PT-2 "False Teaching Characterizes Those Who Do Not belong to the Lord" (2 Tim. 2:19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/24/2025 9:49 AM

 

My Worship Time      Focus: PT-2“False Teaching Characterizes Those Who Do Not Belong to the Lord”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference: 2 Timothy 2:19

 

            Message of the verse:  “19 Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness."

 

            I wish to pick up in quoting from John MacArthur’s commentary from where I left of yesterday:  “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me,’ Jesus assures us; ‘and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand’’ (John 10:27-28).  Like Satan, false teachers can cause great confusion and apprehension among God’s people, but they cannot corrupt or destroy His people, because ‘God has chosen [us] from the beginning for salvation’ (2 Thess. 2:13a).”

 

            These are not the only verses in the New Testament with such guarantees, and so we will look at some of them at this time:

 

John 6:37-40 “37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38  "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39  "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

 

Now God chose us for salvation in Christ “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), and those “whom He [God] foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30).

 

            MacArthur goes on to write “The second way in which God has placed His seal on the church is through personal sanctification, personal holiness.  Paul therefore says, ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness.’  The quotation may be adapted from the same passage in the book of Numbers, in which Moses later warned the godly: ‘Depart now from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing that belongs to the, lest you be swept away in all their sin’ (Num. 16:26).  Those who did not separate themselves from the wicked rebels were destroyed with them when ‘the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up’ (v. 32).

 

            “The second aspect of sanctification is both an exhortation and an affirmation.  The exhortation is:  ‘Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body’ (1 Cor. 6:19-20).  Peter likewise admonishes, ‘Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior’ (1 Peter 1:15).

 

            “But our sanctification is also divinely affirmed.  In the verses in 2 Thessalonians cited above, in which Paul assures believers that God has chosen them for salvation, he adds, ‘through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth’ (2:13b).  Despite our many failures and our frequent unfaithfulness, God will graciously complete our sanctification.  ‘For I am confident of this very thing,’ Paul testified, ‘that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 1:6).” 

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  Philippians 1:6 truly spoke to my heart this morning as I am having some difficulties in my life and this verse has given me great encouragement.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to continue to do the good work in my life, and will continue to perfect it until the day when the Lord Jesus Christ comes from heaven to take me to be with Him forever.

 

I continue to pray much for the procedure that my wife will have done tomorrow, trusting the Lord to work it out for her good and His glory.

 

2/24/2025 10:21 AM