How strange it is to see the world making so much progress in science and industry, and making none at all in righteousness and 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 (we call them “predators” now) are becoming worse and worse.
The records of jails, prisons, courts and the plain proofs of increasing crime in spite of all the increased learning and education 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 and scientific discoveries of this day cannot bring a soul nearer to God or blot out a single sin.
The world’s only progress is down, always down, in casting off the fear of God and in rejecting His precious Word. In these things men are making swift and sure progress. The world is converting the professing church to its own atheistic views of worship of nature and scoffing at the Bible. God and His grace in Christ are being thrown aside by the fables of progressive theology, liberal views, and the teaching of the “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 [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 [narrow] 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 about the end of this broad, easy way in which the world is traveling. It’s the easiest road in the world to find. You need only to follow the crowd, take the easy way, and be “broad-minded” and “tolerant” in your views. The unerring word of the Son of God tells you where it will end: “destruction.”
The narrow path, entered through the narrow gate, leads to life. Eternal life is the portion of those who follow it, for Jesus is the way. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)).
In this path there is a life of joy, peace, love, hope and daily blessing. In this path is found real progress, not the downward progress of the world, but progress in love, in faith and in the knowledge of God and of His grace. It is not the progress that ends in destruction, but progress that ends in the blessed presence of the Son of God in glory.