Tag: highway

34.t. “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts”

 

Matthew 21:28  “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

 Isaiah 35:8    And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

 Jeremiah 6:16    Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

 2 Peter 2:21   For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

 Psalms 81:11-12    “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.  So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.

 Zechariah 7:11-12  But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.  They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts.

 Hebrews 3:12   Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

This is a parable; the design of which is to show the hypocrisy and deceit of the Scribes and Pharisees, in pretending to works of righteousness, and not doing them; and to reprove them for their disbelief and rejection of John’s ministry; and to make it appear, that the worst of sinners in the Jewish nation were preferable to them.  There are many churchgoers that imitate these sons. They admit that the Word of God is true. They intend to get serious about it someday. They talk about doing the Father’s work. They keep up the external appearance of religion, but their heart is not right with God. They think that words and promises are enough.  “The second son said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he went not; and these people do not go. They talk of repenting, but they do not repent. They speak of believing, but they never believe. They think of submitting to God, but they have not submitted themselves to him yet. They say it is time they broke up the fallow ground, and sought the Lord, but they do not seek him. It all ends in a mere promise.” (Spurgeon)

The point of this parable is clear. What matters is living for God, not saying the right words. The religious leaders were good at talking righteous talk, but their stubbornly unrepentant hearts showed that repentant sinners would enter the kingdom before them. When you meet people with hearts like flint, you know they did not become that way overnight. There was a gradual, certain progression to their present place of hardness. It begins with simply refusing to heed God, then a self-justifying shrugging of their shoulders, then stopping their ears. It all ends with hearts as hard as flint. In their hardened state, they just didn’t want to hear God’s word. When we lose our hunger for God’s word it is sobering evidence of the progression of rejection and hardness of heart. The progression from a soft heart (able to hear the call of God to repentance) to a hardened heart (unable to recognize or hear the call of God to repentance) is one that can happen very fast (immediate and lasting rejection) or it can happen over a long period of time (a continued recognition of the call to repentance and rejecting it over and over again until it can’t be heard). At the end of the day, both have rejected the loving, merciful, and graceful call of God. Though some may have the appearance of doing the right things and saying the right things, their hearts are as hard as stone to the call from God to repentance.

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts”

13.x. ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

Matthew 7:14  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Proverbs 4:26-27    Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.  Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

Isaiah 35:8    And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

Matthew 25:1-12    “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.  Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.  For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,  but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.  As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.  But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’  Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’  But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’  And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.  Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’  But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

Luke 13:23-30     And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them,  “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.  When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’  Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’  But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.  And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.  And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

1 Peter 3:20-21     because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

Romans 9:27-29    And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,  for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”

What happens to those who fail to follow Jesus? What about those who try to find another path to God? Will they make it to heaven? Let’s look at what Jesus had to say about eternity.

First, Jesus taught that two eternal destinations exist. Universalists claim that all roads lead to the same place, that everyone’s going to heaven regardless of what he or she believes or doesn’t believe. But Jesus drove a stake through that claim when He said in Matthew 25:46, “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Jesus taught there are two destinations: eternal punishment and eternal life.

Second, Jesus taught that hell is a reality. Of all the verses in the New Testament that record the words of Jesus, do you realize that 13 percent of those verses deal with the reality of hell? For example, Jesus believed that hell is an actual location, not a state of mind (Matthew 25:46). Jesus taught in Matthew 22:13 that hell is a place of physical suffering. And most devastatingly, Jesus said that hell is an irrevocable destination. Once there, no one leaves. In Luke 16, Jesus told the story about Abraham, the rich man, and Lazarus. The rich man found himself in hell and begged Abraham to provide relief and a way out. Abraham answered and said, “Between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us” (v. 26).

Third, Jesus taught that the majority of humanity will occupy hell. The single greatest objection to the idea that faith in Christ is the only way to heaven is it means relatively few people will be in heaven. There are seven billion people in the world today. Only 25 percent of the world’s population can be classified as Christian, and most of those only because of their birth or nationality; when you talk about those who’ve actually trusted in Christ, it’s minuscule compared to the world’s population. People say, “It just can’t be true that billions of people will be in hell while only a few will be in heaven.” That seems illogical until you realize that’s exactly what Jesus taught. He said the population of heaven will be relatively small compared to the population of hell. In Matthew 7:13-14, He said, “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. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” I realize you may find this teaching offensive, but please consider this: the majority of everything we know about hell comes from the lips of Jesus Christ Himself. To dismiss the idea of hell means you have to dismiss Jesus Christ and what He taught about eternity