Entering at the Narrow Gate

Bring the Praise Back to Zion Part 3

Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Isaiah 35:8-10

“A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray.  No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there,  And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

The Church has held itself in captivity to worldliness.  Now is the time to walk again the Highway of Holiness. It is the time to rebuild and restore.

The rebuilding and restoration must begin with the Church, the spiritual Israel.  In the rebuilding process, it is good to reexamine the tabernacle in the wilderness which became the design of the Temple in Jerusalem. God’s presence, His glory, rested there in the Holy of Holies.

The tabernacle is a picture of both Jesus Christ and the believer. Jesus is the true Tabernacle.  In Him we see the fullness of God. Believers, too, are the dwelling place of God:  Christ is in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

M.R. DeHaan, founder of the Radio Bible Class, compared believers to the tabernacle:

“The redeemed person is composed of body, soul, and spirit. The body corresponds to the court of the tabernacle. It is the outer, the visible part of our personality. It is the place of sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2). The soul answers to the holy place and is the place of worship and fellowship with other believers, feeding about the table, walking in the light, interceding for others. Finally, the spirit of the believer is the inner holy of holies, the deepest, hidden life of perfect, individual, personal communion with God beneath the blood. It is the place of spiritual victory.”

Keep this in mind as we walk through the restoration of the Church, the spiritual tabernacle.

The linen fence around the tabernacle and the courtyard remind us that we must put a guard around our hearts.  We must protect our spirituality.  We must hold fast to our relationship with God.  Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

What are we watching? What are we reading? To whom are we listening? The fence was made of white linen representing purity.  Is our fence pure?  Are we walking in holiness?

Believers can enter the courtyard only through the door. We must enter in order to have relationship with Him.  Jesus is that door.  "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” John 10:9.

Jesus is the door.  Not Allah.  Not Vishnu.  Not Buddha. Jesus, only Jesus.  “Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?'' Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:5-6). Jesus is not “a” way.  He is “the” way.

To bring the song back to Zion, we must walk that Highway of Holiness that begins with our acceptance of Jesus as not only our Savior, but as our Lord as well. "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

Entering that narrow gate brings a promise. “"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” John 10:10-11.

Are we willing to guard our hearts and enter into fellowship with Him? 

Psalms 100:1-5: “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.

Time to Rebuild and Restore

Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Isaiah 35:8-10

"A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there.  And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

Review:

It seems that the Church in America has been in a Babylonian captivity for many years.  Our captivity came because we succumbed to the customs of the world system rather than the commandments of our King.  We have given both tacit and tangible approval of practices that the Bible has warned us are not God’s best for us, i.e. sinful practices.  We have allowed the chains of political correctness to bind us.  We have diluted the Word of God.

The world system, like the Babylonian conquerors of Israel, is crying for the awakening of God’s people. We have become like the ancient Israelites, unable to bring joy into the world.

Consider Psalms 137:1-4: “By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion. We hung our harps Upon the willows in the midst of it. For there those who carried us away captive required of us a song, And those who plundered us required of us mirth, Saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!' How shall we sing the Lord's song In a foreign land?”

The Lord is calling us out of our captivity in the Babylon of worldliness that has surrounded us in the past years.  It is time for us to take our harps from the willow trees and return to Zion. 

When Cyrus allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem, they did not return to a resplendent nation.  Judea was broken physically and spiritually.  The walls were in ruins; the Temple destroyed.  The returning remnant met opposition at every turn.  The return was difficult.  Yet God blessed them and brought them through to victory. 

It is now our time to rebuild and restore.

The rebuilding and restoration must begin with the Church, the spiritual Israel.

Isaiah preached that charity and compassion are the foundation stones to rebuilding and restoring.

Isaiah 58:10-12: “If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.”

The government in Babylon allowed and encouraged the rebuilding of Jerusalem.  However, it was God’s people who had to do the rebuilding.  And so, it is up to God’s people to rebuild this nation.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of the rebuilding and restoration.  The first edifice to be built was the Temple.

Ezra 1:5-7:  "Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all those whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. And all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.  King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods.”

What had been taken from them was returned.  We must cry out to God for those freedoms which have been challenged and/or actually taken from us to be restored.

In chapters 9-10, Ezra called for confession of sin and repentance. The Jewish people confessed and repented for their sins.  We believers must confess and repent for our sins and then for the sins of our nation.

Before the Babylonian captivity, Israel had adopted many pagan practices including the worship of Baal. The fundamentals of Baal worship remain alive and well today. The principal pillars of Baalism were child sacrifice, sexual immorality (both heterosexual and homosexual) and pantheism (reverence of creation over the Creator).

As we seek to rebuild the spiritual temple of God, our personal temples must be cleansed.

Daniel spoke of an Abomination of Desolation (Dan. 11:31; 12:11) that desecrated the Temple of God.  It happened during the years between the Old and New Testaments.  It will happen again in the Third Temple as prophesied in the Book of Revelation.

Sadly, it is occurring today in the Church.    Some areas about which we should be concerned include:

•Denial of Creation

•Fascination with violence

•Horoscopes and other occult activities

•Substance abuse

•Unbiblical sexual activity

If we want to be repairers of the breach, we must first confess and repent of sinful beliefs and practices in our own lives. 

Remember: “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others.

Each of us must examine our own heart and decide whether we want to walk on the Highway of Holiness or remain in Babylon.

Ctrl/click the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsrpSM2Fz-s

Holy Highway

Ginger Hendricks | Jim Hendricks