Sunday service, Dietmar Joosten, 23 Jul 2017
Matt 7:13
“13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Deut 30:19
“19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”
It is clear that God wants us to choose life. But we have the free will to choose whatever we want. Everyday we have to make choices. And the Lord God says, “choose life”.
We have a choice which way we want to go, the broad way or the narrow way. But the end of the broad way, the Bible warns us, is destruction.
When Rev Stegen was called into God’s work, for two years he couldn’t accept it. He did many different things and had many different excuses not to go God’s way. But he learnt that the way of disobedience costs you a thousand times more than the way of obedience. The smallest noise startled him that he thought it was the last trumpet, and the Lord was returning, while he wasn’t busy doing what God wants him to do!
Many are on the wide road. Your friends and school mates. People that you work with. Maybe even the people that you go to church with, because there are many Pharisees in the church, who make as if everything is fine, while it is not well. It is when you are with these people, that you start doing things that you never thought you would do!
The road to death is wide. You can live as you like. You can even live like a pig, but still think you are something because you are educated.
Your clothing silently sends a message what you are like. Our clothing should communicate to others that the Lord Jesus lives within us.
James 1:2-3
“2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
It is clear that the narrow way is not an easy way. But although we face these trials, it produces a great joy within us! The Bible says we must count it pure joy when we go through trials and difficulties. Often we lie flat on the ground because we are unthankful. But this way isn’t for those who give up easily. These trials make us strong.
One day a young priest went to an older priest, and he was complaining about how difficult life was. He wanted to give up and asked for prayer. The old priest prayed and asked the Lord to send the young priest trials, temptations and difficulties. The young priest was shocked. But the old priest answered him that we learn perseverance through trials and temptations.
It is the natural man who runs away from difficulties.
We read in Ps 119:67, “before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word.” Do you understand why God teaches us in this way, and why we have to go through difficult things? In the end we learn to obey His word, and His word rules our lives.
But the devil paints another picture, and tells you that the Lord isn’t with you when things go difficult. You will never make it. You are lost. But the Lord says, “I am there with you. Go this way, and when you come out the other side you will be victorious.”
Do you understand why we go through difficult things in our life? If we are to live as disciples of the Lord Jesus, remember anything that’s worth doing is difficult and it needs a tremendous amount of discipline. But through all this, the Lord is strengthening us. He is helping us.
There was a man of God who experienced great difficulties. He had many enemies and a lot of resistance, and he got depressed and was weighed down by all his problems. His shoulders hanged. But he had a godly wife who feared God. When she saw her husband in this state, she didn’t preach to him, but she thought about the matter and prayed. Then she got a black dress and wore it. She went to her husband to tell him that the food was ready. He saw her wearing the black dress and realised it was very odd and he was startled, and he asked her why she was mourning and who had died. She replied softly, that the Lord Jesus must have died, for when she looked at how depressed he was and how he had no hope in all his difficulties, the Lord Jesus must have died. And the light struck him and he realised that the Lord Jesus was alive! It changed his life.
Martin Luther went through much difficulty too. He said that he realised that by trials and temptations we are pushed onto Christ. When the devil attacks us vehemently he is actually doing us a favour, for he pushes us onto Christ.
We cannot understand the Word of God fully. The difficulties and troubles we face make us richer. Look at Job. He was a righteous man, and that’s why the devil hated him. Job said that he made a covenant with his eyes that he would not look lustfully at any woman (Job 31:1). At the end of his life he said, that I have always learned of the Lord, but now my eyes have seen Him (Job 42:5). And the Bible says that at the end of his life he had everything double than at the beginning before the trials started. His closest friends couldn’t help him.
The road is narrow. Sometimes you might feel that you are alone. But it is not so. The Lord is with you. His children support you.
In Ps 73 Asaph gives his testimony of how he envied the wicked, how they seemed carefree and rich. He thought he had cleansed his life in vain, and went the narrow road for nothing. But when he entered the sanctuary of God, he understood and saw how terrible the end of the wicked were.
Sermon audio in other languages:
German
Download
French
Download
Music:
Oasis Chamber Choir:
Download
Oasis Chamber Choir:
Download
Oasis Chamber Choir:
Download
Oasis Chamber Choir:
Download
Oasis Chamber Choir:
Download
Oasis Chamber Choir:
Download
Oasis Chamber Choir:
Download