How strange it is that, while the world is making so much progress in science and inventions, it makes none at all in righteousness or even in morality! Some people persuade themselves that the world is growing better, but when brought face to face with the actual facts, they are forced to admit that “evil men and seducers [are waxing] worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:1313But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:13)).
The records of prisons, detention centers, courts and the plain proofs of increasing crime fully confirm the truth of the Word of God. Sad to say, the world’s progress is not in or toward goodness. The wonderful advances in inventions and discoveries, all the scientific achievements and triumphs of this day, cannot bring a soul nearer to God or blot out a single sin.
The world’s real progress is progress in pride and lust, in casting off the fear of God, in rejecting His precious Word. In these things humanity is making swift and sure progress. The world is converting the church to its own infidel views of worship of nature and scoffing at Scripture. God and His grace in Christ are being thrown aside by the fables of progressive theology, liberal views and the teachings of the so-called modern school.
Where do you find yourself today? Are you going on to eternity with the great multitude, through the wide gate and down the broad road?
“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” (Matt. 7:13-1413Enter 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: 14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13‑14)).
The Lord Jesus Christ warns us as to what is at the end of this broad, easy way in which the world is traveling. It’s the easiest way in the world to find. You need only to follow the crowd, take the easy way, be “broad-minded” and liberal in your views! The unerring Word of the Son of God tells you where it will end-“destruction.”
That is a hard word: DESTRUCTION. But it is the Word of the Son of God. He died to save you from it, and it is in mercy that He speaks this terrible word. It is a word of solemn warning. It stands at the end of the world’s progress.
It is not annihilation. The same One warns us, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:2828And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)).
He who spoke this warning loved sinners so much that He left His place in glory and came into this world of ruin to die for them, to bear God’s holy wrath against sin. It is love that warns those who are following the broad road to destruction.
The narrow path, entered through the strait gate, leads to life. In this path there is real progress—progress in love, in faith and in the knowledge of God and of His grace. It is not progress that leads to destruction, but progress that ends in the blessed presence of the Son of God in glory.
All this rests on the work of redemption, finished by Christ on the cross. It is offered to you now, “without money and without price.”
“He, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isa. 55:11Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. (Isaiah 55:1)