EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/04/2025 8:40 PM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Believer’s Precious Faith—Part 2: Its Certainty”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Peter 1:5-11
Message of the verses: “5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
Let me just begin by saying that in John MacArthur’s commentary he has a very long introduction to this section of 2 Peter, the second chapter of his commentary. I have to say that when I was a fairly young believer that in the church I was attending that a visiting Pastor was preaching through 2 Peter, however at the time I was working the afternoon shift and so I missed much of the preaching through this book, a book that I truly still have a desire to study again. I will do as I have been doing and that is quoting the introductions to different chapters from MacArthur’s commentary, but let me think about the preaching from this 1 chapter of 2 Peter and it was only the verses we will be looking at from these verses we are no looking at.
“The doctrine of eternal security, or preservation, or perseverance of the saints, is the Spirit-revealed, objective fact that salvation is forever, while assurance is believers’ Spirit-given, subjective confidence that they truly possess that eternal salvation. Though the Old and New Testaments truly speak much about assurance (e.g., Job 19:25; Isa. 32:17; Col. 22; 1 Thess. 1:4-5, NKJV; Heb. 6:11; 10:22), many who profess Jesus Christ struggle to experience it. That raises the obvious question of why some Christians lack assurance. There appears to be a complex of several reasons that believers doubt their salvation. While this division is, in some ways, artificial, since the reason overlap, it is still helpful to sort through them.
“First, some lack assurance because they sit under demanding confrontive, convicting preaching of the law that upholds a high standard of righteousness, forces people to acknowledge their sinfulness, and causes them to feel the weight of sin and God’s displeasure. Such preaching may greatly disturb some listeners and cause them to waver concerning their spiritual condition. The pulpit that features strong confrontation does not always balance that with preaching that conveys strong comfort to those under grace, which produces genuine assurance.
“Second, some people feel they are too sinful to be saved, and thus they have difficulty accepting forgiveness. There may be two basic causes for this. First, the human conscience can be relentless in some sensitive souls, and it naturally offers little forgiveness, grace, and mercy to relieve conviction and guilt (cf. Ps. 58:3; Prov. 20:9).” I think that it is important to look at these two verses before we continue in quoting MacArthur’s introduction: “The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.” “Who can say, "I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin"? “Second, holiness, the law of God, and divine justice do speak strongly against sin (cf. Isa. 35:8; 52:11; Rom. 6:13, 19); the law itself contains nothing of forgiveness (Deut. 27:26; Gal. 3:21; Heb. 10:28; James 2:10; cf. Jer. 9:13-16; Acts 13:39).”
I will stop here and Lord, willing pick up the third point in tomorrow’s SD.
10/4/2025 9:12 PM
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