I just want to read two verses,
Matthew 7 and verse 13 and verse 14. 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 direct. Because
straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it." Our Lord, the best I can
tell here from this Sermon on the Mount, He ends it really
in the twelfth verse. We didn't look closely at that
before, if we looked at it at all, but He seems to end this
sermon here in verse twelve. But being the preacher that He
is, the preacher that he was. If Spurgeon can be called the
prince of preachers, then here is the king of preachers, because
he is an excellent preacher. He speaks to the heart. I love
the way this sermon ends. He taught them as one having
authority and not as the scribes. But he ends basically what he
had instructed us to do there in chapter 5, And 6 and here
through verse 12, and now what he does, he spends the rest of
this chapter exhorting us, encouraging us, and warning us. Let me catch us up just for a
little bit, an overview of what we've seen, because I think it's
so important. The Lord began this sermon all
the way back in chapter 5, and he told us what a Christian is,
not what he ought to be, not what he ought to do, but what
he is. What is a Christian? He's a broken
man, ain't he? He's a man who is poor in spirit. And he went on to say he was
a man who mourns. He's a meek man, a humble man. He's a man who hungers and thirsts
after righteousness. He's a man whose heart is clear
with God, who is pure with God. He's a man who to some degree
is persecuted for righteousness' sake. He's the salt of the earth. He's the light of this world.
Now that's what the church is. That's what it is. And then he
goes on from there and tells us that the Christian attitude
is not contrary to the demands of God's law. That he cannot
harbor ill feelings and ill will against another man in his heart. It's not the Christian way. He
cannot do it. If you have ought against your
brother, you cannot worship God. If your brother has ought against
you, leave, as it were, your worship of God. Remember we looked
at that? And go be reconciled to your
brother. Don't say, I love God, while we have hatred in our hearts
towards our brother. And then he goes on in the fifth
chapter, and he instructs us in this matter of our daily speech
to be honest in what we say. Don't be making oaths, but let
your yea be yea, and let your nay be nay. And then he teaches
us, there in that fifth chapter, if it's necessary to bear persecution
in those times that it is, then bear it patiently. Don't resist
it. Pray for those who persecute
you, and bless those who would curse you. And then he goes on
in the sixth chapter, And He teaches us that our lives must
be lived as it were in the secret presence of God. We look at that
with Him in the alms that we do, our good deeds. Don't let
your left hand know what your right hand is doing. When you
pray, do it in secret to your Father. When you fast, fast before
God. All that you do, do it in the
secret presence of God. Then he teaches us there in the
sixth chapter to think rightly of this world, this world's possessions. Don't let them possess you. You
possess them. And use them for God's glory.
Use them for the good of His people. Lay up treasures in heaven
with what God's blessed you with in this world. Then He tells
us there in the 6th chapter also, instructs us concerning this
matter of weariness. What a powerful thing it is.
And how sometimes it gets a hold of us and drags us down. And
He gave us the remedy for that weariness. Remember what it was?
Trust your Heavenly Father, the one who feeds the fowls of the
air and clothes the grass of the field. Cast all your care
upon Him. He cares for you. Only one way
to shake ourselves from this awful worry. Then he goes on
here in chapter 7, you and I studied, and he has to do with this critical
attitude towards others. Always condemning. Always judging
others. And he reminds us that we ourselves
will be judged. And then he begins to end this
sermon with this encouraging note, and it makes us to realize
that Jesus Christ knows us. He knows our weakness. He knows
our inability. He knows our ignorance. So he
begins to close this message with this word to us, ask. and
you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened." Encouraging us to pray for grace and mercy. And now he comes here to our
text, and he exhorts us, he encourages us, he even warns us regarding
the message that he just preached to us in this sermon on the Mount. And you'll notice here he doesn't
pull any punches, does he? He doesn't come and say, I preached
this sermon to you, now you'll see how easy it is to be a Christian. He doesn't say that at all, does
he? He won't deceive us. He tells us now this way is difficult. The gate is narrow. The way that
we'll walk is narrow. And then he goes on here in verse
15 and verse 20, and he warns us concerning false prophets.
Isn't it very telling that just as he mentions the gate, that
it's a narrow gate and the way is narrow, that he mentions these
false prophets. I've heard Brother Glenn say
so often the reason he mentions false prophets is because they
hang around the gate, don't they? They keep people from entering
the way of life. And the Lord Jesus warns us that
these false prophets are out to make the gate wider than it
is. They're out to make the way broader
than what it is. They're out to get more on this
way and through the gate than the Bible will get through the
gate and on the way. So He says you judge them by
their fruits. He says, I'm preaching this message,
and basically he says this, if those come to you preaching contrary
to my sayings, then they're not good preachers. They may look
good, they may even look like sheep, but within, they're rabbits
and wolves. And then look what he does in
verse 21. He warns us of this business of talk. Don't deceive
ourselves with talk. Look what he says. Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father. Not everyone that
saith. Talk is cheap. We often hear
that phrase, don't we? But you know the kingdom of God
is not in word. It's in power. We can deceive
ourselves by talking, just talking. The kingdom of God is not saying,
it's doing. The kingdom of God is not talking
about the gate, it's entering the gate. The kingdom of God
is not talking about the way, it's walking the way. The kingdom
of God is not talking about faith, the kingdom of God is believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart. It's not talking
about the will of God. It's hungering and thirsting
for the will of God, and believing it, and doing the will of God.
It's not talking. It's not talking. And look here
at what he says in verse 22. He warns us, there are people
that would falsely use his name, but to no profit. Many will say
to men that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your
name? In your name we've cast out devils. In your name we've
done many wonderful works. There's men who will abuse the
name of Jesus Christ just like the Pharisees and the scribes
twisted and abused the moral law. We don't read anywhere in all
this sermon where the Lord told people to trust because they
preached the message. They preached the sermon. And
here's people trusting on the edge of it. Did we not preach?
Did we not prophesy in your name? Nowhere in this sermon do we
find anywhere that He said, you know, you cast out devils. But
yet that's what they said. And look how they bragged about
their good works. The Lord had just said, don't let your left
hand know what your right hand's doing. But yeah, they did, didn't
they? In His name. In His name. His name is a saving name, but
his name can be abused, can't it? It has to. And then he ends
this with this. In verses 24 through verse 27,
he ends the message with saying this. There's only one way that
you can endure to the end and be saved. And he says that's
by digging down deep, digging all the way down to the rock
and building upon the foundation of my words, my sayings. Get these sayings down deep in
your heart. That's what he's saying. Build upon the foundation. Let your faith rest upon my sayings. Let your practice be according
to my sayings. And then when the storm comes,
when the rains descend, The gully washers come. The winds beat
upon your house. You'll stand. You'll stay. And those who just play religion,
those who just say, Lord, Lord, and do not the will of the Father,
when trials come, when tribulations come, when rains come, it will
take their house away. And great will be the fall of
their house. So there's what he's saying. He stopped his message,
but now he exhorts us, he warns us, and he encourages us to take
heed to his message. Enter ye in at the straight gate. Notice what he does immediately.
immediately injects this negative, and he says, Why? Why you must
enter in at the straight gate? For wide is the gate, and broad
is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in
there and out. But look how awakening these verses are. It is because
the Lord Jesus sets one thing over against another thing. These
things are opposed one to another. We have a straight gate, we have
a wide gate. We have a narrow way, we have
a broad way. We have a way that leads to life,
we have a way that leads to destruction. We've got many and we've got
few. Those things are very awakening, aren't they? Straight is the
gate. Not straight as in S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T. In a sense, that has the meaning
that it's not crooked. But this word straight means
more of difficulty. It means you've got yourself
in a jam. You're in a tight spot. Larry
would say, we've got a situation here, wouldn't he say? We've
got a situation. This is a difficult place. That's
what it is. It's difficult. I think I'll
read you two or three places where this word is used. And
if you want to look it up in the Old and New Testament, every
place you see this word straight used, He explains himself better
than the definition does. Let me give you two or three
examples. In the days of King Saul, when Saul was first anointed
king, he got himself together 3,000 soldiers. That's all the
army he had. And his son Jonathan wanted to fight. And he took
1,000 soldiers and built a little garrison of the Philistines.
And the whole nation of the Philistines came against those 3,000 men.
And they looked out over the Philistines and they had 30,000,
get this, 30,000 chariots. They had about 6,000 men on horses. And all the soldiers that were
around them, they couldn't even number them, there were so many.
And the scripture says this, they saw that they were in a
strait. That's the same word that you
hear. Can you imagine if you're standing there with 3,000 men,
they're in a strait. That's what this word means.
They're in a strait. And they got so scared, they
ran and hid themselves in the thickets and the holes and the
pits. They even jumped into the pits,
but I didn't. They were in a strait, a difficult situation. Enter
ye in at the strait gate. And another time when David had
sinned against the Lord, and the Lord sent Gad, the prophet,
to him. He said, David, you sinned, and
I'm going to give you three choices. I'll let you pick the stripes.
He said, do you want me to send seven years of famine? Do you
want to flee three months before your enemy? Or do you want me
to send three days of pestilence? And you know what David said?
I'm in a great strait here. I'm in a great strait. I just
don't know what to do. This is difficult. That's this
same word. And we find it in the New Testament
where the Apostle Paul said, I'm in a strait betwixt two.
I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
better. But it's needful to abide here
in the flesh with you. I'm in a strait. The Lord Jesus
said you're entering in at the strait gate, this compressed
gate. It's a difficult gate. And immediately
he gives this negative. What's the alternative? What's
the alternative to entering this difficult, compressed gate? Well,
the alternative is this. Wide is the gate, and broad is
the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in
thereat. That's the alternative. It's
either Christ or the devil. It's either heaven or hell. It's
sin or righteousness. It's turn to burn. There's no
option, is there? There's no middle place. There's
no other gate. The narrow gate, broad gate. I imagine and I can almost see
the Lord Jesus standing here on this mountain. And he's talking
here about this wide gate, this straight gate, the wide gate.
And he's talking about the broad way. And I like to imagine sometimes
that he's looking eastward and talking about the broad gate
and the wide, wide way that leads to destruction and many going
in. And I like to think he pointed
and beckoned over towards Old Babylon. There where Abraham
came out of and where where the great king bragged about what
a great city. That place was greatly populated.
We know it now as Iraq and Iran and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. That place was greatly populated
then and it was filled with idolatry. Worship of devils. Superstition. And you can look south. The Lord
Jesus turned and looked south, down toward Jesus. The large
nation of Africa. It was full of superstition and
devil worship. And he looked across the Mediterranean
Sea, over into Spain and up into Italy. And what was there but
paganism? All over Asia that you and I
know now as Turkey. And all it was was a Broadway. Look at the men, look at the
multitude on this Broadway. I like to think, as you and I
look around us today, considering our own generation, that we can
see just what the Lord Jesus saw in his generation. When you
and I look around us today, brothers and sisters, Look in South America,
all those nations. I've been there in one of those
nations. And all it is is Catholicism.
All it is is idolatry. Those nations as a whole in South
America are giving over to Catholicism. Here in America, look around
us. Look up in Canada. Look at Russia. Look at China.
And look at the nation of Israel. Look at all the other countries.
And what do you and I see in this day? It leaves little doubt
that this gate is wide, and the way is broad, and many, many
multitudes of people are on this way. Just look around us today,
and it leaves no doubt. This way must be broad, and the
gate must be wide. But not only consider those there's
no doubt of. There's people we have no doubt
of, isn't there? Consider these here, the Lord
is preaching to at this time, who professed Him. They weren't
heathens. They didn't live in open and
profane sins. Some of them said, Lord, Lord. But even among those who professed
Him, you know what He said about them? There's tars among the
weak. There's goats among the sheep. There's the foolish virgins among
the wise. The Apostle Paul said, Many walk,
of whom I have told you often, and tell you even with them,
though they profess Christ, they are the enemies of the cross.
And Paul said, They profess to know God, but in works they deny
Him, being abominable and reprobate. In other words, In other words,
take all the nations of people who are on the broad road, and
there's no doubt. But then take those who do profess
the Lord Jesus Christ, and multitudes of those are living without a
second interest in Him. And you add all of these together,
and the gate must be wide. The way has to be broad to get
all these multitudes that's entering this gate, and that is walking
this way. And I tell you, the gate is so
wide that a Jehovah Witness and a Muslim can enter it together
and never touch one another. Never have any association one
with another. And yet through the same gate,
walk in the same way. That's how broad it is. It covers
every life that's outside the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, they're
envious. Yeah, they're envious. But the
way is so broad, they don't even have to talk to each other. Verse 14. Look at this. Straight
is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. And few there be that find it."
In what sense can it be said here that the gate is straight
and the way is narrow? Well, in this sense, in regard
to truth, in regard to the doctrine of God, it's straight and it's
narrow. And you say, Bruce, what do you
mean? Well, I mean this, there's one God. There's just one mediator
between God and man. There's one Lord, one faith,
and one baptism. That's pretty narrow, ain't it?
There's one Creator, there's one Savior, there's one Judge,
there's one Justifier, there's one Blood that can cleanse, there's
one Righteousness that can clothe, there's one Spirit that can regenerate
and teach and reveal the deep things of God. There's one way
of salvation. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. There's one name under heaven
whereby we must be saved. We must. We must be saved. How can we be saved? There's
one way. The Lord Jesus Christ. You say, Bruce, that's awful
manner. That's what he's telling us. That's what he's telling
us. I told you a while back that
I was going to watch some of those specials if I could find
when they were on. Bill Moyers, some of you may
not know him, he's on PBS sometimes. He's had these programs, several programs, on
faith and reason. And he had a Jewish author the
other night that had written about Simpson. And he was talking
with him, and those two men came to this conclusion. Here's the
conclusion those two men came to. That absolute truth, you
and I have absolute truth. Is there such thing as absolute
truth? Is truth relative? Just as it suits your situation,
truth for the last generation is not necessary truth for our
generation. Is truth relative or is it absolute? They said absolute truth corrupts
absolute. They agree with that. See why the Master said straight
is the gate, narrow is the way. We got truth. One poet I was
reading last week, he said, a man is awful ignorant and awful uncharitable
to think that he has the truth, all the truth on his side. We're
not talking about our side, are we? What about Jesus Christ? Does He have all truth on His
side? Here is why He said, the gate
is straight, the way is narrow, because of absolute truth. You can't get around it. You
can't get in the gate without it. And you can't walk the straight
and narrow way without it. Truth. Absolute truth. It may
sound stupid, it may sound uncharitable to believe there's salvation
in none other but the dear and blessed Son of God. But He said
it. He said it. That's not my word. That's not my truth. That's His.
And if you're going to call anybody stupid for being that narrow,
you call Him stupid. Because He said it, didn't He? And He said, if you don't bow
to it, love Me and will Me and believe Me, And that just shows
you're on the broad way. But secondly, it can be called
straight and narrow in regards to this salvation that's in Christ.
There's only salvation in Christ, but how to obtain that way? I
tell you, how do you obtain Jesus Christ? How do you obtain forgiveness
that's in Him? How you made the righteousness
of God in him? You know what the Scripture says?
Except you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins. Philip went and joined himself
to that Ethiopian Union. Now, here's how straight this
is. He was reading in the prophet Isaiah. He is led as a lamb to
the slaughters, the sheep before the shepherds is done. He said,
do you understand who that's talking to? He said, this is
the prophet or some other man. And Philip began right there
at that place and preached unto him Jesus' name. Jesus is the
one that was crucified. Jesus is the one whom God put
upon him our Savior. He's the one that was cut off
out of the Lamb of God. They stopped that chariot and
that Ethiopian said, here's water, can I be baptized? And Philip
said, if you believe with all your heart, you can. Believe
what? Believe what? Now there's been
a lot of men rejected right here. It's the only place where a man
can be forgiven. It's the only place where God
will accept a man. Believe what? The Jews believed that Christ
wasn't enough, didn't they? They said, we've got to have Christ,
but we've got to keep the law of Moses. We've got to have Christ,
but he's not really enough. And Philo said, what do you believe
about him? He said, I believe this, the
man that you just preached to me, that was wounded for my transgression,
was bruised for my iniquity, the man whom God punished in
my stead, the man who was cut off and yielded up the ghost
on that cross, I believe with all my heart that man was the
Son of God." And you know what Philip said to him? Man, that's
saving faith. That's a faith of God's in man.
You've entered this gate. Ain't that what he said? You
got in this gate. How does a man get in this gate?
By faith alone, dear brothers and sisters. It's not by praying,
though you pray. It's by believing wholeheartedly
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where man gets in this
gate. He that believeth not is condemned already. He that believeth
on him hath everlasting life. He that believeth not shall not
see life. He's on the broad road to destruction. That's the gate. That's the gate.
That's the gate. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. It's faith, ain't it? It's faith.
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That'll save you, dear soul.
That'll save your soul. Go thy way, thy faith has saved
you. Go your way, your faith has made
you whole. And thirdly, consider the Christian
experience. And when we do, we'll see. This
is a straight gate, a very narrow way that we walk on. You say,
Bruce, what do you mean? Look at the very beginning of
this message where the Lord Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in
spirit. Blessed are those who stand as
it were before God. With a knowledge that they're
beggars. That they have nothing. They
cannot commend themselves to God. They're broken. Brother
Larry prayed back in the present. Being broken. Being broken. Do you know very many people
that's broken before God? They have nothing to offer Him.
They have nothing to bring Him. They come as beggars. They come
as lepers. They come having an issue of
blood. You don't meet people like that. Lord, lift up this
beggar from the dunghill. Save me. Have mercy on me. There's
few, isn't there? There's few in experience who's
entered this gate. There's not many people concerned
with their relationship with God. They don't, by grace, seek
to live out this sermon on the mount in their lives. They hear
nothing in their daily lives about pleasing God. These sayings of Christ has nothing
to do with them. They'll come to church on Sunday
sometime. But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, it's a different day. That's their day. They take the
Lord's Day literally. That's the only day. But how
many people do you see on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and
Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday, and their heart's broken? Their
baggage still before God. They're hungry and thirsty. when we consider truth and practice. Boy, I tell you, the gate is
straight, and the way is narrow, and you'll see a few people on
it. You'll see a few people on it. You know the Christian life,
in a way, it's a lonely life, ain't it? I mean, it begins that way. You
take a poor sinner that the Lord has smitten his heart, showed
him his sin, Whole people don't want to be
around sick people. Sinners that don't have any idea
of what they are before God, they don't like to be around
broken-hearted people. They want Him to get away and
shut up, blind Bartimaeus, just shut up. We don't want to hear
that. It's a lonely life, ain't it? You take a poor sinner under
conviction, go into an average church and start crying over
his sin, that ain't going to have nothing to do with that
man. It's a lonely life. It begins.
You know there's just room enough for you to get through the gate
to yourself. You can't take nobody in with you. You can't even take
anything in with you. If you've got any baggage, you've
got to pull it off to get through the gate. It's a compressed gate. You just get through to the tent
skin of your teeth. There's where you lay everything
aside and lay hold of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The gate itself. And you get on this way. You
get on this way. Just as you can walk, it's so
mannerly. You have to walk it by yourself. And it's lonely
sometimes, ain't it? It's lonely. But oh, thank God,
where does it end? Where does it end? It ends in
eternal life. Life eternal. What an end. It may be narrow. Yes, it is.
And I bless His name for telling us that. And bless His name for
giving us grace to walk it, though we see such failures and sin
in ourselves. Bless God for forgiveness and
grace and mercy. But the end is life everlasting. And when the Lord said, few there
find, few there be that find it, He means in comparison. Because I'm telling you, there's
going to be more than a few there. He said they're going to come
from the east, they're going to come from the west, they're
going to come from the north, they're going to come from the
south. There's going to be a multitude. And they're going to come and
sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they're going
to rest, and they're going to eat, and they're going to lie,
and they're going to rejoice, and talk about the Lamb that
saved them, and washed them, and laid them white in His blood.
Yes, the gate, the gate's straight. And if you're in it, you know
it's been difficult. The way, the way is narrow. And if you want a way that's
easy, just walk like you were born. Just walk with a crown,
you'll be welcome there. But if you want to go to heaven,
if you want to go to God, if you want life eternal in the
end, that's just where you've got to come. You ain't going
to throw His Word behind your back and say, I've got my own
way. You know what way your way is?
That's a way that seemeth right. But what's the end? Death. Death. Man's ways are the ways
of death. The devil's ways are the ways
of death. You want to be saved? You want
life eternal? Come right here. Here's where
you begin. Get along with the Lord. Get
along with God. And say, Give me life. I give
myself up to you. I'm yours. Save me. Give me life. I give you myself. Give me yourself. And whatever His will is, do
it. Do it. By His grace, do it. Enter ye
in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is
the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in
therein. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that
follow." Let's pray. Father, we do thank You. Our
Lord, we do praise You. We bless you for your honesty.
You cannot lie. You will not lie to us. You will
not deceive us. And Lord, we're thankful that
you're so up front with us. You pull no punches with us.
You tell us what we face. And you tell us we can only face
it by the grace that you give us. And there's grace abounding. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. You bring us to You. You shut
us out and make us to know we cannot be a Christian unless
You make us one. We cannot walk the Christian
way or live the Christian life. We cannot serve God and worship
Him apart from the Holy Spirit. You've told us these things.
Salvation is not of man, it's of the Lord. And You've brought
us to Yourself. We take our hands off of ourselves
and cast our poor souls, our broken souls, upon you. Save
us, Lord. Save us for your sake. Thank
you for this dear people who love you, who seek your will,
who hope in you. I pray that you will bring others
to the Lord Jesus Christ to find life in Him. In His name we pray. Amen.