The Decision of A Lifetime
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!
Scripture Reference: Matthew 7:13-27
Context
Context
In our text today, Jesus is beginning the closing of the Sermon. Today, we would say that He is entering into His conclusion, or that He is wrapping things up. So what Jesus is going to do here, as He comes to a close, is sum up the totality of His sermon with a few final thoughts. In other words, everything that Jesus has been preaching on has been building up to this moment.
And He starts His concluding remarks by providing a mental picture of two gates, or doors if you will. These two doors are different in size; these two doors head in opposite directions; and these two doors lead to two completely different destinations.
He uses this metaphor to present the most important decision that one will ever face in this life. It is the decision of a lifetime....literally.
Content
Content
Two Doors
Two Doors
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Notice first, that there is no option C. Jesus teaches here with great authority is saying that everyone has to choose a gate. Matter of fact, it was this very means of teaching that captivated His audience. None of them had ever witnessed a preacher who spoke from the Word of God with such authority before.
28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching,
29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
So Jesus is making it very clear that everyone, and that does mean everyone, must choose a gate. There is no standing idle; there is no third gate or fourth gate to choose from. There is only the two gates from which Jesus describes and everyone must choose between one of these two gates.
This metaphor of the two gates is obviously spiritual in nature. Jesus is not speaking here to two different literal gates. These gates represent the opposing sides of the decision that we just spoke about. The wide gate represents the choice to live this life apart from Christ. The narrow gate represents the choice to live this life in Christ.
Jesus then describes the first gate:
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
It is a wide gate that opens up to a very broad path. Jesus uses these specific descriptions because it portrays that this gate is welcoming, it is easy, it is convenient, and therefore it is enticing. It is so enticing, that Jesus says “there are many who go in by it.”
See, a wide gate is welcoming to most people. A crowd of travelers could much more easily enter a wide gate than a narrow gate. It made the process much quicker and easier. Merchants, who were travelling with donkeys or horses and wagons full of goods could much more easily enter a wide gate, that opened up to an even broader path than to try and squeeze through some narrow passageway. A shepherd could much more easily pass through a wide gate with a herd of sheep than he could a small narrow gate.
The wide gate is preferrable over a narrow gate, and therefore most, when given the choice, will choose it.
This is just like life. If we look back at what all Jesus has taught on through this Sermon, we see that:
It is much easier to live up to your own expectations than it is to live up to others’ expectations of you. This is why the religious leaders distorted the law and made it what it wasn’t.
It is easy, when someone does something against you, to just murder them and get them out of the way. It is easy to hold grudges, stay angry, and talk bad about people behind their backs.
It is easy to commit adultery on your spouse and simply do whatever pleases you, regardless of the mental and emotional damage it may cause those who are closest to you.
It is easy to simply divorce a spouse any time things get difficult. Just get rid of them and start over with someone else and avoid fixing any of the problems.
It is easy to swear a bunch of things to make yourself more believable, even if you can’t deliver on your promises.
It is easy to retaliate against someone when they have done you wrong. Eye for and eye and tooth for a tooth… right.
It is easy to love my immediate family: my spouse, my children, my siblings. Anyone can do that.
It is easy to good deeds like almsgiving, praying, and fasting, especially when it is beneficial to me. To do these things in the presence of others makes me look good, which makes doing these things before others very enticing.
It is easy to be greedy, worry only about myself, and store up wealth.
It is easy to have a judgmental spirit towards everyone else in life. If I can find reason to judge them for sin in their life, it makes me feel better about myself.
This is the broad path Jesus speaks of. It is to decide to go through this life on easy street. It is to be self-righteous and to have only self-interest. It is to do whatever is easy and convenient for me, regardless of what it means for everyone else. The path is so easily travelled, I even imagine it is headed downhill...
***Draw the Large Gate and wall at the top…
***Draw the wide path down the sides, leaving some room at the bottom for the narrow gate and wall…
Now… Jesus speaks of another gate. This gate is opposite in nature to the first:
14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
This gate is a very narrow gate, and even once you pass through, it does not open up to a wide, broad, easily travelled road. Rather, it stays just as narrow on the other side. The path behind this gate is also narrow and very difficult to travel.
This type of gate is not very enticing: Its small, difficult to pass through, the road that lies beyond is also very difficult to travel. It poses much more difficulty than the wider gate. It is so unenticing, that Jesus says, “there are few who find it.”
It is difficult to live up to the standards of God; to live a surrendered, holy, righteous life and put Him above yourself.
It is difficult to put forth energy to work out issues with people. To pray for them, extend grace towards them, to be forgiving, and to have compassion towards them, even when they have done something that upsets you. It is much more difficult to bite your tongue, than it is to just speak your mind.
It is difficult to stay faithful to your spouse, physically and mentally, when you live in a world that throws sexual imagery in your face every which way you turn.
It is difficult to stay married to a spouse for many years. There are tons of things that have to be worked through. There is communication that has to be done, issues that have to be worked through, compromises that must be made, and grace that much be extended. Furthermore, the world has made it so easy to be divorced. You pay less taxes if you are divorced; You are eligible for more government aid if your divorced..… and so much more.
It is difficult to keep your word to others, especially when things are thrown at you from every angle in this life. It is difficult to stand on what you say.
It is difficult to not deal out what you have been dealt. It is difficult to leave vengeance up to God.
It is difficult to love those who don’t want to be loved. It is difficult to love those who have a different perspective on life than me, who see things differently than me, who disagree with me.
It is difficult to give so much without expecting anything in return. It is difficult to do so much for the kingdom of God and receive absolutely no credit for it. That goes against every fiber of our being.
It is difficult to tithe to the church, to make financial sacrifices for others when you could use a little boost yourself, to put others first and trust that God will take care of your needs.
It is difficult not to judge others when we something in them that rubs us the wrong way. It is difficult to give people second chances.
It is difficult to do it God’s way!!!!
Ok… listen up. I believe wholeheartedly that this second path is distinct from the first… matter of fact, Jesus makes that very clear. But I do not believe that it is a different path altogether. In other words, I do not think that this narrow, path is somewhere over here all by itself, I believe it is right here in the middle:
***Draw the bottom wall and narrow gate…
***Draw the narrow path, right up the middle of the wide path, all the way to the wide gate…
Two Directions
Two Directions
See, the narrow path goes right up the middle of the wide path, just in the opposite direction. This path goes uphill. This path stands in opposition to the path that is most frequently travelled. This path forces us to go against the grain, to be different, to be separate from them. We are in the world, but not of the world:
14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Remember what Jesus said, “there are few who find it.”
***Draw a few purple dots on the narrow path going upward, and illustrate that they are travelling uphill…
Those who travel this path are true Christians. They have decided that they would rather stand with Jesus than with the world. They have not chosen the easy life, but the faithful life, the one that stands on the Word of God and uses the Word of God as the foundation for all that they believe and do. So true Christians will stay on this narrow path. They may venture from right to left along the path, but they will put forth every effort to remain in the center of this path, because that is what God has commanded us to do:
26 And you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.
32 “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
On the flip side of that, those who are travelling in the opposite direction are all over the road.
***Draw a curvy line back and forth between the sides of the wide path all the way to the bottom…
They even venture into this area where we as Christians travel. They drift back and forth this way because their beliefs are all over the map. There is no objective morality to the non-believing world. Everything to them is subjective. Their truths of today may things of the past tomorrow, and since every single circumstance or situation is different, they take liberty in how they define their moral standards.
Furthermore, since everyone’s moral standards are different, there is no accountability, no room for rebuke, and no standard of operations. Without order, there is only chaos, so they drift from here to over here and back again all through life.
Along this wide path are all sorts of people. There are people of all ages, people from all over the world, people with different issues, people with different mentalities… all types of people. The one thing they have in common, is that they have all chosen to walk down easy street and go in the direction that Jesus has warned them not to go.
We could say that there are many different groups of people who travel down easy street, but for the purpose of our illustration, we are only going to mention just four groups:
The Convicted (Blue)
The Convicted (Blue)
This is the group of individuals that has heard the Gospel, been convicted of their sin, but has yet to surrender to God. This group actually comes to play in the middle of the street quiet often. They may very well claim to be Christians, be a member of the local church, or even hold positions within that church. If they are not members, they attend church on a semi-regular basis, and dabble in religious things from time to time, or maybe even very often.
These people may very well be on the verge of surrendering to Christ, but as of just yet, they are still headed in the wrong direction.
The Confused (Orange)
The Confused (Orange)
The second group are those who venture into the middle of the street by mistake, or simply to pass to the other side. They are not antagonistic, but simply agnostic, which means they don’t know what they believe. There may be a God, but maybe not. They are not necessarily looking for God, but they are also not always opposed to the conversation. Some of these individuals may very well be won over to Christ along the way.
The Cantankerous (Red)
The Cantankerous (Red)
This group ventures into the middle of the street on purpose. They do not do so to join us, or even because they are curious concerning the things of God, but rather to stand in opposition to God and to the Church. This group is well studied, possibly scientists, professors, Nobel Prize winners and such. This group is made up of atheist, they have great influence, and they are antagonistic towards the Gospel. They stand on stage and tell the world that science proves all of life and that there is no need for a God. They debate Christians, such as John Lennox, at Universities around the world, hoping to persuade those in attendance that Christianity is absurd and unnecessary.
But there is a group that is even worse than this group, probably more, but especially one that we want to mention:
The Con-Artist (Black)
The Con-Artist (Black)
This group finds itself in the middle of the street a lot as well. They are not there to convince people that God is not real, but actually worse. They are here to preach a distorted view of the Gospel. This group stands behind the pulpit, or whatever platform they are given, and they preach from the Word of God. But instead of preaching the true Gospel, they preach some other version of it.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
The true Gospel says that salvation comes by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ. That’s it. But yet some will add to the Gospel and say that salvation is grace + something else: grace + works, grace + good behavior, grace + sacraments, etc. Anyone who adds to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and tries to teach that salvation comes by grace + anything is a false prophet.
Now we can see why our message from last week is so important. Listen to me church, we have to stick together. Look at it… Do you see it? There are so many more of those in the world that are unchurched or non believers than there are of those who walk with Christ. Jesus just said that here in the text: “many will choose the wide gate, but few will find the narrow gate.”
We have got to stop letting the world divide us. Yes, we believe differently on some things than other denominations do, but we all believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man can get to the Father except through Him. We all believe that salvation comes by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ. We all believe in a literal heaven and a literal hell, and people are dying every single day and going there while we are setting over to the side disputing doctrines.
I am not saying that Doctrines don’t matter… of course they do. If you don’t know any doctrine, how could yo perceive that someone was a false prophet? But yet, we don’t have to divide over every little doctrinal issue. At the end of the day, there is so much more that we agree on that there is on what we disagree on.
We need each other to make it through this thing called life, because the journey is difficult. Its not easy. Jesus just said that… “difficult is the way which leads to life”. We need each others support, knowledge, skills, and even accountability. Let us stand united in Christ!!!
Two Destinations
Two Destinations
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Notice that those who enter by the wide gate travel down the way that leads to destruction, but those who enter by the narrow gate travel down the way that leads to life.
Notice here on the board how this works:
This large gate up here represents the Kingdom of God. Theis small gate down here represents hell. Those of us who enter by the narrow gate, enter only because we have trusted in Christ as our Savior. That’s it. If it were not for Him, we would be headed straight for hell just like everyone else. We came to a realization that hell should be our home. According to our sin, we don’t deserve God’s grace, forgiveness, or mercy. What we deserve is to be forever separated from Him, but at some point we bowed on our knees, acknowledged our sin before God Almighty, repented of those things, asked for His forgiveness, and trusted in Christ’s work at Calvary to pay the penalty of those sins. Now we are travelling away from hell and our destination, when our journey has come to an end, will be in heaven with God.
But those who entered by the large gate, did so not because they were already saved, or started in heaven somehow. They entered by that gate not because of true righteousness, but because of self-righteousness. They have believed, and still do if they are on that path, that they don’t need to be saved. They believe that either there is no God at all, or that they don’t need His help. They choose to stand alone on judgment day, at that leads them straight to this very small, very narrow passageway, straight to hell.
But here is the good news, someone who is on that path does not have to stay on that path. There is yet hope for every single one of them, if they would just accept the fact that they need Jesus, that Jesus loves them… so much that He died for them, and that by placing their faith in what He did, they could too experience the hope of salvation.
We can see now why Jesus taught on making biblical judgments of others in the preceding verses. As we journey along this narrow path, there are going to be all kinds of people who we meet along the way. Some of them are genuinely curious about the things of God, and we should do whatever possible to help them understand truth. On the other end of the spectrum are those who are liars and deceivers who are working nonstop to keep people out of heaven. We cannot get tripped up by these people and lose our own way.
Matter of fact, the very next verses that we will cover next week, cover this very thing.
As we journey towards the throne of God, we are to grab as many people as we possibly can along the way. As these people venture into our realm of influence, we should use these opportunities to share with them the truth of the Gospel. We cannot make them be saved, or even place within their hearts the desire to be saved, but we can be faithful enough to share the Gospel with them while they are there and hope that they will change directions and go the other way.
This narrow path opens up to the gates of Glory, while this wide path leads to the confining gates of hell. Which path are you on? Which gate have you chosen?
Commitment
Commitment
In closing, I want to share with you the words of a song that we have sang many times in this church. The name of it is “Higher Ground”:
