PT-5 “The Urgency of His Commission” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/12/2025 9:00 AM

 

My Worship Time                                               Focus:  PT-5 “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 like what John MacArthur writes in the following paragraph, although it is very sad, it is very true:  “Instead of receiving sound doctrine, some churches fiercely reject it, wanting rather to have their ears tickled with unbiblical notions that raise their comfort level, justify or overlook their sins.  They also reject as unloving anyone who presumes to hold them accountable to doctrinal beliefs and moral standards they deem outmoded and irrelevant. Consequently the preacher whom they least like to hear brings the message they need most to hear.”  I can say that while on vacation a number of times that my wife and I went into those kinds of churches, and one of them took me a while to see error that they were teaching, teaching that the church was in existence in the Old Testament.  That was the last time that I attended that church while we were on vacation.  I emailed the pastor to see if he had made a mistake in his preaching about this subject, and he said that he had not, but he had for the truth is that the Church began in the 2^nd chapter of Acts and will end at the event called the “Rapture,” which I pray will be very soon.

 

            MacArthur then goes on to write “Not surprisingly, therefore, such false Christians will accumulate for themselves ungodly teachers in accordance to their own ungodly desires.  Noted Bible scholar Marvin R. Vincent wrote insightfully, ‘If people desire a calf to worship, a ministerial calf-maker is readily found’ (Word Studies in the New Testament, vol. 4 [New York: Scribner’s, 1904], 321).”  I like what this man wrote, and even though it is kind of funny, he makes a great point.

 

            Now as we look briefly and things that happened to Israel in the Old Testament this sad truth will be verified repeatedly.  Through Jeremiah, the Lord lamented, “An appalling and horrible things has happened in the land:  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and people love is so!”  (Jer. 5:30-31, emphasis added).  Then it was not many years after this, the Lord told Ezekiel, “They come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people, and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain.  And behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not practice them” (Ezek. 33:31-32), emphasis added).  Now apparently this prophet was a captivating speaker to whom the people liked to listen purely for his impressive oratory. But they totally rejected what he had to say, being determined instead to fulfill their “lustful desires” and then pursue “their gain.”  These people were not interested in learning the truth but were much like “all the Athenians and the strangers” that Paul confronted with the gospel in Athens, who “use to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21).

            I don’t think that I will finish this section this morning, but will keep working on it in tomorrow’s SD.  I do want to say that I have heard, and I believe that all people are “religious” but the problem is that not all people worship the God of the Bible, even though some people think that they are doing that.  Some cults add their own books to use, but the Lord said at the end of the book of Revelation, which is the very last book in the Bible the following “18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19  and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”   John then goes on to write “20 He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”  That is the end of the Bible, and so if people add things to it then we can know for sure that it is false.

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today: I know and have known for a long time that the Bible is God’s Word, and what He has written I am to believe and then follow His teaching all the days of my life.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am trusting the Lord to do a work in my wife so that she and realize that God is totally in control, and that she can trust Him to use these problems that she has to bring glory to Him.  She is truly going through some difficult times in her life and can’t figure out why, but we don’t always need to know why but to just trust the Lord to work things out for our good and for His glory.

 

7/12/2025 9:36 AM