SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/25/2025 9:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-7 "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.
“The compelling thing here, beloved, is that the preacher
must realize the seriousness of his task. It is a serious duty we perform. And
we must be committed to consummate dedication because it’s so serious. And what
makes it so serious is the scrutiny of the one who is the judge who will
evaluate it. The perfect judge will render perfect judgment on the nature, the
dedication, the faithfulness, the consistency of the preacher’s efforts. It’s
testing time to see whether what we did was gold, silver, precious stones or
wood, hay and stubble.
“You can be pushed in this world to
compromise your ministry to try to please men. It happens all the time. I was
listening, as I came in, on the radio today and there was a reporter from Time
Magazine, the religion writer. He was reporting on the upcoming national
convention of the Methodist denomination, second largest denomination,
Protestant denomination in America next to the Southern Baptists. The major
issue at the Methodist denomination is whether or not to ordain homosexuals to
the pastorate. They have been fighting this battle for a long time and he was
saying basically that the major thrust of the denomination is to remove all
bans. They’ve already removed the ban on women; this would open it to lesbians
and homosexual men to be in pastorates.
“There’s a group of people, a
coalition of pastors who protest this, headed up by some in Houston, who are
endeavoring to be heard in the midst of this din of advocacy of homosexual
rights. And they’re trying to lobby against the mass vote of the convention to
try to conform to the Scripture which identifies homosexuality as a sin. The
reporter said, basically, the great mass of pastors in the Methodist
denomination are for what the denomination is doing to one degree or another.
At the time I thought to myself, “It’s incredible.” it’s incredible that how
they in acquiescing to the wishes of a class of sinners that the Bible describes
as reprobate – Romans 1 – they have literally turned out to be men pleasers and
they will have to account to the living God for that. Frightening, frightening.
“Sometimes the pressure even comes
on me in interesting ways. This week I picked up a – a journal produced by a
seminary in our country. One – I looked down the list of articles and was
shocked to see the third article as titled, “The Anti-Semitism of John
MacArthur.” I proceed -- proceeded to read the article and the article said
that I was anti-Semitic because I stated publicly on numerous occasions that
the Jews rejected their Messiah, that Judaism as a religion was extinct since
the death and resurrection of Christ in the new covenant, that the Jewish
people cried for the blood of Christ and are responsible for forcing His death,
though it occurred at the hands of the Romans; that I said that Jesus spoke
against the Jewish leaders in Scripture. And all of this went page after page
after page after page, affirming that I was anti-Semitic because I said that.
“I didn’t say that because I am
anti-Semitic, I’m not anti- Semitic at all. I said that because that’s what the
Bible says. I said that because that’s the truth. And you have to understand
that that’s what I have to say because that’s what the Bible says and I’m
answerable to God to say what the Bible says. I have great love for God’s
people Israel. I have great – great love for the Israel that is not God’s
people, a great compassion for their salvation. The pressure is applied a lot
of ways to compromise.
“The – the article was funded by The
Vidal Sassoon Institute for Anti-Semitism of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
under the direction of two of the leading rabbis who funded a study of my
teaching which they term anti-Semitic. The article prior to mine in that
journal was an article on “The Advocacy of Creating Harmony, Dialogue,
Brotherhood Among Christians and Jews.” That’s the mentality. I would love
nothing better than to have harmony, camaraderie, brotherhood among Christians
and Jews around the person of Christ, but apart from Him you can’t have it.
“But there are people who have
succumbed to the social pressure to the point where they deny the Scripture.
The Scripture is no longer the authority. They would rather please men. It
comes in many ways. I don’t even tell you all the things that happen to me
because I don’t think you could probably handle all of them week in and week
out. But it’s not easy to just hold the line unless you know why you’re doing
it. And if you understand who you’re answerable to, it makes a lot of
difference, huh? And to whom you must give an account when accounting time
comes.
“Timothy needed to understand it was
a serious commission because he was going to get a lot of pressure to
compromise it and to please men. You always do, you always do. But if you
please God, you’re going to be way ahead because in the day of the epiphaneia
of Jesus Christ, in the day when he enters into His Kingdom, He’s going to
reward you in a glorious way and you’re going to enter in to the joy of the
Lord that comes to one who served Him faithfully. We need your prayers. It’s
not easy. We need your prayers regularly and daily. All I want to do and all
the others who are part of our church leadership here, other pastors want to do
is be faithful to God’s truth, to teach God’s Word. We’re not trying to
advocate some anti view.
“I feel like Paul. They should
listen to the tape on Romans 9 and 10. My heart’s desire for Israel is their
salvation, says Paul. He says, “I could wish myself accursed for their
salvation.” And yet he’s the same Paul who castigated their unbelief. If you
teach a biblical message, the pressure’s on. But if you have a perspective that
says God is the judge, it keeps you on track.
“The preacher must understand, first
of all, the seriousness of his commission. That’s where we start. Next one is
dealing with that great statement “preach the Word” and that’s one of the most
powerful ones in this entire text. We’ll dig into that next time. Let’s pray.
“In this text, Lord, we know that it
ends up in verse 5 with Paul’s word to Timothy, a command, “Fulfill your
ministry.” And we know, Lord, that it ends in fulfillment but it begins in
motivation. And the motivation that ends in fulfillment has to be the
motivation indicated in verse 1, a compelling sense of responsibility to the
divine judge, our Lord Jesus Christ, to fulfill the duty to which we’re called.
“We understand what Paul meant when
he said, “Don’t commend me for preaching, woe is unto me if I preach not the
gospel.” Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. He was a man compelled. He
was a man who didn’t even choose to do what he did. He was chosen to do it by
You and then held responsible for his faithfulness.
“I pray, Lord, that You’ll raise up
a generation of faithful preachers who will take the solemn charge in the
presence of God, even Christ Jesus, the one who is to judge the living and the
dead at His appearing and His coming to set up His Kingdom to preach the Word,
uncompromisingly, unhesitatingly and boldly.
“And yet, Lord, help us, too, to
have the compassion of Christ, the kindheartedness, the meekness, the
gentleness, the graciousness; to have the mercy, the quietness, the patience,
the sweetness of spirit to balance that conviction with the tenderness it takes
to touch the lives of people.
“Help us not to be defensive,
ungracious, unkind in spirit though we must speak the truth. And help us to be
accountable and to hold each other accountable to the one who is our judge,
even our Lord Jesus Christ who will judge with perfect equity, who will judge
with perfect justice, who will judge with perfect righteousness and therein
reward His servants. We long for the full reward that we may spend eternity
serving to the maximum capacity the one, who gave His life for us, our Lord
Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.”
I usually don’t copy the prayers at the end of MacArthur’s
sermon, but thought I would do it in this one.
I enjoy listening and reading the sermons that John MacArthur preaches,
and I suppose 98% of what he says I agree with, as I have learned much from
listening to his sermons, and reading his commentaries. I have to say that the goal that he talks
about in this section is the same goal that I have when I write my Spiritual
Diaries, as I never want to compromise what the Bible has to say, for it is God’s
Word to us.
I am not sure what I will do tomorrow, but probably begin
the second sermon that John MacArthur has on this subject.
Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today: I desire to be
faithful to the Word of God, and never to compromise in what the Bible says,
and then to pass on what I am learning to the ones that the Holy Spirit causes
to read my Spiritual Diaries that are on my blogs.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Like every other
day I desire to be true to the teaching of the Word of God and never lead
anyone astray.
6/25/2025 10:01 AM
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