Broad is the Way
Scripture: Matthew 7:13-15Devotional Series: The Integrity of God's Word
Teaching: The Integrity Of God's Word pt. 5 (SUN_PM 2021-06-27) by Pastor Star R Scott
We need to break up the fallow ground. It’s time to seek the Lord. God wants to say something to us; God wants to do something here in our midst; but we have too many things choking the Word of God out of our lives and distracting us. The thorns that choke out the Word of God from the church of Jesus Christ are the distractions on every side. Timothy makes it very clear what these distractions are: loving pleasure more than loving of God, which is the spirit of this age. Do we love the cares of this world, the pleasures, and the lusts of other things (as he goes on to say in the explanation of the thorny ground)? What am I doing in light of the revival of Ezra’s day? What am I doing to prepare myself? You remember that the people came to God hungry for His presence.
It’s amazing that, as the Word of God was brought forth, the people stood for hours and just listened to the reading of the Word of God. They prepared themselves by fasting and repenting in sackcloth and ashes. Beloved, there is sin in our midst corporately and in every one of our lives that is keeping us from the miraculous visitation of God to where we see these hurting people among us healed and delivered, and our loved ones returned. Yet, we do nothing by way of changing our course. What have you put aside in your life in order to spend time in prayer and in the ministry of the Word of God, in sharing the gospel with one another? Can we say that zeal for His kingdom has eaten us up? “Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel!” Can we sit in this apathy and believe we are going to have the visitation like those who humble themselves and fast and seek God both day and night? I would say we will not unless something changes, unless we break up the fallow ground, unless we reestablish priorities.
Listen to what He says in this teaching. There are two different ways: there is a broad path and there is a narrow path. He is speaking to believers, isn’t He? He is not contrasting the world with the church; He is contrasting the carnal and the spiritual within the church. He admonishes us, “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. Beware of false prophets [He says next], which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:13‑15).
These are those teachers of whom Paul warns Timothy in the last days, whom the people will heap to themselves because they have itching ears, as the old prophets declared, saying, “Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isaiah 30:9‑11). Dear God! how easy it is today to promote the gospel of prosperity in this country. “We have to keep building bigger auditoriums because people are turning to Jesus.” They are turning to another Jesus: Jesus the genie, wherein all you have to do is rub a couple of scriptural passages together and he will bless you and give you a new job and you will have no pain in your body and you will have no adversities and it will be a life without trials and the world will envy you and be your friend. That doesn’t sound like the gospel I know; it doesn’t sound like the gospel in this Book that I read. But we are living in that environment; and don’t you think for a moment that you can hear all this from the professed church and not be vexed.
We had better put on the full armor of God so that all of this false doctrine can be quenched with the Shield of Faith and our minds would be protected by the Helmet of Salvation and that we would know how to use the Sword of the Spirit, all of which are the Word of God. We should reprove any of that false doctrine we see, and rebuke and bring instruction, that the men of God might be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto every good work; amen? I believe that these last days, as the bride is being prepared, will be days of admonition and instruction, of reproofs and rebukes; and the men and women of God who love God will run to that and desire to know more about genuine Christlikeness and hear those words, “Come…and learn of Me. I am not a man who is proud and boisterous and showing forth all of the things that appeal to the world.”
He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey; He will be back on a white charger to bring judgment to the nations. There is a time for majesty and power even in our own lives: as the Scripture says, “We shall also reign with him,” but this isn’t that hour (2 Timothy 2:12). This is an hour to prepare ourselves for all of the persecutions that will arise for the Word’s sake, as the Scripture says.
It’s amazing that, as the Word of God was brought forth, the people stood for hours and just listened to the reading of the Word of God. They prepared themselves by fasting and repenting in sackcloth and ashes. Beloved, there is sin in our midst corporately and in every one of our lives that is keeping us from the miraculous visitation of God to where we see these hurting people among us healed and delivered, and our loved ones returned. Yet, we do nothing by way of changing our course. What have you put aside in your life in order to spend time in prayer and in the ministry of the Word of God, in sharing the gospel with one another? Can we say that zeal for His kingdom has eaten us up? “Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel!” Can we sit in this apathy and believe we are going to have the visitation like those who humble themselves and fast and seek God both day and night? I would say we will not unless something changes, unless we break up the fallow ground, unless we reestablish priorities.
Listen to what He says in this teaching. There are two different ways: there is a broad path and there is a narrow path. He is speaking to believers, isn’t He? He is not contrasting the world with the church; He is contrasting the carnal and the spiritual within the church. He admonishes us, “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. Beware of false prophets [He says next], which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:13‑15).
These are those teachers of whom Paul warns Timothy in the last days, whom the people will heap to themselves because they have itching ears, as the old prophets declared, saying, “Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isaiah 30:9‑11). Dear God! how easy it is today to promote the gospel of prosperity in this country. “We have to keep building bigger auditoriums because people are turning to Jesus.” They are turning to another Jesus: Jesus the genie, wherein all you have to do is rub a couple of scriptural passages together and he will bless you and give you a new job and you will have no pain in your body and you will have no adversities and it will be a life without trials and the world will envy you and be your friend. That doesn’t sound like the gospel I know; it doesn’t sound like the gospel in this Book that I read. But we are living in that environment; and don’t you think for a moment that you can hear all this from the professed church and not be vexed.
We had better put on the full armor of God so that all of this false doctrine can be quenched with the Shield of Faith and our minds would be protected by the Helmet of Salvation and that we would know how to use the Sword of the Spirit, all of which are the Word of God. We should reprove any of that false doctrine we see, and rebuke and bring instruction, that the men of God might be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto every good work; amen? I believe that these last days, as the bride is being prepared, will be days of admonition and instruction, of reproofs and rebukes; and the men and women of God who love God will run to that and desire to know more about genuine Christlikeness and hear those words, “Come…and learn of Me. I am not a man who is proud and boisterous and showing forth all of the things that appeal to the world.”
He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey; He will be back on a white charger to bring judgment to the nations. There is a time for majesty and power even in our own lives: as the Scripture says, “We shall also reign with him,” but this isn’t that hour (2 Timothy 2:12). This is an hour to prepare ourselves for all of the persecutions that will arise for the Word’s sake, as the Scripture says.