EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/8/2024 10:30 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Intro
to ‘The Purifying Hope’
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 John 2:28-3:3
Message of the verses: “28 Now, little children,
abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink
away from Him in shame at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you
know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. 1 See how great a love the Father has
bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we
are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we
will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see
Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who
has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
Sometimes the introductions that are found in
MacArthur’s chapters are very short and sometime they are very long, this one
is very long and so it will take us a few days to comment on the introduction
to these verses.
In
my last SD I finished by quoting Romans 8:22-25, and now I want to make some
more comments that come after the quoting of these verses, and they will be
from a quotation from MacArthur’s commentary.
“To be sure, the present joys of
salvation cannot compare with the ultimate, surpassing joys that divine hope
guarantees for the future, when salvation is fully realized. For instance, the continuing battle against
sin that Christians experience here (Rom. 6:6, 12, 19; 7:24-25; 8:4-6, 12-13; 2
Cor. 7:1; Gal. 3:3; 5:24; Phil. 3:3) will terminate forever when they reach
heaven (Rom. 8:30; 13:11; 2 Tim. 2:10; cf. Ps. 73:24). In addition to being made sinless, believers
will also receive perfect, glorified bodies that God has prepared for them
(Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 15:43; Phil. 3:20-21; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18), bodies that will
complement their already redeemed souls.”
Now
that I am caught up I will continue on with this introduction.
One
of the things that we can realize in this life as born-again believers in Jesus
Christ is to experience the joy that comes with the forgiveness of sin. Here is a list of verses that goes along with
that truth: (Ps. 32:1-2; Matt. 9:2; Luke
5:20; Col. 2:13). We also know the power
of the indwelling Spirit, to see His fruit in one’s life (Gal. 5:22-23), next
to experience answered prayer, which is also a great joy (1 John 5:14-15), next
to engage in spiritual fellowship (Ps. 133:1; Heb. 10:25, worship (Ps. 34:3),
and service (cf. 2 Cor. 8:1-7), however all that satisfaction falls far short
of the ultimate joy the saints will enjoy when God forever fulfills the
promises that form their hope. Now
remember I stated that “hope” in the New Testament is a noun and not a verb.
MacArthur
writes “Since eternal glory—the goal of hope—is the reason for God’s saving
plan and purpose, Scripture sets forth a complete theology of hope that, first
of all, finds its beginning in the unchanged God, who cannot speak anything but
the truth. The psalmist wrote, ‘Why are
you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him,
the help of my countenance and my God’ (Ps. 43:5; cf. 78:7). God’s promises of care (1 Peter 5:6-7),
protection (Ps. 121:8; Jude 24), guidance (Ps. 23:3), and sustenance (Phil
4:19) mean believers can confidently trust Him regarding His promises for the
future.”
One
thing for sure is that we will be looking at hope for a while as we continue in
this introduction, and also when we begin to look at the different “Points” that
come from these verses.
12/8/2024 11:06 PM
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