Life's Two Roads — Randy Amos

Well, it is good to be back with you again, in the name of the Lord Jesus. It's been a couple of years, I believe, but you're looking good, and it's good to see you again. I might mention, on the back table, the Lord's provided for a new book, first of a different type of series.

We call it the And God Said series. What we hope to do is take certain major books of the Bible and give an overview in about forty-six pages of the structure of truth that God has presented, so that when you do your study, you can hang your meditations on the absolute truth that the writer is getting across.

However, the first book we did is an overview of the whole Bible. The Bible is written, actually, by one divine author, that is God, and it has one message that is connected together from Genesis to Revelation.

So the first book is an overview of the whole Bible, looking at the Master's theme as it runs through the Word of God. So if this can help you, or you know some believer this can help, they're on the back table.

You take them. The cost to you is the cost of your salvation, so you feel free to take what you want. There's also a gospel tract called To Open a Mind. If you can use that in your witnessing, you help yourself.

Also, our little magazine meant to stimulate the thinking of the believer, Kronos. Some of you get that. That's back there. There's samples. Help yourself. If you'd like to be on the mailing list and you print your address and name clear, we'd be happy to put you on.

The Gospel of God and the Two Roads

Now tonight, as we study the Word of God together, it's been suggested that we devote tonight to the gospel of God. That is His saving message on how He saves men and women and boys and girls. So in doing that, we'd like to go to the words of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We'd like to go to Matthew chapter 7, please. Matthew chapter 7. If we were going to give the thoughts that are on my heart tonight from the Word of God, I guess we could entitle them, Life's Two Roads.

For the Lord Jesus is speaking about life's two roads. You see here, as we read from the Word of God, in Matthew 7 and verse 13, verse 13. Enter ye in at the straight gate, or the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.

Because straight, or narrow is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. And now verse 24. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand.

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings that people were astonished at his doctrine, and the Lord will bless his word.

The Contrasting Destinies of the Broad and Narrow Roads

Now tonight as we consider for a few minutes, Lights to Roads, remember what the Lord Jesus said. This is his teaching. And if we take this and apply it in faith and obedience, it's like a wise man who builds his house on a rock, and though the storms come down the road, the house stands.

But if we take this message of his, and we listen to it and we like it, but we don't rely on it and follow it, then it's like a foolish man. He too builds a house. But when the storms of life and God's judgment comes, well it doesn't stand, and the whole thing collapses.

And it's all in response to the words and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now as you saw here, in verses 13 and 14, he spoke of two roads. And these two roads do have some similarities. You see, they both have gates.

They both have a way that you go on it, through the gate or the door. And they both have a destination. Both of these roads lead somewhere. But of course, that is where the similarities end. For then the roads become vastly different.

While they both have a gate, and they both have a destination, one of the major differences is, is what that destination is. The Lord Jesus says the broad road, that is the wide way, which is very popular, and there'll be many on it, it ends in a place called destruction.

In contrast to the narrow gate and the narrow road, which ends in a place called life, later in the Bible called eternal life, or everlasting life. And so the destinies are dramatically different. They're both down here, these roads.

But one will end in destruction, and one will end in life. You understand that when the Bible speaks of destruction, it doesn't mean annihilation. Doesn't mean you're just annihilated, never to exist anymore.

But it means destruction that you will be separated from God's glory and God's power in a place of conscious torment that Revelation 20, 15 calls the lake of fire. In the words of 2 Thessalonians 1, 9, it speaks of the unsaved.

It says they will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power. You see, it is a separation from all the power and glory of heaven, and it's not having access to that.

It is not annihilation, but separation from such in a place of conscious torment that the Bible speaks about. And so the end of this broad road is a very serious matter. It's just not something, you know, in life where we have decisions all the day.

We have choices before us and some choices. Well, you say, that's my career choice. And if you make a wrong career choice, you can change it. But this is something eternal. It's destruction. And so the broad road ends in destruction.

Another difference is it is broad in contrast to the one that is narrow. One will have a lot of people on it. The other will be a minority. I want to tell you, it's a blessed minority. If you ever want to be a part of the right minority, be on the narrow road, because it ends in life.

It ends in life. But the broad way leads to destruction. Now, again, as you notice our Lord's words here, the Son of God's words in verse 13. He spoke of entering in at these gates. He even said that the broad way has a gate and many there be which go in there at.

Prosperity as a Road to Destruction

Now, it's not that, of course, we're all born in sin. Nobody starts out a Christian and then doesn't become a Christian. But we're all born in sin. But there is a matter of choice to stay on it, so to speak, and refuse the narrow way.

In that sense, there's a choice involved to be on the broad way. And again, as we said, it is broad, it is wide. And as we consider this tonight and as we apply other parts of the scripture to this, you will see that it is a multi-lane highway to destruction or hell.

And he has something, Satan that is, has something for everyone. It's big enough to accommodate all. The Lord said many there be which go on there at. Tonight, we'd like to look at what we might call the seven lane highway to destruction or to hell.

There's at least seven lanes on it. To help you remember, we'll start them all with the letter P. You might think of a different word. That's OK. But just to help you remember, as we look at this road tonight, one of the lanes on it that people find themselves on is the lane of prosperity, the lane of prosperity, where we look at this little life we're in as our chief goal is to accumulate things and accumulate goods or money or whatever, and to be prosperous and to enjoy ourselves.

Well, there's nothing wrong with having our needs met. But when these things take the place of God, the very reason you and I were created and we look at our little time on life as just an accumulation of goods, of things that will make us feel good and secure, it is sin against the very reason we were created.

And there are many that are on this road of prosperity. You know, the Lord Jesus, when he preached on here, he spoke of a man who was on that distinct lane. Riches grabbed him. It's in Luke 16. And he put it this way.

He said a certain rich man. He was clothed in purple and fine linen. He says he fared sumptuously every day. He had the best of threads today. I don't know what you call them, the Calvin clan or whatever it is today.

But he dressed well and he ate well and he lived well. And when a poor beggar was at his gate, the only food that beggar would get would be the crumbs off his table that the servants threw out. He didn't have compassion on the less fortunate.

And he thought of salt and the accumulation of goods. And he had fun, so to speak, while he was here. But remember, this road ends someday. The end thereof is destruction. And one day his end came. I don't know if he had an advance notice.

I don't know if he felt chest pains. I don't know if it was instant. I don't know if it was in his sleep. It doesn't really matter. It ended. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 16, 22, that the rich man also died and was buried.

There he is. He's buried. And there might be people standing there, rabbis and so on, saying great eulogies for him. What a great man he was and so on. How successful and how savvy he was in business.

But that wasn't the end of the story, for the man has an eternal soul. And while he was laying there buried, the Lord Jesus pulls back the curtain of eternity and he says, in hell, he lift up his eyes being in torments and hell.

He still had spiritual eyes and he could see and he saw way in the distance Abraham, a man of God. And he was in a place that sometimes people call paradise. Luke 16 calls it Abraham's bosom. And he could see far across.

And he saw the beggar who once laid at his gate. And there he was on the comfort side in paradise. And he cried out. He said, Father Abraham, he's going to have mercy on me and send Lazarus and he may dip the tip of his finger in water and call my tongue where I am tormented in this flame.

The very thing he had easy access to on earth with all his money, water, he couldn't even get up a drop of it down here. It's a place of torment. I am tormented in this flame. And he couldn't get what he wanted.

And Abraham says it's a great golf fix. There is no going back and forth. There is no bridge. It's an eternal fixed destination. He says, could you at least go back, send Lazarus from the dead, give a resurrection, if you will?

I have five brothers and they're not saved. He said, I don't want them to come to this awful place. He says, perhaps they'll believe in hell if somebody went from the dead and told them. In essence, the answer was, if they don't believe the word of God, that is Moses and the prophets, a resurrection isn't going to convince them.

And so the answer was, nobody will be going back. He became a believer as his road ended in destruction. A man who lived for money, which the Bible says that the love of money and first Timothy six, nine, just not money, but the love of money is the root of all evil.

And one day his road ended. He was on that lane of prosperity, but it ended in destruction. There's money on that and it all seems well now. But the son of God says someday it's coming to an end. And the place is called destruction.

Pleasure, Self-Indulgence, and the End of Life

When these things occupy our life rather than living for God. Well, as we said, it's a very wide road and there is something for everybody. There's also the lane of what we could call pleasure, the lane of pleasure.

Now, we all like to relax, we all like to have a good time, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But when that pleasure crosses the line of God's commandments and hurts God and hurts others so we can feel good and get what we want and serve rather than God, the Bible calls it the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life.

In other words, it's called sin. And to just look at life is down here. This is just that all my decisions are to make me feel good and to enjoy my to fulfill my senses. That is the lane of pleasure. The Lord Jesus Christ, he talked about a man who was on that.

He told us about it in Luke chapter 12. He was also a rich man. And one day this farmer, he looked at his farm and he said, would you look at that? Would you look at all the crops I'm burying? And you see, the barns can't even hold it.

So I have an idea. I'm going to tear down those barns. I'm going to build bigger ones. Well, what would you do that for? He said, well, I do want to lay up all those goods. And there's a reason I want to lay them up.

You know, I really don't want to work anymore. I've done my fair share. So I'm going to kind of set back with all this resources now. And here's what he said inside his heart. He said, I'll say to myself, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.

Take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. You know, you live here to have an ease, eat, drink, have a good time, fulfill your senses. And you know what God said to him? He said, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.

Then shall these things be. You are thinking many years, but your road is going to end tonight and it's going to end in that place that the Lord Jesus called destruction, eternal separation from God and a place of conscious torment.

And thou fool, you've made the most foolish choices. You look like success. You might make the magazines of your day and the talk shows that a successful man as an entrepreneur, as a playboy, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry.

But you're a fool. It's going to end all tonight. It was on the road of pleasure. You know, the Bible says in second Timothy three, four, that there are those that are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

They might even profess God. But when the choice comes between pleasure and God, you'll find it in pleasure. They'll have an excuse not to assemble and worship God and what we call church. But but they won't have an excuse when it comes to fulfilling pleasure, whether it's innocent pleasure or good or evil pleasure.

They put pleasure ahead of God. They're on that lane of pleasure. And we read about a man on that tonight. It's a wide road. There's a lane for every not only prosperity, but there's those who look at life as just to satisfy their senses rather than realizing we are created to satisfy and to live for God on the road of pleasure.

Popularity and the Fear of Human Approval

But it ends in destruction. Well, there's another lane on that road. We could call it the lane of popularity, the lane of popularity. Now, I understand and I believe you do, too, that in every one of us, we want to be accepted.

We want to be liked and none of us want to be hated and have everybody look down on us. And we love it when people like us. But when we let that people liking us get in the way of being faithful to God and the Lord Jesus and coming to him and following him, then that becomes sin when we put people over God and when we want to be popular more than pleasing God.

The lane of popularity in the Bible, you'll see various people on it. What I'm thinking of is the governor in the time of our Lord Jesus. Now, his name was Governor Pilate, and he was the authority figure that one of the Jewish people wanted to crucify Christ because they were under the Roman government.

They had to get pilots permission to execute him. It was the government that would carry that out. Now, as Pilate discerned the case and tried the case, he realized our blessed Lord had done nothing worthy of death.

He said, I find no fault in him. I can't execute a man who didn't commit a crime. And then he brought him out. He said, look, here he is. Behold, your king. He told the Jewish nation, Israel, and they answered back.

We have no king but Caesar. And he said, I'm going to release him for it is no cause of death in him. And then the crowd shouted back something. It was it was clever. It was cunning. They said, do you understand, Mr. Pilate?

I'm sure they use respectful terms. Governor Pilate, do you understand if you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend for whosoever makes himself a king? You see, speak it against Caesar. You have somebody over you and you think of your political career.

If you are going to stand on this side, man who side this man's side who claims he's a king, you're not Caesar's friend. When he heard that, he made a decision. And in the words of Mark, chapter 15 and verse 15, it says, here's why Pilate let Jesus be crucified.

It says Pilate, willing to content the people, released on them Brabus and delivered Jesus when he had scourged or whipped him to be crucified to content the people. He didn't want to have the people against him.

He wanted to be popular. He wanted to be a notable figure. He didn't want to lose Caesar's friendship. History tells us that within two years, the political tide turned against Pilate and he had to go into exile.

So much for popularity. You know, the Lord Jesus spoke in John 12, 43. It spoke of some Jews who in their private minds, they believe Jesus was really the Messiah, the Son of God. You know what? They never confessed him.

They never would come out and say, I'm going to take sides with him. He's my Lord. You know why? John 12, 43, for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. They would sell out the Lord Jesus Christ for popularity.

I think of the Lord's words in Mark 8, 38, he says, whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also should a son of man be ashamed of when he come within the glory of his father with his holy angels.

He says, you're embarrassed about me in your heart. You might know I'm true, but you don't want to lose your friends, your people at work, even your family. Sometimes you don't want to pay the cost to you, even your church affiliation, if it's a wrong one.

And he says, you love the praise of men more than the praise of God. You're ashamed of me. Is there coming a day when I'm going to be in pop? I'm going to be the one to be associated with. I'm going to come in the glory of my father with the holy angels as he erects God's coming kingdom.

And that's when you'd want to know him. He's going to be ashamed of you. In fact, he says, I'll never I never knew you. I'll be embarrassed to identify with you. There's those and they're on the road, but it might seem good now, but it's a road of popularity.

Philosophy and the Rejection of Divine Revelation

But if it leaves out the Lord Jesus, it ends in destruction. Well, there's another one. We could call it philosophy, philosophy, the lane paved with philosophy. We mean intellectual reasoning. Now, God gave us a brain and he does expect us to use it.

But when we use that brain to explain away God's word rather than to trust God's word, that is sin. The Lord Jesus spoke about people who were on that lane of what we call philosophy, human reasoning, reasoning away God's word.

They weren't lawyers, if you will, but they were religious lawyers and who could translate the Bible. They had doctor's degrees and so on that they were men of intellectual ability and they applied themselves.

But when the Lord Jesus spoke, they would take his words and play a grammar gymnastics with it and twist it. And they would convince the people it didn't mean that at all. And so he would say to these lawyers in Luke 1152, woe unto you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

You have not entered in yourselves. You haven't entered in on this narrow road. And then that we're entering in, you hindered. He said, with your reasoning and debate and skills, you've taken away the key of knowledge from the person who wanted to enter in.

You did not enter in, but that wasn't good enough for you. You didn't want others to go to. So you showed your intellectual skill and posing arguments and twisting the scripture. And you actually caused people not to think it was real.

He said, woe to you lawyers. You know, the Bible says in Colossians 2 .8, beware, lest any man spoil you after philosophy. He's a lover of wisdom, after vain deceit, after traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.

They might ask questions. They might look at this thing and they might pose questions because you don't have an answer for it. The implication is, well, it can't be true. You know, I can remember when we used to witness down in Ocean City in Margate years ago, and I had a young fellow.

We were out passing tracks. He came up, he said, let me ask you something about your God. He says, does he know everything? Yes, he does. He's omniscient. Can he do anything? Is he powerful? He's omnipotent.

He's all powerful. Well, he is, is he? Well, could he make a rock so big that he couldn't lift it? If you can't give him the right answer, they write the whole thing off with their little clever question.

I don't know if it was the right answer. What I said to him, yeah, he could make a rock so big, but since he's all known, he'd know enough not to. But anyway, he's a spirit. And spirits don't have the problem of lifting and so on.

But what we hear different types of questions like that, you know, where did Cain get his wife? Brother Chris Schroeder, who'll be here in two months, he said, here's the answer. I don't know. I'm not able.

But but they have things like that. And supposedly, if you don't have the answer, why all the suffering or you don't have a logical answer to their mind? They say, well, if you don't really represent a logical God and they take away the key of knowledge, if you ask them where they get their conclusions, though, they don't have an answer.

Well, if you believe this, where did you get it that God communicate with you? Where do you get absolute truth? It's just a product of your vain little mind. I mean, if you're so sure it is not a hell, there's not a heaven.

You don't have to be saved. What authority has conveyed that to you? You know, they can't answer you. It's a product of their reasoning. Philosophy, philosophy can be deadly when it doesn't point to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And there's these lawyers that were on it and Christ pronounced a woe to them and they wouldn't enter and they took away the key of knowledge. You know, this Bible has a divine stamp on it. It has the feel of prophecy.

God doesn't ask you to put your faith in just some some empty feelings. He understands you have a mind. And so he presented the Lord Jesus Christ through the vehicle of prophecy. He predicted hundreds of years in advance that whoever the Messiah would be, he would have to have these things happen to him, such as what part of the world he'd be born in, such as what country he'd be born in, such as what county he'd be born in, such as what city he'd be born in, such as what type of transportation he'll be using, such as how the people will react to him, such as what time in history he'll actually walk.

Prophecy after prophecy that you really have no control over what race he would be, what family he would be. You try to arrange that one before you're born. And he predicted them hundreds of years in advance.

It's called prophecy. And it's the evidence that we can place our faith in that Jesus Christ is the only one who has matched those prophecies. You try to make a prediction and you'll see why you have to be divine to make it accurately all the time.

And the longer the prediction is, the more divine supernatural ability has to be present. For instance, you take the Super Bowl this past January. If somebody would have came up on early January and said, who's going to win the Super Bowl, say the week before the Super Bowl, you got two choices.

And so one week, really, you're going to be 50 percent right or 50 percent wrong. But what if somebody said 500 years from tonight, you know, who's going to win the Super Bowl? Now, age has put a whole different perspective on it.

There might not even be a New York or Jets or anything else or Giants. Who knows if football will be around? You not only have to know the future, you have to have the ability to control the future. So it will happen.

That is the way God has presented the Lord Jesus Christ through what 2 Peter 119 calls the sure word of prophecy, so that he has given you evidence that when you place your faith, there is not just feeling, but there is scripture.

You can match it up. Did he pass the test or didn't he? And so God has given you evidence. And so he doesn't ask you to throw away your brain, ask you to place it in confidence on the word of God. The philosophy will point you away as attractive as that might seem down here.

It ends in destruction. And then there is a lane that we could call pride in religion, pride in one's religion, their performance for God. It's right here in our chapter. Look here in chapter seven and verse twenty one.

Verse twenty one, not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven, a lot of people will have the right language.

Lord, Lord, you know, and so on. Look at verse twenty two. Many will say to me in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name or preached? And in thy name have cast out devils have done miracles.

And in thy name have done many wonderful works, and then I will profess unto them, I never knew you depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I don't know you. They're religious people. The road to hell is paved with religion, but religion that doesn't bow to the truth and gospel of God and the Lord Jesus and his word is not God's religion.

They don't bow to the Lord's will, but they might say the right words and they start to tell the Lord everything they did for him. Well, I did this. People take pride in their religion and their heritage and what they've done.

And the Bible shows that that is on the lane to destruction. In Luke 18, the Lord told a parable to help illustrate that about those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. The pride of self-confidence.

Well, I'm not that bad. If I do it good enough, God will let me into heaven. He says, you know, two people went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee. The other was a publican, that is, a tax collector and tax collectors.

I don't know about today, but I do know in those days they were cheaters and they took more than they were. They were infamous cheaters. They were criminals, most of them. And the other was a tax collector.

And he said they went to the temple to pray. And he says the Pharisee. Well, he let us in on his prayer. He says his major subject was I. Lord, I fast twice in the week. I tithe all my possessions. They even would take the anise and cumin, the Bible says, which is their table spices like our salt and pepper.

Let's take away that 10 percent and donate it to the temple. Should I do that? And he says and he saw that tax collector over there praying. He says, Lord, I thank you. I'm not like him. I'm not a cheater in business.

I'm not an adulterer. I'm not like him, he says. And I thank you, God, I'm not like him. And then the tax collector also prayed and the Lord Jesus said he had seven simple words. God, be merciful to me.

He took his low place. I've come short. I'm a sinner. I need your mercy. What you will do for me, God, what I have done for you is horrible. He said, I need your mercy. The Lord Jesus says both men went home, but one man went home justified right with God.

The other one didn't. He said it was a tax collector that went home justified. He came without pride in his religious performance. He came taking his place as a worthy sinner of hell. And he took his place and he found God's mercy on the grounds of humility.

You know, somehow we think that our performance for God kind of earns heaven. And yes, we make mistakes once in a while, but we really aren't in big trouble because look at all the good things we've done.

Human Righteousness and the Necessity of Mercy

I have a friend down in southern New Jersey. He's a policeman. I don't know if you've ever heard of him. His name's Rob McPherson. Rob McPherson tells the story this way and illustrates the point because he's a policeman.

This is the way he illustrates it. He'll tell the people, he says, say, you're taking a trip from California to New Jersey. And it's a whatever. It depends on how fast you drive. And that could take you four or five, six days, whatever.

And there you are taking this trip and you obey all the speed limits and you stop at all the red lights and you're just unwonderful. And you pull into New Jersey and you're anxious to get home and you hit that gas pedal to go maybe seventy five in that final hour.

And he says, I see you. And I pull you over and he says, you tell me, officer. He says, you don't understand. I stopped at every red light. I obeyed the speed limit in Wisconsin and Illinois and Ohio.

So obviously I'm not guilty. That doesn't work that way. I write you a ticket because you're guilty now. What you've done now, what you did earlier has no power to remove the penalty of what you've done now.

And God is that holy. And he says in James two, ten, whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offended one point, he is guilty of all just one. Sometimes when we illustrate this, it can. We'll tell children, we'll say, say one was standing up here and the other is in the back and you're holding a 500 link chain.

You pull it tight. Now, we'll ask the children, how many of those links have to snap for the connection to be broken? Well, they get just one. The whole connection is broken. One thing keeps you out of a holy God's presence and makes you guilty beforehand.

And all the good works that you have done, just like that person who drove three hundred three thousand perfect miles, cannot absolve him from the ticket of the law he did break. And so we're not saved by work.

And we must take our ground, our place as a sinner. We must come to God for mercy. The road to hell is paved with religion, pride in one's ability, pride in one's performance. It's also paved with a sixth lane.

Power, Control, and Envy

We could call it power, power. The ability to feel like you're in control, to have people doing what you say is a powerful thing. You know, when Satan tempted the Lord Jesus, he said, you see all the world kingdoms, he said, all the power of them and the glory I can give them to you.

The power, the security and pride it puts in one to be able to control people and have people adore you and do what you say. Men pay great price to get power. Men lie to keep power. Did you know that they do have powers of attractive thing?

People murder to keep power, power. People do all kind of things to get this thing called power. There are people on this lane also in the Bible, and they were the very chief priest of Israel's religion.

They're recorded for us in Mark, chapter 15. The Lord Jesus said, or rather, the Bible says concerning the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, that we referred to Pilate earlier. And Pilate, as we said, wanted to let the Lord Jesus go.