EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/10/2025 9:40 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Part 6 “How to Recognize an Overcomer”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 5:1-5
Message of the verses: “1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is
born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe
His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments;
and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God
overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the
world — our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he
who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
I
continue quoting from John MacArthur’s sermon in this Spiritual Diary.
“So
you say you’re an overcomer. You say you’re a Christian. The verification of
that in your own heart, as well as to those around you, is your sustained faith
in the truth. But there’s got to be more than that, more than saying you
believe – the devils
believe and tremble – sustained love for God and others and a sustained
love that manifests itself in a sustained obedience and an obedience that is
not burdensome. So you have not only action of obedience, but you have an
attitude of obedience. Or perhaps a better way to say it would be the desire of
obedience. Deuteronomy 13:4 says, “You shall follow
the Lord your God and fear Him and you shall obey His commandments, listen to
His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.” Now if you’re a true Christian, if
you’re an overcomer, that’s what you do. Ecclesiastes 12:13, “The
conclusion, when all has been heard, is: Fear God and obey His commandments.” First Samuel 15:22, “To
obey is better than sacrifice.”
“And
what kind of obedience are we talking about here? What we’re talking about, as
we’ve already noted, an obedience that is not burdensome. That is to say it’s
not a legal kind of obedience that’s pressed upon us and we cave in and grit
our teeth and do it against our will. Listen to Romans 6:17, “Thanks
be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the
heart.” What a great statement. You became obedient from the heart. We’re
talking about a heart obedience. It’s because that’s what’s in you. That’s what
you want to do. First Peter 5:2, “Shepherd the flock of God
among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily.” That’s the
kind of obedience the Lord wants from His shepherds and everybody else. Do it
because you want to do it, not because you’re forced to do it.
“In
fact, this obedience is not only motivated from the heart apart from
compulsion, done willingly. But it should be done cheerfully. For example,
remember 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Let each one do just as he
has purposed in his heart, no grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a
cheerful giver.” God loves somebody who obeys His command to give and does it
cheerfully. And that word, of course, means with hilarity, happily, joyfully.
Disobedience to God is wrong. Disobedience to God is a betrayal of somebody who
is not a true Christian. But so is external, unwilling, partial, inconsistent,
and grudging obedience. Those who know God, those who are overcomers have a
loving obedience and it is not burdensome.
“You
hear this repeatedly as the testimony of the great psalmist, David, in that
magnificent treatise on the Word of God, Psalm 119. And I will only read you a
couple of sample verses. Listen to 119:14, “I have rejoiced in the way of Thy
testimonies as much as in all riches.” What a statement! I am as happy with
Your commandments as I am with all the riches. Verse 16, “I shall delight in
Thy statutes.” Verse 24, “Thy testimonies are my delight.” Verse 97, “O how I
love Thy Law.” I love Thy Law. Verse 103, “How sweet are Thy words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Back to verse 54, this is amazing, “Thy
statutes are my songs.”
“Now
our society doesn’t love the Word of God. Just one representation of the Word
of God, the Ten Commandments, sitting in stone in a public place, and this
society from the ACLU all the way up to the Federal Courts wants to get rid of
it. They hate God’s Law. It is a burden they refuse to bear publicly. For us,
Your Law is our song. That fifty-fourth verse, isn’t that an interesting verse?
We could come together in church and the Law of God becomes our song. Compare
that with the song of the world. Most of the world’s songs, most of the popular
songs in the world are about violations of God’s Law. Warren Wiersbe many years
ago said this, “Imagine turning God’s laws into songs. Suppose a local symphony
presented an evening of the traffic codes set to music. Most of us do not
consider laws a source of joyful song. But this is exactly the way the psalmist
looked at God’s Law. Because he loved the Lord, he loved His Law.”
“You have laws in your home. You
don’t hear your kids sitting in their room writing tunes on their guitar, “O
how I love to obey my mom and clean my room.” That is against the nature.
That’s against your nature. You don’t hear people write songs about, “O how I
love the IRS, yeah, yeah, yeah.” What is it about God’s Law that makes us sing?
It is the delight that we have in obeying it. Isn’t it? Cause we love Him. His
commandments are not burdensome. They are joyful. Loving is a duty. It is an
act of the will, but it is not oppressive. That’s what burdensome means. It is
not crushing. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Why is it so delightful
to do it? Because His Law is a reflection of Him, because to obey His Law
pleases Him and we love Him and seek to please Him. Because He never gives us
laws that obeyed are not for our benefit, and because we function in a
relationship with God that is not a relationship of fear but a relationship of
love. Now so much for the definition and the description of overcomers here.”
3/10/2025 9:58
PM
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