Believers Know God's Truth (Eph. 4:21)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2019 9:23 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Knows God’s Truth

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 4:21

 

            Message of the verses:  “21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,”

 

            As we look at the focus:  “Knows God’s Truth” we have to remember that we are looking at “The Walk of the New Self,” and so we could say that a part of the walk of the new self is that this person knows God’s truth, and this is the opposite of what we were learning of the person of the old self that we looked at before we began this section.  The person of the new self has heard Christ and is also taught in Him.  MacArthur writes “Both verbs are in the aorist tense, again pointing to a one-time pas act, and in this context referring to the time when the readers were taught and came to believe the gospel—here called the truth…in Jesus.  These terms describe the moment of salvation-conversion.  When a person receives Christ as Savior and Lord, he comes into God’s truth.”

 

            Let’s compare Matthew 17:5 with our verse for today:  “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!’”  In comparing these two verses we can come to the conclusion that the verse in Ephesians 4:21 could not possibly refer to hearing Jesus’ physical voice on earth, because there is no way that could have been true of all the believers in Asia Minor to whom Paul was writing, so it must refer to the hearing of His spiritual call to salvation as can be seen in verses like John 8:47; 10:27; Acts 3:22-23; Hebrews 3:7-8.  There are many New Testaments references that speak of this hearing and being taught as the call of God.  John MacArthur writes “En autoi (‘in Him’) means in union wit Christ and futher emphasizes the fact that at conversion we received the truth embodied in Christ, because we came to be in Him.”

 

            When people are living without God they can become cynical about truth, similar to what happened when Pilate asked the question “What is truth,” and just like Pilate when unbelievers ask this question they really don’t want an answer.  This is different with the Christian, or at least should be, as we can say “The truth of Christ is in me” as seen in 2 Cor. 11:10.  We could also look at 1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”

 

            John MacArthur writes “The ‘truth’ that ‘is in Jesus,’ then, is first of all the truth about salvation.  This idea is parallel to 1:13, where Paul says hearing the truth and being in Him are synonymous with conversion:  ‘In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.’  ‘The ‘truth…is in Jesus’ and it leads to the fullness of truth about God, man, creation, history, sin, righteousness, grace, faith, salvation, life, death, purpose, meaning, relationships, heaven, hell, judgment, eternity, and everything else of ultimate consequence.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Knowing the truth that is in Jesus Christ is one of the most important things that a believer can learn as it answers the many questions that John MacArthur tells about in the list that is written above.  Think about the privilege that I have in knowing the answers to these questions is something that is very precious to me and something that I want to share as I write these Spiritual Diaries that the Spirit of God sends around the world as they go onto my blogs.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to truth the Lord to teach me humility.

 

Quotation for today is from an unknown author:  “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to the person on which it is poured.”

 

4/30/2019 9:51 AM

PT-3 "Christ Centered" (Eph. 4:20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2019 8:51 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-3 Christ Centered

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 4:20

 

            Message of the verse:  “20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,”

 

            Paul states that we did not learn Christ in this way which is speaking of what was written before this section, a section that we looked at for several days before coming to this section which we just began a couple of days ago which we stated is about the new walk, the walk of the new self. 

            One of the things that we learned when we first became a believer should have been is that we cannot trust our own thinking or we cannot rely on our own way, something Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 5:15b where he says “they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”  In 1 Corinthians 2:16b we read “But we have the mind of Christ.”  This tells us that Christ is the only mind on which we can rely, that is of course talking about believers.  MacArthur writes “The obedient, faithful Christian is the one for whom Christ thinks, acts, loves, feels, serves, and lives in every way.  He says with Paul, ‘I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me’ (Gal. 2:20).”

 

            We have talked about what Paul wrote to the Philippians in the second chapter of that letter, and learned that we are to have the same kind of attitude that Christ had when He came from heaven to earth in order to accomplish what the Father wanted Him to accomplish, which is providing salvation for all those who will accept it.  Paul writes in that section from Philippians:  “5  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  MacArthur adds “If the incarnated Lord sought the mind of His heavenly Father in everything He did, how much more should we?  The mark of the Christian life is to think like Christ, act like Christ, love like Christ, and in every possible way to be like Christ—in order that ‘whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him’ (1 Thess. 5:10).

 

            “God has a plan of destiny for the universe, and as long as Christ is working in us He is working out a part of that plan through us.  The Christ-centered life is the most purposeful and meaningful life conceivable—it is part of the divine plan and work of God.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I realize that there are times when it is more difficult to be living the Christ-centered life because life is a struggle and life has difficult challenges that come our way including temptations, for as long as we as believers live in this body there will be temptations and challenges that will come.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  In the section from Philippians we read that Christ humbled Himself, and as I have been focusing on humility that caught my eye.  Christ could humble Himself when He came to earth because He is God, I have to learn humility.

 

Verse that goes along with the quotation from John Wesley is Matthew 28:19 which is the “Great Commission.”  “"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

 

4/29/2019 9:15 AM

 

           

 

           

PT-2 "Christ-Centered" (Eph. 4:20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2019 9:43 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  PT-2 “Christ Centered”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 4:20

 

            Message of the verses:  “But you did not learn Christ in this way.”

 

            I want to quote the last thing that we were studying in our last SD to help keep us on track:  “Both the context and the use of the aorist tense of the verb ‘to learn’ in these passages lead to the conclusion that this learning refers to the moment of saving faith.”

 

            I want to look at James 4:4 which says: “Friendship with the world is hostility toward God.”  I remember when I first became a believer as I was running around with a crowd of people that even as a young believer I knew that I had to sever my relationship with them.  I have to say that it took some time to do so as for one thing I was working with some of them and could not just stop talking to them.  I assure you that I did witness to them about their need for salvation, but none of them wanted to listen to me.  It was a difficult choice to make and it took me a while to do so, but one of the things that helped me was to make new friends with believers which the Lord led me to soon after I became a believer.  Now if a person who states that they have become a believer continues to have friendships with the world, and makes no effort to stop then one has to question whether or not they truly are believers.  Let’s look at 1 John 2:4 and then 15:  “4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;” “15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  As we can see from these verses the ways of the world and they ways of believers are not compatible. 

 

            Paul says that we did not learn Christ this way, and the way that we learn to be a Christian is to first repent, to agree with God that you are a sinner, and there is nothing in that you can do on your own to take care of your sin problem, the very nature that you are born with is sinful and therefore after learning this truth you need to repent of being a sinner.  John MacArthur writes “The very purpose of receiving Christ is to ‘be saved from this perverse generation’ (Acts 2:20), and no one is saved who does not repent and forsake sin.  Repentance does not save us, but God cannot save us from sin of which we are unwilling to let go.  To hold on to sin is to refuse God, to scorn His grace, and to nullify faith.  No Christian is totally from the presence of sin in this life, but in Christ he is willingly freed from his orientation to sin.  He slips and falls many times, but the determined direction of his life is away from sin.”

 

            Lord willing we will finish this section in our next SD.

 

Quotation for today comes from John Wesley:  “O LORD, let us not live to be useless, for Christ’s sake.”

 

4/28/2019 10:05 PM

Intro to "The Walk of the New Self" (Eph. 4:20-24)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2019 9:46 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  The Walk of the New Self

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Ephesians 4:20-24

 

            Message of the verses:   “20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

 

            We have come to a new main section in our study of the book of Ephesians, and in this section we will study three different fairly long sub-sections with the first entitled “Christ-Centered” which I want to begin today in this SD after we go over the introduction to this main section.

 

            John MacArthur writes in his introduction to this section “The new walk in Christ is the exact opposite of the old walk of the flesh.  Whereas the old is self-centered and futile, the new is Christ-centered and purposeful.  Whereas the old is ignorant of God’s truth, the new knows and understands it.  Whereas the old morally and spiritually calloused and shameless, the new is sensitive to sin of every sort.  Whereas the old is depraved in its thinking the new is renewed.”  So here we have a comparison of these two walks of life, and there is no doubt in which we are to live in the new walk, the walk of the new self.

 

            It must have been true that some of the believers in the Ephesian church and also the other churches in Asia Minor where this letter was to go to were having problems falling into the old way of life which Paul described in verses 17-19 as seen from this first sub-section entitled “Christ-Centered” and takes up verse 20 which reads “But you did not learn Christ in this way.”  So if Paul tells them that they did not learn Christ in the ways he described in verses 17-19, then some of them must have slipped into that way to which Paul wants to write to them on how to correct their living ways.

 

            When Paul says “But you did not learn Christ,” he is talking of a direct reference to salvation, as to learn Christ is to be saved.  MacArthur writes “While it is true that the verb manthano can be used in reference to the process of learning truth (see Rom. 16:17; Phil. 4:9), it can also mean ‘to come to know’ (Walter Bauer, A Greek lexicon of the New Testament.  Translated and edited by W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich.  5^th ed [Chicago; U. of Chicago, 1958], p. 490), as a one-time act, particularly when the verb is aorist active indicative, as in this case.  The aorist is also used in John 6:45, where Jesus spoke to those who had ‘learned from the Father’—indicating a reference to the saving act of faith under the Old Covenant which would lead them now to Him.

            “In Matthew 11:29, Jesus offered one of the loveliest of all salvation invitations:  ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me’ (KJV).  This use of manthano is also in the aorist tense, indicating a single unrepeated act.

            “Both the context and the use of the aorist tense of the verb ‘to learn’ in these passages lead to the conclusion that this learning refers to the moment of saving faith.”

 

            Lord willing we will continue to look at this verse and what it entails in our next SD.

 

Verse that goes along with our quotation from yesterday:  “7 The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.”

 

4/27/2019 10:24 AM

 

           

 

PT-3 "Depraved in Mind" (Eph. 4:17-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2019 10:45 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  PT-3 “Depraved in Mind”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 4:17-19

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”

 

            The commentary from John MacArthur was written in 1986, however the preaching that he did to his congregation was done earlier than 1986, and so as I quote from his commentary from an article that he read in Forbes magazine from September 18, 1978 the data from it is now over 41 years old, and I might say that what they were writing about then is much, much worse today than back then.  “An article in Forbes Magazine (Sept. 18, 1978, pp. 81-92) entitled ‘The X-Rated Economy’ began by stating the obvious—pornography is no longer and illegal business.  The market for pornography is not confined to perverts or other emotional cripples.  To the contrary, the largest part of the market is middle class people.  In an increasingly permissive society those who enjoy pornography are free to revel in it.  The surprising revelation was that , according to one official estimate, the nation’s pornographers do more than four billion dollars worth of business a year—more than the combined incomes of the often supportive movie and music industries!  Other estimate place the total pornographic business—including a large segment of the burgeoning home video market—at three times that much.

 

            “Impurity is inseparable from greediness. Plenexia (‘greediness’) is unbound covetousness, uninhibited lust for that which is wanted.  Immorality has no part in love, and anything the sensual person does under the guise of caring and helpfulness is but a ruse for exploitation.  The world of sensuality and impurity is the world of greediness.  The person given over to godlessness and immorality greedily takes whatever he can from those around him.  He evaluates life only in material terms (Luke 12:15), uses other people to his advantage (1 Thess. 2:5; 2 Pet. 2:3), and turns his back on God in order to fulfill his own evil desires (Rom. 1:29).  And greediness is no less than idolatry (Col. 3:5).”  “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col. 3:5).

 

            People who are selfish and desire to do “their own thing” end up cutting themselves off from God.  Whenever that happens, that person then cuts himself off from the truth which will result in spiritual blindness thus having no standards of morality.  Without standards of morality, then immorality becomes a shameless and calloused way of living one’s life.  As the person goes on in this way it will destroy their mind’s ability to understand what is good from what is evil, and also truth from what is false, and what is real from what is not real.  The result is that the godless life becomes the mindless life.

 

            MacArthur concludes this very long section that we have been looking at since April 16^th with these words:  “That process characterizes every unbeliever.  It is the direction that every ungodly person is headed, although some are further along than others.  ‘Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived’ (2 Tim. 3:13).  That some people may not reach the extremes Paul mentions in Ephesians 4:17-19 is due only to the protective shield of God’s common grace that He showers both on the righteous and the unrighteous (see Matt. 5:45) and to the preserving influence of the Holy Spirit (Job. 34:14-15) and of the church (Matt. 5:13).”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look back on what we have been learning from these three verses it is the mind that is what comes to me, and that is that as a believer in Jesus Christ I must protect my mind from thinking things that are not pleasing to the Lord. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to teach me more about humility so that I can then live my life in a way that will be pleasing to the Lord.

 

Today’s quotation and this one is from Oswald Chambers who writes “Never compromise with those who water down the Word of God to human experience.”

 

4/26/2019 11:16 AM

 

 

PT-2 "Depraved Mind" (Eph. 4:17-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2019 9:18 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “The Depraved Mind”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 4:17-19

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”

 

            One of the great problems in people’s lives today is that they think that they know better than what God knows, and therefore they can do things that go directly against what God has written in His Word.  Sexuality is one of the things that have gone rampant in our society.  As we look at the beginning of the Word of God we see that God made one man out of the dust of the earth, and then later on put the man asleep in order to perform the first operation on the earth in which God took one of Adam’s ribs in order to make Eve who became Adam’s wife.  One man and one woman and from that we understand that this is how God centered marriages are to be, and yet in our society today we have people who say that they do not know which sex they are to which I say just take a look at your birth certificate.  We have homosexual marriages that are common in our society which also goes directly against God’s laws.  People wonder why there is there so much mental health issues in our world today and the answer lies in that people have gone against what God has written in His Word.  I have mentioned in many of my SD’s that one of the greatest problems in our world today lies in the false theory of evolution.  Evolution teaches that we are just an accident and therefore are not accountable to God.  Evolution is impossible, it could never happen.  Think of the big bang theory where    it is said that everything began with a small ball and then the ball continued to grow into what we have today.  My question to these misguided scientists is “where did the ball come from.”  When God created the world and that includes the rest of the universe He made it out of nothing, that is something out of nothing and the way that He did this was by speaking. Ex nihilo is the word in the Bible which means something out of nothing so that tells me that the atheistic who began the theory of the big bang theory are wrong, along with all of those who believe that the earth is billions of years old are wrong.  It is a scam created by Satan in order to think we are an accident.  It was a few years back that I sat in a Bible Study and heard a man called Bill Glass, who has a wonderful prison ministry, speak.  He talked of many things and one of them was about his Rolex watch.  He said that he did not buy it but it was given to him as some kind of reward.  His point was that this Rolex watch had to have a designer in order for it to function, and then spoke about God being the designer of the earth along with the rest of the stars and planets we see.  He is right and if people would start believing what God says to them in His Word then many of the awful problems we are facing today would be a lot less harmful to us.

 

            John MacArthur writes Ergasia (practice) can refer to a business enterprise, and that idea could apply here.  The ungodly person often makes business out of “every kind of impurity.”  A Christian leader commented some years ago that many of the books published in the United States today rival the drippings of a broken sewer.  Yet pornography, prostitution, X-rated films, suggestive TV programs, and ‘every kind of impurity’ form perhaps the largest industry in our country.  The vast majority of majority of it is open, unashamed, and legally protected.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The world that I live in today is so very much different than the world that God created around 6000 years ago.  After His completion of planet earth God said that it was very good, and it was very good.  I live in a world of de-evolution, and not evolution as things are getting worse by the day, and yet as I have been studying the book of Revelation for the last 19 plus months, teaching it in our Sunday school class, I know that things will continue to get worse and worse and then when you think that it can’t get any worse the Lord Jesus Christ will return to planet earth and set up His promised kingdom and the earth that will be much like the original creation that He made as seen in Genesis 1-2.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to learn humility, realizing that God is the One who is in charge, and I am to follow His teachings.

 

Bible verse that goes along with D. L. Moody’s quotation from yesterday:  “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 26:19).

 

4/25/2019 9:55 AM

PT-1 "Depraved Mind" (Eph. 4:17-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/24/2019 11:24 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  PT-1 “Depraved in Mind”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 4:17-19

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness” (NASB).

 

            “17  So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18  being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19  and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness” (NASB95).

 

            We have been looking at futile, self-centered thinking, ignorance of truth and spiritual and moral callousness, and all of these practices will inevitably to “sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”

 

            John MacArthur writes “Aselgeia (sensuality) refers to total licentiousness, the absence of all moral restraint, especially in the area of sexual sins.  One commentator says the term relates to ‘a disposition of the soul incapable of bearing the pain of discipline.’  The idea is that of unbridled self-indulgence and undisciplined obscenity.”

 

            Peter writes about these types of people in 2 Peter 2:10-12 “10 And especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, 11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed.”  “10 God is especially incensed against these "teachers" who live by lust, addicted to a filthy existence. They despise interference from true authority, preferring to indulge in self-rule. Insolent egotists, they don’t hesitate to speak evil against the most splendid of creatures. 11 Even angels, their superiors in every way, wouldn’t think of throwing their weight around like that, trying to slander others before God. 12 These people are nothing but brute beasts, born in the wild, predators on the prowl. In the very act of bringing down others with their ignorant blasphemies, they themselves will be brought down, losers in the end” (Message).

 

            People are mainly effected by their conscience and have a sense of what is right and what is wrong and thus they may and perhaps will continue to fight over doing wrong will, if they don’t come to realize that they are in need of salvation will lose the battle and eventually their consciences will be seared so badly that it will not matter the wrong that they are doing.  Having rejected all divine guidelines and protection, these people become depraved in mind and then give themselves over to sensuality.  People like this care nothing about what others think about them, not to mention about what God thinks about them, but they only care about what gratifies the cravings of their own warped mind.

 

            We will stop after this last quote from John MacArthur:  “Ungodliness and it attendant immorality destroys the mind as well as the conscience and the spirit. Rejection of God and of His truth and righteousness finally results in what Paul refers to in Romans as a ‘depraved mind’ (1:28)—a mind that is no mind, that cannot reason, that cannot think clearly, that cannot recognize or understand God’s truth, and that loses contact with spiritual reality.  In its extreme, the depraved mind loses contact with all reality.  That is the mindlessness of the self-indulgent, profligate celebrity who loses his career, his sanity, and often his life because of wanton sensuality.  When indecency becomes a way of life, every aspect of life is corrupted, distorted, and eventually destroyed.”  I have to say that this is a very sad situation indeed, and it is going on in the news media today as most of them are in bed with Satan.

"Spiritually and Morally Calloused" (Eph. 4:17-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/23/2019 8:22 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  “Spiritually and Morally Calloused”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Ephesians 4:17-19

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”

 

            In today’s SD we will look at the third characteristic of the unregenerate person and that is that he is spiritual and moral calloused “the…become callous” as seen in the second highlighted portion of our Scripture verses for today.  We have mentioned what happened to Pharaoh as his own heart was hard before the things of God, and as a result of that his heart became calloused and so God hardened his heart in order to bring about judgment upon Egypt for their treatment of the children of Israel.  MacArthur writes “When people continue in sin and turn themselves away from the life of God, they became apathetic and insensitive about moral and spiritual things.  They reject all standards of righteousness and do not care about the consequences of their unrighteous thoughts and actions.  Even conscience becomes scarred with tissue that is not sensitive to wrong (1 Tim. 4:2; Titus 1:15).”  “1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,” (1 Tim. 4:1-2).”  “To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled” (Titus 1:15).”

 

            MacArthur tells a story about a young Greek man who stole a fox and then came upon the fox’s owner.  He put the fox inside his clothes and stood silent before the owner of the fox and did not move.  He stood still while the fox tore out his vital organs.  Even at the cost of his painful death he would not won up to his wrong.  He then goes on to write the following “Our wicked society is so determined not to be discovered for what it is that it stands unflinching as its very life and vitality is ripped apart by the sins and corruption it holds so dear.  It has ‘become callous’ both to the reality and to the consequences of sin, and will endure any agony rather than admit that its way of ‘living’ is the way of death.

 

            “On the other hand, sins that were once hidden or excused are not indulged in openly and blatantly.  Often not even the semblance of morality is maintained.  When self-desire rules, indecency runs wild and proceeds to cauterize the conscience, the God-given warning light and pain center of the soul.  Those who are dying are desensitized to that which is killing them—because they choose it that way.  Even when held up shamefully in full view of the world, their sins are not recognized as sinful or as the cause of increasing meaninglessness, hopelessness, and despair (cf. Rom. 1:31).”  “And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32).

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There is no doubt to me that many people in our country have calloused hearts when it comes to sin and I believe that if the Holy Spirit does not bring a revival to our land that this country will cease to be the country it was when it was founded on the principles of the Word of God.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to learn humility as seen in my verse for this year:  “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3).

 

Quotation for today and this one is from D. L. Moody “If you pray for bread and bring no basket to carry it, you prove the doubting spirit which may be the only hindrance to the gift you ask.”

 

4/23/2019 8:55 AM

 

           

PT-3 "Ignorant of God's Truth" (Eph. 4:17-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/22/2019 9:29 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-3 “Ignorant of God’s Truth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 4:17-19

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”

 

            I promised to quote from Leroy Auden of the University of Chicago who has written:  “We hide a restless lion under a cardboard box, for while we may use other terms than guilt to describe this turbulence in our souls, the fact remains that all is not right within us”  MacArthur goes on to write “By one way or another—by psychological game playing, rationalization, self-justification, transferring the blame, or by denying sin and eliminating morality—men try futilely to get rid of the lion of guilt.  But it will not go away.”

 

            In our Sunday school class yesterday we were talking about how the Lord Jesus Christ when He returned to planet earth as seen in Revelation 19, has Satan put into the abyss at the beginning of chapter so that he will not be allowed to bother the people of the Millennial kingdom, but today he plays a part in the blindness of those who refuse to believe and Paul states why in 2 Cor. 4:4 “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  People today who are unbelievers refuse to see Christ because they refuse to see God, and their refusal is readily confirmed and reinforced by the god of this world as seen in the above verse.

 

            When our Lord was on earth ministering to the Jewish people they had the greatest opportunity to hear and see God incarnate do many wonderful miracles like raising the dead, feeding thousands of people from small amounts of food, preach and teach the gospel to them, and yet what happened to most of them can be seen in John’s words written in his gospel writings where we read “But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were

not believing in Him” (John 12:37).  “39  For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40  "HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM” (John 12:39-40).

 

            Because these Jews did not believe, they could not believe.  Revelation 22:1 tells us “Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and let the one who is filthy, still be filthy.”

 

            MacArthur concludes:  “When men chose to petrify their hearts by constant rejection of the light (John 12:35-36 ‘35 So Jesus said to them, "For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. 36 “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light." These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.’), they became ‘darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. That is the unspeakable tragedy of unbelief, the tragedy of the person who makes himself his own god.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  When a person makes himself his own god he is full of pride, and perhaps someday the Lord will humble some of these people like He did to me a very long time ago.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I never want to be proud of the things that the Lord does through me, but just be available for Him to use me and then praise His name.

 

Scripture reference for our last quotation comes from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

 

4/22/2019 9:59 AM

PT-2 Ignorant of God's Truth (Eph. 4:17-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/21/2019 8:26 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-2 “Ignorant of God’s Truth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Ephesians 4:17-19

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”

 

            In this highlighted section of verse 18 we see that it is because of the hardness of the hearts of the “Gentiles” that Paul is talking about, those who are ungodly, they are unresponsive to truth.  “18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. 19 No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, "I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!" 20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?’” (Isaiah 44:18-20 and now 1 Thessalonians 4:5):  “not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.”

 

            I remember hearing a question from a pastor that I knew who asked an undertaker if he had ever asked a corpse what kind of tie that he wanted to wear.  Of course the answer is that because he was dead that this would be a silly thing to do, and yet in the spiritual way when a person who is born dead like all who have been born into this world if you ask them spiritual questions you will not get the right answer because of the deadness of their heart.  John MacArthur writes “Porosis” (hardness) carries the idea of being rock-hard.  It was used by physicians to describe the calcification that forms around broken bones and becomes harder than the bone itself.  It was also used of the hard formations that sometimes occur in joints and cause them to become immobile.  It could therefore connote the idea of paralysis as well as of hardness.  Sin has a petrifying effect, and the heart of the person who continually chooses to sin becomes hardened and paralyzed to spiritual truth, utterly insensitive to the things of God.”  In our last SD I mentioned Pharaoh and how at first his heart was heard, but then because of the hardness of his heart God hardened his heart completely.

 

            I have to say that I am thankful for the celebration of what we call “Easter” which I would rather call “Resurrection Sunday,” however this one was a very difficult for me because for whatever reason I could not get to sleep until 4:30 A.M. and then back up at 7:00 A.M. to get ready to go to Sunday school this morning and teach on the first six chapters of Revelation chapter twenty.  For this reason I have elected, God willing, to finish this section in our next SD, and I will begin with a quote from a man named Leroy Auden of the University of Chicago in our next SD.

 

4/21/2019 8:47 PM