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As our brother Lewis reminded us, this is a time when we focus upon the life of one just incredibly amazing, that God would come and visit mankind. Emmanuel, God with us. And I trust that this morning we'll be able to learn of the Lord Jesus.
And that's the focus of the message this morning. I'd ask you to please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 7. Some of you are a little astute and can see that that is a part of the text of the Sermon on the Mount.
Fear not, Pastor Mike won't be there for three or four years, so not to worry. It'll all be revisited then. Several years ago I was encouraged by one of the messages that I either read or heard by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a preacher in the United Kingdom.
And I must give him the credit for the thrust of this message, the central thoughts. And it just has been with me. And I've looked at this and I said this is what's going to be the message through prayer.
This is what we need to hear this morning. In all the hustle and bustle of life and the business of our schedules, we just need to be reminded of who we are and what we are as the church and where we are and the path on which we are to trod.
If you would look in Matthew 7, the text of the message will be in verses 13 and 14, where we read, and I'll be reading from the King James, 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. If there is one thing that we as the church of the living God are guilty of in the eyes of the world, there's a charge that comes against us because we are a certain type of people.
This charge has been made against us as the church of God because we are Christians, because of our Christian teaching, because of the Christian gospel. That charge is that we are narrow. It is the charge of narrowness.
And many things are said about us, but this is the most common. There are other things we are accused of. We're mistaken, sadly. We're extremists. We're foolish. We're weird. We're crazy to believe the things that we believe and live the way that we live.
But the most favorite thing, I believe, particularly in the day in which we live, that we are accused of is our narrowness. Many times this is brought against us by those people who want to show the supposed breadth and depth of their own viewpoint.
They believe that everyone in the world should be able to get along and work together and that everyone's teachings ought to be accepted. And it's a side note of observation. Isn't it interesting and rather odd that the world cries tolerance and will tolerate absolutely any bizarre philosophy, any crazy teaching, or any absurd religion except true Christianity?
For a lost world to think this way that we are narrow is bad enough, but there are also some who say they are the Lord's people who will also label other believers as being narrow. And they may not like the way that those that are trying to practice the teachings of the scriptures preach their claims of the gospel.
They don't like the doctrines that we embrace as an election or a predestination or God's sovereignty or repentance or the bondage of the will or total depravity or accountability or commitment or sacrifice in the Christian life or church discipline or personal holiness and so on.
They don't like our narrow preaching and our so-called narrow practicing of church and individual living. Not only is this charge of narrowness a favorite charge to be brought against us, one of the most interesting things and things that I'm trying to encourage us and warn us against is that there's probably no other charge which makes many of God's people more nervous or frightened than this particular charge.
We don't mind it so much when people say we're wrong, strange, different, eccentric, but it really bothers us sometimes when people say that we are narrow. And I can understand that we don't want to be labeled as narrow, and this morning I want to define this narrowness.
I want to see it in the Bible. I want us to look at it as our Lord Jesus defined it and lived it. And I also want us to see how we should react when we are labeled as being narrow. There are times when in the fear and horror of being called narrow, we might be tempted to swing the pendulum too far to the other extreme and become so wide and become so broad in our doctrines and practice, and many churches have done this.
We see it today. They think that they will drive people away if they are narrow, and it's just the opposite. You can only preach a message that God gives us, and that's the message as we looked at in Sunday school class this morning that is the power of God unto salvation.
But some churches have opened their doors to allow anyone in no matter what they believe. They have compromised the gospel message. They've made it easy for everyone to come in. What they say is what you believe is no longer important.
What is important is, and you will know how to fill in the blank, that we all love each other, that we all love each other. Doctrine is compromised for unity's sake. And by the way, there will be and cannot be any unity unless there is first doctrine.
There must be teaching. There must be doctrine. You know, in Acts 2, when Peter is preaching at Pentecost and 3 ,000 people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, it says in Acts 2 .42, does it say these words?
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' love. Does it say that? No. It says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in teaching. That's why it's so very important not to open the door and let any teaching in because those who do that have lost the very distinctives of true biblical Christianity.
If the church tries to please modern man and waters down her message, thinking she won't offend anyone, she will quickly be coming to the place where the difference between the church and the world is so small that she begins to lose her identity.
The church is meant to follow Jesus Christ. The church is meant to walk a narrow path. And if we compromise, we are no longer salt and light in an evil world, and our light no longer hurts the eyes of those who are sitting in darkness.
Many think for the church to fit in, she must dull the sharp edges and cut out the weighty responsibilities of her message. Take away and don't preach and teach repentance. The Gospel of John doesn't mention repentance, so just preach faith.
But Jesus Christ came on the scene, and what was his message? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They say don't preach lordship. Let people trust Christ as Savior. And later on, they can make Christ Lord.
Well, the news for the person who holds that message is that it is not we who make Christ Lord. Acts 2 tells us that God has made Jesus Christ both Lord and Christ. He is the Lord Jesus Christ to be received as the Lord Jesus.
They say, what about this cross bearing and this difficult path? Don't teach that. Well, go into the Gospels and see what Jesus taught. He said, take up my cross and follow me. Modern man does not need a new Bible.
Modern man does not need a new translation with a new message. He does not need a new message. And we as local New Testament churches don't need new methods to reach the multitudes. Jeremiah tells us what we need.
He said, ask for the old paths, the sayeth the Lord, and stand you in the way. Ask for the old paths. Modern man has an age-old problem of a sinful and rebellious heart. And we must preach the old time narrow gospel of Christ and preach it without shame.
Many years ago in the 80s, I learned I learned a gospel song. And it goes like this, I think, maybe in the chorus. I love that old time religion for it will never change. I love the blessed Holy Bible.
And he says in that song, it says the way is still narrow. The way is still straight. You must be born again. Christ still lives. Christ still reigns. And he's coming again. It is the same old message for the same old problem that man has.
You see, if you have the wrong diagnosis of man's condition, you will preach the wrong message. And people, they think that there are those that are in the world who somehow in some way, shape or form, have the ability to be able to exercise their faith, to exercise their free will so that they can save themselves.
Basically, they can do it, cooperate with God. But the true matter of the fact is, as we heard in Sunday school, that man is absolutely and totally unable to save himself. He's lost. He's dead in trespasses and sins.
And the powerful message of the gospel must come to bring life. If the church opens her doors to any teaching, she has departed from the faith once delivered to the saints. And she has left the pattern set out for her by her Lord and Master in the New Testament.
Here's an interesting observation. Just think about this as you consider the messages of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospels, and maybe even of the apostles. As we read the New Testament, we never see the Lord Jesus or his apostles trimming and clipping their message in order to suit the people.
No, it's just the opposite. You always see Jesus trimming and clipping the people in order to make them fit into his message. The message doesn't change. And I believe that we will not see any reviving in God's church, and we will not be a powerful testimony as a church until we return or maintain.
And we stay there for our for the Lord's glory's sake to this position of the old time New Testament pattern and the message of the old rugged cross. We have the truth given to us by our Lord, and we ought to proclaim it, whether folks like it or dislike it.
No matter what anyone says, we ought to preach it with a holy boldness. But I must tell you that as soon as you begin to take up this book, you begin to tell sinners and professing Christians alike that they are responsible to obey the narrow precepts of God's word.
Then you and I will be labeled as narrow. And you and I will face opposition. I want to encourage those who may be fearful of being called narrow. We have a natural tendency to want to fit in, don't we?
But our God has commissioned us to preach the gospel, a message which in and of itself is offensive. It is not readily accepted by the masses. We must gladly accept our place. The gospel does divide. The gospel hurts.
It tells it like it really is. It cuts to the quick. It lets people know that they are helpless sinners. Sinners in the hands of an angry God, not just the opposite, where we have God in the hands of angry sinners.
That's the other message. But the message of the scriptures is, is that we are accountable to God. We answer to God. We don't come to him and dictate terms of our salvation, how it's going to be done, how we're going to be saved.
It is God who has dictated in his scriptures, and he has commanded all men everywhere to repent. He's commanded us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of our souls. And we can't pick and choose what we want and trim and clip the message.
No, we're the ones that get trimmed and clipped to fit God's message. None of us likes to be labeled narrow, but it happens. People will call us names, maybe religious bigots, extremists. We're the intolerant ones.
You will hear people say, you think you're the only ones with the truth? Do you mean that all those sincere Mormons and Jehovah witnesses and Roman Catholics and Unitarians and New Agers and Muslims and Jews are all condemned because they believe a lie?
And the answer from the scriptures is yes. They will be condemned because John chapter 3 tells us that because they have not believed, they are condemned already. And the scripture says, the apostle John said, he that has the son has life, and he that has not the son of God has not life.
There is a distinction between the two messages that are being taught. Now, these people who believe what they believe sincerely, they may be sincere, but not all roads lead to the same God. And in those sincere, they are sincerely wrong.
And it's not that we're right, that our opinion matters. It's not that BBC as a church is right, and our opinion is the one that ought to be touted. It is that God is right, and his scriptures are true, and what we read in it that we proclaim.
And it is a message that is narrow. And then we might get attacked, as I said, by other churches or other Christians. You mean, do you think you're the only perfect church? Boy, is that BBC so narrow in their Christian practice?
Why, they teach and expect you to pray and to read your Bible and every day obey what the Bible says. Hello. That's what the Bible says, that we're to walk in a way of obedience, that we're called to be a holy people, that we're to be, as our pastor Steve reminded us in Sunday school, saved by grace, saved through faith.
But the scripture says that, in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, it says that, but it says that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We are to be a people who take up this book and read it and seriously, with all of our heart, desire to live this book. Now, isn't it so foreign when you say that, when people say that they're Christians and they take, and they say that I want Christ, and I want to be able to be saved, and I want forgiveness of sins, but I want it without repentance.
I want it without commitment. I want it without having to obey. I want to do what I want to do. I do not want that man, Jesus Christ, to rule over me. How foreign that is to biblical salvation. And yet, we who desire, not based upon our method, or our plan, or our knowledge, or our wisdom, or our great strength, or our opinion, we just take up the book and we look at it and say, this is what God says, and we are labeled as narrow.
Don't let it throw you. Don't let it discourage you. Don't let it get you, let you get derailed. As a friend of mine used to say, hey, Dave, did that one knock the wind out of your sails? Don't let it do that.
Because that's exactly where God has us. Some people might say, you know, they say that in your church, you've got to, you've just got to come. I mean, every time the church doors are open and we schedule a service, you strive to be there unless you're providentially hindered.
I mean, give generously, give money to support the spreading of the gospel. And they say, you know, over at that church over there that the Bible says that you must continually put your all on the altar and be a living sacrifice for Jesus Christ and on and on and on.
And yet, that's what the scriptures tell us. Do you want to know what the best answer is to give someone who calls us narrow? You want to know the answer? It's not call down fire from heaven upon them.
It's not grab a sword and try to cut off their ear or get angry or lash out. Instead of apologizing or trying to get away from it, explaining away or keep our mouths closed and blush with embarrassment or cry or run away or get upset or feel defeated or discouraged.
Brethren, I want to encourage you this morning to stand your ground and look them straight in the eye and say, of course, I'm narrow. I cannot be any other way. Of course, we're narrow. We cannot be any other way.
This is the way that we've been called to. This is the life that Jesus Christ has purpose for us to live. Have you ever considered? Think about it. The importance of the choice of this word narrow. When our Lord Jesus came to choose a word which would define his kingdom and his way of life, he deliberately chose this word of which we are sometimes so nervous and fearful.
Have you ever thought of that? Jesus has the vocabulary of the whole universe at his disposal. And but when it comes to choose a word for his way of life, he deliberately calls it the narrow way. We sometimes are ashamed and defeated of being labeled as narrow.
And it affects us and it hinders us and it causes us not to speak when we ought to speak. But our master boasts of this word. He lived this word. Jesus is not ashamed of this word. He puts it on the banner of his kingdom.
Straight is the gate or narrow is the gate. He says here. Which leads to life and few there be that find it straight is the gate. Narrow is the way that leads to life. Jesus glories in this thing that so alarms and terrifies us at times.
Why did our Lord deliberately desire to call his way of life the narrow way? He never did anything by accident. He chose this name on purpose. He had a very good reason for it. Does the Bible really show us that the Christian way is the narrow way is a narrow way?
Have you ever considered that the Christian life deliberately confines itself to one subject? The gospel starts off being narrow. Straight is the gate. Narrow is the gate. It's a narrow way. This is so opposite to the day in which we live.
Our world is so full of information. Isn't it? Doesn't it? Absolutely. I can remember when computers came out. They said life would be made easier. I think it's more complex. I cannot even program my toaster.
I mean, never mind the computer. The toaster and you've got to get a thermostat to put on the wall and you've got these instructions and it's so difficult. Remember when they said we'll have computers and the paper will go away?
At work, we're chewing up reams and reams and we're always talking about trees being killed there at the workplace. So much information. So much learning. Books, encyclopedias, computers, CD-ROMs, hard drives, electronic bulletin boards, magazines, seminars, conferences, symposiums, libraries, the Internet, bookstores, MP3 files, newspapers, tabloids, television documentaries, 2020, 60 minutes, 48 hours.
Ever learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of truth. Ever learning, but never able to, missing the most vital, important subject that the Bible dwells upon. Everyone wants to know a little bit about everything.
This is the exact opposite of what we see in this great book called the Bible. It is 66 books in one book written by some 40 plus men over a period of over 1 ,500 years. The book contains many different subjects, but it is not a reference tool just to pick up bits of information.
What is it? It is a special book. It is God's book given to us. And to the Christian traveling on the narrow way towards heaven, it is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. And to the child of God, it is a manual for the soul.
Someone shared with me once the B-I-B-L-E. You remember that song for kids, but they said the Bible, B-I-B-L-E, is basic instructions before leaving earth. It's what we need to know to be prepared for heaven.
It is what we need to know and to follow to be able to live a life that's pleasing unto God. It has one theme from cover to cover, man and his relationship to the eternal God. It is not a book which tells you a little bit about everything like the world wants, facts and bits and pieces.
But it is a book which tells us everything about that one theme. And we need to know the truth in order to enter into God's kingdom. Consider the one who spoke these words in our text this morning, Jesus Christ himself.
Think of all the things that he could have done. And yet he keeps himself focused on this theme, God's redemptive plan. Here in our text, he deals with the application of the gospel, the soul of man and its relationship to the everlasting God.
What else is more important? We see this as we read his words in the four gospels. There is a sense in which we could say that Jesus had essentially one sermon. And he went around and preached that message for some three and a half years.
He might change the illustrations, but there was only one theme. The importance of the soul of man and man being in the right relationship by knowing the true and living God in a saving way. Jesus said these words in John 17 in verse three.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. That's what's important. That was what was important to him. Consider some illustrations of this.
We won't have to turn there, but just think about these. You know, some of these accounts in the scriptures. What about the parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13? Sowing the ground, the seed and all that.
Jesus Christ, our Lord, knows a lot about farming. He controls the earth, the seeds, the sun, the rain. He made them all. But he didn't stop to lecture about agriculture and give some farming tips. No, he tells us that the farmer is sowing the seed and testing the ground.
Jesus says there is only one type of seed, but many types of ground. And the ground is going to be judged by its response to the seed that the farmer has planted. Jesus is like that farmer, the seed of the words that he has preached.
It is the sowing of the words of life. And as Jesus is preaching, he is testing the hearts of his listeners. They will be judged in eternity by their response to the preaching of his message. He says to them, take heed how you hear.
He that has ears to hear, let him hear. This is his preaching. And this morning is, where are you and I at? And we ought to be careful when we hear the message from the scriptures because we will be judged based upon that message.
He is dealing, Jesus is dealing with the need of every person to hear his words and to obey them and bring forth fruit in this life unto God. So we see when Jesus preaches, he keeps the message narrow.
It is dealing with man's soul and its relationship to God. How about this occasion, even in our text here? In Matthew 7, we have in verses 16 -20, or 17 -20,. Even so, every good tree brings forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree or a bad tree brings forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits you shall know them.
You see, when Jesus begins to speak on this text, he knows a lot about fruit trees and trees in general. He designed them. He created them. But he doesn't lecture about horticulture and tree farming and proper tree care and pruning and grafting.
No, he sees another opportunity to illustrate the theme of his great message. He says, look at those trees. How do you judge a tree? Well, you judge a tree by the fruit that it bears. It may be good or bad.
And he's asking his audience, Do you people know that you are like these trees? Your lives are like trees which are bearing fruit, and the fruit of your lives is either good or bad. And God knows all about it.
He knows all about what type of fruit it is. And by your fruits you will be known. You will be judged in eternity before a holy God and a righteous God according to everything you have done in your life, whether it is good or bad.
God, hear his words, Matthew 16, 27. Jesus will come in glory, the glory of his Father, and it says there that he will reward every man according to his works. Do you see how the Lord Jesus preaches on the same theme?
But he just illustrates it in a different way. Also in our text here, we see at the end of the chapter, Therefore, verse 24, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.
And the rain descends, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand, and the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
Jesus knows a lot about building, doesn't he? He knows a lot about construction. Do we realize that there wasn't anything that was made without the Lord Jesus Christ? He's a creator. Colossians chapter 1 bears that out to us.
He's the almighty God who created this world out of nothing. He created us. He's building his church, but he doesn't stop to give a do-it-yourself, Lowe's Home Depot-type message. He's talking about people living their lives, building on a right or a wrong foundation, and they will be judged based upon their lives.
This one is not in this text here, but what about this? Jesus Christ is in the country again. He looks at the flowers and the birds in the fields. Does he go off and write flowery poems or paint colorful pictures or compose some easy listening dentist office music?
No. He's concerned with more important matters. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He sees an opportunity to proclaim the truth and uses the things around him to illustrate his points.
And he says to them, If God so clothes the lilies and the grass of the field, how much more is his interest in you, you everlasting soul? He's talking to people. He says the flowers and the grass will completely perish, but your soul will live for an eternity, either in the glory of God's presence or in the torments of hell being eternally banished from God's sight.
It's sad, though. The Lord is concerned about the souls of others, but people are not concerned about their own souls. It's so sad. The Lord Jesus doesn't harp about politics or the evil plights of the politicians and the leaders around them, and certainly it was bad.
He doesn't hold up the placard, Save the whales, Get out of Iraq, evils of war. No, no, there is one theme, and he narrows it down to this one important issue. What will it profit a man if he gained the whole world of wealth and position and knowledge and power?
What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and yet lose his never-dying soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Foolish, isn't it? And any fool can go the easy, broad way because it is easy.
I don't know who wrote this. I did one of those things. You put a note in your margin, and through the time of flipping the pages, the corner of my page is gone, so it's like some of the text is missing, and especially who wrote this.
So I'm going to quote this from an unknown source. This person said, No man in his right mind would choose to go to the firing squad because the path to it is easy and smooth. Nor would any man in his right mind refuse the offer of a palace and a throne because the way to it is rough and dirty, yet everyday men are guilty of such absurdities when it concerns their own souls.
People will take the easy way. The Lord Jesus in his preaching, when I was talking earlier, he continues and he says, The bird dies and God takes notice, and you are more special to God. Jesus is concerned with the soul of men and women and children and their relationship to their God.
His theme is this important issue, and he narrows it down, and he's interested in your soul, and he's interested in my soul. He came to shed his blood for perishing sinners. Jesus Christ died and was buried and rose again so that we might have life through him, that we might be able to be saved, that we might have forgiveness of sins.
And it's not our self-righteousness. It's not our religious effort. That's the broad way. It's easy to do that. It's easy just to look good. It's easy to be self-righteous and to go along with what everybody else is doing.
What is hard is the narrow path, the focused path, the concise path, the constricted path. In the Greek there, the crowded path. The narrow path of lowering the white flag because, I mean, to raising the white flag, we are fighting against the Lord, throwing down our sword and stop fighting against God to submit to the claims of the Gospel, to bow the knee to Jesus Christ.
This is the narrow path, to take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the way of Scripture. That is the narrow path. The Gospel gets personal. Jesus cares about the salvation of ignorant sinners lost and traveling on that wide way that leads to eternal ruin.
And though the Gospel gets personal, people in this generation, as in every generation, hate its claims. We can talk to people about religion in general and that is okay. We can talk about the church, the church service, the wonderful music, the candles, the special things that we are going to do, the functions, the times that we are going to get together, but...
And religion is okay for baptisms, for funerals, hospital sickbeds, for rest homes, for praying maybe at Thanksgiving, maybe even at Christmas, maybe a couple of times a year. But don't talk to me about my soul.
Don't be pointed and personal with me. I don't want religion to interfere with my personal life. I don't want to change. I like the way that I'm living. And if I have to live that narrow way, it's intolerable for me.
I don't want to be told what to do. I have my right of privacy. I don't want to talk to you about my beliefs. And really, friends, folks don't want to talk to us about their beliefs most of the time because they don't know what they believe.
They don't know what they have. And what they have and what they're resting upon is shifting sand. It is the wrong foundation. They are ignorant of the truth and the fact that they do not know God in a personal way at all.
But Jesus is always personal. Just consider this. I love this account in John chapter 4. Jesus sits to rest at a well. And he talks with a woman. They talk about religion and they talk about worship. The conversation is going along well.
The woman was enjoying the subject. She is offering her opinion. It satisfies her. She gets into it. She enjoys the very talk, talking with Jesus very much. She enjoys it a lot. And then the Lord does something that the world and the wide way Christians say we should never do.
He gets personal with her. And brethren, just as a kind of a spin-off from Sunday school class, if we are going to follow our Lord Jesus, if we are going to be obedient to his command to us where he says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
If we are to do that and uphold the commission, the great commission, and become fishers of men, you and I are going to have to get narrow and pointed and personal with people. I am not saying we are to be arrogant.
And I am not saying that we are to be contentious. But we are to love people enough to tell them the truth and to get right into their lives as much as possible and to ask serious questions about their relationship to the Lord.
How Jesus is dealing with this woman, he puts her on the spot. He exposes her. Woman, go get your husband and come here. And she said, sir, I have no husband. And he said, you speak the truth, but you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband's.
In other words, Jesus showed that he knew all about her sin and adultery. There she was giving her opinion about religion. She is giving her opinion about God. She is giving her opinion about a relationship with God and worship to God.
And her life is in shambles and she knows nothing about the true and living God. And we will run into that every day. Talking to people who will talk about God, talk about religion, talk about heaven, talk about hell, talk about judgment, talk about this life, talk about the next life, but they do not know the true and the living God.
And our call is to bring them the truth. Not our opinion, but to bring them the truth of the glad tidings of salvation through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. She, like many, wanted to speak her opinion.
But because of the mess in her life, she has no right to any opinions. She is ignorant of who God is. She needed to get her own life straightened out. She needed to be saved once and for all. And Jesus helped her by delivering God's narrow message of hope.
She needed to stop talking about religion and singing in the church songs and doing the works of self-righteousness and calling herself a good, moral, religious person and start seeking God and doing something about her lost condition.
She needed to drink of that water that Christ was offering to her, the living water, and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and be forgiven. She needed to repent and believe. And then and only then could she begin to understand so that she could talk about this relationship to the Lord.
She needed to get on the narrow path before she could start conversing about the narrow path. And this was our Lord's method of dealing with people. He was up close and He was personal with them. People then and people today don't like it, but that should not stop the church from bringing the only soul-saving and life-changing message to ignorant and miserable souls who need to be set free from sin and Satan's captivity.
People talk about God, a God they know nothing about. God is not interested in their opinions. He's not concerned about what you or I think about all of these things. There's only one thing that matters to Jesus Christ.
Is your own soul in a proper relationship with God the Father? That's what's important to Him. That was what His message was. Jesus talks about entering in at the straight gate. Some say this could have been a turnstile.
It is narrow. It is where only one person can go in at a time, so to speak, in that definition. Husband and wife can't go in together. Children can't go on the shirttails of their parents. You must go through this turnstile or this straight gate or this narrow gate all by yourself.
And if you will ever be saved, you must come to Jesus Christ yourself. You must follow Him one by one, you and God alone. Jesus was speaking to individual people when He said, you enter this straight gate and you enter this narrow way.
Every one of us must come to a private, personal meeting with God. Every one of us must come in God's way, the narrow way, face to face with God through the one and only Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now do you think the apostles were narrow in their message? Why do you think there was such opposition to them? Why did they want to beat them and put them in prison? Do you know what they were preaching?
You killed Christ. You killed God's Christ. You nailed Jesus to the cross. The one that God sent to be the Savior, to be the Messiah, is the one that you rejected and you turned from Him and you nailed Him to the cross.
You stiff-necked generation, they said to them, just like Jesus was saying to the Pharisees, you generation of vipers. I mean, was the message narrow? Yes, it was. They were preaching in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, they were saying, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved.
No other name. No other way. It is a narrow way, the narrow message of God's gospel. Every one of us must come to God that way. Jesus melts it down to this essential need. The most important question of the day is, do you really know God?
Or, more importantly, does God really know you? There was some in this text also, verses 21 to 23. And they were saying, Lord, Lord. Not everyone, Jesus said to them, not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father.
Many of you will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. And I will profess unto them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you who work iniquity. One of the most fearful things as a member of the church and as a leader, a pastor in the church, is that there are people that we sit beside, there are people that you sit beside, that come week after week, sing the songs, stand up, sit down, like the message, doing many wonderful things, but God does not know them.
And you really don't know God. You believe that you've accepted God, but has God accepted you? You've come on your terms. You want it your way. You don't want to repent. You want salvation and forgiveness, but you don't want the narrow way of repentance.
You want your life just the way it is and not to be upset. You don't want anybody to throw any wrenches in your gears of your life, but God commands, God demands, that if we are to be saved, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.
The house must totally be demolished. Our lives become nothing, and Christ becomes everything. Our merit, or what we thought was our merit, is thrown out the window. I remember my wife was speaking to a woman once, and she was so convinced that she was a Christian, and yet it was not evident that there was fruit in her life to bear that out, fruit of repentance.
Any type of spiritual work in her life, and her life did not basically change. And Deb just shared with her, do you know, here's what the Scripture says about the person who comes to Jesus Christ, and that old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new, and yet examine yourself and look at your life, and to the glory of God, that woman was arrested by God in her life, and her eyes were opened by God, and like Lydia's heart was opened, to see that she was completely lost and undone, and she embraced Christ for the first time, and she threw away this false profession that she had, and she laid hold on Christ to the saving of her soul, all to the glory of God.
And the fear is that someone here could be in that situation, same situation, thinking that all is well when it is not, because you are not on the narrow way. You're on the wide way that leads to destruction.
Believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and being on the narrow way that leads to life, it's not a hope so or a no so type thing. You know you are a sinner. You know you need a Savior, and Jesus Christ is the only hope, so you abandon your religious efforts, and your self-righteousness, and bow the knee to Christ, and come through the narrow gate.
Now, as we look at this text here, we see in verses 13 and 14 in our text here, that there are two gates, that there are two ways, that there are two destinations, and there are two groups of people, and there are two groups of people here this morning.
We see a little further down, as I mentioned, there are two trees with two types of fruit, and those trees represent our lives, and the fruit represent the works that come out of our lives. What is it that we're bearing?
What kind of fruit is it? Is it the good or the evil? Are we on the wide way, or are we on the broad way? In the broad way, there's multitudes going this way. It leads to destruction. It's easy to find.
It's easy to go. There are no demands. There are no rules. There are no restrictions. There is complete tolerance of everything. It's the easy way. There's zero discernment that you need to be able to go that way.
Pastor Steve asked in the Sunday school class, what must I do to be saved, if we had somebody ask that? Well, when it comes to the broad way, what must I do to be on the broad way? Nothing. You're there without God, without hope, without Jesus Christ.
But the narrow way, the way which God brings his people to, is a way which is not easy. You must come empty-handed. You enter it alone. There is only one path, not many paths, that leads to life. Few find it.
It's a hard way, and it's demanding, and it's concise, and it's constricted, and it's crowded, and it's not easy. It's not easy, of course, in our own strength, but by the grace of God, God takes sinners out of the broad path, and he puts them on the narrow path.
God takes them out of darkness and puts them in the light. God takes them out of the kingdom of Satan's rule and brings them into the kingdom of his own dear son. He takes us from the position of being dead to being alive in Jesus Christ, and he sets our feet upon a solid rock.
Jesus Christ becomes the foundation of our lives, and it's a narrow path. It begins narrow, and it stays narrow. That's the way it is, and we ought not to be ashamed of that. And when we teach and preach the message of the gospel, and we're labeled as that, we ought not to blush.
We ought not to turn away from it, but we ought to say, yes, praise God, I'm in God's way, on God's path, going God's direction, and God has done it, and I am what I am by the grace of God. We must not close our mouths or apologize for the narrowness of this way.
Jesus boasted in it. Now, the other way that people go, the broad way, is, as I said earlier, it's an easy way. You just go along with the flow. It's kind of like a river. I don't know if you've ever gone to a river or a strong stream and started to walk down it.
The flow of the water just carries you along, and it's easy to go that way. But turn around in that river and try to go the other direction. That's the narrow way. It's against the time. It's against the philosophy and the teachings and the theories and the concepts and the religions of this world.
It is God's way, and it's the only way that leads to life. The broad way, the wide way, is easy to go. There's not much effort to go that way, and most of the world is on that wide way that leads to hell and destruction.
But few, by the grace of God, find the narrow way. As Christians, we don't apologize for the narrowness of this way. Like Jesus, who boasted in it, we boast in it. We must not close our mouths in shame.
We thank God he has put us on the narrow way. Jesus was not ashamed of it. The apostles weren't ashamed of it. You think of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2. He said to them in 2, verse 2, I determined not to know anything among you save or except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
That was it. That was his message. You remember in John 6 when the teaching of Jesus got very pointed and very hard and very personal, some of those who were following him, some of the disciples, the learners, they went away.
And Jesus turned to the 12 and he says, will you go away also? And one of the apostles said, Lord, if we go away, how could we possibly go away because you have the words of life. Christ and Christ alone has the words of life.
What about John 14, verse 6, the teaching of Jesus? When he said, I and Buddha and Mohammed are the way. Did he say that? Of course not. Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes unto the Father but by me. Is it pointed? Yes. Should we be ashamed of that? No. We think of the Apostle Paul in Romans 1. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
They're not ashamed and we ought not to be ashamed. I just love the way that the Lord confirms things and puts things together. Pastor Steve and I did not talk about what we were going to teach about this morning.
And in Sunday school, he taught on evangelism. And really, what is it going to take and how we ought to be stirred and how we ought to have a burden for those that are lost around us and to get busy with sharing the good news of the gospel, which is the only message that can save the soul.
And some of the things that we do wrong in doing that, some of the things that will hinder us. And I believe that I just love the way the Lord does this as far as this message this morning. That which can hinder us is when we get hit with that label.
Man, you people are so intolerant. Man, you people are just so narrow. And it causes us to back away from what we want to say, back away from what we want to do and what we ought to do. Isn't it true that we are allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel?
That's what 1 Thessalonians 2, 4 says. We've been allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tries our hearts. And our desire ought to be to take up this label, to be proud of this label, if I could put it that way, to boast or to glory in our God with this label that we are those who by the grace of God have been put on this narrow path.
And God keeps us on this narrow path. Now, you're here this morning, and you're either on the broad way, the wide way, or the narrow way. Where are you? And our desire as a church, as Christians here, is that you would be saved, and that you would come to a realization that all that I ever believed, all that I ever thought about God, all that I ever been trying to do is absolutely wrong, and I'm going the wrong way.
And I need for God to save me. And if you call upon the name of the Lord, you shall be saved. And if you're on the narrow way, praise God that he put you there and that he's keeping you there. And glory, as the Apostle Paul did, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
That was his boast. It was the cross. It was the simple, plain message that it is through the cross of Jesus Christ, his death and burial and resurrection, this calling to this narrow way, this entrance into the kingdom through this narrow way and staying on this narrow path, just like the story of Pilgrim's Progress.
Narrow, constantly. Get off the path, there's trouble. Stay on the path and don't be ashamed of it. And don't back off from it. Don't cower. Don't close the opportunity or lose the opportunity to witness to somebody else.
But when they label you with that, say, Yes, that's exactly what we are. And I praise God that he has done it. He has put me here. And that's what we're all about. And it will be to the praise and the glory of God if other people will hear the message that we bring to them by our life and by our words and be saved to the glory of Jesus Christ.
Let's pray. Our Father, when we consider the world in which we live, we read it on the pages of the New Testament. People are thankless. People are ignorant of the truth. People are hopeless and helpless.
They are lost and undone, just like we were. Lord, they do not care about normal relationships. They teach for doctrine, the commandments of men. They make void your law. They've gone astray. And, Lord, we look to you to do that which we cannot do, as you had done in our very own lives, to save us by your power, by your gospel coming to us.
And we beheld the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we received Christ, believed and trusted in him. This was your good work, and we praise you for that. Father, the emphasis seems to be today, and what a pertinent time, a time around holidays when we will travel, we will meet with our families, friends, people around work, people out in public.
And we have a wonderful opportunity, especially around Christmas, to speak of Emmanuel who visited us, God with us. Jesus who came to save his people from their sins. And I pray that you'd strengthen us, Lord.
I pray that you'd give us grace as a church to be resolute, to be steadfast, to be firm, to be steeled against that which would come against us, the labeling that will come, and to follow in your footsteps.
How glad we are, Lord, that you have rescued us and that you've put us in that, not only do you save us, but you keep us, and you keep us on the narrow path. Forgive us where we have failed you. Forgive us where we've lost the opportunities.
We're thankful that you do cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You forgive us and bring that sense of forgiveness to us and help us as we go through the next few days and weeks, as we finish this year, that we might do it well and that we may take the opportunity to share the only message of hope for poor perishing sinners around us.
Lord, break our hearts and give us a burden for those that are close by. Help us to love them enough to tell them the truth. Oh, Lord, we would desire to do this so that they would be saved, not that we would have numbers, not that we would increase as a church, not that we would be known as being great evangelists, but it would bring glory and honor to your Son who is worthy.
Oh, Lord God, we commit our lives, our very lives to you. Strengthen us. Help us to remain steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for the glory of Christ. And we ask it in his name.
Amen.