THE WAY Matthew 7:13-14

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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We'll go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to Matthew chapter 7

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Y 'all are familiar with hearing those words, aren't you? Matthew chapter 7 today we're gonna be looking at verses 13 and 14 and I looked this week to see our preaching schedule over this past year and then

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Looking into the future and and I realized that today is is week 39 in These three chapters and the

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Sermon on the Mount here in Matthew And we've got I believe we realized we have five more weeks.

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Isn't that correct four more weeks, maybe But we've spent some time in this in this section of the

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Sermon on the Mount Haven't we has it been a blessing to to those of you that have been here during this time?

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Because I know it has been for me We're getting near the end here. So let's let's read our passage there in chapter 7 starting in verse 13

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Jesus says enter by the narrow gate For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction

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And those who enter it enter by it are many For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few

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These are hard words from our Savior, aren't they? Let's pray. Let's ask that he will illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth

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Their only father we come to you once again, and we ask that you work in us that you reveal your true meaning from the clarity of the text

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From your great word that you have blessed us with I pray that you would guard me from error

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I pray that I would not speak untruths about you father but that you would be honored in our

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Looking at your words today and that we would not be just hearers of the word

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But that we would be doers of the word Christ's name. Amen Well, we've seen many great truths if you've been with us throughout this sermon taught by Jesus as he's standing there on the mountainside to all of these people and We we've seen this we've seen this counter cultural

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Worldview portrait of a true follower of Christ right at the beginning of the Beatitudes, right?

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When we see him coming in blessed of the poor blessed of the meek blessed of those who persecuted and it just kind of flips everything upside down and that just that begins the trajectory of the whole sermon and Then we saw then after that.

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We saw that we are called to be a preservative in the midst of a culture of death

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All right that we are called to be salt and that that we are left here for that very purpose and then as soon as he says that we're salt he says then that we're light that we are a

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Conduit of his light within a dark world But then after that we see as we've gone through this study

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Jesus Jesus didn't come to do away with the law and the prophets He didn't come to do away with the

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Old Testament and say hey I'm throwing the old out and I'm bringing the new in he he came to fulfill it.

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He came to fulfill the Old Testament the law and the prophets and then we saw how we who are the blessed those from the

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Beatitudes how we should live in light of that law and And he does this through through six antithesis

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He does this with six examples where we hear over and over again.

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Jesus saying you have heard it said But I say to you And what is he doing during that time as he's going through that section of the sermon?

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He's exposing the fact that the law is not merely something to be followed outwardly

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But that it is an inward obedience and an inward love from the heart

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For God's law and that's the only way to fulfill God's law As soon as he's done with those six antithesis he then immediately goes into another six antithesis of practical living as a

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Christian and he shows us the contrast between the way the religious leaders of the world would perceive the law and the way the

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Reality of what God has actually called his people to and what does he do? He's he's showing us how we should live and how we are to carry out the

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Christian life And he gives us again these six examples. He talks about how we should give He talks about how we should pray.

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He talks about how we should fast He talks about what we should invest in the things of this world or the things of eternity.

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He talks about trusting in God without having anxiety because we kind of we know who the father is and he cares for us he talks about judging others properly and then coming right out of that we saw our position as Children and the source of our obedience

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Right when he talks about the fact that we knock we go to our father we come to him and we ask for something and Our father gives it to us and how we have great position in him

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And then last week we came to what do y 'all remember what we talked about last week? The golden rule we come to the golden rule where we saw that the law and the prophets are pointing us to honoring

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God by honoring his image bearers that that is the law and the prophets and The point was that all of these previous things that we just recapped point to and show how we are to treat others and how we are to see

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God and those are Directly correlated together if we are honoring

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God in it, and we now have the power to live a righteous life in this way But now we get to this section verses 13 and 14 and Jesus begins to switch gears again

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Y 'all can see the progression as we go from section to section in Jesus's sermon It's kind of broken up and if you notice

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I do a brief recap at the beginning of every one of these sections And I'm hoping the purpose of that is to keep us in the flow

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We don't want to look at this sermon and take Jesus's words and try and fit them into something else

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I want us to continue to go down that path So thank you for bearing with me as I do recaps periodically as soon as we jump in a new section

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That's what I'm doing but we're coming to the very last section here and Jesus has spent the entirety of this sermon to this point for the purpose of Exhortation, what does that mean?

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Giving them information He's giving us information this entire sermon information. Here's the information.

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This is what it says You've heard it said but I say to you and he's telling us.

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This is what it is This is exhortation and now he has essentially given them the information that he deems necessary And so like any good preacher, which he's the ultimate preacher and we learn from him

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But any good communicator now prepares to wrap up this sermon and that's exactly what he is doing

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He's wrapping up this sermon with an emphatic call to action in this whole section and in order to do this

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He uses a common Hebrew practice a juxtaposition They refer to it as as two -way language essentially

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So what do I mean by that? essentially two things being seen or placed closely together with Contrasting effects he's given us two examples

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This was a common way for Hebrews the the Israelites to communicate in all of their writing

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What I mean by this is is you'll understand as we begin to jump into the text But he uses this pattern all through his

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Closing as a matter of fact if you kind of just look at your Bible and see how it's kind of broken up near the end

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You'll see these little categories and these verses 13 and 14. He uses two ways in this juxtaposition

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We see two ways compared to each other and then in verses 15 and 20

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We see two trees compared to each other and then in verses 21 and 23. We see two claims

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Contrasted with each other and then finally as he gets near the end verses 24 on We see two builders in contrast to each other so you can see what

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Jesus is doing here. He's using two things Jesus is using this juxtaposition language as a call to action because we see

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There just as in our day Jesus had people there listening to him preach these these people are standing there

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They're listening to him many of them Heard these exhortations from Jesus they've been listening to the entirety of this sermon and many of them probably were saying amen

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I don't know what they said back then but that's what we would do right well people in the audience are like amen

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They're like nodding their heads. They're like I like what that guy has to say I agree with what Jesus is saying here

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And I'm on board. I really like this and they hear this only to turn around and live their lives

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With essentially no change we experience that today, don't we

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I? would say a vast majority of the American church is full of this type of person that listens to the pastor and says

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I'm with you on that. I like that, but there's no change but See Jesus has laid out throughout this sermon an

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Unbelievably radical picture of what it means to follow him hasn't he if you've been with us during this series you're thinking

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I don't know how anybody in their right mind would nod their head and say amen This is this is a pretty extreme thing for Jesus to be laying out for the

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Christian life But many will praise these words as truth however never truly understand them

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Very few are going to understand them to them these words are just some kind of a feel -good

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These feel -good platitudes that they can they can intellectually affirm

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Without having to endure any real discomfort or change in their lives It's kind of like our modern day

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YouTube YouTube celebrity pastors We like those little five minute clips where we have one little phrase from them

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We like to run with it. We like those like those little those little phrases, but do they really affect our lives?

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Do do we really believe them do they do we understand them in full? And this is essentially what's happening.

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I believe during this sermon probably because that's human nature and Jesus knows that What what are these people what we refer to as these people that they're merely hearers

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They're hearers, they're really good at hearing You hear me all the time praying here

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Lord. Don't let us here at 12 -5 be just hearers only Quoting James, but the doers of the word right that would affect us

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But many are they're merely hearers. They're really good at it As a matter of fact a lot of hearers are probably even really good at taking notes

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They're taking notes They're jotting everything down They they may even display these beautiful detailed notes and it's almost like a shrine to them in their

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Bible, right? They've got their Bible all laid out and they're saying hey, look at my beautiful notes.

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I took of Jesus's words I've been listening to Jesus and I took notes of these

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I've even color charted them with my highlighters. They're so beautiful I Want to I want to even

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I want to I went to even every speaking event that Jesus had I went to all the conferences.

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I was at every mountaintop experience, right? Look at what a good listener I am and we see that today

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But that's human nature They're catching on to little bits and pieces that they think that Jesus is saying without understanding them

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Taking their preconceived idea of what Jesus is saying and running with it and they pride themselves in being a hearer and being a listener

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And I think that Jesus Would say something like this Great I'm so glad you listened

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It's good that you listened. I'm glad you take notes. It's great that you take notes now. Let's see if you actually heard

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And I think that's what he's doing is he wraps up this sermon Let's see if you've actually heard

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Because now that you've listened to all of my exhortations. What are you gonna do about it?

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Because again, that's what James says right in chapter 122 But be doers of the word not hearers only deceiving yourselves

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Because it's not enough to just listen And Jesus is making that obvious as he begins to wind down this sermon

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And as a matter of fact, he he starts off this new section with an emphatic imperative look at the verse verse 13

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He starts it off right away. He comes out of this new section. What does he say? He says enter by the narrow gate

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Notice that he doesn't say hey listen, you might want to enter by the narrow gate He doesn't say hey, you know what?

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You should enter by the narrow gate and he for sure isn't saying hey, guess what all of you have entered by the narrow gate

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That's not what Jesus is doing here is it now he he phrases it as a command

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Enter do it now This is a call to action enter it enter the narrow gate now

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There's an emphatic command going on You can listen to sermons all day long you can listen to Jesus himself speak all day long

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You can read all the books that you could possibly Imagine even the good theological ones that are accurate.

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You can do all of this You can intellectually and emotionally affirm all of these truths.

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Can't you but unless you are brought to that gate by those truths and Actively voluntarily enter that gate you have understood nothing

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Jesus knows these people have been listening to him. Can you imagine setting and hearing our

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Savior himself in person? Speaking these great words from this sermon.

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We've been studying man that incites like like worship in my heart like man I would be amazing to be able to sit there and listen to him

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But am I fooling myself and Am I not I'm not fully truly understanding him am

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I taking these beautiful words of his and Distorting them slightly just to misinterpret him and I'm not actually a doer of that word

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I'm just a here I listen to them and it makes me excited and I want to worship the Lord and oh man

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This is exciting and then I just turn around from that moment as Jesus moves to the next town and I go back to my job and I Pretend like nothing ever changed in my life.

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It's that way it works So what's happened? Because what's on the other side of that gate is the only logical route to those truths

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Is what Jesus is getting at you only understood those great truths if you've crossed through the gate and Jesus is warning us of that with this imperative if you have affirmed all of these previous

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Exhortations then enter by the narrow gate do it. Here is your call to action

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But knowing how dense we are Jesus goes on to explain to us what the narrow gate is by using what

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I mentioned a moment ago that juxtaposition that that two -way language Okay And Jesus has essentially four of them in this one or in these two verses in verses 13 and 14

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I want us to see four of these these this two -way language these juxtapositions first.

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We're going to see the two gates Then we're going to see the two ways then the two crowds and two destinations

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As he compares these two back and forth Let's look at the first one two gates

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Well, he introduces the gates here obviously in this imperative when he says enter by the narrow gate

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He enters the only logical gate in the equation right up front and says enter it back now and then explains them

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So we have a wide gate. We have a gate there in verse 13 That is a wide gate and then in verse 14, we have a narrow gate two contrasting gates

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What do you think of when you when you hear the word gate? What do you think of in your mind? What's the what do you picture an?

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entrance, right Now the word that Jesus uses here for gate that the

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Greek word that's in the in the text was a word that was often Used when referring to the gate of a city

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You can imagine they they have these impenetrable walls We don't think of gates and cities anymore

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Jonesboro lets you come and go freely, right? Thankfully, but back then you wanted to live in a city

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Well, the city had walls these these massive walls that you you couldn't easily climb you were not able to just break through them and they were all the way around a city and then these small fortified gates

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And they were designed specifically to control who comes and goes right in particular who comes and that's the the language that Jesus is using now

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Jesus uses a very similar Analogy over in Luke actually turn over there

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Luke 13 with me Luke chapter 13 as Jesus uses a similar analogy

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We're gonna look at starting in verse 23 And once you get there keep your finger there as we go back and forth because I think we're gonna reference this passage a little bit later but Luke chapter 13 starting in verse 23

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See a very similar language going on with Jesus here in a different context Says and someone said to him

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Lord Will those who are saved be few? And he said to them

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Strive There's an imperative here, right strive to enter through the narrow door

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For many I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able So you can see

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Jesus is using a slightly different analogy here instead of a gate what is he referring to it as a door, right

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So he's essentially saying the same thing Why a different picture?

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And some people get confused about this couldn't he have just stuck with the door analogy in both accounts.

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I Mean after all it's the it's the same phrase that he used in John 10 9 when he referred to himself

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Which is kind of where we're going to be getting at as to what the gate is essentially But Jesus says over in John 10 9

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I am the door so we have this same analogy going but two different Examples so in light of that Luke 13 makes sense, right if Jesus says he's the door

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Well now all of a sudden Luke 13 if he refers to himself come through the door. Well, what's he referring to? Coming through himself to come through him

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So adding the gate just makes it a little confusing doesn't it? But think of the context in which

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Jesus is saying these things And the Sermon on the

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Mount he has been pointing to what the here -and -now Christian life looks like hasn't he?

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We just did a brief recap of that this is what the Christian life looks like here and now and now he's giving this mass of people in this sermon a contrasting call to action

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Bear with me here But in the account in Luke 13 where he uses the phrase door

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He isn't giving an exposition of the Christian life In Luke 13, he's simply talking about the contrast between damnation and salvation

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So we have two differing differing Context in which

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Jesus is referring to which leads us to the second thing I want us to see and we'll talk about I'll tie that in here in just a moment

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But the second thing that we see in this text in Matthew is the two ways These two are connected the two ways and the two gates are heavily connected.

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Look back at our passage in Matthew 7 so we see there in verse 13 for the gate is wide and the way and then in verse 14 for the gate is narrow and The way so we have these two contrasting ways, right?

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Now this goes back to why Jesus uses the gate instead of the door we're going to explain this some

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Scholars have a difficult time affirming What I just said with the door in Luke 13 and the gate here being essentially the same thing

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They don't want these two things to be the same thing To our reference to the gate here in in Matthew They don't want this to mean the same thing as the door in Luke 13

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And the reason is they're not sure which comes first the gate of the way some of them interpret the gate as the gate of heaven

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Right the pearly gates. They want to say well the gate is the gate to heaven So we have these two contrasting gates we have a gate to hell and we have a gate to heaven

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That's essentially what they're coming to and they're saying so how how can we have the way after the gate?

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So this must this must mean that the way comes before the gate Because the way is is in their minds what

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Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life right so the way is the Christian life or the way is a godless life and The gate is either the gate to hell or the gate to heaven

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And that's how they want to see Matthew 13 and what Jesus is referring to I'm not so sure that that fits.

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I don't believe we can derive that from the way. It's written much less the context I Believe that the way that we see these contrasting ways is a direct trajectory

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Set by that juxtaposition that on -ramp, which is the gate. I see some confused faces

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I'm gonna repeat that I'm gonna read it to make sure I repeat it. Well, I Believe that the way these two ways that we see that are contrasting each other

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Either one is a traject a direct trajectory Set by One of the two gates

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So you go through the gate You're on a trajectory. Think of the gate is more of an on -ramp to a to an the interstate

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The on -ramp is your gate right once you go through that gate what what happens I Do that all the time when we're traveling and the

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GPS like messes up and it takes me somewhere or you're in a city You don't know which one of the ramps to take because they're all like there's like 14 in one little spot

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You can't see so you take the wrong one and it's so frustrating because you're like well now I'm in this highway for the next 10 miles until there's an exit because you're going that trajectory, right?

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So we think of the gate as the on -ramp and now we are going that direction And what does

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Jesus say about these two ways look at the passage for he said the gate is wide and the way is easy

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Then in verse 14, he says about the narrow gate the way is hard.

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What does Jesus mean by easy? Jesus saying that nothing bad will ever happen to anyone that's on this route

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And that nothing but bad will happen to everyone on the other Is that what

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Jesus is getting at? He's saying if you go on if you go on the wide gate Life's gonna be grand.

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Everything's gonna be easy. And if you go on the narrow gate, everything's gonna be hard It seems like that's the way it reads, right?

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But of course Jesus isn't saying that Jesus is referring to the ease of flow here Okay, he's referring to the ease of Flow you see man has a natural default

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You guys all know that right? We have a natural default and That first gate that he's speaking of is the entrance that every single one of us entered into at conception

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So what what David says he says in sin did my mother conceive me behold

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I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me is David referring to the sin of his mother as he

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Saying my mother did not have an appropriate relationship and she conceived me. Is that what he's saying? No, that's not what

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David is saying. David is saying that this that that the sin he entered in in the world was

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Was the trajectory that he was on That's his that's the automatic default of all humanity

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That is why that that gate is wide Jesus says it's a wide gate

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It's a wide gate because all of us entered into it We've all entered into that gate.

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So staying on it is the easy thing to do And that's what Jesus is getting at here

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It's easy to live according to your nature That's your default nature

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You can live a life of hedonistic debauchery or Rigid self -righteous penance and everything in between while on that path

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You can be the hardest worker or the laziest bum You can be the most ardent atheist or the most religious zealot

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Yet you're still on that path. That's why it's wide

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It's got room for everyone doesn't it see everyone's on this path including every religion every

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Single way imaginable is on this path So you see the two contrasting paths the first one is wide and Everyone is on it by default

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You don't have to you don't have to actively actively go through the first gate The first gate has already been entered the very moment your parents conceived you

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It's pretty sobering, isn't it?

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So, how do we get off of it? We're already on that highway we're already on the wide path. How do we get off of it?

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I Think Jesus is telling us here by finding the narrow gate and walking through it Jesus said in John 14 6

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I referenced this a moment ago, but he says I am the way and The truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me

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Very similar to the John 10 passages. I mentioned a moment ago and he says I am the door If anyone enters by me

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What he will be saved. I Believe that Jesus is saying that the only way off the other path being the narrow gate is through him right

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He's the gate Jesus is the narrow gate Just as he is the narrow door, but just as he has been saying throughout this whole sermon that way through him

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That's why it's narrow by the way It's just him the wide gate

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Automatic default everyone lands on that the narrow Is only one way

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The other way you can be an atheist. You can be a religious zealot You can be everything in between you can be whatever you want to be whatever you believe whatever you think whatever religion you want to follow

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Every other religion in the entire world that's ever been created. Every one of them is in the wide gate.

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It's easy It's accessible. It's where everyone goes, but there is a narrow gate and This narrow gate being

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Jesus himself is a a way of hardship. It's a way of tribulation.

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It's a way of trouble Jesus would have most certainly failed a modern -day evangelism class wouldn't he?

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Today's easy believism wants to hide all of this persecution stuff They want to give you the idea that hey just come to Jesus and all your problems are gonna go away

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Yeah, you want to be happy all the time. Are you sad now? You're sad cuz you don't have Jesus have

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Jesus and you're just gonna be happy all the time It's gonna be wonderful and your life's gonna be great and he's gonna solve all your problems

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You don't have to worry about your bills anymore. You don't have to do any of that stuff. Like that's a modern -day evangelism, right?

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And it's easy. It's like all you have to do is just say this prayer There's no gate being entered. All they're saying is hey repeat this prayer after me.

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Now, never doubt it You're always on that path. Even if that path is super easy All the while the vast majority of those people that say that sinner's prayer still on the wide gate, aren't they?

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They're still on the wide path because that's easy That falls into the category just like the rest of the world

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Yeah, Jesus goes about Evangelism very differently. He says this path is narrow.

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He says this path is hard Just like the Beatitudes. Blessed are the persecuted. Blessed are the meek.

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Blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who mourn Those are the ones that go through the narrow gate

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And this is where Jesus gives us that third category the two crowds Look back at our passage here

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He talks about the first gate in verse 13 The gate is wide in the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many

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And then in verse 14, he says about the narrow gate at the end. He says and those who find it are few

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This truth can be sobering and disturbing Can't it? The vast majority will reject the narrow gate.

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This can be overwhelming But I you drop this passage down in your notes or you may want to turn to it

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Actually, yeah, look back at it. I told you to keep your fingers there. Didn't I Luke 13? Good Luke 13 verse 18

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He said therefore What is the kingdom of God like What's the kingdom of God guys, how do you enter the kingdom of God?

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the narrow gate Okay, what is the kingdom of God like and to what shall

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I compare it? Jesus Says it is like a grain of mustard seed

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What does he mean by that a grain of mustard seed? Well, it's not the smallest seed in the world

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We now know there are smaller seeds than a mustard seed But during that time you can imagine just these seeds are so They're almost invisible like they're the tiniest seeds that they would be commonly using at that time

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And so Jesus uses an example. He says like a grain a single grain. What is the kingdom like?

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What is the grand kingdom of God those that are on the narrow gate? What does that look like?

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Let's say it's like a mustard seed And a man took and sowed in his garden and it grew it's serious trying to preach for me here guys.

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Sorry a Man took and sowed in his garden and it grew and it became a tree

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That single small mustard seed became a tree so much So that it says the birds of the air made nest in its branches

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It doesn't say the birds just flew in and sat on the edges of this tiny little tree No, he says no, it's big enough.

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They come in and they they they abide in it They live in it In verse 20 says and again, he said to what shall

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I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven This small insignificant amount of leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all

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Leavened. So what Jesus is saying is the kingdom of God. Yes, it looks insignificant at the beginning

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But this seed this small insignificant seed grows to a tree This small insignificant amount of leaven now turns the entire loaf of bread into a fully leavened loaf of bread

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This is what Jesus is getting at So even though it can be discouraging to be thinking about this narrow gate and so few that find it

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Think about the ultimate end of all of that how many of those few?

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are coming That encourages me to see that the kingdom of God ultimately wins out

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But then lastly, let's look at our two destinations back in our passage in Matthew Says for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction

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And in verse 14 the way that is narrow leads to life Now our natural default leads us down to this wide and easy way and where does that lead?

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Destruction all the way to eternal destruction and I wanted to spend a significant amount of time on that today

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But I don't think we're going to have time. So I'm gonna skip through that a little bit I'll simply say this

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Destruction is not annihilation We've talked about this this week. That's an important distinction

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Destruction is not annihilation Those people on that wide path will not merely be destroyed and be no more

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And there's a lot there's a movement that wants to say that they want to say well the those that are on the narrow gate

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They have eternal life with Jesus They can't deny that They say okay eternal life with Jesus That's beautiful But those that are on the wide gate

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God would never God would never eternally punish them then

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God's just they're just gonna cease to exist They'll just simply be destroyed And if you want to have that conversation afterwards me or Pastor Jeremiah I can have that talk with you or maybe one day we'll preach on that fact

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But this destination is referring to eternal punishment and eternal judgment

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You know, we see this reference Reference back in that passage in Luke 13 if you were to look at verse 28

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He says in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth Weeping there will be pain

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It'll be torture. There will be heartache brokenness And that gnashing of teeth the phrase that's used there is referring to human fury

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These people that are on the wide gate. They're angry. They hate God and they They would not even for a moment

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Be pulled out of hell if it meant that they had to be in the presence of the holiness of God And look at the look at the story that Jesus referred to with Lazarus and the rich man, right?

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The rich man is is there in hell and he doesn't ask to be taken out He simply asked for a drop of water in his tongue and he and he asked that his brothers be warned about it

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But he doesn't want out why does he not want out because he hated God in life and he hates

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God even more in death and His anger grows and gnashing of teeth human fury of a pure Hatred of the

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Creator and Wanting nothing to do with holiness There is not one soul in hell that will be there for 40 billion years that if if the angels went down and said

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God Will let you out of here, but you have to go into his presence in his holiness. Not one would choose it they would rather stay in torment and have to stand before a holy just God because they hate that holy and just God even more

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Than they did on that wide path in this earth This is not destruction and annihilation.

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Jesus is speaking of eternal judgment Why such a severe

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Distracted destruction. Why is it so severe? I think of what Paul said in Romans 3 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Sin against an eternal.

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Holy God demands eternal holy punishment You sin against a an eternal being

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What's the punishment eternal punishment there is no you're here for a thousand years and then you get let out

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No, this is cosmic treason as R. C. Sproul would call it It demands eternal judgment

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Just as Paul says in Romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is what? death at death separated from the goodness and grace of God and Mind you hell is not

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I keep going back to I told you we're gonna talk about it, but Hell is not the absence of God.

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Don't let anyone ever tell you that Hell is the absence of the goodness and grace and mercy of God Hell is pure God He is wrath and his judgment and his perfect Holiness in the fact that he's pouring that judgment out in hell for eternity is there

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Absence is not the hell is not the absence of God Because the wages of sin is death and the but that passage goes on and this is where This is where we want to talk about that narrow gate

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But the free gift of God is eternal life in what in what in?

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Christ Jesus the gate Eternal life in that in Christ.

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This is the way that leads us to life eternal a life everlasting Now isn't that promise worth temporal hardship and persecution

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This is the call to action that Jesus is making in the sermon. He's just spent the entire time with this exhortation

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This is what it looks like to be a Christian. This is the information. This is what I need you to know about it

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Now there's a call to action. Don't just hear the good things that I'm saying to you

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Don't just sit here and listen to him teach his words And continue down the wide and easy way go through the narrow gate

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Turn to him. This is the call to action and repentance and faith Go through the narrow gate the one that is hard to find the one that is narrow.

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It's simply one way There is no other way. There's not another gate You're not going to be on the highway and you're not going to find some other hidden gate

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Along that path because that's the direction you want to go and you want to enjoy your life while you have it now

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That's not the gate you're going to find. No, it's it's a narrow gate and it's now and That gate may not be here down the road because you're continuing down a path

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If you go through that narrow gate if you turn in repentance and faith

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The evidence in your life will be hardship For God chastens those he loves

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You no longer want to coast down that white highway Whereas before you accepted the sin you

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Accepted your own nature But now all of a sudden the evidence of you going through the narrow gate is that you desire to fight that sin you desire

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To fight that flesh you no longer want any part of it instead of being led by sin and being led by the prince of This world you will be at war with it

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That's the evidence of going through that what that narrow gate And this is the imperative that Jesus is giving us in this passage

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He says I've given you the information now enter And you can see how it all ties back because he says if you enter

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This is a way that's hard Remember, I told you blessed are the persecuted It's all going back to everything

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He's just said in the whole passage as he's wrapping this up a call to action So what

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I would say to us this morning, I pray that everyone in this room has gone through the narrow gate But I'm not so foolish to think that's the case there may be some of us in here that have been going through the motions and pretending like we're on the the wide or the narrow way

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Pretending as though we're on it while all the time still being on the wide highway the wide gate to destruction

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And if that's the case Follow Jesus imperative Enter Enter the narrow gate.

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It's gonna be hard I'm not I'm not gonna try and sell it to you This life is not easy

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So much easier to just let sin Steamroll you at all times This is hard because you're fighting

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But it's it's the way that leads to life. It's the way that leads to eternal bliss with our

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Savior and with our great God and King That's what we look to is as believers, right?

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If you're struggling now and you're saying I'm on the narrow gate. I know I am I've entered the narrow gate

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I have I have put my faith and trust in Christ alone. I have I repent of my sins.

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I'm fighting sin I'm on the narrow way be encouraged So that's just a blip on the radar of eternity

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That you get to suffer for his sake Right. How are we his servants any greater than the master?

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and the master He suffered in this life But with the intent and then and and the truth and the promise of knowing that there's life everlasting.

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Amen Well, I pray and hope that this this study has been encouraging to each one of you

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And I pray that God would work in our hearts that we would not be hearers of the word but doers of the word