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 a 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 does excited me.
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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