Apologia Live - The Narrow and Broad Path

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believers, right? Don't judge, lest you be judged. The favorite atheist verse, right?

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But we're switching now soon into the narrative after the Sermon on the Mount, which is almost here.

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We're going into the narrative section where you start to see the history of Jesus, and I love this.

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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.

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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.

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But we are in now an important section, Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 through 14 is the main portion today.

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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

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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.

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How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

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Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravaging wolves.

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You'll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from foreign bushes or figs from thistles?

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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.

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Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you'll recognize them by their fruit.

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Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but I'm the one who does the will of my

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Father in heaven. On that day, many will come, 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?

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Then I will announce to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers.

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Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired Word, let's pray together as his church.

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God, we stand before you as your people, redeemed by your grace, your mercy, washed, forgiven, free.

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Because of Jesus, God, we can only come before you as Father because you brought us, because you adopted us.

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We can only come before you with bold and confident access because you love us in Jesus Christ.

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God, we recognize right now the holy ground upon which we stand when we open your word, which is true.

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We pray, God, that you would buy 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.

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God, there's so much in our lives that is off. There's so much,

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God, weakness in ourselves. So we cast ourselves fully upon you and ask you,

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God, for new breath, new strength, strength to stand again, strength and courage to fight,

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Lord, to know you, to understand you. God, 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,

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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 our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would allow all of us to forgive our sins, that you would get 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.

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I pray, God, that you bless today with life in Jesus Christ.

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In Jesus's 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.

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You have to just grant that. This is one of those exclusive kind of claims of Jesus.

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This is one of those things that Jesus says that an unbeliever might not actually commit to memory.

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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.

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Jesus says things like this in John 14 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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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.

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Just no question about it. The Bible teaches there is only one God. Before him no gods.

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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.

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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

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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.

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This is the way of life. Jesus says in this portion here, there's a little gate, narrow path, leads to life.

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There is a wide gate, broad path, leads to destruction. And right after this he says this is the way of life.

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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.

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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.

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It was offensive then. It bothered them too. But make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, this is how the

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Bible comes to us. It tells us that you are made in the imago Dei, in the image of God, for God, to know

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God and enjoy God forever. And this one God has provided in one sacrifice a way of salvation for the people of God.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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But make no mistake about it, this is one of those turning points in a person's life where you hear

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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.

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If you are a believer, it's still a turning point today. It's still a moment that needs response.

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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.

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Think for a moment about how the gospel is preached today. When I use the term gospel,

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I am speaking in that very loosely. We talk about Jesus and his message today in the church.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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,

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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.

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It brings about, God through his Spirit, ignites that message into the hearts of unbelievers and raises them to life.

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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.

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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

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Apostles did, in the way men like George Whitefield did and Jonathan Edwards did during the first and second

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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

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West. He preaches it with all of its rough edges intact.

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He lets people know in a single section that coming to him means eternal life.

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We all get that. We all understand that Jesus gives us the gift of eternal life. But in this section,

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Jesus describes the experience of the believer who comes to him for life in a way that honestly sounds contrary to what we hear.

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Jesus has a full throat when he speaks about this. He speaks with integrity.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The other path is broad. So much is welcome there. It's so easy on that path.

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There's so much space. There's so much room to maneuver. There are so many on that path that are around you.

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There's lots of room to play. And that path leads to destruction, Jesus says.

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But notice how he explains the experience. Narrow gate. Narrow path.

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Life. And he says the many find the one. Lots of space on that road broad and leads ultimately to destruction.

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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.

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People say things today like, try Jesus. Give him a trial. They say things like, do you want to go to heaven one day?

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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.

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We say things like, you just need to accept Jesus. Right? You just need to let

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Jesus into your heart. Right? We use phrases and terms about the salvation experience that cannot even be found in the

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Bible. But when Jesus describes people coming to him, he says, it's this small little gate.

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You have to squeeze through that. And there's this narrow path. And it leads to life, though.

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It goes somewhere. There's actually the thing you want to attain. But the other one, lots of space and gate.

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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.

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But see, it's interesting how the Bible does this. And I want you to, if you have your pens ready, you 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

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Bible. Not just this particular section of Jesus, but it's the overarching theme of the

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Scriptures. People today don't like to think in black and white. Right? We like a lot of gray area today.

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Right? It's comfortable in the gray. But the Scriptures actually do very much see truth as truth and error as error.

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Very much see there is a life and death situation here. And the

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Scriptures really, from the beginning to the end, give you things like this. Two options. A decision must be made.

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There are two ways. I'll give you an example. It's Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 15. Deuteronomy 13, 30, verse 15.

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He says, see I have said before you today life and prosperity and death and adversity.

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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

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New. Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have said before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

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So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants. Here is

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God once again putting the situation in a stark contrast. Life or death? What do you want?

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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.

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Right? We like to say, well maybe there's room to play here. I mean, is this really the only way to salvation?

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I mean, what about this person over here that has never, quote, heard of Jesus? What about this religion over here that do such good things or such loving people?

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And, you know, all those things may be true, may be very zealous and amazing and beautiful people. But the question comes, really?

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Is it just Jesus? Is it really that kind of a contrast? Maybe there's a holding place people go.

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Right? Like people die and they go to a place where they kind of get, they hang out. Right?

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It's just not so great. Heaven, hell, and then not so great. Right? That place in the middle.

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People can hang there until they maybe get washed and cleansed and get a little better. Sounds kind of like purgatory, doesn't it?

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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.

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Jeremiah 21, 8, and to this people you shall say, thus says the Lord, behold

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I said before you the way of life and the way of death. Why bring those up?

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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

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God has said before. It's really to present before us that this is the way that God presents the world to us.

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We are broken. We are in a disharmonious relationship with our

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Creator. Sin, sickness, disease, brokenness, death, hostility, backbiting, gossip, haters of God, disobedience of parents, all these things.

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All of this mess before us. All this hurt that we receive from others that we actually give to others.

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Husbands failing their wives. Wives failing their husbands. All the result of us just being rebels.

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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.

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We don't want God. But God in his love in the scripture steps down into his own creation to reach out and love to the rebels who would much rather not have him a part of their lives.

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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.

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Confess to this, please, with me. Just confess to this. Each and every single one of us get jaded to the truths of God.

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We become indifferent to the things of God. All of us get into places where we have highs spiritually and lows spiritually.

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We have moments of great strength and might as believers. And we have moments of deep, deep darkness and depression.

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We have moments where we are walking with God, we think consistently, and other moments where we're absolutely failing

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God and ourselves. That's the truth of the matter. And God steps into that mess and he saves rebels like us.

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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.

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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.

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Jesus comes into the world and he shocks you because he is love. Love will do that.

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Love doesn't actually allow people's sensitivities to become the dominating force in the relationship.

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Love actually risks for the other. And so Jesus in love comes to people who are actually soaking in their rebellion.

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And he says, the way of life, the way of death. Small gate, wide one.

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Narrow path, broad path. Life and destruction. Which one? Which one?

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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.

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It's something I actually have to submit myself to and put myself down at times and get myself out of the way.

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We have to actually come to grips with something. Jesus is either who he claims to be. His word is the truth.

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And his word should have the primacy in our lives. And we should obey it. All of it.

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Or Jesus is a liar, a false prophet. You should not listen to this.

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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.

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And it means his word is true. And it means when he says things to us like, choose life or death.

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It ought to change and radically transform your life and your view of the world in everything.

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In absolutely everything. Here's the thing in the text that becomes difficult.

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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.

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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?

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That's an interesting debate, right? Is the gate at the front or the back? Is the narrow gate before the path?

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Or is the path there and you get to the gate and squeeze through? Which one is it?

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Well there's actually debate over whether it's gate, path, destination.

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Or if it's path, gate, destination. Whichever one you think is the most consistent in the text, the clear message is the same thing

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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.

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You have been saved. You are being sanctified and you have been sanctified. You are forgiven. You have gone from death to life.

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And that means that your life is to be ordered once and for all by God's love and by his words.

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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.

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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,

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I believe. So I don't think I want to spend too much time on that today. But I wanted before I actually talk about those paths for a moment,

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I want to point to something that is unique about Jesus' message that is oftentimes different than how we say it.

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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.

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Jesus and the cost of discipleship. We don't preach the gospel a lot today in the way, again,

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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.

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We often think about the message of Jesus. Let me give you a perfect example. Maybe this will set in for you.

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Have you ever heard of soul winning? Now first and foremost, let me confess to this.

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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.

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Okay. Soul winning, right? Of course I want souls to be won to God. Amen. Praise God for that. But the idea of soul winning today often goes something like this.

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Hello, sir. How you doing? I'm from Jedidiah Baptist Church or something, right?

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Okay. And would you like to go to heaven one day? And someone says, well, tell me about it.

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Well, let me show you a couple things in the Bible. We talk about we're sinners and Jesus died for sinners. Jesus rose from the dead.

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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 thank you that you died for me and praise

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God. Amen. Right? Okay. The person goes, okay. You're saved, sir. Congratulations.

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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.

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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.

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He nods his head at you and you walk away. Let me just say, that is not how the gospel is preached in the

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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.

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Would you let me into your heart? No, no, no. Jesus doesn't do that.

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Jesus does something very, very different. When Jesus talks about the cost of discipleship, he says that he's the exclusive way to salvation.

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John 14 6. I am the way, come on now, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father but by me.

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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.

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Jesus. By the way, did you know that was directly in the face of Rome? Did you know that?

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How highly political is the Christian message? You're telling the world that there is a king over all kings that they must obey?

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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?

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And Peter says in public, no, no, no, no. It's not Caesar. It's Jesus. Do you know that?

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It's a little bit politically charged. So much for Christians being involved in politics. 1st

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Timothy 2 5. It's another big one. Exclusive nature of Jesus as a disciple.

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He's the only way. The Bible says in 1st Timothy chapter 2 verse 5, there is one

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God and one mediator between God and men, the man

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Christ Jesus. Why do I reject the Pope? Because there is only one mediator between God and men,

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Jesus Christ. Why do I reject Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, Brigham Young as a prophet of God?

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Because there's only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Why do I reject prayers to the saints?

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Because there is only one God and one mediator between God and men. The exclusive nature of Jesus.

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He says it's me or no. Jesus says what? He says you are either with me or you are against me.

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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.

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Listen, you either accept that full -on and you fall before him or you reject him as a liar.

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You can't take some of what Jesus says and not other things Jesus says.

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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.

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Jesus, again, when he talks about the cost of discipleship, he talks about how it will cost you and I.

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There's that, there's that narrow path. It's gonna cost you to follow me. You're gonna have to give something up like your whole life.

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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.

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We've talked about this many times before, right? We've talked about it a lot.

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Jesus stands before crowds of people. It's a great moment, Lord, to grow this church, right?

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It's fantastic. You could use this opportunity, Jesus, to grow the entire church.

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We went from these fishermen, all these people, uneducated. We don't have a lot going for us, right?

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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

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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.

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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 gonna 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.

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Your boyfriend, your father, your mother, your girlfriend, even your own life.

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If any of those relationships are of more value to you than me, he says this, don't come.

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Don't come. If you're not willing to come and die and rise again with Jesus, he tells you, don't come.

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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

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Christian. And Jesus was quite willing to let people turn away from him and not fool them into thinking they were really believers.

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We often think if we have a huge church, a stadium full of people, that we are a massive success.

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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.

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And so Jesus says it costs you something to follow me. It's gonna cost you maybe your relationships. Now by the way, let me just say as an aside, this is very, very important.

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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.

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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.

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Sometimes Christians read these exclusive things of Jesus and they say, oh great, Jesus is exclusive.

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He's the only way. So I had better be a jerk to create some friction in my relationships, right?

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Listen, if people avoid you because of your behavior, you have to answer for that.

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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.

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But Jesus says you're gonna have persecution.

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People are gonna separate from you. Are you willing to lose relationships? Mother, father, sister, brother, are you willing to lose?

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This really hit me recently when we were in Hawaii. Let me just say this,

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I'm such a baby. I'm such a wuss. I am.

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I found myself after Hawaii complaining, like about how tired I was, right?

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I got a chance to go preach the gospel in an island in the middle of the ocean of people who love Jesus Christ. I got to proclaim

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Jesus' excellencies. I had, I preached like nine times in just a kind of handful of days.

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I got to do it in an ocean, 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.

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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

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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

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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

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Mormons and bring the gospel to them and I go there, I drop a bomb and I leave safe, unscathed.

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And when I leave that place, there's a woman with her husband and her children that were, 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.

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Why? Because she stood up for the message of Jesus in the gospel and she lost something.

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When I was talking to them at this event afterwards, I'm telling them the truth and they're seeing in the scriptures, yes

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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.

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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.

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You know what they asked? They said, Jeff, how do we do this? And he didn't mean,

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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?

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They said, how do we do this considering the fact that everybody we know up here is

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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?

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You know what was behind the question? You know it already, don't you? What's behind the question? How do we do this and not lose everything?

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They know what it means on the north shore of Oahu to preach the gospel to Mormon friends, family, and neighbors.

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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, that's, you can live there, okay, okay.

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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.

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She lost. She understands the cost of discipleship. That's the kind of thing that happens when you follow

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Jesus faithfully in this world. You can lose something or everything.

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Acts 14 22, listen again about discipleship and the cost of discipleship, the

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Do you think Jesus believed in lordship salvation? I think so. Do you think he believed that believers are sanctified and bear fruit?

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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

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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?

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Then I will announce to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers. Listen, what do we do with that?

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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,

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Jesus says he's gonna 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 gonna say to them, depart from me,

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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.

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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,

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I should lose nothing. Nobody that has been truly given to Jesus by the Father is ever lost by the

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Father. And the text actually says what? He says, depart from me, I never knew you.

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He doesn't say, depart from me, I knew you and you couldn't make it. I knew you and you failed.

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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,

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I never knew you. There never was a relationship. There never was knowledge of one another.

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I never knew you. There was no intimate relationship with us. And he says what to them? He says, you lawbreakers.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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There's plenty of space. So Jesus, in the text, as he talks about discipleship, he tells you that there's a cost.

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He tells you that you will lose. He tells you that there's an exclusive way to him and he tells you that there is a call to obedience.

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If there is no fruit, the problem is the rottenness in the root. Jesus says, listen closely, this is challenging.

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John 14 21, whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me.

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The one who loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and reveal myself to him.

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John 14 15, I hope you have this memorized. It's awesome. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

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John 15 10, if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love just as I have kept my

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Father's commandments and remain in his love. First John 2 3, by this we can be sure that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

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Let me just bring that together for a moment. Remember that path? Narrow. Remember that gate? Small. And the destination life?

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Here's the answer from Scripture. You want to know how you know that you know him? What? You keep his commandments.

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Do you know what? How you can check out whether or not you're on the broad path or the narrow one? Do you want to look around and see which one?

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The answer from Scripture is this. Are you keeping his commandments? And you might be saying right now, oh my goodness, man,

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I'm a complete and utter failure and I'm broken. I blow it constantly. Sounds like you're on the narrow path. If you recognize your own failures, you recognize your own brokenness, that is a work of the grace of God in your life showing you who you are.

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And the hope you and I have in the gospel is that God has done this work in us. He has given us new life, given us new hearts, and the love and the desire to pursue

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God that pours out of us is granted to us by God.

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Amen? So us being on this path and getting through that gate is a path that God sets you on.

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But the question is are you on that path? Can you look around and identify whether you are?

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Jesus makes it very, very clear in his story of salvation. The Bible does. Now this, this you know, right?

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But let's think about it for a second. The story of salvation. Romans chapter 8. Listen closely. This is my favorite.

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For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his

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Son. You know what that sounds like? Narrow path. In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

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And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

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This is called the what chain of redemption? The golden chain of redemption. You know what it says? Watch. He'll say, what about predestination?

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Well it says you're predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus. How do you like them apples?

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How do you like that? God says he is going to make you like Jesus. He's going to conform you to the image of Jesus.

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What Jesus is like, that's where God is taking you and me as believers. And God predestined that path for you and I to make you like Jesus.

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To cause you to love God and to love others like Jesus does. That's the story of salvation.

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Predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus. But he foreknew you. Not just things about you.

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He chose before the world began to enter into intimate relationship with you. Right?

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That's amazing. That God chose before the world began. That he was going to love you, set his love upon you and draw you to himself.

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He chose to know you. What does he say to those in Matthew 7?

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Depart from me I what? Never knew you. What does Romans 8 say? He foreknew you.

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Before the world began he chose to enter into intimate relationship with a particular people in Jesus Christ.

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And what does it say he does? It says that he calls you. Maybe that's today for you.

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Maybe this is the moment of calling in your life where God is calling you to abandon all to come to Jesus.

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He's calling you to come to him for life. But he calls out, draws you out of darkness into light.

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It says called, justified. And what's justified mean? Declared righteous.

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God declares you righteous. And then it says what? After justified, glorified.

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That's the golden chain. That's a story of salvation. That sounds like a narrow path with a small gate that leads to life.

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That's where God takes us. That's a story of salvation. But I want to address something about that narrow path.

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The Bible teaches that salvation, this broad story of salvation, that life that we enter into, that small gate we squeeze through, that path.

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The Bible teaches the whole story of salvation includes everything about us.

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Everything. It's not just a punching of a ticket, but it's the whole person that God saves.

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And it says, actually, in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14, pursue peace with everyone and holiness.

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Without it, no one will see the Lord. Sounds like Jesus. Narrow path, small gate.

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You see, Bible says that we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from any work of law.

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Listen, you and I cannot be holy enough in God's eyes for him to accept us.

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It is a losing battle. My favorite thing is what George Whitefield said. He said, trying to get to God by your good deeds is like trying to build a ladder to the moon made out of sand.

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It's not gonna work. It won't work. Your holiness will not be acceptable to God.

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Your righteousness doesn't exist before God. It is filthy rags before God. And that is the good news of Jesus.

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Amen? But the Bible does say, without question, that we are justified through faith in Christ alone, apart from any work of law.

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It is all his work, but it does teach that that faith is never alone.

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If you have been justified, you will be glorified. If you have been justified, that means that your life is hidden with God in Christ, that you have been brought to newness of life, that God lives in you now.

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When someone says, I don't really have a desire to go to church and worship

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God, I don't really have a desire to be with God's people, I don't really have a desire to read his word,

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I don't really have a desire to change for God, those things don't really appeal to me. Holy things don't really appeal to me.

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I have a question to ask. What makes you think you're on the narrow path? Can we be honest with ourselves and ask that question deeply?

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If you're not hungry for God's word, if you have no desire when you see

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Jesus to be like him, if you have no longing in your heart to worship

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God, if you don't love God's people, if those things don't exist within you, they're just not naturally present there, you have to ask yourself the question, are you on the narrow path or the broad one?

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Because the way the Bible describes God's salvation is total. It's not to say that you're perfect.

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I'm an absolute hot mess. If you don't believe me, ask my kids, ask my wife.

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I fail as a father, I fail as a husband, I fail as a pastor, I fail as a friend.

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But I desire within me, because I can't get away from it, to glorify

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God with my life in all those areas. And though I stumble and fall, God raises me back to my feet again by noon.

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And he keeps me on the path, because that's where he has me, on a narrow path, and it's all by his grace. And I don't understand why

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I'm on it. I shouldn't be on it. I belong on the broad path. I like the destruction naturally within me.

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I like to rebel against God. That's my natural inclination outside of Jesus Christ, but he's changed my affections.

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And here's the point. If you're on that path with Jesus, that gate to life, then something's different about you.

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If nothing is different about you, you don't know Jesus. That's hard to say today, isn't it, right?

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You come to church, you want an encouraging message. You want a coffee shop that has a barista with a nice mochaccino, right?

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You want child care. You want a soft service and easy things to digest. So let me just tell you, my role as a minister of the gospel is to love you and God enough to tell you the truth.

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Jesus puts it in very stark contrast. Life and death, narrow and broad, wide and small.

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And Jesus says, enter. That's what's before us.

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That's how Jesus tells his story. How should you receive this message?

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Just quickly, how should you receive this message? If you're an unbeliever today, if you don't know

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Jesus today, if you haven't trusted him, please humble yourself and think, consider the message.

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If Jesus is who he claims to be, then his claims and his promises matter.

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They count. He will not let you or I relegate him to a good teacher, a moral man, or a decent prophet.

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He says that he's God. And unless you believe that he is, I am God in the flesh.

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You will die in your sins. Come to life.

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Come to Christ and live. Next, if you are a person raised in the church, you've been raised in a

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Christian home, you've been raised under the hearing of the gospel, you've been raised with a Bible in your bedroom, you've been raised around other

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Christians, you've been raised in youth group, you grew up in all that stuff, that's where you're at.

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It's just you've just taken it for granted. You just assume, well, I'm a believer. Everyone in my family is a believer. Everyone around me is a believer. I love all this.

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I love this culture. I love these people. And that's just kind of where I'm at, right? You need to consider the words of Jesus.

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He said this broadly, right? He warned people. People are gonna come to me someday and they're gonna say,

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I did this. Look, Jesus, look, I served God in the abortion ministry, Jesus. Look, Jesus, Lord, I went to the abortion mill every

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Wednesday and Saturday. Look at the good deeds. Look, Jesus, I served my neighbor.

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Look, Jesus, I served my church. Look, Jesus, I was a good person. Look, Jesus, my parents were

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Christian. Jesus says, depart from me, I never knew you. Jesus says to people, broadly, he says to the people, he says, narrow, broad, small, wide, life, death.

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Consider it, brothers and sisters, consider. And I want to just say this to you. Listen, when I speak to you as a minister of the gospel and as your brother, and I say to consider where you're at in this,

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I say it as somebody who walked through this profession of faith in Jesus, thought

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I saw what was some life change in my life, but I was really living my life like the broad path is completely acceptable to God.

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You can have a profession of faith in Jesus and have a double life. It was only after my life completely collapsed that I began to come face -to -face with these claims of Jesus.

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He is the only way, he is Lord, that he says to people, depart from me, I never knew you, you lawbreakers.

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I look at my life at the time, and it was nothing but lawlessness. But I would tell people,

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I believe in Jesus. What hypocrisy. The people in my life of that day must have thought

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I was an absolute fool. I would talk about Jesus all the time while I was living with my girlfriend.

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I would go to Bible college, but be out partying on the weekends, getting drunk, and doing all the other things, right?

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You could be a Christian, I'm saved, and I live this life. If you can look around you and it looks a bit like the broad path, it's probably because you're on it.

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And when God challenged me and convicted me of my life and my sin and where I was going, that's where my heart broke.

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That's where I fell to my knees. That's where I said to Jesus, you're the boss, you tell me what to do.

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Three, if you're a believer today, how should you receive this? I hope you recognize something, that when

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Jesus put you on the path, he promised you, it's narrow.

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So he, watch this, I love this, watch. This is important, this is so very important. Jesus isn't trying to sell you anything.

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Do you get that? Don't you hate people who try to sell you stuff and lie, right?

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What are the experiences people hate, right? What do they hate? By the way, if anyone is in this industry, please forgive me, I'm just,

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I'm sorry, it's your fault, okay? You know what I'm talking about. Where does everyone hate to, what does everyone, that purchase everyone hates to make, right?

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What is it? Ah, there you go, right? You hate to go to the car dealership. Why? Because you know you lying snake, right?

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Here's the thing, when I was 19, I had a worked for a very well -known local car dealership, and what

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I thought I knew about car sales, but now I really know. Let me tell you right now, your worst fears are true.

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I worked for a car dealership, my buddy, just for Christmas, for some extra money, and I worked for, I don't know, I guess about a month or so, and the stuff that I learned behind closed doors, whoa, amazing stuff.

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So just be forewarned, okay? But we all hate it, right? People say, oh, it's this way, when really there's something else behind it, they're holding something back, they're not letting us know the stuff around the edges, right?

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The pain we're gonna feel later. Don't you love how Jesus doesn't sell you anything in that way?

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He just tells you the straight scoop. He says exactly as it is. He tells you, you will be persecuted, you will be hated, woe to you when all people speak well of you, you must come to die, you must come and be willing to hate.

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Father, mother, sister, brother, he says, come to me with all of you, or don't come at all. I promise it's gonna hurt, right?

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You love Jesus? He's like that very terrible salesman, right? He's just giving away all the information that's like, you're not gonna sell anything if you tell everyone that, right?

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Like, you know, like the car dealer got cars, and he's like, these cars, you know, they're all right, but the pump goes out about every 25 ,000 miles, like the tires, it probably lasts you six months, right?

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This car has been in a lot of wrecks, I don't think it's gonna last another five days, I wouldn't buy it, right? Like, that's Jesus, the very bad salesman, right?

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Tells you the whole story. So if you're a believer in here, and you're struggling right now, there's difficulties in your life, there's trials and tribulations, you've experienced loss, there's pressure in your life,

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God is bringing stuff out of you in your marriage, and just showing you your sin and your pride, and he's working on you, and he won't let you alone.

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He won't let you be. You're an angry person, and you keep being angry, so God shows you your anger.

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He's not letting it go, and he keeps convicting you, and showing it to you, right? And you're like, so annoyed by it, you just want freedom from it, you just want to be free to be an angry person, you want to be free to be unloving and selfish, you want to be free to gossip and be bitter, right?

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And it's just, God keeps putting pressure on you, he keeps showing you your sin, right? That's what the narrow path looks like, and Jesus told us.

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So if you're a believer, and you've become indifferent, and you're struggling, and you feel so much pressure, just brothers and sisters, know that Jesus loved you enough to save you, and to tell you the straight scoop when he did.

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It's going to look like this. Don't think it's strange when it happens, when as a believer, after being saved by Jesus, you're walking on that path, and there are difficulties on every side.

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That's the life he told you was coming. But the beautiful thing is this.

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You know God, or rather, you are known by God.

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You belong to him. He puts you on that path, and your destination is life.

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Let me ask you this question. I got to say this quickly. It's so important. Speaking of sanctification, this is something that's challenged me so much over the years, like it bothers me in myself, my own life.

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Are you, listen, it's a narrow path, right? So like, you're on it, and it's hard to move on, and there's very little space, right?

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And it's life, squeeze through that gate. As a believer, are you becoming a more loving person?

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As a believer, like after years of walking with Jesus, are you a more bitter person?

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Do you find yourself more angry than you were before? Do you find yourself walking on this narrow path?

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Do you find yourself, like, you're the kind of person that people generally want to avoid because you're bitter, you're angry, you're sharp?

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Like, that's an important thing to think about. If this is the road that you're on, the path that you're on, then that means that God has predestined you to be conformed to the image of Jesus.

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And if you're walking closely with Jesus, and your life is going the other direction, backwards into the dirt, and the bitterness, and the gossip, and the anger, all those things,

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I question whether you're being sanctified. As a believer, I don't want to condemn or hurt.

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I want to speak to you as a minister and say this, which direction is your life going? Is there more bitterness, more hostility, more anger in your life now than there was two years ago?

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Are you actually increasing in your love and graciousness to other believers? Do you allow love to cover a multitude of sins better now than you ever did?

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Or do you find yourself now as a Christian becoming sharper, more short -tempered? Which direction are you going?

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I'm challenged by that, brothers and sisters. I'm so challenged by that. Is all this knowledge of theology in your life, is it actually making you a more loving, compassionate, gracious, kind person?

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Or is all this theology and all this study that you're doing, is it making you a person that you wouldn't want to invite over to dinner?

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Life of sanctification, God has us on this path, and change happens.

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Okay, now I've got to answer an objection to post -millennialism. Did you catch it?

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Proof text, right? Grab the Bible, take a text out. Sounds like an objection to post -millennialism.

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Pastor Jeff has been telling me that Abraham's descendants are going to be as numerous as the stars, that all the families of the earth are going to return, and that like, he shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

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He's been saying, Psalm 1101, that he must reign until all his enemies have made a footstool for his feet.

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Pastor Jeff says that God's going to win the world with his gospel before he returns for the final judgment and resurrection.

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Yet Jesus says here in Matthew 7, he says the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

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How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

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Is that a contradiction to all the other passages in scripture that tell a grand story of total salvation?

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I would ask you to think about context, and to think about the context of the very passage itself.

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The context is clearly ethical, because what does Jesus say immediately after the broad and the narrow, the few and the many?

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He says what? He says the false prophets, right? And what does he say? He talks about fruit.

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And then what does he say that he will say to those false believers? He says, I will say to them,

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I never knew you. The passage itself is clearly ethical, and if you wanted to take this passage as prophecy, in terms of Jesus is actually prophesying how many will enter the kingdom, if you wanted to take it as prophecy, then you have a direct contradiction one chapter later.

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I want you to see it. Go to Matthew chapter 8. Let's start at verse 10.

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Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, I assure you,

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I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith. I tell you that many will come from east and west and recline to the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

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So in the one sense, we've got Jesus in a single passage over here saying, few who find it.

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And then a chapter later, you've got Jesus actually describing what's going to happen in the future.

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And he says, many will recline at table with Abraham.

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So if we look at the passage and actually go about the business of biblical interpretation, the passage in Matthew chapter 7 is clearly ethical.

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It's about response and demands to God and obedience. It's an ethical passage.

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I would say it's not prophecy, because in Matthew chapter 8, you do have prophecy. It's about Abraham and the promises to Abraham.

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And it says many will recline with Abraham. But also, there's more, we need to consider also the numerous parts in scripture that talk about Abraham's descendants being as numerous as the stars.

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That's not a few. All the families of the earth will return to worship God, Psalm 22.

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He shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth, Psalm 72.

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Psalm 1101, it says that he must reign till all his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

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And finally, brothers and sisters, just for your encouragement, turn to your Bibles to Revelation 7, verse 9.

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By the way, it is revelation, not revelations. Revelation 7, and let's start in verse 9.

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We have this scene of worship before the throne of God. Brothers and sisters, if there's a text you want for encouragement to hide away in your heart, it's this text.

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Revelation 7, verse 9. After this, I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number.

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Standing before the throne and before the Lamb, they were robed in white and palm branches in their hands.

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So now the worship scene in Revelation is telling us what's coming before us. And what does it say?

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There is a multitude before the throne of the Lamb that is without number.

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No man can number. So Jesus' call in Matthew 7, in its context, is clearly ethical.

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It demands a response. It's easy to get on this path.

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Many find it. They get on it. It's comfortable. They're on that path. Few squeeze through this one.

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It's an ethical response. From our perspective, what you see, it's interesting here, and this is where we'll finish.

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I love that Jesus gives us the picture in terms of a door with heaven over it and another door with hell over it.

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And the fact that he says it's a small gate and then a wide one.

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Because, listen, I go to Disneyland with my family sometimes.

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Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's a nightmare. I think

01:03:04

I've had more nightmare experiences than fun ones. And for some reason, I think that they actually, on the way out of Disneyland, I think that they're pumping some kind of gas so that when you walk through, you breathe it in and it erases the memory of all of the bad things that just happened in there.

01:03:20

Right? The kids and how they act. It's just, it's amazing. It's the happiest place on earth.

01:03:27

You see almost nobody smiling. No parents are really smiling in the happiest place on earth, except when there's a corn dog in their mouth, because those things are awesome.

01:03:35

Right? But here's the thing. So, sorry, that's just my side, what I think about when I think about Disneyland. My favorite part of Disneyland, probably of the whole experience, is when you first walk up to Disneyland.

01:03:48

You know what I'm talking about? Like, you can try to get there as early as possible before anybody else gets there, and you think you're going to beat the crowds, but everybody else has the same idea as you, and they're all there waiting for the gates to open too.

01:04:00

But it's amazing because you've got this huge crowd spread across that place, and then when they open the gates, everyone starts to kind of funnel, right, squeeze together and start kind of funneling in, and you're like trying to like get your spot, and I just have to confess something.

01:04:13

I'm going to go ahead and be transparent. I want to live in a transparent community and take the god face off. I try to cut every single time.

01:04:23

I am still a work under construction, all right? I have not attained it yet, okay?

01:04:30

But we all start to squeeze in, right? And here's the thing. When you get to the gates at Disneyland, everything starts to filter into smaller lines.

01:04:39

You start to now work to where there's a little tiny gate you get through, and it's got a little spinny thing, right?

01:04:47

It's my favorite thing ever. You know why? Not so much that experience. That's not fun, right?

01:04:53

And it's a sanctifying moment for me, okay? Trying to think about my neighbor and not myself, right?

01:04:59

But I love it. You go to the gate and it's like, woohoo, woohoo, woohoo, woohoo. You know what I'm talking about?

01:05:05

Yeah? When they're doing the tickets, right, and they're like scanning it, it's this stupid little voice that goes, woohoo, woohoo, woohoo.

01:05:11

That's my favorite part of Disneyland. That's the only reason I go, just to hear that part. But here's the amazing thing.

01:05:17

I got my family with me. Everybody's with me? We got our bags, and like we had little kids, we had to have a stroller.

01:05:23

And the stroller, we snuck all of our stuff inside. Like we're sneaking food in and other things inside, right?

01:05:29

All inside of our stroller. Got the kids in there. You got all your bags and everything. You go in for this day of great fun at Disneyland, right?

01:05:35

So, woohoo, woohoo, woohoo. And you get down, and now you get to the gate. Interesting thing is, now all of a sudden, you are not allowed to hang out with your family.

01:05:42

Now all of a sudden, they have to take your stuff somewhere else so that you can squeeze through this little gate to get into Disneyland.

01:05:50

There's a small gate. The interesting thing about a gate like that is that only you can go through it.

01:05:58

It's just you. No one else. You got to leave your family behind so they can make their own way through the gates.

01:06:07

And your stuff is not coming with you. It can't make it.

01:06:13

And that's how Jesus describes the experience of salvation. It's a small gate.

01:06:22

You must come through it without your stuff. No self -righteousness.

01:06:29

No sin. You got to abandon everything. Essentially, here's the gate presented, and you have to squeeze through that gate naked.

01:06:41

That's how Jesus describes coming to Him. And here's the thing. If our experience with Jesus is such that we think that we're allowed to bring all of our self -righteousness, all of our old baggage, and everybody else, and every other thing that we believe in with us, then we don't understand the message of Jesus at all.

01:07:03

You squeeze through that gate, but the glory of it all is that when you squeeze through that gate, you have been put together by God in salvation to eternal life.

01:07:16

That's the message of Christ. And brothers and sisters, listen, if we don't preach the message like that, we're not preaching the gospel.

01:07:25

And if you've never thought about the gospel in terms of the demands that Jesus makes on your life for discipleship, if you've never thought about it that way, brothers and sisters,

01:07:34

I call you, please, today is the day of salvation. Think.

01:07:40

Which path are you on? Jesus is God. He is righteous. He died for sinners.

01:07:47

He rose from the dead. He has ascended. He is seated. He commands men and women and children everywhere, repent and believe the good news.

01:07:56

Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for your message of life in Jesus Christ.

01:08:05

Father, you say to us in your word that salvation is only in and through Christ.

01:08:13

I pray that today you would open the eyes of the blind, let them see, give people with hard hearts soft ones.

01:08:25

And I pray that you bring great encouragement today, God, to your children who are struggling on the narrow path.

01:08:35

Give them joy and delight in the midst of it, God, because you are the treasure to be pursued above all treasures.

01:08:44

And the life that you've given to us is eternal. And we are grateful, God. You are enough.