SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Pastor Jason.
SPEAKER_01: In case you are watching this live stream and are new to Faith Evangelical Free Church, glad to have you with us this morning worshiping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I want to remind you and say just one more time that we have some new ways to connect with us.
SPEAKER_01: That is here at church as a staff.
SPEAKER_01: Those were mentioned a little bit earlier by Nick as he led us in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: If you just want to send a text to 97,000-97000, you can just text two words connected together: faith give, faith connect, or faith pray.
SPEAKER_01: And that will lead you to a page where you can fill out a little bit of detail, and that will be submitted to us as a staff, and we can pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: You can give us a note to reach out to you and connect with you in some way, or you can give as well.
SPEAKER_01: So some new ways that we are learning and applying as we walk these days of different kind of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: It is very strange to us to be ministering to you when we can't see you, when we can't be with you, near to you.
SPEAKER_01: But we know that we have another comforter, right?
SPEAKER_01: That the Lord Jesus promised to send.
SPEAKER_01: And that comforter knows your needs.
SPEAKER_01: I may not be able to see you and know who you are through the camera, but the Lord Jesus knows.
SPEAKER_01: He knows your need this very moment.
SPEAKER_01: He knows what you need to hear.
SPEAKER_01: He knows if you need to be comforted, encouraged, or convicted, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: So I invite you to join with me as we dive together into what the Lord Jesus says to us from the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: We've been walking our way through the Gospel of Matthew as a church, and this morning we arrive at chapter 7 of Matthew, beginning in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 7, beginning in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: So if you if you have your Bible, I encourage you to follow along.
SPEAKER_01: Or if you have a smartphone or other device, you can open that up.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you're on our church website, on uh the live stream there, there is a link there for a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You can just open that up and turn to Matthew chapter 7, beginning in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what the Lord Jesus says to us Enter by the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: For the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
SPEAKER_01: For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, these are some some hard words to hear, just as you you say that this narrow way and this narrow gate is a hard way.
SPEAKER_01: They're not uh all encompassing and and welcoming to everyone who might want to come.
SPEAKER_01: Because some don't want a narrow way, some don't want a restrictive road.
SPEAKER_01: And so that that makes this a hard passage to understand and to come to grips with.
SPEAKER_01: I ask that your spirit would help us this morning to know what you you mean and you intend, that you would help us wherever we might be to apply this passage to our own lives, to be challenged by it in the way that you see fit.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_01: Life is full of decisive moments of choosing between one way or another way.
SPEAKER_01: Poet Robert Frost popularized that truth in his poem The Road Not Taken.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you've heard it before.
SPEAKER_01: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry that I could not travel both and be one traveller, long I stood and looked down as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth.
SPEAKER_01: Then I took the other as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim because it was grassy and wanted wear, though as for that the passing there had warned them really about the same.
SPEAKER_01: And both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black.
SPEAKER_01: Oh I kept the first for another day.
SPEAKER_01: Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
SPEAKER_01: I shall be telling this with a sigh.
SPEAKER_01: Somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.
SPEAKER_01: Now while it seems almost expected to invoke that particular poem in regards to this text, let's remember that the idea of two roads leading in different directions is as old as time itself.
SPEAKER_01: It's a concept that was created by God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: You'll remember in the very first pages of the Bible in the book of Genesis, when God created the earth and made a unique garden in that place, and he placed that first man, Adam, in that garden.
SPEAKER_01: The man was told, You shall surely eat of every tree of the garden.
SPEAKER_01: But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.
SPEAKER_01: For in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.
SPEAKER_01: The way of life or the way of death, the way of obedience or the way of disobedience, the way of walking with God or the way of banishment from the Garden of Eden forever.
SPEAKER_01: Like Robert Frost's traveler, Adam could not see very far down the roads in front of him, but choose one of them he must.
SPEAKER_01: Now that theme is found throughout time in both biblical history recorded in Scripture and in secular history.
SPEAKER_01: For King Solomon, as an example.
SPEAKER_01: It looked like the way of wisdom versus the way of foolishness, the way of trust in God versus trust in self, the way of pleasure or the way of obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, somewhere around 400 to 500 BC, someone recorded a story about Hercules, that half-mortal son of the Greek god Zeus.
SPEAKER_01: One day, as Hercules was traveling down a road frustrated about his life, he encountered a split in the path that he was on.
SPEAKER_01: Down one path coming towards him was a beautiful woman named pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: And down the other came a beautiful woman named Virtue.
SPEAKER_01: According to the legend, Hercules chose to go down the road with the woman named Virtue.
SPEAKER_01: So as Solomon himself declared, there is nothing new under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus says that there are two ways in life and only two ways, one that is easy and one that is hard, one that leads to destruction and one that leads to life, we should not be surprised.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, our difficulty, I think, is familiarity.
SPEAKER_01: We are too familiar with this kind of idea.
SPEAKER_01: Now, whether or not this passage is known to us, the idea, the concept of two ways, and we have to choose between one of them is so common in the history of mankind that it necessarily feels familiar.
SPEAKER_01: And that is our problem.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's so familiar, we don't grasp the weight.
SPEAKER_01: We are familiar with having to choose, even if it's only between two options coke or Pepsi.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not even going to get into whether or not it's it's should be soda or or pop, because everybody knows it should be pop, and don't even get me started on soda pop.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Long sleeves or short sleeves?
SPEAKER_01: Shorts or pants?
SPEAKER_01: Shoes on, shoes off.
SPEAKER_01: College?
SPEAKER_01: Or no college?
SPEAKER_01: Get married?
SPEAKER_01: Remain single.
SPEAKER_01: Take this job or move to that city.
SPEAKER_01: And you can see then that the complexity changes, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We face all kinds of choices in life where we have to choose between one or two, door A, door B.
SPEAKER_01: And it can be very, very simple or extremely complex.
SPEAKER_01: Currently in our world, we are in a hunker-down mode.
SPEAKER_01: Stay home.
SPEAKER_01: Shelter in place, quarantine, don't be with people.
SPEAKER_01: Stay home and stay safe because the other option is to go out, get infected with the coronavirus, and then infect others and end up on a ventilator and perhaps even die.
SPEAKER_01: Right or wrong, real or perceived, our leaders and our media have made us feel the danger inherent in our choice.
SPEAKER_01: That's quite a ways from the simplicity of Coke versus Pepsi, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: There are life-changing decisions on the road that we call life.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them we can plan for, and others we could never in our wildest dreams anticipate.
SPEAKER_01: But they're real.
SPEAKER_01: They are life-altering decisions.
SPEAKER_01: That is what we must feel when approaching this statement by Jesus at the conclusion of his Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus calls us to face the life-altering impact of following him.
SPEAKER_01: The conclusion to Jesus' statement here, or to his sermon, pardon me, begins with this section in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: And it continues all the way through verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: So verse 13 through verse 27 is the conclusion to his sermon.
SPEAKER_01: The entire conclusion focuses on one element.
SPEAKER_01: The importance of ensuring that you are part of God's kingdom, led by King Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_01: In another week, we will see the reality of that in verses 21 through 23.
SPEAKER_01: Where there will be people who face the Lord Jesus someday who think, yeah, I'm a Christian, I've made my way into heaven, and Jesus says, sorry, no, you're wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I've never known you.
SPEAKER_01: The pattern of religion taught and followed by most people in the Israel of Jesus' time, that pattern of religion would not lead its followers into God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, they were simply stampeding en masse along the broad way to their eternal deaths.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Jesus later in the Gospel of Matthew will tell the Pharisees, you not only don't enter yourselves, but you keep other people from entering.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has told us in this sermon already, time and time again, that only by coming to the king and by seeking his righteousness will we be able to reverse that movement.
SPEAKER_01: Now we see all of this with this concept of pairs or of twos, of two things, thing one and thing two.
SPEAKER_01: It's highlighted all throughout this passage.
SPEAKER_01: We see here in verse 13 the wide way and the narrow way, or the wide way, the broad way and the narrow way.
SPEAKER_01: Choosing to follow Christ as king along that hard, narrow way, or choosing to follow the easy, broad way that satisfies yourself.
SPEAKER_01: There are two gates, the narrow gate and the wide gate.
SPEAKER_01: There are two destinations, life and destruction.
SPEAKER_01: There are two groups, the few and the many.
SPEAKER_01: This continues on in the next section, beginning in verse 15, where we see two kinds of trees, the good tree, the healthy tree, and the bad tree.
SPEAKER_01: Those trees produce two kinds of fruit, good fruit and bad fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Then in verse 21 through 23, we have two kinds of people who profess faith in Christ, the sincere and the insincere.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, in the last section, in verses 24 through 27, there are two kinds of builders, the wise builder and the foolish builder.
SPEAKER_01: There are two kinds of foundations, the rock and the sand, and there are two houses, the solid and the unstable.
SPEAKER_01: All of those pairs are variations on the same theme.
SPEAKER_01: You and I are faced with a question that impacts our eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Which way will we take?
SPEAKER_01: God's way or my way?
SPEAKER_01: Following Jesus or taking my way?
SPEAKER_01: And the call for a decision begins in verse 13 with the challenge of these two gates.
SPEAKER_01: The image that Jesus gives is one of life as a road.
SPEAKER_01: And that road has an exit at some point, and there begins to be two roads.
SPEAKER_01: Life begins for every single person on the wide and easy road.
SPEAKER_01: Birth shoves us into the stream of people making their way through that wide gate.
SPEAKER_01: And most people live for years, decades, even lifetimes, without realizing where that wide road leads.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus tells us that there is an escape from that wide road.
SPEAKER_01: And if we desire to escape the destination of eternal destruction, we must seek out another road.
SPEAKER_01: A road that is that is gained through a narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: And enter, we must.
SPEAKER_01: When the Lord Jesus says enter by the narrow gate, he's not saying, you know, you could go this direction if you'd like, or you can stay on this road if you'd like.
SPEAKER_01: He's not presenting two options like Coke and Pepsi.
SPEAKER_01: He says this is a command.
SPEAKER_01: He is giving us an imperative.
SPEAKER_01: Take the narrow way.
SPEAKER_01: Go through the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: The real question is not whether we will choose to obey or not obey.
SPEAKER_01: The real question is, do you understand where you're going?
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand where you're going?
SPEAKER_01: Are you do you understand where the wide road goes?
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand where the narrow road goes?
SPEAKER_01: We are thrust into life through the wide gate onto the broad road.
SPEAKER_01: So will you will you obey the command to veer off the wide road to take the narrow gate?
SPEAKER_01: Will you hear the word of Jesus and obey it and say, that destination is better than the destination that I am on?
SPEAKER_01: Now this is not the first time in Scripture that we find people being presented with this kind of a challenge.
SPEAKER_01: All over Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: In Deuteronomy chapter 30, for example, as the people of Israel are getting ready to take possession of the land that God had promised them, we find them presented with a command to choose life and goodness through obedience to God, or death and evil.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Joshua, their leader during the time of conquest, near the end of his life, commanded the people of Israel in this way.
SPEAKER_01: He said, If it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites whose land you dwell in.
SPEAKER_01: But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: It's nothing new, is it?
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus says to the people on the hillside that day, listening to a sermon, and when when he says it to us that there are only two options, that there are only two gates that lead to two roads, he's not telling us anything new.
SPEAKER_01: He's simply reminding us of what God has always said.
SPEAKER_01: Now these gates are are clearly different.
SPEAKER_01: Most gates in the first century were quite tall.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them were as high as 30 feet tall.
SPEAKER_01: But they varied in width.
SPEAKER_01: Some gates and city in cities that had walls around them were narrow, and some of them were wide.
SPEAKER_01: A standard main gate, for example, that would be the main entrance into a city that people would be going in and out of in high volume traffic.
SPEAKER_01: That gate might be 30 feet high and 30 feet wide.
SPEAKER_01: A large opening that could accommodate a great number of people streaming in and out of the city at any moment.
SPEAKER_01: Other gates might have other purposes, like taking out the trash.
SPEAKER_01: Those would be used far less, and they would have no need to be wide, and so they would be narrow.
SPEAKER_01: You might imagine in our time period the entrances to stadiums.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been to a football game or a baseball game, you're entering a massive stadium that has these wide open areas for entering into the stadium, compare that to your back door of your home.
SPEAKER_01: Wide gate versus a narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: Our natural pattern is to follow the crowd, though, along the wide road.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's plenty of room there.
SPEAKER_01: It's comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: It's not too difficult to find out where where the path is going.
SPEAKER_01: Just watch the flow of people and you'll be able to fit right in.
SPEAKER_01: You'll know exactly where to go.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a problem for all human beings.
SPEAKER_01: It's most comfortable to go where the crowd is going.
SPEAKER_01: It's most comfortable to follow the pathway of the crowd, to not fight against it, to not have to make your way through it.
SPEAKER_01: But you just go with the flow.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's especially a problem when we are younger.
SPEAKER_01: It feels right and it feels good to be going in the direction of the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: Because going against the flow isn't enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: It's lonely.
SPEAKER_01: The narrow gate is not as easily noticed.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it takes more effort to discover its location in the city wall.
SPEAKER_01: Even if it was right next to the main gate, there's just a 10, 15, 20 feet difference between the wide gate and the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the narrow gate might not be easily noticed because the crowd may be so large that.
SPEAKER_01: It obscures the narrow gate, and it might be missed simply because it's obscured.
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes the narrow gate is one that you have to look for, to search out.
SPEAKER_01: Not because it's hidden, but because our eyes are not accustomed to noticing it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's hard to separate from the streaming crowd going through the wide gate.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever fought your way through a crowd at a sporting event or at a mall, a shopping center of some kind?
SPEAKER_01: You've had to go against the flow of people or try to make your way from one side to the other.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you've even tried to work your way across several lanes of traffic in a very short distance.
SPEAKER_01: It's not an easy thing to go against the flow and choose the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: But if we will not choose the narrow gate, if we don't make our way through that gate, we will simply be caught up with the crowd, unaware of our impending destruction.
SPEAKER_01: What might be worse is we see the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: We see that exit ramp.
SPEAKER_01: But we decide, no, I I like this road better.
SPEAKER_01: We don't believe what's at the end of the road.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Enter by the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like he's the driver's ed teacher sitting beside you.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, There, go, now.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of way is this narrow way?
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, this word is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Numbers chapter 22, verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: There was a man named Balaam who was riding on his donkey, going to do something that God did not want him to do.
SPEAKER_01: And the problem was that there was an angel of God hindering his progress.
SPEAKER_01: At several instances, he tried to hinder his progress.
SPEAKER_01: And at one point he stood in front, this angel stood in front of the donkey at a place where he had to go through a narrow way.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a way that was so narrow that the donkey couldn't turn to the left or to the right.
SPEAKER_01: He just had to go straight forward or straight back, but instead what he did is he just sat down.
SPEAKER_01: She just sat down.
SPEAKER_01: Made Balaam angry because he didn't know that there was an angel standing with a sword in front of him.
SPEAKER_01: It's a narrow way.
SPEAKER_01: It's a constrictive way.
SPEAKER_01: It's a hard way.
SPEAKER_01: It's the complete opposite of the wide road streaming with people.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like the lone person standing in the midst of the crowd, streaming into the stadium, telling people who are pushing and shoving all around him that the best way through is through that little used constrictive entrance off to the side.
SPEAKER_01: Make your way through the crowd, off to the side, through the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells us why.
SPEAKER_01: The reason, he says, that we are to enter by the narrow gate instead of the wide gate is identified by that word for.
SPEAKER_01: For the gate is wide.
SPEAKER_01: And the way is easy.
SPEAKER_01: That leads to destruction.
SPEAKER_01: There are many who enter by it.
SPEAKER_01: There are two ways.
SPEAKER_01: Two roads, your translation of the Bible might say.
SPEAKER_01: Leading away from these two gates.
SPEAKER_01: And the two pathways are connected to the two gates in this illustration.
SPEAKER_01: There are two gates and there are two roads, no more, no less.
SPEAKER_01: The roads are the same quantity as the gates, and they're also in the same design as the gates.
SPEAKER_01: So the wide gate is like the road in that it is broad.
SPEAKER_01: It is capable of holding many people at the same time with comfort and ease.
SPEAKER_01: The word for wide that God inspired Matthew to use here is the word platus, from which we get our English word plateau.
SPEAKER_01: A wide, broad expanse.
SPEAKER_01: It's a relatively flat road that promotes easy travel for many people.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to worry, you don't have to stress about what life is going to be like.
SPEAKER_01: There are a few bumps here and there, or maybe some dips, but no sharp turns, no unexpected problems along the way.
SPEAKER_01: It's easy to travel.
SPEAKER_01: Spacious and roomy and comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: The other way, however, is like its gate, too.
SPEAKER_01: It is a narrow and a hard road.
SPEAKER_01: If one finds the narrow gate and its connecting narrow road, they're not going to find an easy road.
SPEAKER_01: This path is not necessarily a smooth and comfortable and spacious road.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, the narrow road is constricting and unyielding in its width.
SPEAKER_01: The picture that we get is one of traveling single file.
SPEAKER_01: You're squeezing through a narrow pathway one after the other.
SPEAKER_01: You can't go through as a crowd and don't think of taking anything with you because there's no room for that.
SPEAKER_01: You just get to squeeze through this passageway onto a road that's just as narrow.
SPEAKER_01: As I've thought about these two ways, I've been reminded of my favorite place in the state of Montana in my favorite mountains.
SPEAKER_01: Love to backpack in the mountains.
SPEAKER_01: My body doesn't love it so much anymore, but I still love to.
SPEAKER_01: To reach two different places, you have to hike on a well-constructed path.
SPEAKER_01: The Forest Service has done a great job of making this pathway that leads from a trailhead wide and broad and as smooth as it can be in the mountains.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very well-maintained trail, it's relatively easy to walk on, and it's generally pretty spacious.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you'll have your occasional switchbacks going up the side of a mountain just to get you up to a higher elevation.
SPEAKER_01: And there's the occasional overgrowth of the trail.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a fairly easy walk.
SPEAKER_01: It's fairly easy for several miles.
SPEAKER_01: There are some beautiful spots along the trail where the scenery is just indescribable.
SPEAKER_01: But none of that compares to when you cross the stream and you leave that main trail.
SPEAKER_01: And then you begin hiking where very few ever go.
SPEAKER_01: The sights that you see when you begin to climb up the side of the mountain on a very narrow path that's sometimes even hard to see are breathtaking.
SPEAKER_01: And then when you arrive at those high mountain lakes that are unspoiled by human beings and teeming with fish and incomparable beauty, the labor and the pain of leaving the well-beaten path is worth it.
SPEAKER_01: It's tough.
SPEAKER_01: It's grueling and it's painful.
SPEAKER_01: But it leads to unmatched scenery and magnificent fishing.
SPEAKER_01: On the other hand, if you stay on that well-maintained trail, you'll walk and you'll walk and you'll walk some more.
SPEAKER_01: After about three and a half miles from the trailhead, you will pass at Elk Lake, which is a nice little comfortable spot.
SPEAKER_01: Many people go there just for a picnic during the day.
SPEAKER_01: It's only about five feet deep.
SPEAKER_01: It's got some fish in it.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good place to swim.
SPEAKER_01: If you keep going after about five miles or so, you'll come to Rimrock Lake.
SPEAKER_01: Aptly named because it's surrounded by walls of rock.
SPEAKER_01: But most people don't stop there because there's not really much camping space there.
SPEAKER_01: So you keep on going until you get about seven miles in from the trailhead.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where you arrive at a huge and deep lake for a mountain lake.
SPEAKER_01: It's just massive.
SPEAKER_01: It's about a half a mile long, maybe more.
SPEAKER_01: And it is so inviting after walking with 30 to 40 pounds on your back for seven miles.
SPEAKER_01: You know that that's just the place that you want to crash at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_01: So you go to the far end of the lake and you start looking for a campsite, but the problem is you can't find one.
SPEAKER_01: Because this particular lake, Rainbow Lake in the mountains, it has a nickname.
SPEAKER_01: Its nickname is Tent City.
SPEAKER_01: It's called Tent City because that's what you find.
SPEAKER_01: A city of tents.
SPEAKER_01: There's flat ground all around the end of the lake to camp.
SPEAKER_01: All of the grass has been trodden down.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes there's trash all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: It's an easy lake to get to.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pretty easy walk.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little long.
SPEAKER_01: There are some rough places along the way, but not many.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great place to set up your camp and spend the night, but it's over overworn.
SPEAKER_01: It's run down.
SPEAKER_01: It's large enough to accommodate lots of people.
SPEAKER_01: But when you've spent all day hiking to get there, you end up thinking to yourself, I took the easy road for this?
SPEAKER_01: This is what I get.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, that that easy trail is 24 miles long.
SPEAKER_01: From one trailhead to the end of the trail up on top of the mountains.
SPEAKER_01: And many people go that entire length, 24 miles, and so many people do it that it has earned its own nickname, the whole trail.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the beaten path.
SPEAKER_01: For good reason.
SPEAKER_01: There's all kinds of people on it.
SPEAKER_01: And if you start and you take that well-beaten path, no, you don't end up at destruction.
SPEAKER_01: You just end up at another trailhead with a whole bunch of other people.
SPEAKER_01: Now this is not difficult for us to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Life begins for us as human beings in that wide gate onto the wide road.
SPEAKER_01: And you will travel on this broad road until you hear the call of Jesus to take the exit to the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: If you refuse, your road will take you to destruction and the loss of everything that you've gained in life.
SPEAKER_01: If you obey his call and you take the narrow road, your life will follow a hard road, but in the end you will gain true life, he says.
SPEAKER_01: The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of life does Jesus speak of here?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it refers to something that lasts longer than this physical life because it's gained only after traveling the road of this life.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, after you've taken the narrow, rough road, you will reach life, real life.
SPEAKER_01: It refers to something not guaranteed to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: It's not guaranteed to everyone.
SPEAKER_01: It's only those who find and travel through the narrow gate and the narrow road that find this life.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let anyone confuse you who wants to tell you, oh, everybody's going to make it to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: You can't legitimately read what Jesus has to say here and come to that conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: He says, by comparison, there are far more that are going to be on the wide road to destruction and meet that end than those who receive life.
SPEAKER_01: It speaks of something to be gained.
SPEAKER_01: It's not something we have by birth, by nature.
SPEAKER_01: It's something that needs to be achieved in the sense of we need to gain it in some way, in some form.
SPEAKER_01: We do not have it, therefore I must get it.
SPEAKER_01: It speaks of something to be entered into.
SPEAKER_01: It's not simply, oh, I get to live forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: No, it is a full life that includes a new home, a new place, a new master, a new wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, it must be something provided by God to be gained through God's provision.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that what Jesus meant in the Beatitudes?
SPEAKER_01: Just look back there at chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who know they don't, they can't earn anything.
SPEAKER_01: They don't deserve anything.
SPEAKER_01: They're just poor and they come to the King.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are they, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who are mourning over their sin before a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: They're the ones that are going to be comforted.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Not that they can do in their own works, but from the king himself, for they shall be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: And we go on and on and on.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus lays out for us, here's what the kingdom is like, here's what the residents of the kingdom are like.
SPEAKER_01: That comes from God who gives that to his own people who have the righteousness of the king that is greater than that of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus tells us that this is the result of traveling the hard way, the lonely way, or in Robert Frost's term, the way less traveled.
SPEAKER_01: Human beings, as a general rule, naturally take the easy way.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to steer clear of difficulty and of pain if we can.
SPEAKER_01: But the easy way, in terms of our spiritual life with God, that leads only to destruction, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: And the sad reality is that some people choose that way.
SPEAKER_01: They look at that narrow gate leading to the narrow road, they look at that exit and they say, nah, that's not for me.
SPEAKER_01: Many will end up on this path simply by refusing to make a choice.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: There are many who travel the wide road to destruction, and comparatively few who travel the narrow way to life.
SPEAKER_01: Now later, we'll see that some who are on this wide road actually think they're on the narrow road.
SPEAKER_01: They delude themselves.
SPEAKER_01: They think, no, I'm a Christian even though I'm on this wide road leading to destruction.
SPEAKER_01: So, my friend, let me be very clear this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone, anyone who says that there are many ways to heaven has not read the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who tells you that there are many ways to God are not telling you the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Either that or they have outright rejected the words of truth and are themselves on the broad road to destruction.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who says that you have to be good to get to heaven does not understand the teaching of the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing you can take with you.
SPEAKER_01: You can't take your goodness through the gate.
SPEAKER_01: You can't take your good deeds through the gate.
SPEAKER_01: No, there's only one gate that leads to this kind of life.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Lord Jesus said himself in John chapter 10, he said, I am the door.
SPEAKER_01: I am the door.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And he will go in and he will go out and find pasture.
SPEAKER_01: There's only one gate to life.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus makes it very clear.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I am that gate.
SPEAKER_01: It's a narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: Not all are going to accept it, not all are going to believe in it, not all are going to take it.
SPEAKER_01: Friend, if you find yourself hearing the call of God from behind that narrow gate, I beg you, choose the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Follow him through that narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: Place your trust in the King, the Lord of all creation, the Savior of your soul.
SPEAKER_01: Come to Him in humility and enter His kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Enter through that narrow door.
SPEAKER_01: Forget the crowds, forget your friends, forget your family.
SPEAKER_01: Reject the world.
SPEAKER_01: Turn away from the broad road, because if you don't, it leads only to destruction.
SPEAKER_01: If I may take advantage of the COVID-19 circumstances just once more to illustrate.
SPEAKER_01: Proclaimed through all of the media is the sense that we are headed down the road of death and terror and destruction.
SPEAKER_01: And we must take drastic measures immediately to avoid the kind of impact that this virus will bring.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not speaking to whether or not that's good or bad or right or wrong.
SPEAKER_01: It's just what we're being fed.
SPEAKER_01: Stay home, we are told.
SPEAKER_01: Now most people are listening to that and obeying that.
SPEAKER_01: At the very least, most see a measure of wisdom in that warning, right?
SPEAKER_01: Now if we if we as human beings will hear and respond to that, how much more should we hear and respond to Jesus' command to enter the narrow gate when it is not simply our health or physical life on the line, but our entire eternity?
SPEAKER_01: How will we not hear Him?
SPEAKER_01: You see, the ends of these roads are determined.
SPEAKER_01: They're not an infinite circle where you just keep going on and on and on and on and it never ends.
SPEAKER_01: One ends in life.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the other road is a Lord who will judge, inflicting vengeance on all who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: They will suffer the punishment of their eternal destruction away from the glorious, good presence of the glory of his might.
SPEAKER_01: But to those who choose the way that seems wrong to men, Jesus says, Welcome to my kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Enter into the joy of your master.
SPEAKER_01: Now which road would you rather have?
SPEAKER_01: Which end would you rather come to?
SPEAKER_01: If you've already followed the good shepherd through that narrow gate, be reminded, my brothers and sisters in Christ, that you're on a narrow road.
SPEAKER_01: You're on a hard road.
SPEAKER_01: Of all people, the Lord's people should be least surprised by the hardships of life.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't promise us a faithful life of ease and plenty.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what the narrow road brings.
SPEAKER_01: Your king demands loyalty, submission, and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: An easy life has not been promised to you.
SPEAKER_01: So there will be times in your Life and in my life, when our sin laden eyes keep us from comprehending the purpose and the plan of our King.
SPEAKER_01: There will be times when our sin hinders us from understanding what he's doing and why he's doing it.
SPEAKER_01: There will be times when he just doesn't tell us.
SPEAKER_01: And he says simply, follow me.
SPEAKER_01: There will be times when you will feel the crushing nature of outside pressures.
SPEAKER_01: There will be times when you desperately crave to follow the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: But listen to the words of your Savior, who has already walked a narrow road.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he says to you.
SPEAKER_01: Lay aside every weight, and lay aside the sin that clings so closely.
SPEAKER_01: And run with endurance the race that is set before you.
SPEAKER_01: Not looking at what's going on around you, but looking to Jesus, the one who is the founder and the perfecter of your faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself.
SPEAKER_01: Consider it.
SPEAKER_01: Think of Jesus so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.
SPEAKER_01: Because your Lord Jesus knows that the road is narrow and the way is hard.
SPEAKER_01: But he promises to be there at the end with life.
SPEAKER_01: May that be soon.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we come and bow before you, asking that your word would impact hearts today, that they would hear and be changed, maybe even follow you down that narrow road entered by the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, make that gate clear to us.
SPEAKER_01: Make that road before us one that we can see you and follow you.
SPEAKER_01: Give us trust that even though the road might be hard and bumpy and rough and constrictive at times, give us hope and trust that you have gone before us and that you will guide us through.
SPEAKER_01: We look to you.
SPEAKER_01: And we we hope and we wait for the day when our road will end with seeing you, who is our hope and our glory, who is our life.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.