Have you ever hit a deer with your car? It messes it up doesn’t it? When I first got my license I hit a big dog that was already dead, and one of his bones blew a tire. I almost wrecked. There are road hazards everywhere we turn when we try to get from one place to another.
There is a pathway between us and God. The devil goes out of his way to block it. Consider what is blocking your path to God. If you’ve never found him or if you’ve drifted away, what is hindering you? The best I can do for you is point you to God, but you can do something about it. If you let it continue to keep you from God, it will keep you forever. Hell is eternal separation from God and the eternal loss of opportunity to be right with God.
The rich young ruler asked Jesus what he needed to do so he could inherit eternal life. His riches stood in his way. Jesus told him to sell what he had and give to the poor. The Bible says “and he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.” I’m sure he didn’t enjoy those possessions to the extent he did before this. He let his money block his pathway to eternal life; if he never repented he is in hell today.
Isaiah 57:14 “And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people. 15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. 16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.”
What blocks your path to God? Is anything blocking it? This is very revealing. It shows the true side of our sinful nature. The danger of sin is still here, and it’s scary today because sin is not considered sin anymore. Many don’t comprehend that what God declares wrong is wrong. Now it’s accepted as normal; it’s okay; it’s no longer a sin. The Bible said the time would come when people would say “there is nothing in me that is a sin. I can do this, but it’s not a sin.” If we do these things, we make ourselves what we are. God defines sin, not us. Verses 4 and 5 say “against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?” This is true. On our own we are nothing but fallen children of Adam. We all sin and come short. In spite of this, God has given us a wonderful opportunity. The end of verse 16 states that God made our soul. Before we were completely formed in the womb, God had already given us a soul. We’re not of our own making; we are his, and as our creator he knows us more than we know ourselves.
Sin is not of God’s making. It goes against the body and soul. It was never meant for us to be accommodating to sin. Adam and Eve were created without sin, but through their own choices they disobeyed. They ruined their souls and all those who would come after them. We have a sinful nature, but we have a soul—a soul that is savable. Even being born in sin, we can be saved because God made a pathway.
Apart from this pathway there is no peace. Verse 21 says “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Sin is the ruination of peace. This is not only true for the unsaved but for anyone who lets something come between him and God. No matter how it’s labeled or dressed up, sin is still sin. It’s defined by God. It comes between a person and God, but he made a pathway. There was a great gulf between God and humanity. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” Jesus became the very thing that blocks us from God. He took the roadblocks when God “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” To let little things come between us and God is an insult to the cross of Calvary. The only one who can remove our roadblocks is Jesus, and that’s by our trusting in him as Savior. If you’ve drifted away, the path is still there. It’s straight and narrow. It doesn’t take a big obstacle to get in the way. It doesn’t matter how small it is, it will keep us from reaching God. If we “confess he is faithful and just to forgive us.”
Obvious sin is now accepted. Never think anyone is getting away with it. Sin blocks rightness with God. It blocks the peace of God. Regardless of what others do and say, it’s your call. How are you? Do you have roadblocks to God? If you willingly allow attitudes, deeds, feelings toward others, grudges, hatred, and envy in your path, you block God. When you trust in your religion or own righteousness you block God. Call it what you want, but it stands tall between you and God. Do you love it so much that you’ll continue to let it hinder you?
No matter how successful you are in life, you will have experienced the greatest failure of all—“For the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.” You will experience the eternal failure of the soul. Given at creation, a soul is eternal. Will you let the temporal, foolish things keep you from God? He won’t put up with it forever. When he stops, the failing soul will fail forever. The pathway will cease. The roadblock will have become the heavy weight that pulled you into the abyss of the lake of fire.
If the heart stops, we’ll die. If the liver quits working, we’ll die. If the lungs cease to breathe, we’ll die. If a soul fails, we’ll die the second death. The Bible says the “wages of sin is death” and “the soul that sinneth shall die.” BUT the gift of God—eternal life—gives us the ability to put away the roadblocks.
What do you want? Do you think there is no hope for you? That’s true to the extent that in yourself you’re hopeless, but you are savable BECAUSE you have a Savior. It’s an individual thing.
Something’s in the road! Get it out of the way. Reach for the Lord today. Change your location. Change your friends. Change whatever you have to change. Is your soul worth it?
Make clear the pathway to God.
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 