Well, what a joy it is to be
back at Resolved. This has been on my calendar
for 365 days and there's a sense in which it overshadows the whole
year just anticipating gathering this many hot hearts together
in one room. And there's a sense in which
one plus one plus one equals ten, equals twenty. Because we
stimulate one another and fire up one another. I'm reminded
of what John Wesley once said, he said, give me one hundred
men, I care not whether they be preachers or laymen who fear
nothing but God and hate nothing but sin and I will turn this
world upside down for Jesus Christ. I know we've got at least a hundred
people in this room. In fact, we have over two thousand
people in this room and I would assume that so many of you desire
the Lord and you want your life to count for eternity and that's
why you're here, to be built up in your faith and to be encouraged
and strengthened in the things of the Lord. And so, my prayer
is that God will maximize this opportunity and that we will
throw ourselves into this hour with holy boldness. Now I must
tell you, as I come to this pulpit tonight, that my desire is for
those of you in this room who have not yet come all the way
to Christ. who are here because there is
something that is drawing you and that is certainly the Lord,
no doubt to find out more about the things of Christ. But you've
not yet come all the way to Christ and you've not yet surrendered
your life to Christ. And there's no such thing as
a half commitment to Christ. It's all or nothing. And there's
no easy believism in the kingdom of heaven and there's no cheap
grace. And so my message tonight is really directed to those of
you who are in this auditorium tonight who have not yet exercised
saving faith in Jesus Christ. You've not yet come all the way
and God knows who you are. Some of you here tonight perhaps
do not even realize that you're not saved. Or maybe you've grown
up in the church. Maybe you've grown up around
other Christians. Maybe you have grown up going
to Bible studies or Christian concerts and you've been inoculated
with just enough of Christianity that you know the vocabulary
and you know how to hang out with the other Christians but
you don't yet have the real thing. And so my desire tonight is to
bring a message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. that you would
be called by the Lord into His Kingdom tonight and that this
place would be a delivery ward and that there would be men and
women, boys and girls who would come to faith in Jesus Christ. What I want to preach on tonight
is the most shocking thing that Jesus ever said...the most shocking
thing that Jesus ever said. If you have your Bibles, I want
you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7,
because Jesus said a lot of shocking things. But this takes the cake. This goes over the edge. This
is the single most riveting thing that I believe Jesus Christ ever
said that ought to arrest our attention and get a hold of us. In Matthew chapter 7, I want
to begin reading in verse 13, this comes at the end of the
provocative sermon that Jesus ever preached. It comes at the
end of the greatest sermon that our Lord ever proclaimed. It's the first recorded sermon
that we have, it's called the Sermon on the Mount. And it builds
and it builds and it builds and our Lord was the greatest evangelist
who ever lived. And as He comes to the end of
this sermon, beginning in verse 13, He issues the greatest invitation
that has ever been extended to lost sinners to come to Himself,
to surrender their lives to Him. And it is an invitation that
is going out in this...this hall tonight. It is the invitation
of Jesus Christ through His Word to your heart. And may God the
Holy Spirit call you Himself into a saving relationship with
Christ. Beginning in Matthew chapter
7 and verse 13, Jesus said these words, enter through the narrow
gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to
destruction and many are those who enter through it. For the
gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and
there are few who find it. Beware of the false prophets
who come to you in sheep's clothing. But inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.
Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles,
are they? So every good tree bears good
fruit. But the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad
fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So
then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says
to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But He
who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy
in Your name and cast out demons and in Your name perform many
miracles? And then I will declare to them,
I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness." The Lord Jesus Christ said many shocking things
in His earthly ministry, and these have come to be known as
the hard sayings of Christ. And quite frankly, they are the
hard sayings of Christ, not because they are hard to understand.
They are hard because they're hard to swallow. They're hard
to accept. And perhaps the most shocking
statement to ever come out of the mouth of our Lord are the
very words that we find in this text here tonight because in
these verses, Jesus said in no uncertain terms, that there are
actually more people going to hell than there are to heaven. Many, Jesus said, are on the
broad road that are headed to destruction. Few, Jesus said,
are on the narrow road headed to life. There's no other spin
to put on those words. But what makes this even more
jolting is that Jesus Christ is talking about religious people
In these verses, he's talking about people who claim to know
God. He's talking about people who
say, Lord, Lord. He's talking about people who
on the last day will say, Lord, You knew me. I cast out demons
in Your name. Lord, I perform many miracles
in Your name. Lord, You know me. And it is
about this highly religious group that Jesus said, many are on
the broad road of destruction and most are headed to eternal
hell. I tell you, this is the most
shocking thing that Jesus ever said. And quite frankly, the
entire Sermon on the Mount was shocking. From the very opening
lines of this sermon, everything was turned upside down from what
they were used to hearing. Jesus began this sermon with
the Beatitudes and He said, blessed are the poor in spirit. What
they were used to hearing was, blessed are those who have all
that this world has to offer, who are rich in the things of
this world. And Jesus said, no, you've got
it all backwards. Blessed are those who have declared
spiritual bankruptcy on the inside and who are poor in spirit."
And Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn. The world says, blessed
are those who are gregarious and glib and funny and all of
the rest. And Jesus said, oh no, those
who are truly happy are those who have come to mourn and to
weep. over their sin. And Jesus said,
blessed are the meek, blessed are the gentle. The world says
the very opposite. The world says get all you can
and can't all you get, sit on the lid and let everyone else
go to hell. And Jesus said, no, blessed are
the meek and blessed are the gentle. He said, blessed are
they who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He even went so
far as to say, blessed are those who have been persecuted. How
shocking was this? And then he said, unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven and no one could surpass
the outward morality and the outward righteousness of the
Pharisees. They had perfected to an art
form the game of playing church. No one could out-church the Pharisees. And then Jesus set the bar so
high on what it would take in and of yourselves to be saved
that no one could ever get over this bar when Jesus said, you
are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. With that,
he pulled the rug out from underneath his audience and turned them
on their ear that they would have to be as perfect as God
is in heaven because that is the very standard by which God
is measuring every one of our lives. as if there are these
scales or balances and on one side of the balances there is
your life placed and on the other side is not some drunk in a gutter
or not some wayward vagabond that it would be very easy to
measure your life against someone like that and go, well I'm better
than them, God will grade on the curve. I'll be good enough
to be accepted into heaven. The fact is, God places your
life on one side of the scales and on the other side of the
scales He places the absolute perfect holiness of His own righteous
character and we have all been weighed in the balances and found
wanting on that measure. And so Jesus brought His listeners
that day to a sense of desperation that they had to be more righteous
than the scribes or the Pharisees. They had to be as perfect as
God is in heaven. And then He comes to the end
of this message and He gives what is the most glorious gospel
invitation. It is the invitation to come
into the kingdom of heaven. It is the invitation to come
to Himself. It is the invitation to come
to the end of yourself that He might begin in your life. It
is the invitation to come to His grace and forgiveness and
to be embraced into His Kingdom. It is the greatest invitation
that's ever been given. And I want to ask you as we begin
to look at...I want to look at verses 13 and 14 tonight, but
I want to ask you this. This invitation is going out
to everyone in this auditorium tonight. And I want to know,
have you personally and have you individually by repentance
and faith responded to this invitation in giving your life to Jesus
Christ? If I had ten thousand lives, I'd give every one of
them to Jesus Christ. The greatest decision you'll
ever make in your life is to give your life to Christ. The
greatest thing you will ever do is to give your life to Christ
and watch what He does with it and watch what He makes of it,
both in time and eternity. Well, tonight I want us to look
at verse 13 and 14. As we look at these verses, there
are three things that I want you to see, three very simple
headings. I want you to see the command. enter through the narrow
gate. Then I want you to note with
me the caution because there's another gate right next to the
narrow gate that has a lot of curb appeal and is very accessible
and it would be very easy to be sucked in through this other
gate. It is the wide gate, or the broad
gate, and so the caution and then finally the contrast. as
Jesus Himself in verse 14 will explain more carefully this narrow
gate that He calls us to enter through. Note with me, if you
would, beginning in verse 13, the command...the command, Jesus
begins this gospel invitation by saying, enter through the
narrow gate. This is what He says to you tonight,
to enter through the narrow gate. Would you notice that there is
only this one sole requirement to enter into the kingdom of
heaven? There are not five things that you have to do tonight.
There aren't ten things that you have to do. There is only
one thing that you have to do to become a member of the kingdom
of God and it is to enter through the narrow gate. This also presupposes
that you were born on the outside. The fact that you must enter
means that you came into this world on the outside of the kingdom.
We were all born physically in sin, Psalm 51 verse 5, in sin
did my mother conceive me. We were all born in a...in a
state of sin. Psalm 58 verse 3 says that we
came forth from our mother's womb speaking lies. from the
very outset of our life at the point of conception, and it extended
through our delivery, and now as we have lived our lives, we
came into this world an alien of the kingdom of God. We entered
as a stranger on the outside And so that's why Jesus said,
you must enter through the narrow gate. Being born in a Christian
family is not good enough. Attending church is not good
enough. Being religious is not good enough. There must be a
step of faith by which you enter through the narrow gate. I want
you to know that Jesus Christ Himself is this narrow gate. In John 10 verse 7, Jesus said,
I am the door of the sheep. In John 10 verse 9, Jesus said,
I am the door. If anyone enters through Me,
he will be saved. And I want you to know that there
are no other points of entry into the kingdom. Would you notice
the definite article, the? Enter through the narrow gate,
not a narrow gate, not one of many ways to get into the kingdom. It's not as if heaven is up there
and there are many roads that spiral up this mountain and there
are different ways for us to come into the kingdom. No, Jesus
said there is only one way. There is only one way of entry
into His kingdom, and He is that way of entry. Enter through the
narrow gate. The Apostle Peter said, there's
salvation in no other name, for there is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus said,
I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
but through Me. The Apostle Paul said, there
is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave Himself a ransom for all, the testimony born at the
proper time. The fact that this is a narrow
gate requires repentance. It requires leaving your baggage
behind. It requires leaving behind the
love of sin and the love of the world and love of self. Jesus said, if any man shall
come after Me, he must deny himself and take up a cross and follow
after Me. There is no way to come through
this narrow gate except you strip down and strip away all self-sufficiency
and all self-righteousness and you humble yourself and you come
as a little child into the kingdom of heaven and it is a narrow
gate whereby you can only come one at a time. You can't come
in a group. You're going to have to peel
off from the group. You're going to have to break
from the pack. You're going to have to break even from your
family and come one at a time to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I also want you to note that this is a command. He says, enter
through the narrow gate. It is a present imperative which
means that He is commanding, He is calling everyone under
the sound of His invitation to leave where they are and to leave
what they are and to come immediately to Him and to enter through the
narrow gate. You need to know that the gospel
is a command. And you will either live in obedience
or disobedience to this Christ who is calling you to enter through
the narrow gate and to fail to respond to this gospel is to
commit the greatest sin under heaven. It is to trample underfoot
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is to insult
the Spirit of grace who would be convicting To say no to the
gospel of Christ is to commit the greatest sin under heaven. It requires that you take a step
of faith, that final step of faith. It's not enough to come
close to Christ. It's not enough to admire the
gate. It's not enough to see others
go through that gate. It's not enough to believe in
the existence of the gate. It's not enough to marvel at
the gate as an act of your will, you must surrender and you must
choose to take that last step by which you leave the world
and leave the kingdom of darkness and enter into the kingdom of
light and into His beloved Son. That's what God is calling you
tonight to do. And for those of you here who
are on the outside, We're so glad that you're here to hear
this gospel invitation. And he is calling out through
this gospel to you to respond by faith. and to come and enter
through the narrow gate. Later Jesus would say in Luke
13 verse 24, strive to enter through the narrow door. Agonizomai,
you must agonize to enter through this narrow gate. It will require
soul searching. It will require deep conviction. It will require you counting
the cost. It will require you renouncing
the world. It will require you denying yourself. Strive to enter through the narrow
gate. For many, I tell you, will seek
to enter and will not be able. They will come too shallow. They will come too superficial. They will come in a way in which
they are not striving to enter through the narrow gate. Let
there be no mistake about it, tonight Jesus is issuing His
invitation through His Word as it's being preached and the voice
of God is going out through His Word. Even this moment tonight,
do you hear the voice of Christ who is calling you? Jesus said
in Matthew 11 verse 28, come unto Me, all ye who are weary
and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you
and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall
find rest for your souls, for My burden is easy and My yoke
is light." Sometimes people say it's hard to become a Christian.
I want you to know the greatest thing that will ever happen to
your life is to become a Christian. The Bible says the way of the
transgressor is hard. No, what's hard is for you to
have one foot in the world and one foot in the church and try
to play all ends into the middle, that's what's hard. And for you
to continue to sow the seeds of sin and to reap that bitter
harvest, that is what is hard. My friend, it is glorious, it
is wonderful, it is amazing. to finally come to that place
whereby you surrender and commit your life to Jesus Christ and
say an everlasting yes to Him. And Jesus said, if any man thirsts,
let him come unto Me and drink. And out of his innermost being
shall flow rivers of living water." Have you heard the call of God
through the gospel of Jesus Christ to your heart? Have you answered
that call? Perhaps even as I'm speaking
right now, some of you are feeling a little anxious on the inside
and feeling somewhat uneasy and it is because you are halting
between two opinions. And you will always feel that
struggle and you will have no rest for your soul until you
find your rest in Jesus Christ our Lord. I want you to notice
second, if you would with me, not only the command, and this
is God's command to everyone in this house tonight, and you
will either obey or disobey and there are no other options. I want you to notice second,
the caution. The caution, and Jesus belabors
this point in verse 13, the great caution. There must be great
caution exercised to enter through the narrow gate because there
is another gate right next to it which is much easier to access. It's much easier to enter through. It too is open. And what caution
you must exercise that you not enter through the wrong gate
because it will take you somewhere you do not want to go. Look at
it again in verse 13, after Jesus said, enter through the narrow
gate. Now here is the caution, for
the gate is wide. and the way is broad that leads
to destruction and many are those who enter through it." It's like
when you go to an airport and there can be two gates right
next to each other. And as you go to the airport,
these two gates, one may say New York City and the other may
say Tokyo. And yet they are right next to
each other. And yet they will take you in
two totally opposite directions. And so it is with these two gates.
They will take you in two totally opposite directions. One will
take you to heaven, the other will take you to hell. One will
take you to forgiveness and grace, the other will take you to condemnation
and damnation, how careful you must be to enter through the
right gate. And so Jesus begins to describe
now in verse 13 this other gate that takes you down another path
that ends up at a...at a different destination and He does so intentionally
and purposely so that we would be certain that we would not
by mistake to the deception of our own soul enter through the
wrong gate. I would remind you that Jesus
is addressing this to the most religious generation that has
ever lived on the face of the earth. Jesus addressed this to
Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees as well as the rest of the multitude
that gathered there that day. I want you to notice with me
first the wide gate. He begins verse...or this part
of verse 13, He says, for the gate is wide. Because it's wide, it's very
easy to find. It's very easy to see. It's so big. It's so large. It's so...it's
so inviting. It's alluring. It's easily accessible. It's so large, it's like putting
a golf ball into a hole that's the size of the Pacific Ocean. You can't miss when you get near
this gate. It's easy to pass through. And
what this gate is, is religion without regeneration. It is religion
without the new birth. It is religion that appeals to
the flesh. It is religion that talks about
God and talks about Christ and talks about heaven and talks
about salvation. The only problem is, it is a
gate that does not deliver. It does not take you there. Proverbs
14 verse 12 says, there's a way that seems right to a man but
the end thereof is the end of death. It is the gate of easy
believism that you come just as you are and you remain just
as you are and there is nothing for you to give up and there
is nothing for you to renounce and there is nothing for you
to confess. It is religion without repentance. It is religion without submission
to the Lordship of Christ. It is religion where you can
continue to run your own life and run and chart the course
for your own soul. It is religion without death
to self. It is religion without cross-bearing. It is religion without denying
self. It's religion that costs nothing
and requires nothing. You just walk an aisle, raise
a hand, sign a card, you're in, you're going to heaven. No, you're
not, you're going to hell. It's religion of half a commitment
and these are those who are self-deceived. There is a veil over their own
eyes. They think they have entered into the way of salvation only
one day to wake up in the flames of hell. We see them in verse
21, these who are entering through this wide gate in verse 21. Not everyone who says to Me,
Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. They're talking the
talk. They're saying, Lord, Lord. They
know the words to the songs. They attend the Bible studies.
They know the lingo. They know the jargon. They just
don't know the Lord. Look at verse 22, many will say
to me on that day, referring to that last final day, many
will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, and they'll talk about
how involved they were in religious activity. Did we not prophesy
in Your name? And in Your name cast out demons
and in Your name perform many miracles. Listen, they didn't
do any of these things, they just thought they were. They
were so self-deceived, they had convinced themselves that they
were prophesying in the name of the Lord. They were saying,
I'm hearing voices, God's talking to me, this is what God's saying.
No, He's not talking to you. But we're casting out demons,
we're performing miracles. You have convinced yourself of
that which is not reality. You are self-deceived about your
salvation and you are self-deceived about your ministry. You are
self-deceived about your religious activity. Your whole life is
a facade. Oh, for a moment just to pull
back the veil and to see yourself for who you truly are, to see
yourself for how God sees you. Notice where the wide gate takes
you. It's religion on your own terms.
It's churchianity. It's playing the game of church
and you're very good at it. It takes you down a broad way. Do you see that in verse 13?
For the gate is wide and the way is broad. The domino effect
now begins to unfold and the broad gate, the wide gate will
always and only lead you to the broad way. It's broad because
there's no definition to it. It's like playing a football
game and there's no sidelines. You're never out of bounds. You
can live however you want to live. You can have one foot in
the world and one foot in the church and you're just always
at home wherever you are. It's so broad that you can be
a friend of the world and a so-called friend of the church at the same
time. It's so broad you can live however you want to live. You
know, there are churches in this city and in this area. You tell
me whatever you want to believe and however you want to live,
as bizarre, as...as way out there as it is, whatever kind of sin
you want to commit and we can find a church for you where you
will feel very comfortable with the brethren. It's a broad road. Not religious but lost. It's
religion without a changed life. It's religion without the fruit
of repentance. And that is where it takes you.
You continue to go down this broad road like a lamb led to
slaughter, thinking that you are headed to the promised land,
thinking that you are entering into the portals of glory. And
notice it says that leads to destruction. Destruction here
refers to damnation. It points to the final judgment
in the last day and the sentence that will be executed or exercised
and then you will be sentenced to hell forever. He says in verse
23, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. And when he says, I never knew
you, he means I never had a relationship with you. I never personally
knew you. God knows everything about everyone. He's not talking about cognitive
facts about people. The very hairs of your head are
numbered. He knows every word that you're
going to say before you ever say it. All your days have been
written in His book before there was one of them. He knows you
better than you even know yourself because your heart is so deceptive. Now He knows everything there
is to know about you, but He says to those who enter through
the broad gate, I never knew you. I never had a relationship
with you. You were just out there on your
own doing your own thing, talking about me, but you never had the
reality. He says it leads to destruction. In the end, you come to stand
before a God whom you never knew and the books are open and the
book of life is open and you discover that your name was never
written in the Lamb's book of life from before the foundation
of the world as you just continued to live this charade all the
way to the end. And here's what's so shocking
about it at the end of verse 13, it's the wide gate that leads
to the broad way that leads to eternal destruction. And he says
at the end of verse 13, and many are those who enter through it. The reason they enter through
it is because their own hearts are so self-deceived. And one
reason is because of verse 15, beware of the false prophets
who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. They preach a false gospel to
you. They preach to you that you can
believe whatever you want to believe and live however you
want to live. And they flag you on to this
broad way and they seduce you and entice you and tempt you
and lure you because they tickle your ears and they say to you
what you want to have said and they stroke your ego and they
tell you you can have it all, you don't have to give up the
world, you don't have to give up your sin, just come through
the wide gate. And wave after wave after wave
of them are sucked onto this path of destruction that empties
into the bowels of hell where these will be forever. In a gathering of this many people
in one...we couldn't gather this many preachers together and everyone
be saved. There's no way that there are
not those among us here tonight that God has brought you here
with divine intention, really out of the goodness of God to
remove the mask and to expose your heart to yourself that you
are on this broad road that is headed for destruction. And if God is speaking to your
heart tonight, you need to enter through the narrow gate. Behold
now is the accepted time. Behold today is the day of salvation. Today if you hear His voice,
do not harden your heart. See to it that you do not refuse
Him who is speaking. I want you to notice finally
the contrast in verse 14. the contrast to what we just
considered, this religion that does not save, this churchianity
that does not deliver and does not take you to heaven. Notice
in verse 14, Jesus now talks about the real deal. Jesus now
talks about real salvation and genuine conversion and authentic
regeneration. This is what You must have for
your life an experience in your heart and if this is not a reality,
it doesn't matter what else is right in your life. If your soul
is lost, then everything is lost. So we read in verse 14 the same
order but it now presents what Jesus has come to do who came
to seek and to save that which is lost. He came that we might
have life and have it abundantly. He came not to bring condemnation
but to bring salvation to lost sinners. Notice He begins in
verse 14, for the gate is small. This is true salvation. These
are Jesus' words. The gate is small, that means
it's narrow, it's tight, it's constricted, so therefore it's
hard to find. You'll not hear this gate preached
on every street corner. You'll not hear this gate preached
on every radio station. You'll not hear this gate described
in every book that you pick up at the Christian bookstore. You'll
not hear this gate on every Christian radio or television program. The gate is small, it's hard
to find, therefore you'll have to search for it with all of
your heart. And then once you find it, and
once you hear the truth and how precious the truth is of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, it is so small that you will have to
take great care to enter through it, for there will be many who
will find it and their toes will come right up to this gate But
they will want to hang on to the baggage of their life. They
will want to hang on to the patterns of their sin. They want to have
it all and they will not give it up and so they are unable
to come through this small gate. Because it's small, it requires
breaking from the pack and breaking from the crowd that you would
come individually to Christ. Turn with me to Matthew 9 and
verse 9, I want to show you a couple who have come through this narrow
gate and some more things that Jesus had to say about entering
through this small gate. And I want to tell you tonight,
I do not want to widen this gate any broader than what Jesus has
said that it is. It's a small gate. In Matthew chapter 9 and verse
9, as Jesus went out from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting
in the tax collector's booth. And there he was with the love
of the world in his heart. There he was with the possessions
of the world in his hand. And there is nothing wrong with
having possessions, but there's everything wrong for possessions
to have you. And here was Matthew sitting
in his tax collector's booth living for the world, a friend
of the world, consumed with the world. You know what Matthew's
life was? The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. He was head deep
into the system of the world. And Jesus said to him in verse
9, And this is the most repeated gospel invitation that we find
in the four gospel records. Oh, the simplicity of this, follow
me. In order to follow Christ, he
must leave everything else behind, not follow a church, not follow
a man. a mere man, not follow a set
of rules or regulations, not follow a code of ethics. No,
follow me, commit your life to me, surrender to me, give it
all up for me, get up from where you are, move out by faith Give
me your life, attach yourself to me, become one of my followers. I'm not telling you where this
will take you in this world, just follow me every moment of
every day. This is what it is to be one
who enters through the narrow gate. There's no small print
in this. You just get up every morning,
put both feet on the floor and your one goal in life is to follow
Me, to please Me, to obey Me, to love Me, to serve Me. I am the totality of your life. That's why Paul said, for me
to live is Christ and to die is gain. If you're living for
anything else other than Christ and Christ alone for you to die
will be loss. But only if you live for sola
Christos, Christ alone will be for you to die is gain. Come to Matthew chapter 10 and
verse 32...Matthew chapter 10 and verse 32. as Jesus is sending
His disciples out to go and to proclaim the message of the Kingdom
And in verse...beginning in verse 32, Jesus begins to bring explanation
of what is required in this message that His disciples will announce
and it comes down to us today and there is no watering down
this message. The one who responds to this
is the one who has entered through the narrow gate. Everyone else
is just pretenders. Look at verse 32, therefore everyone
who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before
My Father who is in heaven. When he says, confess Me before
men, he's not saying just merely say the words. Remember he said,
not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom
of heaven. Just to fill the air with the words of Christ, that
won't save you, but within your heart of hearts for you to so
confess that you believe with every inch and every ounce of
you from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, I
confess Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life and He is my Savior."
And Jesus said, that is the one whom I will confess before my
Father. Let me tell you, you won't get
into heaven without Him confessing you to the Father. Verse 33,
but whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before
My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring
peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace
but a...but a sword. For I came to set a man against
his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be the members
of his own household." What Jesus is calling for here is unrivaled,
absolute loyalty and allegiance to Him. That's what it is to
enter through the narrow gate. Not just that I'm adding Jesus
to my life. But now... Jesus is everything
to me. Verse 37, he who loves father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me. You can have no
other rival loves in your heart and enter through this narrow
gate. To enter through this narrow
gate, you must come to the place where you love Christ and you
desire Christ. And You set Your heart and Your
love and Your affections upon him. And he who loves son or
daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." In Matthew chapter
12 and verse 30, Jesus said, he who is not with Me is against
Me, meaning there is no neutrality in this. You're either out and
out for Christ or you are out and out against Christ. To enter
through the narrow gate means that you come to pledge your
allegiance to Christ, you are out and out for Him. In Matthew
chapter 16 and verse 24, Jesus said this, He said, if anyone
wishes to come after Me, and that means if anyone desires
to be a Christian, if anyone desires to be My disciple, if
anyone desires to enter through the narrow gate, he must deny
himself. You must come to the end of yourself.
You must renounce yourself for who you are and what you are
in order that you may gain everything in Christ. and take up His cross,
that's an instrument of death, Jesus will not begin, the life
of Christ will not begin in you until there is the death of you. There will not be two lives being
lived in your life. It is either you live for yourself
or you live for Christ. Jesus said, verse 25, for whoever
wishes to save his life. We'll lose it, but whoever loses
his life for my sake will find it. That's pretty simple, is
it not? You try to hang on to your own life and you'll lose
it eternally. But if you will give your life
to Christ completely, supremely, you will find eternal life. Verse 26, what does it profit
a man if he gains the whole world? He's speaking hypothetically
here. And how we sell our soul out for such cheap trinkets. He said, if you could gather
it all, if you could have the whole world, if you could have
all the gold and all the silver, if you could have all the real
estate and all the property and all the stocks and all the bonds
Would it profit you if you lost your own soul? Would it be the
ultimate buy-high-sell-low proposition? Or what will a man give in exchange
for his soul? Now if you're to enter the kingdom
of heaven You must come to the end of yourself that Christ would
begin and totally surrender your life to Him and as long as you
have one foot in the world and one foot in the fast lane and
one foot trying to live for this world and for yourself, you have
not yet come to put two feet upon Jesus Christ. Notice where this will take you.
Come back to Matthew 7. To go through this narrow gate
is to repent of your sin. Have you done that? Have you turned away from the
world and its lures and affections? And have you turned completely
to the King of kings and to the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ?
This is what it is to enter through. the small gate. I want you to
know it is so hard to enter through this small gate. The only way
you can do it is by sovereign grace. is for the grace of almighty
God to lay hold of your heart and to give you the gift of repentance
and to give you the gift of true saving faith, that's how hard
it is. It would be easier for you to
go through the eye of a needle for your flesh to believe upon
Christ than for you to enter through this small gate. It is
a work of supernatural proportions, the new birth is the greatest
miracle that God ever performs where God takes out that old
stony heart that is so hardened to God and so hardened to the
things of God and for God Himself to reach down into the cavity
of your chest with invisible hands and to pull out that stony
heart and to put within you A heart of flesh that is alive unto God
and its first act is to call upon the name of the Lord and
to be gloriously saved. That's how hard it is to enter
through this narrow gate. God must do a work in your heart
for it to be a reality. Notice where it leads. Verse
14, for the gate is small and the way is narrow. A small gate
leads to a narrow way. You see, the small gate does
not lead to the broad path. If you're on the broad path tonight,
it is certain you've never come through the narrow gate. The
broad gate leads down a broad path. A narrow gate leads down
a narrow path. This narrow path is It's carefully
defined how you should live. To live on this narrow path is
a new life direction for you. It is a new path. It is a new
life. It is a changed life. It is the
abundant life in Jesus Christ. It leads to the pursuit of holiness.
It leads to the pursuit of righteousness. It doesn't mean that we don't
ever sin the rest of our life. We know better than that. It
doesn't mean the perfection of your life, but it does speak
to the direction of your life. There is now a new path and a
new direction that you're on. And when you do sin, you can
no longer enjoy your sin and there is a sense of shame and
guilt that comes until you can repent of that sin and confess
your sin and continue down this narrow path that leads He says
in verse 14, to life, the first path leads to destruction, it
leads to damnation. This path leads to life. It may seem restrictive, it may
seem that it is holding you back, but all that it will hold you
back from is that which would harm you, that which would do
destruction to you. How good of God to make it A
narrow path that you would be in the very center of the goodness
of His will for you to lead you into green pastures and to lead
you beside still waters. Praise God, it is a narrow path
that keeps you away from the pollution of the world system
and it alone leads to life...to life. In other words, if you're
not on this path, you don't have life. You're just a walking zombie. You are empty on the inside.
There is no reality within you regarding the things of the Spirit
of God. You have mere existence in this
world, a form of godliness, but you do not have life. What is
the new birth? It is the life of God and the
soul of a man. That's what the new birth is.
It is eternal life. spiritual life, supernatural
life, it is abundant life within you, how good it is to live finally
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth and the
life. The Bible says, he who has the
Son has the life, there is no other life, it is the life. He
who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. You're just occupying space and
breathing God's air on this planet but you're just a spiritual zombie. You are dead. But to enter through
this narrow gate is for the life of God to fill you and to flood
you. It's more than just paperwork
in heaven where your sins are pardoned. Glorious as that is,
salvation is not merely getting man out of hell and into heaven,
it is getting God out of heaven and into man. It is the life
of God within us. This is what the new birth is.
Jesus said, he who hears these words of Mine and believes Him
who sent Me has eternal life, present tense, right now. It's
not one day if I can just make it to heaven, close the door
behind Me, wipe the sweat off My brow and go, I made it. God,
give me this life now. Now the moment you're saved,
the moment you enter through the narrow gate, that split second,
quickly, in a moment, it is the life of God and the soul of a
man. How good it is for your heart,
your soul, your life to finally live as God intended. Jesus said, whoever believes
will in Him have eternal life. And notice at the end of verse
14. And there are few who find it,
few. This is out of the religious
crowd. This is out of those who are saying, Lord, Lord. This
is out of those who are prophesying supposedly, out of those who
are casting out demons supposedly. There are very few who find it. One out of the four soils of
those who sat under the Word of God responded. The disciples
understood how small this gate was to enter in. They said in
Luke 13, 23, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? And in response, Jesus said,
strive to enter through the narrow gate as if to affirm you got
it right. There are only a few. Not a one of us here will just
grow up in it. Not a one of us here will just
stumble through it. Not a one of us here will just
happen upon it. You must search for the Lord
with all of your heart. You must seek the Lord while
He may be found and call upon Him while He is near. There are just a few. How can
you know if you've entered through the narrow gate? Two ways. How
can you know if you are headed for life? Two ways. Number one, if you're on the
narrow road, it's a certain indication that you went through the narrow
gate because you can't get on to the narrow road except you
enter through the narrow gate. The narrow gate is not just an
outward morality, it is living a life for the glory of God with
passion that you would supremely please Him, that you would long
to keep His Word, that you would desire to pursue Christ and follow
Christ. If that is the desire and the
overriding thrust of your life, that is an indication you've
come through the narrow gate. There's one other way and I want
to close with this and then I'm finished. Come back to the beginning
of this sermon, not my sermon, Jesus' sermon. Come back to Matthew
chapter 5. I want to show you Jesus' four
spiritual law booklet. I want to show you the four steps
that lead into the kingdom of heaven. I want to show you what
will always accompany true saving faith. And how easy it is, remember,
to be deceived about your conversion. You need to know for sure that
you've been saved. Beginning in Matthew 5 verse
3 and running through verse 7, there are four component parts
that will always be found in true saving faith. You see, God
is the author of saving faith, Hebrews 12 verse 2, Jesus the
author and perfecter of our faith. Philippians 1 verse 29, it's
been granted to us not only to suffer...not only to suffer for
His name but to believe. It's been given to us. It is
the gift of God. Now what is found in true saving
faith that enables you to go through the narrow gate? Look
at these four component parts, other things could be said. But
in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit. Listen, no one struts
through the narrow gate. No one comes with arrogance. All who enter through the narrow
gate have come to the place of recognizing their own spiritual
poverty. You can't be saved until you
know that you are poor in spirit, poor on the inside. This word
for poor means to be a beggar. Picture one who would be in a
back corner, others would be going by, the person would be
blind, the person would be a paralytic, they would have no way of providing
their own living, they would be in a corner, they would be
sticking out an empty hand, they would be unashamed to look up
even into the eyes of those who were passing by. They were totally
dependent upon the mercy and the grace of another who would
pass by to put into their empty hand that which they had not
worked for, that which they would not deserve. They would come
to them exclusively as an expression of the mercy and the compassion
of the giver. That's the place you must come
to in your life. Not like you're doing God some wild favor to
show up in the Kingdom, but for you to realize that God has shown
you the mercy and the grace. To declare personal bankruptcy,
to say to God, God have mercy upon me, the sinner. Not just
that I'm a sinner in general, but that God my life has violated
Your holiness. And God, I'm a sinner. I've been
weighed in the balances and I have been found wanting. Second, in
true saving faith, verse 4, blessed are those who mourn. You see,
confession of sin is not enough. Everybody knows you're a sinner.
You know you're a sinner. But there must be a godly sorrow
that leads to repentance. There must be the inner turmoil
of conviction of sin and brokenness on the inside and a smiting of
the breast and a weeping, not over what your sin has done for
you, but for how your sin has been an offense to a holy God
and how your life has grieved the heart of God. No one gets into the Kingdom
without feeling the weight and the gravitas of their own sin
that crushes their own soul. And then third, in verse 5, blessed
are the gentle. Blessed are the meek, some translations
say, speaks of this time of a horse, a wild stallion, a horse where
never a rider has sat. And to meek a horse is for a
horse to be brought to the place where it will finally submit
to a rider. where it will come under the
authority of a master, where the master will pull to the ropes
to the right and the horse will go to the right, where the master
now can pull back on the reins and the horse will stop, where
the master can crack the whip and the horse will move out.
That is what it is for a horse to be meek. where you finally
come under the sovereign authority of the Lordship of Jesus Christ
and this is at the point of entrance into the Kingdom. This is why
Jesus said, few there are who find it. And then finally verse
7 or verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Do you see the progression? First
you declare your own personal bankruptcy, then you weep and
you mourn over your sin if there are not tears that are shed,
but inwardly there is always this inter-contrition of soul
and then you surrender and you come under the authority of Jesus
Christ and you surrender all to Him. And then in verse 6,
you hunger and thirst for righteousness that is not your own. Martin
Luther called it an alien righteousness, meaning a righteousness outside
of himself, a righteousness that he himself could not produce. It was a righteousness that was
alien to him that was strange to his own experience that must
be given to him. It is the very righteousness
of God in Christ. for which we must hunger and
thirst and come and say, God, I hunger for Your salvation,
I thirst for Your salvation, nothing else in this world will
satisfy or fulfill, I must have the righteousness of Christ.
It speaks of the cross ultimately and Him who knew no sin, God
made to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness
of God in Christ. All of this speaks to the cross
as Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost but
it would ultimately take Him to a cross there where He would
be lifted up to die, the virgin-born Son of God. who lived a sinless
and perfect life in the will of God, He was the Lamb of God
slain before the foundation of the world. There on that cross
He was lifted up to die. He died in our place. God took
our sins and transferred them to the Lord Jesus. He became
our sin-bearer upon that cross. He bore our sin. And He suffered
under the wrath of Almighty God as He bore the weight of our
iniquity and the weight of our sin upon the cross. And He then
said, having shed His blood and made the only atonement for our
sin, He then said, it is finished. and the finality and the perfection
of His sacrifice upon that cross as Jesus became the Savior of
sinners. And you must come to Him for
your salvation. And if you come to Him, you must
come on His terms, not your terms. And His terms are to enter through
the narrow gate. You must strip down of all pride
and arrogance. You must strip away all self-righteousness
and come like a little child. And Him who comes unto me, I
will in no wise cast out." Some of you here tonight have never
been this close to this gate. Some of you here tonight, your
toes are right up to this gate. And I want you to know this gate
is wide open. This gate is ready to receive
you. This gate, though it is a small
gate, tonight at this moment you have found it and you may
enter in. You must exercise your will. You must choose to believe with
a faith that only God can give you. And God must remove your
hard heart and God must circumcise your heart and God must give
you a heart of flesh to believe upon Him and when He does, you
will enter through the narrow gate. I have to believe that
there are here tonight this moment those who are just on the outside
of the kingdom. And God has brought you here
that the gate would be placed in front of you. And if you die
without entering through this narrow gate, you will perish
and God will point you back to this night when you turned your
back on the gate and you trampled underfoot the precious blood
of Christ. but how glorious it is to enter through and to be
saved. If you've never done so, I want
you to know that the arms of Christ are extended to you tonight
and He is calling you through the preaching of the gospel.
May you open your ears and hear His voice and respond. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank
You for a gate, the gate, the only gate for a way to get into
Your Kingdom. We understand because of what
Adam did, we've all been cast out and we've all been born on
the outside and in and of ourselves unable to enter. And even in
the church, just the church itself, no point of entrance, even religion
unable to provide access into the kingdom, rules and rituals,
creeds and codes of conduct cannot allow us entrance into the kingdom. Father, we thank You for our
Savior who is the way, the truth and the life. How we thank You
that He left the glories of heaven to enter into the shame of this
world and the sin of this world that He might become one of us,
that He would go to that cross and die in our place, that we
might enter into the kingdom We thank You, God, for the openness
of this gate that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. We thank You that this gate receives
sinners. We thank You that this gate provides
forgiveness and pardon for sin. We thank You that this gate puts
us on to a new path with a new life direction, that this gate
gives us eternal life. supernatural life and, O God,
we thank You for the clarity of what You have said to us as
written in Your Word, words spoken by the greatest evangelist who
ever lived, the greatest preacher of the gospel, the one who is
himself the gospel, Jesus Christ. I pray that here tonight there
would be those who would enter through the narrow gate that
leads to life. In Jesus' saving name we pray. Amen.