PT-1 “The Scope of His Commission” (2 Timothy 4:2b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/03/2025 9:33 AM

 My Worship Time                                                Focus: PT-1 “The Scope of His Commission”  

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  2 Timothy 4:2b

            Message of the verse:  “be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

            Now in order to be an effective, a faithful preacher one must understand the scope of his commission, and as we will see Paul will summarize it here in this section and in this verse.

            An effective Pastor must be like any effective worker, as he must be ready.  Being ready is the second command Paul uses in verse 2 and this translates ephistemi, which has a broad range of meanings according to John MacArthur, as determined by tense, mood, and voice. I certainly have to admit that I don’t understand a lot about the Greek language, and am thankful that I can read these types of things from MacArthur’s commentaries and thus pass them on in my Spiritual Diaries.  MacArthur writes “It often connotes suddenness, as in Luke 2:9 (‘suddenly stood before’) and in Acts 12:7 (‘suddenly appeared’; cf. 1 Thess. 5:3); or forcefulness, as in Luke 20:1 (‘confronted’) and Acts 4:1; 6:12; 23:27 (‘came upon’).  In the aorist active imperative, as here, the word carries the complementary ideas of urgency, preparedness, and readiness.  It could be used of a soldier who is ready to go into battle on a moment’s notice or a guard who keeps continually alert for any threat of infiltration or attack by the enemy.”

            Now that MacArthur as given us some great examples we now want to look at this as the verse speaks of a faithful preacher is to be ready as it carries similar meanings of gravity and vigilance.  He should feel like Jeremiah who felt under divine compulsion to prophesy.  Here is an example of this from Jeremiah 20:9 “But if I say, "I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name," Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.”  This can be compared with Jeremiah 5:14 “Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, "Because you have spoken this word, Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire And this people wood, and it will consume them.”

            Seeing how this is a holiday in our country I will make this SD a bit shorter, and will end it by quoting two paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary.

            “While Paul stayed in Caesarea for a few days on his way back to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey, the prophet Agabus ‘took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, ‘This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’’…the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem.’  But Paul’s immediate reply was, ‘what are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?  For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus’ (Acts 21:11-13).

            “Such a sense of readiness and willingness to serve the Lord at any cost and at any time not only should characterize every faithful preacher but also every faithful Christian.  Peter exhorted his readers, most of whom were suffering severe persecution from Rome, ‘Sanctify Christ as Lord in you r hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence’ (1 Peter 3:15).  Writing to believers in the church where Timothy now was ministering, Paul implored, ‘Be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil’ (Eph. 5:15-16).”

            Lord willing I will pick up where I have left off in tomorrow morning’s SD.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to continue to trust the Lord each and every day in order to be doing the things that He has called me to do for the cause of Christ, to continue learning from His Word and obeying what I learn for the cause of Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to guide my wife as she seeks homeopathic care for any remaining cancer that may be in her body.  I am thankful she is getting stronger after her major surgery which happened on the 29^th of April.  I am thankful that the Lord is in control of this situation and it is our hope that all of this will bring glory to the Lord.

7/4/2025 11:00 AM

 

PT-2 “Jude’s Background” (Jude 1a)

 

 EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/03/2025 9:11 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  PT-2 “Jude’s Background”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                Reference:  Jude 1a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,”

 

            It is my desire to finish this section in my Spiritual Diary this evening as it is important to understand the background of Jude, for not much is said about him in the New Testament other than he is the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the full brother of James, the one who headed up the church in Jerusalem for a fairly long time.

 

            Now once again look at how Jude introduces himself in this section: a bond-servant of Jesus Christ.  There is a very good reason what both he and James did not introduce themselves as the half-brother of Jesus Christ and as we look at this section from Jude 1a we can see that it indicates that the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ had transformed his heart.  Now remember when the Lord was on the earth talking at times to his earthly family his half-brothers did not believe He was the Messiah.  I have never read anything about His half-sisters as to whether they finally believed in Him.  Jude went from being an unbeliever (cf. John 7:5) to being a bond-servant (doulos, “slave”), one who trusted Christ as his Lord and Master.  Now let me give you a list of verses that MacArthur puts into his commentary that go along with this.  (“cf. Matt. 24:46; Luke 2:29; Acts 4:29; Gal. 1:10; Col. 1:7; 2 Tim. 2:24; Rev. 19:5”).  “Accordingly, his saving relationship to Christ became more important than family ties (cf. Mark 3:31-35).”  Let us take a look at those verses:  “31 Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. 32 A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You." 33 Answering them, He said, "Who are My mother and My brothers?" 34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, "Behold My mother and My

brothers! 35 “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.’”

“Thus Jude chose to humbly call himself Jesus’ bond-servant rather than not the more impressive fact that he was Jesus’ half-brother.”

 

            A fairly long time ago I read a book written by John MacArthur as he discussed the meaning of doulos, which is the Greek word for slave, and yet in one looks at a concordance of the Greek found in the Bible they will see that words like “bond-servant” actually mean slave.  Jesus Himself is also called slave in the Word of God, but when it comes to the English translations the authors do not want to offend anyone by using the word slave where it should be used.

 

            MacArthur concludes “In the Greco-Roman world slavery was widespread, making the familiar New Testament designation bond-servant (cf. Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1) very significant.  It denoted being owned and rendering absolute, selfless submission to someone, in this case to Jesus as Lord.  In this letter such identification is especially fitting because it sets Jude in sharp contrast to the apostates.  He was a grateful, willing slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas the apostates denied Christ’s lordship through their overtly sinful lifestyles (v. 4; cf. 2 Peter 2:1).”

 

            All I can say that the same thing goes today in so-called churches and it will continue to get worse the closer we get to the Rapture.

 

7/3/2025 9:36 PM

 

 

PT-3 “The Content of His Commission” (2 Timothy 4:2a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/03/2025 9:33 AM

 My Worship Time                                             Focus:  PT-3 “The Content of His Commission”

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                   Reference:  2 Timothy 4:2a

            Message of the verse:  “preach the word;”

            I begin this SD with a quotation from John MacArthur’s commentary:  “Intellectually brilliant as he was, the apostle testified to believers at Corinth:   “Brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you testimony of God.  For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.  And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God’ (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

            ‘In his next letter to that church, he said, ‘We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake’ (2 Cor. 4:5).

            “By far the most reliable and effective way to proclaim all of God’s Word is to preach it expositorially. In his book Ministry of the Word, the nineteenth-century Scotsman William Taylor writes,

By expository preaching, I mean that method of pulpit discourse which consists in the consecutive interpretation, and practical enforcement, of a book of the sacred cannon…Exposition is the presentation to the people, in an intelligible and forcible manner, of the meaning of the sacred writer…It is the honest answer which the preacher gives, after faithful study, to these questions, “What is its bearing on related Christian truths, or on the life and conversation of the Christian himself?’ ([Grand Rapids: Baker, 1975], 155, 157, 159)

Like countless men before and after his time, Taylor preached expositorially because he wanted to know the mind of the Spirit, because he wanted to know how one Scripture truth bore upon another, and he had to carefully understand what God desired for His people.

            John MacArthur then goes on to give seven reasons why faithful and full proclamation of the word is the only right way to preach, and I will now begin to give those seven reasons as I continue this SD.

            First, such preaching lets God speak rather than man, because it declares God’s own Word.  And it is an incredibly thrilling privilege to give voice to God!

            Second, preaching the word is the only right way to preach because it brings the preacher into direct contact with the mind of the Holy Spirit, who is the author of Scripture.  Now it is for that reason that the preacher of the Word can find the process of study and discovery to be even more rewarding than the preaching that results from it, gratifying as that can be.

            “It is tragic and puzzling that so many preachers who recognize Scripture to be God’s own Word spend more time investigating and interacting with the limited and imperfect minds of other men that delving into the infinite and holy mind of God.  Part of the reason, of course, is that many hearers do not really want to delve into the depths of God’s righteousness and truth, because it exposes their own shallowness and sin.  Paul already has warned Timothy about the danger of those who hold ‘to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power’ (2 Tim. 3:5).  Later in the present passage he will warn again that ‘the time will come when the will not endure sound doctrine;,,, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths’ (2 Tim. 4:3-4; cf. Acts 20:29-30).

            Now we move onto the third point, and that is preaching the word is the only right way to preach because it forces the preacher to proclaim all of God’s revelation, and this includes those truths that even many believers find hard to learn or accept.

            Number four: Preaching the word is the only right way to preach because it promotes biblical literacy in a congregation, not only through what is learned from the sermon itself but also through the increased desire to study Scripture more carefully and consistently on their own.  Now the faithful pastor, and all other faithful believers, love to learn God’s Word because they love the God of the Word.  I and now think of the 119^th Psalm where in all but a few verses, perhaps three or four of the 176 verses the name of God is mentioned.

            Fifth, preaching the word is the only right way to preach because it carries ultimate authority.  It is the complete and perfect self-revelation of God Himself and of His divine will for mankind, which He has created in His image.  So the question arises as to why any faithful preacher would go to any other source to preach the truth.  Now I am not saying that examples cannot be made in a preachers sermons for after all Jesus used parables to help explain truth, and yes I do know that is part of the Word of God.

            “Sixth, preaching the word is the only right way to preach because only that kind of preaching can transform both the preacher and the congregation.”

            Seventh and final and most compelling reason that preaching the word is the only right way to preach is simply that it is His own Word, and only His own Word, that the Lord calls and commissions His preachers to proclaim.

            MacArthur concludes “In the book mentioned, above, William Taylor writes, ‘Let it never be forgotton, then, that he who would rise to eminence and usefulness in the pulpit, and become ‘wise in winning souls,’ must say of the work of the ministry, ‘This one thing I do.’  He must focus his whole heart and life upon the pulpit.  He must give his days and his nights to the production of those addresses by which he seeks to convince the judgments and move the hearts and elevate the lives of his hearers’ (p. 7).”

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  MacArthur in this section was writing about something that I truly love, as there are many days when I am taking my 5 mile walk that I listen to the preaching of John MacArthur to help me to live for the Lord in a better way, and also to prepare me to write my Spiritual Diaries which go onto my blogs and then the Holy Spirit of God sends them around the world each and every do to those He desires to read them, and truly blesses my days.

M y Steps of Faith for Today:  I continue to trust the Lord, through His Spirit to send these Spiritual Diaries around the word in order to bring about salvation and to cause believers to grow in their walk with the Lord, and to most of all bring glory to my Lord Jesus Christ.

7/3/2025 9:05 AM

 

PT-1 “Jude’s Background” (Jude 1a)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/02/2025 8:41 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  PT-1 “Jude’s Background”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                Reference:  Jude 1a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,”

 

            In this SD it is my objective to find out who Jude is as I look at his background.  Jude (Heb. ‘Judah’) or “Judas” was a very common name during this time of the New Testament.  An example of this would be that two of the disciples were named Judas—Judas Iscariot and Judas, son of James as referenced in (Luke 6:16; John 6:71; 14:22; and Acts 1:13).  In looking back at the conversion of Paul Acts 9:11 he shortly met Ananias at the house of a Judas of Damascus.  And Judas Barsabbas, a leader in the early church, joined Paul, Barnabas, and Silas in carrying a letter from the Jerusalem Council to the believers who were at Antioch as seen in Acts 15:22-33.  Then there was even a Judas of Galilee, who founded the Zealots and led an uprising in early first-century Palestine seen in Acts 5:37, so you can see this name was very popular during this time period.

 

            As we look at our verse we can see that the Jude who penned this letter was not any of those men mentioned above.  Instead, he was the brother of James.  James was the half brother of Jesus as seen in Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3; and cf. Gal. 1:19 and James was the leader of the Jerusalem Council as seen in Acts 15:13.  Let us now look at the salutation of James in James 1:1 to show some similarities to Jude 1a.  “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.”  Jude, unlike James (cf. Gal. 1:19), did not consider himself an apostle (cf. v. 17).  “17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  However, his close relation to both Jesus (as a half brother) and James certainly gave Jude a position of prominence and authority in the early church—a platform from which he could address the dangers of false teaching in which he spends much time in this letter writing about.  Now it is ironic that in God’s providence the Holy Spirit chose a man with the same first name as Judas Iscariot, the most infamous apostate of all time as seen in Acts 1:16-20, and 25, to write the New Testament epistle on apostasy.  Now I have looked at a discussion of the authorship when 1 quoted from John MacArthur’s introduction earlier in another SD.

 

            Now at this time I want to discuss something that not all “churches” will go along with and that is the fact that Mary, the mother of Jesus was also the mother of Jude and James and other children that she had.  It is known from the introduction of the different gospels that it was the Holy Spirit of God who impregnated Mary to have Jesus, her first born, and that makes all the other children May and Joseph had as half-brothers and sisters of Jesus.  I have recently heard that the new Pope has once again stated that Mary was indeed God, and believe me that is not true at all, for they say Mary remained a virgin, but the Bible says her and Joseph had other children.  When the Catholic Church states things like Mary is God, then one has to see that not all of their doctrine comes from the Word of God, and that leads many people astray. Let me quote from the end of the book of Revelation in order to make a point:  “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” (Rev. 22:18-19). 

 

            One of the things that I am looking forward to do is to quote from the second sermon that John MacArthur preached on the letter of Jude which I believe will be very interesting and informative to all who reads it.  I plan on doing that once I get through the first three verses found in this chapter from MacArthur’s commentary.

 

7/2/2025 9:14 PM

 

           

 

 

PT-2 “The Content of His Commission” (2 Timothy 4:2a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/02/2025 9:33 AM

 My Worship Time                                             Focus:  PT-2 “The Content of His Commission”

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                   Reference:  2 Timothy 4:2a

            Message of the verse:  “preach the word;”

            I begin this SD by talking about how Timothy was to be like “John the Baptist [who] came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:1-2), He then goes on to say in John 1:29 “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

            Now what does Paul mean when he uses the word, Word?  It seems that he doubtless means the entire written Word of God, His complete revealed truth, which the apostle also calls “the whole purpose of God” in Acts 20:27 and which he has just referred to as “the sacred writings’ and the “Scripture” (2 Timothy 3:15-16).

            Now this paragraph makes me think about how the Bible was written.  “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21.)  Paul later writes the following in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; He then goes on to write “so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”  The Scripture is “God breathed” and so even though we have different versions of the Bible we can trust it because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God as He moved men to write what He wanted them to write, and it is amazing to me that the Holy Spirit would use these men to write in their own style, yet inspired by Him.

            It is true that a preacher cannot continue to faithfully preach and teach the Word of God unless he carefully protects its truth as we see when we read “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you,” and Paul had warned in his precious letter to Timothy, “avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’” (1 Timothy 6:20).  It was near the beginning of this second letter he admonished, “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” and “Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:13-14).  Paul also implored Timothy to handle “accurately the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15), because truth that is poorly retained, guarded, and handled inevitably will be poorly taught.

            John MacArthur writes:  “After declaring the marvelous truth first proclaimed by the prophet Joel (2:32) that ‘whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved,’ Paul asks rhetorically in his letter to the church at Rome, ‘How then shall they [unbelievers] call upon Him in whom they have not believed?  And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach unless they are sent?’  Again quoting from the Old Testament, this time from Isaiah 52:7, the apostle then exults, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!  (Rom. 10:13-15).

            Of his own preaching Paul said,

25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27  to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

 

            “There are gifted orators who can sway an audience with the power of their persuasive rhetoric.  There are men who are erudite,” (well read) “knowledgeable, well-trained and worldly –wise, who can cause other men to change their minds about certain matters.  There are men who can relate moving stories that tug at a hearer’s heart and move him emotionally.  Throughout the history of the church, including our own time, God has chosen to endow some ministers with such abilities.  But God also has chosen not to bless every faithful preacher in those particular ways.  Nevertheless, He charges tem with the same task of preaching His Word, because the spiritual power and effectiveness of preaching does not rest in the skill of the speaker but in the truth.”

 

            I certainly can relate to what MacArthur wrote in the above paragraph, as I have written on many occasions how the Lord called me to Himself when I was an unbeliever.  I was taking a vacation by myself five months after my wife and I were married, as I visited a friend of mine who was living near Orlando Florida.  My intentions were certainly not godly as I visited him and his girlfriend.  After arriving there my friend allowed me to listen to several tapes his former boss had given to him, as his former boss had recently came to know the Lord as his Savior and Lord.  Hal Lindsey an evangelist who had a similar kind of background but was now preaching the Word had recently written a book entitled “The Late Great Planet Earth” and his messages were about what he had written in that book.  It was while listening to those messages that the Lord saved me and changed my life completely.  That was 51 years ago this past January 23^rd.  I was afraid of what was going to happen to this world and how it would end and in those messages I was given the answer from Lindsey’s preaching, and that is what the Lord used to bring me to Himself in salvation.  I will never forget that week I spent in Orlando, and so I called my wife and asked her to join me there and in April of that year she gave her life to Jesus Christ, and then the story continues as we had two children and at an early age they both accepted the Lord.  Our daughter and her husband had four children and all of them were saved at an early age.  Our son has three children and they also came to know the Lord at an early age.  The sad part of this story is that my friend who at that time said he and his girlfriend who are now married turned away from the Lord, as he was never a true believer.  With this story I will end my Spiritual Diary for today.

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today: It was just a good reminder how powerful the Word of God is, and how much I enjoy studying His Word each day.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Holy Spirit of God will continue to use the Spiritual Diaries that I write each day for the glory of the Lord.

 

7/2/2025 10:44 AM

 

PT-2 “Introduction to Jude 1-3”

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/01/2025 9:11 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-2 “Introduction to Jude 1-3”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  Jude 1-3

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.  3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”

 

            At the end of last night’s SD we looked at a lot of warnings, that is the references in the New Testament of those warnings and I think that I will go ahead and quote that last paragraph on this SD in order to keep the train of thought going.

 

“I will conclude this SD with a quotation from John MacArthur as he writes ‘The rest of the New Testament records similar warnings, instructing believers to guard themselves against the deceptive nature of false teaching masquerading as Christian truth (Matt. 24:10-14; 2 Thess. 2:3-12; 1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-9; 2 Peter 2:1-3:7; 1 John 2:18-19; 4:1-3; 2 John 7-10; Rev. 2:6, 14-16, 20-23; 3:1-3, 14-18; cf. James 5:1-6).’”

 

            It is very true that those warnings were well-founded as by the end of the first century, when the apostle John wrote the book of Revelation, only two of the seven churches he addressed, which were Smyrna and Philadelphia, remained completely faithful. Now if you are interested in a study of the book of Revelation, I have two complete studies on that great book that are found on my blogs.  Now the other five churches, to one degree or another, had fallen prey to infiltrating doctrinal error and its moral consequences.  Now think about that fact for a moment as Jesus was giving His analysis of these seven churches found in the 2^nd and 3^rd chapter of Revelation there are only two churches that He had nothing bad to say about them, and as talked about the other five churches He had critical things to say to them, and here is the kicker, the last church, Laodicea He was standing at the door trying to get into the church.  You may have seen the painting of Jesus knocking at the door of the Laodicean church and if you look closely there is no door handle on His side of the door, which means the only way that He could get in if they opened the door.  Now one more thing I want to mention and that is that I believe that as one goes through the church age we can see the main churches are in order of what are in the book of Revelation, chapters 2-3.  If that is true, and I believe it is then we are living in the Laodicean church age and have been for probably 50-60 years as this type of church is the last type of church before the Rapture takes place.  I guess one could say it will only get worse as the world is heading for the seven year Tribulation period.

 

            Thus, Christ commanded them to repent, stand firm, and combat the falsehood they encountered; they were to wage war against apostasy and overcome it, and that is a wonderful thing to do, even in the times we are living in.

 

            No although it is believed that Jude’s letter was written some twenty-five years earlier, he also recognized that the battle for the truth in the church had already begun, as Peter only a few years earlier had prophesied in 2 Peter 1:1-3 and 3:1-3.  That’s why Jude devoted his entire letter to the presence of apostate false teacher. Again this is one of the reasons that I believe that the Lord has allowed me to write my Spiritual Diaries on what was written near the end of the writer’s life, as I am studying 2 Timothy now, and am almost done with that book that Paul wrote right before his death.  Now we are looking at Jude, and then 2 Peter, and I believe both were written near the end of the writer’s life.  John MacArthur writes “That’s why Jude devoted his entire letter to the presence of apostate false teachers.  He wanted his readers to stand strong against the spiritual deceptions that threatened to wreak havoc in their fellowship.  And he also wanted all who propagated such errors in the church to be exposed and expelled.”

 

            Now as the last of the New Testament epistles, the book of Jude serves as a literary vestibule to the book of Revelation, and that was a wonderful place that the Holy Spirit placed this book.  In Jude, false teachers are examined, their motives uncovered, and their doom predicted.  Then in Revelation, that inevitable destruction is developed in detail, as our Lord’ future triumph ultimately eliminates error and then establishes truth forever.

 

            John MacArthur concludes this section by writing:  “Jude wrote this letter in A. D. 68-70, shortly after Peter finished his second epistle.  The two letters are closely related, containing several nearly identical descriptions of false teachers and apostasy.  In fact, Jude is likely a sequel to 2 Peter, perhaps written to the same group of Christians to tell them that what Peter had said was coming was now present.  Second Peter 2-3 uses future tenses in its references to false teachers.  Jude wrote in the present tense.  As he began his letter, setting the stage in the first three verses, he revealed his background, his audience, and his exhortation.”

 

            Lord willing tomorrow I will begin to look at “Jude’s Background” found in verse 1a.

 

7/1/2025 9:40 PM

 

           

 

 

PT-1 “The Content of His Commission” (2 Timothy 4:2a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/01/2025 10:35 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                Focus:  PT-1 “The Content of His Commission”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                   Reference:  2 Timothy 4:2a

 

            Message of the verse:  “preach the word;

 

            I am beginning a new section this morning in my Spiritual Diary and as you can see it is a short title, but a title that has a great deal of meaning, not only for Timothy, but also for Pastors throughout the church age.  The truth is that the faithful minister of Jesus Christ is commanded to preach the word, and this focuses on the content of what is proclaimed. Now as we look at this command we will see that Preach translates the first of nine imperatives Paul uses in this passage, five of them in verse 2 which are preach, be ready, reprove, rebuke, and exhort, and four in verse 5 which are be sober, endure, do and fulfill.

 

            Now the word preach is from kerusso, and this means to herald, to proclaim publicly.  In the New Testament times, the herald, acting as imperial messenger, would go through the streets of a city to announce special events, such as the appearing of the emperor as an example.  Hid duties also included public announcement of new laws or government policies and actions. 

 

            John MacArthur writes:  “Paul himself not only was appointed an apostle but also, like Timothy, was appointed a preacher (1 Tim. 2:7; cf. 2 Tim 1:11).  But because of Timothy’s timid spirit, that task was especially challenging for him.  He did not have the naturally strong and aggressive personality or constitution of his mentor.  He also may not have had the formal training or intellectual skill to argue successfully on a human level with more sophisticated and experienced errorists in and around the church.  He doubtless felt inadequate and intimidated when they presented arguments for which he had not yet developed a successful apologetic or polemic.  And in the eyes of some believers in Ephesus, he also was handicapped because of his youthfulness, although Paul had earlier counseled him to disregard such criticism (1 Tim. 4:12).” “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.””In addition to resistance within the church, Timothy faced growing hostility from unbelieving Jews and from the Roman government.  It was persecution by those enemies that had put Paul in prison.”

 

            That is not all for there were other reasons why Timothy might have been tempted to soften his proclamation, especially that of evangelism, which Paul mentions in verse five, “But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”  Timothy realized that the idea of salvation solely through God’s grace runs totally counter to the thinking of natural men and is often met with anger or indifference.  Now that continues to be true in our world today, and the closer we get to the return of Jesus Christ as the Rapture the more this will be seen, and all one has to do is look around the world to see the truth of it.  However when preaching to unbelievers, whether Jew or Gentile, Timothy was to be like Noah, who “was a righteous man, blameless in his time [and] walked with God” as seen in Genesis 6:9 and also Hebrews 11:7.  Timothy also was to be like Noah in being “a Preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).  It was long before God made His covenant with Abraham, before He made His covenant with Israel and gave them the law at Sinai, and even still longer before He made the final and perfect covenant through His Son, Jesus Christ, Noah preached God’s righteousness to the ever-more wicked antediluvians, which means before the flood.  As far as we know, Noah was not persecuted, but we do not know that his preaching for a hundred years while he was building the ark fell on completely indifferent ears, because not a single soul outside his immediate family trusted in the Lord to save them. Now in earlier Spiritual Diaries I spoke of two views on why this happened, and one of them was a view from John MacArthur who thought that somehow certain angels were having sexual relations with some of the women before the flood.  In looking at Dr. Warren Wiersbe comments he did not think that this was possible.  I have to say that right now I am leaning toward what Dr. Wiersbe had to say about this subject.

 

            MacArthur writes “Like every preacher of God’s truth to unbelievers, Timothy also was to be like Jonah, who declared to the wicked pagan city of Nineveh, ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown’ (Jonah 3: 4).  In great contrast to that of Noah, however, Johan’s preaching produced an amazing response of repentance and faith in the true God.  ‘The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment,’ Jesus declared, ‘and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah’ (Matt. 12:41).

 

            Lord willing we will continue  looking at this section in tomorrow’s SD as this again is a rather long section to read over and study, but well worth the time to do so.

 

Spiritual Meaning for My Life Today:  Now as we compare these two men we have looked at, that is Noah, and Jonah it can be understood that at least to me that Noah was more willing to preach the “gospel” than Jonah, but that shows me that it is God who gets the results because it is God’s message, and it is the Holy Spirit of God who moves hearts.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  It is my desire to continue to write the truth in my Spiritual Diaries, and in order to do that I must continue to study God’s Word so that what I say is the truth, and then rely on the Spirit of God for the results that He will produce.  It is my pleasure to put these Spiritual Diaries onto my blogs and even some of them on Facebook, so that the Spirit of God can use them for the glory of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

7/1/2025 11:24 AM