Thankful for the Narrow Way

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This week, all across our land, people are going to be gathering around tables for a thanksgiving feast.
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This is a tradition which is really the most biblical of all of our national holidays.
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It mirrors in many ways the celebrations of the Old Testament, wherein the people of God would come around the table and share a meal in thanksgiving for all that God had done.
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Well, I wanted to, before I read the text this morning, just give you an introduction by saying I have not prepared a special thanksgiving message.
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However, I do want to begin by saying that today's message does relate, in a sense, to thankfulness.
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We are in the midst of our study on the Sermon on the Mount, and we have come today to the text which most explicitly expresses to us the exclusivity of the Gospel, that there is only one way, and it is Christ.
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Often this doctrine is attacked.
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It is marginalized.
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It is considered to be narrow-minded and bigoted.
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Unbelievers demonstrate great animosity that God would only give one way to heaven, and believers often capitulate on this and are unwilling to stand for the truth of the Gospel.
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And we should have a different attitude.
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We should never, ever decry God giving one way.
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We should celebrate and be thankful that God gave one way, because here is the truth.
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God was under no obligation to give any way at all to sinful people.
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God was under no obligation to give you anything, for you are a sinner, you are a rebel to Him.
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And yet, He was loving and gracious enough to give you His Son.
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How dare we decry only one way? How ashamed we should be to think that that only one way is not enough.
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For that way is a blessed way.
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That way is a way that deserves our thanksgiving.
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And shame upon us if we ever try to expand what God has narrowed to only one way.
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So I wanted to begin with that, to say that God's one way is a demonstration of the great expanse of His mercy and grace.
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With that being said, I want us with thanksgiving to turn to our text and stand together and read it.
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We're going to read Matthew chapter 7 beginning at verse 13.
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Now, I want to explain the context.
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This is beginning, Jesus is beginning here to bring everything together from the Sermon on the Mount.
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And He's bringing before the people a challenge.
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He's bringing before them a choice.
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And I want to read all the way down to the end, even though we're only going to focus on verses 13 and 14 today.
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I want you to see the context, because what we're going to see here are two ways.
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And then we're going to see two trees.
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And then we're going to see two types of response, words and deeds.
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And finally, we're going to see two types of foundations, the rock and the sand.
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And you'll see Jesus continually points to people, choose.
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There's one way, and then there's the wrong way.
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There's the right way and the wrong way.
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And He presents them over and over and over with this choice.
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He says in verse 13, enter by the narrow gate.
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For the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction.
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And those who enter by it are many.
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For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life.
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And those who find it are few.
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Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
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You will recognize them by their fruits.
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Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
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A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
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Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits.
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Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
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On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
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Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
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Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
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And the rain fell and the floods came and the wind blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.
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And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.
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Pray with me.
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Father, as we come now to the conclusion of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount and we begin over the next few weeks to exegete these passages and we focus today on the narrow gate and the wide gate, I pray, Father, more than I ever have before, that you would keep me from error.
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Father, saturate me with your truth that it might overflow today.
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I pray that you would open the hearts of the people under the sound of my voice.
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I pray that people would come to know Christ today who maybe have not before.
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For, Lord, this passage is a challenging passage.
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This passage is a convicting passage.
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And woe unto any who hear it and do not obey it.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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In Matthew 7, verse 13, Jesus is beginning to draw His message to a close.
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He has already laid before the people several corrections.
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And now, based upon those corrections, He lays before them a choice.
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John Scott, the great preacher, wrote this.
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He said, The contrast between the two kinds of righteousness and the two kinds of devotion, the two treasures, the two masters, and the two ambitions have been faithfully portrayed.
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Now the time for decision has come.
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Is it to be the kingdom of Satan or the kingdom of God? Is it to be the prevailing Christian culture or the prevailing anti-Christian culture or the Christian counterculture? Jesus continues with His presentation of the alternatives as He describes two ways, two teachers, two pleas, and finally, two foundations.
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He places before them these two things.
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And what we will see from here on out is a presentation of these options just given to us in different words.
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Is it the narrow way or is it the broad way? Is it the true way or is it the false way? Is it the way of words only or is it the way that words that result in actions? Is it the solid rock or is it the shifting sand? And again, John Scott says this.
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He says, Certainly, he emphasizes here even more strongly than ever before, the necessity of making a choice.
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Sometimes as Reformed people, we have a problem with that idea of people making a choice.
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We really do.
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I think sometimes we don't urge men to choose like we ought.
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But here's the thing.
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Number one, John Scott's Reformed, y'all.
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John MacArthur's Reformed.
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All these guys see this passage exactly as Jesus said it.
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He's placing before them a choice.
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Now, we know that no one will choose God unless God opens their heart, but we still place before them a choice.
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We still say, Here is life and here is death.
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Choose life that you may live.
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We lay before men, living and dying.
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And we say, Choose.
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And we know that as long as men stay in their natural dead soul, that they will continue to choose death.
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But we also know that God's elect are out there.
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And when God so wills it, he will open their hearts and they will choose the narrow path.
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But we always lay before them.
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Choose this day.
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And we present them with that choice.
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And that's what Jesus does here.
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So I want us to examine three truths.
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Which this text teaches us.
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These are not alliterated or any fancy outline.
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But I'm sorry to disappoint.
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But.
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But here are the three things that this text teaches us.
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Number one.
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Every person in this world is on one of two paths.
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Every person in this world is on one of two paths.
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You see, in verse 13, he says, enter by the narrow gate.
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And he goes on to say, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.
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So you have the narrow gate and you have the wide gate.
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In the King James Bible, it says, enter by the straight gate.
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And that straight there is not the English opposite of crooked straight.
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But straight.
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In this particular context means constricted.
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Like when you talk about a straight jacket or being straight laced.
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It means to be tight.
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It means to be narrow.
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It means to be constricted.
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It means to be so individualized that it's one at a time.
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John MacArthur likened it to a turnstile.
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So we only go in one at a time.
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We don't go in as a group.
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We don't go in as a family.
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We don't go in as a church.
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We enter in through the narrow gate as an individual.
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It's a straight and narrow gate.
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But then you have the wide gate.
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The word wide there means spacious.
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Open.
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And it leads to an open wide way.
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And beloved, this dichotomy of two ways is presented to us throughout the Scriptures.
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We see in the first chapter of the Psalms.
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He talks about the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked.
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We see in Deuteronomy 30.
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Moses says to the nation of Israel, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.
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Therefore, choose life that you and your offspring may live.
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There's two ways.
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There's only two ways.
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And there's only ever been two ways.
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Joshua 24.
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You all know this verse.
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Most of you have a placard at home somewhere that says what? But for as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
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What is how does that begin? He says, Joshua looks at the people and Joshua 24 15.
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He says, if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve.
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Whether it be the gods of your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.
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But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
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First Kings 18.
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When Elijah stood before the people of God, he said, how long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him.
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If Baal is God, follow him.
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But there's only ever been two options.
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God's way and every other way.
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You see, it's very common in the modern world for people to want to come up with all kinds of different ways to get to God.
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Man by the name of Steve McSwain.
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He is identified as an interfaith advocate and spiritual teacher.
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This is self-identification.
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This is what he said.
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Is Jesus the only way to God? My response is he's my way.
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But is he the only way? I suspect our Baha'i friends have it right when they say one mountain, many gods, end quote.
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The Spiritual Research Foundation says this.
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If five patients were to go to a doctor and each was suffering from a different ailment, then giving all five the same medicine would not result in each being cured.
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So also each of us different and hence the same spiritual practice cannot be recommended for all.
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End quote.
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And of course, the famed Oprah Winfrey.
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She was on her television show and they were having a conversation about spirituality.
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And one of the ladies said, but Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.
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And Oprah looked her dead in the face and with great conviction said, he can't be.
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He can't be the only way.
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Beloved, in this passage, Jesus ensures us that all people are either going one of two ways.
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There is no third option.
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There's no third direction.
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There are not many ways to God.
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There's one way to God and then there's every other way that leads to hell.
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There are two options, but those two options are one is to heaven and the other way is to hell.
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Now, it's not marked hell.
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It's marked heaven too.
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And we're going to talk about this next week when we talk about the false teachers, because you know why the false teacher portion comes right after this? Because you know who stands heralding the Broadway? All these false teachers.
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They're out there saying, come this way, this will lead you to heaven.
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But they're leading people straight to hell.
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But they're standing there going, come this way.
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They're selling tickets on the road to hell.
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We're going to talk about them next week when we get to that portion.
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But the point is, that's how all this fits together.
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Jesus is saying there's only two paths.
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And there's a whole bunch of people out there trying to take you down the wrong path.
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And some of them are preachers.
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Many of them are preachers.
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What is the narrow gate? Jesus said there is a narrow gate.
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What is it? Well, the question isn't what is the narrow gate? The question is who is the narrow gate? Because the reality is the answer to that question is that the narrow gate is Jesus.
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When Jesus talks about entering into the narrow gate, he's talking about himself.
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When he talks about the narrow way, he's talking about his way.
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John chapter 10 and verse 9, Jesus said, I am the door.
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Sometimes it's translated, I am the gate.
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I am the way.
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I am this narrow way that I'm telling you about.
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It's me.
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If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and he will go in and out and find pasture.
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If he enters by me, he will be saved.
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Because I am the only gate to heaven.
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I am the only way, Jesus says.
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John 14, 6.
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You all ought to be able to quote John 14, 6.
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I am the way and the truth and the life and no one comes unto the Father but by me.
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Acts 4, 12.
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And there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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First Timothy 2, 5.
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For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
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Again, I quote John Stott.
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He had so much good to say.
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I had a great time reading him this week.
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And this is what he said.
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He said, we would all prefer to be given many more choices than only one.
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Or better still, to fuse them into a conglomerate religion, thus eliminating the need for a choice.
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But Jesus cuts across our easygoing syncretism.
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He will not allow us the comfortability and the comfortable solutions that we propose.
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Instead, he insists that ultimately there is only one choice and he is that choice.
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There are not two paths.
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There are not two ways.
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I'm sorry.
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There are not many paths.
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There are not many ways.
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There are only two paths.
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One leads to heaven and it is through Christ and every other thing in this world leads to hell.
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Pastor, you're narrow minded.
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I'm as narrow minded as Christ because he said enter through the narrow gate.
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So that's the first thing.
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Every person in this world is traveling one of two paths.
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Every person.
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There's no one out there who's the hanging chad of spirituality who found the third way.
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No, everybody is on one road or the other.
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You today are on one road or the other.
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Let's quit talking about the world.
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Let's talk about us.
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Everybody in this room is either on the narrow way to heaven or you on the broad way to hell.
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And there are some of you here today that are on the broad way to hell.
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Oh, you can't be talking about me.
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If that's what you think, I'm probably talking about you.
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Because the second point of this sermon is the second thing that we need to realize.
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Many more people are on the broad path than are on the narrow path.
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Jesus says it in this text.
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He says.
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For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many.
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Many.
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The text is clear that comparatively speaking, the ratio of those who are saved to those who are lost is very few.
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I don't like to hear that, Pastor.
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It doesn't matter what we like to hear.
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You think Jesus was here having a popularity contest? You know what happened when Jesus preached? People left.
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People left because they didn't want to hear what he had to say.
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When he was done preaching in John chapter 6, it said that all of them left except for his disciples.
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And he said, will you leave me too? And they said, to who shall we go? For you have the words of eternal life.
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But everybody else, man, they didn't want to hear that nonsense from him.
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And so they left.
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We know that the ratio of the saved to the lost is low.
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And that's something that we learn from scripture and from experience.
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Because on my way here this morning, I saw a lot more cars parked in the driveway than I did in the driveway of the church.
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I saw a lot more people on their way to the Walmart and to the McDonald's and to the beach and to the Disney World and to everywhere else but to church.
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I saw it.
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I witnessed it with my own eyes when I walked through and I see people living like the devil and they don't care.
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They are on the broad road to hell.
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And I see that there are many more people of them than are those who come and hear the word of God and want to live the word of God and live for the word of God.
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I know that.
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By experience and by the text of scripture.
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Why? Why is that the way? Why is that there are many more lost than there are saved? Jesus answers the question.
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He said because the way is easy.
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Which leads to destruction.
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On the King James Bible it says the way is broad.
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But here's what that word means.
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It means spacious, non-constricting and pleasant.
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It's kind of like when you go to get on an airplane and there's two lines to get in.
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And one of them is very tight and you're going to have to be rubbing elbows with a bunch of people you don't like.
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And then there's another way that's a big open boarding and everybody can come in and you're not going to touch anybody.
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And you're not going to catch any swine flu or anything.
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So you're going to go through that way because it's a lot more comfortable.
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Because it's open.
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It's spacious.
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It's easy.
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And we can take everything with us.
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We can take all of our baggage on the broad way.
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I can drag all of my luggage on the broad way.
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I can take all of my sin on the broad way.
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I don't have to give anything up to go that way.
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It's easy.
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Why is it easy? Because it is the natural way for a man.
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The Bible says we are by nature children of wrath and it's natural to go the broad way.
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And the world will cheer us on.
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You know what happens when a pastor comes out and he says he no longer believes in Jesus? He gets a TV show.
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He gets a book deal.
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Because the world gives us all that we need to go down the broad way.
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They'll buy us a car to drive down that way.
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There are no moral standards on that way.
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You can do whatever you want.
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You can live however you want.
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You can take whatever you want.
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The broad way is the easy way and thus people go down it.
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Conversely, Jesus says the way to life is hard.
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He says this in verse 14.
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For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.
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And those who find it are few.
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You know why it's hard? It's not hard because Jesus saves us by works.
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And that's what a lot of people think.
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That what he's saying here is that it's hard because of works.
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And that we have to do all these works.
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It's not hard because of that.
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It's hard because it's the most unnatural thing in the world.
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It is the most unnatural thing in the world to enter through the narrow gate.
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In fact, it's so unnatural no one does it without a spiritual change of heart.
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It's so unnatural for us to recognize our sin and be willing to give it up.
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Now, everybody knows that they're sinners.
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But most people, that's OK.
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They go around.
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Judge not lest ye be judged.
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They go around saying it's OK.
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Everyone's a sinner.
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So I'm a sinner.
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So I'm an everyone and everyone's OK.
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They create their own little weird syllogisms to say that they're fine in their sin and they love their sin.
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And this is what MacArthur says about that.
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He says salvation is by grace alone, but it is not easy.
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It calls for knowledge of the truth, repentance, submission to Christ as Lord and a willingness to obey in his will and his word.
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And beloved, all those things are unnatural.
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All those things are opposed to the heart.
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It's opposed to what we want because we don't want to be obedient.
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We want to rebel.
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We don't want to give up our sin.
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We want to love our sin.
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We want to hold on to our sin.
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And this is what happens with a lot of people who say they come to Jesus.
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They come up and they put Jesus in a box in their life and they put him on a shelf next to all these other sins.
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And they say, well, he won't see this part.
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And they live and they're not on the narrow way.
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They've just taken the name of Christ down the broad way.
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The world makes it much easier to be lost than to be saved because the world is under the deception of the devil.
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And beloved, I want to tell you this.
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When a person becomes a Christian, you declare war against hell.
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And hell fights dirty.
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When you become a Christian, you say, I don't want what the devil wants to give me anymore.
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And you reject it.
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And the devil doesn't like that.
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And so he fights dirty against you.
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And this is why Jesus says it's a hard way.
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This is why Jesus said in Luke 13 that we are to strive to enter the narrow gate.
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Strive.
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Greek, agonizomai, where we get the English word agonize over it.
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We battle to enter the narrow gate.
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That's not a denial of justification by faith alone, but it's a reaffirmation of the fact that our faith will never be alone.
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Those who say they believe, but their faith does not change their heart, do not believe.
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If your faith doesn't change the way you live, then beloved, you are lost.
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If your faith doesn't change your life, you are lost.
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There is no third way.
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There is no second chance.
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You will not get to the throne of heaven.
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And having gone through the broad way your whole life, get to the throne of heaven and look up at God and say, oh, I'm ready now.
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He says in Luke 13, strive to enter the narrow door.
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For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
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And he gives his own commentary because he says what he's talking about is when once the master of the house closes the door, it's not open anymore.
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And there are going to be people on that day who come to a closed door and they are going to knock on that door and they're going to say, let us in.
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And the father will say, depart from me.
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I never knew you.
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There are many more people who are going to be lost and are going to be saved.
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That ought to scare us to death.
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That ought to break our hearts.
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That ought to make us get down on our knees.
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That ought to make us get out and share the gospel.
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That ought to change our lives.
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That very simple statement ought to make us change our lives.
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But if you're not saved, it won't affect you at all.
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Unless God chooses to write this truth on your heart.
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So I want to share the third thing with you today because I've shared with you two things.
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One, every person in this world is on two paths.
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Two, more people are on the path of destruction than are on the path of life.
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This is just clearly what Jesus is teaching here.
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The third thing, though, is more of an application point.
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And let me share this with you now.
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The general call of the gospel is that all men get on the narrow path.
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What do I mean by this? Why is that a point? Well, here's what I'm saying.
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The modern gospel presentation does everything it can to make salvation an easy thing.
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And in doing so, they have neutered the gospel and robbed it of its majesty.
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Let me explain what I mean because I don't want to be confusing.
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There are people who I believe in sincerity.
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I'm not imputing their motives, but I am imputing their actions.
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Because in sincerity, people have this great desire to see people come to Christ.
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So what they do is they bring it down to the least possible common denominator.
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And the goal of the presentation is to make it as unoffensive, as palatable as possible.
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Jesus loves you.
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He wants to give you a great life.
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He wants to give you a great everything.
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All you have to do is say, I believe.
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Just say it.
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Just say it.
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We'll make a firetruck into a baptistry and we'll get all the little kids from BBS to get into the firetruck.
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Because all they've got to do is say a prayer and get wet.
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And now they're in Jesus.
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It's wrong.
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It's blasphemous.
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And it's not the gospel.
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The general call of the gospel is not for men to pray a prayer.
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The general call of the gospel is not for men to get into a baptistry.
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The general call of the gospel is to enter through Christ to a new life.
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New life.
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Not just a new word.
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A change of heart, people.
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It's a change of heart.
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A.W.
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Pink asked this question.
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He said, of the vast majority of those who profess to have Jesus as their personal Savior, has their believing of the gospel made them less carnal and worldly, more truthful with their fellows, more honest in their business dealings, less selfish? If not, what is their believing worth? Less than nothing.
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If our belief hasn't changed our life, it's not worth anything.
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It's not.
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Our gospel is not calling men to accept Jesus.
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The Bible knows nothing of a sinner's prayer.
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The Bible knows nothing of asking Jesus into your heart.
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The Bible knows nothing of any of that.
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It says, go down the narrow way.
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Through the narrow gate who is Christ.
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There is no say this prayer one time, write your name in your Bible, and every time you have any doubt, go back to that.
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That is a man-made, modern, psychobabble thing that was brought into the church.
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It's not the way the gospel is to be taught.
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It's not about a one-time decision.
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It's about a life course change.
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You were going down a broad way, which has a cliff that falls into eternal destruction.
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Get off that way and go towards Christ.
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And when we extend that gospel call, we say to all men, enter through the narrow gate.
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You know what? This week, my daughter comes to me.
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I want to be baptized.
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Okay.
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Taking a breakfast.
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So we go to breakfast.
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Just me and her.
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And I open up my Bible.
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This is what I read to her.
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Luke 14.
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If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
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Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
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For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it.
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Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all will see it and begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.
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For what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate, whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000.
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And if not, while the other is yet a great far off, he will send a delegation and ask for terms of peace.
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So therefore, if any of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
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Now I want to ask you a question.
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Those of you whose children have come to you, did you read them that when they said they wanted to be baptized? Or did you say, oh great, let's pray a prayer.
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I said, look at what you're getting into.
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Look at what Christ calls for.
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He doesn't call for a momentary answer to a question.
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He calls for a life that has changed.
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That's what we're called to.
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It's not just one time getting wet, one time getting in the spirit and having all kinds of excitement and coming forward and putting your hand in the preacher's hand.
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All that doesn't matter at all if your life doesn't change.
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You know why we don't do revivals here? By the way, a lot of churches have one revival, week long revivals.
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Guy comes in, he shouts and hoots for a week.
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But you know why we don't do it here? It's very simple.
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Number one, you can't cause revival.
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That's something the spirit does.
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So when they say we're having a revival, I say, who told you? Did Jesus send you a postcard and say, hey, the spirit's going to be there between the 25th and the 30th.
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Better get ready.
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No, that's foolish.
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But the second reason is because so many of these revivalists come in and they make salvation such a simple thing.
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They make salvation something that requires so little of people, a simple act of the will, a simple signing of a card, a simple praying of a prayer.
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And this is what I am telling you today.
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Jesus said salvation is a life-term commitment.
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As my daughter said to me, it was so beautiful that she said this, because we were talking.
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She said, this is like getting married.
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Amen, you got it.
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It's like getting married.
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This is outside of her marriage.
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The decision to get into that water, it's a one time thing.
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Jesus has never been about signing a card.
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Jesus has never been about raising a hand.
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Jesus has never been about praying a prayer, repeating the ABCs of salvation.
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With Jesus, it's always been about giving our lives and true faith and repentance.
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Anything short of that is not conversion.
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Many people walk through this world believing themselves to be saved, and they are not.
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They've given Jesus their lips, but they have not given Jesus anything else in their life.
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And they walk comfortably down the broad road, not realizing that at any point, the broad road, which is paved with thin ice, can collapse from underneath them and then fall into the pit of a fiery hell forever.
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And as I said earlier, and I'll say it again, and I say it without shame, and if I offend you, go away offended.
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Because it's fine, but it is without a doubt that many of you are still on the broad road.
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It is, it just is.
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Many people grow up in Christian homes, and at some point in their younger life, make a decision for Christ.
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Everyone assumes, hey, they're saved.
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Then as they get into their later years, their teenage years, their twenties, they begin to live a very worldly life, and often committing shameless acts of sin.
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And the church says, oh well, they're just backslidden.
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Then at some point in their late twenties or their early thirties, they gain a little maturity.
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They begin to look for the comforts of their youth, and one of the comforts of their youth was what? It was the church.
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So they return to church.
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They acclimate themselves into church life.
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They don't really experience a change of heart, whether they're young or old.
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They haven't experienced a change of heart, just simply a change of lifestyle a little bit.
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And people say, isn't it great to see this person come back into the church? Ah, the prodigal son has returned.
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When all the while the person was never converted in the beginning, has not been converted now.
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They're just living the comfort of a religious life, and a religious life takes you to hell without Christ.
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And that illustration, that parable is rampant.
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How do I know? How do I know if I'm on the broadway? How do I know? Pastor, how do I know you're talking to me? Well, I'm talking to everybody here.
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I'm going to ask you some questions.
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Here's some questions you ask yourself.
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You ask yourself these questions.
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You be honest with yourself.
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And I don't care who you are.
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Don't let your whatever it is keep you from listening to this.
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Don't let your pride, don't let your sin, don't let anything keep you from listening to what I'm going to tell you.
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This is possibly the most important sermon I've ever preached to you.
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All of you, hear me.
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Number one, if your faith does not affect the way you live your life in a substantial way, you are still on the broadway to hell.
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Number two, if all you have done is paid lip service to Christ, you are still on the broadway to hell.
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Number three, if you have no desire to see other people get on the narrow way, you are still on the broadway to hell.
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Charles Spurgeon said, if you have no desire to see others saved, you are not saved yourself.
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Number four, if in this life you know nothing of repentance and struggle with the flesh, but only of comfort in your external religiosity, you are on the broadway.
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Number five, if you embrace your sins and love your sins, rather than hating them and repenting of them, you are on a broad road to destruction, because willful and habitual disobedience is the clearest sign of a lack of conversion.
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I will say that again.
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Willful and habitual disobedience is the surest sign of a lack of conversion.
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And finally, if your Christianity is only marked by what you do here on Sunday morning for this hour, and this is the extent of your time spent with Christ and your service to Christ, you are on the broad road.
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It is.
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You are.
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You are.
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Don't question it.
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Repent.
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Enter through the narrow gate.
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I am calling you as your pastor, as the man of God that God has put here in this place, repent of your sins and enter through the narrow gate.
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You do not want to face God at the end of your life and say, God, Lord, Lord, didn't I go to church at Sovereign Grace every Sunday? Lord, Lord, didn't I take communion every Sunday? Lord, Lord, didn't I give my tithe every Sunday? And Him look at you and say, but you never, ever departed from iniquity.
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You loved your sin and you can't love your sin and love Jesus.
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This is not an invitation, by the way.
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Jesus didn't give an invitation.
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He gave a command.
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He said, enter.
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That's in the imperative.
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It is a command.
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Enter by the narrow gate.
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He didn't say, please come.
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He said, you must enter.
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So I say it to you.
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Enter by the narrow gate.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I see great conviction on faces this morning.
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I see people who know they're on the broad way.
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And while they may never utter those words to me, I pray that they would cry out to you in repentance and faith.
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May it be that we not look to the left and the right and say, oh, that person is and that person is.
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But may we look straight at ourselves and ask ourselves the question, am I on the broad way, which leads to destruction? Because many there are who go therein.
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God, this is not a popular message, but I don't care about popularity.
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I care about your gospel.
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So I pray that you would use this to save souls.
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For only you can show a person through the narrow gate and onto the narrow way.
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So we pray your spirit would do just that in Jesus name.
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Amen.