SCRIPTURE
: MATTHEW 7:13-14TITLE/SCRIPTURE: STRAIGHT AND NARROW WAY TO HEAVEN
PURPOSE: To stress the importance of living pure, holy lives, being faithfully committed to Christ daily.
TOOLS: Ladder
"HOW HIGH CAN YOU FLY?"
INTRODUCTION
:
"[13] Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. [14] But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it"
(Matthew 7:13-14 New International Version).How high can you fly?
How high does your ladder reach?
[Illustration:] One day a professor asked one of his students, "What are your plans after you graduate?
"I've got it all planned," he said. "When I get out of here I am going to make a lot of money."
"And then what?" asked the professor?
"Oh, I'd like to get married and do some traveling."
The professor nodded and asked, "And then?"
"Well, I suppose like everyone else, I'll grow old and then, of course, I'll die!"
The professor looked straight in his eyes and asked, "And then?"
At this the student frowned and remained silent. His ladder didn't reach to heaven. He didn't know what to say. He'd never looked that high.
No matter who you are and how high your ladder reaches, if it doesn't reach to heaven, it doesn't reach high enough.
As we think on today's Scripture, we need to realize that:
In Philippians 3:13-14, the Bible says,
"Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken a hold of it. But one think I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."There are many attractive rungs on the ladders of our lives where one can stop, and the lure of the immediate goal is often overwhelming. But no matter how high the degree, - to stop climbing just because one reaches that rung is ruinous. It thwarts the inner urge for continued growth.
Large numbers of people fail to see beyond reaching the goal of getting their college degrees. They don't have longer-range goals to motivate themselves to the action that will move them farther ahead to better things in life.
Large numbers of people's personal goals in life are only as high as their bank accounts and what they feel their money can buy. There are many people who are wealthy yet are absolutely miserable. Suicides are very common for these people. Their knowledge and money fails to fulfill them. When they see their dreams fulfilled and yet realize that they are still miserable, they want to die! Their lifelong dreams are fulfilled, yet so many are still empty.
Still others lust for powerful positions. The lust for power is a strange and corrosive drive. Some sacrifice everything of value, stepping ruthlessly on the fingers or the necks or the hearts of anyone who gets in their way. They forget the old advice, "You'd better be nice to everyone on your way up, because you might meet the same people on your way down." And fall they do!
Many people's ladder only reaches as high as a creed or an ethic - or a church. But part of the disillusionment of our times is due to the discovery that a ladder that reaches only as high as a doctrine or a discipline or a denomination doesn't reach nearly high enough!
So instead of climbing on up in genuine repentance and faith to the reality of personal experience in Christ, they have jumped off their ladder and announced that "there is nothing up there." How absurd for anyone, theologian, pastor, or lay person, to say that there is nothing "up there" when they fail to take the trouble, - or are unwilling to pay the price in humility and obedience, - to climb up and find out!
The point is: If the rungs or creeds or rules or experiences do not lead one up to Christ and a personal experience of His love and His forgiveness and His cleansing, - then the very rungs have been a hindrance, for they have been the occasion of his arrested development.
The question is: Have you reached out enough to really experience a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, - not only as your personal Savior, - but as Lord of every area of your heart and live, - in His sanctifying fullness? And if not, why not? What are you waiting for? If you have made the total commitment that He insists on, - are you building on that relationship daily?
Jesus said,
"I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No ones comes to the Father but my Me" (John 14:6 NIV). Only our daily, personal, experience with Jesus Christ is what really counts. Stick with Jesus and He'll stick with you. Daily obedient yielding, - persevering through trying or better times, alike, is well worth it! Not only does the straight and narrow road to heaven require perseverance and persistence, but also:
[Illustration
:] Life a mountain climber… whose goal is the top!Yes, the road to heaven requires strength and endurance. Even so, it is much easier than dying in one's sins, lost and without Christ and without hope or help, by one's own sinful choices!
In Matthew 11:28-30, we read where Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Remember: We are free moral agents. God has clearly shown us the way to eternal salvation. He has shown us the straight and narrow road to heaven through Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.
As we call on His name, confessing and repenting and forsaking of our sins, asking Him into our hearts, He saves us from our sins. As we trust His conquering power over the grip of our old sinful natures, he empowers and enables us to be victorious, giving us power for life and service! Hallelujah!
Now, as people who are free to make our own choices, we are free to accept Him or to reject Him. However, if we choose to reject Him, we choose to die on our sins, for as the Bible says, in Romans 3:23,
"For the wages of sin is death." However, the Word goes on to say, "But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." In Matthew 10:22, we read, "He who stands firm to the end will be saved."So, Jesus exhorts His listeners to
"enter through the narrow gate" or to enter a life of commitment to God, or the way of salvation. What Jesus says in allegorical language compares the popularity of life in the kingdom with that of the life of nonbelievers. The gates are names before the ways and evidently lead into the ways (rather than coming at the end of them).WIDE GATE: The Greek word for "gate" refers to a city palace gate that leads into a passageway. Reference seems to be to a mansion with a (Gate #1) large enough entrance gate known to many, - and a (Gate #2) narrow enough entrance known to few.
One may easily drift through the large opening with the crowd and may carry through it his/her own self-righteousness and vices. But that wide gate and passage leads to destruction. It leads to one's utter and final ruin (not annihilation). Sin often has a draining power. It often looks quite attractive on the surface but is deadly in the end… resulting in increased damages as it goes.
NARROW GATE: Narrow is the gate by which entrance to eternal life is obtained. "Anything goes" is not the spirit here! Ones come in the restricted manner that God, Himself, dictates. We do so through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ! No other approach is acceptable.
[Illustration:] An airplane must hit the runway or it'll crash! No other way will do! Jesus, Himself, is both the Gate (John 10:9) and the Way (John 14:6). There is only one way as far as God is concerned. And the rewards are well worth whatever personal discipline and sacrifice is involved, in accepting the free gift of eternal salvation.
Early Christians were called those of "The Way." Christians are to stick to the straight and narrow way, letting nothing get in between ourselves and our Lord, causing us to stray by weakening faith or by sin subtly settling in. Finally,
In Psalm 24: 3-5, we read,
"Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior" (NIV).Be on guard against the little things that would creep in and be a stumbling block up the ladder of the straight and narrow path. Jesus exhorts His followers, you and I, - to keep "clean hands and a pure heart." Keep unstained. Let His precious Holy Spirit help you in overcoming temptation. Operate in His love, with the most honorable intentions and He'll help each of us to be overcomers.
No one's ladder, no matter how beautiful, - or how expensive, - or how wonderfully built - will ever reach high enough unless it begins at Calvary's Cross, and has rungs that reach to heaven!
For God said, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Unless any man, woman, boy or girl truly repents of personal sins and accepts Christ as Savior and Lord, one's ladder will never reach even the first decisive rung of the ladder. Those who are truly born-again and Spirit-filled must stay true to Him, looking up for His best for each of us.
CONCLUSION
:[Illustration:] On a memorial high up in the Swiss Alps there is the name of a famous climber who went out one day never to return. Underneath the man's name are these simple words: "He died climbing." How about you? Just how far does your ladder reach?
John 3:16 reads,
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." He gave His very best… Can you and I afford to do any less than give Him our best?Challenge to Commitment: How high are you and I willing to climb on the straight and narrow road - to eternal life? It is a great life, but it is a life of total commitment and consecration that many are, in reality, unwilling to take. Let's make sure that each of us are committed and consecrated to the extent that we will not miss a single blessing that God has for each of us as we trust Him to guide us along the rungs of the ladder of the narrow life that only He can empower us to climb, - to eternal life in Him! Hallelujah!
Please note:
You are welcome to share this devotional in your local churches, home fellowship Bible studies, etc., but I suggest that you personalize it. You do not have permission to publicize it or to make money from it in any form. May God richly bless you as you minister for Him with rich spiritual rewards of seeing many souls saved and sanctified for all eternity! Please let me know whatever helpful results you may get from this!
With Warm Sincerity in Jesus’ Love,
Rev. Don Schink, Pastor-Evangelist
Sonlight Ministries
Tijeras, NM
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