Well, it is good to be back with
you again, in the name of the Lord
Jesus.
It's been a couple of years, I believe,
but you're looking good.
And it's good to see you again.
I might mention, on the back table, the
Lord's provided for a new book, a first
of a different type of series.
We call it the And God Said series.
What we hope to do is take certain
major books of the Bible and give an
overview, in about 46 pages, of the structure
of truth that God has presented.
So that when you do your study, you
can hang your meditations on the absolute truth
that the writer is getting across.
However, the first book we did is an
overview of the whole Bible.
The Bible is written, actually, by one divine
author, that is God.
And it has one message that is connected
together from Genesis to Revelation.
So the first book is an overview of
the whole Bible, looking at the master theme
as it runs through the Word of God.
So if this can help you, or you
know some believer this can help, they're on
the back table, you take them.
The cost to you is the cost of
your salvation.
So you feel free to take what you
want.
There's also a gospel tract called To Open
a Mind.
You can use that in your witnessing, you
help yourself.
Also, our little magazine meant to stimulate the
thinking of the believer, Chronos, some of you
get that, that's back there.
There's samples, help yourself.
If you'd like to be on the mailing
list and you print your address and name
clear, we'd be happy to put you on.
Now tonight, as we study the Word of
God together, it's been suggested that we devote
tonight to the gospel of God.
That is His saving message on how He
saves men and women and boys and girls.
So in doing that, we'd like to go
to the words of the Son of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
We'd like to go to Matthew chapter 7,
please.
Matthew chapter 7.
If we were going to give the thoughts
that are on my heart tonight from the
Word of God, I guess we could entitle
them Life's Two Roads.
For the Lord Jesus is speaking about life's
two roads.
You see here as we read from the
Word of God in Matthew 7 and verse
13.
Verse 13.
Enter ye in at the straight gate, or
the narrow gate.
For wide is the gate, and broad is
the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be which go in thereat.
Because straight, or narrow is the gate, and
narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it.
And now verse 24.
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them, I will liken him unto a
wise man, which built his house upon a
rock.
And the rain descended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell not, for it was
founded upon a rock.
And every one that heareth these sayings of
mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened
unto a foolish man, which built his house
upon the sand.
And the rain descended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell, and great was the
fall of it.
And it came to pass, when Jesus had
ended these sayings, that people were astonished at
his doctrine.
And the Lord will bless his word.
Now tonight, as we consider for a few
minutes, Life's Two Roads.
Remember what the Lord Jesus said.
This is his teaching, and if we take
this and apply it in faith and obedience,
it's like a wise man who builds his
house on a rock, and though the storms
come down the road, the house stands.
But if we take this message of his,
and we listen to it, and we like
it, but we don't rely on it and
follow it, then it's like a foolish man,
he too builds a house.
But when the storms of life and God's
judgment comes, well it doesn't stand, and the
whole thing collapses.
And it's all in response to the words
and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now as you saw here, in verses 13
and 14, he spoke of two roads.
And these two roads do have some similarities.
You see, they both have gates.
They both have a way that you go
on it, through the gate or the door.
And they both have a destination.
Both of these roads lead somewhere.
But of course, that is where the similarities
end.
For then the roads become vastly different.
While they both have a gate, and they
both have a destination, one of the major
differences is, is what that destination is.
The Lord Jesus says the broad road, that
is the wide way, which is very popular,
and there will be many on it, it
ends in a place called destruction.
In contrast to the narrow gate and the
narrow road, which ends in a place called
life.
Later in the Bible called eternal life, or
everlasting life.
And so the destinies are dramatically different.
They're both down here, these roads.
But one will end in destruction, and one
will end in life.
You understand that when the Bible speaks of
destruction, it doesn't mean annihilation.
It doesn't mean you're just annihilated, never to
exist anymore.
But it means destruction that you will be
separated from God's glory and God's power in
a place of conscious torment that Revelation 20,
15 calls the lake of fire.
In the words of 2 Thessalonians 1, 9,
it speaks of the unsaved.
It says they will be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and
the glory of His power.
You see, it is a separation from all
the power and glory of heaven.
And it's not having access to that.
It is not annihilation, but separation from such
in a place of conscious torment that the
Bible speaks about.
And so the end of this broad road
is a very serious matter.
It's just not something, you know, in life
where we have decisions all the day.
We have choices before us.
And some choices, well, you say, that's my
career choice.
And if you make a wrong career choice,
you can change it.
But this is something eternal.
It's destruction.
And so the broad road ends in destruction.
Another difference is, it is broad in contrast
to the one that is narrow.
One will have a lot of people on
it.
The other will be a minority.
I want to tell you, it's a blessed
minority.
If you ever want to be a part
of the right minority, be on the narrow
road.
Because it ends in life.
It ends in life.
But the broad way leads to destruction.
Now again, as you notice our Lord's words
here, the Son of God's words in verse
13.
He spoke of entering in at these gates.
He even said that the broad way has
a gate.
And many there be which go in there
at.
Now, of course, we're all born in sin.
Nobody starts out a Christian and then doesn't
become a Christian.
But we're all born in sin.
But there is a matter of choice to
stay on it, so to speak, and refuse
the narrow way.
In that sense, there's a choice involved to
be on the broad way.
And again, as we said, it is broad.
It is wide.
And as we consider this tonight, and as
we apply other parts of the Scripture to
this, you will see that it is a
multi-lane highway to destruction or hell.
And he has something, Satan that is, has
something for everyone.
It's big enough to accommodate all.
The Lord said, many there be which go
on there at.
Tonight, we'd like to look at what we
might call the seven-lane highway to destruction
or to hell.
There's at least seven lanes on it.
To help you remember, we'll start them all
with the letter P.
You might think of a different word, that's
okay.
But just to help you remember.
As we look at this road tonight, one
of the lanes on it that people find
themselves on is the lane of prosperity.
The lane of prosperity.
Where we look at this little life we're
in as our chief goal is to accumulate
things and accumulate goods or money or whatever.
And to be prosperous and to enjoy ourselves.
Well, there's nothing wrong with having our needs
met.
But when these things take the place of
God, the very reason you and I were
created, and we look at our little time
on life as just an accumulation of goods,
of things that will make us feel good
and secure, it is sin against the very
reason we were created.
And there are many that are on this
road of prosperity.
You know, the Lord Jesus, when He preached
on here, He spoke of a man who
was on that distinct lane.
Riches grabbed him.
It's in Luke 16, and He put it
this way.
He said, a certain rich man.
He was clothed in purple and fine linen.
He says he fared sumptuously every day.
He had the best of threads.
Today, I don't know what you call them.
But he dressed well.
And he ate well.
And he lived well.
And when a poor beggar was at his
gate, the only food the beggar would get
would be the crumbs off his table that
the servants threw out.
He didn't have compassion on the less fortunate.
And he thought of salt and the accumulation
of goods.
And he had fun, so to speak, while
he was here.
But remember, this road ends someday.
The end thereof is destruction.
And one day, his end came.
I don't know if he had an advance
notice.
I don't know if he felt chest pains.
I don't know if it was instant.
I don't know if it was in his
sleep.
It doesn't really matter.
It ended.
The Lord Jesus said in Luke 16, 22,
that the rich man also died and was
buried.
There he is.
He's buried.
And there might be people standing there, rabbis
and so on, saying great eulogies for him.
What a great man he was and so
on.
How successful and how savvy he was in
business.
But that wasn't the end of the story.
For the man has an eternal soul.
And while he was laying there buried, the
Lord Jesus pulls back the curtain of eternity.
And he says, in hell, he lift up
his eyes, being in torment.
In hell, he still had spiritual eyes and
he could see.
And he saw away in the distance, Abraham,
a man of God.
And he was in a place that sometimes
people call paradise.
Luke 16 calls it Abraham's bosom.
And he could see far across.
And he saw the beggar who once laid
at his gate.
And there he was on the comfort side
in paradise.
And he cried out.
He said, Father Abraham.
He said, have mercy on me and send
Lazarus that he may dip the tip of
his finger in water and cool my tongue
for I am tormented in this flame.
The very thing he had easy access to
on earth with all his money, water.
He couldn't even get a drop of it
down here.
It's a place of torment.
I am tormented in this flame.
And he couldn't get what he wanted.
And Abraham says, this is a great golf
fix.
There is no going back and forth.
There is no bridge, you see.
It's an eternal fixed destination.
He says, could you at least go back,
send Lazarus from the dead, give a resurrection,
if you will?
I have five brothers and they're not saved.
He said, I don't want them to come
to this awful place.
He said, perhaps they'll believe in hell if
somebody went from the dead and told them.
In essence, the answer was, if they don't
believe the Word of God, that is, Moses
and the prophets, a resurrection isn't going to
convince them.
And so the answer was, nobody will be
going back.
He became a believer as his road ended
in destruction.
A man who lived for money, in which
the Bible says that the love of money,
in 1 Timothy 6, 9, just not money,
but the love of money is the root
of all evil.
And one day his road ended.
He was on that lane of prosperity, but
it ended in destruction.
There's money on that.
And it all seems well now.
But the Son of God says, someday it's
coming to an end.
And the place is called destruction.
When these things occupy our life rather than
living for God.
Well, as we said, it's a very wide
road.
And there is something for everybody.
There's also the lane of what we could
call pleasure.
The lane of pleasure.
Now, we all like to relax.
We all like to have a good time.
And I don't think there's anything wrong with
that.
But when that pleasure crosses the line of
God's commandments and hurts God and hurts others
so we can feel good and get what
we want and serve self rather than God,
the Bible calls that the lust of the
flesh and the lust of the eye and
the pride of life.
In other words, it's called sin.
And to just look at life as down
here, this is just that all my decisions
are to make me feel good and to
fulfill my senses.
That is the lane of pleasure.
The Lord Jesus Christ, He talked about a
man who was on that.
He told us about it in Luke chapter
12.
He was also a rich man.
And one day this farmer, he looked at
his farm and he said, Would you look
at that?
Would you look at all the crops I'm
burying?
You see, the barns can't even hold it.
He said, I have an idea.
I'm going to tear down those barns.
I'm going to build bigger ones.
Well, what would you do that for?
He said, Well, I do want to lay
up all those goods.
And there's a reason I want to lay
them up.
You know, I really don't want to work
anymore.
I've done my fair share.
So I'm going to kind of set back
with all this resources now.
And here's what he said inside his heart.
He said, I'll say to myself, Thou hast
much goods laid up for many years.
Take thine ease.
Eat, drink, and be merry.
You know, you live here to have an
ease.
Eat, drink, have a good time.
Fulfill your senses.
And you know what God said to him?
He said, This night thy soul shall be
required of thee.
Then shall these things be.
You are thinking many years, but your road
is going to end tonight.
And it's going to end in that place
that the Lord Jesus called destruction.
Eternal separation of God and a place of
conscious torment.
And thou fool, you've made the most foolish
choices.
You look like success.
You might make the magazines of your day.
And the talk shows that you're a successful
man.
As an entrepreneur, as a playboy.
Take thine ease.
Eat, drink, and be merry.
But you're a fool.
It's going to end all tonight.
It was on the road of pleasure.
You know, the Bible says in 2 Timothy
3.4 That there are those that are
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.
They might even profess God.
But when the choice comes between pleasure and
God, you'll find it in pleasure.
They'll have an excuse not to assemble and
worship God in what we call church.
But they won't have an excuse when it
comes to fulfilling pleasure.
Whether it's innocent pleasure or evil pleasure.
They put pleasure ahead of God.
They're on that lane of pleasure.
And we read about a man on that
tonight.
It's a wide road.
There's a lane for not only prosperity.
But there's those who look at life as
just to satisfy their senses.
Rather than realizing we are created to satisfy
and to live for God.
On the road of pleasure.
But it ends in destruction.
Well, there's another lane on that road.
We could call it the lane of popularity.
The lane of popularity.
Now, I understand and I believe you do
too.
That in every one of us, we want
to be accepted.
We want to be liked.
And none of us want to be hated
and have everybody look down on us.
And we love it when people like us.
But when we let that people liking us
get in the way of being faithful to
God and the Lord Jesus.
And coming to Him and following Him.
Then that becomes sin when we put people
over God.
And when we want to be popular more
than pleasing God.
The lane of popularity.
In the Bible, you'll see various people on
it.
One I'm thinking of is the governor in
the time of our Lord Jesus.
Now, his name was Governor Pilate.
And he was the authority figure that the
Jewish people wanted to crucify Christ.
Because they were under the Roman government.
They had to get Pilate's permission to execute
him.
It was the government that would carry that
out.
Now, as Pilate discerned the case and tried
the case.
He realized our blessed Lord had done nothing
worthy of death.
He said, I find no fault in him.
I can't execute a man who didn't commit
a crime.
And then he brought him out.
He said, look, here he is.
Behold your king.
He told the Jewish nation, Israel.
And they answered back, we have no king
but Caesar.
And he said, I'm going to release him.
For it is no cause of death in
him.
And then the crowd shouted back something.
It was clever.
It was cunning.
They said, do you understand, Mr. Pilate?
I'm sure they used respectful terms, Governor Pilate.
Do you understand, if you let this man
go, you are not Caesar's friend.
For whosoever maketh himself a king, you see,
speaketh against Caesar.
You have somebody over you and you think
of your political career.
If you are going to stand on this
man's side who claims he's a king, you're
not Caesar's friend.
When he heard that, he made a decision.
And in the words of Mark chapter 15
and verse 15, it says, here's why Pilate
let Jesus be crucified.
It says, Pilate, willing to content the people,
released unto them Brabus, and delivered Jesus when
he had scourged or whipped him to be
crucified.
To content the people?
He didn't want to have the people against
him.
He wanted to be popular.
He wanted to be a notable figure.
He didn't want to lose Caesar's friendship.
History tells us that within two years, the
political tide turned against Pilate and he had
to go into exile.
So much for popularity.
You know, the Lord Jesus spoke in John
12, 43.
It spoke of some Jews who, in their
private minds, they believed Jesus was really the
Messiah, the Son of God.
You know what?
They never confessed Him.
They never would come out and say, I'm
going to take sides with Him.
He's my Lord.
You know why?
Why?
John 12, 43.
For they loved the praise of men more
than the praise of God.
They would sell out the Lord Jesus Christ
for popularity.
I think of the Lord's words in Mark
8, 38.
He says, Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of
me, and my words in this adulterous and
sinful generation, of him also shall the Son
of Man be ashamed of, when he cometh
in the glory of his Father with his
holy angels.
He says, you're embarrassed about me.
In your heart you might know I'm true.
But you don't want to lose your friends,
your people at work, even your family sometimes.
You don't want to pay the cost, do
you?
Even your church affiliation, if it's a wrong
one.
And he says, you love the praise of
men more than the praise of God.
You're ashamed of me.
He says, there's coming a day when I'm
going to be the one to be associated
with.
I'm going to come in the glory of
my Father with the holy angels, as he
erects God's coming kingdom.
And that's when you'd want to know him.
He says, I'm going to be ashamed of
you.
In fact, he says, I never knew you.
I'll be embarrassed to identify with you.
There's those, and they're on the road, and
it might seem good now, but it's the
road of popularity.
But if it leaves out the Lord Jesus,
it ends in destruction.
Well, there's another one.
We could call it philosophy.
Philosophy.
The lane paved with philosophy.
We mean intellectual reasoning.
Now, God gave us a brain, and he
doesn't expect us to use it.
But when we use that brain to explain
away God's word, rather than to trust God's
word, that is sin.
The Lord Jesus spoke about people who were
on that lane of what we call philosophy,
human reasoning.
Reasoning away God's word.
They weren't lawyers, if you will, but they
were religious lawyers.
Men who could translate the Bible.
They had doctor's degrees and so on.
They were men of intellectual ability, and they
applied themselves.
But when the Lord Jesus spoke, they would
take his words and play grammar gymnastics with
it and twist it, and they would convince
the people it didn't mean that at all.
And so he would say to these lawyers
in Luke 11.52, Woe unto you lawyers,
for you have taken away the key of
knowledge.
You have not entered in yourselves.
You haven't entered in on this narrow road.
And them that were entering in, you hindered.
He said with your reasoning and debate and
skills, you've taken away the key of knowledge
from the person who wanted to enter in.
You did not enter in.
But that wasn't good enough for you.
You didn't want others to go to.
So you showed your intellectual skill in posing
arguments and twisting the scripture, and you actually
caused people not to think it was real.
He said, Woe to you lawyers.
You know the Bible says in Colossians 2
.8, Beware lest any man spoil you after
philosophy.
He's a lover of wisdom.
After vain deceit.
After traditions of men.
After the rudiments of the world and not
after Christ.
They might ask questions.
They might look at this thing and they
might pose questions because you don't have an
answer for it.
The implication is, well, it can't be true.
You know, I can remember when we used
to witness down in Ocean City in Margate
years ago, and I had a young fellow
we were out passing tracks at.
He came up and he said, Let me
ask you something about your God.
He says, Does he know everything?
Yes, he does.
He's omniscient.
Can he do anything?
Is he powerful?
He's omnipotent.
He's all powerful.
Well, he is, is he?
Well, could he make a rock so big
that he couldn't lift it?
If you can't give them the right answer,
they write the whole thing off with their
little clever questions.
I don't know if it was the right
answer.
What I said to him, Yeah, he could
make a rock so big that since he's
all known, he'd know enough not to.
But anyway, he's a spirit.
And spirits don't have the problem of lifting
and so on.
But we hear different types of questions like
that.
You know, where did Cain get his wife?
Brother Chris Schroder, who'll be here in two
months, he said, Here's the answer.
I don't know.
I'm not able.
But they have things like that.
And supposedly, if you don't have the answer,
why all the suffering?
Or you don't have a logical answer to
their mind.
They say, Well, look, you don't really represent
a logical God.
And they take away the key of knowledge.
If you ask them where they get their
conclusions, though, they don't have an answer.
Well, if you believe this, where did you
get it?
Did God communicate with you?
Where do you get absolute truth?
Is it just a product of your vain
little mind?
I mean, if you're so sure it is
not a hell, there's not a heaven, you
don't have to be saved.
What authority has conveyed that to you?
You know, they can't answer you.
It's a product of their reasoning.
Philosophy.
Philosophy can be deadly when it doesn't point
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there's these lawyers that were on it.
And Christ pronounced a woe to them.
And they wouldn't enter.
And they took away the key of knowledge.
You know, this Bible has a divine stamp
on it.
It has the seal of prophecy.
God doesn't ask you to put your faith
in just some empty feelings.
He understands you have a mind.
And so he presented the Lord Jesus Christ
through the vehicle of prophecy.
He predicted hundreds of years in advance that
whoever the Messiah would be, he would have
to have these things happen to him.
Such as what part of the world he'd
be born in.
Such as what country he'd be born in.
Such as what county he'd be born in.
Such as what city he'd be born in.
Such as what type of transportation he'll be
using.
Such as how the people will react to
him.
Such as what time in history he'll actually
walk.
Prophecy after prophecy that you really have no
control over.
What race he would be.
What family he would be.
You try to arrange that one before you're
born.
And he predicted them hundreds of years in
advance.
It's called prophecy.
And it's the evidence that we can place
our faith in that Jesus Christ is the
only one who has matched those prophecies.
You try to make a prediction.
And you'll see why you have to be
divine to make it accurately all the time.
And the longer the prediction is, the more
divine supernatural ability has to be present.
For instance, you take this Super Bowl this
past January.
If somebody would have came up on early
January and said, who's going to win the
Super Bowl?
Say the week before the Super Bowl.
Well, you've got two choices.
And so one week, really, you're going to
be 50% right or 50% wrong.
But what if somebody said 500 years from
tonight, you know, who's going to win the
Super Bowl?
Now age has put a whole different perspective
on it.
There might not even be a New York
or Jets or anything else or Giants.
Who knows if football will be around?
You not only have to know the future,
you have to have the ability to control
the future so it will happen.
That is the way God has presented the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Through what 2 Peter 119 calls the sure
word of prophecy.
So that he has given you evidence that
when you place your faith, there is not
just feeling, but there is scripture.
You can match it up.
Did he pass the test or didn't he?
And so God has given you evidence.
And so he doesn't ask you to throw
away your brain.
He asks you to place it in confidence
on the word of God.
The philosophy will point you away.
As attractive as that might seem down here,
it ends in destruction.
And then there is the lane that we
could call pride in religion.
Pride in one's religion, their performance for God.
It's right here in our chapter.
Look here in chapter 7 and verse 21.
Verse 21.
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
But he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven.
A lot of people will have the right
language.
Lord, Lord, you know.
And so on.
Look at verse 22.
Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name or preached?
And in thy name have cast out devils
and done miracles.
And in thy name have done many wonderful
works.
And then I will profess unto them, I
never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
I don't know you.
They are religious people.
The road to hell is paved with religion.
But religion that doesn't bow to the truth
and gospel of God and the Lord Jesus
and His word is not God's religion.
They don't bow to the Lord's will.
But they might say the right words and
they start to tell the Lord everything they
did for Him.
Well, I did this.
People take pride in their religion and their
heritage and what they've done.
And the Bible shows that that is on
the lane to destruction.
In Luke 18, the Lord told a parable
to help illustrate that about those who trusted
in themselves that they were righteous.
The pride of self-confidence.
Well, I'm not that bad.
If I do it good enough, God will
let me into heaven.
He says, you know, two people went to
the temple to pray.
One was a Pharisee, the other was a
publican, that is a tax collector.
And tax collectors, I don't know about today,
but I do know in those days they
were cheaters.
And they took more than they were.
They were infamous cheaters.
They were criminals, most of them.
And the other was a tax collector.
And he said, they went to the temple
to pray.
And he says, the Pharisee, well, he let
us in on his prayer.
He says, his major subject was I.
Lord, I fast twice in the week.
I tithe all my possessions.
They even would take the anise and cumin
the Bible says, which is their table spices
like our salt and pepper.
And they'd scrape away that 10% and
donate it to the temple.
He says, I do that.
And he says, and he saw that tax
collector over there praying.
He says, Lord, I thank you, I'm not
like him.
I'm not a cheater in business.
I'm not an adulterer.
I'm not like him, he says.
And I thank you, God, I'm not like
him.
And then the tax collector also prayed.
And the Lord Jesus said, he had seven
simple words.
God, be merciful to me.
He took his low place.
I've come short.
I'm a sinner.
I need your mercy.
What you will do for me, God.
What I have done for you is horrible.
He said, I need your mercy.
The Lord Jesus says, both men went home,
but one man went home justified, right with
God.
The other one didn't.
He said it was a tax collector that
went home justified.
He came without pride in his religious performance.
He came taking his place as a worthy
sinner of hell.
And he took his place and he found
God's mercy on the grounds of humility.
You know, somehow we think that our performance
for God kind of earns heaven.
And that, yes, we make mistakes once in
a while.
But we really aren't in big trouble because
look at all the good things we've done.
I have a friend down in southern New
Jersey.
He's a policeman.
I don't know if you've ever heard of
him.
His name's Rob McPherson.
Rob McPherson tells the story this way and
illustrates the point.
Because he's a policeman, this is the way
he illustrates it.
He'll tell the people, he says, say you're
taking a trip from California to New Jersey.
And they say, whatever, it depends on how
fast you drive.
And that could take you four, five, six
days, whatever.
And there you are taking this trip and
you obey all the speed limits.
And you stop at all the red lights
and you're just unwonderful.
And you pull into New Jersey and you're
anxious to get home.
And you hit that gas pedal to go
maybe 75 in that final hour.
And he says, I see you.
And I pull you over.
And he says, you tell me, officer.
He says, you don't understand.
I stop at every red light.
I obeyed the speed limit in Wisconsin and
Illinois and Ohio.
So obviously I'm not guilty.
If it doesn't work that way, I write
you a ticket because you're guilty now.
What you've done now, what you did earlier
has no power to remove the penalty of
what you've done now.
And God is that holy.
And he says in James 2.10, Whosoever
shall keep the whole law and yet offend
in one point, he is guilty of all.
Just one.
Sometimes when we illustrate this at camp, we'll
tell children.
We'll say, say one was standing up here
and the other is in the back.
And you're holding a 500-link chain.
And you pull it tight.
Now we'll ask the children, how many of
those links have to snap for the connection
to be broken?
Well, they get it.
Just one.
The whole connection is broken.
One sin keeps you out of a holy
God's presence and makes you guilty beforehand.
And all the good works that you have
done, just like that person who drove 300,
3000 perfect miles, cannot absolve him from the
ticket of the law he did break.
And so we're not saved by work.
We must take our ground, our place as
a sinner.
We must come to God for mercy.
The road to hell is paved with religion,
pride in one's ability, pride in one's performance.
It's also paved with a sixth lane.
We could call it power.
Power.
The ability to feel like you're in control,
to have people doing what you say, it's
a powerful thing.
You know, when Satan tempted the Lord Jesus,
he said, do you see all the world's
kingdoms?
He said, all the power of them and
the glory, I can give them to you.
The power, the security and pride it puts
in one.
You see, being able to control people and
have people adore you and do what you
say.
Men pay a great price to get power.
Men lie to keep power.
Did you know that?
They do.
Power is an attractive thing.
People murder to keep power.
People do all kinds of things to get
this thing called power.
There were people on this lane also in
the Bible, and they were the very chief
priest of Israel's religion.
They're recorded for us in Mark chapter 15.
The Lord Jesus said, or rather the Bible
says concerning the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus,
that we referred to Pilate earlier.
And Pilate, as we said, wanted to let
the Lord Jesus go.
And he saw that the people would let
him go, even though they were all stirred
up.
So he gave the people a choice between
the number one criminal of that day by
the name of Barabbas and the Lord Jesus.
And he said, well, one, they have a
choice between the number one criminal.
They're obviously not going to want to let
him go free, and they'll let me release
Jesus.
But the reason he said that, because he
knew the reason Christ was before him.
It wasn't for a sin.
It's because Pilate knew that the chief priest
had delivered him for envy.
Do you know what that means?
They were jealous that Christ had more followers
and people liked him better than they liked
them.
They were losing their power.
They had less numbers at their religious gatherings.
Less people were following them.
They were less important than they were a
year before Jesus Christ came.
For the people were now listening to him.
They felt that power slipping away.
And their whole thing against the Lord Jesus
was envy.
He's making us less important.
And rather than turn and trust him to
hang on to that power, they said, let's
kill him and deliver him to the Roman
government.
The road to hell is paved with power.
You look at your career.
You look at this.
You say, I've got to get ahead.
I've got to get more.
I want to be secure.
I like this feeling of being able to
lead and direct.
Well, there's time to need to do that.
The Bible does call us to certain positions
of authority.
But when that is your whole pursuit, and
it's not laid at the feet of God,
it becomes sin.
The road to hell is paved with power.
Both roads, by the way, are toll roads.
You see, we've been talking about the road
to destruction.
It ends with a heavy toll, doesn't it?
You see, especially here in New Jersey, you're
used to toll roads.
Coming up the parkway today was reminded, you
know, of New Jersey all over again.
But there it is.
Tolls all over the place.
The road, the wide roads, is a place
that has a toll booth at the end.
The ender of the way of destruction.
You know, Romans 6.20 preaches, the wages
of sin is death.
There is a price.
You see, we don't feel that price now.
Everything's going great.
We might be popular.
But at the end of that road, there's
a toll booth.
And as we're saying, it is destruction.
It is separation.
It is conscious torment.
It is the lake of fire in the
words of Revelation 20.15. A tremendous toll
of being forever separated from God.
Forever wanting what you couldn't have.
Forever tormented for your sins.
A tremendous toll the Bible calls destruction.
Are these things worth that price?
I realize they mean something down here.
Are they worth the toll at the end
of it called destruction?
I want to tell you there's good news
tonight, though.
Thank God there's another road or I wouldn't
be here.
It's called the narrow road.
It's narrow.
And there's a gate.
You must enter the gate to get on
the road.
It's a choice of coming on.
Enter at the narrow gate or the straight
gate.
Few there be that find it.
But I'll tell you the difference in this
road.
It, too, is a toll road.
You know where a toll booth is?
Right at the beginning.
There's some roads, and when you get off,
you pay your toll.
And there's others, the toll booth is right
at the beginning.
And this toll booth is at the beginning.
And the good news of God's gospel who
loves the world is that horrible toll, which
is death, as we've been talking about.
The wages of sin is death.
Suffering and separation from God.
That toll has been paid for you.
I was driving to Ohio for some meetings
a couple years ago.
Got out my ticket, you know.
Never had it quite happen like this before.
It was quite a healthy amount on the
ticket, and I was getting the money out,
and I go up to pay it, and
she said, I said, don't worry about it.
She said, the person in front paid it.
I don't know how they knew how much,
unless they gave such a denomination, a high
denomination, told them to keep the change.
The price was paid, and I went on
free.
The toll booth is at the beginning of
the narrow road.
The gospel goes on to teach in the
Bible that Christ died for our sins.
1 Corinthians 15.
That the sin factor has been dealt with.
Christ just didn't get baptized for our sins
or give money for our sins.
That's not the wages of sin.
The wages of sin is death.
And He had no sin.
He left heaven, and the Son of God
lived through life, but He never sinned.
But He died for your sin and my
sin.
And the whole sin factor that separates you
from God and me from God, that price
has been paid.
The Bible gives it a technical term.
Redemption.
Redemption means to obtain by meeting the right
price.
And Ephesians 1.7 tells the saved person,
it says, in whom Jesus Christ the Lord,
we have redemption through His blood.
The forgiveness of sin according to the riches
of His grace.
You see, you enter in at the door.
The Lord Jesus says, I am the door
or the gate.
By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved.
It is not a matter of what you're
going to do to get rid of your
sins and please God.
It's a matter of what God has already
done for you 2,000 years ago when
His only beloved Son hung there and suffered
and took your curse on the tree and
bore our sins in His own body on
the tree, 1 Peter 2.24. And there
the whole sin factor was dealt with in
the person of God the Son.
God loves you that much and required that
type of a sacrifice.
Yes, when you come to Christ, there will
be people that turn away from you.
There is a cost to pay in that
sense of the word.
As 2 Timothy 3.12 says, Yea, all
that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution.
People might walk out on you.
You might lose a promotion at work.
Some countries you get physically abused.
Here in Western society, it's usually emotional abuse.
And the Holy Spirit that He gives you
will give you power not to fulfill the
lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5.16 And there are certain things
that you call pleasure now that you'll no
longer have a desire for.
And you'll have power to overcome them.
Yes, it is a narrow road.
But that price for your sin has been
paid for.
And the reason you know God gives you
a receipt.
You know sometimes when I pay a toll,
they understand that certain business people keep records.
They say, would you like a receipt?
And the receipt is proof that if someone
questions you, that the toll has been paid.
God has given us a receipt that the
toll for our sin has been paid at
the beginning of the road.
Not down the end what we do for
God, but what Christ did for us.
That receipt is the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
The right hand of the majesty on high.
If he's good enough for God, that God
has put the Lord Jesus on His own
right hand.
Is He good enough for you?
And if you have problems with coming and
believing on the Lord Jesus, then you have
a problem with you and God are at
odds.
For God has accepted Him.
He's at His own right hand.
But you haven't accepted Him.
And you and God aren't as close as
you might thought you are over the Jesus
factor.
And the assurance that you have that you
don't have to worry is that you trust
the Lord and you show up in heaven
and God says, well that was just that
chapel down there.
They kind of brainwashed you.
I never said that was the way.
You have a receipt that God Himself has
raised the Lord Jesus from the dead.
And that is your assurance, your proof that
He is God's Savior and Lord.
The toll's been paid.
The assurance has been given.
And Christ said that our responsibility is to
enter in at the straight gate.
He doesn't drop you on it.
You must come on it.
Get off the broad road.
And come to the Lord.
And yes, it's a narrow way.
And yes, you're a minority.
But I want to tell you, it ends
in life.
What the Bible calls life.
And that makes all the difference.
The gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
And everything on that broad way that people
are grasping for, you'll end up getting anyway.
And a million times better.
You talked about pleasure.
Listen to King David in Psalm 1611.
Thou wilt show me the path of life.
In thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand are pleasures forevermore.
In eternity the pleasures of ages to come
of God show His riches and grace and
His plan to us.
At His right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The very thing people grasp at will be
in heaven on a righteous basis.
You talked about power.
How about this?
There's a kingdom coming.
And those that are saved are going to
reign on the earth with the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Revelation 5.10. You're going to reign over
the new world coming.
The church is told in 1 Corinthians 6
.2. Do you not know that the saints
shall judge the world?
How's that for power?
To be over God's new world that's coming.
You talk about prosperity.
The capital city, the new Jerusalem, is going
to have streets, as it were, of transparent
gold.
It's going to be a multi-jeweled city.
So impressive that the nations, the kings of
the nations, will come to that city to
worship the Lamb and God there.
That's how impressive it's going to be.
It's going to draw the very kings of
the nations.
The saved people of this age will be
in that city and part of that city.
You talk about power and prosperity and pleasure
and wisdom, philosophy.
Colossians 2.3 says, In Christ, in God,
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge.
And He's going to take all eternity to
show us the exceeding riches of His grace.
It's going to take that long to unfold
His wisdom and what He has for us.
Everything that people are grasping on to counterfeit
on this temporary life down here, God has
for you on a righteous basis.
And it ends in life, what He calls
eternal life and the kingdom coming.
Kingdom coming.
But there is one more lane on that
road to destruction.
We can call it the lane of procrastination.
You've probably heard the old adage, The road
to hell is paved with good intentions.
I do believe in the Lord.
I plan to enter in someday and come
to Him by faith.
But not just yet.
There are a few things I just want
to accomplish and enjoy first.
There is a day I plan to come.
But not just yet.
The lane of procrastination.
There was a governor.
His name was Felix.
And he ended up in that lane.
The Bible speaks of it in Acts chapter
24.
The Apostle Paul stood before this governor, even
though he was a prisoner, that is the
Apostle Paul.
And he boldly witnessed the gospel.
He reasoned of righteousness and temperance and self
-control and judgment to come.
Destruction.
And Felix was so shook up by the
gospel message, the Bible says this governor, his
knees began to shake.
He began to tremble.
He began to think about eternity and his
sin and his sinful life and then the
good news that was offered in Christ.
He began to shake.
Then he turned and he said something to
Paul.
He didn't say, I reject it.
He didn't say, get out of here, I
don't believe it.
He said, go thy way for this time.
When I have a convenient season, I will
call for thee.
At a better time, at a little more
convenient time.
He never called for Paul again, the Bible
records.
Other things came in.
He never had a more convenient season.
That's why we can apply 2 Corinthians 6.
Behold now is the accepted time.
Behold now is the day of salvation.
The road could end tonight.
You have no guarantee on tomorrow.
Don't be on that lane of procrastination and
put your faith.
So we left it at that.
About three days later, I got a call.
Would you go to the hospital and see
Mrs. Calabrese?
She's had an aneurysm and she got out
of the shower.
A vessel exploded in her brain.
And the machines there, you know.
I don't think she's a vegetable, but you
never know, they say.
Would you just give her the gospel anyway?
It's a very frustrating thing, but you're there
giving the gospel and there's no response whatsoever.
And a day later, Mrs. Calabrese went into
eternity.
The road to destruction, procrastination.
Now is the accepted time.
And so I ask you tonight as we
close, which road are you on?
And are you sure?
There's only two, there's not three.
There's not some middle road that leads you
to La-La Land or something that God
will kind of make exceptions for.
There's the road to life and the road
to destruction.
You can't be on both at the same
time.
And the only way you can get on
the narrow way, you must enter onto it.
Are you sure you're on that one?
Have you come to the Lord Jesus?
Is your faith not on what you're doing
for Him, but on what He did on
the cross?
You've taken your place as a sinner.
You've admitted in humility that you need His
mercy.
You've seen that He died for your sins
and God has assured you of the whole
thing, that He raised Him from the dead.
You've trusted Him and His Spirit has come
into your life and He's changed your life
so you're no longer living like the people
on the road to destruction.
And you're on that narrow way.
And by His grace, it ends in life.
He asks you to enter in.
He says you'll be a wise person if
you do.
That when the storms of God's judgment come,
you'll be wise.
Your faith will stand because the blood of
Christ will forgive you forever and you'll be
with God.
If you're not saved, would you enter that
narrow gate even now and be part of
that blessed minority that by His grace, by
the Lord Jesus, will give you everlasting life?
You can call on Him from your heart
even as we pray.
If you have any questions, something you'd like
to talk about from the Bible, we'd be
happy to stay behind.
Others here would be happy, too.
But you can call on the Lord and
He'll save you.
He's the Savior, not us.
We're going to close in prayer.
It's been good to be with you.
And if you'd like any of the free
literature, you help yourself.
Our Father in Heaven, we just thank You
for this time in the name of the
Lord Jesus.
We thank You there are two roads.
There's not just one to destruction.
But He came that He might save.
And maybe there's some here tonight and they're
not sure.
And these things have been used to keep
them confused.
Popularity or whatever, pleasures, riches.
And they're blinding them to the truth.
And yet tonight the invitation stands to enter
the narrow gate.
And the beautiful news is sin has been
dealt with.
The price has been paid.
And all they have to do is trust
the Lord Jesus.
And you will save them, the Bible says.
And give them everlasting life.
And they'll be on that narrow road that
ends in life.
Lord, those of us that are on the
narrow road, again, encourage us on it.
And help us not to be ashamed and
to rejoice in it, to live in a
way that will witness to others.
And so we'd ask Thee tonight as we
close to bless Thy Word, whether in the
ones that are saved, or if any aren't
saved.
And Thy Spirit will work in a way
that we can't even begin to.
And it will work in hearts.
It will bring them into the truth of
our Lord Jesus and into His presence.
And to please Him.
So we commit this message tonight, Father, in
the name and because of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who is on Thy right hand, where
there is pleasure forevermore.
Amen.