SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/13/2014 10:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Strength, Truth, and Grace
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Thess.
3:16b-18
Message of the
verses: My goal is to finish the
commentary of the 2nd letter to the Thessalonians as we look at the final two and
a half verses.
Strength (2 Thessalonians 3:16b): “The Lord be with you all!” I hope you remember that we have mentioned
the different attributes of God in past SD’s, and one of them is that He is
omnipresent, which means that God is everywhere. When studying the attributes of God from a
book entitled “The Joy of Knowing God” the author writes that the presence of
God is even in hell, and then went on to explain that there were different
kinds of presences of God, and that is exactly what we will be looking at to
answer this question as to why Paul writes that the Lord be with us all. In his commentary on this section John
MacArthur writes that he believes that Paul is speaking of God’s Holy Spirit to
be with them, and of course all true believers.
He quotes John 14:16-18 which says “16 “I will ask the Father, and He
will give you another
Helper, that He may
be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does
not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will
be in you. 18 "I will not leave you
as orphans; I will come to you.” Acts
1:8 says “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the
remotest part of the earth."”
Why do believers need the presence of God’s Holy
Spirit? To answer this question we will
briefly look at six reasons why believers need God’s strengthening presence in
the form of His Holy Spirit from the commentary of John MacArthur.
“First, it enables them to resist temptation.” This may sound like a funny statement, but
when I was working on the midnight shift many years ago I use to leave the
house at 10:13 and this always reminded me of 1 Corinthians 10:13 which says “No
temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful,
who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the
temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to
endure it.” This verse is a part of my
prayers, that God will give me the grace to overcome temptations. Now remember that the word “temptation” can also
be translated as “tests.” God tests us
while Satan tempts us so if we fail a test then we are then being tempted. MacArthur writes “Christ’s strength will open
up the path for believers to flee temptation.”
“Second, believers need God’s strength to face Satan and
his demon hordes.” The answer to how we
face Satan and his demon hordes is found in Paul’s letter to the
Ephesians. “10 Finally, be strong in the
Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that
you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our
struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces
of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that
you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to
stand firm.” Paul then goes on to
identify the pieces of the spiritual armor that are needed to accomplish this
feat.
“Third, believers need God’s strength to effectively
serve Him.” We can look at the calling
of Paul by the Lord in order to minister to those whom God would lead him to as
an example of how we as believers are called to do what the Lord has called us
to do for the cause of Christ. Ephesians
2:10 gives to us how we are called to do work for our Lord: “For we are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would
walk in them.” As we look at this verse
we can see that before the world was created God was preparing good works for
us to do for Him.
“Fourth, believers need God’s strength to
persevere.” 2 Timothy 4:18 is an example
of this “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely
to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Think of this and that is that Paul only
wrote four more verses that are recorded in the pages of Scripture as he was
about to be martyred for the cause of Christ.
“Fifth, believers need God’s strength to endure
trials.” This is seen in 2 Corinthians
12:9-10 “9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for
power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather
boast about my weaknesses, so
that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with
weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with
difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
“Sixth, believers need God’s strength to effectively evangelize
the lost world.” This can be
demonstrated as we look at Acts 1:8, a verse we have already looked at: “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."” MacArthur writes: “Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19
summarizes believers’ need for God’s power in every aspect of life. He prayed that God ‘16 would grant you,
according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the
inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all
the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.’” Next we look at Philippians 4:13 “I can do
all things through Him who strengthens me.”
We can be assured that God will give us all the strength we need to
accomplish the work that He has prepared for us before the world was made by
Him. As we think of this we must look
back to what was written in yesterday’s SD about God giving us His peace, and
how we must continue to walk in the Lord in a manner that His peace will
continue to be in our lives.
Truth (2 Thessalonians 3:17): “17 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own
hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter; this is the way I
write.”
As we look at verse seventeen we must realize that Paul
is actually interrupting his benediction in this verse, but will return to it
in the next and last verse. Remember
that the Thessalonians had received a letter that was from a false prophet who
said it was from Paul, however we must remember that Paul used a secretary to
write his letters and then at the end of the letter he would write something in
his own handwriting in order to assure his readers that it was from him. Another example of this is found in his letter
to the Galatians: “6:11 See with what large letters I am writing to
you with my own hand.”
We have learned in our study of Paul’s letters to the
Thessalonians that he indeed knew that he was writing Scripture, and so by
knowing this he wanted to make sure that the truth that he wrote would not be
confused by some false teacher who claimed that he was writing something in
Paul’s name. Paul was very much
concerned of the truth of Scripture.
One of God’s attributes is Truth as we learn from what
Jesus said “I am the way, the life, and the truth.” Truth is one of the most important things
that we can learn from the pages of Scripture, for God is truth. Pilate as Jesus what is truth, but he never
waited to get the answer. We must never
walk away from the truth that is found in the Word of God, for we must search
the Scriptures in order to know the truth that is found in it. MacArthur writes “Paul wanted the church to
be the ‘pillar and support of the truth’ (1 Timothy 3:15). But to do so, it must be able to distinguish
between ‘the spirit of truth and the spirit of error’ (1 John 4:6). The only benchmark for doing so is the ‘word
of truth’ (Col. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:15; James
1:18), which is why Paul was so deeply concerned to guard, protect, and assure
the authenticity of the revelation God gave him.”
Grace (2 Thessalonians 3:18): 18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you all.” Paul wanted the Thessalonians
to continue to have the grace of God.
MacArthur gives the following definition of grace: “Grace is God’s undeserved goodness and
benevolence granted to those who in no way deserve it. Saving grace was decreed by God (Ps. 84:11)
and given through our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. John 1:17; Rom. 5:15; 1 Cor. 1:4;
Titus 2:11). Grace is essential, not
only for salvation (Acts 15:11; 18:27; 20:24; Rom. 3:24; Gal. 1:6, 15; Eph.
1:7; 2:5, 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:7), but also for endurance (2 Cor. 12:9; cf.
Prov. 3:340, service (Rom. 12:6; Eph. 4:7; 1Tim. 1:12-14; 1 Peter 4:10, growth
(Acts 20:32; Heb. 13:9; 2 Peter 3:180, and giving (2 Cor. 8:1). Believers experience God’s enabling,
sanctifying grace by trusting Him, obeying His Word, enduring chastening, doing
good, walking in the Spirit, and praying.”
MacArthur concludes this chapter, and his commentary on 2
Thessalonians with the following paragraph:
“There is a wonderful mystery to living the Christian life to the glory
of God. To do so requires all the
understanding, obedience, commitment, dedication, and effort that the redeemed
can give. But all of that would be
futile were it not for the peace, strength, truth, and grace that only God can
supply. Paul had the balance when he
wrote, ‘For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which
mightily works within me’ (Col. 1:29).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful to
the Lord for His perfect timing. I know
that I have read the last words that Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians many times,
and I can now say that these last three verses of 2 Thessalonians have been
very important to me, and as I said they were given to me in perfect timing
from the Lord. Praise the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to remember peace, strength, truth,
and grace, and what they mean to me.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:1-4.
1 Simon Peter, a
bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of
the same kind as ours, by the righteousness or our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine
power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through
the true knowledge of Him who called us by His glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Shem, Ham, Japeth” (Genesis
9:18).
Today’s Bible
question: “The name of which book of the
Bible is derived from one of the sons of Jacob?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/13/2014 12:29 PM
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