SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2025 9:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Difficult Times”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 3:1
Message of the verses: “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.”
I
have mentioned that when Paul is writing about “last days” that he is writing
about the church age, and all one has to do is look at the history of the
church to see many difficult days have happened. I believe by looking at the second and third
chapters of the book of Revelation where we find that the Lord is Himself
writing to seven churches that these churches are in the order of things that
go on during the church age, and if you look at the last church He writes to we
see the following: “14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The
Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says
this: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you
were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I
will spit (vomit) you out of My mouth. 17 ‘Because you say, "I am rich,
and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know
that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by
fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe
yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and
eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 ‘Those whom I love, I
reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ‘Behold, I stand at
the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in
to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 ‘He who overcomes, I will
grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down
with My Father on His throne. 22 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches.’’” There
are two churches that the Lord has nothing good to say about them, and this is
the second one. Notice ‘Behold, I stand
at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come
in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. We see from this verse that Jesus is outside
of this church. If you have ever seen
the picture of Jesus knocking at the door of this church you will notice that
there is no door handle in the picture which signifies that those on the inside
of the church have to let the Lord in. I
truly believe that we are and have been in the age of the Laodicean church for
most of if not all of my life time, and Friday of this week I will turn 78
years old.
In
this verse Paul is telling Timothy about difficult times and a couple of weeks
ago we got the news that my wife of going on 52 years has cancer, and yes I can
understand about difficult times, but I do know that the Lord is in charge and
it is our desire that the Lord will receive glory from this difficult time in
our lives. I covet your prayers for my
wife Sandy and for myself as we go through this difficult time in our lives.
I
will not quote a couple of paragraphs from John MacArthur’s commentary on this
verse and I have to say that he has written a lot of information on this short
verse.
“Near
the end of His ministry, Jesus expanded the warning cited above from Matthew
7. ‘Many false prophets will arise, and
will mislead many,’ he said. ‘And because
lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold….For false Christs
and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to
mislead, if possible, even the elect’ (Matt. 24:11-12, 24).” Now because chapter 24 of Matthew is about
the tribulation period seen in Revelation chapters 6-19 I have to believe that
these false prophets will come about in that time period, but in our world
today there are many false prophets and false churches, and false religions
found, so application to these verses are seen in our time period too.
“Similar
warnings are given in the epistles.
Peter warned that ‘false prophets also arose among the people, just as
there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce
destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift
destruction upon themselves. And many
will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be
maligned’ (2 Peter 2:1-2). John warned, ‘Children,
it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now
many antichrists have arisen; for this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not
really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but
they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us’ (1
John 2:18-19). Jude warned that ‘certain
persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for
this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness
and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (Jude 4).’”
MacArthur
then goes on to say something that I wrote about earlier: “Those warnings were about the contemporary
as well as the future condition of the church.
The dangers that plagued the New Testament church would continue and
become worst throughout the church age, as ‘evil men and impostors will proceed
from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived’ (2 Tim. 3:13)
“The twin dangers are the closely related evils of
ungodly teaching and ungodly living, of false doctrine and sinful
lifestyle. As Jesus pointed out in the
quotation above from Matthew 24:11-12, as false prophets will arise,…lawlessness
is increased,’ and as Jeremiah predicted, ‘the committing of adultery and walking
in falsehood’ are companion evils (Jer. 23:14).
Those enemies of God and of God’s people originated at the Fall and will
continue to thrive until the Lord returns and takes back the world for
Himself. In the meanwhile, the alliance
of false teaching and ungodly living will continue to afflict the church.
“The
conjunction but indicates a change of direction, from the admonition to the
godly ‘vessel for honor,’ one characterized by kindness, patience, and
gentleness (2:21-25), to the admonition to be responsible and fearless guardian
of God’s people, protecting them from false doctrine and immoral living.”
Spiritual
Meaning for My Life Today: There are many advantages of living in the 21st
century, but because of the great technological advantages much evil can come
about too. The best cure for this is to
be insulated with the Word of God in my heart to counter the things that are
going on around me.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: “Thy Word I have hid in my heart that I might
not sin against Thee.
3/31/2025 9:45 AM
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