If you turn with me in your Bibles,
please, to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7 and verse 13. 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. Beware of false prophets which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore
by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils? And in thy name done many wonderful
works? and then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Amen, may God bless to us this
reading from his word. I'm going to cheat a little with
my sermon this evening. We've been working our way through
the Sermon on the Mount and here we have come to Matthew chapter
7 and verses 13 to 23 and these are the verses that we will be
considering this evening together. But before I go there, I want
to look at the last two verses in this chapter, the last two
verses in chapter 7. Verse 28 says, and it came to
pass When Jesus had ended these sayings, that is all the sayings
that are in the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew chapter five
through to the end of chapter seven, came to pass when Jesus
had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his
doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority and not
as the scribes. These people were astonished
at the Lord Jesus Christ's preaching because he wasn't the same as
those other speakers that they were familiar with. They thought
they knew. They thought that they understood
the teachings of the Bible. Presumably they were concentrating
their own minds upon the Old Testament scriptures, the prophets
and the law, the books of Moses and the Psalms and the various
other texts there. They thought they knew what the
message was, what the lessons were that were to be gleaned
from these passages. Undoubtedly, the scribes would,
in their own way, be pretty meticulous when it came to setting out what
these passages meant. There was a long history, a long
tradition amongst the Jewish writers of commentaries upon
these passages, and they analysed them to the nth degree. questioning what this word meant
and what that word meant and how this law was to be applied
and how this prophecy might be fulfilled and whether it was
messianic or whether it had to do with something else, whether
they could read something into it about what would happen to
the Jewish people in a day to come. And all of these things
were taught and all of these things were rehearsed and they
were declared and preached week by week in the synagogues. But when the people sat down
on the hillside that day to listen to the Lord Jesus Christ, it
was so different. This was no longer the same old,
same old. Listening to the words that fell
from this man's mouth was astonishing. They were astonished. He spoke
about things which were beyond their comprehension, things which
they had no experience of, and he spoke with authority. He spoke as if he actually knew
what he was talking about. He spoke as if he had received
these things firsthand, that these were vital and real and
true. This wasn't just some restatement
of old, rehashed thoughts and traditions from bygone ages. And this wasn't the first time
that this had happened. Perhaps you'll remember with
me of the occasion when the leaders of the church sent their sheriffs
out to arrest Jesus. And they came back without him.
And they said, well, what's your explanation? We couldn't arrest him. We've
never heard anybody speaking like this man speaks. Remember when the Lord spoke
to Nicodemus, that old doctor of the law, I think probably
Nicodemus had read every single one of those commentaries. You
know all those old dusty books on the shelf about the doctors
that said this and the theologians that said that. I'm pretty sure
that Nicodemus knew them all. And the old doctor of the law
scratched his head and he couldn't understand what the Lord was
talking about. The Lord Jesus Christ effectively
said to Nicodemus that night when he visited him, effectively
said this, and I'm summarising, but let me take that prerogative. He said, salvation is of the
Lord. That's what he said, salvation is of the Lord. He said, the
wind blows where it listeth. You can hear the sound thereof,
but you don't know where it's coming from and you don't know
where it's going. That's sovereign grace. That's
God sending his Spirit upon the hearts of individuals and just
turning them around, turning them upside down, changing their
whole perspective, altering their whole demeanour, showing them
something they'd never seen before. And this is what the Lord Jesus
Christ did, whether it's in the Sermon on the Mount, whether
it's to the officers of the court, whether it was to Nicodemus. He spoke as one that had authority
because he spoke about things that he knew to be true and things
that he had seen and heard firsthand. He spoke of himself. And in John
chapter three, verse 12, he says to Nicodemus, if I have told
you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if
I tell you of heavenly things? Oh my. Wouldn't it be wonderful
to hear heavenly things? Eh? Wouldn't it be marvellous
to hear of these heavenly things? We get so preoccupied with earthly
things. What a wonderful thing it is
to dwell and to meditate upon heavenly things. Have we not
heard enough of this world already? Have we not heard enough of the
voices that clamour for our attention and the demands that are placed
upon our mind? Do we not get weary with the
noisiness of this world? It would be wonderful to be able
to just sit and listen to heavenly things. We know enough of this world
to know about its troubles and its trials, to know about its
sin, to know about its suffering, to know about the darkness and
the ignorance that pervades in this world. But tonight, I want to hear something
that will do my soul good. I want to hear something that
will speak of heavenly truth, something that falls from the
lips of the Lord Jesus himself. That will thrill my heart and
ease my mind and do my soul some good. And the wonderful thing
about it, friends, this evening is that We can come here on a
Wednesday night at seven o'clock, just a few of us, and we can
hear heavenly things. We can hear things that come
from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And there may
be 2,000 years intervening between the time when these people said,
never man spoke like this man. and us listening to the selfsame
words, but I tell you this, that it will rejoice our hearts to
hear them just the same as it did those men and women on those
days. It's my task this evening to
open up some of these heavenly things to you, to show you things
perhaps that you've never seen before, to point you to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it is my hope that you too
will be astonished at the things that the Lord Jesus Christ has
to say to you. Our Saviour, the blessed Lord
Jesus, he made three comments in this passage from Matthew
7, 13 to 23, that is before us tonight. Three things that I
want to refer to. And I'm going to take each of
them, these three words, as it were, or at least one of the
words from each of the three sections and use them a little
bit like a springboard. I want to take each one in turn.
Three things that speak not of this world, Not of all the problems
in this world, but things that speak of the world to come. Things that speak about heaven
and eternal things. Things that speak about how to
get to heaven and what difficulties we might encounter on the way. And a warning. to be careful
that we follow the right path and take the right road. Three words summarise these three
lessons. The words are these. Enter, beware
and depart. Enter, beware and depart. Let's take the first one first. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
in verse 13. Enter ye in at the straight gate. He's speaking about contrasts. He's contrasting two different
things. He's contrasting the many and
the few. the broad and the narrow, the
easy and the difficult or the hard. And he is setting up this contrast
in the minds of his listeners. Remember, this was a sermon.
People weren't reading these things from scrolls or out of
a book. This wasn't a discussion, this
was a sermon. This was the Lord Jesus Christ
as the preacher setting out these contrasts. And there's a loveliness
in the simplicity with which the Lord paints these word pictures
for the men and women around him to understand. If ever there
was a master of eloquent and yet simple preaching, it was
the Lord Jesus Christ. We read a little earlier from
John chapter 10. Could there be anything more
straightforward than the picture of sheep in a fold? We all know
what that is, almost naturally we've got an idea of what it
is for these sheep in the fold and we're not even living besides
sheep or engaged with sheep in which these people might have
been in their own day. And yet the pictures are so clear. They just have a brightness,
a colour to them which conveys the message and communicates
the things that Jesus had to say. And that's what he's doing
here. He is setting up an evident contrast
between true and false. True and false religion, true
and false faith. But I think it's very interesting.
the way in which the Lord does this. If this had been one of the scribes, or if this had been one of the
Pharisees, or if this had been one of the earthly teachers,
the ordinary teachers, speaking of earthly things, We might expect
advice to follow about following that which is right, doing that
which is good, turning our back on that which is evil, and rejecting
that which is false. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
no ordinary teacher, and he knows that heavenly matters are at
stake here. So the Lord isn't pointing these
men as to which way to take. He's not saying to them, now
this is the right way, this is the good way, this is the best
way, I want you to follow it. That's what an earthly teacher
would do. The Lord says, I am the way. The Lord says, I am the door. He says, I am the gate. He says,
this body, this person, this word, this one who I am, this
is the way. The Lord Jesus Christ is pointing
to himself. And when he says, enter ye in
at the straight gate, he is saying, come unto me. He is saying, I
am that gate. I am that door. We could paraphrase this another
way, in the words of the Lord. Because this is exactly and effectively
what he was saying to these people on this occasion, when he repeated
himself effectively in Matthew 11, verse 28, where he says,
come unto me. All ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. And that we recognise as a beautiful
text of invitation to those who are needy and weary and to have
a sense of their own sin before a holy God. Straight means narrow. Okay, it's spelt different in
our King James Version than the word which means that it's like
a long straight road without any curves or bends. And that's
because it is a different word. This word here means narrow. And he is speaking here about
the way that leads to life. And when he talks about it being
a narrow way, the meaning is that it is rare, that it is precious,
that it is exclusive, and that this rare and precious
way, this entering in, this gate that is straight, This coming
unto the Lord Jesus Christ himself, this is the precious entrance
into life. There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man. There are ways of living in this
world. There are ways of acting. There
are ways of going about the experience and the existence of life. And
men will always be ready to come up with their ideas of what is
best. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
saying that the ways of men lead to death. And the straight way,
the precious way, the way that is by Him alone is the way that
leads to life. He says that there is a broad
way. That broad way is able to encompass many people. but it
leads to destruction and many go in there at. We've discovered
that to be our own experience and I believe that the true Church
of Jesus Christ, that little flock, that remnant people, it
always appears that the Lord's people are few in any particular
place at any particular time. That's why I always think that
if we encounter another believer, another believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, another one person that has entered in to that gate
in our life's experience, then we should be saying hallelujah. Not complaining that there's
only a dozen of us here. Saying hallelujah 12 times. Because the Lord has given us
fellowship with like-minded believers here in this age. That's a wonderful
thing. Because it's a precious way. It's a narrow way. It's a rare
way. And few there be that find it. Oh, but the broad way. There
are many, many on the broad way. Many go in by a door. they think is Christ. This is the seriousness of the
situation. These people believe that they've
gone in by the way that is Christ, but it's a door of their own
making. It's a door of works. It's a door of free will. It's a door of self-righteousness
and it is a great and grievous error because it doesn't matter
what kind of religious activities we embark upon. Whether we worship
a statue, or we worship a natural phenomena, or we worship a creation
of our own mind, it doesn't matter what that might be. The natural
bent, the natural way of man's approaching to God is built upon
his own strengths and abilities, his own will and works. And the Lord Jesus Christ says
that will not do. You have to come by the straight
gate. You have to come by the door
of the sheep. You have to enter life through
me. It's the only way. We must come
to the Lord Jesus Christ through the means of God's sovereign
grace. It has to be understood, the
gospel of grace, the gospel of God's gift, God alone working
in the heart of men, has to be understood, for it is the only
way of life. In John chapter 6 verse 44 and
45, the Lord says, No man can come to me except the Father
which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the
last day. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. That's an important phrase, all
the Lord's phrases are important, but let me emphasise that one,
this one for a moment. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father, that's learned from the
Father, learned at the Father's instigation, and learned about
the Father, Everyone that has learned of the Father cometh
unto me. See, it's not even that the Lord
says, might come unto me or ought to come unto me. It's that if
we've learned of the Father, by that means of God the Holy
Spirit, opening, illuminating, revealing, quickening, If we
have had that regenerating, life-giving work of understanding in our
hearts, in our minds, then we will come. We will come to Christ
through that narrow gate. We have learned faith. We have learned grace and we
have learned that there is no good thing in ourselves. You see that's not, it's not
a, how do I say this? It's not just an optional thing
in Christianity that some people have learned to see no good thing
in themselves. It is of the essence of Christianity,
because we know there is nothing in us to recommend us to God. In fact, we know that what's
in us should, in truth, repulse God from us. And yet what we see is completely
the opposite. that because of his love, because
of his mercy, because it is all of grace, God has said, come
unto me. He has taught us, we have learned
of the Father and we come unto Christ. The narrow way is the
Lord Jesus Christ. The narrow way is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He himself leads us to life. And the Lord says, few there
be that find it. for all the religion that there
is, for all the talk of Christianity and Christ, for all the hymn
singing and the prayers, for all the Bible reading and the
liturgy, for all the traditions and the cultural baggage that
we bring up from our mother's knee in a Christian society or
a Christian country, few there be that find it. In Luke chapter 13 and verse
24, in a parallel passage to this in Matthew chapter 7, we're
told, These are incredible words. There are many who are seeking
to enter in and shall not be able. There are many who aspire
to go to heaven. There are many who long to know
that they are God's servants, God's people. There are many
who would claim to be the Lord's people. This is their will. They will. Seek to enter in and shall not
be able. So here is the first heavenly
word for us tonight. Make sure that the way in which
we go, make sure that the gate by which we enter, make sure
that that whom we look to as the only way of salvation, is
the precious, rare Lord Jesus Christ himself, for there is
no other way. Why is it that this is hard? Why is it that few find it? Well, the answer to that is quite
straightforward as well. because men and women do not
know the truth. Salvation must be all of grace,
and it must be nothing of works, nothing of law, nothing of our
doing to recommend ourselves to God. It must be all of God
himself. But the reality is that men always
want to do something for themselves. It's just the way it is. Just
our nature. Just the duplicity of man's heart. We always want to be seeing and
doing something for ourselves. Let me make a contribution. Let
me add something to that. Let me be part of this with you. Let us work together. Let us
make something of this that we both bring something to. It's deep, deep in man's heart. not to go to God by the way of
blood atonement. That was Cain's problem. And
it has been the problem of men ever since. Let me show you what
I've made. Let me show you what I've grown.
Let me show you what I've done. Let me give you something that's
mine. And that's what people think.
These are they of whom the Lord spoke in John 10. They are the
thieves and the robbers. They're the ones that want to
climb up another way. They're wanting to enter the
sheepfold on their own terms. The gate is there, but they will
not come by the gate, for they will not come by the terms. that that entrance requires. They want to climb up another
way. They do not want to use the door,
but the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find
pasture. Why should there be any confusion
about that? Let me put it another way. Why
is that message not clearly declared from every single pulpit in every
single church in every single town and city of this land? Because of false prophets. Because false prophets come in
sheep's clothing. but inwardly they are ravening
wolves. They don't pray for the sheep,
they pray on the sheep. They exploit man's desire to
contribute to their own salvation. Do you hear that? These false
prophets know their audience. They know how to enrich themselves. They know how to ingratiate themselves
with their hearers. These people have heaped to themselves
preachers having itching ears. These people exploit man's desire
to contribute to their own salvation. That innate desire that we have
to give something to God, to do something for His favour,
to be engaged together with Him, to make ourselves better. These
people prey on that. These people encourage that.
These people build their own platforms, their own popularity
and prestige, their own power base built upon that very doctrine. They preach what men want to
hear. They preach what is popular.
They preach what is entertaining. and they preach what is deceiving. And that brings us to the second
word from the Lord. Beware. Beware. Beware of false prophets. False prophets. Are there such
things today? Absolutely. Absolutely yes, there
are false prophets today. Any and all who preach a false
gospel are false prophets. Any who teach a way of approaching
God other than by the free grace of God in Jesus Christ are false
prophets. Everyone who preaches that you
can find peace and happiness and eternal life apart from resting in the shed
blood and righteousness of God in Christ are false prophets. And how will I know if what I'm
hearing is true or false? Well, you just have to listen.
That's all. You just have to listen. Do they
preach Christ or do they preach man? Do they preach works or
do they preach grace? Do they preach law or do they
preach gospel? And look at their converts. Are
these converts the humble recipients of God's mercy and free grace? Or are they the self-righteous
workmongers? who think they're better than
everyone else and who strut and who prayed and who carry their
religion on their sleeves as if they've attained and they're
better and they're sure and certain of all that they're saying. Not those who are meek and humble
in spirit, Not those who have seen what it is to be persecuted
and endured the hardship of this life. Not those who have been
broken down to the very point where they know they are absolutely
nothing and all that they have left is a simple trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ. For if he will do them good,
then they have all that they need. And if he will not, then
they are absolutely nothing. These people, these false prophets,
are they bringing forth good fruit or evil fruit? Does their message calm your
soul Or does it make you feel you're not doing enough as they
whip you along the broad road that leads to destruction? It
really isn't that difficult, friends, to discern where the
false prophet and the true is to be found. You don't get figs
from thorn trees. You listen to what they say.
And if you can listen to them for any length of time and feel
peace in your heart and comfort in your soul, then you go on
listening. And if they twist you up and
send you out wishing that you could hear something good and
something heavenly, then you need to seek out a true gospel
preacher and a true gospel church. By their fruits ye shall know
them, says the Lord. And the Lord's own people will
not be deceived. The Lord's people will not be
deceived. But here's the thing. He goes
on to say that there shall be many who are deceived. Many who make this biggest of
all mistakes, this biggest mistake in your whole life, in the whole
world. What will it be like, I wonder,
for those who have travelled the broad way, all of their lives,
thinking that they are right with God, believing that they
have done enough, assuming that the God of all love and mercy
will accept them at that final judgment, only to hear at the
end of their lives, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work
iniquity. What a terrible thing that will
be to hear those words. To have lived your whole life
assuming you were all right, only to hear those words at the
end. And here's the third word. Depart. Depart. What? No heaven? Depart. No eternal life? Depart. No joy, no peace, no
love of God? Depart from me. I never knew
you. These people said, he speaks
as one that has authority. You want to know what authority
is? Get out of here. I don't know you. They've lived
their whole lives thinking that they've been obedient to God.
And the last command that they will hear from him is get out
of my sight. This is serious. It's so serious that I don't
think I know more frightening verses in the whole of this book. We've seen some lovely verses
in this sermon, haven't we? This Sermon on the Mount, we've
seen some glorious verses. Verse 21 says this, chapter 7. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, Have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils? And in thy name done many wonderful
works? Look at these people. Look at
them. These people, they want to enter
heaven. They're pleading at the door
of heaven. They have a will to be there. Oh, they're exercising their
free will, all right. They have a will to be there. But they can't enter in. They have the vocabulary of faith. They know the words to speak.
They know how to say, Lord, Lord. They know how to appeal to God. They've been praying all their
lives. They've been singing hymns all
their lives. They know all about this faith. They know all about the religious
practice of their Christian walk. They say, Lord, Lord. and they've got a testimony.
They've got a pedigree. They have wonderful works. Or so they think. Wonderful works. Lord, look at
all the wonderful works that we have done in your name. We said it a little bit earlier.
Strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you,
will seek to enter in and shall not be able. And here's the problem. The ground of hope is not the
Lord Jesus Christ, but it is themselves. it's their works,
it's their efforts, it's their achievements, it's their religion,
it's their prophesying. These people even claim to have
cast out demons. Now it's an interesting thing
that there are people around in our own days, these charismatic
groups or Pentecostal groups or just guys that are setting themselves
up without any denominational affiliation whatsoever, but they're
talking about power. They're talking about miraculous
events. They're talking about healings
and deliverances. They're talking about amazing
things that they are seeing, that they are hearing, that they
are party to. These have cast out demons. Cast
out demons in the name of the Lord. I don't know, maybe you could
say that they've got converts. Maybe that's a way of interpreting
casting out demons. Maybe they've got big numbers
that follow them. Maybe they've got big congregations
that are established and achieving things and accomplishing things
and making a difference, changing the world. And the Lord says, depart, I
never knew you. Thoroughly steeped in man-made
religion, and missed Christ right at the very start. They walked
right past the door. They walked right past the gate. They did not, they would not,
they could not enter in and now they cannot enter into heaven. Why was that? Because their works
got in the way. Now if you are wise tonight,
You'll ask yourself some serious questions. Simply on the back
of these verses, God help me not to be a hypocrite. God, teach us and make us wise
unto salvation. If you are wise, you will be
asking, what must I do to be saved? And the Lord Jesus Christ gives
us the answer in this passage. It wouldn't be a sermon if he
didn't do that. It wouldn't be good news, it
wouldn't be gospel if it was otherwise. Shame on those men
that pound on their people hour after hour, Sunday after Sunday,
week after month, after year. and never once give them the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Shame on them. Shame on those who are always
whipping and never applying the oil of free grace, the ointment,
the healing balm of Gilead. Matthew 7, 21 says, Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven. That's it, that's the gospel. That's the way of life, to do
the will of the Father which is in heaven. He that doeth the
will of my Father which is in heaven. Now I write Ichabod over the
house of every preacher who applies that verse to the law of God. The will of the Father which
is in heaven is not Moses' law. The glory, if ever it was present
from that pulpit, from that preacher, from that church, has long ago
departed. What is it then to do the Father's
will? Well, what does the Lord Jesus
Christ say? John 6, 40, this is the will
of him that sent me. that everyone which seeth the
Son, and believeth in him, may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up at the last day. This is the will of him
that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, That is, sees
the Lord Jesus Christ lifted up. What did the Saviour say?
I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto me, lifted up the
Lord Jesus Christ in the preaching of the gospel. Everyone that
sees the Lord Jesus Christ lifted up, everyone who has eyes to
see the Lord Jesus Christ lifted up in the gospel, and believeth on him, accepts,
understands, learns from on high, learns from God the Holy Spirit
through a quickening heart, through an understanding soul, what it
is to trust and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, have everlasting
life. What does Paul say? Believe the
truth of the gospel. Believe the truth of the Lord
Jesus Christ and you will be saved. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse
3, For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that
ye should abstain from fornication. What is fornication? Well, I
guess we know what fornication is at one level. But it's more
than that. It's following idolatry. It's
following wrong doctrine. It's engaging in the errors of
this world. It is seeing something that is
holy, something that is good, something that is pure, something
that is right. And then because of the lust
of the flesh, chasing after something else. That's fornication. abstain from fornication, abstain
from these idolatrous preachers, abstain from these false prophets,
abstain from this erroneous preaching, and follow after that straight
gate. Oh, to be able to see the Lord
Jesus Christ in everything. to be able to thank him for all
his ways and his providences and his plans and his purposes. To be able to say, thank you,
Lord, for your grace and your mercy. Thank you for your salvation
to me. Thank you for the mercy. Thank
you for the everlasting, infinite love. Thank you for the plan
of salvation that came to a sinner like me and redeemed me out of
the pit of hell and put my feet upon a solid rock. Thank you,
Lord, for all that you have ever done for me. For though I am
unworthy, Yet I am blessed indeed. That's the will of God for his
people. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18 says,
In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. These who give thanks to God
for his great love and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ, these
are they who enter into the kingdom of heaven. These are they who
are raised on the last day. These are they who enter by that
straight gate, which is Christ, who find the peace of God. Brethren, let us enter. Let us walk upon that road. Let us beware of every false
prophet and false teaching. Let us thank God in Christ. We shall never hear that word,
depart from me. Rather, the Lord's people will
rejoice with everlasting praise and thanksgiving when we hear
those blessed words of welcome. His Lord said unto him, well
done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful
over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. Amen.