EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/13/2025 10:50 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Part 9 “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.
“Do
you notice again that it was what we were saying this morning, that all of
these things that come to the overcomer relate to the next life. Right? It’s
about heaven. It’s about eternal life. It’s about the presence of God. It’s
about the presence of Christ. It’s about participating in the celebration
there. Oh, and by the way, that’s not all. Verse 17 also says you’ll get a new
name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. Can’t tell
you how many times I’ve been asked what that name is. How in the world am I
going to know a name that no one knows? Don’t ask me what that name means? I
don’t know what that name is. Why would I speculate? I’ll know when I see it.
It’s a name written on the stone on this crystal diamond which no one knows but
the one who receives it. It might be the name of Christ. It might be my own
name. But for now, I don’t know what it is.
“But
you know what this tells me? That it’s something very particular for me. Nobody
is going to know it but the one who receives it. And I don’t know how you think
about heaven, but it’s easy to think about heaven as just all of us sort of
herded into the place, in this non-descript mass of perfect beings with nobody
sticking out. That isn’t it at all. Here, Christ says there will be for each of
you on your diamond a personal name that shows that I know you. I tend to think
it’s whatever name He chooses to give us that we will literally bear forever.
We will not be a mass of indistinguishable perfect people. We will be
individuals with our own diamond-studded intimate identification, receiving
personal attention and personal intimate knowledge with the Christ Himself.
“The
fourth letter in chapter 2 verses 26 to 28 was to the church at Thyatira. And
go down to verse 26, “And he who overcomes and keeps My deeds until the end” – overcomers do that
– “to him I will give authority over the nations.” Wow. “And he shall rule them
with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also
have received authority from My Father.” This is interesting. We’re going to be
given authority over the nations. Christ is going to share His authority with
faithful overcomers. You say, “Well that’s not going to be heaven.” No, I think
that’s going to be in the millennial kingdom on earth. We’re literally are
going to rule with Christ in delegated authority as He rules with a rod of
iron. That means striking down evil wherever it appears in the millennial
kingdom, smashing iniquity whenever it occurs. We’re going to be a part of
that. It’s Matthew 25:21 and 23 where Jesus said, “I will make you ruler
over many things if you’re faithful over little.”
“But
there’s more than that here, because amazingly when it says, “I will give
authority over the nations” – or – “I will cause him to rule them” – the word
rule in verse 27 is poimanei, which means to shepherd. So it’s not going to be
some kind of abusive thing. It’s going to be stern, and it’s going to be
serious, and the threat of the rod of iron, the threat of judgment is going to
be hanging over the head. But we’re literally going to be His under-shepherds
in the millennial kingdom. When we are taken up in the rapture, we receive our
rewards. We come back at the end of the rapture. We come to earth. We reign
with Christ for that thousand years, and He delegates authority to us by which
we shepherd the nation, like shepherds shepherded sheep and they carried a rod.
Did they not? They used that rod on occasion to knock the sheep back into line
for its own protection. We will be delegated that responsibility of shepherding
under the authority of our great King over all the peoples in that kingdom.
“Then
in verse 28 He adds, “And I’ll give him the morning star.” What is that? What
is the morning star? Well look at Revelation 22:16. “I,
Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am
the root and the offspring of David, the bright” – what? – “morning star.” What
does this mean then, back in chapter 2 verse 28, “I’ll give him the morning
star?” The Father is saying I’ll give them Christ. I’ll give him Christ. Now I
don’t understand what all that can mean, but I understand that God already did
that once. He gave His Son for me once. Didn’t He? As my sacrifice for sin. How
much more glorious and wonderful added to that is the fact that He gives me His
Son in eternity, in a sense, for my own personal Lord and King? Everything
again relates to eternity. Everything relates to heaven with that one exception
that we’re going to rule in our heavenly form. So for us it’s part of our
heaven because when we come back to rule with Christ, we’ll be in heavenly
form, already having been raptured, already having been given our eternally
glorified bodies. That will be a heavenly experience for us on earth. We will
already have been in heaven during the time of the tribulation, coming back to
earth as heavenly beings. So that, even that is part of our heavenly
experience.
“And
then in Revelation 3 we find a fifth letter to the church at Sardis and
two features here down in verse 5. “He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in
white garments” – white garments. Go back to verse 4, “You have a few people in
Sardis who haven’t soiled their garments and they will walk with Me in white
for they’re worthy.” White then becomes the symbol of purity, the symbol of
worthiness, the symbol of righteousness. Oh sure, it encompasses festivity; it
encompasses victory; it encompasses glory, but it really is the reflection of
our real and true righteousness. We having been once covered by the righteousness
of Christ, having been worthy only because He is worthy while we are unworthy,
in our glorified condition become righteous and therefore become worthy and
therefore wear garments of white.”
3/13/2025 11:04 PM
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