SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/11/2025 7:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “The Urgency of His Commission”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
4:3-4
Message of the verses: “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.”
I ended yesterday’s SD with this
statement, and I quote it here so that it will be easier to continue looking at
this section this morning: “In his first
letter, Paul reminded Timothy that men and women who are ‘lawless and rebellious,… ungodly and sinners,…unholy and
profane,…murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and
perjures’ live lives that
are ‘contrary to sound teaching’ (1 Tim.
1:9-10). It is because sound
teaching is a stinging
rebuke to ungodly living that it is unacceptable and intolerable to those who
persist in sin. Those who live contrary
to sound doctrine resent and resist the teaching of sound doctrine.”
John MacArthur then continues his
thoughts as he writes: “Later in that
letter, the apostle commanded, ‘If anyone
advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is
conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about
words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and
constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who
suppose that godliness is a means of gain’ (1 Tim. 6:3-5). It was in face of that danger that, near the beginning of this second
letter, Paul admonishes Timothy: ‘Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard
from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in
us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you’ (2 Tim. 1:13-14; cf. Titus
1:9, 13; 2:8).”
Now we will move to looking at something
from the book of Isaiah where the Lord has asked Isaiah, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
Then the prophet responded, Here am I.
Send me” (Isa. 6:8). After that God warned his willing
messenger that the people, His own chosen people, would “keep on listening, but…not perceive; keep on looking, but…not
understand,” that “the hearts of this people [would be] insensitive, their
ears dull, and their eyes dim, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their
ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed” (Isa. 6:9-10).
Now Timothy soon would face a similar
prospect. The more faithfully he
proclaimed God’s Word, the
more faithless some people in the church would prove themselves to be.
Churches
are like this today, as churches who used to preach and teach the gospel are
not doing this now as they are doing what Paul writes in this section “but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will
accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” In many churches today we find that God’s Word is compromised. MacArthur writes “Sometimes it is stripped of
its clear meaning or is relegated to a place of secondary authority behind
personal ‘revelations’ claimed to be from God In many churches who once preached sound doctrine, evils that God’s Word plainly and repeatedly condemns are touted as
acceptable. Women are ordained to
ministries the Bible restricts to men, and radical feminists even reject the
idea of God as heavenly Father.
Homosexuals not only are welcomed without reproof or repentance into
church fellowship but also are welcomed into the pulpit.”
Once again I mention my belief that
the churches found in Revelation 2-3 are a picture of what church history will
be from the time that the church was established on the Day of Pentecost up
until when the Rapture of the Church will take place, and as stated before I
believe that the dominant church in our time is the Laodicean church found at
the end of Revelation chapter three, where we see the Lord Jesus standing outside
of the church wanting to get in.
I
will try and finish this section in my next SD as there is still some left to
be written about.
Spiritual
Meaning for My Life Today:
I can say that there are a lot of things going on in my and my wife’s life at
this time. I have mentioned she had
surgery for cancer on the 29th of April and her healing has been a
bit slow after the surgery, but we are trusting the Lord to see her get
better. We went to a new doctor
yesterday, a doctor that helped a couple of people in our church with cancer
issues, which extended their lives for many years before the Lord took them
home.
My
Steps of Faith For Today: Continue to lean on the Lord for help and
strength, and it is our desire that these hardships we are going through will
bring glory to the Lord and that others will see our faith in the Lord to see
us through these difficult times.
7/11/2025 8:37 AM
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