SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/18/2023 9:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Insured Conversion”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 23:39
Message of the verse: “For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
It will happen one day that the people of Israel
will say these exact words that Jesus says that they will say “Blessed is He
who comes in the name of the Lord!” They
will hail their Messiah as their eyes will be opened to realize that the Lord
Jesus Christ is indeed their Messiah. “In
that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” declared
Zechariah, the prophet whom the forefathers of those inhabitants had “murdered
between the temple and the altar” (Matt. 23:35). Now I want to look at more from the prophet
Zechariah:
8 “In that day the LORD will defend the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will
be like David and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of
the LORD before them. 9 "And in that day I will set about to destroy all
the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 “I will pour out on the house of
David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of
supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they
will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly
over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:8-10).
MacArthur
writes “When the cup of God’s wrath is empty, He will sovereignly overturn and
destroy the evil world system of Satan that He has given temporary rein to
tyrannize His people. When Israel turns
back to Him, He will turn back to them and pour out upon them His Holy Spirit
of grace and blessing, and they will both rejoice and weep. They will rejoice in Thanksgiving for their
new-found Savior and Lord, but they will weep in penitence as they remember
what they had done to Him. ‘In that day
there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, …And the land will mourn, every
family by itself” (Zech. 12:11-12).
Their grief will be overwhelming and their sense of sin totally
consuming.”
It
is wonderful to serve a forgiving God, a God who has sent His Son to die in my
place on the cross so that after accepting His Son as my Lord and Savior I am
forgiven of all my sins, past present and future. Similarly as we continue to look at more
verses from Zechariah we will see this great forgiveness that the Lord has for
His chosen people once they return to Him.
“1 "In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David
and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity. 2 "It will come about in that day,"
declares the LORD of hosts, "that I will cut off the names of the idols
from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will also remove
the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land” (Zechariah 13:1-2). “3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight
against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle… 8 And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem,
half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea;
it will be in summer as well as in winter. 9 And the LORD will be king over all
the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the
only one” (Zechariah 14:3, 8-9).
Now we will look at what the apostle Paul has to
say, remembering that he himself is from the tribe of Bingaman. “11 I say then, they did not stumble so as to
fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has
come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. 12 Now if their transgression
is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much
more will their fulfillment be!” (Romans 11:11-12).
I will conclude this SD, which concludes looking at
this 23rd chapter of Matthew, and also concludes the third of four
books that John MacArthur wrote on the gospel of Matthew. I’m so grateful to read MacArthur’s commentaries
and listen to his sermons on this first of four gospels. I began looking at this 23rd
chapter of Matthew on September 22nd. I began looking at this third commentary on
Matthew from MacArthur’s series on Matthew on August 9th, 2022, and
I began studying the gospel of Matthew on November 17, 2019. I am looking forward to begin in my next SD
looking at the 24th chapter of Matthew a chapter that has to do with
what will be going on in the Tribulation period, along with the 25th
chapter of Matthew also. The Lord Jesus
Christ brought me to Himself on the 26th of January 1974, so Lord
willing it will be 50 years on January 26, 2024. Things have not been the same for me as the
Lord has saved my wife and my two children and seven grandchildren to which I
am so very thankful. Now I wish to quote
from this last page of MacArthur’s third commentary as I finish looking at this
23rd chapter of Matthew.
“Israel
has not permanently fallen away from God.
‘They also, if they do not continue in their unbelief,’ Paul says, ‘will
be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again….For I do not want you, brethren,
to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your estimation, that a
partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has
come in; and thus all Israel will be saved’ (vv. 23, 25-26).”
As
I look at what is going on in Israel at this time this should encourage all of
us who love God’s people and give us a desire to pray for them, knowing that God
will keep Israel safe, even though some of those brave soldiers and other
people of Israel have been killed in this war.
Their enemies will not win because Israel belongs to God.
11/18/2023 10:10 AM
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