Destination Heaven: Strive to Enter by the Narrow Gate

By Mark Nyarko

In todays post-Christian culture of liberalism, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that to be Christian means to be called out of the world and be set aside unto the Lord Jesus Christ. As we approach the end of the age and of the world, as we know it, the Lord continues to give numerous heavenly visitations and dreams about him to take Christians home in what we call the rapture of the church. One recurring theme in many of these supposedly spiritual experiences is the number of professing Christians that could be going to hell. Well, it is easy to dismiss these as figments of hallucinations and fertile imaginations gone wild. But a cursory glance at the church scene clearly shows that something is not right with many of professing believers. This book seeks to jolt Christians into rediscovering their first love and awake from their slumber to ensure that their lives match their profession.

Christianity is one of the most liberal of all religions. In Christian theology, it is God who takes the initiative to reconcile mankind to himself (John 3:16). He make total and full provision for man to receive forgiveness of sins and come into a personal relationship with God without any expenditure or effort on his/her part. In that sense, Christianity is an easy religion. That is the essence of grace. But that could be deceptive because it is easy for the Christian adherent to fall into the false notion that grace means anything goes.

This Christian discipleship book attempts to wake Christians to the fact that like an athlete, there is a right lifestyle and a way to compete that will guarantee you a medal at the Olympics and a wrong lifestyle and a way to compete that could lead to disqualification and a loss of potential medal. Much illustration is made of the Old Testament saints who started their journey with the Lord with optimistic enthusiasm but whose faith was made shipwreck along the way. This is true of the Israelites who were delivered from Egyptian bondage and servitude and journeyed to the Promised Land, but the text says, With most of them, God was not well pleased, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. The text clearly says these experiences were written as warnings and examples to us because if we make the same mistakes they did, a similar fate awaits us (1 Corinthians 10:113). Wisdom gives away what you cannot keep to gain what you cannot lose.

In our day and age, the greatest snares are relational issues of unforgiveness, bitterness, and strife. We are also warned against such moral weaknesses as fornication, adultery, and other aberrant sexual behavior. The Bible clearly warns that those who practice these would not inherit the kingdom of God. This is a major theme of most of the New Testament Epistles. This book is also evangelistic because at its heart, it seeks to showcase the love of God and his eternal invitation to all mankind to be reconciled to him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: May 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543489392

Mark Nyarko

Originally from Ghana in West Africa, I have lived in the UK for almost 35 years. I am married to Victoria Bosompimaa, a very industrious and talented woman, who has encouraged me to tell the world my story since the day we met. We have a lovely daughter Chantelle Nyarko . Together we pastor a small but dynamic Word-based Church in Streatham, South London named Mount Zion Revival. I thank The Holy Spirit, the greatest teacher, for His grace on my life that enabled me write this and other books. How can fail to mention Mrs Vivian Sackey and Mrs Sheilagh Ashiley for their commitment, support and loyalty over the years. Pastor Michael Boadu Mensah of Spurgeon’s College, London, deserves a mention for assisting with the I.T aspects. I have been a teacher most of my life, starting first at the School of Administration, University of Ghana, Legon, in the early 80s, where I was a Teaching Assistant for a couple of years, after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Administration Degree, and then in several Colleges in London where I have been teaching Business studies to young adults. I have always enjoyed sharing with others, whether it’s my food, money, clothes or knowledge. My greatest passion is to share the word of God with other believers. As a consequence, I have a passion for disciplining believers in their faith to become mature in their walk with the Lord, apply the bible to their daily lives and to meet the standards of our high calling by the enabling power of the Spirit of God. For over 2 decades, I ran a one man Charity OPERATION HOPE to help disadvantaged children in my native Ghana, using most of my personal earnings as a teacher to sponsor their education at all levels of the educational strata, educating several hundreds, perhaps a few thousands, in the process. Through the charity I built a number of fully equipped computer suites in several communities and schools in Ghana, fifteen of them, to be precise. By the same token I shipped secondary level books to many schools in Ghana, refurbishing many libraries in the process with books withdrawn from UK college libraries. We were also able to supply photocopiers to several schools and colleges. We even had occasion to provide clothing and school uniforms to very needy schools and individual students and pupils. From this I learnt that you don’t have to be rich to be generous, and that you can always start where you are. At 63, I think I have learnt a few lessons in life to share with others in my writings, especially the young, in their life’s journey. A good mentor could be worth more than a university degree, and that is what I hope to be to the many who would read my books. This I hope to pursue with the same passion and vigour as I have anything I have had to do in life. Regards, Mark Nyarko

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

AWAKE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

First Corinthians 15:34 says, ‘Awake to righteousness and sin not.’ The believer’s power to overcome sin lies in a true understanding of his or her new identity of righteousness. It is our identity as righteous people that should inform our behaviour instead of the other way around. By this, I mean the New Testament believer must know that he has been made righteous and that this is the vantage point from which all behaviour should issue. Once we are grounded in our new righteous identity, it becomes obvious that some behaviours don’t fit that identity anymore. We stand to be uncomfortable and self-convicted should we persist in those behaviours that are incongruent with our new identity.

In 2 Peter 1:5–9, the apostle Peter recounts the essential Christian virtues and character graces the believer must endeavour to develop as prerequisites to accessing the great and precious promises our heavenly Father has bequeathed unto us in order to partake of the divine nature. Then in verse 9, he has this to say: ‘For he who lacks these things (Christian character) is short sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.’ The modern Church will urge a believer struggling with character and moral issues to fast more, pray harder, and try this and try that. But no. Peter is saying if you are struggling with Christian character building, it is because you have forgotten that you have been cleansed from your old sins. So just remember that the blood of Jesus has cleansed you from all sin, guilt, and shame. Make that your daily confession. Awake to righteousness, and sin not. Remind yourself daily that your sins are forgiven and that you are righteous before the holy God of the universe.

There are basically only two religions in the world. These include the works-based religions that rely exclusively on self-effort and the will of man in trying to meet God’s standard, and grace-based religion or biblical Christianity whereby God, through grace, has fully accepted and justified man on the basis of Christ’s atoning work on the cross. Biblical Christianity is the only religion where God has, by His grace, forgiven man through Christ’s substitutionary atonement on the cross and invited man into an ongoing, personal, intimate relationship with Him. Through His abundant grace, we are now approved, accepted, and in right standing with Him. In John 17:3, Jesus said, ‘And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.’ So it is all about having a personal relationship with the God of the universe, not just making a ‘confession’, as important as that may be, or keeping a set of laws devoid of a true relationship with the lawgiver.

As much as we Christians have a set of principles to live by, we must be careful to not reduce our practice to a set of dos and don’ts. The moment we do that, Christianity becomes just like any of the other religions in which adherents are to work their own way to an unknowable god through a set of prescribed good deeds, ceremonies, and observances. That was the error of the Galatian church, which prompted the apostle Paul to issue his harshest rebuke to any of the New Testament churches. After receiving the gospel by grace through faith, they were turning to another gospel.

The other gospel they were turning to was not idols or any such thing. They were preaching a gospel of works and reliance on self-effort. Paul said that is no gospel at all and they have been bewitched into thinking that after accepting the grace of God by faith, they could continue by their own self-effort or works of the flesh.

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among youb as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? ⁴ Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. (Galatians 1:6–10)

The Law Brings a Curse

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them according to Galatians 3:10–12

In Galatians 3:12, Paul says if it is law and self-effort you want to live by, you don’t need any faith to do that. You can obey all the laws in the world, and yet you will never come to know God because blind obedience by itself does not lead to a relationship. Love only manifests through relationships, not mechanical, cold, impersonal obedience. In God’s eyes, wrong doctrine is even more deadly than wrong behaviour (sin), as demonstrated in His attitudes towards the churches of Corinth and Galatia. The Lord Jesus demonstrated this in His accommodating attitudes towards sinners (tax collectors, adulterers, prostitutes, thieves, etc.) as opposed to His harsh and often scathing criticism towards religious people, such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, teachers of the law, and the priests. He called the religious groups a brood of vipers, children of the devil, and hypocrites. This is strong language indeed, but it only shows God’s attitude towards man-made religion as opposed to His provision for the salvation of man. Religion and all the demands it makes on its adherents do not take you any closer towards God but will make you twice a candidate for hell. God hates religion because it does not foster a relationship with him—the one thing He is anxious to do with man, and the reason for which Christ had to suffer and die.

That is why law is a killer and has no life to give: because it becomes a barrier to knowing God and experiencing the life of God. Till today, Israel, God’s beloved covenant people, do not know the God of their fathers even though He has been in the very fabric of their lives for millennia. And the blinding effect of the law is partly to blame. Law has no power against sin, and neither can it make you righteous before God because that was not its purpose to start with. It is not based on faith because it does not require any faith to meet its requirements. And in the absence of faith, man has no way of approaching or relating to God. It is all about a reliance on self from beginning to finish, and hence no matter how hard you try (as many fine Jewish people did), according to the evidence of scripture, you always end up where you started: empty. It is a wild goose chase. Its usefulness lies in revealing yourself to you, like a mirrors does. When that is done, its job is essentially finished because it lacks the power to do anything about what it reveals to you.

Paul and the early disciples were determined to nip this attempt by the Judaizers to take the young church back under the law and hence the Old Covenant with which God had clearly dispensed. They were insisting, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’ The Pharisees were insisting, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the Law of Moses’ (Acts 15:1, 5).

The apostles and elders of the early Church all agreed that our hearts are purified by grace through faith only, and that any additional requirements for salvation was tempting God, troubling the gentile converts, and putting a yoke on the necks of the disciples, which they themselves and their father were not able to bear (Acts 15:9–11). This issue was settled once and for all by a joint declaration issued by the apostles and elders, which came to be known as the Jerusalem decree.

The Jerusalem Decree

Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.

They wrote this letter by them:

The apostles, the elders, and the brethren,

To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:

Greetings.

Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, You must be circumcised and keep the law —to whom we gave no such commandment— it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. (Acts 15:22–29)

By this, the apostles hoped to settle the issue of the law of Moses and the New Testament once and for all. It is apparent that this issue refuses to go away because we have not fully grasped the dynamics of the provisions of the New Covenant and the power of God’s grace that backs it all up.

CHAPTER 2

BELIEF AFFECTS BEHAVIOUR

The great Charles Spurgeon stated, ‘A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by and by having an erroneous life.’ Spurgeon is saying that if your life is wrong, it is because there is something wrong with your beliefs. The state of the Church—worldwide and in Africa in particular—gives much cause for serious concern. Don’t get me wrong; some good things are happening on the continent. But there are also a lot going on about which we cannot be too proud.

Preachers and ministers of the gospel must always guard against the subtle deception of preaching about Christ instead of preaching Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2; Luke 24:27; Revelation 19:10), where Paul declared, ‘For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified’. Then the apostle John was to declare in the Revelation ‘For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’

Any message in which Christ does not take centre stage is not the gospel but a motivational speech. The Bible could well be the greatest motivational book ever written if one chooses to see it that way, but that is not its primary purpose. Of course, when you preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, there will be blessings, healings, restored marriages, and deliverances, and opportunities for businesses and leaders will emerge from amongst the hearers. But these should not be the primary focus of our messages. Jesus and His cross is our message. It is about knowing God through His Son, Jesus Christ, above everything else. It is about seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then expecting all the things mentioned above to be added on top of it all. What is the point of grooming disciples to become great businesspeople, great leaders, financially successful, and great husbands and wives if these are not going to make the rapture because they really don’t know the Lord of the harvest or have not taken time to know the Lord and for the Lord to know them intimately? It is only from the base of this intimate relationship with the Lord that any enduring ministry for Him can and should emerge. He is the foundation, and any structure, however magnificent, can survive only if that foundation is in its proper place and is solid and strong enough to carry the superstructure. Remember, all those who came to the Lord but were rejected, with few exceptions, were not rejected because they did not work hard enough for Him. They were all rejected because they had no relationship with them. He never knew them, He said.

John 1:17 declares that ‘the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ’.

When it was time to reveal the fullness of God’s grace, the Lord Jesus Christ stepped forward Himself because Jesus is the embodiment of God’s grace. He is grace personified. He is the expression of the Father’s love for humankind. In a vision the Lord gave a young boy, He said, ‘The Father thinks it, the Son loves it, and the Spirit executes it.’ That is a pretty apt description of the Godhead acting in concert. That is John 3:16 in pictures. Grace and faith take you into the very presence of God, whereas religious obedience can be done from a distance, not needing faith.

Receiving from God through faith is the only way to build a relationship with Him; without faith, it is impossible to please Him (Matthew 22:34–37; Mark 12:28–34). In Matthew 19:16–22, we read about a Jewish young man who came to Jesus with a burning question.

Now behold, one came and said to Him, ‘Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?’

So He said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.’

He said to Him, ‘Which ones?’

Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,Honor your father and your mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

The young man said to Him, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?’

Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’

But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

This obviously lovable, observant Jewish young man (we normally refer to him as the rich, young ruler; I will love to meet him in heaven when I get there) came to Jesus to find out what good thing he could do to have eternal life. Later, when the Lord asked him to go and keep the commandments, he replied that he had kept all since his youth, but he knew he still lacked something. He had no assurance of salvation and no hold on eternal life.

That hunger for God, or rather the void in