July 8, 2018 Wide And Narrow Ways by Pastor Jason Smathers

Good morning. Good morning. Today I'd like to open up the wide and narrow ways from Matthew 7, 13, and 14 with you. The majority of the Sermon on the Mount describes the moral duties of people to one another.

It's Jesus' exposition of the second table of the law, commands 1 -4, the first table is our duties between us, vertically between us and God, and the second table is our duties between one another, commands 5 -10.

And Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is primarily expositing, he's preaching expositionally really the second table of the law. And then he concludes this second table of the law exposition in verse 12, 7 -12, when he says, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

So today we will look at Matthew 7, 13, and 14 primarily, and this is following Jesus' expositional sermon, and then he gives, this is the first of four warnings that he gives, and Brother Jesus read all four of those.

We see the first one here is, excuse me, the first one is the warning about not going down the wide path that leads to destruction, and then the second warning that we have is to beware of false prophets, the third warning is that not everyone that says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, and the fourth warning is to build our house on a solid foundation that is Christ and not sandy soil.

So we're going to focus again on the first of these four warnings, and we're going to look at the scripture under three headings. First the difficulties of the Christian life, and second the call to conversion, and then finally an encouragement to the Christians who are on that narrow way.

The Difficulties of the Christian Life

Let me once again read the two verses that we'll be focusing on, Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14, the word of God says, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who 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, amen. So first let's talk about the scripture and what we can see about the difficulties of the Christian life.

When he describes the ongoing life of a Christian he says the way is hard. He has just preached the law and he's given his audience a new understanding of what righteousness is. They were told that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven, and this standard is an extremely high standard.

As far as the outward obedience to the law is concerned, the scribes and Pharisees were the very most righteous people that could be seen. Now today when we hear the word Pharisee it's used derogatorily, and that's because we live in light of what Jesus had to say about the Pharisees, but if we put ourselves into the mindset of the first hearers, the Pharisees were known to be the absolutely most righteous people you could possibly find.

And now Jesus is saying unless your righteousness exceeds theirs you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now we know what Jesus had to say about the scribes and Pharisees, that they were clean only on the outside and whitewashed tombs.

Let me share just a few of the woes that we see in Matthew 23. I'll read Matthew 23 verses 23 to 28 to just share three of the seven woes to get a picture of what Jesus has to say about the scribes and Pharisees.

He says, Matthew 23, 23, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law. Justice and mercy and faithfulness, these you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

You blind guides straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, and the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.

So also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. So today we live in light of this condemnation. We know what Jesus had to say about scribes and Pharisees.

We hear your righteousness needs to exceed that of the Pharisees. Well, we think, well, that's pretty easy because Jesus said they had none. But think of this in the mind of the first hearers. They are thinking that this is the highest possible standard of righteousness, and now your righteousness needs to exceed what you think is the greatest level of righteousness.

But this was shocking to them. They hear your righteousness needs to exceed that, and they are shocked. Now the scribes and Pharisees were never rebuked for obeying the law. That was never the problem.

Their outward obedience was not the reason why Jesus was rebuking them. Rather, Jesus is rebuking them because inwardly they are corrupt. Outwardly they're obeying, and yes, they're even obeying levels beyond what they're supposed to obey and imposing their will upon others, and that's another problem.

But right here, the scribes and the Pharisees are being rebuked for outwardly obeying the law, and inwardly being like a tomb filled with dead bodies, that inwardly they are nothing but corruption. Speaking about tithing, Jesus points out that they were so meticulous in their giving that they gave even a tenth of their spices.

And since this is the context of rebuke, some people are thinking, well, Jesus is rebuking their tithing. But he wasn't rebuking their tithing. In fact, he says, these you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

The scribes and Pharisees were supposed to give a tenth of what they had, but the problem was they were just obeying the law outwardly, being meticulous in obeying the law outwardly, but inside their hearts were not pure in any way.

When Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that in order to enter heaven, your righteousness needs to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, his audience is thinking of this very high standard, because he's referring to the people that are so careful to obey the law that they make sure to give even the tenth of their spices.

Something that Jesus said they ought to be doing, but they fail in these weightier matters. And then Jesus gets specific in how your righteousness needs to exceed the scribes and the Pharisees. He says, do not murder, but also do not hate or do not insult.

When you hate someone, you've committed murder in your heart. When you insult someone, you've committed murder with your tongue. So he's showing them that sin is not only in our outward actions, but inwardly in thought, word, or deed.

We've heard that said, and I don't think we'll find that phrase in Scripture, but right here in the Sermon on the Mount is where we see the concept that outwardly the scribes are obeying outwardly, and there's the deeds, and those are still condemned, but inwardly in our thoughts and in our words that come out from us, these also need to be sanctified and conformed to the image of God.

We see the command, do not commit adultery, but also we're told you do not look with lust. When you look with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart. We've seen in the Sermon on the Mount, we see also that our religious acts have to be done with pure hearts.

When you give money, it shouldn't be so other people are going to see you giving. He expects you as God's people to be generous, but it should come from a pure heart that desires to bless others and to see the mission of the kingdom of God continued and advanced and not so that other people will see you putting money into a plate or in a slot.

I don't know what can be more heartbreaking to a church treasurer than to find the empty envelopes because they want to be seen dropping something in a slot, and I pray that that's not a problem you see here, but a lot of churches do, that they want to be seen giving, so there's many, many empty envelopes that churches will find because they want to be seen giving, but don't actually want to give.

When you fast, don't fast so others will see you fasting to improve your image in the mind of others. Rather, when you fast, do it to please the Lord. When you pray, don't pray to be seen by others. So this is another category Jesus goes through on how your righteousness must exceed the of what a Christian ought to be, and I don't think we should be so narrow-minded about We should look at the Beatitudes as different categories of some people mourn and those people will be comforted, but rather what we have is eight descriptions of Christians that is a monolithic thing that describes all Christians, and then we have corresponding eight comforts to Christians that all Christians will experience.

So when we look at this description of a Christian from the Beatitudes, we don't see have your best life now, but what we see is that we're poor in spirit, that Christians aren't self-righteous, but recognize their spiritual bankruptcy apart from the Lord.

Christians are people who mourn, they mourn over their sin, that Christians are meek, they're willing to put their own interests aside and put the needs of others ahead of even their own needs. Christians hunger and thirst for righteousness, they yearn to please God in their morality.

Christians are merciful, Christians have received the greatest possible mercy that anybody could ever receive in the grace we receive from the Lord, and we deserve only the wrath of God for our sin, yet we get eternal life instead, so what we deserve is way down here, what we get is way up here, and there's an immeasurable distance between what we deserve and what we receive, and so we've seen such great mercy that we need to treat others with that same level of mercy, and when we are wronged, we treat people with mercy, not describing something that's what other people might hear of your best life now, and I apologize to the author of that book for using him as the example of the chief proponent against this, but I'll do it anyways.

But that's not the life that's being described here, that Christians are wronged and then show mercy to others. Christians are pure in heart, the morality of the Christians is not like the scribes and Pharisees, it's not a merely external righteousness, but the heart has been changed, that we truly have regeneration and our outward deeds are not something that we're putting on and pretending, but they're coming from a pure heart, and inwardly it's not a tomb filled with rotting flesh and bones or a filthy cup, but rather our heart has been changed and our disposition is new, and therefore we are pure in heart and our deeds are flowing from what is within.

We are peacemakers, as far as it depends upon us, we live at peace with others, and that is not the calling of an easy life where we will avoid conflict or avoid people that we don't want to like, and instead we're peacemakers, as far as it depends upon us, with every person we will pursue peace.

Persecuted for righteousness sake, and this is the beatitude that some people look to and say, hey, this can't describe every Christian because I'm not getting my head cut off, and it's true, and so we don't want to make light of the persecution Christians around the world receive, but it's also true, and perhaps more so for you here in the Bay Area than for me in a conservative state, that there's persecution for righteousness sake for all Christians experience it at times, that it's certainly in a lesser degree than being a Christian in an Islamic state where you're at threat of having your head removed, but we all will see persecution for our faith, from friends, from family members, from people that you become alienated with, from people that look down upon you or won't hire you for a job because of something you've said, or the way that you're treated, and it might be lesser degrees, and certainly lesser degrees than the death that's faced to Christians in other nations, but I believe that this is something that describes the experience of every single Christian persecuted for righteousness sake, and let me add on to that, if you're a Christian and you've never experienced any persecution whatsoever, maybe you should examine the way that you're living your life and make sure that you are living as a Christian in the world because when you do that, it typically results in at least some degree of persecution from the world.

What we see here is not a description of an easy life. It's not easy at least in any way that the world thinks of when they say that easy life. Now in balance, Matthew 11, Jesus does say, Matthew 11 verses beginning in 28, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So the Christian life is easy, and let me give you a couple of ways which it is easy.

It is easy in that we are no longer under the bondage of working for our salvation. Jesus Christ lived perfectly in our place and we are not under the bondage of the law, whereas we have to follow the law perfectly in order to have eternal life.

And also when the Lord saves us, he has given us a new heart. So following Christ is easy in the sense that by the power of the Holy Spirit with our regenerated new heart, we are able to live a life that pleases the Lord, generally speaking.

Yet the life of the Christian is called not an easy one when we look at the Sermon on the Mountains, contrary to the TV preachers that tell you that, you know, come for an abundant life and, you know, I'll say it again, have your best life now.

That's not what we're called to when we're called to have a Christian life. It's not, we're not called to have an easy life the way the world thinks of an easy life. Notice the path of the narrow way is defined by Jesus.

We don't get to define what is the narrow way. But Jesus has laid this down in the Sermon on the Mount. He has explained what does it mean to be on the narrow way. We live in an individualistic society, a postmodern world where we cherish the freedom to pave our own way.

I've heard, I've not verified this fact, but I've heard that I did it my own way. I did it my way is the most popular music to be played at a funeral. In America, I did it my way is what they like to sing when they have a funeral, if you are apart from the Lord.

But that's not at all what we're talking about here. We're not doing it our way. That's not the narrow way. Certainly in an individualistic society, people might say, yes, I'm on a narrow way. I found my own way.

I went off and I found myself and this is my way and I'll do it my way. But that's not the narrow way Jesus is describing. It's not I did it my way. It's I did it Christ's way. That is the narrow way that we're told to be on.

And he has just laid that out for us in the previous chapters of Matthew. What is the narrow way? Jesus contrasts this narrow way with the wide way of the world. He says the gate is wide and the way is easy.

That leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. Now, people are individuals. Many have forged a very unique path in life. But this alone doesn't comfort us. It shouldn't comfort us as being a narrow path.

Going your own way is the description of the wide path. Jesus tells us that those who enter the wide way are many. We can't let popular opinion dictate morality on the wide path. You know, you can come up with a consensus of what is moral, but that is not what dictates true morality.

When the world makes laws, the popular opinion will win. One example I can think of is in America, people generally love pets. And if you harm a dog or a cat, you'll be in legal trouble, right? But in America, we don't have the same affection for a cow, so you can go buy a cheeseburger.

That's popular. Popular opinion has dictated morality in that sense, right? There's no scripture that tells us that. But Jesus makes it clear that popular opinion is not what truly dictates morality. That is the wide path.

The wide path filled with many people can come up with many senses of morality that are not God's sense of morality. The way that leads to life is created by Jesus and not by individuals, not by popular opinion.

Now, finding this wide path is no problem at all. There is no difficulty in finding the entryway to this wide path. In fact, it's so easy to find the wide path, you're already on it when you're born. This is the default destination.

As children of Adam, we inherit his sin. And then we ourselves go our own way instead of God's way. Romans 3 .23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's no exceptions here. We're all beginning on this broad way.

We're not faced with a decision, which gate will I enter? It's not like we're all standing before two gates and we're going to see, should I pick this broad one or this little one? But rather, we are born onto this broad path and we desperately need off of it.

Have you ever been to a water park and they have this lazy river? I think that is a good illustration where you can sit in this lazy river in an inner tube or just float through and you can go around in circles eternally or until the park closes and they turn off, right?

To get out of it, you have to paddle to the exit. But if you just sit there, you'll just go around in circles forever. That's like the narrow way. You're already there and you're already going around and around the excuse me, the broad way.

You're already going around and around. Now I've mixed up my words. Hopefully, you know what I'm talking about, though. You're stuck on this broad way going around and the only way off is to get off. If you do nothing, you're already there.

Being on the wide way is also terrifying because of the severe warnings Jesus gives about its destination. He warns that it leads to destruction. The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.

The end result of staying on this wide path and never exiting is destruction. He describes hell as outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth in Matthew 22. In Revelation 21 .8, he describes this destruction that the word he uses in the Sermon on the Mount is the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Revelation 14 .11 says the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. No rest day or night. It's an eternal place. And that's the end destination of being on this wide path. And that's why we so desperately need to get off of it.

Now, if your life is characterized by the ways of the world, don't assume that you're on this narrow path that leads to life. Now, contrary to popular, even evangelical preaching today, you don't get off that path by saying a brief prayer or raising a hand or walking in an aisle.

Rather, you have to be born again. You need a new heart within you that wants to live for Jesus. I think it's very sad that many people have been deceived into thinking that they're on that narrow way, because at one point they repeated the words of a prayer that someone told them.

And then the pastor said, you know, like a popishly declared them to be born again. And then they've gone off on their life and now they're hardened to the gospel because someone has declared their salvation and they don't need to hear it again because they've been told.

Now they're on the narrow path. But that's not it at all. You can repeat a prayer that you don't understand. I think it's very much like thinking God is this genie in a bottle that you can rub it and repeat these abracadabra words and kazam, you're born again and go off and do whatever you want.

But that's not it at all. It's not a formula that you say. It's a new heart. To have assurance of our salvation, you should be able to look at your life, examine yourself, and then generally speaking, you should see that you're on that narrow way.

Now, I say generally speaking, because I don't want to give you the misconception that you will be sinless. First John 1, 8 through 10, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So God says that you have sin right now.

That's in the sense of you have it now and you always have it. There's not going to be a time on this earth until the Lord returns or until we go to him that you don't have that sin presently in your life.

So if you say you have no sin, you're calling God a liar. And there's just one more sin to add to the list. Even now, as a believer, there's sin in our lives and we won't be perfected until the day that we see the Lord.

Now, although we don't achieve sinless perfection in this life, we still should have a life that's marked by righteousness. And generally speaking, if you examine your life, we should see a life of general righteousness.

I think Paul Washer used the the picture of if you follow him around with a Polaroid camera and take snapshots at the right moments, you could lay them all out and say, this man is clearly an unbeliever.

Look what he did on this moment, this moment and this moment and this moment and this moment. And you can surely find lots of moments. If you took the right Polaroid snapshots and put them all together, you can say clearly not a believer.

But if you took a movie camera and followed him around, his life better show an overall picture of righteousness and just blips through the life and maybe even explosions in the life of of sin. But an overall picture should be that of righteousness and showing that you are on that narrow path defined by Jesus and his description of morality.

Which leads to our next point, because if you don't have that assurance now, because if you look at your life and you see that you're not on the narrow path, but the wide path, Jesus has the answer for you right here in Matthew 7, 13.

The Call to Conversion

He begins with the command, enter by the narrow gate. So let me move on to the next point here of a call to conversion that we're told by the Lord Jesus, enter by the narrow gate. This is how we exit the broad path and get onto the narrow one.

We're told to enter the narrow gate as a command. The way of life that is eternal life is this narrow way. Jesus says, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

There's just one way, this narrow way that Jesus is describing. There's no other ways. Jesus' way through this narrow path, this narrow gate, is the way that leads to life. Now, the world would tell us that there's many, many ways that lead to God.

But Jesus makes it clear that there's but one. Even other Christians, or so-called Christians, purported Christians, will tell you that, okay, there's many ways to God. You know that there's only one God.

We all agree upon that. But he calls him the law, and I call him Jesus. But we're all worshiping the same person. That's not what we're talking about here. The narrow way is laid out by the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

And there is no other way but his way. Any other understanding would be contrary to his words. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. And his command to enter by the narrow gate.

He leaves no room for universalism. He commands you instead to enter this narrow gate. But there's good news that salvation is not accomplished by living a perfect holy life yourself. Remember early in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that he fulfilled the law.

When he says he fulfilled the law, he's not changing his moral standards. But it does remove the requirement to perfectly meet his moral standards for salvation. And the covenant of works that's made with Adam, the requirement for eternal life, is perfect, perpetual obedience to the law.

Do this and live. If you obey the Lord and the covenant of works, you can have eternal life. But of course, Adam failed. We've all failed. The covenant of works won't get anybody apart from the Lord Jesus Christ himself into heaven.

But in the covenant of grace, the requirement is still perfect obedience to the law. But the good news for you and me is it's not my or your perfect obedience. It's the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And his perfect obedience to the law has fulfilled the requirements of the law for you and for me if you trust him for salvation. So that is the very, very good news of the gospel, that he has lived that perfect sinless life in your place if you trust him.

Every single sin will receive the wrath of God. And the question that you have to answer is, who will receive the wrath of God for your sin? Yourself, which is the eternal destruction described, or will Jesus take it for you?

And he will if you trust him. So I don't want anybody to leave here without making sure you've entered that narrow gate. And if you are a new believer, the first act of obedience is baptism, that you should, the next step to follow Christ.

And if you haven't done that, I encourage you to talk to Pastor Josh as we fellowship afterwards, that we believe that baptism is by immersion, is what the word actually means, is by immersion into water.

We believe that it's done by a true church, and one that is done after you become a believer. And I won't elaborate on those things, but if you haven't been baptized, talk to your pastor and be baptized.

I encourage you to follow Christ in that way. And finally, I want to close with an encouragement to you, to you Christians on the narrow way. If you find yourself on this narrow way when you look at your life, be very encouraged.

An Encouragement to Christians on the Narrow Way

Sometimes we feel alone. We are told those who find it are few. That's what he says of the narrow way. But thankfully, we are given the church, and we can see that we're not alone. And I so often praise the Lord that he didn't save just me, because how difficult would it be to be out in this world and never have a refuge of our brothers and sisters?

And so praise the Lord that he didn't save just you and you alone, and leave you out in this world to figure it out, and to be separated from all Christian fellowship. When we go out in the world, we often will stand alone, and we'll often feel isolated.

When you leave this building, and not the building itself, but you leave the company of your brothers and sisters, and we go out into this world, and we can go periods of time without ever seeing other believers.

And depending on your situation, if you have family that is believers or not, you can feel very isolated, very alone, very different. But I want you to be encouraged that you are on this narrow way that leads to life.

And you should be very encouraged knowing the love of God for you who's put you onto this narrow way. Perhaps you're the only person in your workplace that refuses to do something immoral, or perhaps you're the only person in your family that lives your life in a Christian manner, or perhaps you're a parent.

If the rest of your family is not Christians, I know as a Christian parent, it can be very hard when your family sees you raising your family in a certain way that they just don't approve of because they don't understand because they're not believers.

In many of these situations, those are just a few examples, we can feel just so alone. But praise the Lord that He gives us the church. Just another reminder, I'll repeat from Hebrews 10, don't forsake the gathering of believers because when you get out there and you get alone, that's where Satan attacks.

Come back here week in and week out and be encouraged when you see your brothers and sisters are with you. Even though we are few, when you look at the world, we do have that few to encourage and to love one another and to bear one another's burdens, encourage each other and send each other back out into the world encouraged.

Be encouraged because it is the way that leads to life. The gate is narrow, the way is hard that leads to life. Know when you feel these difficulties that you're on the path to eternal life, given to you by your loving creator.

Know that you've been chosen by God. You're only on this narrow path because the Lord has put you there. It wasn't your own doing, but the Lord has come and rescued you and puts you on this narrow path and given you the new heart that gives you the desire, the will to be on the narrow path is only because the Lord has changed your heart.

So know that you've been loved by God so much that he's done that for you and be so very encouraged by it. I just want to remind you that there's nothing that you can do to earn a greater amount of God's love.

And that's not because you're not good enough to get some more love. It's because he already loves you perfectly. And there's no more possible love that you can receive because he loves you perfectly already.

And I'll leave you with that bit of encouragement that if you find yourself on the narrow path, know that you are loved by God and that you are on this path that leads to eternal life and keep your eyes upon the prize of the Lord Jesus Christ and focus upon him.

And you will see how the way can be easy in the other respects, even when it feels very difficult. Let's close with some prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for rescuing us that even in our own wills and desires, we would have never have swam off that lazy river.

We would have stayed on that broad path, the wide way and ourselves. But you have loved us so much that you sent your son to come and to die in our place and to come and live in our place, fulfilling the demands of the law for us, the demands that we could never meet on our own.

And that you gave us a new heart with a desire to enter the narrow way. Lord, I pray that you wouldn't let a single person leave here that has not put their trust in you and that you would stir that up in each one of us.

So right here where we sit, we would know that we've been chosen by you because no one has the will to enter the narrow gate unless you've given them that will. So encourage each of us as we see ourselves on that narrow way and send us out from here, knowing that we're loved by you and by one another that you've given us to meet with and to worship with.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.