EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/3/2025 9:04 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The Lord Preserves the Saints”
Bible Reading & Meditation Focus: Jude 24a
Message of the verse: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,”
I want to begin by saying that as I was quoting from John MacArthur’s commentary in yesterday’s SD that I neglected to quote a paragraph which had to do with the verses that were quoted, which were from the letter to the Ephesians 1:13-14, and so I want to finish quoting the paragraph which goes along with those verses, which I will now quote:
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory (vv. 13-14).
“In the same way that an ancient seal served as both a secure guarantee and a mark of ownership, the Holy Spirit is given to believers as divine proof of salvation. The work of the Spirit in the lives of His people confirms that they have truly been regenerated (Titus 2:3-8; cf. Gal. 5:21-22). As Paul noted elsewhere, ‘The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God’ (Rom. 8:16). Having been adopted into God’s family, believers are assured by the indwelling Holy Spirit Himself that they will never be disowned.
Now there are other places in the Word that the apostle Paul also emphasized that salvation is a gift based solely on God’s grace through Christ’s death, and salvation is not based on human good works, but rather on God’s working alone. Now we want to look at some more verses from the epistle to the Romans where Paul writes the following in 5:8-11:
“8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
“Before God saved them, believers were the enemies of God (Eph. 2:1-3). There was nothing good in them that made them worthy of His love (cf. Rom. 3:10-19. Thus it was only by His infinite grace and according to His perfect plan (cf. Rom. 8:28-30) that salvation was ever even offered to them. Ephesians 2:8-9 reiterates this reality: ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.’ Salvation is truly a free gift from God. It could not possibly be earned by human works or self-righteousness (cf. Titus 3:1-8). By the same token, it cannot be kept by human effort. The eternal security of the believer rests upon the same infinite sacrifice that brought salvation in the first place—the death of Jesus Christ (cf. Heb. 7:27). Because Christians did nothing to earn salvation, they can do nothing to lose it; they were saved by the loving power of God, and they remain saved by that same power. With this in mind, Paul joyously exclaimed,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused 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)
“At the end of this epistle, he returned to the theme of perseverance, writing, ‘After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you’ (5:10).
9/3/2025 9:33 PM
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