PT-4 “Excursus: Why Every Self-respecting Calvinist Must Be a Premillennialist.”

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2026 05:30 PM

            I continue this evening to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary intitled “Excursus: Why Every Self-respecting Calvinist Must Be a Premillennialist.”

            “Let’s dig a little into the text of verse 7:”which the Father has fixed [tithemi, ‘set, appointed’],” “Fixed” is in the aorist middle’’—“fixed for Himself.”  It’s about His glory.  It’s about His exaltation.  It’s about the whole world finally seeing paradise regained.  It’s about God finally being glorified—who is so dishonored through human history.  It’s about the glory of God and the honor of Jesus Christ.  And God the Father has fixed for Himself that time by His own authority—it is singular, unilateral.  There is no other way to understand it.

            “There’s no replacement theology in the theology of Jesus.  There’s no supersessionism, which is a movement to establish that there is no earthly kingdom for Israel.  That is absolutely foreign to the Old Testament and completely foreign to the New Testament.  Jesus didn’t say, “Where did you get that crazy idea?  Haven’t you been listening?”

            “They just couldn’t know the seasons, the time.  The cross was always the plan.  He said, you remember in the eighteenth chapter of Luke, also recorded in Matthew and Mark, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem” (v. 31).  And what’s going to happen, if we put those three accounts together? “I [Jesus] am going to be betrayed.  I’m going to be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes.  They’re going to condemn Me.  They’re going to hand Me over to the Gentiles because the can execute Me.  All this is in exact order.  Then when I’m handed over to the Gentiles, I’m going to be mocked, mistreated, spit on, scourged, crucified, and I’m rising again” (see vv. 32-33).  “32  For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33  And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.’” (Luke 18:32-33) ESV)

            “That’s not plan B.  In fact, If we think that’s plan B, we’re fools.  And Jesus used that terminology: “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25).  So, wherever this amillennial thing came from, it didn’t come from the Old Testament, it didn’t come from the New Testament Jews, and it didn’t come from Jesus.

            “We might say, “Well, were the apostles amillennialists?”  How about Peter; was Peter an amillennialist?  In Acts 3, Peter is preaching away: “Men of Israel,” and so forth.  Verse 13: “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the One whom you delivered [there’s that primary and secondary element] and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.  But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murder to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life” (vv. 13-15).” “13  The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14  But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15  and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.”  “What an indictment!  They [the Jews] couldn’t be any worse, and more horrific.

            “Verse 18:  “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled.”  That’s literal isn’t it? “Therefore repent and return, so that you sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord [‘the times of refreshing’ is a kingdom phrase] and that He may send Jesus, The Christ appointed for you [set for you, fixed for you], whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration[another kingdom term] of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time” (vv. 19-21).

            “And then I specially love verses 25-27, “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers.”  Does Peter cancel the covenant?  What does he say?  “You…are the sons of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’  For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning everyone of you from your wicked ways [and He will do that; you’re still the sons of the covenant].” That was a perfect opportunity to cancel those promises.”

            It looks like I will be able to finish this sermon in my “Morning SD for tomorrow.

3/27/2026 6:02 PM 

 

PT-3 “Excursus: Why Every Self-respecting Calvinist Must Be a Premillennialist.”

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2026 10:16 AM

            I continue this morning to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary intitled “Excursus: Why Every Self-respecting Calvinist Must Be a Premillennialist.”

            “So when God gave unilateral, unconditional-as-primary-cause, sovereign, gracious promises to an elect people, they are guaranteed by divine faithfulness to be fulfilled like all His salvation work.  And when God says  such covenant promises are irrevocable, we cannot, with impunity for any seemingly convenient idea or assumption, say these are void. Why”

            “Someone may say, “Well, what about Israel’s apostasy?  Doesn’t that cancel the promises? Doesn’t Israel’s apostasy cancel the promises?”  But doe we understand that the New covenant promises given in Jeremiah and Ezekiel were given to Israel at the time when they were under divine judgment for apostasy.  They weren’t given to them when all was well and they were living and flourishing in obedience to God.  They were so apostate, they were out of their land and then the covenant was given to them.  And God was saying, “Don’t get the idea that what’s going on by way of apostasy changes My promises.”

            “Someone else may say, “Well wait a minute, didn’t they reject their Lord and Messiah?  That did it.  They rejected Him.  They killed Jesus,”  That’s in the plan.  One of the wacky ideas of old-line dispensationalism is that Jesus came and offered a kingdom; and because the Jews didn’t accept it and killed Him, He went to the church and came up with plan B.

            “The cross is not plan B.  What is Zechariah 12:10 saying when it declares, “They look on Him whom they have pierced” (see Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53)?  It’s in the main plan.  And then 13:1 says, “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David.”  Israel will be saved.  The New covenant will be fulfilled.  Keep reading into chapter 14: “The Lord will be king over all the earth” (v. 9). There is no other way to interpret Zechariah 12-14.

            “So is the Old Testament amillennial?  No.  Were the Jews in Jesus’ say amillennial? No. Emile Schure’s helpful Study of Jewish Eschatology in the Day of Jesus, published in 1880 by T. &T. Clarke in Edinburgh (a new edition of it was published by Hendrickson Publishing in 1998), does a great job of studying the Jewish messianic, eschatological mind-set at the time of Jesus.  They believed the Messiah was coming, preceded by a time of trouble.  They believed that before Messiah, Elijah the prophet would come.  They believed that when Messiah came, He would be the personal Son of David.  He would have special powers to set up His kingdom, and all Abrahamic and Davidic covenant promises would be fulfilled.  They also believed that Israel would repent and be saved at the coming of Messiah.  They believed the kingdom would be established in Israel, with Jerusalem at the center, and would extend across the world.  All people would worship the Messiah.  There would be no war, only gladness and health.  They believed in a reinstituted temple worship; and the fulfillment of the covenants included the renovation of the world, a general resurrection, final judgment, and after that the eternal state.  That’s Jewish pre-New Testament eschatology.

            “That’s what Zacharias, the priestly father of John the Baptist, believed.  Read Zacharias’s great Benedictus in Luke 1:67 to the end of the chapter.  And what is he saying?  Every single phrase comes from an Old Testament text on the Abrahamic covenant, The Davidic covenant, or the New covenant—every single one of them.  He knew what was happening.  The covenants were to be fulfilled.”

Zacharias’s Prophecy

67 And his father Zacharias ^awas filled with the Holy Spirit, and ^bprophesied, saying:

 68 “^aBlessed be the Lord God of Israel,

For He has visited us and accomplished ^bredemption for His people,

 69 And has raised up a ^ahorn of salvation for us

In the house of David ^bHis servant—

 70 ^aAs He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets ^bfrom of old—

 71 ^1aSalvation ^bfrom our enemies,

And from the hand of all who hate us;

 72 ^aTo show mercy toward our fathers,

^bAnd to remember His holy covenant,

 73 ^aThe oath which He swore to Abraham our father,

 74 To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,

Might serve Him without fear,

 75 ^aIn holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.

 76 “And you, child, will be called the ^aprophet of ^bthe Most High;

For you will go on ^cbefore the Lord to ^dprepare His ways;

 77 To give to His people the knowledge of salvation

¹By ^athe forgiveness of their sins,

 78 Because of the tender mercy of our God,

With which ^athe Sunrise from on high will visit us,

 79 ^aTo shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,

To guide our feet into the ^bway of peace.”

            “ Was Jesus an amillennialists?  Acts 1 is the first postresurrection account “about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen’ (vv. 1-2).  There’s election again.

            “So He had spent time before His ascension with the apostles.  Now verse 3 says, “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days.”  Literally, “appearing to them over forty days.”  It must have been intense.  Can we imagine the level of teaching a resurrected Jesus would give His own over a forty-day period?  What kind of a seminary education would that be?  And what was He talking about?—“speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

            “For forty days He  talks about the kingdom of God.  This is His moment.  If Jesus is an amillennialist, this is where He has to tell them.  The Jews’ apostasy—that’s a given.  The rejection of the Messiah, that’s a given.  The execution of the Messiah, that’s a given.  This is the perfect place for Jesus to launch amillennialism.

            “Verse 6 says, “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’”  Now what did He say?  “ Where did you get such a stupid idea?  Where did you ever come up with that concept?  Haven’t you been listening for forty days?  I’m an amillennialist.  What a bizarre thought, that I’m going to restore the kingdom to Israel?  Ou don’t listen.”  This is it.  If Jesus is amillennialist, this is His moment.  He’s going to say, “No, the church is the new Israel.”

            “The disciples ask if this is the time the Father is going to restore apokathistano (according to Jewish sources, a technical eschatological term for the end time).  They were using a term that was a part of their eschatology.  “Is this the end  time when You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’  Forty days of instruction on the kingdom and they knew one thing for sure:  the kingdom for Israel was still coming.  And all they wanted to know was, When?  That’s all.

            “He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs’”(v. 7a).  We can’t know timing.  He didn’t say. “Wait, wait, wait.  There isn’t going to be a kingdom.”  He said, “It’s not for you to know times and epochs [seasons’.” 

            “By the way, “which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (v. 7b).  There’s that sovereign election again.  It’s sovereign.  The disciples knew that when they asked, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom?’ (v. 6).  They knew it was a divine work to do it.  This was a perfect opportunity for Jesus to straighten things out.”

Spiritual Meaning for my Life today:  It is great for me to understand what MacArthur writes in this section, although I knew some of these things before it is really great for me to get this refresher course on these very important Scriptures.

My Seps of Faith for Today:  I trust the Lord to continue to give me revival in my heart as the things that are now going on in my life are difficult now.

3/27/2026 11:32 AM

PT-2 "Excursus: Why Every Self-respecting Calvinist Must Be a Premillennialist"

 

EVENIING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/26/2026 5:06 PM

            In this evening’s SD I continue quoting from the sermon that John MacArthur was preaching in 2007 as this sermon was put into his commentary on the gospel of Luke because it fit well there.  This will take me a few more days to quote it, but well worth looking at it.

            “God’s decision to set His love on Israel was in no way determined by Israel’s performance.  It was not determined by Israel’s national worthiness.  It was based purely on His independent, uninfluenced, sovereign grace (see Deut. 7:7-8)”  “7  It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8  but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”  “He chose them because He predetermined to set His love on them, for no other reason but election.  The survival of the kingdom of Judah, despite the blatant sin of its rulers, depended on covenant  promises God had made (read Pss. 89 and 132), where these are reiterated).  God’s unilateral covenant declares that the Lord alone is the party responsible to fulfill the obligations.  There are no conditions that Abraham or any  other Jew could fulfil on his own.  It’s no different from our salvation—we were divinely chosen.  But we didn’t come to Christ on our own.  We were given life by the Spirit of God in God’s time.  God’s unilateral covenant declares that the Lord is the sole party responsible to fulfill the obligations to preserve Israel.

            “Obedience is not the condition that determines fulfillment.  Divine sovereign power is the condition that determines obedience, which leads to fulfillment.  When God gave Israel the unilateral covenant, He knew He would have to produce the obedience in the future, according to His plan.

            “Then God gave the Davidic covenant, 2 Samuel 7, where the promise comes to David that he’ll have a greater Son who will have an everlasting kingdom.  That is an expansion, by the way, of the Abrahamic covenant.  Verse 12 says, “I will establish his kingdom.  He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”  God promises to Abraham a seed, a land, a nation, and now, of course that embodies a kingdom, and now comes the promise of a king.  This is an expansion of the Abrahamic covenant.  And what’s notable here, again, in 2 Samuel 7:12-13, “I will raise up your descendant…I will establish his kingdom…I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”  I will…I will…I will…again.

            “This is not to say the Abrahamic covenant is only for Israel.  We all participate in its blessings spiritually—and we will millennially.  The Abrahamic and the Davidic covenants—we all will participate in them, even those not of Israel, because we’ll participate in salvation and be in the kingdom.

            “There’s a third covenant, the New covenant.  Jeremiah 31—there can be no fulfillment of the promises God gave to Abraham or David apart from salvation.  Throughout history there has always been an Israel of God, there’s always been a remnant, there has always been those who didn’t bow the knee to Baal.  God always has had a chosen people.  But not all Israel is Israel.  That is to say, not all Israel is the true Israel of God, true believers.  But God has always had a remnant, always had a people—always, as Isaiah 6 says, a stump, a holy seed throughout history.  But in the future there will be a salvation of ethnic Israel on a national level.  And that’s the message of Jeremiah 31.  Here is the New covenant given to Israel.

            “We like to talk about the New covenant because we participate in the salvation provision of the New covenant, ratified in the death of Christ.  But the application of the New covenant is in a special way given to a future generation of Jews.  Jeremiah 31:31 says, “Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord when I will make a New covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah [that is unmistakable], not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I too them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord. ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel’” (vv. 31-33).

            “What warrant is there to say that doesn’t mean Israel?  It does mean Israel.  I will…I will…I will…I will…I will make a covenant with the house of Israel.  “ I will put My law withing them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God and they shall be My people …I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more’ (33-34).  Did we ever see so many “l wills’?—unconditional, unilateral, sovereign, gracious, and irrevocable.

            “We could say, “Well, maybe God changed his mind.”  Go to verse 35: “This says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is His name:  ‘If this fixed order departs from before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘then the offspring of Israel also shall cease.’”  I haven’t noticed that that’s happened. If it doesn’t mean what it just said, it’s incomprehensible.

            “And the New covenant promises the salvation that then includes the reception of all the promises in the Abrahamic covenant, Davidic covenant, and all the extended promises throughout the whole Old Testament.

            “What is the key feature of this?  “I will put My law within them on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God…I will forgive their iniquity.”

            “Notice how sovereign that is: “I will do it; I will do it in My time.”

            “Look at Ezekiel 36, because this is a parallel; but I think it’s good just to be reminded.  Ezekiel 36:24-27, “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.  Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My spirit withing you,’—It’s overwhelming, isn’t it?—“and cause you to walk in My statues, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

            “How could anybody walk in His statues and obey and observe His ordinances?  Only if He caused them to do it.  “You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

            “ And then verse 32, just a good reminder: “I am not doing this for your sake,’ declares the Lord God, ‘let it be known to you.  Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel!’”  For whose sake is He doing it?  His own sake.

            “Go to the end of verse 38.  When God does this, “Then they will know that I am the Lord (see also v. 37).”  “37  "Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock.” (ESV)

            3/26/2026 5:55 PM

 

PT-1 “EXCURSUS: WHY EVERY Self-respecting Calvinist Must Be a Premillennialist”

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/26/2026 8:08 AM

            This morning I will begin to quote from a chapter in John MacArthur’s commentary which is different from other chapters that we have been looking at.  Let me begin by giving the title of this chapter, and then write something that is written first in the chapter.

“EXCURSUS: WHY EVERY Self-respecting Calvinist Must Be a Premillennialist”

“This material is taken from a message delivered by the author at the March, 2007 Grace Community Church Shepherds’ Conference.  It has been lightly edited, but no effort has been made to remove the marks of the original spoken message.  It is included here as an expansion of a theme introduced in the discussion of the covenants in chapters 9-11 of this volume.  A proper interpretation of the biblical data leads to the conclusion that God’s promises to Israel will be literally fulfilled in the nation of Israel and not transferred to the church.  That reality logically leads to premillennialism.

            “Is one of the strange ironies in the church and Reformed theology that those who love the doctrine of sovereign election most supremely and sincerely, and who are most unwavering in their devotion to the glory of God, the honor of Christ, the work of the Spirit in regeneration and sanctification, the veracity and inerrancy of Scripture, and who are the most fastidious in hermeneutics, and who are the most careful and intentionally biblical regarding categories of doctrine, and who see themselves as guardians of biblical truth, and are not content to be wrong at all, and who agree most heartily on the essential matters of Christian truth so that they labor with all their powers to examine in a Berean fashion every relevant text to discern the true interpretation of all matters of divine revelation are in varying degrees of noninterest in applying those same passions and skills to the end of the story, and are rather content to be a happy and even playful disagreement regarding the vast biblical data on eschatology, as if the end didn’t matter much.

            “But it does matter that Calvinist care about eschatology and get it right—and we will if we get Israel right.  We get Israel right when we get the Old Testament covenants and promises right.  We get the Old Testament covenants and promises right when we get the interpretation of Scripture right.  We get the interpretation of Scripture right when we’re faithful to a legitimate hermeneutic and God’s integrity is upheld.  We get our hermeneutics right, we’ll get Israel right.  Get Israel right, we’ll get eschatology right.

            “The Bible calls God the God of Israel more than 200 times.  There are more than 2,000 references to Israel in Scripture, and not one of them means anything but Israel, including Romans 9:6 and Galatians 6:16, which are the only two passages that amillennialists go to, to try to convince us that those cancel out the other 2,000.  There is no difficulty in interpreting those verses as simply meaning Jews who were believers, the Israel of God.  Israel always means Israel, never means anything but Israel.  Seventy-three New Testament uses of Israel always mean Israel.

            “Seventy percent of Scripture is the story of Israel.  And, I think, the whole point of the story is to get to the ending—and it doesn’t go up in smoke.  So here’s how to get the foundation for an accurate understanding of eschatology.  Get election right and get Israel right.  Those two go together; they’re inseparable.  How is it that we’ve come to get number one right and totally miss number two so often?  I’m confident that God did not reveal prophetic truth in such detail to hid or obscure the truth, but to reveal it for our blessing, our motivation, and ultimately His glory.

            “But there is a theology concerning Israel and the end times—popular in many Reformed and Calvinistic circles today—that I believe does not get things right concerning Israel.  It is replacement theology, and scholastically it’s often referred to as supersessionism.  This view demands that all the Old Testament promises to Israel be viewed through the lens of the New Testament and ultimately get transferred to the church.  Replacement theology, and integral part of amillennialism, also creates a strange dichotomy, since all the curses promised to Israel came to Israel.  Literally, and they’re still coming.  If one wonders whether the curses in the Old Testament were literal, they’re going on right now.  Israel right now is not under divine protection.  They are under the promise of God  that they will be perpetuated as an ethnic people, but this current group of Jews that live in the world today and in the nation of Israel are not now under divine protection—they’re apostate.  They’ve rejected their Messiah.  They are under divine chastening.  But they are still a  people and will be to the end.

            “What a staggering apologetic that is for truthfulness of Scripture.  We can’t abandon that without a huge loss of confidence in Scripture.  All the curses promised to Israel for disobedience to God came true, literally on Israel.  And now, all of a sudden, we’re supposed to split all those passages that give blessing and cursing and say all the blessings promised to Israel aren’t coming to Israel; they’re coming to the church instead?  Where’s the textual justification for such a split interpretation?  And wouldn’t we think that whatever way the curses were fulfilled would set the standard for whatever way the blessings would be fulfilled? Or to put the question in another context. Wouldn’t we expect that all the prophecies that came to pass when Jesus came in a literal fashion would set the pattern for how the prophecies connect to His second coming would come to pass?  There’s no place for splitting up these interpretations.

            “Thus the Old Testament cannot be amillennial.  If we affirm a normal hermeneutic—the perspicuity of the Old Testament—of course it pronounces clearly covenants and promises and a kingdom to come to Israel.

            “The Old Testament must be interpreted, preached, and taught as clear revelation from God that is to be understood, believed, and applied by the people to whom it was given.  So what did God promise Israel?  Look at the twelfth chapter of Genesis, and obviously this is a study beyond our capability to dig into all the details.  But it’s clear and straightforward; it’s not difficult.  I want us to see the connection between these covenants and divine, electing sovereignty.

            “Follow the use of the expression “I will” in verses 2-3: “And I will make you a great nation; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” I will, I will, I will—five times.  It is sovereign, unilateral, unconditional election.

            “That’s prophecy.  God later puts Abram to sleep and says this is what is going to happen:  “I will also judge the nations whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.  As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age” (Genesis 15:14-15). 

            “Then in verse 17:  “It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.”  God put Abram out, anesthetized him, and He alone went through the pieces—a unilateral, unconditional, irrevocable promise that God made with Himself.  There were no conditions for Abram to fulfill.  On that day, the Lord made a covenant with him.

            “It is to be a covenant that does not end.  Chapter 17, verse 7 says “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.” God elected Abram, elected the nation that would come out of his lions, made a covenant and a promise with them to be their God.  This is the foundational covenant in the Bible—foundational, biblical covenant—the promise of God, unilateral and unconditional.”

3/26/2026 9:30 AM

“The Blessings of the New Covenant” (Luke 78b-79)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/25/2026 7:27 PM

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  “The Blessings of the New Covenant”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                               Reference:  Luke 1:78b-79

            Message of the verses:  “with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

            We are coming to the end of the first chapter of Luke, with only one more verse to look at, verse 80 “80  And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”  Now I have not seen any commentary on this verse from MacArthur’s commentary, but perhaps he will have something to say about it.  One more thing and that is that after I get done with this SD, the next chapter in MacArthur’s commentary is something that is completely different.  As I go through that chapter, beginning in tomorrow’s SD I will just quote what he has to say in that chapter, and I don’t know exactly how long it will take me to get through it, but we will see once I begin in the morning, Lord willing.

            Now as we look at these verses we can see that Zacharias anticipated the coming of the One whose death would procure the blessings of the New covenant—the messiah. MacArthur writes “He identified Him using a metaphor rich in Old Testament messianic theology and symbolism.  Anatole (Sunrise) literally means ‘rising, and refers here to the first light of dawn.  On high (lit., ‘out of’ or ‘from the height’) refers symbolically to heaven.  Zacharias thus depicts the Messiah as a great light from heaven, who will shine the light of salvation upon those who sit in darkness and shadow of death (cf. Isaiah 9:2; Psalm 107:10, 14; John 12:46)

(cf. Isaiah 9:2; Psalm 107:10, 14; John 12:46)

“2  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”

“10 ¶  Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons,”

“14  He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart.”

“46  I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”

“He is ‘the sun of righteousness [who] will rise with healing in its wings’ (Mal. 4:2), shining into the deep darkness of sin and ending the soul’s long night.  Second Peter speaks of the time when ‘the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts,’ while Revelation 22:16, the Lord Jesus Christ called Himself ‘the bright morning star.’

            “Darkness in Scripture cane be used metaphorically in two ways.  Intellectually, it refers to ignorance and error (e.g., Psalm 82:5; Eccl. 2:14; Eph 4:18).  Morally, darkness symbolizes sin (e.g., Prov. 2:13; 4:19; John 3:19; “Rom. 13:12; 2 Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians 5:8, 11), and the realm of Satan (e. g., Luke 22:53; Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:13).  God is light (1 John 1:5), and consequently Jesus, God incarnate, came into the world as the Light of the world (John 1:9; 3:19; 8:12; 9:5; 12:46).  He is ‘a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison’ (Isa. 42:6-7).   

(Isa. 42:6-7)

“7  to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”

            “To a lost world groping in the darkness and desperately hoping for light (Isaiah 59:9-10), God, knowing there was no human solution to sin’s dilemma (v. 16), sent ‘a Redeemer…to those who turn from [their] transgression’ (v. 20; cf. 53:4-6, 8, 10-12). Speaking of the New covenant that would bring that about, God declared, ‘As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the Lord: ‘My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,’ says the Lord, ‘from now and forever (v. 21).

            The Light of salvation will continue to shine in the millennial kingdom, as Isaiah 60:1-5 reveals:

1 ¶  Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. 2  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. 3  And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. 4  Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. 5  Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.” (ESV)

Indeed, throughout eternity the light of God’s glory will illuminate the New Jerusalem:

“19  The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. 20  Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.” (ESV)

            “Not only would the Messiah bring the light of salvation to His people, He would also guide their feet into the way of peace.  Lost sinners, stumbling around in the darkness, know nothing of true peace (Rom. 3:17).”   

(Rom. 3:17)

“17  and the way of peace they have not known.’”

“But peace is one of the elements of the New covenant.  In Isaiah 34:10, God said, ‘For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,’ says the Lord who has compassion on you’  ‘Peace I leave with you; ‘ Jesus promised, ‘my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let it be fearful’ (John 14:27).  Peace, Paul wrote, begins with salvation:  ‘Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 5:1).  The kingdom of God is characterized by ‘righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Rom. 14:17).  Peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), and the ‘peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension will guard [believers’] hearts and [their] minds in Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 4:7).

            With the end of Zacharias’s song of praise, the curtain falls on the life of John the Baptist, not to be raised again until the beginning of his public ministry in chapter 3.  The
Bible passes over his childhood in silence, revealing even less details about it than it does of Jesus’ childhood.  All that is known of John during the long years between his circumcision and the beginning of his public ministry is that he continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.  He then assumed the role predicted for him as Messiah’s forerunner, proclaiming the New covenant of which his father so eloquently and passionately spoke.”

            So there at the end we see verse 80 of Luke’s first chapter.

3/25/2026 8:18 PM

 

“The Source of the New Covenant” (Luke 1:78a)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/25/2026 9:58 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  “The Source of the New Covenant”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                     Reference:  Luke 1:78a

Message of the verse:  “because of the tender mercy of our God,”

            Now it is God’s tender mercy that moves Him to show compassion to lost sinners.  MacArthur adds that “Tender translates splagchna, which literally refers to the inner parts of the body, such as the intestines, heart, liver, and lungs (cf. Acts 1:18).”  “18  (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.”  “Figuratively, it describes the affections and the heart as the seat of those afflictions (2 Cor. 6:12, 7:15; Phil. 1:8; 2:1; Col. 3:12; Philem.7, 12, 20; 1 John 3:17).”

(2 Cor. 6:12, 7:15; Phil. 1:8; 2:1; Col. 3:12; Philem.7, 12, 20; 1 John 3:17)

“12  You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.”

“15  And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.”

“8  For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

“1 ¶  So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,”

“7  For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.”

“12  I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.”

“20  Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.”

“17  But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”

“In combination with eleos (mercy) it vividly depicts the intensity of God’s compassionate concern for sinners.

            “Mercy is a glorious attribute of God, celebrated throughout Scripture. He is ‘merciful and gracious’ (Ps. 86:15; cf. 145:8), and ‘full of compassion and…merciful’ (James 5:11; cf. Luke 6:36).”

(Ps. 86:15; cf. 145:8)

“15  But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

“8  The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

(James 5:11; cf. Luke 6:36)

“11  Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

“36  Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

“The outworking of that mercy results in God showing kindness to sinners.  Speaking of His tender mercy toward Israel, Isaiah wrote, ‘In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His mercy He redeemed them’ (Isa. 63:9).  In Jeremiah 33:26, God said of downtrodden Israel, I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them’ (cf. Ezekiel 39:25).”

(cf. Ezekiel 39:25)

“25  "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.”

“Mary rejoiced that God’s ‘mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him’ (Luke 1:50) and that ‘He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy (v. 54).  Earlier in his hymn of praise, Zacharias also spoke of God’s past mercy to Israel (v. 72).”

(Luke 1:72)

“72  to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,”

“Ephesians 2:4 declares that it is because God is ‘rich in mercy’ that He redeems lost sinners, while in 1 Timothy 1:13 and 16, Paul praised God for His mercy in saving him.  Titus 3:5 declares that God ‘saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy’ (cf. 1 Peter 1:3, 2:10).

(cf. 1 Peter 1:3, 2:10)

“  3 ¶  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

“10  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

            “In his classic exposition of the attributes of God, The knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer expressed the wonder that all the redeemed should feel whin they contemplate God’s mercy toward them:

‘When through the blood of the everlasting covenant we children of the shadows reach at last our home in the light, we shall have a thousands strings to our harps, but the sweetest may well be the on tuned to sound forth most perfectly the mercy of God….We who earned banishment shall enjoy communion; we who deserve the pains of hell shall the bliss of heaven.  And all through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us. ([New York; Harper & Ros, 1975], 96)

            “There was nothing inherently wrong with the Mosaic covenant ‘the Law is holy, and commandment is holy and righteous and good’ (Rom. 7:12).  It was an absolutely perfect reflection of God’s righteous character.  Had God merely enforced the terms of the Mosaic covenant and condemned all sinners to eternal punishment for violating His law, He would have glorified Himself by displaying His justice.  But God chose to have mercy on hopeless, helpless sinners in the misery of their fallen state and institute the New covenant, with its promise of forgiveness, righteousness, and full eternal acceptance with God.”

Spiritual Meaning for my Life today:  As I think about the statement MacArthur wrote “Had God merely enforced the terms of the Mosaic covenant and condemned all sinners to eternal punishment for violating His law, He would have glorified Himself by displaying His justice,” I am so very thankful for the next statement MacArthur wrote “But God chose to have mercy on hopeless, helpless sinners in the misery of their fallen state and institute the New covenant, with its promise of forgiveness, righteousness, and full eternal acceptance with God.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  It is my desire to continue to tell others through this blog site about the great mercy that God has made possible through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of my Lord Jesus Christ the mercy that is available to those who will confess that they are sinners, and to then accept the forgiveness that Christ offers to those who will accept His forgiveness.

3/25/2026 10:51 AM

 

“The Promise of the New Covenant” (Luke 1:77)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/24/2026 4:38 PM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus: “The Promise of the New Covenant”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                       Reference:  Luke 1:77

            Message of the verse:  “to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins”

            In an earlier SD it was noted to experience the promised blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, as well as to escape the threatened cures for violating the Mosaic covenant, it requires that God sovereignly give to His people the knowledge of salvation.  Now the knowledge in view here is not theological or theoretical, but the personal knowledge that comes by the forgiveness of … sins.

3/24/2026 10:47 PM

            John MacArthur writes:  “Moses, the giver of the law, recognized the need for this covenant.  As he reiterated the principles of the Mosaic covenant to the new generation about to enter the Promised Land, Moses spoke of another covenant ‘besides the covenant which [God] had made with them at Horeb [the Mosaic covenant]’ (Deut. 29:1).  That the people of Israel would be unable to keep the Mosaic covenant is evident from Deuteronomy 30:1-3:

“  1 ¶  "And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 2  and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3  then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.”

“The reference to their banishment and captivity makes it clear that the people of Israel were not going to obey the law of Moses.  God promised to regather them from the nations to which He had scattered them—but only when they returned to Him and obeyed Him with all their hearts and souls. (It should be noted that Israel’s reconstitution as a nation in  1948 is not the regathering in view in this passage; modern Israel is a thoroughly secular state, whose people as a whole have not returned to the Lord with all their hearts and souls.  The regathering predicted here refers to Israel’s national salvation [Rom. 11:25-26]).”  I would like to say that the Bible shows us every time that Israel will come back to their land, and so in my opinion this is the last time that Israel will return to their land.  When the rapture of the Church happens, [and I hope that it is very soon], Israel will be in their land as  soon after the rapture of the Church the Tribulation period will start, the last seven years that are spoken of in the 9^th chapter of Daniel.  Once that is over the Lord will return to planet earth as seen in the 19^th chapter of the book of Revelation.  He will end the battle of Armageddon and then set up the Millennial Kingdom which was promised to Israel and then once that is over the Great White Throne Judgment will happen, after that heaven and earth will be destroyed seen in 2 Peter chapter three, and then there will be a new heaven and earth, and a New Jerusalem as eternity will then begin.

            “Before anyone can turn to the Lord and be saved, God must first circumcise their hearts (Deut. 30:6).  Here is the essence of the New covenant—a spiritual surgery performed on the sinful heart of man.  Only such a radical transformation (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17), can break the power of the law of sin and enable people to keep the law of God.  Since the Mosaic, Davidic, and Abrahamic covenants did not have the power to change the heart, God provided the New covenant.

            “The most explicit Old Testament description of the New Covenant is in Jeremiah 33:31-34:

“31  "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32  not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34  And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.’” (ESV)

“By Jeremiah’s time, Israel’s situation was desperate.  The northern kingdom (Israel) had already fallen to the Assyrians, and the days of the southern kingdom (Judah) were numbered.  The people were apostate, and Jeremiah’s dire warnings of impending judgment and calls for repentance went unheeded. In the short term, then, the people’s forsaking of the Mosaic covenant had rendered their situation hopeless.  But God through Jeremiah promised a new covenant—the one Moses had spoken of centuries earlier (see the discussion of Deut. 30 above—His unconditional, unilateral, eternal, irrevocable promise to redeem lost sinners from judgment and hell.)

            “The promised New covenant would ‘not [be] like the [Mosaic] covenant which [God] made with their fathers’ (v. 32).  In sharp contrast to the external law code of the Mosaic covenant, God promised that in the New covenant He would ‘put [His] law within them and [write it] on their heart’ (v. 33), thus granting sinners a new heart (Ezek. 36:26).  The powerful spiritual dynamic provided in the New covenant provides deliverance from the power, penalty, and, ultimately, the presence of sin.  God irresistibly draws sinners to Himself (John 6:44), and to those who come (John 6:37) He promises, ‘I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more’ (Jer. 31:34; Ezek. 36:25).  The New covenant thus provides the essential things that all the other covenants lacked—a new heart, power to obey God, fellowship with God, the Holy Spirit (Ezek. 36:27), and the forgiveness of sin.  Those are the keys that unlock all the promised blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants and cancel the condemnation of the Mosaic law (cf. Rom. 8:1-2).

            “The New covenant is personal, promising the salvation of individual sinners through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, the ‘Lamb of God who takes away the sin or the world’ (John 1:29).  Everyone who ever has or ever will be saved has come to salvation under the terms of the New covenant (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; cf. Acts 10:42-43; Matt. 1:21; 1 Tim. 2:5-6).

            “But the New covenant also has national implications for Israel.  The irrevocable promises of God that Israel would be saved and blessed, that Messiah’s kingdom will come, and that their land be restored all hinge on the nation’s believing in Jesus Christ.  In the future, the believing remnant of the Jewish people will ‘look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and the will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn’ (Zech. 12:10), and as a result ‘all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:26).  Until that time of national repentance and acceptance of the New covenant and the One whose death made it possible, Israel cannot receive the blessings of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants.”

3/24/2026 11:23 PM