SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/6/2024 7:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-5 “Alertness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 24:37-42
Message of the verses: “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.”
I have to say that this section of these verses has
caused me much trouble which I wrote about in earlier Spiritual Diaries, and so
with new insight on this last verse in this section I will move on to see the
things that John MacArthur has to write about what is in verse 42 “Therefore be
on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.” First I want to look at what MacArthur has to
say about the phrase “be on alert.” This
“translates a present imperative, indicating a call for continual expectancy.” It seems that he is saying that Jesus is
saying that believers are always to be on alert because they do not know the
day which the Lord is coming. I have
stated that this has given me much trouble, but I think the reason that it has
given me a lot of trouble is because when I first became a believer, listening
to what Hal Lindsey has to say about Matthew chapter 24. It was his belief that this section was
speaking of the time around the rapture, but I have learned that chapters 24-25
speak of the tribulation period, the last seven years of history on planet
earth which will end with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ back to planet
earth to set up His promised Kingdom which will last for 1000 years. With this said, that is this speaking of the
tribulation period, this is what caused me to understand how the people would
not really understand when the Lord would be coming back to planet earth. The time of the tribulation period will be
the worst time for people to be living since God created man on planet earth,
and so believers will have a general sense of when the end will be coming, but
not the day or the hour of when Christ will return.
Now
as we have been looking at the time of Noah in past SD’s and talked about when
the ark was finished and the animals were in it that the Lord shut the door
which prevented people from getting into the ark and be saved from the soon
up-coming flood. Once the Lord returns
as described in the 19 chapter of Revelation and plants His foot on the Mount
of Olives, which is where He left to go back into heaven some 2000 years
before, that will end the time of what could be called grace for those
unbelievers, in other words their time for salvation has run out and like those
outside of the ark judgment is fast approaching for them. This can be seen in the prior verses that we
looked at in our last SD. MacArthur
writes “Just as believers today do not know at what time the Lord is coming to
take them to Himself in the rapture, the generation alive during the
Tribulation will not know the exact time of His appearing to judge the ungodly
and to establish His kingdom.”
I
will now continue looking at the quotation from MacArthur’s commentary which
will then end this section on “Alertness.”
“Malachi
envisioned believers apparently discussing among themselves the possibility
that they would inadvertently and mistakenly be separated out with the wicked
and be condemned. But ‘the Lord gave
attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for
those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name, ‘And they will be Mine,’ says
the Lord of hosts, ‘on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will
spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’ So you will again distinguish between the
righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and the one who does not
serve Him’ (Mal. 3:16-18).”
MacArthur
then goes on to quote from 2 Peter 2:4-9, which I will now quote.
‘4
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and
committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare
the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven
others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them
an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if
He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8
(for by what he saw and heard that
righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul
tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord
knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous
under punishment for the day of judgment.’
“Christians at that time must be alert, even though
they will be secure and have
no cause for dread.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have highlighted “have no cause for dread”
in this last sentence that MacArthur wrote to finish up this section on
alertness, and the reason is that during the time of the tribulation there will
be much death and destruction going on and it will take much trusting in the
Lord and His plan for them to not dread.
I have to say something along those lines and it all began a couple of
months ago when I got disgusted with some sinful things that were going on in
my life off and on for many, many years.
This started before I became a believer, actually when I was maybe 10
years old. At any rate I would, through
the power of the Spirit not have the problem for some long periods of time, but
then it would return to tempt me. So a
couple of months ago I asked the Lord to hurt me in order to be over this
problem, and a few days later I had an issue with my blood pressure which I
finally have got this under control with the help of a couple of doctors. One of the things that I am dealing with now
is also a problem that I have had for a very long time and that is “dread” or anxiety. One day last week or so I could not get
Philippians 4:6 out of my mind which says “Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known to God.” I began to listen to
sermons while on my walk each day from John MacArthur’s sermons on Philippians
chapter four which the Lord led me to and they are beginning to help me with
this “dreadful” problem.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to get me through this difficult
time that I am going through, through His Word and through the power of His
Holy Spirit.
2/6/2024 8:04 AM
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