How Quickly the Gate Opens

An old farmer from the country went to the big city hospital to visit a dear friend.  He was told he would have to park in the visitor’s parking lot.  He was surprised when he drove up to the entrance that the little gate lifted immediately.  He drove right in and parked his car in the shade.  He made his visit, returned to his car and drove to the exit, but it didn’t open.  It required money to get out.  He paid the fare and mumbled to himself as he drove away, “Maybe they changed my oil and rotated my tires while I was there.”

This example accurately illustrates sin.  It is so easy to get involved in sin and is very difficult to get out from under a sinful lifestyle.  Habits are easy to start and so difficult to break.  Satan has always said you can get in now and pay later.  Not only does he get the original price back, but with higher interest.  The momentary, fleeting pleasure of sin is all the bait the Devil needs with some people.  Many people sink into the quagmire of evil without realizing how deadly Satan’s slimy pit can be.

It reminds me of how quickly the gate opened for David’s sin with Bathsheba.  He saw her beauty.  He sent for her.  She came. He committed fornication with her.  Then he sent her home, thinking all was well.  It would cost him dearly to get out of this parking place.  She was found with child from that little night of fun.  David committed more sin to cover his tracks.  He had her husband, Uriah, killed on the battlefield.  David and Bathsheba lost the child they conceived.  There was also shame and suffering that came from this sin.

Sin is like a chameleon.  That lizard-like mocker can change its colors to meet its surroundings.  Such subtlety with regard to sin has overwhelmed many casual souls.  Sin is dangerous because the Devil is shrewd and man is gullible.

The Devil causes sin to have a certain allure, but those who nibble at the bait are never really satisfied.  The pleasures of sin are deceptive, temporary, high-priced and eternally a poor bargain.  They only produce remorse, corruption and heartache.

Young people, how quickly the gate opens for the first cigarette, or that chew of tobacco, that first beer, or that first act of sexual immorality, but it could cost an arm and a leg, or a heart and a lung.  You could end up paying the maximum cost – your life and your soul.  Sin hides the truth and makes promises that are never kept.  Sin is a dead-end street and a hollow, empty, senseless shell.

Let us not be deceived into thinking that just because there is no price at the entrance, there will be no price at the exit.  We need to pay attention to Paul’s words to the Galatians in Galatians 6:7, “Be not deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”  Indeed, there is a high cost to low living.  The pleasures of sin are just not worth the price that has to be paid.  However, the joys of Christianity are too glorious to miss.