EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/10/2024 8:04 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “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.”
I have mentioned that this introduction will take me
a while to get through, and missing a day like I did yesterday does not
help. I am sorry for missing yesterday,
I hope that will not happen again.
As seen in the title in the focus section this section is
speaking about hope, and I have already gone over that hope when it comes from
the New Testament is a noun, a certain thing, not a wish.
MacArthur writes about this hope: “Hope founded in the immutable and eternal
Deity is sure and absolutely fixed.” (I’m
happy he agrees with me.) “In the
salutation of his letter to Titus, the apostle Paul refers to ‘those chosen of
God…in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages
ago’ (1:1-2). God, who is always truthful
(Num. 23:19; Deut. 32:4; Ps. 89:14; Isa. 65:16), recorded in His Book of Life
before the foundation of the world the names of all those who would believe and
receive the hope of eternal life (Rev. 13:8; 17:8; 20:12; cf. Matt. 25:34; Eph.
1:4; Phil. 4:3). So certain is their
hope that the author of Hebrews could write, ‘This hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,
where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest
forever according to the order of Melchizedek’ (Heb. 6:19-21). There is no certain or reliable anchor of
hope other than one that rests in Christ and His finished work (cf. Col. 1:23,
27: 2 Thess. 2:16; Titus 1:2).”
Now we want to move on to talk more about hope and second, hope is a gift of divine grace; it is not something anyone can earn. Now we want to look at the benediction that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians from 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 and there will be some words that we will have emphasis on: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.”
Next, or third, genuine hope is revealed in Scripture. Let us look at Romans 15:4 which says “Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” MacArthur writes “As the inspired (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21) and inerrant (Ps. 119:160; John 17:17; cf. Dan. 10:21a; James 1:118a) Word of God, the Bible is full of God-given promises—divine guarantees in which believers can confidently trust. The psalmist, despite trials and difficulties, learned to live in that expectation: ‘My soul languishes for Your salvation; I wait for Your word’ (Ps. 119:81; cf. v. 49).
I will do one more point, which is number four and then
stop at that point and Lord willing pick it up tomorrow night. Fourth point, hope is reasonable and
defensible. Now the believer’s hope to
reach holy perfection, receive a redeemed body, and eternally worship and
rejoice in Christ in heaven is not an unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky yearning. I know that this last thought can be hard for
some believers to understand, but it is true.
We don’t have to wait to after we die to know where we are going, we can
be certain of heaven before we leave this earth. I will give you one verse that speaks of this
truth, “These things I have written to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have
eternal life” (1 John 5:13) This verse
near the end of John’s first letter seems to be the reason that he wrote this
letter. Now I move on to write that it
is defensible hope because it comes from a trustworthy, truthful God who
revealed it in His Word. “Because of the
hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of
truth, the gospel” (Col. 1:5). For this
reason Peter urged his readers to “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,
always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an
account for the hope that is in you, yet wit gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter
3:15).
12/10/2024 8:35
PM
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