SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2024 7:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Inheritance of the Saved”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
25:34-40
Message of the verses: “34 "Then the
King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. 35 ‘For I was hungry, and you
gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something
to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed
Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
37 "Then the righteous will answer
Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something
to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked,
and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent
that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of
them, you did it to Me.’”
I want to begin with the words “prepared for you” found
in verse 34 which accentuates the selectivity of salvation. It was before the time that the world was
created, that God sovereignly chose those who will belong to Him. Let us look now at Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to
become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn
among many brethren.” MacArthur writes “The
source of salvation is the Father’s blessing, the reception of salvation is
through faith, and the selectivity of salvation is in the advance preparation
of the Father made in ages past.
Stressing the same truth, Peter declared, ‘Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy he causes us to be
born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not
fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God
through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1 Peter
1:3-5).”
Now in the last SD we talked about the good deeds
that were seen in Matthew 25:35-36, and some have thought wrongly that these
good deeds were what saved these people in the Tribulation period. Let us look at Ephesians 2:8-10 “8 For by grace
you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Notice that verses 8-9 show us how we were saved, by grace through
faith, and then notice what a believer is to do after they are saved which is
seen in verse ten as we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works. Then notice that it is God who prepared
beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
The works come after salvation, not before, and the works that a
believer is to do have been prepared by God for the believer to do. I have mentioned this in earlier SD’s and
believe that the word that was prepared for me to do in eternity past was the
writing of my Spiritual Diaries which are then put onto my two blogs and as
Jesus said to the disciples just before He ascended into heaven that they were
to give out the good news of the Gospel in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." I was watching an Easter movie entitled “Risen”
and it was a story about the man who was a part of the crucifixion of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was instructed by
Pilate to find the body of Jesus Christ, and yet when he found the Lord He had
been raised from the dead. At the end of
the movie when Jesus was about to go back into heaven He quoted what is found
in Acts 1:8, and my thoughts immediately went to my blogs, praising the Lord
that the Holy Spirit is using them to go all around the world with the good
news of the Gospel. Lord willing we will talk more about what MacArthur has to
say about this salvation that is offered in my next SD.
I
want to take time to wish everyone a Happy Easter and for them to remember that
He has risen, He has risen indeed.
3/31/2024 8:16 AM
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