SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/24/2025 8:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-6 "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.
“And
the big picture, the Christ who will evaluate my ministry and reward me accordingly
and deprive me of reward accordingly, the Christ who evaluates my ministry is
the very one who will judge all the living and all the dead. Death doesn’t
cause a man to escape that judgment. Life doesn’t cause a man to escape that
judgment, the living and the dead. That’s just the category into which all
people who have ever lived must fall. They’re either living now or dead. And
they will be when Christ comes. But having died will not escape His judgment.
In the Great White Throne Judgment it says that all the sea and the earth and
the graves give up their dead and they come to the throne to be judged. The
living will have already been judged.
“As you look ahead at judgment, when the Lord takes the
church out of the world, there’s a criteria time, there’s an evaluation time.
We call that the Bema Seat, the judgment seat of Christ where He evaluates our
service and rewards us accordingly. It’s not a condemnation of Christians, a
damnation, because our condemnation was borne by Christ. He suffered for us so
we are free from condemnation. Romans 8, no condemnation in Christ to those who
walk in the Spirit. That’s us who have been redeemed. So we’ll have a reward
time. That’s the first point of judgment in the end. That’s a judgment for
believers only. Then comes a judgment on believers and unbelievers called the
judgment of the sheep and goats where He separates the unbelievers from the
believers, the believers go into the Kingdom; the unbelievers go out of it.
“Then the final one is for only
unbelievers. It starts with believers, then believers and unbelievers, then
only unbelievers. The Great White Throne is a judgment only on unbelievers. But
whether men are alive at the time of that middle judgment, whether they are
alive at the end of the Kingdom or whether they are dead, they’ll all be
judged. That’s why we teach that there will be resurrection of the ungodly. Do
you realize that all the unsaved people who have ever lived will be resurrected
and brought to the Great White Throne? Read it, Revelation 20:11 to 15. He will
bring all the dead of all the ages before His throne to be judged and condemned
to hell.
“So Christ is the judge of those who
are alive, those who are dead. And as such who judges all, He will judge you,
Timothy, He will judge you. And He will judge you with perfect knowledge of
everything you’ve done. Then he adds this, “And by His appearing in His
Kingdom.” That’s the point in time at which the judgment takes place, it takes
place when Christ comes, appears and sets up His Kingdom. That’s consistent
with what the Scriptures teach. It’s very general here, His appearing is His
epiphaneia. His appearing, His second coming when the world sees Him, when
every eye beholds Him. He comes, He sets up His Kingdom. That’s when judgment
takes place. And it comes in many forms.
“From the time when Christ raptures
the church out until He sets up the eternal state, there are many judgments
going on and He’s the judge in all of them. They start with His appearing, they
flow through His Kingdom. That’s the point in time to which we must look for
that judgment. And even though when the church is raptured out and ours is a
secret reward time, our rewards then will be on full display before the whole
world during the Kingdom when we return for the glorious Kingdom. So we will
receive those rewards in a secret place, the world will not see us. But then in
the glorious liberation of the children of God, we return to reign with Christ
on earth and the full display of His rewards for our service will be made. It
comes at His appearing and His Kingdom.
“That word “appearing” is a powerful
thought. It literally means to appear upon, to appear, epi upon. To appear upon
the earth is the idea. It’s of great significance to Paul. He was motivated so
strongly in light of the appearing of Christ, he moved toward that. Earlier, as
I read in 1 Timothy 6:14, he told Timothy, “Do what you do until the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here in this very chapter, verse 8, 2 Timothy 4:8,
he says, “In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day;” – the day He
comes – “not only to me, also all who have loved His appearing.” When He comes;
that’s the day. That’s the day. Titus 2:13, “Looking for the blessed hope and
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus.”
“Now what is the significance of
this epiphaneia, this appearing? Well, it’s an interesting word. It was used,
first of all, for the manifestation of some deity by the Greeks; some manifest
intervention of a deity was called an epiphaneia. But far more commonly was its
use especially in connection with the Roman emperor. Whenever the Roman emperor
came to a village or a town it was called an epiphaneia. In fact, when he
exceeded to the throne it was his epiphaneia.
“But it was used to describe the
visit of an emperor to a village or a town. In any place he would go he was to
make an appearance. That’s pretty common even in English. He was to make his
epiphaneia. And when he was planning to come to a little village, he was due to
be in a certain place, they would clean the town and they would whitewash the
buildings or whatever they did. They would street – sweep the streets, haul the
drunks out of there, clean up the place, put on their best front. The emperor
was going to appear. Everything was swept and made ready, all work was up to
date, and everything was scoured and cleaned to be fit for the appearing of the
emperor.
“And what Paul is saying to Timothy
is the same idea. He’s saying, you know what happens in a town that’s expecting
the emperor. Well you are expecting the epiphaneia of Christ Jesus. Do what you
do in such a way that He’s pleased when He sees it, when He appears. Nothing
could be more thrilling to a little person, peasant in a town who had done his
work to be able to show it to the emperor when he did his appearing and be
commended. And so it is with Christ. Some day He will appear and we desire to
be commended by Him.
“He appears to set up His Kingdom.
He’s coming to judge, He’s coming to reign. He will appear as the judge; He
will reign as the King. All falsehoods will be revealed. All sinners will be
judged. All believers will be rewarded. The godly will be ushered into the
Kingdom. The ungodly will be cast out. Everything will be accounted for at that
time. The preacher is to be faithful until them. Until then, or until the Lord
calls him home before that time. But if he’s been faithful, he’ll be properly
rewarded as he shares in the glories and the joys of the coming of the King in
His Kingdom. Those of us who go to heaven are rewarded there. We’ll come back
displaying our rewards, as I said, on the earth during the Kingdom. What a
great thought. What a great thought.”
This section that I am posting today from John MacArthur’s
sermon is really music to my ears as he preaches about these upcoming judgments. I say this because I am looking forward to
the rapture of the church, and it is my prayer that I will be alive when that
happens, and then once in heaven will come the Judgment seat of Christ, and it
is my prayer that I will be rewarded at that time because I have been faithful
to do what the Lord God has planned for me to do while on the earth.
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: I am thinking of what Paul has written to
Timothy at this time in this letter as he encourages Timothy to fight the good
fight, to do what the Lord has planned for him to do for the cause of Christ,
and again Paul wrote this letter not too long before he would die for the cause
of Christ, and therefore he was writing some very important things to Timothy,
because soon he will not be able to tell him what was on his heart because he
will be taken to heaven.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to remember the things that I
believe the Lord has called me to do and be faithful in doing it for the cause
of Christ.
6/24/2025 9:53 AM
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