EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/11/2025 7:33 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “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.
I continue to quote from John MacArthur’s sermon in
this evenings Spiritual Diary, and just to let you know with this SD we are
about one third through this rather long sermon.
“Natural
revelation will only take you far enough to be inexcusable when God judges you.
It’s not enough to save you; it’s only enough to damn you. And to see why
that’s true, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. First Corinthians chapter 1 unfolds
why that is so. No one through the rational pursuit of God who is the Creator
can achieve salvation, it doesn’t get you there, it just makes you inexcusable
when God judges you. And the reason is, you have to go beyond that.
“Verse 18, 1 Corinthians 1: “For the
word of the cross is, to those who are perishing, foolishness, but to us who
are being saved, it is the power of God, for it is written, ‘I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I’ll set aside. Where is
the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not
God made foolish the wisdom of this world?’” This is an amazing diagnosis of
man. They think they’re wise - they’re fools. The conclusion of the wise,
the conclusions of the scribes or the scholars, the conclusions of the debaters
of this age all together, the sum of them is foolishness. Why?
“Verse 21, here’s the key: “For
since in the wisdom of God the world, through its wisdom, didn’t come to know
God.” There’s the bottom line. You can’t get there through human wisdom because
God determined that that’s how it would be. In God’s wisdom, people can’t be
saved through their wisdom. “Rather” - verse 21 says - “God was well
pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who
believe.” The only people who will ever be saved are those who believe the
message preached.
“And what is the message? Well,
verse 22, “The Jews ask for signs, the Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified. To Jews a stumbling block, to gentiles foolishness, but to
those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God.”
“The only way you can be saved is
through the message of the cross. That’s why in chapter 2 of this same book,
verse 1, Paul says, “When I came to you, brethren, I didn’t come with
superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.” That’s all I ever preached. Down in verse 5, “So that your faith
should not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God.” And that power
is released only through the gospel.
“So Romans 1 says man by reason
only brings himself to maximum culpability. He is inexcusable because by himself,
in his own reason, he will suppress the truth because he is so dominated by
sin. And he will twist that truth, end up dishonoring God, refusing to be
thankful, developing empty ideas, finding himself in the dark, a proud,
idolatrous, and wicked fool. And here we further understand that the reason the
wisest of the wise and the scholars and the debaters don’t ever find God
through their own wisdom is because God designed it to be impossible.
“The only way you can ever come to
God is through the message preached. And what is the message? We preach Christ
crucified. Only the message of the cross can save. And that takes you back to
verse 18 in 1 Corinthians 1, “For the Word or the message of the cross is to
those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is the
power of God.” Man, left to himself, left to his own wisdom, lowers God,
elevates himself, denies the truth, believes lies. And so it is absolutely
critical that men never be thought capable of attaining to the knowledge of God
through human reason.
“In 2 Corinthians 4 and verse
3, Paul says, “If our gospel is veiled” - and it is - “it is veiled
to those who are perishing.” Why so? Because the god of this world, Satan, has
blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Double blindness.
They’re blind by virtue of their nature and they’re blind by virtue of Satan.
It is a compounded stone blindness. The highest achievements of human wisdom
will be destroyed along with the most meager achievements of human wisdom.
“The wisdom that is from
below - that is, earthly wisdom - is characterized in James this way,
“This wisdom that is from below is earthly, natural, demonic.” Earthly,
natural, demonic. The only supernatural connection you make through human
reason is with Satan. No person by natural reason, no person by religious
intuition can come to know God and be saved from hell.
5/11/2025
7:46 PM
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