FBC Daily Devotional – January 6, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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A good Wednesday to you, middle of the week, on the hump of the first week of the new year.

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I trust your day is going well, your week is going well also. This is Wednesday, and just a reminder that,

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Lord willing, our plan is that this evening we'll have our regular midweek

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Bible study time and kids club and so forth. If you're comfortable attending that, you're welcome to do so.

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I'll be getting back into that routine, looking forward to a little more regular, normal routine in our church calendar and church schedule.

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Today we're reading in the Gospel of Matthew, and the end of chapter 3 and on into chapter 4.

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There are two things in today's reading that I'd like to emphasize. One of them comes from John's ministry,

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John the Baptist's ministry, as he's going out preaching the baptism of repentance. One of the points in that ministry that I want to emphasize is that genuine repentance isn't cheap.

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It isn't cheap. It'll cost you something. I get that from chapter 3, verse 8, when

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John warned the religious elites that came out to him.

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He told them they needed to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

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To bear fruit in keeping with repentance. These Pharisees and the

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Sadducees, they came out to John, and he said, What are you doing here?

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Why are you here? Apparently, they were giving the impression that they were supportive, but they were holding on to all kinds of behaviors and attitudes and thinking that were contrary to the kingdom of God and the message of grace that would be following in the gospel of the kingdom.

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John is warning these religious elites that they needed to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

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Their appearance of repentance needed to be accompanied by some kind of evident change.

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The point, of course, is that true repentance doesn't just simply say,

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Sorry, sorry. True repentance isn't the kind of thing that says, Well, if I offended you, or if I hurt you, or if I did something wrong, then

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I'm sorry. No. Genuine repentance is going to be accompanied by some kind of change.

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It doesn't mean that the offense that the person has to repent of will never happen again.

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It may very well happen again. Honestly, oftentimes it does.

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But the offending party will do something to minimize that potential. He won't just say,

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Oh, well, sorry, and go on with no change whatsoever that just ensures that the behavior he's supposedly sorry for will just simply happen again.

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On the other hand, there are some times when a person seems to be genuinely repentant and they have a great deal of remorse and sorrow or whatever because of their sin, their offense, and ask forgiveness, and it's granted, and so forth, and they turn around and do it again.

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But again, one of the key issues is, what changed?

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In all of the tears and the confession and all the rest, what changed in the person's heart, thinking, his attitude, his behavior?

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Did he or she do anything to try to minimize the potential for a re -offense?

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Genuine repentance is going to cost us something. The other point

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I want to emphasize from today's reading is seen in chapter 4 with Jesus' temptation in the wilderness.

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And that is that great testing often follows some significant spiritual decision, or that great testing, that great time of temptation, being put to the test.

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It may come just before an important new direction, a new ministry, a new opportunity that is before you.

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Did you catch that? A great time of testing. This is true in Jesus' case. It came on the heels of a significant spiritual event, his baptism, and it also came just before he embarked on a new direction, a new ministry, a new opportunity, his public ministry.

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And we may experience the same thing. The way Jesus was confronted in the wilderness and how he responded to that confrontation tells me that I need to be on guard, and I need to seek the strength of the

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Spirit, and I also need to fill myself with the Word of God.

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Because how did Jesus handle each of those temptations? Well, he was on his guard.

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He was filled with the Spirit, but he was also filled with God's Word. He could answer those temptations with the

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Word of God. So I would do well, and you would also, to follow that pattern of Jesus.

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On this experience of Christ, John Calvin remarked, The single object of Satan has in view is to persuade

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Christ to depart from the Word of God. That's exactly what he wants you to do, too, in some way or another.

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Samuel Rutherford said, So, as you face the devil coming at you in a fencing match, handle your weapons well.

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The weapons of the sword of the Spirit and the fullness of the Spirit. Be on guard.

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Be alert to his attacks. So this great time of testing may come right after a spiritual decision that you make, or it may come just before a whole new direction.

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Be on your guard. So, our Father and our God, I pray that we would take this wisdom to heart, and that not only realize that true repentance is going to invest in some kind of change and some kind of impact in our lives and how we think and behave, but Father, also help us to be greatly alert to the testing that comes our way each day.

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This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Have a good rest of your