EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/13/2025 8:40 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2“The
Army”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Jude 1-2
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.”
I will begin this Spiritual Diary with a quotation
from Dr. Warren Wiersbe: “Because they
are set apart and preserved, God’s soldiers are the recipients of God’s choicest
blessings: mercy, peace, and love. Like the Apostle Peter, Jude wanted these
special blessings to be multiplied in
their lives (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:2).
God in His mercy does not give us what we deserve. Instead, He gave our punishment to His own
Son of the cross. ‘Surely He hath borne
our griefs, and carried our sorrows….But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities’ (Isa. 53:4-5).
Because of Christ’s work on the cross, believers
enjoy peace. The unsaved person is at war with God and
cannot please Him (Rom. 8:7-8); but when he trusts the Saviour, the war ends
and he receives God’s peace (Rom. 5:1).”
I think it best if we look at these verses in Romans in the order that
Dr. Wiersbe uses them in his commentary.
“7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God;
for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to
do so, 8 and those who
are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:7-8).
“1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Rom. 5:1).
“Dr. Wiersbe goes on to write: “He also experiences God’s love (Rom. 5:5).” “5 and hope does not
disappoint, because the
love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who
was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). “The
Cross is God’s demonstration of love (Rom. 5:8), but His love is not experienced
within until His Spirit comes into the believing heart.” “8 But God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us (Rom. 5:5).” As the believer grows in his spiritual life, he enters
into a deeper relationship of love (John 14:21-24). “21 "He who has My commandments and
keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My
Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." 22 Judas
(not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are
going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" 23 Jesus answered
and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father
will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 “He who
does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not
Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
“Certainly those who know Christ as their Saviour
enjoy a unique position. They are called
by God to be set apart for God that they might enjoy love with God. While their fellowship with the Father might change from day to day,
their relationship as children cannot change. They are ‘preserved in Jesus Christ.’ Because Jude would write a great deal in this
letter about sin and judgment, he was careful at the very outset to define the
special place that believers have in the heart and plan of God. The apostates would sin, fall, and suffer
condemnation; but the true
believers would be kept save in Jesus Christ for all eternity.” Perhaps it would be good to read over the
last highlighted portion above to make sure that you understand it, and once
you understand it, it would be good to praise the Lord because once you are
into the family of God through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ you are in it to stay.
Dr.
Wiersbe goes on to write: “It bears
repeating that an apostate is not a true believer who has abandoned his
salvation. He is a person who has
professed to accept the truth and trust the Saviour, and then turns from ‘the
faith which was once delivered unto the saints’ (Jude 3). Jude would not contradict what Peter wrote,
and Peter made it clear that the apostates were not God’s sheep, but were
instead pigs and dogs (2 Peter 2:21-22).
The sow had been cleansed on the outside, and the dog on the inside, but
neither had been given that new nature which is characteristic of God’s true
children (2 Peter 1:3-4).” “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 own 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.”
“Here, then, we have the ‘spiritual army’ that Jude
was addressing. If you have trusted
Jesus Christ, you are in this army. God
is not looking for volunteers; He has already enlisted you! The question is not, ‘Shall I become a
soldier?’’ Rather, it is, ‘Will I be a loyal
soldier?’
“Isaac
Watts once preached a sermon on 1 Corinthians 16:13: ‘Watch ye, stand fast in
the faith, quit you [act] like men, be strong.’ When he published the sermon,
he added a poem to it; we sin it today as one of our spiritual songs.”
Am I a soldier of the Cross,
A follower of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own His
cause,
Or blush to speak His name?
Must I be carried to the
skies
On flowery beds of ease?
While others fought to win
the prize
And sailed through bloody
seas?
6/13/2025 9:18 PM
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