The Wide and Narrow Gate

Really almost to the end of the sermon on the Mountain. We've come, in effect, to the place where Jesus applies the truths that he's been teaching. And as we look here in these last few verses, what you'll notice is that the sermon is coming to a conclusion. Things are being boiled down, if you will, and we are about to come to really the moment of the climax, the moment of the crescendo. In order to understand this, it's very important that we grasp really the overall flow of the sermon. So if you'll go back with me just a couple of pages and look beginning at chapter five, we'll see the overall flow begging in chapter five and verse one. What we've seen here is the beatitudes that gives us a picture of kingdom citizens. Who are kingdom citizens and what do they look like? After we see the beatitudes there in the beginning of chapter five, we have this picture of us as salt and light that lets us know what believers are in their distinct characteristics as compared to the rest of the world and the culture at large. Immediately thereafter we get to these six antitheses. And in these six antitheses. We hear basically the same phrase repeated over and over again. You have heard it said, but I say to you, basically, in these six antitheses, Jesus is teaching his people, here's what kingdom citizens look like as it relates to the law of God. So here are these characteristics and these indicatives about the citizens of the Kingdom. Here are these characteristics about the citizens of the kingdom as it relates to the law of God. And it's not that the citizens of the Kingdom no longer pay attention to the law of God. In fact, quite the contrary. Being a citizen of the Kingdom raises things to an entirely different level as it relates to the law of God. After the sixth Antitheses, we began to look at issues of practical concern or issues of practical religion, if you will, how do you practice the religion of Christianity within the context of the kingdom. He talks about prayer, about fasting, about all of these things here beginning of chapter six. So he gives us a picture really of that inward life, the devotional life of the kingdom citizen. What does our religion look like when it's being practiced as kingdom citizens. Then we come to the end of chapter six, talks about our anxiety, and the beginning of chapter seven we have this statement about judging, where he lays the foundation for what judging ought to be and how it ought to be practiced appropriately. Here we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter seven is the last chapter. It's the end of the Sermon of the Mount. We move into an entirely different part of the Book of Matthew. So as Jesus brings this message to a close, he is about to come to his crucial point. Listen to what Martin Lloyd Jones says about this last section. There he says, in effect, is the character of this kingdom which I am forming. That is the type of life I'm going to give you, and I want you to live and manifest it. He has not only laid down principles, he has worked them out for us in detail. Now having done that, he pauses, as it were, and looks at this congregation and says, well, now there's my purpose. Sounds like Martin Lloyd Jones. If you guys know anything about his writing, what are you going to do about it? There's no point in listening to this sermon. There is no purpose in your having followed me through all this delineation of the Christian life. If you are only going to listen, What are you going to do about it? He comes, in other words, to exhortation to application, and that's what we see in these last several verses of Chapter seven and a Sermon on the Mount. This is the application, this is the so what point of the sermon? Jesus said, I've given you all of these principles, and you've listened to all of these principles, so what so now, what are you going to do about it? And in this last section he gives us a series of juxtapositions. There are first two ways, and we'll look at that today. Secondly, there are two trees bearing two different types of fruit. Thirdly, there are two confessions, and finally there are two builders. All of these comparisons, all of these juxtapositions, and here's what Jesus is giving us, and oftentimes here's what we think, and we've talked about this before. The way we think about the Sermon on the Mound is like this that basically Jesus is speaking to irreligious people. He's speaking to heathen people, he's speaking to pagan people, and he's saying, here is irreligious life, here is pagan life, and then on the other hand, here is Christianity. That is not at all what Jesus is dealing with here. He did not live in a time or an era where there were many people claiming to be irreligious. He did not live in a time or an era where there were many people like they are in our day and age, claiming, for example, to be atheists, claiming to believe that there is no God. That's not what Jesus is speaking about. Basically, what Jesus is saying is this, not that there are the irreligious people out there, the atheists out there, the pagans out there, the people who don't believe in God out there and in there us who are Christians. That's not his point. We go all the way back to chapter five when he makes his point. He says, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness, not of the irreligious, not of people who don't believe in God, not of people who are out there wild and running crazy. He says, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, the most religious, the most righteous people that you can conceive of. So, in essence, when we talk here about these juxtapositions, the two ways and the two trees, and the zoo confessions and the two builders, Jesus is saying, here's the two On the one hand, you are right, you have the Kingdom of Christ. But on the other hand, you have all other kingdoms that are being pursued. Everyone can be put into that category, anyone who is not pursuing the Kingdom of Christ. So regardless of what kind of religion a person is practicing, if they are not practicing the religion of Christianity as laid down by Jesus Christ, especially here in the Sermon on the Mount, it is falsehood. So that's what he's talking about. And we'll understand that more as we go along. But look with me, if you so, here at these two very short verses thirteen and fourteen in chapter seven, enter by the narrow gate. Some of you may have the straight gate. And if you memorize this a while back, especially if you memorize it in King James, then you know it as the straight gate. The straight gate. The word straight is actually taken from Latin text, not from the Greek text, So it is not the straight gate. That's where we get the term the straight and narrow. You know, I was out there for a while, but now I'm okay, and I'm back on the straight and narrow. The word is not straight, The word is narrow. So it's the narrow gate. And that will be important here in a moment. Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide, and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. There it is plain and simple, the first of these four juxtapositions talking about these two ways, and Jesus introduces us to four things here, first to two entrances, two entrances, secondly to two paths, thirdly to two crowds, and finally to two destinations. And all four of these are very important. That there are two entrances, two paths, two crowds, and two destinations. Now some will look at this and basically try to delineate the Christian life. Of course, the entrance justification and the path sanctification of the destination glorification. I mean, and that's fine if you want to sort of split hairs that way. But we don't know, for example, from this text, if the gate is at the beginning that gets you into the road, or if the the gate is at the end of the road that enters you into life or destruction. We don't have that here in the text. He's not really trying to make that point. We'll see the point that he's trying to make here momentarily, but for now, understand that there are four concepts introduced here, and each of them juxtaposed with two ways, two entrances, two paths, two crowds, and two destinations. And it is an either or proposition. Don't miss that. It's an either or proposition. You can't have the right gate, the wrong path, the right crowd, and the wrong destination. You can't mix those up that way. It is an all or nothing proposition, not a you take parts of this and parts of that proposition. Again, very important when we understand the significance of what's being said here at this point. This is familiar, by the way, very familiar territory. Jesus stands here in the Sermon on the Mount and we've alluded to the fact that at many times it is almost as though he's a second Moses, if you will, especially in those six antitheses, he said, you know you heard this when Moses stood up and preached basically in Deuteronomy giving the Law again, that series of six sermons, by the way that Moses preached giving the Book of Deuteronomy. You've heard it said. But I say to you, it's almost as though Jesus is saying, you've heard Moses say this, and it's true, and Moses was right. But I'm trying to say this to you. The people who think they've got Moses, the people who think they've gotten the law, the people who think they've mastered it, they've absolutely missed it. And I'll show you why. Well, now here again we have a picture of something that would have been familiar from Moses. Listen to what Moses says in Deuteronomy, chapter thirty and verse nineteen. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life that you and your offspring may live. In other words, Moses stands and basically says, there are two ways there are two roads. There are two entrances, there are two crowds. There are two destinations. By the way, Just like Jesus does here in the Sermon on the Mount, Moses doesn't say, make a really good choice. No, he tells you which one to choose. Amen. Jesus doesn't say, here's that one, and here's this one. Pick one. No, Jesus says. He doesn't even say, here's that one, here's this one, picked this one. No. He says, first and foremost, choose the right one. Then he says, by the way, there are two. Amen, it's right there. Look at it. In verse thirteen, enter by the narrow gate. Okay, Jesus will in it the narrow gate. Okay. But by the way, I need to let you know there's another gate. There's a choice. Not just Moses, but listen to Jeremiah and Jeremiah twenty one to eight, and to this people you shall say, thus says the Lord. Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. Does that sound familiar? There are two ways, two roads. One leads to life, the other leads to death. That's exactly what Jesus is saying. Isaiah chapter fifty three and verse six. It's a little more subtle here with the prophet Isaiah. But listen, nonetheless, all we like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. In other words, there's a right way and the wrong way. Isaiah says, problem with us, We've chosen the wrong way. So as Jesus stands here and preaches, and we've talked about this throughout the Sermon on the Mount, if we want to grasp what is going on in the Sermon on the Mount, if we want to comprehend what the original hearers would have immediately surmised, it's very important that we put this in its overall historical context and its overall biblical context. So when Jesus stands here preaching to these people who are very familiar with Deuteronomy, who are very familiar with Isaiah, who are very familiar with Jeremiah and says two entrances, two paths, two crowds, two destinations, all of a sudden they're hearing something familiar. This is not a new thing. This is not a new concept. Just like those six antitheses, not a new thing, not a new concept. The First Commandment, the Fifth Commandment, the Sixth Commandment, the Ninth Commandment. Again, all of these commandments that he's speaking about in these antitheses, they are not new concepts. These are people who know those commandments. It's just the new context. And the new context is the Kingdom of God. So let's look at these in turns, shall we. First, there are two entrances. From the two entrances, we learn this the Christian life must be entered into intentionally. The Christian life must be entered into intentionally. One of the most frightening responses to a question that I have ever heard is this, you ask someone if they're a Christian. And I don't even ask people this question anymore. I don't ask people that are you a Christian. I'm just especially here in the South. If I get out of the South, out of the Bible Belt, maybe I'll ask the person that question, because you'll get an honest answer here in the South. Here in the Bible Belt, you get some scary stuff when you ask somebody, are you a Christian? Are you a Christian? Of course I'm a Christian. I go to church every week. Really I'm hoping that what you mean there is I'm a Christian and I go to church every week, or I'm a Christian therefore I go to church for church every week, and not I'm a Christian because I go to church every week. But you know as well as I do. You're related to some of these folks just like me. No, no, No, What they mean is I'm a Christian because I go to church every week. You just want to stop and look at them and say, Okay, here's the deal. Stay out of your garage because of going to church every week, or make you a Christian eventually going to the garage and make your car? Or are you a Christian? Of course, I'm a Christian. I was raised in a Christian home. No, that's not the scariest one. Here's the scariest one. Are you a Christian? Yes, I've been a Christian all my life. I've been a Christian all my life. Let me say this to you. That is a theological impossibility. The Christian life is one that must be entered into intentionally, not accidentally, not hereditarily. It must be entered into intentionally. You have not been a Christian all your life? And I'll take it a step further. If you believe that literally, then you're probably not a Christian at all. Let me say that again, if you believe literally that you've been a Christian your whole life, I would be so bold as to say you're probably not a Christian at all, because if you believe literally that you've been a Christian your whole life, then you have not entered into the Kingdom of God intentionally through You know exactly what I'm going to say, because you probably get tired of hearing us say it repentance and faith. Mark chapter fourteen, chapter one, rather verses fourteen and fifteen. First time we hear Jesus in Mark chapter one, what does he say? Now? After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God and saying, Jesus is going to preach the gospel, y'all. What is it going to sound like when Jesus preaches the gospel? By the way, the red part there. If if you have Mark chapter one and you have a red letter Bible, open up and you'll see that the red letters are about yay long. What's the gospel that Jesus preaches the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel plump period, end of message. Repent and believe, Repent and believe. Listen, you were not born repentant, and you were not born believing. Therefore, I say again, it is a theological impossibility that you've been a Christian your whole life. Jesus says, enter the narrow gate. Not don't stray away from the narrow gate that you were born into because you were born into a really good family, or because you were born into a Christian culture. No, Jesus says, enter the narrow gate. You must enter the narrow gate. You must do so intentionally. You cannot do so accidentally. In fact, he makes a point at the end when he says those who find it are few. Few people find it, don't like there are folks who are just kind of are walking along one day and they look up and they go, that's weird. I went through a very narrow gate. It's strange. I'm on a road with very few people, not many. Whow would you look at that. I'm on the way to life and not destruction. Doesn't work that way. You have to find the narrow gate, seek the narrow gate. Petition God for the narrow gate, and you come through the narrow gate through repentance and faith. I want you to understand something. Human beings are born in sin as a result. Here's the news flash. All of us, by default find the broad road, the broad gate, the wide gate. All of us, by default are headed for destruction. See. One of the reasons that you have to enter into the Christian life intentionally is because you are born heading on the broad road, heading through the wide gate, heading with the big crowd, and heading for destruction. It's called the doctrine of original sin. Listen to this if you will. From the London Baptist Confession fifteen. This point three talks about saving repentance. This saving repentance is an evangelical grace, whereby a person being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin, doth by faith in Christ humble himself for it with godly sorrow, detestation of it and self abhor or in see praying for pardon and strength of grace, with a purpose and endeavor by supplies of the Spirit, to walk before God onto all well, pleasing in all things. Does that sound like something you're naturally born into? Does that kind of repentance and self abhorrency sound like something that you just kind of were graced with as a result of being born into this world? Or were you like everyone else and desperate need of a savior because you were born in sin and shaped in iniquity. Jesus says, enter the narrow gate. You don't do it by accident. Unfortunately, there are many who proclaim the Gospel who don't proclaim this truth, who make it sound easy. If you will to come in, listen to this from James Montgomery. Boys, I'm going to share this statement from Voice, and now I'll give you an example of what Voice is talking about here. Many who preach the Gospels today are out of step with Jesus in this matter. They may preach a gospel, but they make it sound easy to become a Christian and to be saved. Anybody ever heard anything like that. It's easy to become a Christian. It's easy as one, two, three. Here are the three steps. It's easy as abc. Hey acknowledge, be believed, see confess. Okay, it's easy to become a Christian. Just do this and repeat after me. He says. They may preach a gospel, but they make it sound easy to become a Christian and be saved. Jesus did not. William Hendrickson had it right when he wrote, Our Lord does not follow the method that is used by certain self styled revivalists, who speak as if getting saved is one of the easiest things in the world. Jesus, on the contrary, pictures entrance into the Kingdom as being on the one hand, most desirable, yet on the other hand, not at all easy. Interest gate is narrow, it must be found. That's not the gospel that we hear in our culture today. Is it the gospel that we hear in our culture today? Sounds a little something like this. It's real easy. First, believe, Believe God loves you and make you for a purpose. Believe God has chosen you to have a relationship with Jesus who died on the cross for you. Believe that no matter what you've done, God wants to forgive you. Second, receive, Receive Jesus into your life as Lord and savior. Receive His forgiveness for your sins. So I invite you to value your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity. What's that prayer? Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you. If you sincerely meant that prayer. Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you. If you sincerely meant that prayer, gratulations, Welcome to the Family of God. That's the gospel presentation in the purpose driven life, or the excuse for a gospel presentation in the purpose driven life. No repentance, no gospel, no sin, no wrath of God, no nothing. Just believe God love you. He made you for a purpose. Jesus died for you. That's it, really, just like that, No, not just like that. You are a wretched, miserable, sinful creature who deserves to die and go to hell. And unless you repent of your sin, unless you are aware of the fact that you deserve to die and be crushed under the weight of the holiness and majesty of God God, you don't get it. And there's none of that there, There's none of it there. Believe in Jesus, which Jesus. He said nothing about Jesus. He hasn't defined Jesus. What if I believe in the Jesus of the New Age movement. What if I believe in the Jesus who's lowly Jesus, meeking mild, who had never heard of flee. What if I believe in lowly Jesus, meeking mild, who wouldn't dare send anybody to Hell, let alone believe or teach that there is such a place. If I believe in that Jesus cannot be saved? The answer no, But is that what you get in the modern proclamation of the gospel. No, you get it's really really easy. No, it's not. It's not. It is incredibly difficult. And the difficulty comes because of your sin and mind. The difficulty comes because you are bent toward your own will, because I am bent my own will. The difficulty comes because you believe that you deserved the death of Jesus on the cross and that you were actually worthy of it. The difficulty comes because you want to follow your own life and your own path and ask God to bless it. You want Jesus to be an appendage on your self centered life, not an eradication of it. That's why it's hard. It is not easy. The first thing that we see here from Christ is that the Christian life must be entered into intentionally. It doesn't happen by accident. Your old man doesn't want to die. Your old man doesn't want to let Christ put him to death. Your old man wants to fight to live. So your old man will lie to you. Your old man will say things like, don't enter the narrow gate. Why should you? There are a whole bunch of other people over here, and they talk about Jesus and they go to church. They don't have that narrow gate theology. You can't say amen, You ought to say ouch. In fact, narrow. That's negative in itself, isn't it. You don't want to be narrow? Maybe y'all don't hear this stuff. I hear it everywhere I go. That's so narrow. Yes, actually it is narrow. That's the gospel. God's not running for God he can afford to be narrow. The gate is narrow. The Christian life must be entered into intentionally. It does not happen by accident. Secondly, not only are there two entrances, there's two pass, but what do we see that with the two pass? The Christian life must be lived purposefully. The Christian life must be lived purposefully. Again, there are those who try to separate justification and sanctification in such a way that we actually believe that a person can be saved and not have their life affected at all. Jesus says, there's not only a gate. There's a past involved here, there's a way involved here, there's a lifestyle involved here. See here's the other problem with the way the Gospel is presented in our current culture. The problem is you, you know, manipulate people halftime, don't even preach the gospel. I'm at a church. It's not long ago. I'm at a church. There is a conference being held at the church. It was actually a conference of our convention. I'll just go ahead and say that and put it out there. It was a big, huge Southern Baptist meeting with a bunch of Southern Baptist pastors. We're gonna get together. And I got there a little early, so I went to the host church, ginormous church, just big for no reason at all, big huge, just just big, okay, like five thousand seats in the place or something like that. And I go in and that night the guy's preaching, and he's actually preaching on tithing because the building was new, really needed to be paid for, you know. And so he was preaching on tithing, I mean just preaching hard. He's thundering away on tithing, all right. And after he finishes thundering away on tithing, they come to the end of the service, and you're not a good Baptist to lass at the end of the service. You do a manipulative arm twisting altar call. So he's preached on tithing, hadn't mentioned Christ, not one time in his whole sermon. But he gets to the end of the message and they start to play the soft music and he looks out and he says, there are any of you out there, and you've never come to God through faith in his son Jesus Christ. You just need to repeat this prayer after me. And it was something very similar to this. I almost whitlash. Where did that come from? Where did we get that? And here's the other thing. People start walking to the front and I'm going, where are they going? And why there's been no gospel preached. There's been nothing about Jesus, nothing about sin, nothing about repentance, nothing about but they feel guilty because they haven't been giving and now they want to come to the cross. What did they come into? They come to the front, they're led in the sinners prayer that you will find nowhere in the Bible, nowhere in the Bible. And right afterwards that statement is made welcome to the family of God. If you prayed that prayer and you meant it, you're saved. I've even heard it done this way right here, right now. If you got your Bible with you, take out a pen, you write your name down on the front cover, and you write down this date, because this is the date when your name was shield in the Lamb's Book of Life. Really really, because you repeated somebody else's words. Oh but wait, wait, wait the caveat and mint it really really, because I know a whole lot of people who prayed that prayer and meant it, and the fruit of their life, which we're gonna talk about later, the fruit of their lives says they lied. Did they mean it? Yes? But what is it? Well? I don't know. If somebody says, basically, you can die and go to hell, or you can pray this prayer after me, if you really don't want to go to hell, will you pray that and mean it. Sure, if you don't want to go to a fiery place, absolutely, I'll pray the prayer and I'll mean it. Jesus, I'm sorry, Jesus. I'm sorry, Jesus. Forgive me. Jesus, forgive me. Jesusign invite you into my heart. Jes Design, invite you into my heart. Did you pray that prayer? Yep? Did you mean it? Yeah? I meant it. A few more questions. Do you know who the Jesus is to whom you just prayed? Because you can mean it and not know who Jesus is. Did you mean it because you're really scared right now, or because you've been born again and brought to a place of conviction and brokenness over your sin. You can mean it for a lot of reasons, folks. One of the things that you're not going to find here, one of the things that we're not going to do here is ever tell you that because you did this, you're a member of the Kingdom of God. Oh. The Bible says, test yourselves to see if you be in the faith. Test yourself. There's not just an inch, there's also a way. There is a road. There is a life to be lived there's a couple of things here that we find. Here's one, it's very interesting. There are two different words that are used for the narrow gate. And rather than do Greek lessons here, let me just share this with you. Both of the words can be translated narrow, one he translates as hard. Excuse me not. Both of them can be translated narrow, But the one that's translated hard the way is hard. There are a couple of ways that you can translate that. You can translate it as a way that's hard, or you can also translate it as a way that is compressed. But it's hard to understand what's meant there when you say that it's compressed or pressed in or harassed. But the word that this word is derived from, where you get narrow is the gate and hard is the way. The word that that word hard is derived from in the Greek is almost always a word that's translated to mean persecution. So, in essence, here's what Jesus says, those who enter into my kingdom interrogate that is narrow and a life that is filled with hardship and persecution. How about that? What does the Gospel of our day say? The Gospel of our Day says, if your life is hard and there's persecution in your life, you need Jesus so that your life won't be hard and that you won't have persecution in your life. While Paul says and second Timothy three twelve, all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted. Not only that, but look at these other passages in Matthew, for example, the Matthew five ten through twelve. Let's look at a couple of these, because this is a theme not only in the Sermon on the Mount, but it's a theme in the book of Matthew ten through twelve. In chapter five, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Here's what's interesting. He says, you're blessed if you're persecuted for righteousness sake. Why because that's evidence that yours is the kingdom of heaven. How is that evidence that yours is the kingdom of heaven? Newsflash. In chapter seven, at the close of the sermon, this is the beginning of the sermon. The beginning of the sermon, he says, You're blessed if you're persecuted for righteousness sake, because yours is the kingdom of Heaven. At the end of the sermon, he says, enter the narrow gate, the gate that is filled with persecution and hardship. Why, because the end of that one is life or the kingdom of you. Got it, folks heaven. He's restating what was already communicated in the first part of a sermon. He comes to the close of the sermon and brings you all the way back to the beginning, into the narrow gate, into the hard life, the life filled with persecution and suffering. Persecution is telling why look at what it says, verse eleven. Blessed are you when others revol you and persecute you, and other all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, not just because you're a nasty person who deserves it. By the way, if we can just put that footnote there, if you're a nasty person who deserves bad things to be said about you, don't turn that around as evidence that you're on the right road. Okay, all right, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Look at Chapter five and verse forty four. If you will, but I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. Look at Chapter ten in verses sixteen through twenty three. Behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wisest serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues. And you will be dragged before the governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the gentiles when they deliver you over. Do not be anxious how you are to speak, or what you are to say. For what are you excuse me? For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour, For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brothers will deliver brother over to death, the father his child. The children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my namesake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Here's the other, the one who endures to the end will be saved. Not the one who prays the sinner's prayer, the one who endures to the end. How many times do you run into people who are absolutely not enduring. Are you a Christian? Of course I'm a Christian. Why because I prayed that prayer at the front of the aisle one day, and they told me on that day that I entered into the Kingdom of God. I wrote down on my Bible my name and that date when my name was sealed in the Lamb's Book of Life. No, I'm not living like a Christian. No, I don't care anything for Christ or for his kingdom. But I said the words, they're legally binding. I'm his. No, Jesus says the one who endures to the end. John says, they went out from us. Why because they were not all of us. That's why they went out, because they were not all of us. If they had all been of us, they would have remain. That's an evidence of salvation. Remaining is an evidence of salvation. Staying in the way, staying on the path is evidence of salvation. We've already read that today in our confession. It's amazing how many times this sort of works itself out. We've already read today that believers can fall into sin. It can happen for a season. Amen. But if you belong to him I love Revelations three nineteen, Jesus says those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore, be zealous and repent. It's talking about believers. It's talking about believers. Look at chapter twenty four of Matthew for another example of this, chapter twenty four, beginning of verse nine. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Then many will fall away and betray one another, and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray, because lawlessness will be increased. The love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Does that sound familiar, end of the road that is marked with persecution and suffering. Does that mean that there will never be good days? No, not what that means at all. It's not what that means at all. But in fact, you'll understand it better when you look at the next one. I remember we have the entrance, we have the path, and then we have the crowd. There's two different crowds. Look at what he says back in our passage and Matthew seven, anybody narrow gate. For the gate is wide, and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. So one road as a large crowd, the other has but a few, which means the Christian life must be endured patiently, not just lived purposefully, but endured patiently. There are those who are going to be on a wide and easy way, and there are going to be days when it's extremely attractive to be there. You know, what to be easy. Here's what'll be easier if the Christian life looked like this. If over here there was a narrowgate and a narrow way, and we went through the narrowgate, and we're walking on the narrow way, or we walked on the narrow way and they went through the narrowgate, whichever you prefer. But while we're on that narrow way, there's just a few people, but we're all in the same boat, and we know it, and we have mutual strength and encouragement from one another, kind of like Sunday morning, you know. But here's the problem. The Lord has not set up life so that those who walk on the narrow Way don't have anything to do with those who walk on the Broadway. Instead, it's more like this, we're on the narrow way, and the Broadway is all around us. One of the ways we know we're in the narrow way is that those who are on the Broadway despise us. They despise us because of conviction, and again, not just because we're you nasty people who deserve to be despised. That's not what I'm talking about here. The people don't like the light when they live in darkness, they don't like it, and they use phrases like you're so narrow minded. Why, thank you very much? Really working on that. And let me just say a word here. The gate itself is narrow. We don't have to make it more narrow than it is. Can I say that again? The gate itself is narrow. We don't have to make it more narrow than it already is. That's the pharisees. Well, the gate is narrow. The path is hard. We don't have to make it harder than it already is. Our companions are already few. We don't have to make them fewer than they already are. Okay, isolationism, legalism, for all this sort of stuff. Again, that has no place in what Jesus is speaking about here. It's not what he's talking about. But basically what he's saying to his followers is this, there's a narrow way. It's not easy to find. Most people are not gonna find it. Most people are not even gonna look for it because they're gonna believe that they're on the right road. Some will believe it because they will believe the lie that says all roads lead to God. You just need to find the one that works for you. You know what's wrong with that lie. It says that there are many roads, when in fact there are only two. There's only two. There's Christ in his kingdom and everybody else. That's it. That's it, that's all. Our companions are few on this road. Why again we talked about send nature. I want you to look at a couple of things in Romans. Tried to get ahead of myself earlier and look at this then, But here's what I want you to see. Why why is it that there are so many people on the broad road. Why is it that it is so difficult to find the narrow gate? Why is it? Why is that a couple of reasons? Number one, our send nature. Look at Romans chapter three, beginning of verse ten, as it is written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understand. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. No one does good, not even one. By the way he means that, he means that no one does good, not even one. There is not one person outside of being redeemed by Christ who's ever done anything that was truly good. Never, never, Because that which is not of faith is sin. Our righteousness is as filthy rags before his sight. So the fireman who risks his own life to run into a burning building to bring out the kid, so that the kid doesn't, you know, die in the flames or suffocate in the smoke, and brings the kid back if they've done something that from a human perspective, is heroic, but apart from repentance and faith, apart from being born again. It is not good because it's not motivated by the glory of Almighty God. It's not good. No one does good, And because we don't understand the doctrine of original sin, we have a hard time with the doctrine of the narrow gate and the hard way. Why because really we believe the opposite way around. We believe most people are good, and because of that, we believe most people are on their way to Heaven when they die. In fact, we believe that there are only a few people. Narrow is the gate that leads to hell. There's only a few who find it. Hitler poulpot Manson. Most people, even people who go to church regularly, are only willing to name about six or seven people that they believe are going to go to hell. That's it, and they are the hit parade of the worst sinners and the history of the world. Nobody other than those people will the average person in church admit is going to die and be separated from God for eternity. Because we honestly believe that most people are inherently good, Jesus says the exact opposite. People are wicked and they're evil, and there's very few people who ever find the narrow gait. It's difficult to find, not easy to find. It's hard to become a Christian, and it's hard to be a Christian. It's not easy. Neither one of those things is easy. And here's why there's none who does good. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mountains full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That's their problem. There is no fear of God before their eyes. They believe that if I run into a building and drag a kid out, I'm good. There is no fear of God that shays, regardless of what I do in my flesh, I am not, I will not be, and I have never been good before Almighty God. No, we believe if you find a stranger's wallet and you turn it into the lost and found, you're good enough for God. If they give you too much change and you give the change back, you're good enough for God. It's not what the Bible teaches we are ruined from the word go, every last one of us. And there is no fear of God before our eyes. And there are myriad motivations for doing those kinds of things that have absolutely nothing to do with the converted life, nothing whatsoever. We want to be good people, we want to be good citizens, we want to be heroes, whatever the case. Myriad reasons for doing those things that have nothing to do with the fear of God. Well, here's the other issue, Chapter five of Romans, beginning at verse twelve. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to many men because all sin, no death spread to all men, because all sin, that's the doctrine of original sin. Our federal head sinned, and when Adam, our federal head, sinned, he and all of his posterity fell with him. So all men are born with original sin. Which is why, to go back to the beginning, there is no such thing. It is a theological impossibility for a person to have been a Christian for their entire life. Why, because of the doctrine of original sin, you are born in sin, You are born turned away from God. And the wide path is the natural one for you because of your sin nature. Secondly, because of active rebellion. Not only do you have a sinful nature, but you act on it. You act on it. So to this and Ephesians two, you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, you acted on it, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the year of the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. That's the nature of man. That's why it's hard to become a Christian. That's why it's hard to be a Christian. That's why it's hard to find the narrow gait. That's why people lie when they stand up and say, if you said these words, congratulations, you're in the family of God. That's a lie. You can say those words every day for the rest of your life and die and be separated from God. There are two gates, there are two paths. There are two crowds, and here's the problem. Part of that broad road crowd is a group of people who go to church on a regular basis and use very familiar biblical language. They're crafty, the skin of truth surrounding the meat of a lie. And there are a lot of people on that broad road who have no idea that the broad road is what they're on. Why because somebody guaranteed them one day you're no longer on the broad road. It's as easy as one, two, three, it's easy as ABC. And all of a sudden, they're walking on the broad road, and every once in a while they see a glimpse of that narrow path, they see a glimpse of that hard path, and they say, wow, it seems like they're on a different path than we're on. Oh no, no, no, no, no, they're not. No no, no, no, no, no no. That's just a different behind of Christian path. They're just really committed, or they're over committed. They're taking it way too serious and going way too far with it. Stay here on the broad road, because, after all, do you really believe that we're not doing what's right when there are thousands of people who are coming to our church and dozens of people getting saved every week. How can we be on the broad road if people are walking to the front of the aisle with tears streaming down their face, praying the sinner's prayer? How can we be on the broad road if that's what's happening? How can we be wrong? If God is blessing our work like that? Does any of this sound familiar, folks? Unfortunately, it's broad road language. It's broad road language. Finally, there's two destinations, which shows us that the Christian life must be completed faithfully. It must be completed faithfully. Those who endure to the end will be saved. Now here's the good news. Endurance is evidence of your salvation. It's not evidence of you having earned it. Amen. My endurance, my endurance to the end, my coming to the gates of glory, my coming to life everlasting, will not be a result of any sort of shared credit between me and Jesus. So when I get to heaven, here's what it won't look like. I won't walk in and give Jesus a high five and say, man, I'm so glad that you started that thing for me, But did you see how I carried it through? That was awesome, wasn't it? Shields last few yards, I mean years, you know, I really did it. I brought it home. I dove across the goal line. You did real good, though, Jesus, I'm so glad. I mean, you know, the whole dying for anything and stuff like that. That part I never could have done. But the rest of it, how foolish? Is that it is absolutely foolish. He who began a good work in you is the one who is able to see it through the completion. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is the one who works in you, both to will and to do if it's good pleasure. So my endurance in the faith is not evidence that I'm doing really good at holding on to Christ, but it's evidence that Christ is holding onto me endurance, endurance. That's why he says, watch yourselves, test yourselves to see that you're in the face faith. Test yourselves. Here's one of the big problems with the way the Gospel is polluted in our culture. People proclaim the quasi gospel come down to the sinner's prayer that you will never ever ever find in the Bible. Have somebody repeat this flimsy prayer. Tell them that based on the words that just came out of their mouth, they're saved and they belong to God. They're sealed in the Lamb's Book of Life. And if a person is unconverted, they've just been sealed in their unbelief. And here's what's so terrible about that, years later, when they ought to be on their faces, remember, test yourself to see if you be in the face years later, when they ought to be on their faces, basically saying you know what, Yeah, I prayed that, but I was manipulated. Yeah I meant that, but I was scared. There was no repentance, there was no conversion, there was nothing. God. I need to cry out to you and confess that I'm not yours. I've been going to church, I've been going through the motions, I've been doing all sorts of things. And this hasn't been hard because I'm on the hard road. No, it's hard because I'm on the broad road trying to convince myself that I'm a Christian. But that never happens. Why doesn't it happen? Because here's what you do. You remember this for the rest of your days. You go back to your Bible, you open it up to that page, you point to that date, and you remember that on that date, because of what you said with your mouth, your name was written in the Lamb's book of life. So there's no need for you to fall on your face in repentance before a holy God, crushed under the weight of your sin, because your salvation is not about your endurance. Your salvation is not about fruit. Your salvation is just about the words that you say in the magic part of the room. Do you see how destructive that is? Aw heinous that is? And that's what passes for the gospel in our day. Here Jesus stands basically warning us, pleading with us. If you've heard what I said, then here's what you do with it. Into the narrow gate. There's a broad gate out there, and there's an easy road out there, and because of your sin nature and your active rebellion, that's the one that you'll naturally find. But this one that I'm talking about, it's difficult to find, and if you're not careful, you won't find it. And what's worse, you may even be deceived in thinking that you're on it. Listen to what Calvin says commenting on this passage, as nothing is more opposed to the flesh than the doctrine of Christ. No man will ever make great proficiency in it who has not learned to confine his senses and feelings so as to keep them within those boundaries which our heavenly teacher prescribes for curbing our wantonness. As men willingly flatter themselves and live in gaiety and dissipation. Christ here reminds his disciples that they must prepare to walk, as it were, along a narrow and thorny road. It is difficult to remain to restrain our desires from wicked licentiousness and disorder. He soothes this bitterness by a joyful remuneration when he tells us that the narrow gate and the narrow road lead to life. That's just good. Calvin says, it's so hard to be a Christian. We so want the broad road that unless we continue to make ourselves mindful of this, we're drawn away. But God is so good because here's what He's given us. Jesus doesn't just say narrowgate, hard road. He could have narrow gate, hard road. He says, narrowgate, hard road. Few companions, but Oh, by the way, hang on, because at the end there's life. And only at the end of this one is their life. Nowhere else is their life, not even the parts of the broad road that have been made to resemble the narrow path. Not even there is their life. There is only life in the narrow gate, in the hard road, mark with persecution and suffering, where your companions are few. Only there do you have the assurance that at the end of it there is life. Can your entrance be easier, yes it can. Can your road be easier, yes it can. Can your companions be more numerous, Yes they can. But can you have that and end up at life? No, you may not. It's an either or a proposition. Narrowgate hard wrote few companions and life, or Broadgate Easy wrote many companions and destruction. Jesus basically comes to the end of his sermon and says, in case what I've already said to you hasn't made you aware enough of how radically different this is, and how unbelievably not just difficult but impossible this is, let me make it as plain as I possibly can. I'm putting before you a narrow gate. I'm putting before you a hard road marked with pain and suffering and persecution. I'm putting in front of you the way not taken by many, or the road less traveled, if you prefer. But it's okay, because the good news is I'm putting before you life, almost echoing Moses, I put before you today life and death. Choose life, Choose life. I'll leave you with this from James Montgomery. Boys, this is an important word for you. If you are drifting along in your religion, even if your religion is Christianity, do not assume you're on the way that leads to life unless you are actually pursuing it in obedience to Christ. Jesus did not teach that it would be easy either to become a Christian or to be a Christian. He said it would be difficult. Anything worthwhile is test yourself, see if you be in the thing. Test yourself to see if you've chosen the narrow gate, the hard road. Few companions but life. Test yourself, and then when you test yourself, make sure that you enter the narrow gate, that you enter through repentance and faith. Repentance because you understand that you are a sinner, a wretched one in both nature and deed, and that you deserve that which a holy and righteous God must give to those who sin, and that is his wrath and eternal punishment. That's repentance. Repentance is recognizing that repentance is self abhorrency, as the Confession says, Repentance is being so sick of yourself that you can't stand yourself, and you want to get away from yourself because you recognize that everything in you is filthy and wretched and does not deserve to be in the presence of a holy God. And you turn from that and try out to the only one who can make you any different. That's repentance, repentance and faith. Faith in what Faith in the Jesus of the scriptures, Faith in the god Man, faith in the one who is born of a virgin, faith in the one who performed miracles, Faith in the one who died on a cross, Faith in the one who rose again on the third day. Faith in the one who's coming again to judge the living and dead. Faith and the only one who's an answer to the sin problem from what you are in repentance. Faith and that one. Faith in him alone, and it's completed work, not his work, and but his work alone. That's faith. That's faith, not just the name, but the person and work of Jesus Christ. When you grasp repentance like that, and when you grasp faith like that, then you understand the narrow road, the narrow gate, the hard road. Only then if you think it's easy and that you can continue to be who you are, and that somehow because you say a few words that makes you okay with God. If you think that because you are comparatively less wicked than the people around you, and that somehow that means you're worthy of heaven. If you think that because somehow you have not been as all and as wicked as the hitlers of the world and the mansions of the world, and that somehow that means that God's going to grade on a curve that you have not found the narrow gate. Repent, place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Cry out to him that he might save you and forgive you of your sins into the narrow gate, Walk the hard road, the one with few companions, because then and only then will you find life. Let's pray, Father, as we bow before you, we confess that we are a wretched lot, and even worse than that. We are a wretched lot that doesn't like to admit it. We're wicked from the word go, and absolutely bent toward the broad gate and the easy road. But thanks be to God for Jesus Christ, our Lord, who has come to redeem a people for himself, a people marked by repentance and faith, a people who enter the narrow gate and walk the hard road with few companions, and therein find life. Grant that we might test ourselves, to say, see if we are in the faith. Grant that we might examine ourselves and never cease to do so unless and until we have reached the ultimate end of that hard road.