SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/4/2017
8:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Appeal”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 2:37-40
Message of the
verses: “37 Now when they heard
this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the
apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" 38 Peter said to them,
"Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 "For the promise is for you and
your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will
call to Himself." 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and
kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse
generation!"”
Now that the people have come to the point of what we may
call desperation as they were convicted of what they did wrong and did not know
what to do they then asked Peter the question that every believer who has ever
led someone to a saving knowledge in Jesus Christ wants to hear, and that is
What shall we do and then Peter gives them the answer which is repent. John MacArthur writes “Metanoeo (‘repent’) is a rich New Testament term. It speaks of a change of purpose, of turning
from sin to God (1 Thess. 1:9). It is an
essential component of a genuine conversion.
Both John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2) and the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 4:17)
called for repentance. It is an
of-repeated theme in Acts (3:19; 5:31; 8:22; 11:18; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20).”
John MacArthur quotes commentator Albert Barnes who
writes what true repentance is and is not:
“false repentance dreads the consequences of sin; true repentance dreads
sin itself.” We know that these people had true
repentance. I believe that it would be
fair to say the Judas had false repentance while Peter’s repentance for denying
Christ was genuine. One must have true
repentance that is one who dreads sin itself to be saved, but as one walks with
the Lord they will sin and in order to ask the Lord for forgiveness as we see
in 1 John 1:9 we are to be truly repentant as Peter was. John MacArthur writes that “true repentance
hates sin for what it is—an affront to God.
Knowing that sin is evil and that God hates it motivates the truly
repentant person to forsake it. Genuine
repentance thus forsakes sin and turns in total commitment to Jesus Christ…
“It is difficult for modern readers to grasp the
magnitude of the change facing Peter’s Jewish hearers. They were part of a unique community, with a
rich cultural and religious history.
Despite long years of subjugation to Rome, they were fiercely
nationalistic. The nation had rejected
Jesus as a blasphemer and executed Him.
Now Peter calls on them to turn their back on that and embrace Jesus as
their Messiah.” I would have to totally conquer
with this statement as these people were in a most unique situation, and yet
when Peter spoke to them through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
used Peter’s preaching to give an effectual call to what we will learn will be
3000 people at the same time. As I have
been thinking about these thousands who were saved on the very first day of the
church age my prayer has recently been that the Lord will do the same on the
last day of the church age, that thousands of people will hear or read what
they need to do to be saved, and the Spirit of God will give all of them an effectual
call all at once as He did on the first day of the church age and then the
trumpet will be heard and the dead in Christ will be raised from their graves
and those of us who are alive will go to be with the Lord in the air and we
will ever be with the Lord to serve Him and to worship Him as He takes us to
heaven. Believe me, that makes me
excited.
Peter then calls on all of them who have repented to be
baptized which would not only identify them with the Lord Jesus Christ, but
will cause them to break with Judaism.
This would be a very drastic public act and this would weed out any
conversions which were not genuine. I
believe that in our world today, especially in our country it is much easier to
get people’s conversion, and therefore perhaps some may not be genuine. These people of Peter’s day and for many
around the world today had a difficult choice to make for persecution could
immediately come their way by accepting salvation through Jesus Christ. I have heard stories of people who have
received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and then have their families kick them
out of the family, or even desire to kill them.
When one has to make that kind of choice it is a much more difficult
choice and one would not do it if they were not sure of the fact that God had
called them to this great salvation, a salvation that could cost them their
very life. Let us look at a few verses
from the gospel of Luke where Jesus is speaking: “25 Now large crowds were going along with
Him; and He turned and said to them, 26
"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother
and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he
cannot be My disciple. 27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after
Me cannot be My disciple. 28 "For
which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and
calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 "Otherwise, when he has laid a
foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,
30 saying, ’This man began to build and
was not able to finish.’ 31 "Or
what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit
down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to
encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while
the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own
possessions (Luke 14:25-33).” “18 A
ruler questioned Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life?" 19 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No
one is good except God alone. 20
"You know the commandments, ’DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER,
DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’" 21
And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth." 22 When Jesus heard this, He said to him,
"One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to
the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 23
But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely
rich. 24 And Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for those who
are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! 25 “For it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
God." 26 They who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" 27 But
He said, "The things that are impossible with people are possible with God’
(Luke 18:18-27).”
I will close from a verse in 2 Corinthians which shows us
that the apostle Paul perhaps had some doubts about those who came to the Lord
and so he writes “5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine
yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is
in you-unless indeed you fail the test? (2 Cor. 13:5).” This is one of the last things that Paul
wrote to the Corinthian believers.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Paul goes on in 2
Corinthians 15:6 to write “6 But I trust that you will realize that we
ourselves do not fail the test.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust so much in the Lord’s love for me
that I desire for Him to make me into what He wants me to be, and at the same
time give me the desire to be exactly what He wants me to be.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Philip” (Acts 21:8-9).
Today’s Bible
question: “What is it mean to ‘hallow’
anything?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/4/2017 9:34 AM
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