Category: Jesus the Light

Jesus the Light   5    Entering the Kingdom

                                       Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,”                                       will enter the kingdom of heaven – Mt.7:21

Jesus made this startling statement in Mt.5:20: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Think of the most religious man you know, one who outwardly appears in every way to be respectable in his behavior. Now consider this: Unless your righteousness is greater than his, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

What is needed is a righteousness of a different type altogether, one that goes beyond external ceremonies, attendance at church gatherings: something more than outward respectability.

The greatest and most respected religious leaders in Jesus’ day did not enter the kingdom of heaven. Something else is needed beyond what they possessed.

Jesus warns further in Lk.13:23-28: “Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ So He said to them, ‘Exert every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

“‘Once the Head of the house gets up and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and start to knock on the door and beg Him, ‘Lord, let us in!’ But He will answer you, ‘I don’t know where you are from.’

“Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will reply, ‘I don’t know where you come from! Depart from Me, all you evildoers!’

“‘There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrown out.’”

Dear Listener, many will attempt to enter the kingdom but will not be able to. Something far greater is needed than listening to sermons, than partaking of communion. O how multitudes will cry out in anguish on that day: “We listened to Your messages; we sat at Your table and shared from Your bread and cup!”

But their pleas will fall to the ground. And Jesus will reply, “I do not know where you come from! Depart from Me all you evildoers!”

No, entrance into Christ’s kingdom is not gained by hearing the Word; you must be doers of it. It is not obtained by participation in religious ceremonies, however holy they may appear.

And that is not all that will prevent entrance into Christ’s kingdom. Jesus’ words in Mt.18:2,3 are: “He called a child and had him stand among them, and said, ‘I tell you the truth; unless you are converted and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!’” Lk.18:17 adds this: “I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

It is not the great, the wise, the mighty, the noble, and the lofty in pride that will enter. They will be cast out. Only those who have become like little children will enter. The self-sufficient, the arrogant, the man who thinks he knows anything, the exalted in his own eyes will find that door shut fast against him. Only the lowly and dependent like small children will be welcomed.

Neither will those relying on riches ever enter that kingdom. In Mt.19:23,24 “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Then in Mk.10:23,24 “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.’”

The rich cannot enter any more than a camel can be threaded through a sewing needle. No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and Riches.

Those who love money will perish. Those seeking after gain will be rejected by Christ. Storing up treasures upon earth competes with and actually cancels storing up treasure in heaven.

1 Tim.6:5-11 informs us that anyone thinking that godliness is a means to financial gain is corrupted in his mind and deprived of the truth. Do you want to be rich? Verse 9 tells you that already you have stumbled “into temptation and a trap and many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”

Are you longing after wealth? Verse 10 says that “the love of money is the root of all evil” and those who pursue it have “strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains.”

No, Dear Listener, no matter what the false preachers of Prosperity have told you, if you desire riches, or think that religion is a way to obtain a breakthrough, you are lost. If you seek wealth and its comforts and ease, you have already abandoned striving to pass through the narrow gate that leads to entering into the kingdom of heaven. You will be cast out.

The fearful reality is that your religion may be your greatest stumbling block to entering the kingdom of Christ. Trusting your own righteousness and hearing the Word of God but not doing it will destroy you. Being baptized and taking communion, being full of pride and self-sufficiency, and the deadly longing after prosperity will slay you. You will never enter the kingdom this way.

As well, there are other more recognizable deeds that will equally disqualify multitudes from ever entering that kingdom. That list is equally terrifying.

Gal.5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these – I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!”

1 Cor.6:9,10 adds these hateful deeds to those already mentioned: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, greedy, revilers, and extortioners will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The unchangeable sentence against all ungodliness is pronounced in Rev.21:27: “Nothing unclean will ever enter in to it, or anyone who does anything detestable, or practices falsehood: but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Jesus Himself declares this final inescapable verdict in Rev.22:15: “Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood,” including lying religious hypocrites.

O Dear Listener! May your name be found written there! May you enter that kingdom of light and life, of gladness and glory! Should you not devote heart and soul, and all your energy to assure that you will enter therein?

Do not be found lacking in this. Weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth await all who are thrown out into that unending darkness. And Jesus will be heard saying: “Depart from Me you workers of lawlessness; I never knew you!”

“Enter by the narrow gate…for the gate is small and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Copyright Steve Phillips 2019

Jesus the Light   4    That I May Know Him

To a vast host of would-be followers, the Lord Jesus turned and said: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” -Lk.14:25,26.

Hatred of the downward pull of every natural relation is mandatory for every disciple. One cannot properly be called a disciple, a learner, a follower, who disobeys Christ because of man – the pressure of those closest to us.

The requirement for every true disciple is to reject, in the strongest possible manner, any tendency, suggestion, or directive to stray from Christ Himself. A disciple must hate even his own self: his own opinion, perspective, and inclination.

Prov.28:26 simply states: “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool.” And so the only valid alternative is Prov.3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.”

This is why rejection of Self is our only option. In Lk.14:28-35, Jesus tells us that our resources are completely lacking. None of us has what is required to produce fruitfulness in the coming day or to secure victory over the enemy of our souls.

In this Scripture, the Lord Jesus is not directing us to look within ourselves and assess our own will power, commitment, and sincerity. He is not looking for people who will pledge their own loyalty out of a determined self-effort.

Self-help is not God’s help. God does not help those who help themselves; those who think so become the ridiculed fools described who “began to build and were not able to finish” -Lk.14:30.

The point of counting the cost in this passage is simply this: when we honestly evaluate what we possess to contribute toward being a disciple, it falls far short of the requirements.

Actually, our imagined resources are a positive hindrance, a liability which is outstanding against us, a stumbling block. What we have to contribute is so far worthless that the Lord’s conclusion sweeps it all away as so much refuse.

Lk.14:33: “So, therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up/forsake/say ‘farewell’ to all that he has/all his own possessions/all the resources from himself.” The possessions He refers to are not “things;” they are what we account as valuable as contributing toward being His disciples.

They are our perceived assets of religious devotion, culture, intellect, morality, and strength of resolve. You cannot be His disciple while you are relying upon what you possess, expecting to donate that to the cause of becoming what you ought to be.

You rather must hate it. You must see Self as that which is condemned by God as being fit only for a cross. You cannot be His disciple unless you give up all the resources you treasure as dear.

As great as the apostle Paul was, he stated truly in 2 Cor.3:5: “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider anything as out from ourselves, but our sufficiency is out from God.” And again he asks in 1 Cor.4:7: “And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”

And John the Baptist confessed in Jn.3:27: “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.”

A true disciple abandons Self, his attainments and esteem, and flees to his only hope of life and godliness, the Lord Jesus Himself. A real disciple embraces the cross as putting to death within himself that which is at total enmity against God. Anything else is worthless.

Jesus used salt to illustrate this truth. Lk.14:34,35: “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out.”

Salt is always salty; it never can lose its saltiness. This is how it is recognized. If it isn’t salty, it isn’t salt. The very nature and composition of it makes it so.

The only thing that would hide its saltiness would be the introduction of such a volume of other elements that its presence goes undetected. But even then it hasn’t lost its savor, it has merely been overcome by other things so that its flavor is “lost” in the mixture.

The nature of salt is saltiness. The nature of a disciple is an abandonment of Self-confidence. If it isn’t salty, it isn’t salt. If respectable religious Self-confidence has its grip on your heart, you have not yet known the Lord Jesus.

Relying upon your own resources proves that you are not His disciple. If your devotion to Christ is unrecognizable by reason of mixture with so many contrary religious practices of the world, you will be thrown out. If the “salt” in you is undetectable, it renders you useless. What will you do when you discover the true condition of your heart?

When Paul discovered his, he threw it out. All of his heritage, his academic achievements, his strict religious practices, the polished masquerade of righteousness, and his consuming zeal for his religion’s tradition were thrown out as so much offensive filth.

Thus are the flesh, Self, and what we esteem ourselves to be. They are against us. Religious pride leads to our everlasting ruin, and many are deceived thereby.

Lk.18:9-12: Jesus “spoke to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.” The deceived religious ruler prayed thus to himself: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all I possess.” But this man prayed and perished in his pride.

When Paul’s eyes were opened to see himself as he truly was, he summed up his past life and what he did about it in Phil.3:8,9: “I count them but rubbish/ filth/ dung/ in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own…but that which is through faith in Christ.”

He did not view anything he possessed as being an asset: as contributing to any right standing with God. Whatever could be conceived of as in his favor, a credit to his account, a resource, a valued commodity, was actually the opposite.

It was a “loss;” it stood against him.  All of his perceived gain was actually a debit, a liability, an impoverishment, an outstanding obligation, bringing him down to hell.

Here is the verdict of Phil.3:7,8: “But whatever things were gain to me, I have counted as loss because of Christ. Yes indeed, I count all things loss because of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”

Yes, this is life worth pursuing; this is a knowledge above all other: Christ our Righteousness! Christ our Life!

Dear Listener, do you truly know the Lord Jesus or are you merely a respectable religious person? Are you trusting in Him alone or are you assuming that church attendance, or your Reverend’s blessing, or baptism or communion, or tithing, or keeping your church’s traditions will cleanse your heart and carry you to heaven?

These things can never do what only Christ can! O that you might know the Lord Jesus and the power of His resurrection! May you press on to know Him!

Copyright Steve Phillips 2019