SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/21/2025 8:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-5 "Intro to 2 Timothy 4:1-5)
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Tim. 4:1-5
Message of the verses: “1 I solemnly
charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge
the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and
out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled,
they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own
desires, 4 and will turn away
their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in
all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your
ministry.”
We are looking at this time the introduction to 2
Timothy 4:1-5, and in today’s SD I want to continue to quote from the sermon by
John MacArthur which comes from 1988 in order for us to better understand the
introduction to these very important verses.
“Not
one month of my life escapes Him, not one week, not one day, not one hour, not
one minute. Not a second of my life escapes the vision of Christ. He knows what
I do with my time. He knows what I do with my energies. He knows what I do with
every opportunity and I am accountable to Him for that. That’s compelling.
That’s compelling. “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God even Christ
Jesus” – notice – “who is to judge the living and the dead.” He’s the judge.
The word “judge” here from krinÅ is not the strong word of damnation and condemnation;
it’s the word of evaluation. It’s the word from which we get the word “criteria
or criterion or critic.” It’s an evaluation.
“Paul
says to Timothy the Lord is going to evaluate you and He’ll have all the
information. Because of His omniscience, He knows everything. You notice who is
to judge, “the one about to judge” is what it really means, or “the one who is on
the brink of judging,” or “the one who momentarily will judge.” And it wants to
paint to Timothy an immanency kind of thing. That – that it could happen at any
time. God is about to do that. It’s your – it’s on the brink of happening. God
will judge in Christ. Now, the one who is to judge is none other than Christ. I
mentioned John 5:22,
it says in that passage, let me just read you a couple of verses there, “For
not even the Father judges anyone but He has given all judgment to the Son,” Very
important.
“Verse
26, “Just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son to have
life in Himself and He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is the
Son of God.” All judgment has been committed to Christ. And there’s a day
coming when He will evaluate. Now, keep in mind that the word used here in 2
Timothy 4, krinein, the verb form in its infinitive, means to evaluate. It’s
not damnation because it’s not that we’re going to be damned for failure if
we’re already saved, it’s that we’re going to be evaluated, and we’re going to
be evaluated. And our
evaluation is going to determine our reward and our reward is going to
determine the level of our service in heaven.
“If
you’ve been with us for our series in heaven which just ended, you know we
discussed that. The Bible promises certain crowns to the believer. I believe
all those crowns are really parallels to eternal life in heaven; they’re just
different ways to express the fullness of our eternal life. It says that, in
1 Corinthians 3, some of our works are gold, silver, precious stones.
They’ll last. Some are wood, hay and stubble, they’ll be burned up. But each of
us will receive a reward. That’s the kind of judgment we’re talking about, the
Judgment Seat of Christ. We must all, says Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:9 and 10,
appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to receive the reward for the things
that we’ve done, whether they’re good or useless.
“The
useless things are burned up. For the good things we did in serving Him we will
be rewarded. That reward will be demonstrated through all the Kingdom and
through all eternity in our capacity to serve and in the level of our
assignment in that service. I told you in the series on heaven that I – I
believe that the concept of inheritance has to do with the breadth of our
authority throughout eternity and the concept of rewards has to do with the
nature of our service in eternity. That’s the issue here. You will be evaluated
by the God who judges everybody, the God in Christ who judges everybody will
evaluate you. He will evaluate you.
“Paul
lived in the light of that. He really did. So did the other apostles. Peter –
do you remember in Acts when he was preaching, Peter was, to Cornelius in Acts 10:42. Peter says, “He ordered us to preach the gospel to
the people and solemnly to testify that this is the one who has been appointed
by God as judge of the living and the dead.” Peter says we were – we were
ordained to preach, to preach judgment, to preach the judge who was going to
judge the living and the dead. That’s why he was so compelled. That was
compelling to him.
“In
Acts 17 the apostle Paul, Mars Hill, “God has fixed a day in which He will
judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having
furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” That man is Christ.
That man is Christ. God will judge the living and the dead, Peter said. God
will judge the living and the dead Paul said. The whole world through the man
Christ Jesus. In Romans 2:16,
Paul writes, “There is a day coming when according to my gospel God will judge
the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. Through Christ Jesus.” So the
compelling reality here is the coming evaluation.
“In
1 Corinthians you probably have the best sum of it. It’s a familiar text, 4:1
to 5. Listen. Paul writes, “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of
Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required
of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me it is a very small thing
that I should be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even
examine myself.” – I'm not my judge. – “I am conscious of nothing against
myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the
Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time,” – What time?
The time of Judgment. – “but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to
light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s
hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.”
“And the implication is it
shouldn’t come to him from men. You people are out there evaluating the
quality of these pastors and these preachers and you don’t know their hearts
and you don’t know their motives. And even when you don’t know anything against
them and even when they don’t know anything against them, God may know
something against them by which His verdict on their ministry would be
different than yours. So wait before you pass out the kudos and the
congratulations until God reads the hearts and then each man’s praise will come
to him from God. And for Paul that was compelling.
“He
wrote the Galatians and says in chapter 1 verse 10 – he was accused of being a
man pleaser and he wanted to deny that in no uncertain terms so in Galatians 1:10 he said, “For am I now seeking the favor
of men or of God? Am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please
men I wouldn’t be the bondservant of Christ.” I’m trying to please Christ. He’s
the judge who sees everything, who knows everything. That’s compelling. And I
must stand before Him. Now what does it mean “the living and the dead,” why does
he say the one who judges or will judge the living and the dead? Some say that
could mean the saved and the lost. I think it means exactly what it says, the
living and the dead.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: It is my belief that the Bible teaches that
the Spirit of God has given each and every believer (true believer) gifts in order
to serve the Church. It is also my
belief that the Bible teaches that the Spirit of God is the One who works in us
in order to do what He has called us to do for the cause of Christ. I believe that the gift that the Holy Spirit
has given me is to teach, not preach, but teach and also to put what I have
learned onto my Spiritual Diaries, which then goes on my blogs and then the
Holy Spirit of God sends them around the world to those that He desires to see
them, and it is all for the cause of Christ, my Savior and my Lord.
My Steps of
Faith for Today: I trust the Lord to use the Spiritual Diaries
that I write to accomplish what it is that He desires to do with them for the
cause of Chirst.
6/23/2025 8:53 AM
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