Monday, May 19, 2025

PT-1 "Scripture Provides Instruction For Salvation" (2 Tim. 3:15)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2025 9:53 AM

 

My Worship Time                             Focus:  PT-1 “Scripture Provides Instruction For Salvation”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                   Reference:  2 Timothy 3:15

 

            Message of the verse:  “and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

 

            I begin looking at the 9th chapter of John MacArthur’s commentary on 2 Timothy.  He entitles this ninth chapter “The Work of the Word” and it covers 2 Timothy 3:15-17.  He writes the following short introduction to these verses:  “No other passage in the New Testament speaks so concisely of the nature and work of God’s Word in salvation and sanctification.  In this text, the spiritually transforming power of divine revelation is delineated.”

 

            Now with that short introduction begin looking what is a very long chapter in MacArthur’s commentary, some 20 pages of what is a very important subject for all to understand. 

 

            I want to begin to look at some Scripture verses that speak of the source of saving faith, beginning with Psalm 19:7: 

 

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”

 

“14 “The sower sows the word. 15 “These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16 "In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17  and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. 18  "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19  but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 “And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:14-29).

 

“24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.  39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;” (John 5:24; 39).

 

“18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures” (James 1:18).

 

            MacArthur writes “The truth of the Word, when mixed with faith in Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, leads to spiritual life.  In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul asks rhetorically, ‘How shall they [unbelievers] hear without a preacher? (Rom. 10:14), and later explains that ‘faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ’ (V. 17).  The Word presented by human witness is “God’s plan for reaching people with the gospel.”

 

            Jesus said at the end of the gospel written by Matthew the following:  “16 But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’” (Matt. 28:16-20).

 

            Things are surely different now, and what I mean by that is that I can set at my desk each and every day in order to write my Spiritual Diaries, and then the Holy Spirit can use them as I put them onto my two blogs, use them to reach people all around the world for the cause of Christ.  I delight in doing this for the cause of Christ and pray each and every day that the Lord would use these Spiritual Diaries to bring unbelievers to the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, to cause believers to grow in their faith, to bring revival to believers, including to myself, to send these around the world, and if it is God’s plan that the Holy Spirit would use one of these Spiritual Diaries to bring an effectual call to the very last person in the Church age, so that the rapture of the Church will take place, that all believers in the Church age would then go to meet the Lord in the air. 

 

            I will quote one more paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary to end this Spiritual Diary.  “The women who heard Paul preach the Word of God at a Jewish place of prayer outside Philippi illustrate the pattern.  Luke reports that ‘a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul’ (Acts 16:14).  God has chosen believers to be His spokesmen to bring His saving truth to others.”

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  I trust that the Lord will use these Spiritual Diaries to give out the message of salvation, and that the Holy Spirit will take them around the world for the cause of Christ that those that the Spirit reaches by them will bring glory to the Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will continue to use my Spiritual Diaries to bring unbelievers to Christ, and to cause believers to grow in the Lord as they read them.

 

5/19/2025 10:36 AM

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