SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/7/2017
8:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-6 “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!"”
In our last couple of Spiritual Diaries we have been
talking about baptism, and now today we want to talk about the phrase “forgiveness
of your sins.” I have mentioned in many
earlier Spiritual Diaries that in order for one to have their sins forgiven
they have to first of all realize that they are a sinner. We have also mentioned the phrase “total
depravity,” and I think that a good description of this term is that a “person
is not as bad as they can be, but as bad off as they can be. We are all born that way, as bad off as we
can be, and so in order to receive forgiveness of our sins we must first
realize that we are sinners, and the Bible tells us that “all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.” To have
forgiveness of sins is a subject that fills the pages of Scriptures of the New
Testament. Matthew 26:28 tells us “for
this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness
of sins.” Luke 24:47 “and that
repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the
nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” This
verse teaches us that this proclamation of forgiveness of sin should be told
around the world. Ephesians 1:7 “In Him
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace.”
Paul writes the following to the Colossians in Col. 2:13 “When you were
dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you
alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” I assure you that this is not a conclusive
list.
Now we next want to look at what Luke then writes that
Peter told his listeners “and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Now according to Joel 2:28-29 these listeners
were waiting the gift of the Spirit “28 "It will come about after this That I
will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will
prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29 “Even
on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”
John MacArthur writes “Dorea (‘gift’) refers to that which is free and unmerited. Contrary to much contemporary teaching, Peter
attached no condition to receiving the Spirit except repentance. Nor did he promise that any supernatural
phenomena would accompany their reception of the Spirit. I should be noted as well that the gift of
the Spirit does not come through water baptism (Acts. 10:47).
“The marvelous gift of the Holy Spirit was not merely for
those in Peter’s audience that day. ‘The
promise’ of the Holy Spirit, Peter informs them, ‘is for you and your children,
and for all who are far off.’ They and
their children, the nation of Israel, would receive the Spirit, as the Old
Testament promised (Isa. 44:3; Ezek. 36:27; 37:14; Joel 2:28-29). They would share that blessing, however, with
those ‘who are far off’—they Gentiles (cf. Eph. 2:11-13).”
Peter tells who would receive the Spirit as a gift when
he says “the Lord our God shall call to Himself” as this describes God’s
sovereignty at work in salvation. This
is a part of the twin truths of salvation, first that God calls those who will
be saved, and those He calls will accept this calling and receive the salvation
that the Spirit offers them.
Dr. Luke then adds “with many other words [Peter]
solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this
perverse generation!” This tells us that
Luke did not include all of what Peter was preaching during this first sermon
of the church age. The word perverse in
the Greek translates skolios and this
means bent, or crooked and therefore evil and unrighteous.
When our Lord was teaching months before Peter gave this
sermon He also spoke of the wickedness of that generation. This is the generation who had the very
second person of the godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ take on human flesh as
prophesied by the OT Scriptures. He came
to His own, but His own received Him not as they were looking for a conquering
King and not a gentle Savior to pay for their sins. Jesus stated that because this generation did
not recognize the time of His coming and because of what they did to Him that
many would die and in 70 AD this prophecy came true as many thousands from that
generation met their death at the hands of the Romans. Moses wrote of this generation that they
would offer themselves as slaves, those who were not killed and no one would
buy them. This happened as the slave
market had too many slaves at that time.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There were many
signs and prophecies that told when Christ would be born and that generation
missed all of them. There are signs that
Christ will return to take His bride back to heaven before the tribulation
comes and many in this generation are missing those signs.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to led me in the way He wants
me to go.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Dumb” (1 Corinthians 12:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “What does Peter say they did
with Jesus after He rose from the dead?” (Hint Peter was speaking to Cornelius.)
Answer in our next SD. 8/7/2017 9:14 AM
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