The Narrow Way
There are two groups of people that I am writng to in the church. Do not close your ears to the Spirit today when I say that there are true and false converts today in this church. Not in the church- which is Christ’s invisible body; but in every church in America today there are many false converts. In the town where I am from, I know that this is a major problem. We call them the ‘religious lost’. They are people, who go to church, and they know about Jesus, but they are as lost as the pagan warming a seat in the local bar. The only difference in their lives is where they spend their Sunday morning. This is what Jesus is teaching about here at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He has contrasted the life of a true convert from the life of a false, albeit a real religious convert. Jesus has encouragements for his listeners:
The first is to enter through the narrow gate and to walk on the narrow road. What is the gate? In John 10, Jesus says “I AM the gate” The contrast here is the Pharisees, who like every other religion sought to please God through rituals and works (albeit the law was originally from God, and they had perverted the purpose of the law as they added to it their rules) Jesus emphasized that the broad road and wide gate that most will take. Today, in Marshall, there are maybe 2,500 people who will attend church because they feel it is their duty to God, and that by going through that process that they will improve their life here on earth, and might please God by doing good things like giving to the poor or going to confession, or performing some sacrament. But their hearts are far from God, because they have spent the rest of the week doing whatever their flesh desired! The narrow gate is trusting fully in Christ for the way to God. Then it is walking on that narrow road while we live on this earth. When a true convert takes a step off of that road, he repents (changes his mind, and changes his direction) and gets right back on.
Our faith is not something that is compartmentalized where we can believe one way on Sunday and Wednesdays and then change our behavior all the other days. We have entered in and are walking in it, or we are not. Have you walked through the gate, and having walked through the gate, are you walking on the narrow road that leads to life?
The second thing Jesus has told us to watch out for is false prophets, those who say one thing and do another. In this context, he was looking square at the Pharisees who went through ritual, lording the Law and their added regulations over the people as the only way to God, but their hearts were far from the Lord. We have many false prophets today, espousing a false Gospel. The most obvious ones are on television, speaking a prosperity gospel that promises health and wealth, and your best life now. To them, faith in Christ is nothing more than adding Him to the way that they are already living for an added chance at success. Barak Obama goes to a church where his pastor curses from the pulpit, preaching Jesus as a means of black empowerment and political advantage. This is what it was for many of the Pharisees, political and spiritual power, not life transformation.
Jesus also told us that we could determine the veracity of what these wolves preached by the fruit- their converts. Modern evangelism preaches a perverted Gospel that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, and all you have to do is to pray a prayer and receive Jesus then you become a Christian. This is heresy- it is not biblical. It promotes cheap grace, and salvation without repentance. Look in the scripture, and if you find a place where the sinners’ prayer is prayed I will eat a hymnal. This unbiblical, false teaching has become predominate over this last generation of believers. And it produces false converts in mega numbers. How do I know this? Look at these statistics from adults who consider themselves Christians:
- 64% believe moral truth depends on the situation;
- 60% believe male/female co-habitation outside of marriage is acceptable;
- 55% believe a good person can earn his or her salvation;
- 44% believe Jesus Christ committed sins while on earth.(1)
- 88% of students from “Christian” homes deny their faith before they graduate from college;
- 91% of students from evangelical churches do not believe in absolute moral truth.(3)
Herein lies the problem; we are a generation that has been overtaken by a cheap grace that is an incomplete grace. It is a grace that gives us good things that we desire from the scripture, but does not transform us into Christ-likeness. These statistics are not complete- listen to what these statistics say about those who claim to be born-again:
- 86% of born again Christians believe "the Bible is totally accurate in all of its teachings." (2005)
- Half of born again Christians (46%) agree that Satan is "not a living being but is a symbol of evil." (2005)
- About one-third of born agains (33%) believe that if a person is good enough they can earn a place in Heaven. (2005)
- Born again Christians are more likely than non-born again individuals to accept moral absolutes. Specifically, 32% of born agains said they believe in moral absolutes, compared to just half as many (15%) among non-born agains. (2002)
Additionally, we see that statistically, people who attend church have the same percentage of divorces, abortions, sexual addictions, alcoholism, and very little difference in what they see as entertainment. Is it any wonder that many believe that we are in the last days? Look with me in 2 Timothy 3:1-6:
2 Timothy 3:1-5 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
The fruit of those without Christ are clear- and more and more these characteristics are showing up in our churches! At least eighteen different characteristics are listed here, and Paul probably could have listed more. There is an emphasis on love: “lovers of themselves,” lovers of money (“covetous”), “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” The heart of every problem is a problem in the heart. God commands us to Love him above all others, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. However, all too often, we love ourselves supremely, and we do not love God or our neighbors. In this universe there is God, and there are people and things. We should worship God, love people, and use things. But if we start worshiping ourselves, we will ignore God and start loving things and using people. So the scripture here appropriately teaches us that we are ‘without love’ and that we ‘do not love what is good’ because we love things above God and people-thus making us idolatrous.
The fruit of loving ones self is pride, which was the first sin of Satan, and a temptation to Eve. When a man has pride, he becomes boastful, encouraging people to look at him and his accomplishments rather than the focus being on what God has done. Man has become a god unto himself, and many churches have responded to this in the emergent generation, elevating felt needs above what God has said in his Word in our ultimate need: to repent and to be Born-again. This is why we hear many more ‘feel good’ messages from our pulpits today, because we do not want to hurt anybody’s feelings. Those considering or involved with “seeker” services should reflect on a distinction made centuries ago by St. Thomas Aquinas. “we confuse two similar yet different human actions. We see people searching desperately for peace of mind, relief from guilt, meaning, and purpose to their lives, and loving acceptance. We know that ultimately these things can only be found in God. Therefore, we conclude that since people are seeking these things they must be seeking after God. People do not seek God. They seek after the benefits that only God can give them. The sin of fallen man is this: Man seeks the benefits of God while at the same time fleeing from God himself. We are, by nature, fugitives.”
The fruit of the spirit includes self-control, however, in today’s church; many are “without self-control.” The motto of our society today is “Do your own thing and enjoy it!” Many in the church simply add the term Christian to it so we can justify doing what we want to do. Lack of self-control reveals itself in a number of ways. Some are “brutal.” when these people cannot have their way, they become much like savage beasts. “Treacherous” (2 Tim. 3:4) describes people who betray others and cannot be trusted. Rash describes people who act without careful thought. “Conceited” describes a person who is “puffed up” with his importance. “Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” suggests that we love pleasure more than we love God. This is a major problem in today’s church; we desire growth at all costs, so we use marketing strategies that abandon words like hell, judgment, sin, and death in favor of people having purpose, their best life now, where God is there for fire insurance and not to change our lives, where repentance is a byword, and sin is flippantly addressed and lived in. The result is that we are a generation that “Has a form of godliness” (2 Tim. 3:5) which is an outward appearance of religion, not true Christian faith; for many have never experienced the transformational power of God in their lives.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit- and a tree that produces bad fruit JESUS says is worthless and is only good for being burned in a fire! So our convenient, casual Christianity that is being experienced in most American churches today, this form of godliness with no power is an abomination to Jesus! He warns the church in Laodecia that he would spew this lukewarm church out of his mouth! Paul reminds us that we are to have nothing to do with religious people who have only a form of godliness- which is a false religion! The fruit is bad, and therefore it will be destroyed. Does that scare you? It should, if you are walking in hypocrisy and in a fruitless Christian life. So what does the fruit of your life reflect?
Finally, Jesus closes this passage with a very stern warning. There are many who will call him Lord, and He will respond that ‘I never knew you’. These are those who I see in Marshall, who believe that they are Christians, knowing all about the story of Jesus, but having only a form of godliness. They would call Jesus Lord, but are they true believers? This past Wednesday, I was talking with two different guys who claimed to be Christians, and identified themselves as Lutherans. Both of them had no idea where they were going when they die. Neither of them identified as a reason of going to church as following Christ, rather, it was about their family and their friends. When asked about how they get into heaven, they responded that they would just continue to do good things and hoped that God would think it is good enough. Neither one was really concerned with the possibility of death- because they believed that being Lutheran was somehow enough. Just knowing about Jesus is not enough. What does Jesus say is enough? We must call Him Lord, yes. But we must repent- See what Paul says to us in 2 Timothy 2:19
2 Timothy 2:19 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
What is more fearful to me is those words that Jesus says regarding those who call him Lord, even do miracles in His name, but he says I never knew you. If I walk to the White House today, and ask to see the president, I would be denied. I might even say “But I know him” I would still be denied. What would matter is if W came outside and told his secret service agents that he knew me. Then I could get in. Paul says in this reference that the Lord knows who are his, and that everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness- True conversion requires a change of life. It requires a turning from self and sin and placing all of our trust in Christ by faith. And that is not the end of the story- now we spend the remainder of our lives purposefully walking on that narrow road, and when we step off we repent- change our direction again and again by the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot be Christians and live on that broad road. A true Christian will not be comfortable there-because what fellowship does darkness have with light? Does Jesus truly know you?
The message as I close is this: Examine yourselves. This is what Paul tells us to do in 2 Corinthians 13:5 5 examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? Paul does not instruct us to pray a magic prayer and somehow ‘receive Christ’ and live the way in which we desire to live. Ask yourselves: What gate did I come through? Which road do I most travel on? What kind of fruit does my life bear? Does Jesus know me? The scripture says that we need to examine ourselves by reading the Word of God, and allowing the Holy Spirit to illuminate the word in such a way that it goes to the point of our need, cutting out any thought, word or deed that is not pleasing to God.
Originally From: One Christians View
No comments:
Post a Comment