WWUTT 1972 Enter By the Narrow Gate (Matthew 7:13-14)

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Jesus said to enter by the narrow gate. Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who find that way, because that's the easy way, but there are few who find the narrow gate.

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We find that gate when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we're still in Matthew chapter 7, and looking at just a pair of verses today, this is verses 13 and 14 out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

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For the gate is narrow, and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

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Even though it's just two verses, there's still structure to this passage. We begin with a statement.

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Jesus says, enter through the narrow gate. Then he talks about the broad way, that path which many are on that will take them to their own destruction, and then comes back to define the narrow gate, which is constricted, but leads to life, and there are few who find it.

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So on the broad way, there are many who find that path because that's the easy way, but as for the narrow gate, there are few who find it, and that is the difficult path.

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So if I were to ask you, what is the narrow gate, you might give me a

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Sunday school answer and say, Jesus. Jesus is the narrow gate. That's the way that we enter in, and few find

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Christ and enter into eternal life. Many will go the broad way to their own destruction, and if your answer to that question is

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Jesus Christ, I would say you are correct, but how do you come to that conclusion? How have you determined that Jesus is the narrow gate?

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What passage would you point to? Now, you might be tempted to say, well, John 10, because that's the place where Jesus talks about being the door of the sheep.

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The sheep come in and out by me and find pasture. Or maybe you would point to John 14, 6, where Jesus says,

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I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the

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Father but by me. Both very good passages. Both point to Christ being the only way into eternal life, but those are not the passages we go to in order to conclude that Jesus is the narrow gate in Matthew 7, 13 -14.

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So you're correct in saying that Jesus is the narrow gate, but you're not correct in saying because John 10 and 14 tell us so.

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We actually have to come to that conclusion based on what we're reading here in the Sermon on the

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Mount. We have to look at it in the proper context. Why would we get to Matthew 7, 13 and hear

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Jesus say, enter through the narrow gate and conclude that Jesus is that narrow way through whom we enter?

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Well, remember what we just read yesterday. In verse 7, Jesus said, ask and it will be given to you.

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Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.

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And remember what I said about this. Asking is prayer. We go to God and we pray.

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If we lack wisdom, ask of God and he will give to all generously. And that's

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James 1 -5. The next part, seek and you will find. What did I say that was in reference to?

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That's seeking God's word. Going to the Bible to find the answers. Going to the scriptures.

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And then that next part, Jesus says, knock and it will be opened to you. If you come to the

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Lord and you ask for fellowship with him, you will have it. If you desire those things that delight

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God, he will give you the desires of your heart as I also read to you from Psalm 37.

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So asking is prayer. Seeking is coming to the word of God. Knocking is coming to God.

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And asking that you might fellowship with him. That you might have his mind, his heart, his desires and he will give you those things.

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It will be opened to you to fellowship with God. So we've already had a passage here in the

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Sermon on the Mount that talks about entering in a certain way. You come to the gate of the

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Lord, you knock and it will be opened to you. And we have fellowship with God.

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Jesus goes on to say in verse 8, for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened.

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But on what door are we knocking? So Jesus says in verses 13 and 14 that you enter by the narrow gate.

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So these particular verses really would have worked better with yesterday's lesson but they're so great a passage that I kind of left them by themselves.

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I suppose with yesterday's reading I could have just gone ahead and done 7 to 14 and then just covered 7 to 12 when we do 13 to 14 today that would have given you a better context

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I suppose. But these verses here are not just off by themselves. Most Bibles that you will read will section these verses alone.

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I think the ESV does it. I'm reading from the Legacy Standard obviously. And it says there it puts these verses by themselves and it says at the top the headline that's been added.

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The title that's been added by the editors. It's not divinely inspired. The editors of the

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Legacy Standard translation have put in the narrow gate. That's the title for verses 13 and 14.

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And then verse 15 begins a tree and its fruit. Verse 24 begins build your house on the rock.

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Right? So you probably have a Bible that sections these out that way and puts titles at the top of them.

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Those titles are not in the original manuscript. They're added by the editors. So it's not really a great edit

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I think. I must say. Putting it on the editors of the Legacy Standard.

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But I don't think it's a good editor's decision to section verses 13 and 14 out by themselves and give it the title the narrow gate.

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Because I think you lose something in context. So you have to be disciplined when you study these things. Look at the usage of the words.

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Try to think if you've seen these words elsewhere in the sermon. So this section goes with what we just previously read.

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Beginning in verse 7. Ask and it will be given. Seek and you'll find. Knock and it will be opened to you.

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So we have these bookends. It starts with that instruction. Verses 7 and 8. And it concludes with 13 and 14.

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Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And there are many that enter through it.

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But the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life. And there are few who find it.

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So you see how that goes with ask, seek and knock. Right? There's our bookends on that section.

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But I think there's an even broader context in which enter through the narrow gate belongs.

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And I think we can be even more specific than saying Jesus is the narrow gate. That's true.

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That's a correct answer. That is the way that we enter into the presence of God. We enter through Christ.

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But I think we can be a little more specific than that. It's specifically through the righteousness of Christ.

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So through Christ, yes. But it's through his righteousness that we enter into God's presence.

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Now, where do I get that from? Well, Matthew has been building on this idea through his gospel.

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In chapter 3, Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized. John says, do you want me to baptize you?

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I have need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me? And Jesus said,

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Matthew 3 .15, permitted at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

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We get to the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said in the Beatitudes blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.

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In verse 17, he said do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

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And he's talking about his righteousness that goes back to what he had said to John the Baptist in chapter 3, permitted at this time to fulfill all righteousness.

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So Jesus fulfills the law and the prophets to fulfill all righteousness so that all who believe in him would even have

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Christ's righteousness. At the end of chapter 5, Jesus said, you are to be perfect as your heavenly

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Father is perfect. That is a call to righteousness. In chapter 6, verse 33, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all the things that you need will be added to you as well.

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And so now here we are in chapter 7 where Jesus is again talking about seeking the righteousness of God.

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Ask. Ask for it and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.

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Knock and the way will be open to you that you may have fellowship with God and the only way that we can enter into his presence and have communion with God is through the righteousness of Christ.

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Because we are unholy. We are unfit to be in his presence. It is

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Christ who makes us righteous that we may commune with God. And we have fellowship with God.

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If you are a follower of Christ, you have fellowship with God right now. You can pray to God and he hears your prayer and answers you.

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He has said so as we just read yesterday. Ask. It will be given to you.

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Desire what God loves and he will give you the desires of your heart.

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You can pray to God and he hears your prayer because you have fellowship with God through Christ.

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He is our access to God. So this is a concept that Matthew's been building on through his gospel.

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We've seen even in the Sermon on the Mount so that when we get to verses 13 and 14 and Jesus says enter through the narrow gate.

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It is not just through Christ that we enter into eternal life or that we enter into life for that's what said in verse 14.

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It's specifically Christ's righteousness. Remember again going back to 548 you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

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Well, we cannot be perfect. There is no way for us to fulfill the demands that Jesus is giving us here in the

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Sermon on the Mount. No one would be able to keep these rules of the kingdom the laws of the kingdom that Christ is establishing.

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Only through Christ's imputed righteousness to us do we desire to do the things that are pleasing to God and are able to do them in such a way that pleases

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God. It's only because we are clothed in his righteousness and so it is by his righteousness that we enter into the presence of God fellowshipping with him even into eternal life so that Jesus says enter through the narrow gate.

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Everything that he has told his followers to do in the Sermon on the

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Mount is the narrow way. The broad way is what the rest of the world is doing.

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The vast majority of people in the world are walking in that path that will lead them to destruction.

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And by the way my friends nothing has changed since Jesus said this 2 ,000 years ago.

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It is still only by the narrow gate that we enter and it is still the few who find it.

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Now you may be in a group of people where the majority of the group that you are in happen to be

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Christian. At least I would certainly hope that's the case in your church. You might even say the majority of people who live in your town are conservative.

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I would push back on the claim that the majority of the people that live in your community are Christian. That's probably not the case.

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I lived in a very conservative community. A conservative farming town in Kansas when

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I was growing up and in high school. I think the majority of people in town probably went to church.

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But I would not have called the majority of people who live in that town Christian. I lived with them and we were all pretty close to one another because it was a small town.

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And the majority of that town was not Christian. And yet that was a community that was outside the norm of what you see in most of America.

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That was red state. That was good down home traditional conservative American values.

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That was a church every other block. But still the majority of the town wasn't Christian. And I'm not dogging on it.

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I like where I grew up. It was full of great opportunity. And some wonderful people around me who helped to encourage me and build me up and set me on my way would never let me do anything too stupid.

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That's one of the great things about a small town. Everybody knows everybody. So if you do something too dumb, your parents know about it before you get home.

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So anyway, I'm thankful for that. By God's providence setting me in that place that I might grow and flourish, learn

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God's word, learn some good values that I still put into practice today even as a

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Christian man a husband and a father. But those traditional American values that a small red state farming town has to offer not the narrow gate.

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And the majority of people there though they would probably be quite proud of their down home heritage.

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Their down home heritage is not inherently Christian. The environment you grow up in will not save you.

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Now there are certainly some places that put us closer to the gospel than others. A person who grows up in a

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Christian home is obviously closer to the gospel than a person who doesn't grow up in a Christian home. But nonetheless, the fact that you grew up in a

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Christian home doesn't save you. You still have to believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved.

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I remember Martin Lloyd Jones saying that it is a great tragedy for us to think that all we have to do is improve a man's environment and you can improve the man.

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That doesn't actually help anybody, Jones says, because it was in paradise, in the

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Garden of Eden in perfection that man fell. And so if even in paradise

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Adam and Eve sin then improving a man's condition or improving his environment is not going to save him anymore than paradise saved

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Adam and Eve. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we will be saved.

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And then not only believing in Christ but walking in the way that Christ has set before us.

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That's what we're seeing here in the Sermon on the Mount. So when Jesus says enter by the narrow gate, understand his full meaning.

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1 John 2 -3 says, By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

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The one who says, I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

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But whoever keeps his word truly in him the love of God has been perfected.

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By this we know that we are in him the one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked.

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Walking in the righteousness of Christ. Walking in the way that Jesus has set before us.

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Enter through the narrow gate. And Jesus warns in the rest of 13 for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it.

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Now the legacy standard doesn't use the word easy or difficult. You find those words used in the

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English standard but that is what's being implied here. So the broad way is the easy way.

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Why do the majority of people go that way? Because that's the easy way to go. It is easier for me to give into my flesh.

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To give my flesh what it wants. To go after those things that the world promises me.

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To not be ridiculed by people around me. It's just easier to go along with the crowd. It's more difficult to walk in a path that is more narrow.

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More constricted. More defined. Jesus defines the way that we should go.

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You know the world has their own set of morality also. It's not that the world is completely without morals.

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They have a certain set of morals. Everybody does. A set of morals that they live by.

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They may be completely depraved in their morals but everybody generally has a certain sense of right and wrong.

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It's good for me to do this. It's bad for me to do that. Or it's good for you to do this to me. It's bad for you to do that to me.

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It usually goes that way. But the standard for right and wrong becomes the self.

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It's whatever I say is right. It's whatever I say is wrong. Anyway all that to say that even worldly people still have some basic sense of morality.

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But it's broad. It's constantly changing. It isn't a particular set of rules.

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It's whatever I feel like doing today. It's whatever the crowd is going along with today.

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What's popular in the culture. That's what's going to shape my values. But when it comes to following Christ this is the narrow way.

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There are specific rules. Specific laws. A specific way that Jesus has said you must be in order to be righteous.

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Now again we cannot achieve that righteousness by our works. It's not by anything we do. It's what

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Christ has done and we put our faith and trust in him. But still that is a narrow way.

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And the world will call you narrow minded when you say that this is the only way to eternal life.

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There are millions of ways to hell. There's one way to heaven and that's through Jesus Christ.

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The world will say that you're intolerant. They'll say that you're narrow minded. I get called that every once in a while and I say you're right.

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I am narrow minded because narrow is the way that I walk on. Narrow is the gate by which that I'm going to enter into eternal life.

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So I sure hope that I'm narrow minded. The gate is narrow. The way is constricted.

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This is hard. It's a difficult path. In fact it's so hard it's impossible. You know the story of the rich young ruler.

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That's coming up in Matthew 19. There's a young man that comes to Jesus and says what do

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I need to do to be saved? Jesus says keep the commandments. The rich young ruler says I've done all this from my youth.

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Jesus says but I have this against you. Go and sell all you have give it to the poor and then you'll have treasure in heaven and then come follow me.

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And the rich young ruler walks away sad because he has many great possessions. And Jesus says to his disciples how difficult is it for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven?

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It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Contrasting the largest living creature in Judah at that time, a camel with the smallest opening, the eye of a needle.

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Jesus saying it's easier for that camel to go through that opening and survive the trip than it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

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And it says that the disciples are exceedingly astonished because if this guy, a good man, who's been blessed by God can't enter the kingdom then what hope do the rest of us have?

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Who then can be saved they ask and what does Jesus say? With man this is impossible but not with God.

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All things are possible with God. To enter through the narrow gate we enter by Christ.

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And he is the one that has made that entrance accessible to us.

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It's the hard road. It's even impossible. But it is the way that leads to life.

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There are few who find it. And like I was saying earlier that's still the case. It was the case when

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Jesus said that. It's the case today. It will be the case years from now. It's always the narrow way.

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It's always the few who find it. My friends, Christianity is never going to be the majority rule in this or any other country.

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It will always be the few who find the way of Christ. And this is by the grace of God.

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Heavenly Father, teach us to walk the narrow way. To do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our

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God. To fix our eyes on Jesus the author and the perfecter of our faith.

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Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

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When Christ who is our life appears then we also will appear with him in glory.

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Even though it is the few who find this narrow gate yet the responsibility is still given to the church to preach the gospel to all.

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And so may we do so courageously that the lost may be found and enter through the gate and live.

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It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

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You can find a link to the blog through our website www .tt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.