SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/4/2021 9:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Two Gates”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
7:13-14
Message of the verses: “13 “Enter through
the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to
destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small
and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
We
continue to look at demands that must be meet before going through the narrow
gate. Repentance is certainly a demand
for those going through the narrow gate.
Remember that Jesus’ audience was Jews, and Jews believed that simply
being a Jew, a physical descendant of Abraham, was sufficient for entrance into
heaven. There are also many people today
who believe that by joining a church will be enough to get them to heaven. There are others who believe that just
because they are a human being that this is enough to get them to heaven, for
after all they believe that God is too loving not to allow all humans to get to
heaven. I guess that they have never studied
about God’s wrath or they would not believe this foolishness. MacArthur writes “God does offer the way to
all, and His greatest longing is that everyone enter, because He does not
desire ‘for any to perish but for all to come to repentance’ (2 Pet. 3:9). Paul preached ‘repentance toward God’ (Acts
20:21) as Jesus had preached it (Mark 1:14-15).
John the Baptist readied a people for the Lord by repentance (Luke
3:1-6). The way of repentance, of
turning from our own way and our own righteousness to God’s, is the only way to
enter His kingdom and therefore the only way to keep from perishing.”
We
not have a quote from Charles Spurgeon: “You
and your sins must separate or you and your God will never come together. No one sin may you keep; they must all be
given up, they must be brought out like Canaanite kings from the cave and be
hanged up in the sun.”
In
John’s first letter we can see that the repentant life is a changed life, as
John first epistle is that the truly redeemed life will manifest itself in a
transformed life, in which confession of sin as seen in 1:8-10, obedience to
God will as seen in 2:4-6, love of God’s other children as seen in 2:9-11 and
3:16-17, and practice of righteousness as seen in 3:4-10 are normal and they
are habitual. John quotes Jesus in John
15:8 “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to
be My disciples.” Anything less is
damning demon-faith as James speaks of in James 2:19 which is orthodox but
fruitless, something that was common in the lives of the scribes and the
Pharisees.
We
must be very careful as we tell others of the good news of the Gospel and not
do like what is a trend in our country and probably around the world and that
is easy believism, just go down the isle of the church and say you trust Jesus
as your Savior and then go out and live like nothing really happened to
you. As Jesus states in John 15:8
believers must produce fruit.
MacArthur
concludes this section by writing “Most people spend their lives rushing around
with the crowds, doing what everyone else does and believing what everyone else
believes. But as far as salvation is
concerned, there is no security in numbers.
If every person in a group is saved it is because each of them
individually comes into the kingdom by his own decision, energized by the Holy
Spirit, to trust Christ.” To which I say
AMEN!!
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The following verse is a good one to
think about after a study like this: “5 Test
yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you
not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed
you fail the test?” (2 Cor. 13:5).
My Steps of Faith for Today: I continue to pray and trust the Lord for the
miracle of revival, revival in my life, my families, my Sunday school class,
and my church to that it will spread around our land and our world.
2/4/2021 9:28 AM
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