Tuesday, February 11, 2025

"The Possession of the Divine Life" (1 John 4:4-5)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/11/2025 7:20 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  “The Possession of The Divine Life”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                        Reference:  1 John 4:4-5

 

            Message of the verses:  4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.”

 

            The following is a list of verses that shows that God through His Son became a partaker of human nature.  “7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross’” (Phil. 2:7-8).  “14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,” (Heb. 2:14).  “17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17).”  “15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).  Now through regeneration, on the other had human beings become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18).  Now John’s statement, 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, is primarily an affirmation of the believer’s security against the false teachers (cf. 2:20, 24, 27).  “20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.”  “24 As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.”  “27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”  All true Christians possess an incorruptible seed of eternal life as Peter speaks of in 1 Peter 1:23-25 “23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, 25 BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you.” Now this means that no satanic deception can take them out of God’s saving hand (John 10:28-29).  “28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”  Now those who are truly born again have been given not only a supernatural insight into the truth, but a love for it as well, and a discernment that protects them from apostasy.  Paul writes:

 

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13  which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:12-16).

 

            John MacArthur writes the following to finish up this section.  “Believers may be unsure about secondary, peripheral matters, but not about the foundational truths of the gospels, such as the person and the work of Christ (cf. John 3:14-16; Rom. 1:16-17; 3:24-26; 5:1; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:8-9; 2 Tim. 1:9).  They will not be fooled when false teachers invariably devalue the work of Christ by championing some form of salvation by works (cf. Gal. 4:9-11; Col. 2:20-23).

 

            “On the other hand, false teachers and their followers cling to worldly ideas (see. 2:15-17 and 1 Cor. 2:14) because they are from the world; they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.  Through what they say and how they live, false teachers demonstrate that they are anything but genuine servants of Christ.  True believers, however resist worldly ideas because they have overcome the world (cf. John   16:33).

 

            We have one more short section to look at and then we will be done with this section.

 

2/11/2025 8:03 PM

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