SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/1/2024 8:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “Intro to Matthew 24:36-51”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
24:36-51
Message of the verses: “36 "But of that
day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the
Father alone. 37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days
of Noah. 38 "For as in those days before the flood they were
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah
entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took
them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 “Then there will be
two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 “Two
women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one
will be left. 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for
you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 “But be sure of
this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the
thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed
his house to be broken into. 44 “For this reason you also must be ready; for
the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. 45
“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of
his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 “Blessed is that
slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47 “Truly I say to you that
he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 “But if that evil slave
says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ 49 and begins to
beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that
slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an
hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a
place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
I promised that I would quote the
last section from John MacArthur’s commentary on his introduction to these
verses. Another thing that I want to
quote is something that I read while posting another SD on my other blog this
morning which comes from the book of Daniel and in that SD there was a quote
from the late Warren Wiersbe that spoke to my heart. This quote has to do with end-time prophecy
and I think that all who read this will learn from it, which is one of the
goals of me writing these Spiritual Diaries.
The main goal is to bring glory to my Lord.
“Jesus demonstrated His divine
omniscience on many occasions. ‘He did
not need anyone to bear witness concerning man for He Himself knew what was in
man’ (John 2:25). When for example,
Nicodemus came to Him at night, Jesus already knew what he was thinking and
answered his question before it was asked (John 3:13).
“But there were certain self-imposed
restrictions in His human knowledge He told the disciples, ‘All things that I
have heard from My Father I have made known to you’ (John 15:15). Jesus obediently restricted His knowledge to
those things that the Father wanted Him to know during His earthly days of
humanity. The Father revealed certain
things to the Son as He reveals them to all men—through the Scriptures, through
the Father’s working in and through His life, and through the physical manifestations
of God’s power and glory (see Rom. 1:19-20).
Jesus learned much of His earthly knowledge just as every human being
learns, and it is for that reason that He was able to keep ‘increasing in
wisdom’ (Luke 2:52). In addition to
those ways, some truths were revealed to the Son directly by the Father. But in every case Jesus’ human knowledge was
limited to what His heavenly Father provided.
“Therefore, even near the end of His
earthly ministry, the Son did not know the precise day and hour He would return
to earth at His second coming. During
Christ’s incarnation, the Father alone exercised unrestricted divine
omniscience.
“It seems probable that Christ
regained full divine knowledge after the resurrection, as implied in His
introduction to the Great Commission: ‘All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth’ (Matt. 28:18). Just
prior to His ascension, He told the disciples, ‘it is not for you to know times
or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority’ (Acts 1:7). He repeats the truth that the disciples would
not be told the time of His appearing, but He did not exclude His own knowledge,
as He did in the Olivet discourse.
“The three attitudes Jesus mentions
in Matthew 24:37-51 are specifically addressed to the generation (Matt. 24:34)
that will be alive during the Tribulation and that will witness the signs
described in verses 4-29. Those
attitudes are: alertness (vv. 37-42),
readiness (vv. 43-44), and faithfulness (vv. 45-51).” With
that we have a good idea of where we will be heading in the next few days or
weeks as we conclude this study of Matthew chapter 24 which actually began on
November 19, 2023. I have mentioned in
earlier SD’s that I do not like airplane views in studying of the Scripture,
and that is why I appreciate the teaching of John MacArthur who actually gave
225 messages on the book of Matthew.
Now I want to quote from my
Spiritual Diary that I just posted on my other blog which most of it came from
Warren Wiersbe, with a little from me at the end.
We will conclude this portion of
this Spiritual Diary with a quote from Warren Wiersbe: “Daniel is a good example for students of
prophecy to follow. He asked the Lord
for the explanation (Dan. 8:15) and allowed the Lord to instruct him. But his investigation into God’s prophetic
program wasn’t a matter of satisfying curiosity or trying to appear very
knowledgeable before others. He was concerned about his
people and the work they had to do on earth. He so identified with what he learned that it made him ill! Too many ‘prophetic students’ don’t wait
before God for instruction and insight, nor do they feel burdened when they
learn God’s truth about the future.
Instead, they try to display their ‘knowledge’ and impress people with
what they think they know. The whole
exercise is purely academic; it’s all in the head and never changes the
hearts.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: This
quote from Dr. Wiersbe has kind of stepped on my toes a bit for I must confess
that there have been times when this has been true in my life. In the book of Revelations, Revelations 10:9
it says “So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he
said to me, "Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in
your mouth it will be sweet as honey.’” John the apostle was told to eat a
little book, and the book would be sweet in his mouth, but sour in his stomach,
but why was this true? Well the little
book contained prophecy which was good to learn about but when he began to
think about it and all of the people the prophecy would affect it began to make
him sick, and this is what happened to Daniel.
Knowing prophecy
and its meaning should put a burden in your heart for those it will affect, and
not make one puffed up for knowing it.
2/1/2024
9:10 AM
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