EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/10/2025 7:39 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Truth:
“The Test of Christian Hospitality”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 John 9-13
Message of the verses: “9 Anyone who
goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God;
the one who abides in the
teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
10 If anyone
comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your
house, and do not give him a greeting; 11
for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.
12 Though I have many things to write to you,
I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and
speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full. 13 The children of your
chosen sister greet you.
This
evening I will continue quoting from the sermon by John MacArthur that I spoke
about in the last SD, and as I mentioned this will take a while to get through
it as I don’t want to put too much on each day so it will be easier to
understand what is written.
“You ask, “How can people
believe this?” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes
to the Father but by me.” Acts 4:12, “Neither is there salvation in any other,
there’s no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.”
“Then there’s that view called
trans-dispensationalism which says, well, God saves people without the gospel by
treating them as if they lived in some other dispensation before there was a
revelation from God. Sort of pre-Mosaic or pre-Abrahamic.
“Does God save people without the
truth? Does God save people without the gospel, without the knowledge of Jesus
Christ? Does He take just whatever they’ve got to give? That’s not what the
Bible teachers. That’s not what Protestant, biblical, orthodox Christianity has
ever believed. And this is such a tragic, tragic moment for us to come to such
conclusions, just when we have the greatest potential to spread the message.
We’re not sure what it is. We’re not sure we want to offend with it. We’re not
sure it’s even necessary.
“Does the Scripture support these
concepts? Does it support the idea that you can be saved without the gospel?
Let me remind you of some passages briefly. Romans 1, this is a very important
Word that I’m giving you tonight, very important for us, and you’ll see its
connection to our text. We’ll get there. Romans 1:18:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because that
which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to
them through reason and moral law.
“For since the creation of the
world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been
clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are
without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or
give thanks. They became futile in their speculations. Their foolish heart was
darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.”
“What happens is, built into man is
the reason that would take you to the conclusion there is a God. The moral law
that would take you to the conclusion that that God is a holy and just and
righteous God and lawgiver. While that truth about God is evident within us and
verified by the creation around us that there is a great and powerful Creator,
even though we know that, where man goes with that isn’t where he should. He
doesn’t honor God as God. He doesn’t give Him thanks. He becomes empty in his
speculations. His foolish heart is darkened.
“He thinks he’s wise. He becomes a
fool. He exchanges the glory of the incorruptible God for an image or an idol
in the form of corruptible man, of birds and four-footed animals and crawling
creatures. Man has ample evidence for God in the creation, but it doesn’t lead
him to God. It only makes him inexcusable when God judges him. And his problem
is back in verse 18: he suppresses the truth in unrighteousness.
“The bottom line is his
unrighteousness, his depravity, his wretchedness negates the possibility of
reason leading him to God. His depraved passion leads him to dishonor the
Creator, to refuse to be thankful, to develop empty ideas, to end up in the
dark, a fool, proud, idolatrous, and even wicked. Verse 24 and following, “God
gave them over to lusts because” - as verse 25 says - they exchanged
the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than
the Creator who is blessed forever.”
5/10/2025
7:51 PM
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