SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/14/2023 10:49 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2
“The Cost Will Be Too High”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 24:10
Message of the verse: “And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another.”
We begin with a quotation from John MacArthur’s commentary: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master,” Jesus said. “It is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher, and the slave as his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!” (Matt. 10:24-25). The true disciple of Christ is willing to suffer as Christ suffered, and no amount of affliction will cause him to renounce his Lord and Savior. “Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven…And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (vv. 32-33, 38; cf. 2Tim. 2:12).”
Let us talk about Peter and what happened to him
while the Lord was being crucified.
First of all Peter said that he was willing to die for Christ, as did
all of the other disciples. Next Jesus
told him “Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;”(Luke
22:31). Peter denies our Lord three
times and the last time while doing this Jesus looked at him as he was denying
Him. Peter then runs away in great
shame. Lastly we see that in the last
chapter of John’s gospel that Jesus restores him as He asked Peter three times “do
you love me.” Now remember that Peter
denied Jesus three times and I believe this is why He asked Peter three times “do
you love me.” Why am I bringing this
up? Let me compare what happened to
Peter with what happened to the unbelieving disciple named Judas. Judas sold the Lord for 30 pieces of silver,
but because he was not a true disciple of Jesus he went out and hanged
himself. Peter was a true disciple of
Jesus and so Jesus restored him. People
who are true believers in Jesus Christ will in the end suffer for Christ if He
desires that for him to do. Those who
are not true disciples will not.
The writer of Hebrews sounded the
warning to those in the early church writes John MacArthur: “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in
any one of you, and evil unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God”
(Heb. 3:12). Paul declared to Timothy, “It
is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him we shall also live with
Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will
deny us” (2 Tim. 2:11-12).” Now I
remember a story from Corry Tin boom that seems to go along with the subject of
this SD. Corry and her sister and father
suffered during WWII as they hid Jewish people in their house. Her father and
sister died in a consecration camp, Corry walked out as the Lord led her to do
so. It was a miracle as she left the
camp she was questioned and she told the guard that the Most High had told her
to leave and the guard though she ment Hitler.
When she was living at home as a watch maker she became afraid and if
memory serves me it was about the war that was going on. He father asked her “when do I give you the
ticket to get on the train?” She
answered “when I get to the train.” We
as believers when we look at the situation that the world is in may fear being
persecuted or killed for the cause of Christ, but like Corry getting the ticket
when she gets on the train that is what we are to do, as our heavenly Father
will give us the strength to do what He wants us to do when and if that time
comes.
One more quote from MacArthur to end
this SD. “The text (from Hebrews) leads
us to believe that, just as during the present age professing Christians living
during the Tribulation wil not all be authentic. Many will be counterfeit, and when the cost
of discipleship becomes too demanding they will abandon Christ and His
church. They will be like those would-be
disciples who said to Jesus, “I will follow You wherever You go” and “Permit me
first to go and bury may father” and “I will follow You, Lord; bur first permit
me to say good-bye to those at home.” They
will put their hand to the plow of discipleship, but they will not forsake the
old life, demonstrating that they have never received the new. They are therefore not “fit for the kingdom
of God,” Jesus said, because their hearts have never been with Him (Luke
9:57-62).
“The defection false believers in
the end time will not be satisfied simply with leaving the church but will join
in its persecution. They will deliver up
one another and hate one another. God’s people will be betrayed by those who
once were a part of their fellowship but who become offended at Christ when the
cost rises too high. Both to save their
own skins as well as to vent the hatred for the things of God they have always
had in their hearts, they will turn informer and persecutor. At that time, Jesus said, “brother will
deliver brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up
against parents and have them put to death” (Mark 13:12 cf. Luke 21:16). Not only within the assembly at large but
within individual families, those who do not truly belong to Christ will turn
against those who do, even to the point of betraying their own children and
parents into martyrdom.”
This sounds like a very difficult
time to live in, but my thoughts are that as our world gets more wicked by the
day that after the rapture of the Church when the influence of the Holy Spirit
will be gone that the wickedness will go much faster during the Tribulation
period.
12/14/2023
11:48 AM
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