EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/24/2025 6:30 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 “Their Sacrilege”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: (2 Peter 2:1-c)
Message of the verses: “even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”
I will continue to look at these verses in the way that I have been looking at them which means that I will quote all of the verse references in this section that I will be looking at this evening. I will begin by continue to quote John MacArthur’s commentary on this partial verse.
“One should forget the idea of an unlimited atonement. If he asserts that sinners have the power to limit its application, then the atonement by its nature is limited in actual power and effectiveness. With that understanding, it is less than a real atonement and is, if fact, merely potential and restricted by the volitions of fallen human beings. But in truth, only God can set the atonement’s limits, which extend to every believing sinner without distinction.
“Adherents to the unlimited view must affirm that Christ actually atoned for no one in particular but potentially for everyone without exception. Whatever He did on the cross was not a full and complete payment for sin, because sinners for whom He died are still damned. Hell is full of people whose sins were paid for by Christ—sin paid for, yet punishment forever.
“Of course, such thinking is completely unacceptable. God limits the atonement to the elect, for whom it was not a potential but an actual and real satisfaction for sin. God provided the sacrifice in His Son, which actually paid for the sins of all who would ever believe, the ones chosen by Him for salvation (cf. Matt. 1:21; John 10:11, 27-28; Eph. 5:25-26).”
21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
“Charles Spurgeon once gave a pointedly accurate and convincing perspective on the argument about the extent of the atonement:
“We are often told that we limit the atonement of Christ, because we say that Christ has not made a satisfaction for all men, or all men would be saved. Now, our reply to this is, that, on the other hand, our opponents limit it; we do not. The Arminians say, Christ died for all men. Ask them what they mean by it. Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of all men? They say, ‘No, certainly not.’ We ask them the next question—Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any man in particular? They answer, ‘No.’ They are obliged to admit this, if they are consistent. They say ‘No.’ ‘Christ has died that any man may be saved if’—and then follow certain conditions of salvation. Now, who is it that limits the death of Christ? Why, you. You say that Christ did not die so as infallibly to secure the salvation of anybody. We beg your pardon, when you say we limit Christ’s death; we say, ‘No, my dear sir, it is you that do it.’ We say that Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ’s death not only may be saved, but are saved and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved. You are welcome to you atonement; you may keep it. We will never renounce ours for the sake of it. (Cited by J. I. Packer, ‘Introductory Essay,’ in John Owen, The Death in the Death of Christ [n.pk, n. d.; reprint, London: Banner of Truth, 1959], 14.)
Now I have pretty much told my story of when the Lord saved me a number of times on my Spiritual Diaries, but now as I look back at that story in relationship with what is in this Spiritual Diary it all makes sense to me, and for the matter of fact it has for some time now.
I began to swear when I was around ten years old and I suppose I began to smoke a few years later as in both cases I was trying to impress older friends. It was July 5, 1966 that I was inducted into the U.S. Army and left for Georgia for basic training. Yes this was right in the middle of the Vietnam War. I had a medical hold when I went down there because I had albumin in my urine. (Look it up if you are interested.) When I got there I had to get tested for three days, and finally had to go and see the doctor who told me I would be leaving to go back home. Twenty days later I left to go back home. Now the thing about this is that I made a deal with God to stop swearing if He got me out of the army. So I quit swearing (for about two weeks). After going back to get my job at Ford they asked me why I did not stay in the army, and I told them about the albumin and so for about the 30th time I gave them a sample which came back negative and it has been that way ever since.
Fast forward to January of 1974 after being married for about five months to my second wife I went to Florida to visit a friend, and I had very bad intentions for I went there alone. He gave me some tapes to listen to some sermons by Hal Lindsey “Two Years After The Late Great Planet Earth,” and after listening to them the Lord reached down and saved me. This is the part goes along with what we are studying here. You may ask how I knew I was saved, and my answer is that God took swearing out of my vocabulary which I tried to do in 1966, and it is still out of my vocabulary to this day.
Here is the thing: God was looking for my in order to save me, not me looking for God for I can tell you at that time I was not. So if God reached down to save me, and He did, then all I had to do is receive His forgiveness, which really is not any kind of a work. That was over 51 years ago and as I began to grow in the Lord by studying His Word and listening to good Pastors who knew the truth I grew and came to the truth that God saved me without any help of my own.
I really hope to finish this section in tomorrow evening’s SD.
11/24/2025 7:13 PM
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