SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/1/2025 9:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Purpose of the Work”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 2:10
Message of the
verse: “For
this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that
they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it
eternal glory.”
I want to continue where I left off in yesterday’s
SD as I was talking about salvation and the sovereignty of God. I will quote from MacArthur’s commentary as
he will make great sense in what he writes about this. “Scripture also is clear that, despite the
Lord’s sovereign calling of men to Himself, He calls those who belong to Him to
extend His call to those who have not heard and heeded it. ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations,’ Jesus said, ‘baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit’ (Matt. 28:19). We are
called to be Christ’s ‘witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth’ (Acts. 1:8).”
He goes on with this very important subject: “In his letter to the church at Rome,
immediately after declaring that ‘whoever will call upon the name of the Lord
will be saved,’ Paul goes on to ask rhetorically, ‘How then shall they call
upon Him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher’
(Rom 10:14).” I have heard on different
occasions a saying that makes perfect sense to me which I will add here because
of there at times is much controversy with this subject that we are going
over. First I will repeat our verse for
today: “For this reason I endure all things for the
sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which
is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.” Now think about
this: “When the plain sense of Scripture
makes sense, seek no other sense.”
MacArthur goes on: The fact that our finite minds cannot fully
understand or reconcile such truths in no way affects their validity”
(soundness). “God sovereignly calls
every believer in His grace; He sovereignly demands their faith to make His
gracious calling effective; and He sovereignly calls those who are saved to be
His witnesses to those who are not.”
He now gives some examples of past
saints to help us see what Paul is talking about in our verse today. “John Wesley traveled by foot or horseback some
250,000 miles preaching more than 40,000 sermons, and he wrote, translated, or
edited more than 200 books. He lived
simply and gave away most of whatever income he received. Yet he was continually ridiculed and pelted
with stones by ungodly mobs and was ostracized by fellow clergymen in the
Church of England. When maligned, he
answered, ‘I leave my reputation where I left my soul, in the hands of God.’ He never lost his joy of service or his love
for the Lord and for men, both saved and unsaved. One biographer commented, ‘To Wesley was granted
the task which even an archangel might have envied.’”
Now I move on to what MacArthur
writes about “George Whitefield, a close and fellow worker with John and
Charles Wesley during his early ministry, spent thirty-four years preaching the
gospel in the British Isles and in America.
He made thirteen transatlantic voyages, which were still perilous in
those days, and preached at least 18,000 sermons on the two continents. The noted poet and hymnwriter William Cowper—who
wrote ‘Oh! For a Closer Walk with God’ and ‘There is a Fountain Filled with
Blood’ –penned the following tribute to Whitefield:
He loved the world that hated him.
The tear that dropped upon his Bible was
sincere.
Assailed by scandal and the tongue of
strife,
His only answer was a blameless life.
“That resolute man of God heeded
Peter’s counsel to ‘keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you
are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to
shame. For it is better, if God should
will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what
is wrong’ (1 Peter 3:16-17).
“And with it, Paul continues—that is, with ‘the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus’—comes eternal glory. In his letter to the church of Rome, Paul
presents that truth more fully: ‘The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God
and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may
also be glorified with Him (8:16-17).”
Spiritual meaning for my life:
When I come to the place where at times Scripture is not really making
sense to me, but I know that it is true I think about this verse: “"The secret things belong to the LORD
our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we
may observe all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29).
My Steps of Faith for Today:
I trust the Lord to be with my dear wife who is having some medical
issues going on at this time.
2/1/2025 9:43
AM
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