SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/23/2015
8:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
How the Tribulation Saints Lived PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
14:12
Message of the
verse: “12 Here is the perseverance
of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.” As mentioned we are looking at one of the few
doctrines that is found in the book of Revelation, the doctrine of the
perseverance of the saints, or as some have put it the doctrine of eternal
security. We have look in yesterdays SD
at two of the five points that this doctrine rests on and today we want to
continue to look at points three through five.
John MacArthur writes “A third proof of the doctrine of
the perseverance of the saints is that God’s power guarantees it. God’s power that transforms believers into
new creations (2 Cor. 5:17) will sustain them, so that they can never be
lost. In John 10:27-29 Jesus stated
emphatically that God’s power keeps believers secure: ‘My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and
they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish;
and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is
able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.’”
I would like to look at a verse or two from the book of Romans and
chapter eight: “35 Who will separate us
from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, "FOR
YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP
TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer
through Him who loved us. 38 For
I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created
thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:35-39).”
As we are learning it is the power of God that keeps us, and so nothing
can separate us from His love for us.
The fourth proof of the perseverance of the saints is
found in Ephesians 2:8-9 which reads “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that
no one may boast.” We see that it is God’s
grace that saves us through the faith that He gives us to believe in Him for
the salvation He gives to us. Paul goes
on to say that it is nothing we can do to receive it, as we cannot work for our
salvation for it is a gift, however after we are saved as verse ten tells us we
do work to show that we are saved, a new child of God: “10 For we are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would
walk in them.” Let us look at another
verse from 1 Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you
entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without
blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul then goes on to explain how the Thessalonians’ safekeeping would be
accomplished in verse 24 “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring
it to pass.”
John MacArthur writes “To argue that saving faith can
die, or be lost, contradicts God’s promise, purpose, power, and grace. Believers have been ‘born again to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an
inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away,
reserved in heaven for [them], who are protected by the power of God through
faith for a ssalvation ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1 Pet. 1:3-5).”
Now we come to the part of this doctrine that shows us
that we too have a responsibility to preserve too. Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:22 “"You
will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to
the end who will be saved.” Next we look
at Matthew 24:13 “"But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” Barnabas tells the people in Antioch, as he
began to encourage them “Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God,
he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord;
(Acts 11:23).” Paul writes to the Romans
(God)“6 who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: 7 to those who by
perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal
life; 8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but
obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
John MacArthur writes “Colossians 1:21-23 clearly reveals God’s part in
salvation and man’s responsibility to persevere.” “21 And although you were formerly alienated
and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in
His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and
blameless and beyond reproach- 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and
steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard,
which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was
made a minister.” MacArthur continues “Christians
are redeemed, ‘although [they] were formerly alienated and hostile in mind,
engaged in evil deeds’ because God ‘has now reconciled [them] before Him holy
and blameless and beyond reproach.’ But
that does not obviate believers’ responsibility to ‘continue in the faith
firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the
gospel that [they] have heard.’ In a similar
vein the author of Hebrews wrote ‘For we have become partakers of Christ, if we
hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end’ (Heb. 3:14). The apostle John described Christians as
overcomers (2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 21, 1 John 5:4-5).
“Believers persevere faith (1 Pet. 1:5; 1 John 5:4-5),
fear (Jer. 32:40), love (Eph. 6:24), obedience (John 8:31), and by turning away
from sin (2 Cor. 7:1; cf. Rom. 6:12-14).
All those means are granted by God—who then exhorts believers to
manifest them in their lives. The doctrine
of perseverance must not be misconstrued as teaching that believers will be
eternally saved regardless of their belief, or behavior. What it does teach is that, as noted above,
true believers will continue in the faith.
Justification will be followed by sanctification that leads to
glorification.”
A question arises as to what happen to those who once
professed faith in Christ, but the fell away.
The Bible teaches us that those who do fall away were never saved in the
first place. Judas is surely an example
of this as he walked with the Lord for three years and then in the end showed that
he never truly believed what the Lord was teaching in his heart, thus he never
was a believer. I have mentioned that
people who told me all about the Lord when I was saved in 1974 have later said
that we are not into this anymore which tells me that they never were really
saved in the first place. All we have to
do is look at Jesus’ parable of the seeds from the gospel of Mark when He gives
His disciples the explanation of it in Mark 4:16-20 “16 "In a similar way these are the ones on
whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word,
immediately receive it with joy; 17 and
they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when
affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall
away. 18 "And others are the ones
on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the
word, 19 but the worries of the world,
and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and
choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 “And those are the ones on whom
seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear
fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."”
In my Spiritual Diaries on the book of Mark I covered this from the one
dated March 13, 2012. Jesus also spoke
along these lines in the 15th chapter of the book of John when He
was talking to His disciples about the vine and the branches. I remember studying about this and listening
to a sermon by John MacArthur on this study and he stated that this scene
happened right after Judas went out to betray Christ and so this could have
been the reason as to why Jesus talked to His disciples about this
parable. Jesus states that He is the
vine and believers are connected to Him through the branches, but He also
teaches that some of the vines have to be cut off and burned up and this is
what MacArthur said were the “Judas branches;” the ones that never were truly
believers. “They went out from us, but
they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have
remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all
are not of us (1 John 2:19).”
I have never read “Pilgrims Progress,” but have heard
some things about it to give me a desire to read it someday or at least listen
to it. At any rate John MacArthur quotes
a small portion of this book in his commentary that illustrates the fact that
true Christians persevere under trials, while false believers fall away from
faith. Even though this SD is father
lengthy I have decided to quote this portion of that book.
“I saw then in my dream, that when CHRISTIAN was got to
the borders of the shadow of death, there met him two men, children of them
that brought up an evil report of the good land, making hast to go back (Numb.
13:32), to whom CHRISTIAN spake as follows:
Chr.
Whither are you going?
The two men. They said, ‘Back, back; and we would have you do so too, if either life
or peace is prized by you.’
Chr. ‘Why, what is the matter?’ said CHRISTIAN.
Men. ‘Matter!’
said they; ‘we were going that way as you are going and when as far as we
durst; and indeed we were almost past coming back, for had we gone a little
further, we had not been here to bring the news to thee.’
Chr. ‘But what have you met with?’ said CHRISTAN.
Men. Why, we were almost in the Valley of the
Shadow of Death (Psa. 44:19; 107:10); but that by good hap we looked before us
and saw the danger before we came to it.
Chr. ‘But what have you met with?’ said CHRISTIAN.
Men. Seen! Why the valley itself, which is as dark
as pitch. We also saw there the
hobgoblins, satyrs, and dragons of the pit; we heard also in that valley a
continual howling and yelling, as of a people under unutterable misery, who
there sat bound in affliction and irons; and over that valley hangs the
discouraging clouds of confusion; death also doth always spread his wings over
it; in a word, it is every whit dreadful, being utterly without order (Job.
3:5; 10:22).
Chr. Then said CHRISTAI, ‘I perceive not yet, by
what you have said, but that this is my way to the desired haven.’
Men. ‘Be if thy way, we will not choose it for ours.’
So they parted, and
CHRISTIAN went on his way; but still with his sword drawn in his hand, for fear
lest he should be assaulted.”
Two more things in which I
will briefly state that the perseverance of the Tribulation saints will be
evident because they will keep the commandments of God. There is a second reason and that will be
though faith in Jesus as verse 12 states.
MacArthur finishes his comments on this section: “Why are these faithful dead believers
blessed? Because they lived pure, noble,
purposeful, obedient, rich, joyous, exemplary lives. They live life to the fullest in faith and
obedience to God. Even if there were no
heaven, that would still be the best way to live. But there is heaven to follow this life for
God’s people; therefore the deaths of the Tribulation saints will also be
eternally blessed.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: As things grow more difficult in the country
that we live in and as I read about what will happen to those who live in the
Tribulation period I pray that my faith will increase to be able to live as
these people lived. I remember a
statement that I read in Cory Ten boom’s book “The Hiding Place,” in which her
father was talking to her about faith and he said to her “when do I give you
the ticket to get on the train?” She
replied “When I am about to get onto the train.” God does not give us faith today for what we
need tomorrow, but gives us faith to live each day, after all He knows what we
need and when we need it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Believe that God will give me the faith that
I need for today to live for His glory.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Readiness” (Matthew 25).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Make me a savory
meal, such as I love…that my sould my bless thee before I die?’”
Answer in our next SD.
7/23/2015 10:12 AM
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