EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/12/2025 10:00 PM
My Worship Time Focus:”The
Profession of the Divine Law”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 4:6
Message of the verse: “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
MacArthur writes at the beginning of his comments on
these verses “In contrast to the demonic purveyors of falsehood (Acts 13:10;
Gal. 1:7; cf. John 8:44), teachers who are from God proclaim His revealed Word
as the source of truth (cf. 2 Cor. 6:7; 1 Tim. 2:7; Titus 1:3). The pronoun we primarily refers to John and
the other writers of Scripture. Like
them, all true teachers accurately proclaim the Word of God, and the person who
knows God listens to them (cf. John 8:47; 10:4-5, 16, 26-27; 14:26;
18:37). By contrast, anyone who is not
from God does not listen to their teachings.”
I have to say that there have been times when I heard
preaching from a preacher that I had not listened to many times and he said
something in his sermon that caused “a light” to go on in my brain. This happened while visiting a church in
Florida where we were spending the month of April a number of years ago, as
that preacher was talking about the church being in the Old Testament. I challenged him on that but he did not budge
on his teachings and so we looked for another church to attend while
there.
MacArthur goes on “The completed, written revelation of
the Old and New Testaments is therefore the sole authority by which Christians
must test all spiritual ideologies. As
Paul told Timothy, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for
every good work’ (2 Tim. 3:16-17). It is
‘more sure’ than human experiences or senses (2 Peter 1:19). It endures for ever (1 Peter 1:25). It is trustworthy in every jot and tittle
(Matt 5:18). It is unchanging and
eternal (Isa. 40:8); Jesus Himself said, ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but
My words will by no means pass away’ (Matt. 24:35). It is the standard of truth (John
17:17). And it is by that standard, with
the help of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13), that believers know
the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
I find that as one reads the gospel of John and his three
letters that there is a lot of things in common as seen by all of the
references that MacArthur gives that come from John’s gospel and the three
letters he wrote. I also find that this
book of 1 John is more difficult to understand than I remember when I studied it
before, but perhaps as I read MacArthur’s commentaries He puts more meat on the
bone.
“In a world rife with demonic false teaching, believers
must constantly test the spirits to discern what is from God and what is
not. Using the tests that John has
outlined here, they can discern true spiritual gems from doctrinal ‘fool’s
gold.’ Like the noble Bereans, today’s
saints are called to compare every spiritual message the encounter to the
revealed standard of Scripture (Acts. 17:11).
Only then can they obey Jude’s admonition to ‘contend earnestly for the
faith which was once for all handed down to the saints’ (Jude 3). By faithfully guarding the truth in the
present, believers will preserve it in purity both for themselves and for
future generations.”
2/12/2025 10:25 PM
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