Matthew 7, you recognized immediately,
I'm certain, that these are the closing words of our Lord's great,
magnificent Sermon on the Mount. Closing words of the Sermon on
the Mount. And in closing his message, he
issues four severe, solemn, and serious warnings. I'm going to
bring two of them this morning and two Wednesday night. He warns
us in verse 13 against following the crowd,
following the crowd, conformity, the majority. He says in verse
13, enter ye in at the straight gate. Wide is the gate and broad
is the way that leadeth to destruction, to death and condemnation. And
the crowd, the many, the majority, go in there. They travel that
road and go through that gate. Because straight is the gate
and narrow is the way which leadeth to life. Few there be that find it. Now, it's difficult to stand
alone. It's difficult to stand with
the few who believe God and be despised, literally despised
by the many. That's not easy. It's difficult to be true and
honest with the Word of God and true to the doctrines of Christ,
the doctrine of Christ. which is hated by religionists,
despised by the majority of people. Doctrine of substitution, doctrine
of the cross, doctrine of God's sovereign grace, particular redemption. It's not easy to be true to the
word of God that is despised and rejected by most religious
people. And it's difficult. To worship
God in spirit and truth and believe, absolutely contrary to the way
your family believes, the way your relatives believe, the way
your neighbors believe, totally contrary. Our worship is not
contemporary, it's scriptural. Our worship is not of men, organizations,
or doctrines. It's of God, Christ. Our doctrine
is a doctrine of grace, grace alone, Christ alone, faith alone. Not organizations, traditions,
or forms, but Christ. And that's not the way your family
and your relatives, my family, my relatives, that's not the
way they worship. That's not what they believe. It's difficult. It's difficult. But this is what
our Lord is saying here now. Enter ye in at the straight gate,
because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and that's the way the many are going. That's the
way they're traveling. Because, now watch this, straight
is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life. Now what
does a straight gate and narrow way mean? It doesn't mean that
salvation is a secret. Paul said to the king before
whom he witnessed, this wasn't done in a corner. You know about
Jesus of Nazareth. This whole world talked about
Jesus of Nazareth this week. It's not a secret. Life eternal,
salvation in Christ Jesus is not hidden from view, it's open.
It's open to all who listen. It's open to all who will learn.
It's open to all who will study. It's free to all who thirst.
It's proclaimed to the whole world. Christ said to his disciples,
Go into all the world and preach the gospel. He that believes and is baptized
will be saved. He that believes not will be
damned. But tell them all. Our Lord stood one day and said,
Come unto me, all ye that labor. and a heavy laden. I'll give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me. Learn of me. You'll
find rest for your souls. Come on!" But they didn't come.
But he commanded them to come. He stood one day at the end of
that great Feast of the Tabernacles, Feast of the Firstfruits, whatever.
Every Jew from everywhere was there. And they were packing
up their goods and headed home. And he stood on the mountain,
and he cried with a loud voice. And he said, Oh, everyone that's
thirsty, come to me. Out of your belly I'll flow rivers
of living water. Everyone, thousands and thousands
of you, come to me. Out of your belly I'll flow rivers
of living water. There's no secret. So what's he saying? Enter ye
in at the straight gate. Straight gate. Straight is the
gate and narrow is the way. Here's what he's saying. It's
a restricted gate. It's a restricted gate. It's
one person and it's the entrance of all who believe in the one
person. It's restricted. It's confined to him and his
sheep. That's what he's talking about.
One person, he's able to save to the uttermost them that come
to God by him. The singleness of Christ, the
oneness of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ. In him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. It's a straight gate because
that's where everything is. It's a narrow way because it's
one way. It's Christ. John 14, verse 6,
he says, I'm the way. That's pretty narrow. Not there
are many ways. There are many saviors. I'm the
way. I'm the truth. I'm the life.
No man cometh to the Father but by me. Straight. Narrow. Restricted. Confined. It's a
single game. The simplicity of Christ. It's
a narrow way. He's the only way. Not room for anyone else. It's not offered to anyone else.
Neither, listen to this, neither is there salvation in any other.
That's how narrow it is, that's how straight it is. Neither is
there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must, you must come this way
or don't come, be saved. This is the record. God has given
us eternal life. His life's in His Son. So that's
what that means, straight, single, restricted, confined, oneness
with Christ. That's what narrow means. He's
the only way. But he said wide is the gate.
Look at this 13th verse. Wide is the gate and broad is
the way. What does that mean? It means
anything comes that way. Let me show you an illustration.
Everyone turn to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, verse
4. Ephesians 4, verse 4. Now, here's the narrow way. Here's
the straight gate. Ephesians 4, verse 4. Ephesians 4, 4. There's one body. That's the church, the body of
Christ. Believers. One spirit. One Holy Spirit, not many, just
one. There's one hope. That's the believer's hope in
Christ. There's one Lord, one Savior, one Messiah. There's one faith. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. One baptism, that's
the baptism of the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. There's
one God and Father. Now that's the straight gate,
that's the narrow way. What's the broad road? Here's the broad
road. The way of destruction is wide
enough to take all bodies, whether they're believers or not, whether
they're God's church or not, it's all bodies, all spirits. A preacher this morning somewhere
in some cult or sect says the spirit says this, the spirit
says for us to jump up, down, down and throw songbooks. There's
not room on the narrow way for that spirit, but there's room
on the broad way for any spirit. Our Lord said, try the spirits,
whether they be of God. This room on the Broadway for
all lords, Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, any of them, Allah, all lords, all faiths. I've had
people tell me, we're not of the same faith. We're not? Well, somebody's got a bad faith
then. Somebody's got a counterfeit faith. Because there's just one,
one fact. That's narrow. But the broad
road says, welcome all faith, all baptisms, all gods, all priests. That's what one of the leading
evangelists of this world said not long ago. I played the tape
right here from this pulpit. There are people going to be
in heaven that were loyal to Buddha and loyal to Mohammed
and loyal to Confucius who never heard of Jesus Christ. That's
the broad way. Beware of the broad road. You see, the broad road, it seems,
it seems right to me. The natural man, it seems. Let
me show you that. Turn to Proverbs. You must turn
to these scriptures. I won't ask you to turn to a
whole lot, but I do want you to go to this one, Proverbs,
chapter 14. It seems like the right way,
the broad road that men travel, that all bodies, all faiths,
all gods, all lords, all baptisms, all spirits. You see, in Proverbs 14, verse
12, there is a way. It's the broad way. which seemeth
right unto men, and the end there of the ways of death. But it
seems right. It seems to me, he said, that
this is true. Look at Proverbs 16. Same thing
is said, Proverbs 16, 25. Listen. There is a way that seemeth
right unto a man, but the end there of the ways of death. This
is the broad way. It seems right to men. Let me
tell you some things about this broad way. It seems right to
men. It just seems right. Intellectual
men, academic men, old preachers, young preachers, it just seems
right. God wouldn't do that. Secondly, it's popular. Many
there be. It's the popular way. Many there
be that go in there. When our Lord walked this earth,
The Lord himself preached, did many wonderful works, died on
the cross. How many people did he leave
believing on him? Five hundred. Five hundred brethren saw him.
Do you know what it said? There were millions of people.
There were thousands at his death, but the broad road is popular. It's easy to find. It's everywhere. It seems right to everybody.
It's easy to find, and it's easy to travel. Play a company. You'll never
get lonely on that broad road. It's easy. Get plenty of encouragement. Don't have to do any studying.
You don't have to study. You don't have to learn. There
are no restrictions. There are no restraints. You
just do your own thing. Just do your own thing. If it
feels good, do it. If it sounds good, listen to
it. If it tastes good, eat it. If that's what you want to do,
whatever it costs your family, you just do it. You can still
be religious. It's an easy way. It's the line
of least resistance. That's what makes a stream always
go downhill. A stream never flows uphill.
It always seeks the lowest level. That's your nature. By nature. That's my nature. By nature. Seek the lowest level. And these
preachers are making it as easy as they can make it for you to
seek the lowest level. Do what you want to do. Be what
you want to be. Mistreat who you want to mistreat.
No restraints. No restrictions. Just do your
thing. Find the lowest level. And God loves you. Wait and see. Wait and see. The two gates we read about,
I want you to turn to this scripture, Proverbs 8. The two gates, I'm
going to show you something here. Now listen, Proverbs 8. There's
a straight gate, there's a wide gate. The two gates, Proverbs
8. If you haven't, Proverbs 8, 34. This is the Lord Jesus speaking.
He's the wisdom of God. Proverbs 8, verse 34. Blessed
is the man that heareth me, and watcheth daily at my gates, waiting
at the post of my doors. Whoso findeth me, findeth life,
shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me,
he wrongs his own soul. All that hate me love death.
That's one gate. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he'll go in and out and find the passenger. All
right, let's see the two ways. Deuteronomy 11. Moses said this. Deuteronomy 11. He said this
to Israel. Deuteronomy 11, verse 26. Listen
to this. Deuteronomy 11, 26. Behold, I
set before you this day a blessing and a curse, a straight gate
and a wide gate. A narrow way and a broad way.
A blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord God, which I command
you this day, and a curse if you will not obey the commandments
of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way, which I
command you this day, and go after other gods which you've
not known. It's a blessing and a curse.
It's a narrow way and a broad road. And there's two destinations.
John chapter 3. Two destinations, two gates,
the narrow and the wide. Two ways, the narrow and the
broad. Two destinations, destruction
or life. In John chapter 3, it says this,
verse 35, The Father loveth the Son, hath given all things into
his hands. He that believes on the Son hath
everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God about his own hand. Now
let me show you this, verse 14. Look carefully at this a moment.
Straight is the gate, single gate, restricted gate, narrows
the way, confined to those who believe, and it leads to life,
and few there be that find it. Now this is not a way that seems
right to man. This is a way declared by God
to be the only way. He said, look unto me and be
ye saved. I'm God, there's none else. This
doesn't seem right to me. This is declared by God. Listen,
in the fullness of time, God sent his son made of a woman,
made under the law to redeem them that are born under the
law. He was made a curse for us that we might be made righteous
in him. This way is declared by God.
It's a narrow way. This way leads to life. Not death,
this leads to life. He said over here in John 6,
you're familiar with this, you don't need to turn to it. John
6 verse 37, All that my Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me out of nowhere is cast out. I came down
from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him that sent
me. This is the Father's will which is sent me. that of all
which he's given me I'll lose nothing but raise it up at the
last day to life. And this way is found. It's declared
by God. It doesn't seem right to man.
Man didn't make it up. God declared it. And it doesn't
lead to death. It leads to life. And these people
who are walking in it found it. They didn't know about it before.
They were walking this broad road and were satisfied. I was. 24 years old, been in
religion most of my life. And I was walking this broad
road, totally content. Didn't even know about this narrow
way of life in Jesus Christ. But somebody came and gave directions. And they found it. Who found
it? Turn to Isaiah 65. Oh, this is
powerful here. I said, sixty-five. Didn't know
about this way of life, content to walk the broad road, till
somebody came along, gave directions, and then we began to seek. We
began to listen. We began to study. We began to
hear. Listen, Psalm 65-1, I'm sort
of them that ask not for me. Was that you? I'm sought of them
that ask not for me. I'm found of them that sought
me not. We didn't seek him, he sought
us. We found him because he found
us. Behold me, behold me unto a nation
that was not called by my name. Behold the Lamb of God. Israel was going about the broad
road, going about all their circumcision and Sabbath keeping and duties
and deeds and works, and they didn't even know about this narrow
way. And the Gentiles wasn't paying attention either one,
but they were on the broad road. And he was sought of them that
knew him not and found of them that sought him not. Lydia, Cornelius,
the jailer. the woman at the well, all of
these people found the way. How did they find it? How did
they find it? God sent somebody with directions,
and they heard. And then they saw him. You seek
me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. That's
right. So that, he says there in our
text, Matthew 7, straight is the gate, Narrow is the way,
confined is the gate, single is the gate, narrow is the way,
it's Christ and Christ alone is salvation by grace, by faith
in the crucified, risen, exalted Lord, the grace and mercy of
God. And the people that find it are
those to whom he sends a true preacher. Now he says in the
next verse, Beware of false preachers, false directions. Beware of false
preachers. Verse 15. Now, the way of life's
there, and there's directions. And there was a man sent from
God whose name was John. And there was a Philippian jailer,
and he was sent, Paul was sent to him. Lydia, Paul was sent
to him. Cornelius Peter was sent to him.
But they're false preachers. Now here's, listen to this. Beware
of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they're ravening wolves. They've always been false preachers.
Let me read you something Peter said over here in 2 Peter. Listen to this. 2 Peter 2, he
said to the church, but there were false preachers among the
people, Israel. Even as there shall be false
teachers among you who privately bring in damnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them, denying substitution. What I preached this morning
on television, substitution. I told Doris, I listened to that
message. I know what I'm preaching. I
was preaching then. I told her, I said, I'd be content that to
be the last word I ever said. drop dead right now and go out
to the glory with that sermon on people's minds. That's the
way. The crucified risen Lord. But it's false preachers that
deny that message. And you beware them. Now, he
says about them, they're not easy to recognize. They're disguised. They don't come and tell you
they're wolf. They tell you they're sheep. Listen to what the Word
says. Jude 4 says they come in unawares. 2 Timothy 3 says they creep in. creeping. 2 Corinthians 11, 3
said they're deceitful, and they transform themselves into the
apostles of Christ. They come preaching Jesus, it's
another Jesus. They come preaching the gospel,
it's another gospel. They come talking about the Spirit,
it's another Spirit. That's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians
11. They claim to be ministers of
righteousness, and they're outwardly I want you to turn to this scripture.
Our Lord, in Matthew 23, is standing toe-to-toe, face-to-face with
a whole herd of these false preachers. And this is what he said to them.
This is what he said to them in Matthew 23, verse 27. Woe
unto you, scribes, Pharisees, rulers of the temple. You're
hypocrites. You're like whited sepulchers.
You appear, you indeed appear beautiful outwardly. They're
moral men. Most of them are clean livers.
They're outwardly like a tombstone. They're marble and white and
shined and flowers growing all around it. But down deep within,
you're full of dead men's bones and uncleanness. That's what
he said. You deceive people. Charles Spurgeon
wrote an article on the false preacher. This is powerful. Powerful. Listen to it. The false
preacher is usually a man who has a pleasing, acceptable appearance
and personality. The false preacher is a pleasant,
nice man. The reverend is a nice fellow.
He appears to love God. He defends every moral cause.
Every moral cause, politically, socially, he defends. His life
is clean. His teachings are, in general,
acceptable to most people. They don't see him having any
problem with what he's preaching. Even acceptable to worldly people. He's their preacher, too. People
who are not even religious. have no quarrel with a false
preacher. He talks of love. He talks of peace. He talks of
unity. He talks of human rights. He
talks about heaven. He talks about life after death.
But his messages are not offensive to anybody. Not offensive to anybody. He
pleases everybody. He raises no spiritual issues
and conflicts. He has few enemies. There's no
offense in his gospel. There's no conviction of my sins
and my guilt. There's no guilt before God.
There's no stopping of the mouth and all the world becoming guilty
before God. There's no wrath of God on unbelievers. There's no blood effectual to
atone. There's no perfect righteousness
imputed to make us holy before God. There's no repentance. There's
no cry for mercy. There's no pleas for redemption.
There's no glory to God. There's no psalm of contrition.
There's no exaltation of the sacrifice, the substitute, the
sovereign savior who has all preeminence. It's not there. He's a false preacher. You'll know them, listen, verse
16. You'll know them by their fruits.
Now, you give me about five more minutes. You'll know them by
their fruits. Their fruits here are their doctrines
and the effects of their doctrine. The message and the effects of
it. Now, I'm going to talk to you
about what they preach. but by what we preach, our doctrine
and the effects of it. And this is a straight stick.
You lay it down by that crooked stick. Spurgeon said one time,
when a stick's crooked, don't point out the crooks. Lay a straight
one down beside it. And when you lay the straight
one down beside the crooked stick, anybody that's got any brains
will see where the crooks are. So I'm going to lay the straight
stick down True preaching, true fruits, true preaching, true
effects, true doctrine, true results. All right. When we preach
the perfections of God, His majesty, oh, how excellent is thy name,
O Lord, in all the earth. His holiness, holy and reverent
is His name. The seraphims cover their faces,
cover their feet, cover their eyes, fly around the throne,
crying, holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts. His omnipotence,
our God's in the heavens. He'll do whatsoever He pleases
in the heaven, in the earth, in the seas, and in all deep
places. He's sovereign in creation, in
providence, in salvation. His mercy is in Christ. Out of
the depths I cry unto thee, O Lord, hear my voice. Lord, if you should
mark a nick with the who would stand, but there's forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Show mercy to us, be
gracious to us. What's the fruit of that kind
of preaching? Fear of the Lord, worship of the Lord, reverence
before the Lord, awe before His throne. dress in their conduct, in their
deportment, in his presence, are there with reference and
fear and awe. It's God. Let him do what he
will. That's the result. Secondly,
when we preach man's fall in the garden, what happened in
the garden? By one man, sin entered this world and death, spiritual
death. He died spiritually. The leaves
died, the tree died, the animals died, the fish died, everything
died. Death visited the world by that
man's sin, and death passed upon all men because all sinned. And
that spiritual death left them spiritually dead in trespasses
and sin, left them without God, without hope, without Christ
in this world, strangers from the covenant. It left them stripped. broken, helpless, hopeless, unable
to do anything about their condition. What's the fruit of that kind
of preaching? Conviction of sin. Like the leper of old, diseased,
decaying, dying, came to Christ in his helplessness, in his hopelessness,
in his rottenness, and held up those wretched, scaly hands and
said, Lord, you're If you will, you make me clean. He'll bring a republican into
the temple, and he won't come down to the front like that religious
nut. He stayed back there in the back. He didn't even raise
his hands to heaven and carry on. He smote on his breast. He's
a sinner, fallen in Adam, wretched, defiled, unable to do anything. And he won't even lift his eyes
to heaven, but he smote on his breast and said, Lord, be merciful
to me, the sinner. That's the fruit of that kind
of preaching. You know any sinners? You know any sinners? Does anybody
here know a sinner? I mean a defiled, wretched, dead,
rotten, hopeless, hell-deserving sinner. Can't do nothing, knows
nothing, and not even suspects anything. Helpless like that
leper. Defiled like that publican. Dying
like that thief. Lord, you're not going to stay
dead. You're coming in their kingdom. I'm getting just what
I deserve. Would you remember me? Sovereign
Lord, Sovereign King. Would you remember this fellow
that died because he deserved to die? Would you remember me? Anybody? David said, Lord, be merciful
to me according to thy lovingkindness, blot out my iniquities, wash
me, and I'll be clean. Purge me with this. My sins are
ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Have mercy on me.
Anybody talk like that? If there's some preaching like
this, they'd talk like that. This is the effect of preaching
the truth. This is the effect of telling
who God is and who we are. And what's the effect of telling
who Christ is? I preached it this morning on television. Pleased
God to bruise him. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. By his stripes we are healed. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made God's righteousness in him. What's
the effect of that kind of preaching? Christ died for our sins according
to the scripture. I'll tell you, Paul wrote to
the Thessalonian church and said, our gospel didn't come to you
in word only, it came to you in power. And you became followers
of us and the Lord. You became a follower. When you
preach Christ to people, they receive him, and believe him,
and come to him. Preach Christ. When we preach
God's covenant of grace, what's the fruit? I tell you, turn to
Romans 8. Let me close with this. Romans
chapter 8. When you preach God's sovereign
grace, salvations of the Lord, and people
find that out, believe it, come to Christ, lay hold upon Christ.
Verse 28, Romans 8, we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. And whom he did predestinate,
then he called. Whom he called, he justified,
took away their sin. Whom he justified, he glorified.
What's the result of that? Here it is right here, five questions.
What should we say then to these things? We say, if God be for
us, who can be against us? Confidence, assurance, hope in
Christ. He despaired not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. For how shall ye not freely with
him give us all things? That's confidence. Verse 33,
who can lay anything to my charge? God justified me. I didn't do it. Who can lay anything
to my charge? I walked an hour. That's pretty
flimsy. Who can lay anything to my charge? I was baptized
three times. Big Daddy gave me life ten times. Taught Sunday
school. That's pretty flimsy. But who
can condemn me? Who can lay anything to my charge?
God Almighty, on purpose, because He had a suitable substitute,
a ransom, it let Him be just and justifier. He justified me. I got confidence that nobody
can shake, because he justified me. No preacher didn't do it.
Here's the next, who's going to condemn me? Heaven, earth,
and hell, somebody step forward. Who is my condemner? Who is my
accuser, Christ said in Isaiah? Step up. Well, you didn't do
this. I know it, but he did. You didn't
keep the law, but he did. You didn't die under the judgment
of your sins, I know, but he did. Who can condemn me? Christ died. And he's risen again. God accepted his payment. And
he's at the right hand of God. And he's there calling my name.
So you're just wasting your time arguing with me. You bring your
baptism and put it beside that. You've got no hope. We've got
a hope. Christ in you. That's the hope.
And the last question is, tell me who's going to separate me
from the love of God. For God so loved this world of
sinners, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth
in him will never perish. That's not my love for him as
his love for me, and that's my hope. That's it. That's it. So that's the fruit.
You know them by their fruits. You know them by their fruits,
because you don't get... Look at my text again, Matthew 7. A good tree brings forth good
fruit. Verse 18, a good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit. This gospel does not bring forth
evil fruit. A corrupt tree can't bring...
He can't do it. His gospel won't say. This gospel won't strip,
kill, bring low, convict, reveal Christ. Won't do it. Won't do
it. I'm going to leave my children
in that church because they've got a lot of things for young people. Everything
but the gospel. Everything but the gospel. A fellow said, well, y'all don't
do enough here for young people. I do everything. I do the best
thing for them that can be done. I tell them who saves sinners.
And without that, they don't have a prayer. Our teachers tell
them who saves sinners. God bless it.