Mat 7:13-14
Do you know what any good preacher does when he begins to wind down his sermon? He tries to pull together everything he has already said and guide his audience to his ultimate goal of bringing them to a decision. For the Christian preacher, the decision he is leading his audience toward is a decision for Christ. A decision for God. A decision to give their lives to Jesus, be born again, and baptized into the body of Christ. All of that and everything that goes along with it! That is his mission in life. That is the goal of his ministry. To grow the kingdom of God, to build up the body of Christ he’s responsible for, and to encourage his people to grow in faith and good works. This is what the prophets of old did. This is what Jesus did, and this is what we should be doing as well.
Now, as I mentioned last week, the Lord is winding down His Sermon on the Mount. He began the process of pulling His entire message together last week when He taught us that if we desire to grow in kingdom characteristics, we are to pray for it, pray persistently for it, pray in faith for it, and to demonstrate our purpose by imitating God’s love by doing good to others. Remember? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Well today, the Lord makes an appeal to all who will hear. He calls us make a decision about becoming citizens of His kingdom. He calls us to make a decision much like Moses made to the Israelites in the wilderness when he said Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
It’s a decision similar to Joshua’s call to the people after they entered the Promised Land. Jos 24:14-15 "Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! (15) And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
A decision like Elijah’s question when he asked, 1Ki 18:21 …"How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." And the decision, or choice Jeremiah was commanded by the Lord to set before the people. Jer 21:8 …'Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.
Our Lord’s call to us today is Mat 7:13-14 Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. (14) Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Folks, our lives are filled with decisions, decisions of what to wear, what to eat, where to go, what to do, what to say, what to buy, who to marry, what career to pursue, and on and on. Every single day, we have decisions to make. The vast majority of our decisions are minor and take very little thought. Others are more important and we’ll have to think on them for a while—study the pros and cons, and come to a decision that’s best for us. And still others are major decisions that might involve life, death, and eternity.
This is the decision that the Lord is calling us to today. It involves life and death, and it is the most critical decision a person will ever have to make. It will not only set the course of the rest of our lives here on this earth, but it will also determine our eternal destiny. Once again, Jesus calls us to Mat 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. (14) Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
The choice that the Lord is calling us to is the choice between the one or the many. The one right or the many wrongs. The one true way or the many wrong ways. My beloved brothers and sisters, there are not many roads to heaven, there is only one. Man cannot come to God through the many ways he has devised for himself, He can only come to God through the one way that God himself has provided!
This is why the Lord’s invitation to us is to enter through the narrow gate, because that’s God’s way. I want you to notice that He doesn’t invite us to “enter” the wide gate because folks, mankind has already gone through that gate. As a race of beings, we are already on the broad way, the wide road. That’s why the Lord Jesus calls us to “enter” the narrow gate. In other words, to repent, to turn around, to go a different direction!
So, when I look at our two verses today, what I see is that we all have a decision to face, a direction to follow, and a destiny to find.
1. A Decision to Face
When the Lord told us to “Enter in”, he’s letting us know that this is up to us. It’s a decision that we have to make. We’ve got two ways to go, a broad way or a narrow way. One way leads to life and the other leads to hell. So, there are two ways, and only two ways, but you know, mankind doesn’t like that. We don’t like it when people tell us there is only one way to heaven. We get offended by that—we get all uptight and out of sight over it.
And you know, we also like to put people into various classifications or categories. We like to talk about men being upper-class, middle-class, or lower-class, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, what race they are, whether they are man or woman or all sorts of other ways to divide us by our differences. But you see, God never divides men horizontally like that; He only divides men vertically: on His left or on His right, sheep or goats, saved or lost. That’s it. To God it’s one or the other.
From this point and through the rest of His sermon, the Lord repeatedly points out two things to us: the necessity of choosing to follow Him or not, and the fact that there are two choices to make, and only two. Through the rest of this chapter we find that there are two gates, two ways, two destinations, two groups, two kinds of trees, two kinds of fruits, two kinds of people, two kinds of builders, two foundations, and two houses.
We like to try to muddy the waters or cloud the issue because we don’t like this idea of either/or: either this or that situations. We want other options, and many people would tell me, “Brother Terry, don’t be so narrow-minded. We’re all headed toward the same place, we’re just on different roads.” But friend, you simply cannot lay down some new asphalt and broaden the straight and narrow. We are not all headed to the same place, but we surely are on different roads.
Jesus said Joh 14:6 …"I am the way. He is not “a” way, but “the” way. The only way. That is the gospel. The Bible is a narrow book. It is open to and accepts all who earnestly seek truth, but it points us to the way of God, which is the way of Jesus Christ and salvation through faith in Him, and only Him. And friends, let me ask you, when you get on an airplane, you want your pilot to be narrow-minded, don’t you? You want him to do everything just right so you can get to your destination safely, right? Well in the same way, if you want to get to heaven, then you need to enter the narrow gate and follow the narrow way which is Jesus, because He is the way. Jesus is the narrow way!
You have the freedom to decide, otherwise He never would have said “Enter”. You have the freedom to choose, but friend, you do not have the freedom to not choose. You are absolutely forced into this decision and there’s no way you can get out of it. Not choosing is to make a choice, but it’s a choice against Jesus. He said, Mat 12:30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
So, there’s no such thing as neutrality here. You cannot do as Pilate tried to do when he washed his hands and said, Mat 27:24 …"I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it." Because both history and eternity have proven that his indecision was his absolutely worse decision.
Beloved, there is a decision to face and there’s no way out of it. But there is also…
2. A Direction to Follow
Jesus said, Mat 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; now, that’s a decision. But then He went on to say, “for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. (14) Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way. So, after the decision comes the direction, and that direction is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Now, according to the NKJV, the direction we are to go is “difficult”, but the KJV says it’s “strait” and the NASB says it’s “constricted.” So, anyway you look at it, the direction we have to go won’t be easy. It’s going to take discipline and endurance to walk it. The word that’s translated “difficult”, “strait” or “constricted” is stenos, which comes from the root word that means to “groan” as from being under pressure. Friend, the way of Christ isn’t easy, and if that’s what you’re looking for, then you are in for a surprise.
Paul told us to 2Ti 2:3 …endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Himself said that Mat 16:24 …"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. He also said several times that we would be hated by the people of this world, we would be persecuted, tortured, and killed for His names sake Mat 10:22 …But he who endures to the end will be saved. And folks, the salvation He’s talking about here isn’t salvation from pain, suffering, or worldly torment, because we have to endure all of that to the end.
So, the way or the direction we have to go will be difficult, but it’s also going to be different because Mat 7:14 …there are few who find it. And if few find it then you can bet that there aren’t going to be crowds on this path. You’re not going to have to wait behind a slowpoke for miles before you can pass him. Nope. Jesus doesn’t follow crowds, so we won’t be following them either. Crowds are almost always wrong. Just look at what’s happening in America today. We’re being ruled by the noisy crowd because the silent majority is just that—they’re silent.
Our way is a different way. It goes against the grain, against the norm, against the way of the world. That’s because we start at a different source, and we follow a different course, so that we’ll end up with a different conclusion. And if you are going in this direction, then you will be going against the tide most all the time because Christians are twice-born people in a world of once-born people. They are different from us, and we are different from them.
Every person who has truly said yes to Jesus, has also said no to the things of this world. We are to rely on His power rather than our own and we willingly forsake our way for His. It’s going to cost us because when we identify ourselves with Christ, we are also declaring war on the devil, and he declares war on us. The very one we formerly served has now become our greatest enemy and the ideas and ways we once held dear have now become our great temptations and pitfalls.
But Jesus says the one who endures to the end, is the one who will be saved. In the context of what I’ve been talking about, what that means is that our destiny is sure.
3. A Destiny to Find
Now, just as there are two gates, two roads, and two directions, there are also two destinies. Mat 7:13-14 Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. (14) Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Two destinies—destruction or life. Two and only two. The decision you make will determine the direction you go, and the direction you go determines the destiny you will find. This ain’t rocket science, and it truly is as simple as that. Decision determines direction and destiny. And if there are any in here today who can say that they are on the broad way, the wide road then friend you need to change your decision right now. Turn to Jesus and enter the narrow gate and get on that narrow road because you are not going to like the end result of the road you are on now.
I will never sugarcoat this truth because it is far to important. The wide road is the highway to hell, yeah, just like the song, you’re on the highway to hell and you need to get off while you still can! Now, some try to sugarcoat this by either saying that there is no hell, or that a loving God would never send anyone to hell, but friend, there is a literal, fire and brimstone, eternal damnation and suffering hell. Jesus believed it so much that He speaks of it all the time and warns everyone to avoid it at all costs! It’s so bad that He told us that if it were possible to poke out your eye or cut off you hand to avoid it, then do it! Poke out your eye. Cut off your hand.
Folks, the destiny that’s at the end of the wide road is a fearful destiny, but you’ve got another option. If you get on that narrow road, then your destiny isn’t fearful, it’s fabulous! It’s fabulous because it is life! You know, the life I’m talking about isn’t the life that begins when you’re born, and it’s also not the life that begins when you die. Folks, this life begins when you enter the narrow gate and step onto that old straight and narrow road.
Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came so that we could have life, and have it abundantly. So, not only does He add years to life, but He adds life to the years. We are all on one of two roads. We are on our journey home and every step we take brings us just one step closer to that home. We are literally a heartbeat away from the end of this journey, and I’ve got to tell you that these last few months, I’ve been thinking about this a lot more than I have in years. A bad diagnosis tends to make the reality of life and death much more up close and personal.
And friend, there is no chance of changing your mind after death. Solomon said Ecc 11:3 …if a tree falls to the south or the north, In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie and that’s just a poetic way of saying that when you die, your destiny is fixed. There’s no changing it. There’s no purgatory where you can earn a second chance. So, friend, when you die Rev 22:11 He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still."
If you are on the wide road, the highway to hell, then what I’m doing today is holding up an Exit sign for you. Exit now. There may be no other exits available to you, so take advantage of this opportunity and get off now. Today, because you’ve got a decision to face, a direction to follow, and a destiny to find.
