SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/27/2019 8:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 Intro into “The Believers Warfare”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:10-13
Message of the verses: “10 Finally, be
strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor
of God, that you may 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, that you may be able to resist in the
evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
We
begin by looking at the third church that the Lord sent a letter of warning to,
and that church was Thyatira, and the problem that this church had was
sin. We read that the Lord said to this
church “I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance,
and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you, that you
tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and
leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat
things sacrificed to idols” (Rev. 2:19-20).
There were many good things about this church, but the sinful thing that
they did was becoming the victim of a false teacher who masqueraded as a
teacher of God. “Jezebel” led many of
the believers into idol-worship and the sexual immorality associated with it,
and the church and its leaders tolerated her and her doctrine.
Not
a lot has changed in today’s churches as believers like unbelievers frequently
are idolized by the things of the world.
John MacArthur writes “When a person longs to be like the world and
insists on aping, he soon will be thinking and acting like it.
“The
Lord does not tolerate sin in His church, and righteousness is not a matter of
balancing good things with bad.
Thyatira’s good list was longer than her bad, but that did not protect
her from judgment. The Lord had given
her ample time to repent, and when she refused, He said, ‘Behold, I will cast
her upon a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation,
unless they repent of her deeds. And I
will kill her children with pestilence; and all the churches will know that I
am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you
according to your deeds” (Rev. 2:22-23).
The bed of vice would be turned into a bed of death for all who remained
in the sin, and other churches would be warned by the judgment of those
believers.”
One
of the problems with many churches today is that they do not deal with sin,
perhaps they think that it is old-fashioned to do so. Tough love is what is needed as seen in 1
Cor. 13:6 “love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the
truth.”
I
have mentioned many times in different SD’s about the downfall of the
sinfulness of the churches in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of
Revelation and so when we look at the next church, Sardis it was worse than the
ones before it. The members of this
church were spiritually dead, and perhaps this was true because of the wealth
in that city.
John
MacArthur writes “When a
church substitutes programs, activities, ceremonies, and human issues for the
Lord and His work, it becomes a spiritual corpse, despite its appearance of
vitality. It has no spiritual life
because God is not there.”
Now
we mentioned this fifth church already, which is Laodicea and this is the last
church and if you believe that these churches are in prophetic order for the
dominant church in the world, then you have to believe as you look around the
world today that we are and have been in this type of church at this time, and
the only good news is that if all of this is true, and I believe it is, is that
we are near the coming of the Lord to take His church out of this world and
into heaven with Him. Laodicea was a
phony church, the Lord said that it was lukewarm and He wanted to vomit it out
of His mouth, whishing it was either hot or cold.
We
will conclude this introduction with quotes from the last two paragraphs of
MacArthur’s commentary in order to see the direction we will be heading in as
we look more intently at the verses, Eph. 6:10-13.
“The
pattern of regression in the five churches is clear: from loss of first love for Christ, to compromise
with the world, to tolerance of sin, to contentment with programs and
activities, to satisfaction with possessions and self. The adversary attacks the whole church in
this fashion by tempting individuals in the church to fall into such sins. There is no attack on the purity and holiness
of the church that is not a personal attack on the people within that
congregation. The attack can be seen in
the experience of Peter (Luke 22:31-32; 1 Peter 5:8) and of Paul (2 Cor. 12:7;
1 Thess. 2:18). No believer is exempt.
“Recognizing
Satan’s schemes, Paul closes his letter to Ephesus by giving his brothers and
sisters there both encouragement and warning, much as Jesus did in His letters
to the seven churches in Asia Minor over 30 years later. In 6:10-13 the apostle outlines the necessary
information in regard to the preparation, the armor, the enemy, the battle, and
the victory of the believer’s warfare.”
Lord
willing we will look at “The Preparation: Strength in the Lord” in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I need to know the strategies of Satan as
seen in the entire Bible at different places and be filled with the Holy Spirit
along with putting on the Spiritual Armor so I don’t fall into those traps that
are set for me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to keep me spiritually safe,
filled with the Holy Spirit, and humble today.
We begin a new section, number 2 in
“Love in Action” and I will give the quotation for this new chapter or section
in today’s SD.
II. Changing Lives…
By Encouraging Your Friends
“He
climbs highest who helps another up”
Zig
Ziglar 9/27/2019 8:47 AM
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