FBC Daily Devotional – July 20, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your week has gotten off to a good start and the day is going well for you thus far.

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Well, in today's reading, we're reading in Luke chapters 13 and 14, and in the beginning of our reading in Luke 13, the

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Lord is confronted with a interesting question, and it's one I think is very relevant for our day.

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He's asked, Lord, will there be few that are saved? Are only a few going to be saved?

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Now that question is not really even asked in our day, is it? Isn't there an assumption on the part of the average

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American that they're going to heaven? They're gonna be saved. I wouldn't use that terminology, but that they're going to heaven.

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I mean, it's as if everybody goes to heaven. That's the assumption. How many times have you heard someone say of a loved one who's passed away, well, at least

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I know they're in a better place. Well, great, we're grateful that when we know a loved one has been believed, has been redeemed and is a believer in Jesus and they pass away, they enter into eternity, we can joyfully say they have, well, at least they're in a better place.

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But that statement is not made exclusively of Christians. That statement is made of just about anybody who dies.

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Well, at least they're in a better place. They may have lived a wretched, miserable life. They may have had nothing to do with Jesus and really could have cared less about God or about religion or about Jesus, etc.

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But yet they're in a better place. Is there really a basis for that confidence?

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You see, Jesus has asked that question, basically, isn't he? Are there only a few that are saved?

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The corollary to that question is, are most people going to be saved? And then

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Jesus responds by saying, strive to enter the narrow gate, because he says, indeed, there are going to be many who try to enter, but they won't.

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In other words, Jesus is saying, yes, there are few who are going to be saved. And he makes it very clear that just having been with Jesus is not going to be the criterion or the basis by which someone enters into heaven.

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Because listen, he says, many will say to me when the door is shut, Lord, Lord, open for us.

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And he'll say, I don't know who you are. I don't know you. I don't know who you are. I don't know where you're from. And they will begin to say, well, we ate with you and we drank in your presence and you taught in our streets.

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He was speaking of his time, of course. But then he'll go on to say, I say to you, I tell you, I don't know who you are.

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I don't know where you're from. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. So just being in the presence of Jesus is not going to be a sufficient basis for entering, being allowed entrance into the kingdom of heaven, entering through that narrow gate.

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Now in our day, I mean, we don't literally sit down with Jesus. We don't literally have a meal with Jesus and so on as they did when he was walking on the earth.

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But there are many people who go to church. They're very religious and think that because they are religious and have gone to church that they've been with Jesus and therefore they've got an end.

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After all, I mean, what more does anybody want? You know, I'm just pretty religious person. What more does anybody want?

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No. The entrance into the kingdom of heaven is not granted based upon how often you went to church, whether or not you took communion, even if you've done things like being been baptized.

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The key is have you repented of your sin and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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There are few who are willing to do that. There are few who are willing to enter into that narrow gate, to renounce all dependence upon myself and my good works and my merit for entering into heaven.

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Few are willing to do that. They're more inclined to say, yeah, I know

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I'm gonna go to a better place when this place, when I leave this place,

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I'll be in a better place. This, this I know. Now Jesus says, few there be who find it.

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Alas, alas, my friend, may you truly know the

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Lord Jesus. Not simply, not simply eat a meal with him at church, but truly know him.

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Have you repented of your sin? Have you put your faith and trust in Jesus?

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Do you by faith call him Lord, your Savior Jesus?

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I trust you do. That, that is the key to entering into the kingdom of heaven.

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If God gives you the grace, if God so graciously gives you the faith to turn from your sin and to trust in him, that is the key to entering into the kingdom of heaven.

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It's a narrow gate. I trust you're in, you're, you've gone through it. Our Father and our

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God, we do thank you today that entrance into the kingdom is not based on our good works, our merits.

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Father, we would never ever be able to be good enough and we would never know if we were.

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But we're so grateful that you've made the way plain and that way is Jesus. He is that narrow gate and I pray that everyone listening to my voice today will have turned from their sin and their self -reliance and their self -dependence and they will be putting their trust and faith in Jesus and him alone for their soul's salvation.

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And this we pray in Jesus name. All right. Well, have a good rest of your