Everyone knows these verses fairly
well. Verses 13 and 14. The Lord says,
Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad
is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. And few there be that
find it." I can't imagine how the Lord must have said these
words to His disciples. But I know it was with great
urgency and great zeal and compassion for them. Enter in at the straight
gate. Because wide is the gate, broad
is the way that leads to destruction. This is not doctrine here. This
is life or death. Destruction. If you don't go
in the gate, you will be destroyed. Destruction. That's how serious
it is. I wish I could preach that way
all the time. Destruction. And many, many. If our Lord says many, that's
a lot of people He numbers the stars and the sands of the sea.
He says, many go the broad way and are destroyed. He says, enter
in at the straight gate. I want to look at this not so
much as just doctrinal or talking about
false religion, the wide gate, the broad way, but the Lord's
preaching to His disciples. Many people heard. Thousands
of people heard Him. But He's talking to His disciples.
He says, enter in the straight gay. Go in. Enter. Christ said, come unto
Me. Oh, you that labor in heavy labor,
come to Me. I will give you rest. There is no rest. There is no
help. There is no peace. There is no
comfort. There is nothing. Anywhere but
in me. Go in. Enter in. Come unto me,
all you that labor. Can any man thirst? Oh, do we
thirst. The water of this world leaves
us thirsty. Every one of us go after the
water of this world. And we're lying if we say we
don't. We're looking for this. We're looking for that. We try
this. We try that. We try to get some comfort, some
happiness, some contentment, some peace, some joy, something. All these troubles, an escape. Christ said, if any man thirst,
come unto Me. I will give you rest. I'll give
you rest. Come, He says, buy wine and milk. Those are two things. Now, the
teetotaler just rejects this, but wine makes glad the heart
of man. Milk. Nothing like milk. Nothing
like it. We were talking about that the
other day, weren't we? I'm 57 years old and I love milk
more now than I did when I was a baby. It's a wonderful, marvelous,
God-given, bone-strengthening, well, the milk of the Word. Desire
the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. Grow. I need to grow in grace. I need
to grow in faith. I need to grow more like the
Lord Jesus Christ. How? One way. Throughout this whole thing,
our Lord is saying there's one way. It's a broad road that leads. There are so many thousands of
conceptions and all that, but it's all the same. And everybody
that goes those ways are destroyed. Come unto me, he said. Come unto
me, my wine and milk. He said, why do you spend money
for that which is not bread? Straight gate. What is this straight
gate? What is this narrow way? What
is it? It's not a what. It's a person. Christ is the gate. Christ is
the door. Go over to John chapter 10 with
me. You know these verses. As I said,
it really struck me this morning how the Lord must have said this,
and how I wish I could hear it like that. I wish I could say
it, wish you could hear it, and I could hear it like He must
have said it. Enter in. Enter. Christ is the
gate, the way. Now notice He said, the gate, the way. There's only
one. There's only one. Now look at
this, John 10. Our Lord said in verse 7, He
said unto them, Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you,
I am the door of the sheep. We looked at that recently when
He said, Thy kingdom come. There's a kingdom. Kingdom of
God. Kingdom of Christ. Kingdom of
heaven. There is a sheep fold. There are sheep and there are
goats. I want to be a sheep. Don't you? I want to be a sheep. Well, he said, ask, seek, knock. Let me in. Let me in. I am the
door of the sheep. There is a door. There is one
door, one way. That's a gate. Verse 9, I am
the door. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved. Saved. Saved. I need saving. Not just eternally, but right
now. Temporally. I need saved from
myself. I need saved from the God of
this world. I need saved from this world
that has such a pull on me. I need saved from distress, from
despair, being down cab. This morning, I just woke up,
I don't know why, just so full of anxiety and distress and just
everything. I need a saying from that. Where
is salvation? Where do you get it? How do you
find it? Go to Isaiah 30. I started to say one more time.
No, I'm going to keep reading this. until the day we die. Because right here is salvation. I need saving. If the Lord doesn't
save me, I'm going to be destroyed. These things are going to destroy
me. If the Lord doesn't save me from this present evil world,
I'm going to be destroyed with it. And so will you. These are
words of life. This is salvation. Isaiah 30, the Lord said in verse
15, Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, Jesus
Christ, in returning and rest ye shall be saved. Returning
where? To Him. Returning where? To where His Gospels preached.
Tell me, if it's not so, that you go out in the world to work
or wherever, and you have all the problems and troubles and
all that, and when you come here and you hear the gospel, does
it not save you from the distress you got into? Does it not save
you to hear the gospel? Does it not help you? Does it
not strengthen you? Does it not give you comfort
where you had despair? Does it not? You don't find that
anywhere else. You'll be saved and rest. You
come in here and you rest. We're all so busy, aren't we?
We're all so taken up with things. Life is going so fast. So fast. Too fast. You come in here and
you sit and you just rest. You renew your strength. Look
at verse 15. You'll be saved. And in quietness
and in confidence, this world is... We come in here and you
hear the Gospel and it saves us from the noisome pestilence.
All the voices and everything that we're hearing. Wednesday
night, right after Tuesday's election, nearly everybody in
here was distraught by that. And we sat down. We came in here and we sat down
and we looked at Psalm 37 and said, fret not. Quit fretting. And then we looked at why. And
I was strengthened. I was helped by that. How about
you? Quietness and confidence. That
would be your strength. But you would not. You would
not. No, I'm going to go here. I'm
going to go there. Oh, but yet the Lord is so gracious. Verse
18, he says, He'll wait. He'll be gracious and He will
be exalted. And He will have mercy on you.
Oh, my. My, my, my. So, enter in. That's what struck
me in looking at this passage like the first time. Enter in. Come on. Come one, come all. Enter in at the straight gate. There's two things here. There's
a command. The command to enter. and the freeness to enter. Enter
ye in. Look, go back at our text. Enter
ye in. Who's ye? Well, ye. It doesn't give a name, does
it? You. Yes, you. May I go in? Yes, you may. In fact, he says,
do it now. Enter in. At the straight gate. Come to Christ. Right now. Enter
in. Come on in. The King commands
it. King commands it. I used to call my dog, Abner,
to come to me. And it wasn't an option. When
I said come, it wasn't an option. I'm not asking him to come. I'm
telling him to come. And it's for his good. It's completely
for his good. It's for his safety. It's to feed him. It's to doctor
him. It's to make him comfortable.
companionship, it was just, this boy's good. Come! It wasn't an option. And he would
come to me. He would come to me. Why? Because
he's my dog. My dog. The first thing I taught
him was, I know you've heard all this, but it's still good.
I was his master. Other dogs wouldn't come to me.
He would. That's how he knew. That's how I know. He came. If you come, you must belong
to Him. Just if you come to Him. It doesn't
say if you do this, you do that. If you come to Him, come. Come. Seek my faith. As I face, I'll
see. Come. Believe. I believe. The
reason He came is because I'm His master. I was His master
and He was my dog, and I taught Him to come. Since he was a little
puppy, I mean very young, and I looked back and I thought I
was a little hard on him when he was really young, but he learned
quickly. And what I would do is I'd put
a collar on him and put a leash on him, a cord, and I would literally
draw him. I'd say, come, he'd be in front
of me, and he doesn't know what come means, so I would Come. Until finally, come. Come. Until finally, drop that
leash and say, come. And he learned what that meant. I drew him with cords. I loved
that little dog and I drew him with the cords of love. Getting
him to come to me. Until finally, and he knew if
he came to me, I'm not going to hurt him. I'm not going to
hurt him. Chasing him? Yes. But it's for his good. It's
for his good. Until finally he's made and willing,
by me, and out of love for me. He finally realized, and he fell
in love with me, and now he just... And then finally, no leash, no
collar, just a call. Come! And he'd come right in.
Why? He loves me. He needs me. I feed
him. I wasn't asking great things
of him. It wasn't going to be meantime. Come. Enter in. Enter in. Enter in. Thank God He gives commandment
to save them. My, my. Drew us with cords of
love. Called. Enter in. And the freeness
of it. In Hebrews 10, it says things
like this. It says we have boldness to enter
in. A sinner. A republican and a
harlot. He says, come! boldness to enter in to the holiest
house. One way, by the blood of Jesus
Christ. If you straighten up, you can
come on in. It doesn't say that anywhere in this book. It says,
come, come, by a new and living way which He consecrated for
us through the veil. That is to say, His flesh. Come,
free, freely, boldness, free access. The door is access from
one place to another. There's only one way to God.
There's only one way into life. There's only one way to heaven.
That's Jesus Christ. And he just says, come. That's
not hard, is it? He said, my commandments are
not grievous. Come. Come. Got nothing but good for you.
Come. Why don't we run? Run to me. I got all your help. Oh, your
salvation. Okay, he says, enter in at the
straight gate. The straight gate. How plain
the truth is. How plain the truth is. The Lord
says the gate is straight that leads to light. You've got a
straight gate and you've got a wide gate. You've got a narrow
way and you've got a broad way. There's no in-between. You've
got life and you've got destruction. How plain can it be? Sophie,
we're teaching her colors. She knows her colors somewhat,
but this morning I was showing her something that's black and
something that's white. That's very plain. That's the
first thing you learn in it. That's black and that's white. God is so clear. The truth is
so clear. There's black and there's white. There's one way and there's many. How plain can you get? The Lord
is very plain. A straight gate. Go with me to
Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. One way. One way. One way. I wish the whole world could
hear this, but they're not. But we are. One Lord. One Lord. Ephesians 4. Look at
verse 5. Ephesians. Well, look at verse 4. It says
there's one body. That's one church. There's one
church. Roman Catholicism says it's the
church. Episcopalians say it's the church.
Presbyterians say they're the church. St. Mary's Church, St. Lutheran Church, this church,
that church, this one church. The church years ago didn't used
to be designated or denominated, did it? It was not divided, denominated. This church, that church. It
used to be just called the church. The church. The church of God. Feed the church. of God which
He purchased with His own blood. The church of Christ. They were
called churches just by location. Local assemblies everywhere,
but they're all members of one body, one church. There's one
church. One church. Alright? And there's one, read on, one
Spirit, verse 4, one Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that
gathers all the members of this body and brings them in It brings
them into His church and He teaches them one thing. They're all taught
of God. Taught of God the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, what does He do? Christ said the Holy Spirit
will lead talking to His disciple. He'll lead you and guide you
into all truth. What's all truth? Christ is all
the truth. I'm the truth, He said. He leads
and guides into all truth. Look at verse 4. As you're called,
that is, by the Holy Spirit, in one hope of your calling.
One calling. How does he call his people?
How does he call his sheep? By our gospel. The gospel. I know you're elect, he said,
because our gospel came here. Bound to give thanks to God who
called you by our gospel. One hope. What is the Gospel? It tells us about Christ, our
hope. Verse 5. One Lord, Jesus Christ. He's the Lord. God hath made
Him Lord. The same Jesus who was crucified.
Lord of the dead and the living. That means He's in absolute control
of all things. All judgment, life, keys of death
and hell are in Him. One faith. One faith. You see, the broad way says there
are many different faiths. You hear people say that, don't
you? All the time. Many different faiths. Well,
that's a lie. It's a lie. Nothing could be
plainer. One faith. One belief, that is, in one person. One baptism. Today, there is so much talk
about the Holy Spirit Second baptism, have you been baptized? There's one baptism where he
puts you in Christ. He immerses you in Christ. In
Christ. One baptism. Read on. One God. One God and Father of
all. That is, Father of all His people
who is above all and through all and in you all. He's talking
to the church. One. One. One body. One faith. One Lord. One Spirit. One baptism. One. One. One. All one. Christ said, I
am. When people hear us, you say,
someone say, this is the only way. What do they say? That's
too narrow. Always, it's too narrow. You
need to broaden your mind. Well, that's exactly what the
Lord said, didn't He? Broad way. Broad way. The truth is narrow. You must be in Christ. Narrow. One spirit. One way. One truth.
One life. Not many truths. Not many ways.
One. One. Now, He says straight is
this gate. The word straight is also used
often. There are a lot of old sailing
terms that are in our English language that we are not aware
of. Sailing. Have you ever heard of the Strait of Magellan or
the Strait of Hormuz or the Strait of this or the Strait of that?
It's a narrow passageway. That's what it is. In other words,
you have the waters that go into and funnel into a real narrow
passageway. It's hemmed in on either side. funnels in and focuses in one
way. Well, this is what our Lord is saying. Everything. It pleased God that in Christ
all fullness dwell. It pleased God that all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge dwell in Him. All salvation is in Him. Like a telescope, thine eye be
single, straight, Not to the right, to the left. Don't look
here, look there. Stick straight on. Look right to Jesus Christ. Right there it is. Straight.
And it's like being hemmed in. Hemmed in. Straight. Like the
children of Israel. The children of Israel, where
the enemy were behind them, and they were hemmed in this way
and hemmed in that way, and here was the vast ocean before them,
the Red Sea. Okay? They can't turn to the
right, can't turn to the left. They're being pursued by their
enemies. And God said, stand still. Be still. Do you reckon they were distraught?
Oh, no. It wasn't about the economy.
Man, oh man, what an ignorant, foolish people we are. The economy. Christ said, that's what the
world thinks about, eating and drinking. That's all they think
about. That's all they worry about.
A pocket full of money and a belly full of food. We've got to have
eternal life. We've got to have forgiveness
of sins. How are we going to get through this world without
being destroyed by it? Huh? God said, watch. Look straight on. I don't see
anything. The Red Sea part. One way. Now, go. Don't look back. Go. Hurry. Now. Today. Enter. Enter. And that way that saves
us will destroy the world. It's too late. Straight. Straight is the gate. Narrow
is the way. Someone said it's so narrow that
you can only go one at a time. One at a time. This is a personal
thing. The Lord deals with individuals.
I can't be saved by anybody else leaving for me. I've got to go
in. Enter in. The strength. One at
a time. Someone said it's so narrow,
you've got to take all your clothes off to go through. Take off all
your righteousness. All that you've accumulated.
All that you know. All that you think. All that
you've done. It's stripped naked. You've got to go through naked.
But I'll tell you this, on the other side is clothes. You'll
be clothed. with righteousness. A white robe.
Everybody on the other side is wearing a white robe. No nakedness. Strips. Somebody said it's narrow,
it's straight, but you've got to bow to go through it. You've
got to stoop. You've got to bow down to go through it. The world,
you know. Religion. Come one, come all. It doesn't matter what you're
doing. It doesn't matter how you come. Who cares? Come on. We just want to count your body. Come on in. Lift your head high.
God is so happy to have you here. Come with your pride. Come with
your righteousness. Come with this. Come with that.
It doesn't matter. That's the broad way. Everybody is going
off a cliff. Going off a cliff. You know,
a broad way is the way most travel, isn't it? The most traveled. There's no truth in numbers. There's no safety in numbers.
Never has been, never will be. No truth in numbers. Can all
these people be wrong? They always have been. They always
have been. The majority has always been
wrong. Always. Whatever the world thinks
is always wrong. That's Noah. He'll tell you,
millions perished one way. That's too narrow. God's not
like that. Yes, He is. Yes, He is. Oh, boy. Come. The broad way says everybody
can go in. It doesn't matter what. You know,
you can come in with all your righteousness, all your sin,
everything. Come on in. The broad way. The way most travel,
the broad way is the way most believe. The broad way is the
way the majority, the way that seems right to man. Our Lord
said, there is a way that seemeth right. Well, I know what the
Bible says. It just doesn't seem right. What
seems right? That's what everybody says. It
just seems right to me. What's wrong? It's wrong. It ends in destruction. Few there be that find it. Here's
something about Look at it, verse 14, "...a few that find the narrow
way." You see, the straight gate, the narrow way, is a way that
has to be found, a way you have to look for, search for. Didn't our Lord just say, ask,
seek, and knock? Everyone that does, receive it. Everyone that does, find it.
Everyone that does, goes in. But the broad road, we're born
in that way. We're born walking that way.
We're born following the crowd. We're born following the crowd.
Whatever people are doing, that's what we're going to do. Wherever
they're going, that's where we're going to go. Whatever they're
thinking, that's what we're going to think. In the broad road,
we're born in that. We're not looking for it, we're
just born in it. But Christ, God, has to give us eyes, heart,
and all to start looking. Oh, there's a way. There's a way. Even though all these people
are going that way, He said, no, Christ turns us. And if He
doesn't, we won't be turned. He says, there's a way. And here's
a pig. Here's just a pig. There's many. There's all my friends, all my
co-workers, all my schoolmates and all that. They say, come
on. There's just a few. There's Abraham. Where are you
going? Moses. You leaving Egypt? Yeah. Why? Because this is the way.
There's Jacob. There's Rachel. There's Sarah. Just a few. But that's the right
way. The right way. Enter in. And why do they turn? Why do they seek? Why do they
find a way? Because He said, I'm found of
them that sought Me not. Because He was looking for them.
He was looking for them. The woman at the well didn't
know what she was looking for, did she? She didn't know what
she was looking for. Kept coming to that same well
every day. And it sure didn't help her at all. When Christ
said, I'm the water, she dropped her water pot and left that old
well. You either be the finder. Phillip,
Phillip. One day he said, we found him.
My Phillip. Enter in. Enter in. Straight
gate. Narrow way. Leads to life. Life. Peace. Joy. Okay.