If the Lord will allow, I am off to Texas this Thursday morning. I will be holding a four day meeting at Lometa, where Dennis Scroggins preaches.

Now Lometa is not a large town. It is a quiet little place nestled down in the Hill Country of central Texas. It is kind of a cross roads type of town, but the roads that cross at Lometa are not major highways across the country. If you have been in rural Texas, you understand the concept of FM roads. They are paved two lanes that were originally built so farmers could bring produce together into the markets of small places like Lometa. FM roads? Farm to Market.

If one is going to go to Lometa, he is going to need a map. Even though I am from Texas, I haven’t lived there much or recently, and that is not the part of Texas that I am from. My first thought was that I would just drive in that direction, and given enough time, I would soon drift into town. But that is unfamiliar territory, and there are so many other places where FM roads cross. How could I find the right one if I just depended on my senses to get me there?

I decided to ask a friend how to get there. (No, it wasn’t Frank Tasker, even though he assures me that he was through there once on the way to Fort Hood.) But my friend’s directions were sketchy at best. He named a few towns in the vicinity, but I had never heard of them. It was kind of like James P. Miller once gave directions Deer Lick, Kentucky, to illustrate this same point in a sermon. He said, "Well, you know where Horse Cave is. Go east from there past Green’s Chapel to Bear Wallow, turn north and go up past widow Nubcutter’s and you’ll see the road that goes off to Gravel Switch. Go past Gravel Switch and down the hill where the road T’s and turn right. In about two miles you will come to the river, and across the river will be Deer Lick. Now I don’t think there’s any place to cross the river, so if you’re really wanting to go to Deer Lick, the best I can tell you is that you can’t get there from here." My friend left me more confused than I was to start with.

Then I thought, "I’ll just hold a meeting in Globe instead. It’s close, in the neighborhood, and I like all those folks up there. How convenient for both them and me. I could continue to live like I want – I wouldn’t miss my jogging or health club workouts. I could even sleep in my own bed, in my own house. And I won’t get lost on the way over there." But the truth of the matter is, I wasn’t asked to hold a meeting in Globe. The meeting that I was asked to hold is in Lometa, Texas, and that is where I want to go. I am not in a position to change that.

So I broke down and bought a map. It shows the roads that I need to take, has each one numbered clearly, and even gives the distances between the towns. If it the intent of a person is to find Lometa, Texas with the least amount of trouble or worry, he can’t miss with this map. I am so glad that I have it and I will use it carefully as it is intended. It will not be left on the coffee table or in the back of the car. It will be studied and kept handy as I make my trip. If I don’t make it to Lometa, Texas, it won’t be because I got lost.

If one is going to heaven, he is going to need a map. God has given us a map whereby we might confidently set out on our journey. Heaven is not an easy place to find. There are a lot of false heavens – spiritual goals and aspirations that are vain and empty, springing from the mind of man. But God has supplied us with all that we need to arrive safe and sound at our destination.

Peter said of God, "Seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3). Our map to heaven is a knowledge of Jesus. But how do we know anything of Jesus or the will of God in him. It is ALL in the New Testament.

Paul adds this, "Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Every bend in the road, every hill or valley, every place to go through on the way is on the map of the inspired scriptures. No one need be in doubt about what one must do to be saved. God has revealed it in his word.

The world is filled with people who through ignorance or rebellion have rejected the map God has given us. Most of these folks are groping in the dark, trying to find their way to the heavenly city. They figure that if they just keep groping long enough, eventually they’ll get there. But nobody gets to heaven accidentally. You don’t get there by saying, "I suppose I’ll go down this road today and see where it leads, then I’ll go down that road tomorrow. Eventually I will find my way."

Matthew spoke of such when he wrote of Jesus, "But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd" (Matt. 9:36). Jesus is the true shepherd. Those who refuse him, or the directions given on the map, are truly lost.

Many have rejected God’s map for directions given by some friend, or some man that they have a respect for. A great many of religious people are not disciples of the Lord, but disciples of men. Someone bragged to me one time that she had worked in the office of the televangelist Kenneth Copeland. He was a good man and his word was sufficient for her. She trusted him. My response was that I worked in the vineyard of Jesus of Nazareth, he was a perfect man, and his word was the word of God. I trust him. Many times I still find myself wondering what brother So-and-So teaches on important topics. There are men who are wiser than me, who have studied longer than I have, whose work and scholarship have merit. But when it comes right down to the final word, I must let Jesus say it. And where does he say it? In the Bible. I must never allow what man says to supercede what Jesus says.

Paul warned, "Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" (Col. 2:8). Man’s wisdom always leads away from heaven. See Proverbs 16:25; Jeremiah 10:23; 1 Corinthians 1:20-21; 3:18-20; 4:6.

And men change. I know a fellow in California who says he won’t recommend any preacher he hasn’t talked to in the last six months. I understand what he is saying. A man who presumes to lead us without the map is as blind as we are, and you know what Jesus said: "Let them alone: they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit" (Matt. 15:14).

Now a man might get his map out and tell me what the map says. But I want to see it for myself. Is that good or bad? Can't I just take my teacher’s word that he knows the map? Luke commended the Berean synagogue, "Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). Paul and Silas could not just give directions. They had to "show them on the map."

A religion of convenience is one that should leave us suspicious. Some choose the church they fellowship because it is close by. Some choose the church they go to by the services it offers or by how nice everyone was to them. Some go out of the way to avoid places where there has been conflict, ignoring the fact that the Lord’s people will be in constant conflict with the devil and servants of his.

The map tells us that the easy way is the wrong way. The roads to Lometa are not the Interstates. Jesus said, "Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it" (Matt. 7:13-14). In another place he said, "Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able" (Luke 13:24). The way to heaven is not easy. You can get there from here, but not if you insist on taking the easy path.