EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2025 9:03 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3
Introduction to “Christian Certainties”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 John 5:13-21
Message of the verses: “13 These things I have
written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may
know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence which we have
before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And
if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the
requests which we have asked from Him. 16 If anyone sees his brother committing
a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him
give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading
to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17 All
unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. 18 We
know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him
and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and the
whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the
Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might
know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, guard yourselves
from idols.”
I
want to continue to quote from John MacArthur’s introduction to the verses
above, remembering that once we get done with these verses that we will be done
with 1 John. Before I begin to quote
from his commentary I want to quote the last paragraph that I wrote last night
in order to help us best understand where we are going. Now as we begin this
last SD on the introduction of the verses above, I want to say that the first
paragraph will have many Scriptural references in it.
“Scripture
is filled with absolute certainties, including the reality that sin has
consequences (Num. 32:23); that the Bible is true (Ps. 19:7; 111:7; Luke 1:4; 2
Peter 1:19); that righteousness brings a reward (Prov. 11:18); that God alone
is God (Deut. 4:39; Isa. 43:10-12; 45:6), can do all things (Job 42:2), will
not act wickedly (Job 34:12), judges according to truth (Rev. 16:7; 19:2; cf.
Ps. 119:75), is faithful (Deut. 7:9), punishes sin (Rom. 2:2), created
everything (Isa. 48:13)—including humans (Ps. 100:3), sorrows (Isa. 53:4), is
the Messiah, the Holy One of God (John 6:69; cf. Matt. 14:33; Acts. 2:36),
knows all things (John 16:30; 21:17), was sent by the Father (John 17:8; cf. 2
Tim. 2:19), has entered into God’s presence on believers’ behalf (Heb.
1:19-20), and will return (Rev. 22:20); that God’s promise of salvation is
guaranteed (Rom. 4:16); that there will be a resurrection (Job. 19:25-27); that
God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him (Rom.
8:28); that sinners do not inherit the kingdom of God (Eph. 5:5) that the Day
of the Lord will come (1 Thess. 5:2); and that God will help and support His
people (Isa. 41:10; cf. 2 Tim. 1:12).
“John
wrote this epistle to provide his readers with certainty about all that God has
revealed concerning salvation. The
formal argument of the letter ended in 5:12, and verses 13-21 are its
postscript. John’s concluding remarks
are not a collection or random thoughts, however, but form a powerful climax to
all he has written. Throughout the
letter, John has recycled tests to identify who is a true Christian. Those tests serve a polemic purpose; the
expose the phony believers and the false teachers—the deceiving antichrists. But they also serve a pastoral purpose,
giving increasingly stronger confidence and assurance to the genuine believers.
“As
the epistle builds to a great, if familiar, crescendo, John focuses on five
things that genuine Christians can be certain of: eternal life, answered prayer, victory over
sin, that they belong to God, and Christ’s deity.”
Now
we have the outline that will take us through the finish verses in the great
letter that John wrote, sometime in AD 90’s.
3/29/2025 8:26 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment