PT-1 "A Strong Example As Spiritual Mentor" (2 Tim. 3:10-13)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/8/2025 8:13 AM

 

My Worship Time                                     Focus:  PT-1 “A Strong Example As Spiritual Mentor”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  2 Timothy 3:10-13

 

            Message of the verses:  “10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

 

            I want to begin by looking at the conjunction but, as this marks a contrast and a change of emphasis. (Now in the version of NASB I have here the word is translated “Now.)  Now the faithful character and ministry of Paul are here contrasted with the ungodly character and ministry of the false preachers and teachers (the “men,” v.2).  “2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy.”  These are mentioned in verses 1-9, verses that we have just gone over before I began the introduction to this section in yesterday’s SD.  It took me four days to go over verses 1-9.

 

            MacArthur writes “The apostle tells his son in the faith that, unlike those heretics, ‘you followed my life and ministry.’  Paul reminds him of the character of that ministry to lead up to the command in verse 14 to ‘continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of.’  That is the key command in this section.  Timothy had the best training by spending several decades with Paul.  He knew firsthand what it took to combat error and to preserve the truth.  This was no time to fail under the pressure of difficulty.”

 

            Here is something to think about, and that is that with the exception of Jesus’ twelve disciples who were taught by Jesus Himself during His time on earth, no Christian has had a greater example and mentor than Timothy had in Paul.  Now what does that mean to believers today in the 21^st century?  I believe it means that we can learn so much from the study of the gospels as we see how the Lord was teaching His disciples, preparing them for when He would leave them, as He said that He would not leave them as orphans, but that the Holy Spirit would come upon them, which it did as seen in the 2^nd chapter of Acts.  Now from the time that Paul took Timothy on his second missionary trip, Paul was investing in Timothy things that were similar to what Christ taught His disciples.  Having a good mentor is a great way of learning the truths of the Bible.  I have had several mentors in my walk with the Lord.  I have mentioned that once I became a believer in January of 1974 that the first thing that I did was to visit a Christian book store where I purchased a “Living Bible” and began to read it.  Once I got back home to Ohio the first think I did was look at the yellow pages to find a Christian book store.  Once I found the one that I believe the Lord was leading me to the man that I meet, Fred, shortly after that began to mentor me.  For years later I joined Grace Baptist Church in Westlake Ohio, and was then mentored by the pastor, Ralph Burns.  There were others that I learned from while attending that church too.  After leaving that church because the new pastor was not one I desired to sit under I moved to First Baptist Church, Elyria, OH, where I was mentored by Pastor Patrick Odle for almost ten years until he left to become the president of Baptist Mid Missions.  Now let me say that I have been mentored by Dr. Warren Wiersbe, and also John MacArthur as I spend time with those men each and every day as I moved through 25 years of studying the entire Bible.  Mentoring is so very important for believers and it is my hope and prayer that those who read my Spiritual Diaries are being mentored by what the Lord has laid on my heart while writing them.

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  It is so very important to be mentored and then when I learn from those who have mentored to mentor others that the Lord has brought into my life.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I truth that the Lord will use some things we learn as my wife and I go to a homeopathic Dr. this afternoon in order for he to guide my wife as she battles cancer after her surgery from last week.

 

5/8/2025 8:47 AM  

           

              

PT-5 "Being Loyal to the Truth" (2 John 7-8)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/7/2025 8:31 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-5 “Being Loyal To The Truth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  2 John 7-8

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.”

 

            I realize that this is a lot of information on these two verses, and that has always been the way that I like to study the Bible.  The pastor at our church is going through the book of Matthew, and he said that it would take a year to get through it.  In my study of Matthew it took me one week less than five years to get through it, and it took me a little over a year to study Matthew 5-7 which is the Sermon on the Mount.  He will go through it in six weeks.  I am glad that I can study the Bible on my own, and do it the way that I like to do it and then also happy that I can share it as I put it onto my blogs which today when I looked at the two different blogs that I have had a combination of 37 countries where the Spirit of God has sent them to.  Now some of the countries were on both blogs and so the total was over 20 different countries, and that makes me very happy.

 

            I will now complete the last portion from John MacArthur’s commentary on this SD which will end our study of these two verses.

 

            “Like every faithful pastor, John and Paul were concerned that those under their care not lose ground spiritually.  It was that concern that prompted Paul to sharply rebuke the Galatians for dabbling in false doctrine:

 

1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

 

“The church today has a legacy that has been handed down to it, a heritage that must be preserved at all costs.  Men of God throughout history have preached, taught, and defended the true gospel, often at great cost of time, effort, and persecution—even to the point of death.  As his life drew to a close, Paul repeatedly exhorted Timothy to protect the truth that had been handed down to him:  ‘O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you’ (1 Tim. 6:20); ‘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); ‘You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them’ (2 Tim. 3:14; cf. 2 Thess. 2:15).

 

            “But those who, influenced by false teachers, slip backwards risk far more than undoing the labor of faithful shepherds.  The tragic consequences of their spiritual regression will include failing to receive a full reward.  The Bible teaches that believers will be rewarded in heaven for their service in this life (e.g., Matt. 5:12; 10:42-42; Luke 6:35; 1 Cor. 3:10-15; 4:3-5; 2 Cor. 5:10; Col. 3:24; Rev. 22:12).  While salvation cannot be lost (cf. John 6:37-40; Rom. 5:1; 8:1, 28-39; Heb. 7:25; 1 Peter 1:4), unfaithful believers may forfeit some of the reward that faithfulness to the truth would have gained them.  John did not want to see that happen to those whom he lived and labored among.  Paul had the same concern in mind when he warned the Colossians, Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind’ (Col. 2:18).

 

            “Believers must be discerning and decisively reject deceiving false teachers, no matter how loudly they clamor for love and tolerance.  Loyalty to the truth, written and incarnate, demands it, and the consequences of not doing so—both now and in eternity—are sufficient reason to be faithful.”

 

            With that we end this section from 2 John 7-8, and Lord willing we will begin to look at “Guarding the Truth” found in 2 John 9-11.

 

5/7/2025 8:58 PM

Intro to "Standing Against Apostasy" (2 Timothy 3:10-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/7/2025 10:33 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                    Focus:  Intro to “Standing Against Apostasy”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  2 Timothy 3:10-14

 

            Message of the verses:  “10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them;”

 

            John MacArthur writes the following in his introduction to these verses and the first statement speaks of his introduction to the entire letter of 2 Timothy.

 

            “As mentioned in the introduction, Paul had three overriding priorities in his life:  to know Christ, to defend Christ’s truth (Scripture), and to minister in Christ’s name.  A major part of both of his letters to Timothy focuses on the second priority, defending God’s revealed truth.

 

            “There is much relational preaching today that attempts to make people feel better about themselves and about how God might feel about them, but there is little forceful defense of the full truth.  As in most periods of church history, strong and effective defenders of the faith are at a premium.  Not many pastors and teachers cry out for doctrinal and moral purity for right belief and right living.

 

            “The New Testament church faced the same deficiency.  ‘Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation,’ Jude admonished, ‘I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.  For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ’ (Jude 3-4).

 

            “Paul here continues to focus on Timothy’s service as a strong and loyal defender of the faith, pointing up two necessary qualifications for such a defender: having a strong example as his spiritual mentor (vv. 10-13) and having strong convictions built into a spiritual foundation (v. 14).  A third qualification, strong adherence to scriptural authority and sufficiency, will be discussed in the following commentary chapter.  Because Timothy already had observed these qualifications, their mention here is by way of reminder and summary.  Timothy should have no excuse for not being strong and triumphant in battling apostasy, because he had been privileged to observe the noblest soldier in battle—Paul.”

 

Spiritual Meaning for My Life Today:  I am thankful that Timothy was in the life of the apostle Paul, as Paul’s letters to Timothy have great meaning, and are still today as important as they were when Paul wrote them to Timothy.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  This comes from my other Spiritual Diary that I was working on this morning:  “Dr. Wiersbe quotes from a noted Scottish preacher named George Morrison in many of his commentaries with a quote that every believer should put to memory and it is the theme of this psalm that David has written.  Morrison writes “The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”  This is a wonderful truth to remember, for we all will need new beginnings.” The Psalm reference is Psalm 30.

 

5/7/2025 11:10 AM

  

PT-4 "Being Loyal To The Truth" (2 John 7-8)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/6/2025 7:35 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-4 “Being Loyal To The Truth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  2 John 7-8

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.”

 

            I will continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary and then perhaps will give some of my comments on this section of verses.

 

            “John defined the particular false teachers in his sights as those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.  There are many ways to undermine the gospel, such as by denying the deity of Jesus Christ, or that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.  But these heretics denied that the true humanity of Jesus Christ, refusing to acknowledge that He was God who had become fully human.  They were forerunners of the dangerous second0century heresy known as Gnosticism, which posed one of the gravest threats to the early church…”

 

            This afternoon as I had just finished my walk at the park I usually go to I ran across a man who I know, not well but know.  He attends a meeting each day at the park where a number of former alcoholics meet in order to encourage each other so they don’t drink.  Last year I set with two of them and gave out the gospel message to them, but there was little response.  I believe this meeting is a part of a group that is fairly large and it began with motives to cause these men to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but has kind of slipped into just focusing to get those who attend to stop drinking.  They do say the Lord’s prayer at the end.  Tony, whom I thought was catholic, but not sure after today attends for the reason to get help to continue to stop drinking.  Today’s conversation had a lot of Biblical information in it which I gave to him, but his thoughts were that what I believed was as good as other “religious groups” and he mentioned the Muslins.  I just told him there is only one way to be saved.  If we talk again I will try and update my conversation with him.

 

            “John countered the false teacher’ diverse attacks on the person attacks on the person of Jesus Christ by stressing the truth about Him in his epistles.  In 1 John 1:3 he identified Jesus Christ as God the Son (cf. 3:23; 2 John 3); in 2:1 he presented Him as the believers’ Advocate with the Father, whose death propitiated God’s wrath against their sin (v. 2; cf. 1:7; 4:9-10); in 2:22-23 he declared that those who deny that Jesus is the Christ do not know God; in 3:8 he pointed out that Jesus has destroyed the works of Satan; in 4:14 he affirmed that the Father sent the Son into the world as Savior, and reiterated in verse 15 that only those who confess Jesus as the Son of God know the Father (cf. 2 John 9); and in 5:9-13 John wrote that only those who believe the divine revelation about Jesus Christ have eternal life.

 

            “To deny the biblical truth that in Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, God became fully human is to propagate demon doctrine.  Anyone who does so is a deceiver and an antichrist (cf. 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3).  To teach as these heretics did, that Jesus’ humanity was merely an illusion is to strike a blow at the heart of the gospel.  If Jesus were not the God-man, fully human as well as fully divine, He could not have died as the substitute for men.

 

            “Knowing the serious threat the false teachers posed, John warned his readers, Watch yourselves.  The church must be vigilant, discerning, even suspicious, because what is at stake is so vital.  Having labored in the lives of this lady and her children, John wanted to see the full fruit of that effort; he did not want them to lose what they together had accomplished.  Paul expressed a similar concern for the Corinthians:

 

1 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. 3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 4 For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.

 

            I will stop here and Lord willing will finish this section in my next SD.  Thanks for reading this SD.

 

5/6/2025 8:00 PM

 

PT-4 "Opposers of the Truth" (2 Timothy 3:8-9

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/6/2025 10:52 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus: PT-4 “Opposers of the Truth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  2 Timothy 3:8-9

 

            Message of the verses:  “8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.”

 

            I mentioned in my last SD that I would quote the end of John MacArthur’s comments from his commentary on these verses.  I like when he kind of just goes off in explaining what he wants to explain after looking at verses.  He does this from time to time and I learn much from those times when he does this.

 

            “Sooner or later the folly of false teachers and preachers becomes obvious to all of God’s people, as also did the folly of those two, Jannes and Jambres, in ancient Israel.  While these ‘evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived’ (v. 13), their plunge into the depth of sin and error, which deceives them and other ungodly men, ceases to deceive the people of God, who see the error clearly.

 

            “This passage holds several lessons, explicit or implicit, for believers today.  First, we must realize that the church is in spiritual warfare, a warfare that will intensify as Christ’s second coming draws nearer.  Second, we must be doctrinally discerning, testing every message that claims to be Christian against God’s Word, as did the God-fearing Jews of Berea, who ‘received the word with great eagerness,’ but carefully examined ‘the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things’ that Paul and Silas preached ‘were so’ (Acts 17:11).”  That is one reason that I take time each day to “2Ti 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”  This verse is the name and theme of my blogs.

 

            “Third, we must be pure and holy vessels of honor for the Lord to use, Christ’s own righteousness is our protection against false teachers, false doctrine, and ungodly living. Fourth, we must be patient, a difficult task for many Christians today who want instant answers to their questions and immediate resolution of their problems.  We know the ultimate outcome is certain, that victory already belongs to Christ and His church, but the actual time of victory may be further away than we would like to think.  In the meanwhile, our responsibility is to remain faithful (see. 1 Cor. 4:2.”  “In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.”

 

            “The church today faces times of unparalleled difficulty and danger.  As extraordinary opportunities for spreading the gospel increase with rapidity after the breakup of much of the former Communist world, attacks on that church are also increasing with great speed.  Heresy, apostasy, self-will, and their accompanying moral decadence are engulfing the evangelical church.  Like cancer cells that rebel against the body, these evils are in rebellion against God by corrupting and weakening the church, the body of Christ.  Also like cancer cells, the evils multiply rapidly and choke out and destroy normal cells, the evils multiply rapidly and choke out and destroy normal cells.  Much like white cells in the blood, which will not attack cancerous cells because they are identified with the body, many naïve and careless church leaders take no actions against corruption in the church simply because the corruption hides behind the guise of orthodoxy.  Simply put, much of the church is in rebellion against the Lord.

 

            “In the days ahead, the escalation of violence against the kingdom of God by the kingdom of darkness will intensify.  As in any warfare, there will be times of relative calm, but God’s Word assures us of ever-increasing wickedness, which will culminate in the appearance of Antichrist, the ultimate deceiver and enemy of God except for Satan himself.  Like the wolves that would come into the flock at Ephesus from within and try to destroy it (Acts 20:29-30), Antichrist, along with other false christs, false apostles, and false prophets, will come from within Christendom.

 

            “Before the Antichrist appears, Paul informs us, the great apostasy will come first, which, by definition, is a falling away, or defection, from God and His truth.  At the peak of his power, Antichrist, ‘the man of lawlessness,…the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, [will take] his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God,… the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders’ (2 Thess. 2:2-5, 9).  We know that his defeat is certain, because ‘the Lord will slay [him] with the breath of His mouth and bring [him] to an end by the appearance of His coming’ (v. 8).  But before that final defeat is accomplished—before and during the great apostasy and before the Lord takes His own to Himself at the Rapture—the church will continue to experience expanded assaults from the adversary.

 

            “Even now, the attacks against God Himself and against His truth and His righteousness come from so many sides and in so many forms that it is hard for His people to know which front to defend.  Discerning Christians are hard put to know which falsehood to refute or moral compromise to oppose.  No believer, no matter of gifted and willing, is able to fight on all fronts.  But we are not called to win God’s battles single-handedly and are presumptuous and foolish to try.  He does, however, expect us to yield to Him all that we are and have and to be willing to be used wherever and in whatever way He leads.”

 

Spiritual Meaning for My Life Today:   “be willing to be used wherever and in whatever way He leads.”

 

My Steps of Faith for Today: “be willing to be used wherever and in whatever way He leads.”

 

5/6/2025 11:32 AM

 

 

 

           

 

 

PT-3 "Being Loyal to the Truth" (2 John 7-8)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2025 10:21 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-3 “Being Loyal To The Truth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  2 John 7-8

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.”

 

            I will continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary and then perhaps will give some of my comments on this section of verses.

 

            “These wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15) become especially dangerous when they infiltrate the church; hence the New Testament is full of warnings about them.  In the Olivet Discourse Jesus predicted that in the end times ‘false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect’ (Matt. 24:24).  Paul called them ‘savage wolves’ (Acts 20)29); ‘false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ’ (2 Cor. 11:13); servants of Satan who, like their wicked master (v. 14), ‘disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds’ (v. 15).  The Apostle told Timothy that ‘the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons’ (1 Tim. 4:1).  In his first letter John pleaded with his readers,

 

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1 John 4:1-3).

 

“Jude vividly and extensively denounced these deceivers as

 

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 4).  11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. 12 These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; 13  wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. 14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’ Jude 11-15; cf. Peter’s similar denunciation of them in 2 Peter 2:1-21).”

 

“Everywhere the true gospel goes, Satan’s emissaries are sure to follow.  They preach a false, satanic gospel and thereby prevent the true gospel message and pollute the church.  Paul warned the Galatians against them in the strongest possible terms:

 

 

6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of

Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”

 

            I suppose that was easier for people to be fooled by false teaching early on in the church age, for there were no Bibles like we have now and the churches were smaller, and then God was taking His eye off of Israel and putting it onto the church.  I can say that I am thankful that every since I became a believer that the Lord has led my wife and family to a great church to worship in, even thought the first one we had to leave after a long period of time because when we got home from our job in Aruba the church had called a new pastor, and then after a few years we had to leave and then went to our present church.  The church we now go to was founded before the civil war in our country.  The way that true believers can know that the church they are attending is a good church is to continue to study the Word of God in order to understand what a true church of Jesus Christ is all about.  I have mentioned before that bank tellers learn all there is to know about currency made by the U.S. government so that when someone brings a counterfeit bill in they will recognize it.  Same with finding a good church.

 

5/5/2025 10:49 PM

 

PT-3 "Opposers of the Truth" (2 Tim. 3:8-9)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2025 9:22 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus: PT-3 “Opposers of the Truth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  2 Timothy 3:8-9

 

            Message of the verses:  “8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.”

 

            In today’s SD I begin with a quotation from John MacArthur’s commentary: “The apostle admonished members of the church in Corinth, ‘Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test [Adokimos]?’  (2 Cor. 13:5; cf. vv. 6-7).  Paul used the word in his previous letter to that church, expressing fear that ‘possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified [Adokimos]’ (1 Cor. 9:27).  He was not, of course, speaking of being disqualified from salvation, as were the men who were rejected as regards the faith, but of being disqualified as a usable instrument, a vessel of honor, of the Lord in ministry.

 

            “Paul assured Timothy that, despite the great turmoil and damage they cause the church, such men will not make further progress.  In other words, they can seriously harm the church and can prevent many unsaved from becoming saved; but they cannot rob His redeemed people of salvation.  Jesus Himself assures us that ‘the gates of Hades shall not overpower’ His church (Matt. 16:18), and that ‘all that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out’ (John 6:37).  Until the Lord returns, ‘false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order, if possible to lead the elect astray’ (Mark 13:22).  But they will not make further progress in their evil schemes.”

 

            I have to say at this point that this section of these two verses is very long, but that does not make any difference to me as I believe all who read from this section can learn things that will bring glory to the Lord.

 

            “Many times throughout history, the church has seen so fiercely persecuted that believers have feared not only for their own lives but for the very existence of the church.  But God has a boundary that proscribes the work of Satan, not only in the church but in the world. He is on a divine tether that he can neither break nor lengthen.”  I really like that last statement as it shows that God has planned the events of this world in eternity past, and that there is nothing on earth that can change what His plans are for this world.  I realize that many times that as one looks at what is going on in our world today that they could wonder if God really is in charge, but fear not the Lord is always in control, and one of the great things for us as believers is to realize that our prayers can be a part of what the Lord is going to accomplish, so keep faithful and continue to pray.  I have mentioned that sometimes that we who are living in this world as believers see the bottom of a tapestry. We look at all of the seemingly scrambled threads from the bottom and have no idea of what is on the other side, but on the other side it can be seen something beautiful, something that the Lord has created and one day we as believers will be able to see the other side and then again will realize that the Lord was and is surely in control of our lives.  We each have our own tapestry and one day we will get to see the other side, and realize that the Lord has been making something wonderful out of our lives.

 

            Perhaps I will be able to finish this section as it looks like MacArthur has some very interesting things he has written in the remaining part of this section. 

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  I trust the Lord that when I get to look at the other side of the tapestry that then I will realize all that the Lord has done in my life in order to bring glory to His name.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am thankful to the Lord for answering a prayer request of mine that was to me like an emergency and I wondered when He would answer it but He did and I am praising the Lord for the answer to mine and my wife’s prayer request.  (See Psalm 28).

 

 5/5/2025 10:00 AM