SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/4/2025 2:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Opposers of the Truth”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
3:8-9
Message of the verses: “8 Just as Jannes
and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of
depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make
further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and
Jambres’s folly was also.”
I realize that I did not get too far into looking at
these verses, but I put some things on that SD that speak of Jannes and
Jambres, things that I don’t think that I knew before, and although I am not
sure if they tell exactly who these men were, it was good to get someone else’s
opinion, as I always thought they were the two men who did Satanic miracles in
Egypt, but perhaps I watched the movie “The Ten Commandments” too many
times.
MacArthur
writes that “Those false teachers were men of depraved mind. The Greek word
behind depraved mind is a perfect passive participle, indicating an
established, continuous, and unalterable condition. It was of such reprobates that Paul declared ‘And
just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over
to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,…and, although they
know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of
death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who
practice them’ (Rom. 1:28, 32).” I
remember when I was about 16 years old, which would have been in 1963 and the
thing then was to smoke cigarettes. I was kind of just puffing on them, but
then I learned to inhale the smoke which when you first begin to do it, it kind
of makes you a little high. (Now
remember I did not become a believer until I was almost 27 years old.) At any rate I was talking to a friend of mine
who was older than I was and told him about this experience and he encouraged
me to continue doing that practice. I
realize that this was kind of innocent compared to what I am writing about, but
none the less it makes the point.
MacArthur
continues “Because they had rejected the faith, they were themselves rejected by
God as regards the faith. Adokimos (rejected) was used of metals
that did not pass the test of purity and were discarded. The word also was used of counterfeits of
various sorts. The fact that the men
were rejected as regards the faith makes clear that Paul was speaking of
individuals within the church who claimed to be Christians but were not.”
Now
someone may be reading this Spiritual Diary and think that they are a
Christian, but maybe they are not. I
find that when asking a person if he or she is a believer that if they really
are do not get upset over that question, but if they are not then they usually
do get upset. Paul writes at the end of
his second letter to the Corinthians the following: “5 Test yourselves to
see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize
this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed
you fail the test? 6 But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not
fail the test.” Now how does one test to
see if they are a true believer? The
best way that I can answer that is to look back at when you thought you became
a believer and go over it. First of all
one has to confess that they are a sinner, and the reason that we sin is
because we were born with a sin nature that was given to us because of what
Adam and Eve did in the garden when they first sinned as seen in Genesis
chapter three. After confessing that you
are a sinner then you have to realize that in and of yourself there is nothing
that you can do to become a believer on your own. Next realize that Jesus Christ came to earth
in order to take your place on the cross, and in the last three hours He was on
the cross God took all of the punishment due you and put it on Christ. Therefore ask the Lord to save you believing
that what He did on the cross was for you.
Ok then keep an eye on yourself to see if there is any difference in the
way you are living your life. Examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this
about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you
fail the test?
Lord willing you will pass the test.
5/4/2025 3:34 PM
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