SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/26/2017 8:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Conviction
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 9:4
Message of the
verses: “4 and he fell to the ground
and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’”
Notice how Luke, through the influence of the Holy Spirit
repeats the word Saul, and this is not the first time we see this in Luke’s
writings. “But the Lord answered and
said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many
things (Luke 10:41).” “34 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that
kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather
your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and
you would not have it!(Luke 13:34).” “31
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat’
(Luke 22:31).” As we look at our verse
from Acts we see that the repeating of Saul’s name was intended to bring
anguish of soul to Saul. Do you ever
remember having you mother call you by your first and your middle name? When that happened she was trying to get your
attention, probably because you were doing or did something wrong, similar to
what is going on in our verse for this morning.
Saul was one who according to what Jesus spoke of in John 15:25 “’THEY
HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’” “Those who
hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; Those who would
destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies; What I did not steal, I
then have to restore (Psalm 69:4).” I
believe that this is from where the quotation written in John 15:25 comes from
as Psalm 69 is what is called a “Messianic Psalm.”
John MacArthur writes “Our Lord’s words ‘Why are you
persecuting Me?’ reflect the inseparable link between Himself as head of the
body, and its members. No blow struck on earth goes unfelt in heaven
by our sympathetic High Priest. By
persecuting Christians, Saul inflicted blows directly on their Lord.”
One of the things that has been on my mind from time to
time is the difference between the OT age where God is mostly dealing with the
nation of Israel and also the NT age where it seems that the primary dealings
of God is on the church. So what about
the people who were not from the nation of Israel in the OT and what about the
people who claim that they are not a part of any form of Christianity, not
church people in this age of grace or time when Christ will build His
church. Well we can see from our verse
this morning that Christ takes it personal when someone is persecuting His
church, His body as the church is called.
The Word church in the Greek means “called out ones,” and so as we look
at this NT time it is the job of those who have been called out by the
effectual call of the Holy Spirit to tell the world about what happened to
them. Some will be like Saul and be
convicted of their sin and some will not be convicted of their sin. Some will think that their lot in life is to
destroy those who have been called out with the effectual call of the Holy
Spirit like Saul was doing. 1 John 5:19
tells us “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in
the power of the evil one.” Notice the highlighted portion of this verse
telling us that Satan seems to be in control as we have seen in John 22:31 ““Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan has
demanded permission to sift you like wheat.’” My conclusion is that we live in the age of
grace where it is also called the “church age” and even though not all people
are a part of a local church they are still a part of this age. Since I have been teaching through the seven
churches of Revelation 2-3 this though has been bouncing around in my head as I
see the differences found in the churches from these two chapters.
Perhaps it would be good to quote the last two paragraphs
found in John MacArthur’s commentary as he writes on what this verse means to
him.
“Saul, who had been so
violent, was violently brought face-to-face with the enormity of his crimes—not
against Christians but against Christ.
Those who go to hell do so ultimately because of their rejection of the
Savior. Even those who don’t persecute
believers, but simply life apart from Jesus Christ, are as guilty of crimes
against Him as was Saul. As Saul himself
was later to write, “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed’ (1
Cor. 16:22). Jesus said “the Holy Spirit
would convict men ‘concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.’ (John
16:9). The crime of all crimes for which
men will be eternally damned is to refuse to love and follow the Lord Jesus
Christ.
“True salvation must include
conviction of this damning sin, since it is this very sin and not others that
finally separates man from God. Saul
knew enough about the Christian faith to hate it and persecute it. He knew the claims of Jesus and the true
history of God’s redemption as Stephen and Philip had miraculous power over
disease and demons. All that the Spirit
had laid as the groundwork in Saul’s life.
When Jesus confronted Saul, the conviction must have been
overwhelming. He knew about the truth;
here he was crushed into the dust and made to believe it.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Being crushed by
my sin is a good thing, but a hurtful thing too. As a believer I am to keep a short list with
God, and realize that my sin needs to be confessed to the Lord as seen in 1
John 1:9.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Trust the Lord to renew my heart in
order to walk closer to my Lord.
Memory verses: Psalm 143:10 “Teach me to do Your will, For
You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever
is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything
of worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Answer to our last Bible
question: “By holding up Moses hands”
(Exodus 17:8-13).
Today’s Bible
question: “What did the nobleman promise
the servant whose pound had gained ten pounds?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/26/2017 9:22 AM
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