18 Which Road Are You On?
Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.”
There are two gates, one is wide and very pleasing to our flesh, we can do what we wish on this road, we can pretend to be Christians on this road, and we can entertain all sorts of selfish thoughts and plans while on this road. But this road leads us to hell and after that, the lake of fire. The other gate is strait and narrow, somewhat difficult to get on and we must be diligent, and persevere to stay on it. This road is very difficult for our flesh, our “old man” doesn’t like this road, but it leads to Heaven, the Lord Jesus, and our Heavenly Father. Some might say it isn’t difficult to get on the road to life and stay on it, but then they will be disagreeing with the Lord Jesus Christ on this point, for it was He who said “And few are those who find it.” We have a great many Scriptures that warn us to be diligent in this, for instance, 2 Peter 1:10-11 “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; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
Take note of the fact that it is easy to end up in hell, it is difficult to end up on the right road! We have many things working against our being on the right road. I personally believe that modern preaching is one of the main problems, and will be the main vehicle that the Devil continues to use to that end! For example, the Lord Jesus, John the Baptist, and all of the apostles, John, Peter, James and Paul just to name a few, taught that a man must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to receive the forgiveness of sin and be restored to our heavenly Father.
Today the word repentance is played down or not used at ALL in modern evangelism. Without repenting, we will not get anywhere with God! Today’s modern evangelism has almost stopped using this word "repentance" I think that the Devil has done his job well, getting the various denominations to stop using the very act that God demands, REPENTANCE.
Modern evangelism has also tired of preaching the law of God. Today the focus is on everything, except the one thing God designed to use in order to show us our transgressions "The Law." It seems today that even mentioning the "law" is going against the grace of God! The greatest preacher of all times, Jesus Christ, preached the LAW. Jesus wasn't afraid to preach the law of God; He preached nothing else to get sinners to see their sin. Only the light of God's law will allow us to see the wrong in our lives.
We don't need a Savior until we see ourselves as sinners!
And we never will see ourselves aright until the light of God's holy law is put before our face. The law of God won’t save us, but it can show you that YOU NEED TO BE SAVED! Galatians 3:24 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.” Now observe, modern evangelism has eliminated this, it refuses to use the very thing God designed to lead us to Christ.
Allow me to illustrate; before I repented a man came to me and told me I was a sinner and needed Jesus! I told him he didn't know what he was talking about; I thought that I was not just a nice guy, but one of the BEST! You see the preacher was trying to sell me on my need of a Savior, before I was convicted of sin, before I saw just how lost and in danger I was. He tried to lead me to Christ, without showing me my need for Christ!
What a victory for the Devil, convincing preachers that this "new way" of Modern evangelism is better than the way God intended. Friend, if you have been "talked into being saved" and have not seen the sin in your life, and have not repented, then you need to be saved. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is God's standard for Christians, quite different from the standard the worldly Churches teach.
One day I met a man by the name of Charles, I saw my sin by beholding the very image of Jesus, that shown forth in his face continually, for he walked continually with the fruit of God's Spirit evident in his life, the way he lived his life convicted me of SIN. He did not have to preach to me, for his very life was the best sermon that I have ever heard! He didn’t ask me to read the Bible or go to Church, like other Christians had done, but, in three days time of being around him I ran into the restroom where we worked, and fell to my knees and begged God to forgive me of my selfish ungodly life, and turn me into a true Christian! You see, all of Charles’s sermons were preached with his life, not his mouth. He actually said very little, but lived as a light that was truly set on a hill by the Living God!
The easy road to follow has but few rules, you can please yourself! You can do as you please; on this road you are the most important person in the universe. All other people are less important than you.
The road that Jesus traveled, the one that leads to Heaven, is a difficult road, He told us this in Matthew 7:14 "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. You must love your neighbor as you love yourself; you need to realize that God loves others as much as He loves you. He is just as interested in those around you as He is in you; He loves them as much as He loves you! So God expects us to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.
Focus on the way Jesus lived, that is the way God expects you to live. Not repeating the same ministry as Jesus, for only He could do that and it is done! We are to have the same mind as Christ; 1 Peter 4:1-2 “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”
Something of importance that Jesus said.
Reading in Luke 10:27 “And he answered and said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
What is it to love the Lord with all of our heart? My answer is this, when we love someone, we will find ourselves thinking on the goodness and loveliness of the one we love at all times. We will resist being distracted from the one we love. Just as a young man, when he is in love with a young woman wants to be with her whenever possible, so it is with the person who truly loves the Lord with all of his heart. We will pray to Him at all times, and when we are not being distracted by our work, our mind will be on the Lord.
The big difference between a Christian and a sinner is, SELFISHNESS. The Christian is converted from a state of being consecrated to selfishness, self, to a state of being unselfish. The sinner is selfish, but oftentimes, does not see himself, as such. The sin problem in mankind finds its very root in selfishness. We always choose for self, our motives are always wrong until we yield to the Holy Spirit's persuasion and our motives are changed, from selfishness to unselfishness or love. In other words until we are "born again, from above."
We cannot deliver or save ourselves. We didn't call on God first, He called on us!
The Truth About Our Lives!
Ephesians 2:1-9 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
Notice that whenever the Bible speaks of sin in a believer it is ALWAYS IN PAST TENSE! This is because when we are truly saved we are actually set free from the bondage to sin! Read 1John 3:5-10, these Scriptures are a real eye opener.
Again, We need to see just how wrong our motives are, even when we are in the process of trying to do something good! Yes, before we are set free from the bondage of sin, which manifests itself in selfishness, we never really do anything from proper or pure motives, even when we try! Have you ever given something to someone, but didn't feel good about it until others found out about your “good deed!” When we love our neighbor, and give him something he needs, our motive is satisfied when we see his need satisfied. We don’t need to have others know about it!
The solution to our sin problem only comes when we find out this one very important fact. We can't save ourselves, we don't even want to, until God's precious Holy Spirit pays a call on us. The Holy Spirit will show us our sin by means of revealing to our minds the holiness and goodness of Jesus Christ! When our minds fasten on the goodness and humility of Christ, we see ourselves as undone, unclean, and altogether filthy. At this point we will try to reform, we try "not to sin" we try to be like Jesus. And when we apply all of our mind and strength to this task we make a startling discovery, Romans 7:19 “For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” We find that sin is our master; the more we struggle against it the more aware of our bondage we become. Now we are ready for a Savior, when we discover that we are wretched, and in a bondage that we cannot break without help from God. This is the importance of God’s law, and of Christians being a true light set on a hill, we see by the Holiness and unselfish lives of believers that we are undone, lost!
Romans 7:24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” We begin to look for some power outside of ourselves! The name of this power, this power that can overcome the bondage of sin, and can deliver to the uttermost, is Jesus Christ.
How can we receive this power over sin?
By repenting of the sin attitude and all of the sin in our lives. When we repent, we can then believe that Jesus WILL save us from our SIN. And don't miss this; the very thing Jesus was sent to save us from was sin. Matthew 1:21 "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sin.
Again Jesus said these two important things John 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Also John 8:36. "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
The Bible tells us to deny ourselves, Luke 9:23, And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” The very root of all sin is selfishness! It is only as we deny ourselves that the Spirit of God can have His way and rule in our lives. The fact that we deny ourselves is the proof that we have truly been born again to a new life, the very life of Jesus.
After we are set free from the power of sin and are sanctified, it is then and only then that it can be said that we are consecrated to God. We will then have a life lived for others just as Jesus lived His life while here on earth. He lived for God’s glory and the redemption of mankind. He is truly our example. 1Peter 2:21-24 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” This Scripture clearly shows us the will of God for our lives, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” Without dying to your self-life you will never be fruitful, you must live to love everyone you come into contact with, for this is the will of God for your life, to live for and love others.
How to bring all of this about!
Ezekiel 36:25-27
1st - "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.” What a promise! God will cleanse us from all of our filthiness! That word filthiness means sin! But that’s not all; God will remove all of the idols in our life! Only God can remove the idols that are in our lives!
2nd - "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Then God will remove our heart of stone. The Bible uses the word "heart" to refer to man’s will, the place where we make our decisions (the decision to obey or disobey God, to live for self or to live for others.) Notice here that God refers to a stony heart; this means a stubborn, rebellious will (heart). We won’t stop being rebellious and stubborn on our own, so the God of love removes this rebellious (heart) from us and replaces it with a moldable (heart"
The Promise of Promises!
3rd – “And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” And now after heart surgery, we are ready to receive the most precious gift anyone could possibly receive! God’s Spirit. (And I will put My spirit within you.) But God knows that this is still not enough. Look at the next part of this promise. "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” God has committed Himself to cause us to obey Him! What more need we ask of Him? This is the faith part will you believe God? Will you take Him at His word? Will you place your faith in Him, now, today? Will you enter God’s rest? Please take note of the fact that, God is the one who actually does all of these things!
The whole purpose of your life after you have been sanctified is to lead others to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the example of your new and Godly life!
Always live for others, always!