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Word from Scotland
by Sandy Shaw
In Matthew Chapter 7 and at verses 13,14, Jesus speaks about the two roads which confront and face us in life, and there is that fork in the road and we have to choose which road we are going to take. Which road are you going to take? This is the question Jesus is presenting before the people. Which road – which route – are you going to take?
Many choose the wrong road and make a bad decision.
A decision has to be taken, and acted upon, and a choice has to be made.
This is challenging, and this is as challenging for us too today, as it was for these disciples then, because we live in a day of tolerance.
The world likes us to be tolerant and broadminded, and open to every argument, and neither committed to right or wrong.
It is wrong to tolerate evil, but it is right to tolerate people’s weaknesses and failings.
It is wrong to be tolerant when it comes to truth and falsehood.
We are conditioned to sit on the fence, and look at every point, from every angle.
Jesus says there is either one gate or the other one.
There is either the destination of destruction or the destination of life. We choose to be one of the crowd, or one of the few.
Ambivalence is impossible. There is not a fence on which we can sit. I used to say that when the Holy Spirit comes He electrifies the fence and we have to jump off on one side or the other. That may just help someone who is sitting on that metaphorical fence on moral or spiritual or eternal issues.
This is not just a nice collection of moral sayings which might have been devised by an educated and cultured humanist.
The decision we make will affect the rest of our lives, and also our eternal destiny.
Jesus lays before His disciples, and the people then, and us today, these two possible lifestyles, and He speaks about two roads.
This word broad means – spacious or roomy. There are few boundaries if any at all. You can do more or less what you like.
Tolerance and permissiveness are the order of the day. You can, if you choose, be proud and angry. You can hate your enemy, and be full of lust.
You do not need to bother forgiving or giving or praying or fasting.
You can hold onto your money and retaliate and seek revenge if someone wrongs you.
This is where many people get hurt and misused and abused.
What we are dealing with here are all the opposites.
Jesus presents us with the alternative. Enter through the narrow gate. It is a narrow gate – like a turnstile at a sports ground – and we may have to bow our head – and repent, and ask God for forgiveness.
It can be a difficult gate to go through, but Jesus is on the other side and calls us to come – come on – I will help you bend, and bow your head. I will help you get rid of those things you know to be wrong, and which you do not want, and which you really know to be unhelpful to you.
It appears restricted and confined, with limitations, or boundaries.
It is a road of purity and honesty and integrity and forgiveness and mercy and grace.
The other way can be busy. The narrow way is seldom busy.
In these tolerant and affable days, when the feel good factor is so crucial, are we still prepared to hold onto these words of Jesus?
The broad road leads to destruction. The narrow road leads to life.
It is a choice – destruction or life – abundance of life which Jesus gives as a gift. It leads to expansive fulfilment.
The road with no boundaries will lead to destruction. It may appear quite harmless, but it will lead to our destruction, and others will be hurt.
There is an addictive nature in sin.
The many on the broad road can give a man a sense of false security. They are all doing it. I might as well too.
Right is right even if nobody else does it. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong.
On the narrow road, we can become what God intended us to be. This road makes us truly human as we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Sitting on clouds, and twanging harps, is a caricature of what this road leads to.
There is a great broad road where people are wandering, and they think they are free but they desperately want a map and a compass, and guidance and direction, and a guide who will set them on the narrow way which leads to life.
Many can be spectating, and Jesus challenged the spectators.
It is within our grasp. It is possible.
Jesus would not call us to go through this gate if it were not possible.
“O, don’t be so narrow!” we hear people say. Well Jesus speaks about a narrow gate – a small gate – like a turnstile.
We live in an age of pluralism and the modern ear does not like to hear that there is only one way to God. There were people then who did not like it either.
There is no middle road. There is no third gate. One cannot remain neutral.
Jesus presses home this same point in these closing words about foundations and listening and hearing and doing.
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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