Living In The Kingdom 21 Series

Living in the Kingdom 21

Scripture: Matthew 7:13-14; 15:18-19; Romans 6:1-7; 12-18

This is part two of the message I started last week. If you recall from last Sunday, Matthew 7:13-14 says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” I told you on last Sunday that Jesus makes it clear that there will be more people going to a place not called heaven than there will be going to heaven. The reason that will happen is because man has the freedom to choose their final destination based on the choices that they make. Our lives here on earth are temporary. Regardless of the number of years we spend here, it is temporary. As we live our temporary lives we make decisions that give us temporary pleasures. How ever pleasurable these decisions may be, they are and always will be temporary. In our making of these temporary decisions, we fail to realize that they will ultimately lead to an everlasting final destination. We live temporary lives, making temporary decisions for temporary pleasures leading to a gate that’s eternal and may or may not be the one leading to “resting in peace” as we like to say. Last week we read Matthew 7:13-14 from the Amplified Bible. In the description of the narrow gate, it read, “the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure)…” This morning I will review some of the pressures that make this gate so narrow. I am doing this not because I think any of you are living in sin and are on your way to hell, but because all of us probably know someone who is and as Christians we should be doing something to help them – especially if they believe they are going to heaven simply because they have been baptized.

We are living in a time in world history where the idea of sin is up for interpretation in the minds of many in the Church. Understand, I did not say in the minds of those living in sin; I said in the minds of those who are supposed to understand what sin is and how God interprets it and how He responds to it. You see, the understanding of sin, what it is and what it isn’t, is the one thing that all of us must understand if we are to enter into the narrow gate. The idea of sin has always been the issue and it always will be. And because no one wants to accuse a “good, caring person” of living in sin because in our eyes, they truly are a good and caring person, so we do not discuss it. And because some things are no longer considered sin, if you are in the minority and say that something is sin, you’re talked about, called named and are subject to having people labeling you a bigot or “holier than thou” and the like. I read an article this week that in one large U.S. Protestant denomination 70 churches in one state disaffiliated from the denomination because of the issue of same-sex relationships. Those who believed it should be accepted chose to leave when the majority decided to stay with the traditional interpretation of marriage. What is interesting is that when the leadership of this denomination took their vote, most of the leadership in the U.S. voted against the traditional view but were overridden by the number of votes from African and Philippian nations. Had the vote been taken only in the U.S., this denomination would have made a different decision relating to same-sex relationships. This message is not a message about same-sex relationships, but I call this out because this particular issue for the Church is totally based on how those in the Church are interpreting what the Bible says and how the Church at large is slowly drifting away from God. And it further establishes the point of what Jesus says about the gates. Which gate we enter is determined by our interpretation of what sin is or what sin is not. Jesus said clearly, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) We cannot keep His commandments if we do not agree with them or believe that they have been misinterpreted. This is why I keep reminding you of Proverbs 14:12 which says, “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” The only “right” way is what the Bible says, but it is the responsibility of each individual to believe it for him or herself.