EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/22/2025 6:39 PM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2 “Perfect Love And The Christian’s
Claim of Faith”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 John 4:12-16
Message of the verses: “12 No one has seen
God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is
perfected in us. 13 By
this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His
Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to
be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of
God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have
believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in
love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
Now before I continue on looking at these five
verses I want you to notice something as you read over these verses and that is
that the entire Trinity is seen in these verses. Notice that God is mentioned in verse twelve
two times. Now in verse thirteen I
believe that the Him is speaking of the Son, and then at the end of the verse
we see the Holy Spirit. Verse fourteen
we see again the Father and the Son.
Verse fifteen we see Jesus is the Son of God, then again God two more
times. Verse sixteen we see God four
more times.
Now
I want to continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary, picking up where
I left of yesterday. “Jesus compared the
Holy Spirit to the wind (John 3:8) and said people can see on the Spirit’s
effects; there are no visible, physical signs that guarantee that someone is
filled with the Spirit. But the reality
of their faith enables believers to know they have the indwelling Spirit, as
John reminds his readers: We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the
Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the
Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. Belief in the gospel (the doctrinal test)
provides evidence of the Spirit’s ministry and presence (cf. 1 Cor. 12:3).” Therefore I make known to you that no one
speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one
can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. Because sinners are spiritually dead (Eph.
2:1, 5), they cannot come to God on their own (cf. Matt. 12:35; John
1:12-13). Saving faith is possible only
because God grants it (Eph. 2:8). In
John’s case, his own experience of seeing and being with Jesus verified his
faith (1 John 1:1-3). He bore witness that
the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, but he would
not have believed had the Father not chosen him (John 644; 15:16, 19) and the
Spirit opened his eyes to the truth.”
Now
thinking back on my life a little over 51 years ago I would not have understood
all of this that was just written in the paragraph above. It took a series of events for me to
understand that I was born a sinner, born spiritually dead, and on my own could
do nothing about it. I have given this
illustration in earlier Spiritual Diaries, but think of a dead person, best
illustrated by a man and the undertaker is about to dress him for the funeral
service. He looks at the man trying to
decide which color of tie to put on him, and then asked the dead man lying
there, perhaps without thinking “what color of tie do you want on?” Well you know that he will not get an answer
because the man is dead. Spiritually
speaking we are born dead, dead in are trespasses and sins, and there is
nothing we can do on our own about that as far as becoming a believer. The Holy Spirit is the One who gives an
effectual call to a person and then they become spiritually alive as they are
given a new nature, but are now alive in Christ. At that point as I look back 51+ years ago
that is what happened to me, but I did not understand it, just knew I was
different, for at that time the Lord cleaned up my mouth and I never swore
again, as He took it away from me. I knew
that but little else and it was the patience of the Lord through the Holy Spirit
who now lived in me and the Word of God along with help from different Pastors
and teachers that has caused me to grow in the Lord. Yes it is a struggle from time to time, but
God is faithful throughout all of it, and for that I am very thankful.
“Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God, knows that abides in him, and he
in God. The true believer has discerned
the presence of the Holy Spirit, and has come to know and [has] believed the
love which God has for us. Such persons
understand the eternal love of God, who is love, for all believers. They can rest confidently in the assurance
that the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. They will further demonstrate the genuineness
of their salvation by loving the Father and the Son, loving righteousness and
fellow believers rather than the world’s system, and even loving their
enemies. In summary, they will
increasingly love the way God loves (cf. Matt. 5:48; 22:37-40; 2 Cor. 3:18).”
I
have to say that a few weeks ago I sent a letter to John MacArthur who was then
in the hospital having a number of operations on his heart. I referenced that I was using his
commentaries to help me to write my Spiritual Diaries and that by the grace of
God were going around the world each and every day. Years earlier I had sent a similar letter to
Dr. Warren Wiersbe explain to him that at the time I was using his commentaries
in order to help me write my Spiritual Diaries.
These two great men of God never said a word about me using some of their
material, and I believe the reason was because they were thankful that the Word
of God was being spread around the world, and for that I am very thankful.
2/22/2025 7:13 PM
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