SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/10/2015
7:41 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Characteristic of Purity
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
14:4a
Message of the
verse: “These are the ones who have
not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste.”
Now according to 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 which reads “6 And
you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 7 For
the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out
of the way.” I am not going to
get into all that this verse means as I went over it in my study of 1st
and 2nd Thessalonians last year, but the point that I want to make
here is that when the restraining of sin is removed then people will act
without being restrained, in other words people will act as vile as they want
to act and if you think that things are bad on earth now, and they are getting
more worse all the time, this is nothing to what life will be like in the
Tribulation Period. Sexual sin will be
worse than it ever has since man was on the earth and that makes what we read
in this first part of verse four more unbelievable that we can imagine.
As the world grows ever darker and darker in the
Tribulation Period these men will shine as a bright light to all they come in
contact with for their lives will be pure as the verse says that they will not
be defiled by women which will be the normal thing during this time
period. John MacArthur writes “That the
specific sin that they will avoid involves women indicates that sexual purity
is the view here, not detachment from the corrupt world system. That the 144,000 will be separate from
Antichrist’s empire has already been made clear; they bear God’s mark, not the
beast’s (7:3-4). Nor does this passage teach
that they will all be unmarried, since sex within marriage does not defile
anyone (Heb. 13:4). What it means is
that they will stand apart from the sin of their culture; 144,000 morally pure
preachers amid the defilement that surrounds them.”
We now live in a world where being sexually pure is
becoming more difficult all of the time, for we can view things on smart phones
that were actually against the law fifty years ago, and I suppose they are
still against the law, but no one enforces that law any more. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For
this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from
sexual immorality.” The Bible is very
clear what sexual immorality is as we can read about what it means in different
parts of both the OT and the NT. One man
and one woman living in marriage forever is the correct kind of sexual purity,
or a man and or a woman never having sexual relations before they are married. Jesus went on to tell us in the Sermon on the
Mount that if a person thinks about having sexual relations in their minds they
were actually having them and this is sinful, for it is the mind that first
commits sinful acts as a person acts out what they are going to do and then if
they do not check these sinful thoughts while in the mind they will actually
act them out.
In his commentary on this section John MacArthur quotes a
rather famous Pastor, Robert Murray McCheyne who writes the following paragraph
for the benefit of a young preacher: “Do
not forget the culture of the inner man—I mean of the heart. How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his
sabre clean and sharp; every stain he rubs off with the greatest care. Remember you are God’s sword, His instrument—I
trust a chose vessel unto Him to bear His instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much
as great likeness to Jesus. A holy
minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. (Andrew A. Bonar, Memoirs of McCheyne [Chicago: Moody,
1978], 95).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I suppose that
once man fell that one of the easiest sins to fall into has to do with a sexual
sin. God made man perfect, so perfect
that both Adam and Eve could walk around naked and there would be no problem
with any kind of sexual sin. After man
sinned one of the first things God did was make clothes for them and we have
been wearing clothes ever since. Keeping
my saber clean and sharp is difficult at best, but just as the Lord will give
power to those 144,000 He will also give power to me and to all who seek His
power.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Keep my sword clean and sharp.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Pharaoh’s daughter” (Exodus
2:9).
Today’s Bible question: “In writing to the Romans, Paul told them he
planned to visit them on his way to what place?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/10/2015 8:17 AM
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