Our Spiritual Walk #2
The Broad Way
Jeremiah 10:23
CHCC – June 15, 2014
INTRODUCTION:
We’re in a series about Our Spiritual Walk, and we’re starting out by talking about WHERE we’re walking. Last week we read what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 about the broad and the narrow Gate and the broad and narrow WAY. Last week we focused on the narrow way … which leads to LIFE. This week we’re going to take a look at the Broad Way and see it for what it is … a road that leads to destruction.
Since Jesus spelled this out to us so clearly … the narrow way = life; the broad way = death … you’d think it would be a no-brainer. But Jesus said MANY will travel the broad way and FEW will choose the narrow way. To understand why that is, we’ll look at
1. Characteristics of the Broad Way
Those who choose the Narrow Way know when they made that choice. It may have been a hard choice to make … it was definitely a purposeful choice to reject the Broad Way and walk the Narrow. But the folks on the Broad Path usually don’t even know how they got there because it is so …
(a) – Easy to Enter - There are so many points of entrance that people get on this path without giving it a thought. Many folks on the Broad Way have never made a choice at all … they just started walking wherever their feet led them. But for those who purposefully choose the Broad Way, it is …
(b) – A Selfishly motivated choice – These folks want to call the shots … they value autonomy above all and have no desire to get advice from anyone … even from God. These folks truly believe, “I am the master of my fate; the captain of my soul.” And they can walk this path for years with very little struggle, because the Broad Way is …
(c) The Path of Least Resistance - This is the path that follows the pull of gravity … and since it goes downhill all the way, it looks inviting. It takes very little effort to walk this way. If we change the analogy, this path doesn’t really take any effort at all. Have you ever walked out into the waves at the beach? If you stay out there any time at all, you’ll find you’ve moved way down the beach without even knowing it happened. You just drifted with the current. This broad way is pleasant, easy, with lots of room (after all, it’s broad), and plenty of company. You may hear rumors that there’s a bad end to the road, but those predictions are easy to ignore because the Broad way is …
(d) - The Sensual Way - The Broad way is entirely made for our earthly life – everything on it appeals to the Five Senses. No wonder so many choose this path. The sensual attractions are intoxicating. This Broad Path offers endless entertainments and distractions … enough to keep people from thinking about the destination that is getting closer and closer. After all, every traveler knows the end is DEATH, but no one needs to think about that when there’s so much fun to find along the way.
Jeremiah 10:23 says, “Oh, Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man to direct his steps.” In other words, if we’re going to figure things out for ourselves, we’re going to end up on that BROAD path.
Most folks on the Broad Way figure that … by trial and error … they’ll eventually stumble into success and progress and the good life. Sadly, without compass or map, folks find that as life goes on, that Broad Path that looked so fun and free … actually turns out to be a dark prison with no way out.
2. Strongholds – Blinded and Bound
Eventually many folks realize the road they are traveling is not what they thought it was. They start getting a taste of the dark destruction that’s coming at the end of the road. So why do they keep walking that path?
How many times do we hear about someone ruining their lives with immorality or alcoholism or other destructive behaviors and we ask, “Why would they DO that? They have to know they’re ruining their own lives!” Have you ever had the experience of trying to talk to someone who’s on a path to self destruction? I have. It’s so discouraging to talk to them about the hope of the Gospel … and about how Christ can save them from destruction … and see nothing but a blank look in their eyes.
The Apostle Paul explained why this happens to folks on the Broad Pathway, “… our gospel is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:3-4
For many folks, life on the Broad Way goes great for a while. But sooner or later the path leads to bondage. I heard a preacher say recently, “Satan tries to get a toe-hold so he can turn it into a stronghold.”
The progression that leads into bondage is often a two step process. The first step involves the insidious action of blinding, and the reason for this is that the blinded victim is easier to then bind in chains.
Perhaps you may remember the story of Sampson from Judges Chapters 13-16. Once Sampson’s hair was cut and he lost his supernatural strength, the first thing his captors did was to gouge out his eyes … THEN they put him in chains without any trouble. (Judges 16:21).
Sampson was literally blinded and bound physically. But in a spiritual sense, there are many others who share in Sampson’s fate. The scripture we just read from 2 Corinthians 4 explains that the Blinding is directed first at the Gospel … so the Unbeliever is too fogged over to see any possibility of a God who could save him and transform his life. Their vision is filled instead with their own ideas of how they can “save themselves” --- usually with more of the same self-destructive behavior that put them in chains already.
The Apostle Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolish to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
A big part of the blinding is the firmly held belief that all things spiritual are foolish. Spiritual truth might as well be a foreign language to the person walking the Broad Path. When you’re trying to help someone who is blinded and bound, another thing to keep in mind is that it’s impossible to see when you are surrounded by total darkness.
Have you ever tried to find your way around in a pitch dark room? You’re bound to find yourself bumping into things. That’s bad enough, but if the darkness lives in your own eyes, then even turning the light on won’t help at all.
The sad reality is that the process of blinding and binding is progressive. It gets worse as time passes. Blindness expands to more and more areas of life, and the binding goes from single handcuffs on the hands to a body smothering set of chains.
The apostle Paul called these “strongholds”, and this is what he had to say about them and how to be released from them. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
The passage in 2 Corinthians 10 also reveals something about the nature of this stronghold when it mentions “…arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God…”
Rather than iron bars and prison walls, the Satanic stronghold is made up of human speculation, man-made philosophies, seemingly logical arguments, and even spiritual sounding ideas that trick the unwary into believing that they are on a proper and lofty road to enlightenment. What these poor captured souls don’t realize is that the goal of these arguments is to keep them blind to the true knowledge of God.
But here’s where the good news comes in. While we are powerless to break these spiritual strongholds, God has provided a way to …
3. Set the Captives Free
Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come to “…convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” John 16:8 Just as Jesus opened the eyes of the physically blind … it takes the power and grace of God to open the eyes of the Spiritually Blind. It’s our part to share the Gospel and shine the light of Christ. It’s the Holy Spirit who will open the eyes of the blind so that they can see that light.
This is not just a matter of fighting logic with logic, or arguments with stronger arguments. Instead it involves overcoming human speculation with divine revelation. The blind and captured soul must come to see his or her true condition for what it really is. In a moment of divinely provided insight, the prisoner finally sees their chains and prison bars for the first time.
No one really yearns for release from captivity until they discover they are truly captive. And no blinded person seeks for restoration of sight until they uncover their true spiritual blindness for the first time to understand what they had not been able to see before. Until we finally see for ourselves that we are blind, bound, and in darkness, we will never seek for release from bondage.
The same passage in 2 Corinthians 10 also explains that the goal of spiritual warfare is not just release from Satanic strongholds, but to complete the transfer of the prisoner from one domain to another. Having been blind and bound in a stronghold, the prisoner’s thoughts are now taken captive to make them obedient to Christ.
This is so important to understand when we reach out to people who are traveling that Broad Way. We can shine the light of truth, but only God can open blind eyes.
It’s equally important to understand Satanic strongholds and Spiritual Blindness as Christians --- Paul was writing to Christians when he said, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey –whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:16-18
As Christians, we need to remember that there is no “third option.” There is a Broad Way and there is a Narrow Way. Every day we ask the Holy Spirit to open OUR eyes so that we can see the light of Christ and be saved from the traps of Satan. It is our destiny and greatest delight to have our spiritual sight restored and to be released from spiritual strongholds. We can thank God that his weapons for spiritual warfare are mighty and more than adequate to set the captives free.
CONCLUSION:
In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis gave an analogy of the Christian Life. He pictured humanity as a fleet of ships.
• Everyone on that journey seems to understand that it’s best if the ships avoid running into each other.
• And every captain needs to take care of his ship so it doesn’t sink.
• But what many of the travelers ignore is the most important thing of all --- what is the destination for the ship?
As he said, “if the ships were all seaworthy and sailed in perfect formation but arrived in New York when they were supposed to sail to Calcutta, then the voyage would be a failure.”
This is the ultimate reality of the Broad Way and the Narrow Way. What does it matter if a Party Ship goes by with bright lights and celebrating passengers if that ship is the Titanic … destined for total destruction.
Many of us may feel our ships are not in such great shape --- sometimes we feel like we’re barely staying a-float --- But what really matters is not the shape of the ship but the path that ship is taking.
Jesus, as Captain of our Ship, can not only keep our ship a-float, He will keep us on that Narrow Way that leads to life.
