Highway To Heaven

By Mac 22 September 2001

“Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

These words were spoken by Jesus, and recorded by Matthew, in his book of the same name, Chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. In this verse, the last word, “it”, refers to the small gate of Heaven, not the narrow road. And one of the reasons “only a FEW” find “it”, is BECAUSE of that NARROW road. Jesus is not implying that only a few will find the ROAD, but the actual ENTRANCE to Heaven itself. What I would like to focus on in this study, is the ROAD to which he refers. We know it is ‘narrow’, as Jesus said here, but what does that mean, and what ELSE do we know about that road?

I have three points in this study: RECOGNIZE THE ROAD; READ THE SIGNS, and

RESIST THE SMOOTH HIGHWAY.

How can we recognize the Road to Heaven? Well, first we know that the road is not only narrow, but it is also crooked. We can deduce that from this next verse that is talking about how the road will be changed in the future: “Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.” (Luke 3:5) Luke is quoting Old Testament Prophesy (actually Luke is quoting John the Baptist who is quoting Isaiah, the Prophet—You can find that that actual OT quote in Isaiah 40, verse 4.). What happens on a crooked road? Well, if you are driving a Ferrari on the S-curves at Lemans, you either obey the warning signs and slow down, or you go off the road. If you are driving an 18-wheeler faster than the posted speed limit signs for a real sharp exit ramp on I-285, you roll over and crash. AND, if disciples of Jesus travel along the crooked road to Heaven without regard to the many signs along the road, THEY crash. We’ll get back to the ‘signs’ a little later. But right now, let’s concentrate on describing the ROAD. Luke (Isaiah) makes reference to the way being rough. How many of you have ever traveled a ROUGH road? I grew up in the beautiful state of Vermont, but the closest paved road was 4 miles away. I spent a lot of hours driving on crooked, dirt roads. Sometimes in the summer, the roads would become ‘smoother’ as a road-grader (some of you probably have never seen one of these) is used to smooth out the ruts caused by the famous ‘mud season’ in Vermont. When the road-grader goes through, the road is ‘honed’ and becomes a lot smoother than it was before. Riding in an automobile on rough roads is usually not a pleasant ordeal. In fact, the roads would sometimes get so rough that not only did you not drive very fast, sometimes you completely avoided the road. Unfortunately, if the ONLY road leading to your destination was very rough, or even full of deep ruts (which used to occur a lot during mud season), you might decide not to go to that destination until the roads were honed. The road to which Isaiah referred in the passage above, is the road to Heaven. This road, if it became too ‘rough’ for many ‘Christians’, they would decide to wait it out until the road is honed. They are hoping for that ‘loophole’ in the Bible that they believe exists that indicates that even if they don’t travel that road all their life, they can still find salvation at the very end, by confessing their sins to God just before they die. Paul was very plain when he stated in Galatians 5, the latter part of verse 21, when he said: “I warn you, as I did before, that those of you who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” What he was saying, was that if you travel that ‘other’ road all your life, don’t expect it to be ‘honed’ on the last mile. But, traveling that ‘road to Heaven’ all your life is NOT easy. The road IS rough. It has lots of ‘curves’ in it. There are lots of ruts and potholes as well. It is like the road is constantly in ‘mud season’. Although nature plays the biggest hand in making our earthly roads rough, SATAN is the one who creates the potholes, ruts and curves in the road toward Heaven. Hear what poor old Job has to say about HIS highway toward Heaven: “They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me-- without anyone's helping them.” Job 30:13 That is what Satan does to our road to Heaven. He breaks it up. By placing potholes such as lust, ruts such as greed, ditches such as envy, and roadblocks such as adultery, the Devil impedes our progress down the road toward our final victory.

In doing this study, I was reminded of a poem that I first heard when I was in high school. I know all of you have heard the title, but I doubt, first, all if you know who wrote it; and second, that you have probably never heard ALL of it. It was written by a man from Franconia, New Hampshire, about 30 miles from where I grew up. It’s a beautiful township in the rugged, yet serenely beautiful mountain range known as the White Mountains. One of the quarters being minted today shows a picture of ‘The Old Man In the Mountain”. It is really much more beautiful to see it first hand, and is found in the White Mountain range right outside of Franconia. I have reprinted a copy of one of the pictures we took this last summer when Socorro and I drove back to Vermont.

This image is NOT what this study is about, but it IS beautiful, and it DOES reflect at least one image that Robert Frost would have seen growing up in that area of New England. Another IMAGE that he had, was recorded in his poem, called “The Road Not Taken”. I want you to read that poem now, picturing in your mind the beautiful summer setting he describes among the yellow birch and green pastures of northern New Hampshire:

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Now, reread the last two stanzas (last 10 lines) of this poem, but when you do, think about the road that YOU are on, the Road to Heaven, and the ‘other’ road, that leads to the great abyss. You ARE on the “one less traveled by”! And someday, FAR into the future, YOU can look back on today and proudly say:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a”- WORLD,- “and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Turn your bibles to Ezekiel 21:19 and read along with me, the following: “Son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to take, both starting from the same country. Make a signpost where the road branches off to the city. Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites and another against Judah and fortified Jerusalem. For the king of Babylon will stop at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He will cast lots with arrows, he will consult his idols, he will examine the liver.”

Wow, usually when I get to a fork in the road, and I am not sure which one to take, I just usually look at a map, or simply guess which one is headed in the general direction to which I am headed!! I guess the king of Babylon was a little more indecisive, or at least, more cautious than I. I do recall one incident, though, that happened to me, that is similar to these words of God to our good brother Ezekiel. It was during the night of day One of the ground war of Desert Storm. I was leading a convoy of vehicles filled with American soldiers north into Iraq. There were no stars out, nor was the moon up yet. Almost completely dark in the middle of an Iraqian desert. I had already sent an advance party of two soldiers ahead with another unit to select a piece of ground where we could set up camp. As I was leading this convoy along an old road going northward through the desert, I contacted by radio, my advance party. They gave me directions like this: “Go north on MSR Texas (MSR stands for Military Supply Route, and ‘Texas’ was just the name we gave the road temporarily on our war maps) until you get to the bombed out gas station. There, take a right and go east for about 7 miles, and you will see us on the hill to your left.” Okay! Seemed like fair directions, so I continued north. I didn’t recollect seeing any BUILDING, let alone a Gas Station, or even one that was ‘bombed out’. So, northward we went. Remind you now, it was REAL dark. So, the further north into enemy territory I went, the more nervous I got. What I DIDN’T want to do, was MISS the right turn at the ‘blown up Exxon’ (or whatever brand it was) and accidentally find myself too far north in the middle of enemy strongholds. At one point, I even stopped the convoy, and backtracked a couple miles myself, just to make sure I hadn’t missed that turn. I didn’t see it, so we continued northward once again. By now, the palms of my hands were getting a little bit sweaty. But FINALLY, there it was! One of the most beautiful sights I saw that night….a bombed out gas station off to the right side of the road, with a fork in the road right there. I TOOK that right hand turn, and a few miles later, joined up with my advance party. During that trip northward, I consulted my GPS (a hand-held device that gives you the coordinates of exactly where you are within about 20feet, anywhere in the world). I also consulted my map (numerous times). And, I consulted some of the other leaders within the convoy who were also checking THEIR maps. We DIDN’T want to miss that fork in the road! The same held true for the king of Babylon. He consulted everything from idols to casting lots with his arrows.

When ANY of us come to ANY junction in the road, we make a decision which fork to take. Sometimes, those decisions are automatic, because we have done it so many times before and we know where the road that we took before, will lead us. Sometimes, we consult our spouses, or other passengers in the car, or even a map, if we are not sure which turn to take. We go through similar processes when we come across ‘forks’ in our spiritual path as well. Some forks we will take over and over so that it becomes common place, because we KNOW where we will go when we take that path. And sometimes, we will consult others (seek advice) about which way to go.

On our roads and highways, we see numerous SIGNS. If you are a safe driver, you READ (and OBEY) those signs. The same goes for our journey along our spiritual roadway. Signs abound! Which leads to my Second Point: READ THE SIGNS. Like the roads described in Ezekiel, there may be sign posts giving us direction. On the physical highways, we see them all the time (Stop, No Left Turn, One-Way, Caution, Yield, Exit, etc). On our spiritual highways, we ALSO can see signs if we look. Stops signs are all over the place: Divorce, Disease, and Hurt Children are just a few ‘Stop Signs’ that are visible when lust, temptation, and adultery are the available paths. “Dangerous Curves”! (We don’t EVEN want to go there!!!!) Caution signs also show up as preaching from false teachers, and hurt looks from friends when a ‘lie’ is the intended highway. One-Way signs are obvious just by reading the Bible…..Jesus is the ONLY way to Heaven, and "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62). There are Exit signs all along the Highway to Heaven. But don’t take them. Don’t compromise your integrity. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop studying the word of God. At each of these ‘Exits’ are potholes, ‘bombed out’ bridges, ruts, and other traps to lure you away from the journey God has given you the privilege to embark upon. You may not cast lots, consult idols, or even your ‘liver’ (whatever that means!!!!), like the King of Babylon did to make his decision on which fork to take. You will KNOW which fork you need to take, because the Holy Spirit was sent here to guide us. Look for the signs, and follow the RIGHT ones!

So this road upon which we embarked at the time we were baptized, we now know is narrow, crooked, full of traps, and has several signs along it. Some signs are misleading, as SATAN works at our minds and hearts. Some signs are the RIGHT ones to follow.

As a minister of Christ, no matter if you are not a so-called ‘leader’ within the Church, you are responsible to lead others down (or should I say ‘up’?) the correct road. You need to make sure that you are giving the right signals, or signs, to others, so that they may also join you along the Highway to Heaven. Here is some guidance from the Old Testament, that we should follow. It will help others that we are reaching out to, as well as helping ourselves. Read Jeremiah 31:21: "Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take. Return, O Virgin Israel, return to your towns.” Also, read these words of God from the book of Isaiah: “Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations.” (Verse 62:10) So, not only must we stay on the road ourselves, but we need to also REMOVE the obstacles along the road, not simply go around them. If they stay there, they can possibly trap others. So, how do you REMOVE an obstacle so they won’t impede others? Simple. Teach the word of God to them: that will remove those obstacles from THEIR paths. Pray for the lost. Pray that they won’t be tempted by those enticements of Satan. On a more general scale, you can get involved in your community to get yours, and God’s, morals and values into the laws. Build up the highway by showing others how easy it CAN be to be a Christian. Some more words from the great Prophet Isaiah explain that the road to Heaven is ONLY for those that are righteous. If the unrighteous attempt to travel it, they will not last long because of the many potholes and luring signs that SATAN has put along it. Read verse 35:8: “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.”

So far, I have centered this study on the actual spiritual road leading toward Heaven. But now, I want to talk about the OTHER one. The road you find yourself on if you veer off the narrow road too far to the left or right. It is the one that you begin to travel along when you take one of those illicit and alluring exits off the ‘Way of Holiness’ (as Isaiah called it). The road that ends in a fiery pit for all of eternity. It is the Road to HELL.

That road does not contain righteousness. It does not contain spirituality. It contains lust, greed, idolatry, envy, grief. My Third Point: RESIST THE SMOOTH HIGHWAY. Recall earlier in this study that I quoted Galatians 5:21, where Paul warned us about not inheriting the kingdom of God. He stated that right after he listed many of the sins that are commonplace along the road going to Hell. I won’t repeat them here, because you have heard them over and over (and we NEED to hear them over and over, by the way, to constantly REMIND us of what DOES keep us off the narrow road to Heaven.) On second thought, I WILL repeat them here, because they ARE important to know. We will start in verse 19. “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, …..”, well, you know the rest.

There are others too. Other sins that exist that mire the road. Here is Ephesians 4:24 through 31 for a few more: “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” Paul kind of summarizes a lot about his teaching in just one verse. In 1^st Corinthians 3:3, he wrote: “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?” Being WORLDLY, ACTING LIKE MERE MEN, are sins!

We need to emulate the actions of Paul, Timothy, Titus, and Kip, Ben, Steve, Mike, and other great leaders of God’s Kingdom here on earth. But more importantly, we need to stay on the narrow road to Heaven and “BE LIKE JESUS”.

I mentioned above that the ‘Way of Holiness’ ends in Heaven. The ‘other’ highway, however leads to a much different place. Proverbs 7:27 describes briefly, the ultimate destination for those following the ‘other’ road, “Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.” And once more, we hear from Mr. Isaiah. In verse 59:8 of the book named for him, we find him talking about the road that is followed by the unrepenting: “The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace.” Not only does SATAN turn the ‘good’ road into a rough and crooked one, he entices us to ‘his’ road by making it ‘look good’. Paul warns us of this deception in 2^nd Thessalonians 2:9—“The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,..”

He provides enticing SIGNS. He makes his road look ‘wonderful’, even though it is fake. Essentially, he attempts to lead us down the ‘wrong’ path.

As a Christian, as a Disciple, are YOU having difficulty staying on the narrow path? Are you often tempted to take the ‘other’ road, even if just for a ‘little while’? If you are, let me remind you that switching lanes is dangerous! The road toward Satan’s world can ensnare people’s souls FOREVER!. One may think that they can simply take a turn farther down the road, whenever they feel like it, and voila!, they are back on the ‘straight and narrow’. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. The road that Satan has built is SO enticing, so menacing, so deceitful, that you may NEVER get the desire (or chance) to return to the righteous and upright life. One’s life can…. no, WILL, end in an instant. And for a lot of us, that instant will came when LEAST expected. If your PLAN is to go to Heaven for the rest of Eternity, you do NOT want to be caught on the dirty, dusty, treacherous, rut-filled, deceitful path that Satan has put out there. Are the two roads (the one to Hell and the one to Heaven) sometimes parallel? I believe so. Sometimes they exist side-by-side, with not even metal dividers between them. It is EASY to ‘switch lanes’. Especially when the ‘other’ road appears smooth, and the one YOU are one, is filled will ruts, bumps and other obstacles. However, hoping that the two roads will ALWAYS be side-be-side so that you can ‘jump back over’ any time you want, may be wishful thinking. As there is a great chasm between Heaven and Hell, (Luke 16:26—‘And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'), there are sometimes similar cavities between the paths leading to those destinations. The ‘ramp’ back to the ‘good side’ may be ‘under construction’ when you want to get back. It just may not be possible. It is an almost guarantee that the ‘smoother’ road will have more people on it. It is human nature sometimes to ‘take the easy road’. But, I suggest that if you WANT to get to Heaven, then you need to STAY ON the right path, even though it is occasionally pot-holed, rutty, and rough.

Today’s society, just as the societies during most of the history of man were, is a difficult one, at best, in which to live as a Disciple of Jesus. God sent His only Son to us about 2000 years ago, so that we might have a chance to come OUT of this society, and be with Him forever. Satan has planted traps, enticements, road-blocks, and other temptations along our paths. But, on the more positive side, God HIMSELF, has provided, just for us, a true way in which to come to Him in the end. The ‘now-famous’ Prophet Isaiah stated in chapter 51, verse 10, the following words TO God” “Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over?” God DOES provide the way!

Whether you take a road in the white mountains of New Hampshire, a dusty desert road in Iraq, I-285 around Atlanta, or WHEREVER you travel around this globe, keep in mind that even though God has built His own road for us to take to Heaven, “only a FEW will find it”, and it IS, “the road less traveled”. So, stay ON it, and lead the way for others. Recognize the Road, Read the Signs, and Resist the Smooth Highway.

To God Be The Glory, AMEN.