Sunday, November 17, 2024

PT-3 "Because of where the World is Going" (1 John 2:17)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/17/2024 9:54 PM

 

My Worship Time                                        Focus: PT-3“Because of where the World is Going”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  1 John 2:17

 

            Message of the verse:  “The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

 

            In yesterday’s SD from this verse I mostly looked at the different verses that John MacArthur had inserted onto a paragraph in his commentary on this verse and I ended by looking at 2 Timothy 3:13 which says “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”  Now after that MacArthur writes “On the other hand, the one who does the will of God, who savingly trusts and obeys Christ, has nothing to fear concerning the world’s destruction (1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9).  It is God’s will that people believe the gospel, repent of their sin, and embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Mar, 1:15; John 6:29; 1 Tim. 2:4-6).  John earlier had heard these words of Jesus:  ‘For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life’ (John 6:40a).  Each person who has obeyed that teaching is a Christian and lives forever (Luke 6:46-48; John 8:51; 10:27; 14:21; 15:10; James 1:22-25; 1 John 2:5; 3:24; cf. Pss. 25:10; 111:10).”

 

            Let us now look at a series of verses written by the Apostle Paul as he is a sterling example of one who learned what it means to love the things of God rather than the things of the world.  The verses that show this comes from Philippians 3:3-11.

 

“For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, 4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11  in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

 

            Now like Paul, believers must persevere in sanctification and righteousness by “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead…toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:13b-14).  Now by doing this believers will demonstrate that they love what God loves and then will hate what God hates.  So then they will clearly no longer be devoted to the unbelieving world system and will shun its continuous appeal to sin, which comes through the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life.

 

            Lord will I will begin look at the introduction to 1 John 2:18-27 in tomorrow’s SD.  MacArthur entitles his 9th chapter on his commentary on 1 John “Antichrists and Christians.”

 

11/17/2024 10:15 PM

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