Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
WALKING THE STRAIGHT & NARROW WAY
Psalms 51:9-12, "Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit."
This was the cry of David to God after he had fallen into sin with Bath Sheba. David fully understood that all it took is one failure, one sin, to loose the peace, victory and salvation of God. Only one sin that we have not repented of will bring the full consequences of eternal death upon our souls.
David, a man after God’s own heart, had found himself in a place where he should not have been. Israel was at war and it was the duty of the King to be in the field with his army, defending the freedom of Israel. But David was in his comfortable palace. He was letting other men do his job for him while he did nothing.
It has often been said, “An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop!” I know that this isn’t scripture but it is so true that I sometimes wonder why God left it out.
Whenever we find ourselves at the place where we refuse to pray, to study, to read the Bible, or to do the things that God’s will requires us to do to defend our faith, that’s when the devil can begin to enter our heart, our mind and destroy our victory and cause us to lose out with God.
When we spend our time in places where we know that Jesus would not go with us. When we are doing things that we would not want other people to know about. When we are saying things that we should not say, using words that grieve the Spirit of God and cause Him to flee from our presence, WE ARE ON DANGEROUS GROUND.
Sadly, too many people who claim to know Jesus really don’t know Him at all. They don’t give Him place in their lives. They don’t seek out a relationship with Him. They really don’t care for the things of God like the Bible, the Church, prayer or anything except their own pleasure.
Luke 6:46, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"
Those are Jesus’ own words to those who were being hypocritical around Him. They wanted to “have their cake and eat it too”. They loved to profess their religion but they refused to live their religion.
There is another saying that goes like this, “What you are doing speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying.”
People who are “Born Again” must act and live like they are born again. The things that we do and the things we say will reveal our true nature and the condition of our heart will quickly express itself to the plain view of everyone around.
“You can fool some of the people all the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time – and most importantly, YOU CAN NEVER FOOL GOD AT ANY TIME”
Luke 6:45, says, “…for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh."
That simply means that if sin is in your heart, it will come out. If the curse is in you, it’s coming out! If stealing is in you, you will steal! If lying is in you, you will lie! If a rebellious nature is in you, you will show your colors sooner or later.” We may get by with fooling our selves and maybe even fooling other people for a while but the time will come when our true heart will be known because God looks upon the heart.
David’s cry was for God to not turn His back upon David. You see, David know what we sometimes forget, that God cannot and will not look upon or dwell in the heart where sin lives. David also knew the terrible guilt, loneliness and fear that comes upon the heart that God has lifted His presence from.
David also knew that the end result of un-repented sin was eternal death in hell. That’s why he was so desperate for God to blot out his sin and cleanse him from the sin that he had committed.
Just white washing or covering over the sin in our lives is not sufficient. You can sweep the floor clean and sweep it under the rug where no one will see it, but the dirt is still there. We have no power within ourselves to do anything other than cover and try to hide the sin in our lives from the eyes of those around us, but understand that God knows where you lifted the rug and he knows exactly how much dirt is hidden and where it is hidden and He will require a full accounting of everything that we have tried to hide.
God records every word, every deed, even every evil thought that we dwell upon and allow to take root in our heart and life. He has it all on tape, so to speak, and one day, when we stand before Him as an unrepentant sinner, before the Great White Throne of Judgment Day and stand in His Holy Presence – He will press play and every bit of our rebellious life will be played back for us and everyone else to see. We will condemn ourselves by our own words and deeds. Jesus will not step forward to defend you because He doesn’t know you at all. You are God’s enemy and the Devil’s child and God will send us off to spend eternity with our father in the flames of Hell.
No, we can’t cover or hide our sin and get away with it. Our heart must be re-created by the Power of the Holy Spirit through the Blood of the Lamb. That’s the only way that our heart can ever stand before God in righteousness and holiness.
Too many people are under the false impression that once they accept Christ and He comes into their life that their eternal destination is forever sealed in Heaven. There is some truth to this way of thinking but there is also a great danger when we carry it to an extreme.
Yes, your eternal salvation is secured by the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice upon the cross – but only as long as your faith, trust and obedience to Him are strong. Un-repentant sin will not go unpunished. God will never allow a sin-sick heart into Heaven.
Surely we all fail. I had one man who told me that, “if you commit sin after you claim salvation, then you were never saved to begin with.” I don’t believe that and the Word of God doesn’t back that up at all.
1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”
“My Little Children”, are God’s own words that were given to John to those of the church that needed to hear them. You are one of God’s little children only if you have been saved and grafted into the Body of Christ through the born again experience. God says to us, don’t sin, but if you do, go immediately to your Father in Heaven and seek forgiveness and He will cleanse you again and put you back on the path of righteousness.”
Our problem is that we forget just how holy and righteous God really is. We forget that God requires us to walk uprightly and holy before Him. True, nothing we do can ever make us righteous – that only comes through the power of the Blood of Jesus – but, the things we do can make us unholy and unrighteous and my Bible still says that “without holiness, no man shall see the Lord and without holiness no one will enter Heaven.”
Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Don’t you realize that we must live a different lifestyle than people who serve the devil? Don’t you know that we cannot do the things they do, go the place that they go to, or talk the way they talk and still make Heaven our home.
Jesus said that if we were friends of this world then we are His personal enemy! Would you want to pick a fight with God! How stupid can we be to think that we can win or fool God! Do we think that God will overlook our sin? Do we think that God won’t hear that curse word? Do we think that God doesn’t know what we are reading or watching on the TV? Do we think that God doesn’t know when we are living a lie?
YOU CAN’T FOOL GOD! Be sure that your sin will be found out because your heart will manifest itself in your life sooner or later and everyone will know the real you!
There is a straight and narrow path to follow if we want to make Heaven our home. That path is well defined by the Word of God and, if you are listening and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, you don’t have to worry about straying from that straight and narrow path. But, if you don’t hear or refuse to listen, be assured that you will stray from that path onto the wide path of destruction that the rest of the world is traveling on.
Never forget that the vast majority of people alive, or who have ever lived, will not be in Heaven. God has already built Heaven. He already knows the number that will be there when it’s all over. But, Hell is ever enlarging its borders and the Lake of Fire grows larger all the time because more and more people are being added to the roster of those who will burn forever in its flames and God will make sure that there is room for you if you choose to turn from the straight and narrow path.
Matthew 7:21-23, "Not every one 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. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
The saddest part of this whole message this morning is that there are those who will attend God’s house regularly and claim to know Jesus as their Lord who will not enter Heaven either.
God will not accept lip service. He doesn’t hear our words so much as He hears what our heart is saying. You can come to church, sing praise songs, clap your hands, raise your hands, and have a good time but, if your heart isn’t right before God, its all lip service and God doesn’t claim you as one of his children.
There are many, who claim to be Christian, but whose heart is far from right before God! You know who you are and God knows who you are! In some cases, everyone around you knows who you are too! You may think you have us all fooled. You may think that we don’t know, and perhaps we really don’t – BUT GOD DOES KNOW AND THAT’S ALL THAT REALLY MATTERS!
All of our “good works” and our “self-justifying self-righteousness” won’t mean a thing when we have to face God with sin in our life and in our heart! Our work with young people, our crocodile tears at the altar, our insincere prayer before God, the prayers of the Preacher, our participation in activities of the church all mean nothing if our heart is not right with God and sin reigns in our lives!
My plea to everyone of us this morning is this – don’t wait, get your heart right with God right now for we have no promise of another breath. We are only one heartbeat from eternity.
I want you to picture yourself hanging over the pit of Hell with nothing between you and the eternal flames except the mercy of God’s hand of Mercy under your feet.
If you repent and live for Jesus, showing forth the fruits of repentance and living the straight and narrow life before Him, God’s hand of mercy will never move but will carry you into Heaven.
However, if you spurn the call of God to repent of sin; if you refuse to surrender and confess your sin and ask Jesus to come into your heart; and if you continue to walk in rebellion against God’s will for your life, God’s Hand of Mercy will be removed and you will fall straight down into the pit forever.
Don’t ever let Jesus have to say these words to you ‘ “Depart from me, I never knew you”, but get right with God and let Him say to you, “well done my child, welcome home.”
Don’t just call Him Lord; make Him Lord of your Life! Come to Jesus right now and make it right. Jesus is standing here this morning with His hands outstretched to you, begging, pleading and desiring you to come to Him.
WILL YOU CHOOSE TO WALK THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW? JESUS IS WAITING FOR YOUR ANSWER!
