Now as you look at these verses,
you've heard the first two here. Enter ye in, verse 13, at the
straight gate. Notice the word straight there
is not like straight as an arrow. It's not talking about dimension.
What it's talking about is a narrow passageway. Straight gate, for
wide is the gate and broad is the way. There's the straight
gate, there's the broad way there that leadeth to destruction.
And it says, and many there be which go in there at. How many? I don't know. But it's many.
And I'm sad to say that it's the majority. Scripture teaches
that. You know, whenever the Bible
refers to salvation and who's saved, it always talks about
a remnant. A remnant according to the election of grace, doesn't
it? So he says in verse 14, because straight is the gate, and narrow
is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find
it." Now, we're not to stand around and speculate on how many
or how few. We're simply just to take the
word of the Lord as it stands and accept it and go about in
obedience to his commands to preach the gospel. And it's important
that we keep this in its context. You know, the Sermon on the Mount,
I've preached through this sermon several times in the years that
I've been in the ministry, the gospel ministry. And I used to
look at this sermon as like just a piecemeal message where different
subjects were just, you know, Christ would just jump from one
subject to the next. But as I've grown and studied
this passage, I see that it all fits together. and context is
just as important in the Sermon on the Mount as context is important
in any interpretation of scripture but here's what we've got to
keep in mind the context tells us that what he's talking about
in these verses from even back to judge not that you be not
judged and all that he's talking about salvation here he's talking
about how God saves sinners He's talking about how sinners attain
a right relationship with God. And he's talking about the ministry
of salvation through the gospel. That's the subject. Even when
he goes up back, when we looked at this one back in verse seven,
ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. You know, a lot of preachers,
they take that verse and they talk about, they give whole sermons
on prayer. Well, there's a lot to be said
about prayer, but that's not what that is talking about. Now,
certainly when we pray, we ask for things. What he's talking
about here, though, is salvation, asking for salvation God's way,
seeking salvation God's way, knocking at the door of God's
salvation, which is Christ. And anybody that asks for that
and seeks that and knocks at that door, it's gonna be given
to them, they're gonna find it, and the door's gonna be open.
God will never turn any sinner away who comes to him his way
through Christ by the grace of God. The way of the cross, the
way of righteousness established through the obedience unto death
of Christ, that's the way. Christ said, I am the way. Now
when he comes to this passage here, enter ye in at the straight
gate. Now this straight gate and this
narrow way, literally it's a narrow passageway through which ships
had to be very precise in order to navigate through safely. Very
narrow. And it's a very well-known metaphor
for what? The one true gospel way of salvation
by God's grace in the glorious person and the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's the straight and narrow
way. And there is no other way. And this way is so narrow and
so straight, and this is the picture, that it will not allow
sinners to pass through with their own baggage, their own
cargo, There's no room for your works in this way. It's all Christ,
the narrow way. You see that? There's no room
for any of the baggage that sinners want to carry in to give themselves
some glory. You see, that's the whole issue
here. This way leaves no room for any sinner to glory in himself
or herself in their works, in their will, as if they can say,
I made the difference between saved and lost. In other words,
the only thing that this way will accommodate is the glory
of God in Christ. There's one righteousness that'll
go through this way, and it's the righteousness of Christ imputed.
Your righteousness won't fit. My righteousness won't fit. And
that's why, you know, that's what Christ said. I am the way,
the truth, and life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. There's the one way. There's no other way. Now, when
any preacher who claims to be a Christian, who claims to preach
the gospel, says there are other ways, what's he doing? He's lying. He's not pointing you to the
straight and narrow way. He's actually pointing you on
the broad road that leads to destruction. Peter said, there's
none other name given among men whereby we must be saved in Acts
chapter four. Jesus Christ crucified. Paul
wrote, God forbid that I should glory except in one thing. That's the next, the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And so it will not accommodate
our works. You know, Paul wrote in Romans
11 verses five and six, I've got verses, yeah, verses five
through six, he said, it's all of grace and it cannot be of
works. If it's of works, it's not of
grace. You can't have both. You can't bring both through
this straight and narrow way. For by grace are you saved, period. That's the one way. Through faith,
and that's not of yourself, that's the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. So if you're going to come to
Christ for salvation, You come, as one person said, you come
as a beggar, as a bankrupt beggar without a penny to receive of
his riches. You come as a naked, exposed
sinner to receive of his righteousness. Somebody said, well, what did
we have to do with our salvation? An old preacher said, well, I
did all the sinning, Christ did all the saving. And that's about
it. We leave it behind. That's what
we do. And I'll tell you what. People
want to bring in everything. They obviously want to bring
in their works. Won't fit. They want to bring
in their experiences. They want to bring in their dreams,
their visions. They want to bring in their human
reasonings. Won't work. This is the straight
and the narrow way. And he says it leads to life.
It leads to life because it leads us to Christ, who is life, and
his righteousness imputed from which we get life. And there's
no other life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life, Christ said. No man cometh under the Father
but by me. You want eternal life? You want
to live forever? Well, let me tell you what you
have to have. You have to have a righteousness
that you don't have by nature and cannot produce by effort.
Where are you going to find that? The straight and narrow way.
Christ crucified. And he's it. You're not going
to find it in your work. You're not going to find it in
your decisions. You're going to find it in Christ. Now that's
the straight and narrow way. That's the gospel way. The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. So it leads
to life. And he says, few there be that
find it. Why is it so few find it? Well, it's because the natural,
unregenerate man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
their foolishness to him. You mean to tell me I can't bring
in my religious experiences, I can't bring in my works, my
efforts, my will, I can't bring in anything like that? That's
foolishness to him. He believes God would be unjust
not to receive him on the grounds of those things. But he doesn't
know the God of the Bible. The natural unregenerate man
prefers the broad way that leads to destruction. Now why is that? Well, because he doesn't believe
it leads to destruction. It does. Again, it's the way
of man's works, pretended goodness, his will, And it's so popular. And I'll tell you why it's so
popular. Because it leaves men room to glory in themselves. It leaves them room to brag.
Look at what I did. Look at the decision I made.
It's more popular because it gives men room to glory. It lets
men boast that they made the difference between saved and
lost. Between heaven and hell. And not God's sovereign grace
alone. The Broadway leads to destruction.
It makes men, rather than God, to be the captain of their own
salvation. And why do so many go in there
at? Well, people are deceived. They're deceived by their own
heart. What is it in the, you know, the heart is what? It's
the mind, it's the affections, it's the will, it's the conscience.
What is it in man's natural heart that deceives him? I'll tell
you exactly what it is, self-righteousness. It's pride, religious pride especially. Boy, there's no pride like religious
pride. You know it? And then they're
deceived by Satan. Read 2 Corinthians 4, 3. If our
gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, and whom the God
of this world have blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glory of God should shine unto them. So
they're deceived. Deceived into believing a lie.
That thinking that the broad way leads to life, but it leads
to eternal damnation. And you know, I've heard this
said by a lot of people who claim to be Christian, but who don't
believe the gospel or believe a false gospel. They'll say,
but how could so many people be wrong? You ever heard that? And then they're, they're charged
against us. Well, you think you're all saved and everybody else
is going to, that's not what we think. I'm just reading the
scripture. The straight and narrow way,
few there be that find it. Broad is the way that leads to
destruction. Many there be that go in there
at. You ever heard the scripture that says, many are called, but
few are chosen? I mean, this is the words of
Christ now. This is not the opinions of men.
But look at verse 15. Now, keep the context. All right? Keep the context. Don't forget
what has just been said. That's what a lot of people do
when they read the scripture. They forget the verse before
it. And he says in verse 15, beware
of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they're ravening wolves. Now who are these false prophets?
Well, here it is simply. A false prophet, a false preacher
is one who points sinners to the broad road that leads to
destruction. Any other way but Christ alone,
Christ and Him crucified, Christ's righteousness alone, His righteousness
imputed alone, any other way is a false way. It's not grace plus works. It's
not grace plus the law. It's not the free will of men
that brings about salvation. That's the broad road that leads
to destruction. Because it doesn't leave sinners
with no hope but Christ and Him crucified and risen from the
dead. And that's what a false prophet is. And the most dangerous
false prophets are those who come to you in sheep's clothing.
That's a disguise. We read, I think, last week in
2 Corinthians 11 where false preachers And a lot of times,
if you read the New Testament, they were Jewish legalists who
claimed to be Christian. Not always, but they were. There
was a lot of them. And here's what they would say,
basically. They'd say, well, we're saved by grace. It's all
Christ, but you've got to do this. You've got to do that.
You've got to keep this law. You've got to be circumcised.
But they claimed to be Christian. And they were probably more adept
in the scriptures than most of the Gentile believers because
the Jews, they grew up under the law of Moses and they had
the first five books of the Old Testament. Gentiles didn't grow
up that way. So they probably were impressive.
Sheep's clothing, they were in disguise. And remember Paul in
2 Corinthians 11, he said, you should not be amazed. that Satan's
ministers come disguised as ministers of righteousness. That should
not amaze you. Somebody says, but they say so
many good things. Old preacher named Scott Richardson
used to say, you know, there's good food in a garbage can, but
I'm not going down there to get it. And that's the way it is. Yeah,
that's the most deceptive. Now there are false prophets,
false preachers who aren't as deceptive. I've been watching
on television this series called Waco. You remember David Koresh,
Waco? Now he claimed to be the lamb.
He said he, David Koresh, told his people that he was the lamb
and he fooled probably about, I don't know how many were in
there, 40 or 50 people. Many of them children, you know.
But he didn't have a big following. He didn't fool a lot of people.
But he was a false prophet. Jim Jones, you remember Jim Jones?
We talk about drinking the Kool-Aid. We use that, that's kind of like
a popular phrase now. And that come from him. He moved
about, I don't know how many people he had. He had more than
Koresh. But they went over to South America
and drank poison Kool-Aid for that man. He fooled some people. He fooled more people than David
Koresh, but he didn't fool a lot of people. There are false preachers
on TV. There's a guy on TV now that's
selling some kind of spring water in a packet that you can drink
and it'll heal you. By the way, we got to watch for
our order on that. And people fall for that, don't
they? You've heard of these prosperity preachers. You know, you send
me $100, God's going to give you back $1,000. the prosperity
way of living, you've heard that. Health and wealth gospel. And
then let me tell you something now. You say, well, nah, nah,
they don't fool me. You know, people talk about Arminianism
and Calvinism. And I don't like to talk about
that because here's what I like, here's the way I like to put
it. I don't like to, you know, a lot of people don't know what
an Arminian is or You know, they think an Armenian is somebody
from Turkey or something like that, you know, but that's not
the same kind of Armenian. That's Armenian. This is Armenian
who followed the teachings of a Dutch preacher named Jacobus
Arminius. And it's free will religion. That man, he's a sinner, but
he's not as bad as some people say he is. He's got a spark of
good, and what we have to do is send preachers who are eloquent
and who are entertaining and who are emotional to fan the
spark of goodness and let it burst into a flame to where they'll
make a decision for Christ. You've heard of decisional regeneration,
the altar call, get them down, you know? All that kind, well,
that's false religion. Because that's not the way of
the God of the Bible. But you know, there are people
who are false preachers who can call themselves Calvinist too. They can follow what they call
Tula, but I'm not gonna go into all that. But there are some,
here's what Christ said in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. He said, as the
day of his second coming approaches, as we grow nearer to that day,
the greatest sign that that day is nearer or closer is false
Christianity. Read it in Matthew 24, Mark 13,
Revelation. That's the greatest sign. The
greatest sign of his second coming is not the drug culture or the
homosexual culture and all that. Now that's all part of it. But
that's always been a part of humanity. But the greatest sign
of his return is false Christianity. People claiming to be Christians
in name only, but not abiding in the doctrine of Christ, the
truth. And so when you see wolves in
sheep's clothing, that's what you've got to look at. Now, he
says inwardly, they are ravening wolves. Now I believe, you know,
I'm not a psychologist and I've long stopped trying to climb
into the heads of people and figure out their motives and
all of that because I, you know, I just don't know. I know a person
who believes and preaches and witnesses the gospel, the true
gospel, consistently and over a period of years, you know,
that their motive is for the glory of God because you're not
going to gain popularity with men preaching that. You're just
not going to. In other words, somebody told
me one time, said, well, you just want to get a following.
Well, if I do, I'm a failure. I better go read another book.
Maybe get Dale Carnegie's book. I don't know. But you see, you
don't preach the gospel for popularity because it's not popular. Again,
it leaves men and women no room to glory. You know, it's like a lady told
me one time years ago, she was walking up the bank, she said,
you don't have anything good to say about anybody. And I said,
well, I've got a lot of good to say about Christ. And he's
our hope. But I don't stand up here and
brag about us. Because that's not what this is about. So when
you think about people's motives, I'm sure there are false preachers
who pretty much know within themselves that they're shysters. You know,
they're in it for the money. And I don't know how they reconcile
that. I'm sure that a lot of these
guys who are false preachers who milk people for money, they
convince themselves that they deserve it because they're men
of God or women of God or whatever, I don't know. But here's the
thing about it. I believe most false preachers
are just as deceived as the people who are listening to them. Christ,
for example, he called the Pharisees blind leaders of the blind. They're
blind, They're blind leaders of the blind, and what do they
do? They fall where? Into the ditch together. They're deceived. But here's the thing about them.
You need to understand that even these wolves in sheep's clothing
who inwardly are ravening wolves, they can be among the most sincere,
dedicated preachers you'll ever meet, moral, outwardly. kind,
charitable, but their deception is only exposed, and their evil
motive is only exposed in light of the gospel. Tell them the
gospel. I had a couple of fellows who
claimed to believe the doctrines of sovereign grace in another
church here. Called me one day, wanted to
have lunch. They'd seen the TV program. One of them came by
and got one of the books. And we were having lunch and
conversation was going good until we got to the subject of Arminianism
and Calvinism. You say, well, what went south
there? Well, I shouldn't say going south. Everybody thinks
that's bad. You know, we're in the south. But what went wrong
there? I said, well, I told him, I said,
well, let's don't talk about Arminianism and Calvinism. Let's
talk about a false gospel and the true gospel. And I said,
Do you believe Arminianism is a true gospel? And they both
agreed, no. No, it's not a true gospel. But they both believed
they were saved when they heard it and believed it, and others
can be saved when they heard it. I said, that's a false gospel.
Now, look at what it says here. And that's no more conversation.
I don't want to talk to you anymore. No more. And that's where they're
exposed. So it takes the light of truth.
What did Christ say in John chapter three? This is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness and
hate the light. That's what it is. That's how
they're exposed. Well look here, now look at this.
He says in verse 16, you shall know them by their fruits. Do
men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? You're not
gonna get grapes from a thorn bush. You're not gonna get figs
from thistles. Verse 17, even so every good
tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. And look on verse 18. Now listen
to this. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit. It can't do it. Neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. So every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. That's
the fire of God's wrath. Wherefore by their fruit you
shall know them. By their fruit you shall know
them. Now how often have you heard that one? And what are
they mainly talking about when they quote it? Mainly what they're talking about,
here's a preacher, all right, you think about it. Here's a
preacher, we've known this in the past, you know, preachers
who have stood up and preached hard against sin. And then they're
caught in some sin. And people normally, they're
kind of forgiving, but that's the kind of fruits that people
think of. They think it's talking about their outward character
and conduct, their morality, their conversation, their way
of life in that sense. Now my friend, now listen to
me, certainly a believer, a true believer, a sinner saved by grace,
a true gospel preacher ought to live a life of morality and
responsibility and sincerity, all of that. And any preacher who claims to
be a believer but who just throws caution to the wind and never
has any repentance or sorrow over sin, never has been engaged
in the warfare of the flesh, that's a false preacher, that's
a hypocrite. But that's not what he's talking
about here. Listen, there are false preachers
who can go throughout their lives outwardly appearing Immaculate
to people. He's not talking about the fruit
of their works. He's not even talking about the
fruit of the spirit here in the sense that most people see it. You know what he's talking about?
He's talking about the fruit of God's grace as opposed to
the fruit of a false gospel. He's saying, look at it again.
You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes
of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree brings
forth good fruit. What is the good fruit there?
It's a sinner saved by the grace of God. Brought to faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works. Brought to submit to Christ's
righteousness as the only ground of justification. That's the
good fruit. And who produces that fruit? Christ does. That
good tree is Christ as he's presented in the gospel ministry. And what
he produces is nothing but good fruit and he cannot and will
not produce evil fruit. A false professor. That's what
the evil fruit is. A false profession under a false
gospel. So under the gospel ministry,
the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation, wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed, Christ is, remember he said in
John 15, he said, I'm the vine, you're the branches, and you'll
bear fruit, the fruit of faith in Christ, the fruit of repentance
of dead works, the fruit of the obedience of faith. And you can't see that by looking
at someone's outward character and conduct. David, King David, was part of
the good fruit that Christ produced as a sinner saved by grace. Abraham, every true believer,
you're that good fruit. You're not self-made. You're
not the captain of your salvation, the determiner of your own fate.
You're a product of the saving grace, power, and goodness of
Almighty God, for we are his workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in. And that's the only kind of fruit that Christ
produced. But now, a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
under the preaching of a false Christ, a false message, a false
gospel, the only thing that's gonna be produced under that
kind of tree is evil fruit, false professions of religion, false
professions of false Christianity. Verse 18, a good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit. Now, let me say this, I'll caution
you this way. That doesn't mean that under
the true preaching of the gospel, there can be no false professions.
There'll be, you know, I've had people listen. I had a band who
listened to me for 18 years who walked out of this church not
knowing the true gospel. Well, here's what the point is.
Christ didn't produce that. The gospel message didn't produce
that kind of thing because the good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit. That's just a sad situation where
God let him alone. But every tree, look here. Verse
19, every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn
down and cast into the fire. That's eternal damnation and
death. Wherefore, by their fruits you shall know. You see, under
the preaching of a false gospel, there'll be no good fruit. There'll
just be evil fruit. And under the preaching, of the
true gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the power
of God unto salvation, there'll be nothing but good fruit. Sinners
saved by grace through the blood and righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Okay.