SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
04/14/2004
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 Their
Revealing
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Peter
2:13-14a
Message of the
verse: “13 And shall receive the
reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day
time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own
deceivings while they feast with you; 14 Having eyes full of adultery (KJV).”
13 Their wickedness has earned them an evil end and they
will be paid in full. These are the men who delight in daylight
self-indulgence; they are foul spots and blots, playing their tricks at your
very dinner-tables. 14 Their eyes cannot look at a woman without lust
(Phillips).”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “At the expense of those who support
them (2 Peter 2:3), the apostates enjoy luxurious living. In our own society, there are those who plead
for funds for their ‘ministries,’ yet live in expensive houses, drive luxury
cars, and wear costly clothes. When we
remember that Jesus became poor in order to make us rich, their garish
lifestyle seems out of step with New Testament Christianity.”
We see from the Phillips that these men are the ones “who
delight in daylight self indulgence,” which usually takes place at night as was
expected in the ancient world to do this reviling at night, but these through
it was ok to do it in the daylight where all could see them. Dr. Wiersbe adds “A person can become so
accustomed to his vices that he sees them as virtues.”
The problem that we have with these apostates is that
they bring their bad behavior right into the church as a part of the “love
feasts” which we see also in Paul’s writings to the Corinthians. Paul spoke of this in 1 Cor. 11:20-34 as these
apostates would celebrate the Lord’s Table by getting drunk at the love feasts,
and Paul came down very hard on them for their behavior, even stating that
because of this type of behavior that some have died.
Peter writes that these apostates were spots and
blemishes, showing that they were not bringing a blessing to the fellowship as
they defiled the assembly. Doing what
they did with the love feasts and all they were bringing disgrace to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul writes in Ephesians
5:27 “that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no
spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” We see here that it is the Word of God that
helps to remove the spots and blemishes, however these teachers do not minister
the truth of the Word as they twist Scripture to make it say what they want it
to say (2 Peter 3:16).
At this point I have to say that I have been studying a
paper that my late Pastor, Dr. Jack W. Jacobs wrote in 2006 to present to a
group of Pastors. The paper is one that
compares Covenant Theology with Dispensational Theology. In the paper Dr. Jacobs shows some of the things
that are similar between these theologies and then talks about things that are
different. I have said for some time
that once I understood that Covenant Theology takes the promises that God gave
to Israel and says that they are now for the church that Satan has got involved
with Covenant theology, for this is in direct violation with the written Word
of God. There are other major
differences too, especially in their end time’s views. As I read and study what Peter writes about
these apostates I can help but believe that because of the twisting of the Word
of God to make things look like these Covenant Theologists desire to do with
them that they are very similar to who Peter is writing about here in 2
Peter. I am not saying that everything about
Dispensational Theology I agree with as far as how many dispensations there
are, but one thing I do believe, and believe whole heartily that the Bible
teaches is that God is not done with Israel and that the Church age will end
with the Rapture of the Church (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-54), and then
God will deal with Israel during what is called the Tribulation Period which
will last for seven years and then God will give His promised Kingdom to Israel
which will last for 1000 years.
9/11/2017 10:20 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment