EVENING
SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/20/2025 9:04 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Survival Strategy
for Apostate Times”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Jude 17-23
Message of the verses: “17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were
spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18 that they were
saying to you, "In the last time there will be mockers, following after
their own ungodly lusts." 19 These are the ones who cause divisions,
worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves
up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in
the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal
life. 22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting; 23 save others, snatching them out of the fire;
and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the
flesh.”
This
evening we begin to look at the second SD on the introduction to these verses
which will come from the commentary of John MacArthur.
“Tragically, there are many in the
contemporary church who also lacks spiritual discernment. Such people are far better at staying in tune
with cultural trends than they are at appreciating and understanding biblical
doctrine. In some cases, whole churches
have shifted their focus from the clear teachings of Scripture to the felt
needs of sinners. They want to make the
church service ‘comfortable’ and ‘not confrontational.’ As a result, the messages they champion are
theologically weak, and the people they serve are doctrinally naïve. Those churches are defenseless against error.
“There are at least six reasons for
the disturbing lack of discernment that characterizes much of contemporary
Christianity. Obviously, the first is
the recent trend among many evangelicals to minimize the importance of
doctrine. Those in this camp argue that
biblical clarity is both divisive and unloving—to them it puts up walls, lacks
humility, and hinders unity. The
reality, however, is that the church has suffered severe consequences for
abandoning its commitment to sound doctrine.
Such repercussions include a false sense of humility and a false faith
produced by ‘easy believism’ and watered-down gospel presentations, false unity
based on inter-religious ecumenism and theological compromise, a false
commission preoccupied with political activism and legislated morality, a false
worship driven by man-centered services and experience-based Christianity, and
a false ministry focused solely on temporal satisfaction and external success—it
all makes people feel comfortable in this life but utterly fails to prepare
them for the life to come.
“A second reason is that the church
has become less objective in its outlook, sacrificing unconditional truth for
moral relativism and post-modern subjectivity.
Instead of seeing truth in terms of black and white, many Christians
treat it as a gray area. But the Bible
is clearly antithetical; it makes absolute distinctions between right and
wrong, truth and error, saving faith and false professions. The Lord Jesus’ teaching, for example, was
black and white: He contrasted the broad way and the narrow way (Matt.
7:13-14), eternal damnation and eternal life (Matt. 24:46-51), the kingdom of
Satan and the kingdom of God (Matt. 13:38), hate and love (Matt. 5:43-44),
worldly wisdom and divine wisdom (cf. Matt. 11:16-19; Mark 6:2), and so
forth. In contrast, the contemporary
church shies away from theological absolutes, preferring instead to tolerantly
embrace ‘every wind of doctrine’ (Eph.
4:14), as if that stance were a virtue.
“Third, as part of its contemporary
evangelistic strategy, the church has abandoned its commitment to the power of
Scripture and become preoccupied with its image. In order to reach the culture, it has become
like the culture. But James wrote, ‘Do you not know that friendship with the
world is hostility toward God? Therefore
whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God’
(James 4:4; cf. 1 John 2:15-17). To
be a friend of God makes us enemies of the world, and vice versa. We are kidding ourselves to think that the
key to winning the lost is found in imitating them. By mimicking secular society, some believers
are actually forfeiting their distinctiveness and the power of the
Scripture. And if the distinct call of
the gospel is lost, any hope of evangelizing the culture will also disappear
(cf. Matt. 5:13).” “13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless,
how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything,
except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”
“Fourth,
and in consequence of the previous point, the church’s current lack of
discernment stems from a failure to properly study and interpret the
Scriptures. Pastoral laziness,
exegetical sloppiness, and a general attitude of indifference to God’s Word
have plunged God’s people into error.
Because he understood the deadly dangers of such spiritual apathy, the
apostle Paul commanded Timothy to ‘be
diligent to present yourself approved to God as a work man who does not need to
be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth’ (2 Tim. 2:15; cf. 2 Cor.
4:2). The book of Acts also
commended the brethren in Berea for being ‘more
noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great
eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so’
(17:11; cf. 1 Thess. 2:13). As the
Berean’s example demonstrates, discernment cannot develop apart from a desire
to know the truth and a determination to discover it. Yet this deep concern for truth is scarcely
found today.”
It looks like I will be able to
finish this section in tomorrow’s SD, as I don’t like to make them too long.
8/20/2025 9:39 PM
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