Apologia Live - The Narrow and Broad Path

The Narrow and Broad Path in Matthew 7

Believers, right? Don't judge, lest you be judged. Favorite atheist verse, right? But we're switching now soon into the narrative after the Sermon on the Mount, which is almost here. We're going into the narrative section where you start to see the history of Jesus, and I love this.

This is where we get to see God as a man walking among us. You get to see Jesus fulfilling his calling, his vocation as Messiah, but you get to actually be there. You get to sort of feel the air and touch the dirt, and I'm just absolutely thrilled that we're getting to that finally.

The Narrow Gate and the Exclusive Way of Salvation

But we are in now an important section, Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 through 14 is the main portion today. I'm going to read it and we're going to pray and get into the Word of God. Hear now the words of the living and true God.

Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You'll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.

A good tree can't produce bad fruit, neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, so you'll recognize them by their fruit.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?

Then I will announce to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired Word. Let's pray together as his church. God, we stand before you as your people, redeemed by your grace, your mercy, washed, forgiven, free.

Because of Jesus, God, we, Father, we can only come before you as Father because you brought us, because you adopted us. We can only come before you with bold and confident access because you love us, in Jesus Christ.

God, we recognize right now the holy ground upon which we stand when we open your word, which is true. We pray, God, that you would by your Spirit today open the eyes of the blind, give hearing to those who are deaf, and I pray that you would raise those who are dead to life.

God, there's so much in our lives that is off. There's so much, God, weakness in ourselves. So we cast ourselves fully upon you and ask you, God, for new breath, new strength, strength to stand again, strength and courage to fight.

Lord, to know you, to understand you, we pray that you would grant to us by your Spirit understanding today that, God, you would get me out of the way, that you would, God, allow people in this service, in this moment of worship, you would allow people to hear your voice and not mine, that you would allow those of us in this service with the word open before us, you would allow all of us to forget my name and remember the name of Jesus, and I pray that you would do the work that only you can do in our hearts and minds to reignite passion within us for you.

I pray, God, that you would bless today with life in Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. This is one of those moments, right, in the text that makes a lot of people very, very uncomfortable. As a matter of fact, we are absolutely in one of those sections that the world would find so offensive about Jesus.

You have to just grant that. This is one of those exclusive kind of claims of Jesus. This is one of those things that Jesus says that an unbeliever might not actually commit to memory. It's one of those things about Jesus that makes him so distinct.

It's also one of those things that Jesus says that, listen very closely to this, if he isn't who he claims to be, makes him into a person that is crazy or a liar. Jesus says things like this in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by me. The text says in Acts chapter 2, neither is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. There's just no question about it.

The Bible teaches there is only one God. Before him, no gods. After him, no gods. He's the first, the last, the beginning, and the end. One God and the people of God that he's created have rebelled against him and God has provided in one sacrifice a way of reconciliation and peace.

One beautiful Savior, one God who takes on flesh to redeem the rebels. And this is one of those moments, brothers and sisters, in the text that puts Jesus at odds with the world. It puts the Christian church at odds with the world because this is one of those claims of Jesus that with no sugarcoating, no padding, there's just a serrated edge.

This is the way of life. Jesus says in this portion here, there's a little gate, narrow path, leads to life. There is a wide gate, broad path, leads to destruction. And right after this, he says, this is the way of life.

There's a wise one, a foolish one. There is sand and there is a rock. There is the one that ends in desolation and the one that weathers the storm. These are the kinds of things that Jesus says. And by the way, it is not only offensive today to speak like that in our culture, it was offensive then.

It bothered them too. But make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, this is how the Bible comes to us. It tells us that you are made in the imago dei, in the image of God, for God, to know God and enjoy God forever.

And this one God has provided in one sacrifice a way of salvation for the people of God. And here's the madness of it all, okay? None of us deserve any of it. Jesus says that he's the only way to God.

And people say, well, that's rather offensive. There's only one way to God. It's amazing that there is any way to God, considering our rebellion, considering our own hearts. If you know your hearts and you know who God is, then you can understand really the glory and the beauty of Jesus Christ coming to redeem any of us, even one.

But make no mistake about it, this is one of those turning points in a person's life where you hear Jesus calling into your life. And I don't care what your background is, if you were raised in the church, not raised in the church, professing to be a believer, not professing to be a believer, no matter where you're at in your personal story, this is a turning point in your life, hopefully.

If you are a believer, it's still a turning point today. It's still a moment that needs response. If you're not a believer, this is a turning point in your life, we pray. Jesus boils all of it down in a way that modern day evangelicalism misses.

Think for a moment about how the gospel is preached today. When I use the term gospel, I am speaking in that very loosely. We talk about Jesus and his message today in the church. We proclaim the gospel in such a way that we make it sound like Jesus is really, really trying for you and I to give him just a shot.

I've mentioned before that years ago during Christmas time, I turned the television on. I was with family and I saw a well-known preacher, minister, a very popular one, sold lots and lots of books on television.

And he said this, he said on Fox News, he said, look, how about we give Jesus, I think he said a 30-day or 60-day or 90-day trial. He said, just give him a try. Just give him like a 30-day trial. Let me just say, brothers and sisters, that is not the gospel.

And that is not the call that Jesus makes to come to him for life. And I want to say, if we want to know why is there so much impotence in the church today, why is so much darkness crept into society around us?

I want to say that it is not the message of Jesus that is somehow different or not powerful. The Bible says that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. It brings about God through his spirit, ignites that message into the hearts of unbelievers and raises them to life.

I don't think it's the gospel. I don't think it's God's power to save. And I don't think it's the atonement of Jesus Christ that lacks the power to save. Perhaps it's not God. Perhaps it actually is us.

Perhaps we're not preaching the gospel in the way that Jesus did, in the way the apostles did, in the way men like George Whitefield did and Jonathan Edwards did during the first and second great awakenings.

Perhaps it's our gospel because, see, when Jesus preaches the message, he does not preach it like a 21st century modern evangelical in the West. He preaches it with all of its rough edges intact. He lets people know in a single section that coming to him means eternal life.

We all get that. We all understand that Jesus gives us the gift of eternal life. But in this section, Jesus describes the experience of the believer who comes to him for life in a way that honestly sounds contrary to what we hear.

Jesus has a full throat when he speaks about this. He speaks with integrity. Here are his words. He says, Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction.

And there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life and few find it. Jesus describes the experience of the believer in a way that you're squeezing through this gate.

And this path that you're on is this narrow path. You have to actually focus in upon this path to stay on the path. The other path is broad. So much is welcome there. It's so easy on that path. There's so much space.

There's so much room to maneuver. There are so many on that path that are around you. There's lots of room to play. And that path leads to destruction, Jesus says. But notice how he explains the experience.

Narrow gate, narrow path, life. And he says the many find the one. Lots of space on that road. Broad and leads ultimately to destruction. Jesus doesn't describe the experience the way people do today.

We think about the gospel today in a way that sounds so contrary to the way the gospel is in the scriptures. People say things today like, Try Jesus. Give him a trial. They say things like, Do you want to go to heaven one day?

Well, then pray this prayer with me. Okay, great. You're saved. See ya. Right? Jesus has punched your ticket. And now you get to go to heaven one day. We say things like, You just need to accept Jesus, right?

You just need to let Jesus into your heart, right? We use, we use, we use phrases and terms about this salvation experience that cannot even be found in the Bible. But when Jesus describes people coming to him, he says, It's this small little gate.

You have to squeeze through that. And there's this narrow path. And it leads to life, though. It goes somewhere. There's actually the thing you want to attain. But the other one, lots of space and gate.

You can squeeze through, bring your baggage, your self-righteousness. You can bring all of your old life with you. It all works on that path. And it leads ultimately to destruction. But see, it's interesting how the Bible does this.

And I want you to, if you have your pens ready, guys, get ready to write here, because I'm going to give you guys a lot of references today, to show you this is an overarching theme in the Bible, not just this particular section of Jesus, but it's the overarching theme of the scriptures.

People today don't like to think in black and white, right? We like a lot of gray area today, right? It's comfortable in the gray. But the scriptures actually do very much see truth as truth and error as error.

Very much see there's a life and death situation here. And the scriptures really, from the beginning to the end, give you things like this. Two options. A decision must be made. There are two ways. I'll give you an example.

It's Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 15. Deuteronomy 13, 30, verse 15. He says, see, I have said before you today, life and prosperity and death and adversity. Here's God speaking to the people of God in the Old Testament in very much the same ways that Jesus does to the people of God in the New.

Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.

Here is God once again putting the situation in a stark contrast. Life or death, what do you want? Which way do you want to go? We oftentimes don't like to think about our own circumstances and our own future in that kind of way, right?

We like to say, well, maybe there's room to play here. I mean, is Jesus really the only way to salvation? I mean, what about this person over here that has never, quote, heard of Jesus? What about this religion over here?

They do such good things. They're such loving people. All those things may be true, may be very zealous and amazing and beautiful people. But the question comes, really, is it just Jesus? Is it really that kind of a contrast?

Maybe there's a holding place people go, right? Like people die and they go to a place where they kind of get, they hang out, right? It's just not so great. Land, heaven, hell, and then not so great, right?

That place in the middle. People can hang there until they maybe get washed and cleansed and get a little better. Sounds kind of like purgatory, doesn't it? We don't like to think in terms of life or death, blessing or curse.

Proverbs 12, 28, in the way of righteousness is life and in its pathway there is no death. Jeremiah 21, 8, and to this people you shall say, thus says the Lord, behold, I said before you the way of life and the way of death.

Why bring those up? It's not just a proof text, brothers and sisters. It's not just to pull a few texts from here or there to show, look, this seems like something God has said before. It's really to present before us that this is the way that God presents the world to us.

We are broken. We are in a disharmonious relationship with our creator. Sin, sickness, disease, brokenness, death, hostility, backbiting, gossip, haters of God, disobedience of parents, all these things, all of this mess before us, all this hurt that we receive from others that we actually give to others, husbands failing their wives, wives failing their husbands, all the result of us just being rebels.

And we're dang good at it, right? We're professional rebels, actually. And the result of all of that is that we are in a relationship with God that is marred and separated, disharmonious. We don't want God, but God in his love in the scripture steps down into his own creation to reach out in love to the rebels who would much rather not have him a part of their lives.

Thank you very much. And when God does speak to our circumstances, he speaks in such a way to wake us up from our slumber. Confess to this, please, with me. Just confess to this. Each and every single one of us get jaded to the truths of God.

We become indifferent to the things of God. All of us get into places where we have highs spiritually and lows spiritually. We have moments of great strength and might as believers, and we have moments of deep, deep darkness and depression.

We have moments where we are walking with God, we think, consistently, and other moments where we're absolutely failing God and ourselves. That's the truth of the matter. And God steps into that mess and he saves rebels like us.

But when he does speak to us, he does it in such a way to shout into our souls, to wake us from the slumber, to wake us from the indifference. Jesus doesn't come into the world and placate to people's sensitivities.

He doesn't come into the world and actually speak in such a way as to allow people to misunderstand him. Jesus comes into the world and he shocks you because he is love. Love will do that. Love doesn't actually allow people's sensitivities to become the dominating force in the relationship.

Love actually risks for the other. And so Jesus in love comes to people who are actually soaking in their rebellion. And he says, the way of life, the way of death. Small gate, wide one. Narrow path, broad path.

Life and destruction. Which one? Which one? This is how Jesus comes into the world. This is how Jesus speaks. And I want to say something. I think that we all need to really grab hold of it. Something I actually have to submit myself to and put myself down at times and get myself out of the way.

We have to actually come to grips with something. Jesus is either who he claims to be. His word is the truth. And his word should have the primacy in our lives. And we should obey it. All of it. Or Jesus is a liar, a false prophet.

You should not listen to this. Eat, drink, and be merry. For tomorrow you die. Now if Jesus is who he claims to be, then that means that his word counts. And it means his word is true. And it means when he says things to us like, choose life or death.

It ought to change and radically transform your life and your view of the world in everything. In absolutely everything. Here's the thing. In the text that becomes difficult, this is just kind of, I think, an interesting thing to point out because there is a little bit of debate here on this text.

Not in terms of whether it's life or death or Jesus or not. But the question is, is the gate at the front or the back? That's an interesting debate, right? Is the gate at the front or the back? Is the narrow gate before the path?

Or is the path there and you get to the gate and squeeze through? Which one is it? Well, there's actually debate over whether it's gates, path, destination. Or if it's path, gate, destination. Whichever one you'd think is the most consistent in the text, the clear message is the same thing Jesus says.

That he is the door and you must enter through him. And the clear message in scripture is that if you are a believer, then you have been set apart for God. You have been saved. You are being sanctified and you have been sanctified.

You are forgiven. You have gone from death to life. And that means that your life is to be ordered once and for all by God's love and by his words. And we know that it is an exclusive way to God, ultimately.

So there is a little bit of dispute as to which way is it. Is it the gates, the path, and then a destination? Or is it the path, the gate, and then a destination? Either way, you're getting the same message, I believe.

So I don't think I want to spend too much time on that today. But I want to, before I actually talk about those paths for a moment, I want to point to something that is unique about Jesus' message that is oftentimes different than how we say it.

And I want you just to think through this with me for a minute. Just a couple examples that go right along with Matthew chapter 7 here. Jesus and the cost of discipleship. We don't preach the gospel a lot today in the way, again, Jesus did.

The apostles did. Some of the Christians have through the ages that have brought about great transformation in the way that we talk about the cost of discipleship. We often think about the message of Jesus.

Let me give you a perfect example. Maybe this will set in for you. Have you ever heard of soul winning? Now, first and foremost, let me confess to this. I want to win souls. Or maybe I should say it the way some people do.

I want to win souls, y 'all, right? You know, okay, soul winning, right? Of course, I want souls to be won to God. Praise God for that. But the idea of soul winning today often goes something like this.

Hello, sir. How you doing? I'm from Jedidiah Baptist Church or something, right? Okay. And would you like to go to heaven one day? And someone says, well, tell me about it. Well, let me show you a couple things in the Bible.

And we talk about we're sinners and Jesus died for sinners. Jesus rose from the dead. Would you like to go to heaven one day? I think I'd like to go to heaven one day. Go ahead and bow your head for a moment and pray this prayer.

Lord Jesus, I confess I'm a sinner. And I thank you to die for me and praise God. Amen, right? Okay, the person goes, okay. Yeah, you're saved, sir. Congratulations. Have a nice day. Would you like to come to church?

No, okay, that's fine. God bless you, okay? And they go, I want a soul today, right? I want a soul today. Think about it in terms of a magic prayer that you pray at one point in your life. You get your ticket punched by Jesus.

He nods his head at you and you walk away. Let me just say that is not how the gospel is preached in the New Testament. That is not how Jesus talks about the gospel. I want you to show me one time in the gospels where Jesus actually speaks to people like this.

Would you let me into your heart? No, no, no, Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus does something very, very different. When Jesus talks about the cost of discipleship, he says that he's the exclusive way to salvation, John 14, 6.

I am the way, come on now, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Acts 4, 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved.

Jesus. By the way, did you know that was directly in the face of Rome? Did you know that? How highly political is the Christian message? You're telling the world that there is a king over all kings that they must obey.

And when Peter quotes that, do you know that he co-opted the language from Caesar in his day, where they said that Caesar was the savior of the world and that there was no salvation except through Caesar?

And Peter says in public, no, no, no, no, it's not Caesar, it's Jesus. Do you know that? It's a little bit politically charged. So much for Christians being involved in politics. 1 Timothy 2, 5, it's another big one.

Exclusive nature of Jesus as a disciple. He's the only way. The Bible says in 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 5, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Why do I reject the Pope?

Because there is only one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. Why do I reject Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, Brigham Young as a prophet of God? Because there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Why do I reject prayers to the saints? Because there is only one God and one mediator between God and men. The exclusive nature of Jesus. He says it's me or no. Jesus says what? He says you are either with me or you are against me.

We can't get away from the fact that Jesus said that he's the only way to life. And again, I want to just say this to you just as an encouragement. Listen, you either accept that full on and you fall before him or you reject him as a liar.

You can't take some of what Jesus says and not other things Jesus says. His claims over your life and mine are total. He's either sovereign and Lord of all or he is not sovereign and Lord at all. Jesus, again, when he talks about the cost of discipleship, he talks about how it will cost you and I.

There's that narrow path. It's going to cost you to follow me. You're going to have to give something up like your whole life. He says this in Luke 14, 26. 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.

We've talked about this many times before, right? We've talked about it a lot. Jesus stands before crowds of people. It's a great moment, Lord, to grow this church, right? It's fantastic. You could use this opportunity, Jesus, to grow the entire church.

We went from these fishermen, all these people, uneducated. We don't have a lot going for us, right? We had some time to kill, right? And we're following you now. Now we have thousands of people following Jesus.

And I bet you if you would have asked any of those people, if you'd asked them, if you would have said to them, is that the Messiah? They would have said, sure, that's the Messiah. He's the Christ, son of David.

They would have said it. They would have followed because that's, yeah, sure. Because he was feeding them. They were coming for the wrong reasons. And Jesus turns around and he says to crowds of people, in an opportunity to grow the entire church, he turns around and he cuts every single one of them.

And he says this, if you're going to come, then you need to make sure that you love me above everything that is important to you in your life, including your own life. Your boyfriend, your father, your mother, your girlfriend, even your own life.

If any of those relationships are of more value to you than me, he says this, don't come. Don't come. If you're not willing to come and die and rise again with Jesus, he tells you, don't come. He said, this is the message of Jesus.

Don't delude yourself into being almost Christian. One of the most dangerous places you could possibly be is almost Christian. And Jesus was quite willing to let people turn away from him and not fool them into thinking they were really believers.

We often think if we have a huge church, a stadium full of people, that we are a massive success. Jesus went from a stadium full of people down to a handful of people. And he was happy to do so. Because he did not want people to think they really knew him when they didn't.

And so Jesus says, it costs you something to follow me. It's going to cost you maybe your relationships. Now, by the way, let me just say as an aside, this is very, very important. If we read the cost of discipleship passages from Jesus and we think that means we ought to be really, really good jerks to people, then you're reading it wrong, bro.

You know what I'm saying? I'll tell you what. Sometimes Christians are the most amazing and beautiful people on the planet. And sometimes they can be the biggest jerks you have ever met. Sometimes Christians read these exclusive things of Jesus and they say, oh, great, Jesus is exclusive.

He's the only way. So I had better be a jerk to create some friction in my relationships, right? Listen, if people avoid you because of your behavior, you have to answer for that. People, of course, will separate from Christians at times because the message we have and the claims we make about Jesus are offensive to those who are not in relationship with God.

But Jesus says you're going to have persecution. People are going to separate from you. Are you willing to lose relationships, mother, father, sister, brother? Are you willing to lose? This really hit me recently when we were in Hawaii.

Let me just say this. I am such a baby. I'm such a wuss. I am. I found myself after Hawaii complaining like about how tired I was, right? I got a chance to go preach the gospel in an island in the middle of the ocean to people who love Jesus Christ.

I got to proclaim Jesus' excellencies. I preached like nine times in just a handful of days. I got to do it in an island in the middle of the ocean. And I got really, really sick because I didn't sleep and I was running to the ground.

I was super exhausted and tired. And afterwards I was like complaining about I was just so tired. It was just so hard. And I'm thinking about what a wuss I am. Because you know what's amazing is that while I went to Hawaii and I went and preached the gospel in one context about the Mormon church, I was completely and utterly safe.

I went into this context. All these churches joined together. We're on the north shore of Oahu. It's a huge Mormon population. We're trying to love the Mormons and bring the gospel to them. And I go there.

I drop a bomb and I leave safe, unscathed. And when I leave that place, there's a woman with her husband and her children. She was punched in the face and thrown out of her home. And they're suffering now in Hawaii on the north shore because of our event.

Why? Because she stood up for the message of Jesus in the gospel and she lost something. When I was talking to them at this event afterwards, I'm telling them the truth and they're seeing in the scriptures.

Yes, I see that's the truth about Jesus. I see that's the gospel. And what they're saying, that's not Jesus. That's not the gospel. We love these people. We want to reach them. And you know what they said to me?

They weren't asking all the apologetic questions necessarily. They weren't saying, how do I answer this text or that text? That's ultimately easy work. You know what they asked? They said, Jeff, how do we do this?

And he didn't mean, Jeff, how do we do this? Like which Bible verse do we go to to give to our Mormon friends and family? You know what they said? They said, how do we do this? Considering the fact that everybody we know up here is Mormon.

They're all our friends and family we grew up with. We love these people with all of our hearts. How do we do this? You know what's behind the question? You know it already, don't you? What's behind the question?

How do we do this and not lose everything? They know what it means on the North Shore of Oahu to preach the gospel to Mormon friends, family, and neighbors. They know what it means. It means they can lose everything.

They can get punched in the face. They could be out on the streets with their daughter and son and husband with nowhere else to live. Except the beaches are nice. There, you can live there. Okay, okay.

They know what it means. And I'm such a wuss because I go up there and drop a bomb and now a family is suffering as a result of it. She lost. She understands the cost of discipleship. That's the kind of thing that happens when you follow Jesus faithfully in this world.

You can lose something or everything. Acts 14, 22. Listen again about discipleship and the cost of discipleship. The apostle Paul says, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

That's how this goes. In a fallen world, there are trials. There are tribulations. That is how you enter. That is the life. That is the path. Next, another thing that Jesus talks about in terms of the cost of discipleship that is missing many times from our message to the world.

Obedience, Fruit, and the Marks of True Discipleship

Matthew chapter 7, verses 15 through 27, the call to obedience. I want you to read that text with me again and pay close attention, guys. He says right after the roads and the gates and the destinations, he says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.

You'll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. Do you think Jesus believed in lordship salvation?

I think so. Do you think he believed that believers are sanctified and bear fruit? I think so. He says this. Watch here, verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name? Then I will announce to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers.

Listen, what do we do with that? Some people have wrongly gone to this text and suggested that it means you can lose your salvation. They go to this text and they say, look, Jesus says he's going to say to people on the last day who say to him, Lord, Lord, and do all these grand things in ministry for Jesus.

He's going to say to them, depart from me. I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness. And so that means you can lose your salvation. Answer, nobody that God saves can lose their salvation. Jesus says in John 6, what?

He says, I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given to me, I should lose nothing. Nobody that has been truly given to Jesus by the father is ever lost by the father.

And the text actually says what? He says, depart from me. I never knew you. He doesn't say, depart from me. I knew you and you couldn't make it. I knew you and you failed. I knew you and you just weren't strong enough.

I knew you and you weren't committed enough. He says this, depart from me. I never knew you. There never was a relationship. There never was knowledge of one another. I never knew you. There was no intimate relationship with us.

And he says, what to them? He says, you lawbreakers. Fits very nicely with what Jesus says here in a narrow path that leads to life with a small gate and then a wide one with a broad path, right? He says, you're on this path.

And obviously, that path is something that you have to actually stay focused on. And there are difficulties along the way. This path you have to squeeze through. But the person who works lawlessness, whose life is identified by lawlessness, can hang out on the broad road.