SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/20/2021 11:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Hatred by Society”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:22
Message of the verse: “22 "And you
will be hated by all on account of My name, but it is the one who has endured
to the end who will be saved.”
I
have to say that coming under persecution is not something that any of us would
want to go through, but as Jesus says in this verse, and I mean between the
lines, is that persecution is proof of a person’s salvation. Endurance does not produce or protect
salvation, which is totally the work of God’s grace, however endurance is
evidence of salvation, proof that a person is truly redeemed and a child of
God. Our God gives eternal life “to those
who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality”
writes Paul in Romans 2:7. Let us also
look at Hebrews 3:14, a verse that is becoming more and more familiar with me
as it is my joy, and at times frustration to teach through this book. “For we have become partakers of Christ, if
we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” As mentioned we do not earn our salvation
through endurance, but prove it.
MacArthur writes that “theologians call this the perseverance of the
saints. The following Scriptures also
emphasize perseverance: Matt. 24:13;
John 8:31; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; Colossians 1:21-23; Hebrews 2:1-3; 4:14;
6:11-12; 10:39; 12:14; 2 Peter 1:10.”
Persecution
will quickly burn away chaff in the church.
I remember listening to a message by John MacArthur when this Pandemic
began as he was talking about different churches being closed down because of
it. He stated something like we would
probably be better off if some of the churches never did come back. On the other hand as the state of California
shut down the church he is preaching in people began to just show up and things
got back to a normal existence with the exception of the state of California
trying to shut them down, but that was not in the will of God. Believers will come to church because that is
what we are suppose to do. Hebrews tells
us that. The unbelievers did not care if
their churches were shut down as they had an excuse not to go.
I
know that none of us look forward to having to go through persecution, but the
church has always grown in times of persecution.
MacArthur
concludes this section: “It is because
God’s Word assures us that absolutely nothing can separate us from Christ that
we can count on such unshakable endurance.
‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ Paul asks rhetorically. ‘Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ He then answers his own question. ‘But in all these things we overwhelmingly
conquer through Him who loved us. For I
am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:35, 37-39).”
These
are good things to dwell on, especially in the times that we are living in. 10/20/2021 11:58 AM
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