PT-1 "Readiness" (Matt. 24:43-44)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/7/2024 7:48 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                   Focus:  PT-1 “Readiness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 24:43-44

 

            Message of the verses:  “43 "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 “For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”

 

            When it comes to the Greek language it is all Greek to me and that means that I usually quote from John MacArthur’s commentary in order to make sure that I, along with all who read these Spiritual Diaries understand exactly what is being talked about.  MacArthur writes “Be sure of this translates what could be either a Greek imperative or and indicative.  As an imperative it would be a form of command, but that idea seems inappropriate here, because Jesus was simply stating the obvious, a truism.  As an indicative it would be a statement of fact as a reminder.  ‘As everyone knows’ He is saying, ‘if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.’  No sane thief would announce his intention of robbing a house, and no sane head of the house who knew in advance at what time of the night the thief was coming would fail to be on alert in order to prevent his house from being broken into.

 

            So what does that mean to the generation who will be living in the Tribulation period?  This 24^th and 25^th chapter of Matthew is speaking to those in the Tribulation period as Jesus is warning them and talking to them about what will happen, and He is doing it some 2000 years before the things in the Tribulation period will happen.  So the generation living at that time is specifically told by Jesus that they will not know the exact time that He will be appearing, and this is something that I have been writing about for some time now in different Spiritual Diaries from this 24^th chapter of Matthew.  You may remember that it took me a while to understand what Jesus was talking about, but after praying about it I realized that because He is talking about and to the people who will be living in this time period that because of the great difficulty for people living in this time period, especially believers to which Jesus is talking about, that they really will only know the signs but not the exact day that He will return.  They will be able to know that they are getting close, but will not know the exact day and hour.  They will have other things on their mind, things like trying to stay alive as they will be running from the Antichrist and his army.

 

            MacArthur writes on this “In other words, to carry out the figure Jesus uses here, they will know with absolute certainty that the thief will be breaking into the house sometime very soon and they should be prepared accordingly.

 

            In this section Jesus is not saying that He is the thief, but was comparing His coming to the stealth and unexpectedness of a thief’s coming.  This is not the only time that we find in the New Testament that it compares the second coming to a thief’s coming.  I will give some different verse locations and then quote from one or two of them.  Here are the locations:  Luke 12:35-40; 1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10; Rev. 3:3; 16:15.  Now it is for obvious reason that, as Jesus here points out, a thief never tries to rob a place where he knows he is expected, and certainly not at the exact time he is expected.  Now I will look in closing this SD as a few of these verses that are mentioned above, and the thing is that with the exception of the passage in Luke most of these are familiar with me because of my love for end-time sections in the Bible.

 

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).  In my opinion that verse speaks of a time just after the Millennial Kingdom will end as it describes the destruction of the universe and the ushering in of the New heaven and New earth, and also the New Jerusalem.

 

‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you” (Rev. 3:3).

 

“("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame)” (Rev. 16:15).

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Today’s come from what I learned from looking at an older SD from Daniel 9:4, which speaks of praying, and trusting the Lord.  Prayer is something the I long to be better at, and trusting the Lord for certain things that cause me to be anxious are also things that I must be better at.

 

            My Steps of Faith for Today:  Learn these things I need to learn by trusting in the Word to teach me and the Spirit to accomplish them in my life.

 

2/7/2024 8:28 AM

 

           

PT-5 "Alertness" (Matt. 24:37-42)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/6/2024 7:07 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-5 “Alertness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 24:37-42

 

            Message of the verses:  “37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

 

            I have to say that this section of these verses has caused me much trouble which I wrote about in earlier Spiritual Diaries, and so with new insight on this last verse in this section I will move on to see the things that John MacArthur has to write about what is in verse 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”  First I want to look at what MacArthur has to say about the phrase “be on alert.”  This “translates a present imperative, indicating a call for continual expectancy.”  It seems that he is saying that Jesus is saying that believers are always to be on alert because they do not know the day which the Lord is coming.  I have stated that this has given me much trouble, but I think the reason that it has given me a lot of trouble is because when I first became a believer, listening to what Hal Lindsey has to say about Matthew chapter 24.  It was his belief that this section was speaking of the time around the rapture, but I have learned that chapters 24-25 speak of the tribulation period, the last seven years of history on planet earth which will end with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ back to planet earth to set up His promised Kingdom which will last for 1000 years.  With this said, that is this speaking of the tribulation period, this is what caused me to understand how the people would not really understand when the Lord would be coming back to planet earth.  The time of the tribulation period will be the worst time for people to be living since God created man on planet earth, and so believers will have a general sense of when the end will be coming, but not the day or the hour of when Christ will return.

 

            Now as we have been looking at the time of Noah in past SD’s and talked about when the ark was finished and the animals were in it that the Lord shut the door which prevented people from getting into the ark and be saved from the soon up-coming flood.  Once the Lord returns as described in the 19 chapter of Revelation and plants His foot on the Mount of Olives, which is where He left to go back into heaven some 2000 years before, that will end the time of what could be called grace for those unbelievers, in other words their time for salvation has run out and like those outside of the ark judgment is fast approaching for them.  This can be seen in the prior verses that we looked at in our last SD.  MacArthur writes “Just as believers today do not know at what time the Lord is coming to take them to Himself in the rapture, the generation alive during the Tribulation will not know the exact time of His appearing to judge the ungodly and to establish His kingdom.”

 

            I will now continue looking at the quotation from MacArthur’s commentary which will then end this section on “Alertness.”

 

            “Malachi envisioned believers apparently discussing among themselves the possibility that they would inadvertently and mistakenly be separated out with the wicked and be condemned.  But ‘the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name, ‘And they will be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’  So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him’ (Mal. 3:16-18).” 

 

            MacArthur then goes on to quote from 2 Peter 2:4-9, which I will now quote.

 

            ‘4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6  and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8  (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.’

 

            “Christians at that time must be alert, even though they will be secure and have no cause for dread.”

 

           

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have highlighted “have no cause for dread” in this last sentence that MacArthur wrote to finish up this section on alertness, and the reason is that during the time of the tribulation there will be much death and destruction going on and it will take much trusting in the Lord and His plan for them to not dread.  I have to say something along those lines and it all began a couple of months ago when I got disgusted with some sinful things that were going on in my life off and on for many, many years.  This started before I became a believer, actually when I was maybe 10 years old.  At any rate I would, through the power of the Spirit not have the problem for some long periods of time, but then it would return to tempt me.  So a couple of months ago I asked the Lord to hurt me in order to be over this problem, and a few days later I had an issue with my blood pressure which I finally have got this under control with the help of a couple of doctors.  One of the things that I am dealing with now is also a problem that I have had for a very long time and that is “dread” or anxiety.  One day last week or so I could not get Philippians 4:6 out of my mind which says “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  I began to listen to sermons while on my walk each day from John MacArthur’s sermons on Philippians chapter four which the Lord led me to and they are beginning to help me with this “dreadful” problem.

 

            My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to get me through this difficult time that I am going through, through His Word and through the power of His Holy Spirit.

 

2/6/2024 8:04 AM

PT-4 "Alertness" (Matt. 24:37-42)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/5/2024 8:34 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-4 “Alertness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 24:37-42

 

            Message of the verses:  “37 "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39  and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

 

            I have been writing in the last few SD’s what the attitude and response that will prevail before the coming of the Son of Man.  This was displayed in the verses that speak of what went on in the days of Noah.  Now I want to quote from MacArthur’s commentary and pray that those who read this will pay special attention to what he writes:  “The previous signs, the abomination of desolation, the disruption of the heavenly bodies, and the preaching of God’s witnesses during the Tribulation will have no effect on the majority of men. (Italics added) They will see God’s signs but attribute them to natural causes or to supernatural causes apart from God.  They will hear His Word, in one instance supernaturally preached worldwide by an angel (Rev. 15:6-7), but they will respond with disdain or indifference.  They will heed neither warnings nor appeals from God up until the very moment the Son of Man appears to confront them in righteous judgment.”    This, to me, sounds just like what happened when Noah preached for 120 years, and then when he and his family got into the ark and then God shut the door which singled the end of the people’s time who were on earth as the witnessing was over, and will be over when the Lord returns.

 

            I have heard it said, and I believe it, that there will be the biggest harvest of souls that ever happened during the Tribulation period.  First of all we read of the 144,000 Jews who will come to Christ almost immediately after the Tribulation period begins.  There are also the two witnesses who will preach the gospel, and as mentioned there will be an angel in heaven who will preach the gospel, and then you couple that with those who become believers will also tell others the good news of the gospel.  With all of that said this time of the tribulation will be dominated not by belief but by unbelief, not by holiness but by wickedness, not by godliness but by ungodliness.  It will be epitomized by secularism and false religion, even as most of the world is today, but to an immeasurably worse degree.  One of the problems during the Tribulation period is that many, many believers will die for the cause of Christ.  I have read that three out of four believers will actually die for the cause of Christ during this time period.

 

            As mentioned this time period of the Tribulation will be similar to the days of Noah, which is one of the points that the Lord is making. 

 

            I will start this next section which begins with the following:  then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.  MacArthur then writes “Jesus is giving a figure parallel of the unbelievers of Noah’s day being taken away in judgment through the Flood.  When He returns, one will be taken to judgment and the other will be left to enter the kingdom.  This is the same separation (46).  The ones left will be Christ’s sheep, His redeemed people whom He will preserve to reign with Him during the Millennium.”

 

            One more comment from the quote from Peter’s sermon on Pentecost where he said in Acts 2:20-21 “20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ (ESV).  In this final moment when the King comes to establish His kingdom, some people will turn to Christ in sincere faith and be redeemed.  They will be set apart as the Lord’s sheep by the angels and will inherit the kingdom prepared for them.

 

            2/5/2024 9:19 AM

 

PT-3 "Alertness" (Matt. 24:37-42)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/4/2024 7:55 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-3 “Alertness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 24:37-42

 

            Message of the verses:  “37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 "Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

 

            I put quotation marks around a paragraph in my MacArthur commentary on Matthew to remind me to quote this paragraph as I begin this Spiritual Diary.  “As people run amok in sin and every form of debauchery and ungodliness, they will become more and more impervious to God’s truth and resentful of His standards of righteousness.  They will be so vile, wretched, and preoccupied with sex, drugs, alcohol, materialism, and pleasure seeking that they will believe every explanation for the end time signs except the one given in Scripture.  Rather than turning to God in repentance, they will curse Him (Rev. 9:21).”  This is not a good place to be in, for in being in this kind of place a person will have a cold hard heart and will not likely respond to the message of salvation.  Another thing is that as I look around the world today, especially in our country this seems to be happening right before my eyes.

 

            As we look back into the book of Genesis and read about what was going on in the days of Noah, the days which the Lord is referring to we will see that before the flood that they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.  We have talked that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark and so the people that were around him would have a witness to the harm that was going to come upon them, as Noah preached to them.  2 Peter 2:5 speaks of this as Peter writes the following in verses 4-5, with five focused in on the days of Noah.  4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.”  The people were not paying attention to his preaching nor in the building of the ark, only for their way of life which will be similar to what will be going on during the tribulation period.  Once more you have to realize that when God created the world, He created it so that it was perfect, and there was no need of having rain because the world was watered by a mist coming up out of the ground and so the people of Noah’s day including Noah had never seen rain before, much less had never a flood, and probably did not know what a flood was, but in 120 years they would find out.  I can imagine that people would make fun of Noah and his sons as they were building the ark, and so they just went on with their daily sinful lives while this preacher of righteous was pleading with them to repent.  Jesus said that they were eating and drinking and of marrying and giving in marriage.  It was business as usual until the day Noah entered the ark and it started to rain. 

 

            MacArthur writes “Even when his prediction began to be fulfilled before their eyes they did not take his warning to heart.  Noah ahd built and preached for 120 years, yet without having the slightest impact on anyone outside his immediate family.  The people were so untouched by God’s truth that they did not understand their perilous situation until the flood came and took them all away into a godless eternity.  Flood translates kataklusmos, which means deluge or washing away, and is the term from which the English cataclysm is derived.  Only after it was too late did the people of that generation understand their tragic destiny.”

 

            I have studied what different people whom I trust have said happened when this flood of Noah’s day happened and when you think about it, it makes sense.  What probably happened was the earth was tilt on its axes which caused a dramatic change in climate.  There was water inside the earth, as mentioned the earth was watered from a midst coming up out of the ground.  There was a vapor barrier over the earth that kept the sun’s radiation from coming down on the earth, thus caused people to live a very long time during that period of time.  So the water came up from the earth and the vapor barrier let lose that the earth became flooded almost instantly.  Rain came down for forty days and nights and all as of this happened the earth was changed in the shape that it is in now.  I have read that in the polar regions which are covered with ice that elephants were found in the ice preserved because of the ice and actually had food in their mouths.  This indicates the quickness of what happened during the flood.  In a recent Facebook post it was stated that on top of Mount Everest they ground had in it things from the bottom of the sea.  I believe that the world before the flood was all together in one land mass and the flood caused it to split apart in the way it is now.  I am living on the island of Maui, vacating in my sister-in-laws house while they are on vacation, and as I think of this island chain I truly don’t believe that it existed like this before the flood.  Our world is much different than it was in the days of Noah, and it was sin that caused the Lord to bring about the flood.  I have to say that our world, created by God is still very beautiful, but it is dangerous to live on now because of the results of the flood.

 

            In the next SD, Lord willing we will begin to look at the attitude that will happen before the coming of the Son of Man.

 

2/4/2024 8:35 AM  

PT-2 "Alertness" (Matt. 24:37-42)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/3/2024 8:38 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-2 “Alertness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 24:37-42

 

            Message of the verses:  “37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

 

            I want to begin this Spiritual Diary with a reminder once again, and that is that chapters 24-25 of Matthew are all about the tribulation period.  I can remember when I first became a believer and I was listening to Hal Lindsey’s tapes and reading his books on the end times and he stated that this section had to happen before the rapture of the church, but I am afraid that he was wrong about the timing of this section of Scripture, as it is in the tribulation period, the 70^th week of Daniel’s prophecy found in chapter nine of Daniel.

 

            Now I have highlighted the words “just like” found in verse 37 and I believe that this means that the time of Noah, just before he and his family go into the ark are similar to the time before the Lord will return from heaven to set up His kingdom, similar in many ways.  John MacArthur in his commentary writes about something that happened in Matthew 16:1-3 “1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 But He replied to them, "When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 "And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?”  I think that the highlighted portions of these verses make the point that I want to make here and that is that these Pharisees had seen many, many signs that Jesus did to prove that He was the Son of God, their Messiah, and yet did not want to understand this truth because Jesus did not fit into their profile of who the Messiah was.  People during Noah’s day watched Noah and his sons build a boat in the middle of dry ground for 120 years (people lived much longer then), and yet turned their backs on the truth that it was going to rain on the earth, something that had never happened before.  During the times of the tribulation period there will be many strange things that will happen that if people wanted to understand what they are could have listened to the 144,000 Jewish evangelist, of listen to the two witnesses in Jerusalem, or even listened to an angel who preached the gospel from the skies above, yet they too will turn their backs on these signs which very well could cost them their opportunity to receive Christ and live for eternity in heaven, as opposed to eternity in Hell, the lake of fire.

 

            The Jews of Jesus’ day not only did not listen to Jesus, the very Son of God, their promised Messiah, but they put Him to death.  I have mentioned a song in earlier SD’s a song that was written by Paul Anka for Frank Sinatra entitled “I Did I My Way.”  The song speaks of Sinatra doing things his way, and the problem with the son is that Sinatra did things his way, which is the problem with many people in the world today.  It was the problem with the people of Noah’s day, and with the Jewish leaders in the time when Christ was on earth, and will happen with many millions of people during the tribulation period.  As you read this Spiritual Diary and think about doing things your way, stop and think that your way may be the wrong way, and I am speaking of how to get into the kingdom of heaven.  It was a little over 50 years ago that I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and through the working of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit decided to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior, not doing things my way but doing things God’s way.  I can look back on those 50 years from the advantage of looking back and know beyond a shadow of doubt that that was the best decision that I have ever made in my life and it affected not only my life but the life of my wife of over 50 years, it affected the lives of my children who had not yet been born as they too received Jesus Christ as their Savior.  It affected the lives of our seven grand-children who also have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and so I have to say that if I did things my way none of these wonderful things in my life would have ever happened, and I can thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for making all of this possible.  The lyrics in that song had these words in it “regrets I’ve had a few, but then to few to mention,” and I have to say that I have had problems in my life, problems that the Lord has allowed to bring my closer to Him, and the Lord was by my side in all of them and is faithful to keeping me close to Him.

 

2/3/2024 9:13 AM

PT-1 "Alertness" (Matt. 24:37-42)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/2/2024 9:22 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-1 “Alertness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 24:37-42

 

            Message of the verses: “37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

 

            I want to explain why I think that the Lord Jesus Christ used the flood in order to illustrate the point that He was making about the coming of the Son of Man.  It has to do with the attitude the prevailed during the days of Noah…before the flood which will also characterize most people who are living during the end times just before our Lord returns to planet earth, which takes place at the end of the tribulation period.  Now let me try and make a point here to help us better to understand why I say that the people on planet earth will not expect the Lord to return when He does.  I have studied the end time prophecies ever since I first became a believer and because of that learning from good Bible teachers I know much of what will happen and when it will happen during this seven year period called the Tribulation.  However most of the people living on earth during this time period will have very little knowledge of what the Bible has to say about this time period that they are living in and so, yes, they will be surprised when the Lord does return in much of the way that the people of Noah’s day were surprised when the flood came even though they watched Noah build the ark for 120 years.  MacArthur adds “Despite the perilous signs and wonders, they will simply be unconcerned about the things of the Lord, especially the prospect of His imminent return to judge them.” 

 

            The world we are living in today has gotten much smaller as far as travel and communication, therefore it will be easier for people to try and explain the extraordinary end-time phenomena on a scientific and rational basis, expecting to discover a natural cause for the cataclysms that will have and will be taking place.  The problem today is similar to what the problem of that time will be and that is that they will look every other place than the Word of God to find answers as to what will be taking place.

 

            Think about the first time when Jesus came to planet earth as we read about this in the gospels that He healed many, many, people. He raised many from the dead.  Feed many people through great miracles, and many other miraculous things that He did, and yet for the most part people did not believe in Him as to who He was, the very Son of God, the Messiah who came into the world exactly how the Old Testament prophets said that He would come, and at the exact time they said He would come.  Daniel’s prophecy of 490 years explains the time period when the Lord would come leaving seven years of yet unfulfilled prophecy which is the tribulation period that will be fulfilled, (in my opinion) very soon.

            I will end this SD by quoting a paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary.  “Sinful, materialistic, hypocritical, godless mankind is willfully blind to God’s truth, no matter how compelling the truth may be.  And when God’s truth exposes their wickedness, they make every effort to oppose and condemn it.”  How true this is!

 

2/2/2024 9:50 AM    

PT-4 "Intro to Matthew 24:36-51)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/1/2024 8:37 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-4 “Intro to Matthew 24:36-51”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 24:36-51

 

            Message of the verses:  “36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38  "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 “For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. 45 “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47 “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 “But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

            I promised that I would quote the last section from John MacArthur’s commentary on his introduction to these verses.  Another thing that I want to quote is something that I read while posting another SD on my other blog this morning which comes from the book of Daniel and in that SD there was a quote from the late Warren Wiersbe that spoke to my heart.  This quote has to do with end-time prophecy and I think that all who read this will learn from it, which is one of the goals of me writing these Spiritual Diaries.  The main goal is to bring glory to my Lord.

 

            “Jesus demonstrated His divine omniscience on many occasions.  ‘He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man’ (John 2:25).  When for example, Nicodemus came to Him at night, Jesus already knew what he was thinking and answered his question before it was asked (John 3:13).

 

            “But there were certain self-imposed restrictions in His human knowledge He told the disciples, ‘All things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you’ (John 15:15).  Jesus obediently restricted His knowledge to those things that the Father wanted Him to know during His earthly days of humanity.  The Father revealed certain things to the Son as He reveals them to all men—through the Scriptures, through the Father’s working in and through His life, and through the physical manifestations of God’s power and glory (see Rom. 1:19-20).  Jesus learned much of His earthly knowledge just as every human being learns, and it is for that reason that He was able to keep ‘increasing in wisdom’ (Luke 2:52).  In addition to those ways, some truths were revealed to the Son directly by the Father.  But in every case Jesus’ human knowledge was limited to what His heavenly Father provided.

 

            “Therefore, even near the end of His earthly ministry, the Son did not know the precise day and hour He would return to earth at His second coming.  During Christ’s incarnation, the Father alone exercised unrestricted divine omniscience.

 

            “It seems probable that Christ regained full divine knowledge after the resurrection, as implied in His introduction to the Great Commission: ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’ (Matt. 28:18).  Just prior to His ascension, He told the disciples, ‘it is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority’ (Acts 1:7).  He repeats the truth that the disciples would not be told the time of His appearing, but He did not exclude His own knowledge, as He did in the Olivet discourse.

 

            “The three attitudes Jesus mentions in Matthew 24:37-51 are specifically addressed to the generation (Matt. 24:34) that will be alive during the Tribulation and that will witness the signs described in verses 4-29.  Those attitudes are:  alertness (vv. 37-42), readiness (vv. 43-44), and faithfulness (vv. 45-51).”   With that we have a good idea of where we will be heading in the next few days or weeks as we conclude this study of Matthew chapter 24 which actually began on November 19, 2023.  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that I do not like airplane views in studying of the Scripture, and that is why I appreciate the teaching of John MacArthur who actually gave 225 messages on the book of Matthew.

 

            Now I want to quote from my Spiritual Diary that I just posted on my other blog which most of it came from Warren Wiersbe, with a little from me at the end.

 

            We will conclude this portion of this Spiritual Diary with a quote from Warren Wiersbe:  “Daniel is a good example for students of prophecy to follow.  He asked the Lord for the explanation (Dan. 8:15) and allowed the Lord to instruct him.  But his investigation into God’s prophetic program wasn’t a matter of satisfying curiosity or trying to appear very knowledgeable before others.  He was concerned about his people and the work they had to do on earth.  He so identified with what he learned that it made him ill!  Too many ‘prophetic students’ don’t wait before God for instruction and insight, nor do they feel burdened when they learn God’s truth about the future.  Instead, they try to display their ‘knowledge’ and impress people with what they think they know.  The whole exercise is purely academic; it’s all in the head and never changes the hearts.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  This quote from Dr. Wiersbe has kind of stepped on my toes a bit for I must confess that there have been times when this has been true in my life.  In the book of Revelations, Revelations 10:9 it says “So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, "Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.’” John the apostle was told to eat a little book, and the book would be sweet in his mouth, but sour in his stomach, but why was this true?  Well the little book contained prophecy which was good to learn about but when he began to think about it and all of the people the prophecy would affect it began to make him sick, and this is what happened to Daniel.  Knowing prophecy and its meaning should put a burden in your heart for those it will affect, and not make one puffed up for knowing it.

 

2/1/2024 9:10 AM