enemies we
were reconciled to God through the death of His Son’ Paul wrote, ‘much more,
having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life’ (Rom. 5:10).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As I contemplate
teaching our Sunday school class from John 17 I can take comfort that God is
going to see me through this and bring glory to His name. God will protect me and give me victory over
the temptations that come about because of this job that He has given me to do
as I know that He loves me and will protect me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to be with me in a special way
as I prepare to teach this very important chapter from the Word of God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Elijah” (1 Kings 17:10).
Today’s Bible
question: “When Jacob sent Joseph to
look for his brothers, where did Joseph find them?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/10/2017 8:43 AM
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