Entering By the Narrow Gate, Part 1

Introduction: God's Answer to Prayer and Review of Previous Sermons

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, July 10th, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Those of you who were with us on Wednesday night will remember that I mentioned something of the unusual measure of mental and spiritual struggle. I even described it as agony that I had gone through in seeking to settle upon the specific text to preach in conjunction with our current series. And several of you at the picnic yesterday and others in personal interaction and yet others even messages left on my answering machine have indicated that you laid to heart the call to prayer and that you did pray. Okay. And you did pray. And you did pray.

0:54 You've asked me how God answered your prayers and I do want to express my sincerest thanks to you for your prayers. When it came time on Friday morning to settle in my own mind what passage would be next in this series, it was a relatively short time and my mind and spirit were drawn almost apart from a choice of my own without claiming any direct revelation. And as I settled upon that passage, I was able to give many hours to study of the text, to reading sermons and commentaries upon the text and went through none of that kind of agony of indecisiveness and I believe in no little measure it was a direct answer to your prayers and so I not only thank you for your prayers but would urge you to be stirred up. As the apostle said, brethren, pray for us.

1:58 And in answer to your prayers and mine, the text that will be the focus of our meditation both this morning, God willing again this evening and possibly next Lord's Day morning as well depending how far we get in the opening up of the text is found in the Gospel of Matthew and I would ask you to turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 3. Matthew chapter 7 and follow as I read the familiar words of verses 13 and 14. Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14.

2:58 Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14.

3:59 Our Father, we are mindful of the words that you spoke through the prophet Jeremiah when you said cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm and whose heart departs from you. You said that such a one would be like a barren heath, like a fruitless wilderness and oh Lord, we do not want to be that this morning. But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that would be your word to us today, so come and aid us by the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit that it may be said of the preaching this morning that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God.

5:03 But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it may be said of the preaching this morning that it may be said of the preaching this morning that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God. But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it may be said of the preaching this morning that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God.

6:07 But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it may be said of the preaching this morning that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God. But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God.

7:11 But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God. But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God.

8:30 But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God. But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God.

9:30 But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God. But as you have heard and answered our prayers for guidance and help in the preparation and direction to the portion of your word that it came not in word only but in demonstration of the Spirit of God. And all of the areas of his life that yet show he is not perfectly sanctified and may looking upon his imperfections judge wrongly of his state and come to the conclusion he is not in a state of grace.

10:46 So a deceived professed Christian looking only upon the semblance of Christian virtues and refusing to face the hard evidence. Of what he really is may conclude all is well when in reality it is not well. In order to prepare my own mind and search my own heart and provide fuel for in pursuing this series of sermons I've read this 200 page book in recent days from cover to cover and I commend it to those of you that are serious. About dealing with this grace. question, am I for real? We must not discount the biblical witness that self-deception on this most critical issue is indeed a frightening possibility. And then having established these four reasons as to why we ought to engage in a period of intense self-examination, we then began to turn to specific passages which set forth the infallible marks and evidences of those who are truly united

12:09 to Christ. We saw first of all that if we are for real, we will manifest the traits of the true sheep of Christ. And then we studied together John 10, 28 and 29, in which there is set before us, or I should say 26, to 28, in which there is set before us the distinguishing trait of Christ's sheep. They are believers, and the identifying activities of Christ's sheep. They are hearing His voice as the overall pattern of life, and they are actually following Him. They do not follow Him perfectly, but they follow Him purposefully. They do not follow Him without sense. They do not follow Him without purpose. They do not follow Him without sense.

12:59 They do not follow Him without sin and imperfection, but they follow Him with a commitment to universal attachment to His person and to His word. And then we saw last Lord's Day that if we are for real, according to Romans 8, 5 through 9, we are indwelt by the Spirit. And if we are indwelt by the Spirit, we have been transported from a lifestyle characterized by flesh and after the flesh, to a lifestyle characterized by in the Spirit and after the Spirit. And there is no middle category. If we are for real, if we are not sham Christians, the word of God says you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he, is none of His.

14:03 Then at our communion service last Lord's Day evening, we saw thirdly that if we are for real, we are part of the true spiritual circumcision. That is, we are part of God's true covenant people, and we have the identifying traits of those people. And we examine Philippians 3.3, For we, Paul says, Even we, Jews and Gentiles, are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory or boast in Christ Jesus, and who place no confidence in the flesh.

14:48 If we are, we know something of what it is to worship by the enablement of the Spirit of God. We know what it is to have the Holy Spirit bring home to ourselves, our hearts, spiritual realities with power, so that the fingers of the soul, as it were, touch them in the mouth of the soul, taste them in the eyes of the soul, see them. And therefore we are not at all offended by the simplicity and the starkness of external trappings in the place of our worship and in the forms of our worship. For if we are the true circumcision, we know what it is to worship by the Spirit of God, even that Spirit who takes the things of Christ and makes them real to us, not through a physical crucifix, not through banners and pageantry which impinge upon the physical senses, but by the blessed ministry of the Holy Spirit who in our hearts there reveals a known and a felt and a truly known and a pasted Christ. And we glory in Christ Jesus. Our boast is not in ourselves, not in our attainments, not in our performances.

16:17 We boast in the One whom alone is the object of our faith, from whom alone we receive saving grace. And we put no confidence in the flesh, which in the context, means we put no confidence in anything we inherited by birth or anything we've attained by the greatest diligence in the way of religious performance as the ground of our acceptance before God. We will not allow one centimeter of one thing we were by nature or have done even by God's strength to be woven into the fabric of that little grove of righteousness which is comprised solely and exclusively of the virtue of the perfect life of Jesus and His substitutionary death. Now I ask you, how have you done?

17:24 John says if you're for real, you are a believer and you are continually hearing the voice of Christ and following Him. Has that been you this past week?

17:38 We saw from Romans 9, 8 and verse 9 that if you're for real, you have the Spirit of God. And if you have the Spirit, He's taking you out of the realm of the flesh and put you into the realm of the Spirit. Has your life this past week been one in which you have been marked as a man, a woman, boy or girl who has not been living after the flesh and in the flesh, but after the Spirit and in the Spirit? Since we meditated on the passage last Lord's Day evening, have you had the marks of the people of God?

18:18 Have you known anything of the Spirit of God? Is it where you pray secretly, if you do pray secretly? At family worship, have you known any of worshiping God from the mere form and the ritual that you do because it's been done and because you're supposed to do it? Have you known anything of spiritual reality?

18:41 We are the circumcision of worship by the Spirit of God. Have you been exalting and glorying in Christ Jesus? If so, why has He not been upon your lips? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

18:56 The people who are glorying in their national soccer teams in the midst of World Cup madness, they are unashamed to make it known in what team they glory and in what athletic heroes they glory. They speak freely. They speak enthusiastically. They speak passionately about those in whom they glory.

19:21 Do you glory in Christ Jesus? And do you put no confidence in the flesh? Has your disposition this morning, in spite of God helping you to overcome certain sins last week that had not been overcome the week before, in spite of knowing something of nearness to Christ and life and vigor in your spiritual disciplines, as you sit here this morning, can you say, no confidence in the flesh. My posture is...

19:52 Is that now that it was the first time I came, nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Now, dear people, the series will end, but those marks will stand either to witness for you or against you your damnation in the day of judgment.

20:17 You may sweat out... But you won't sweat out those texts when you stand before God in judgment.

20:26 And if those marks in your God's name give up your profession and go to Christ and get the real thing, rather than stumble along and save face and be exposed in the day of judgment when it'll be too late. And I say in my final word of review and application before the sermon, don't use any excuse to know that you wouldn't...

21:07 dare stick in God's face in the day of judgment.

21:12 If it won't wash with God then, don't let it wash with you now.

The Fourth Mark: Entering the Narrow Gate and Restricted Way

21:21 Well, we come then today to this fourth text of scripture which describes those who are for real. If we are for real, we will not only have the distinguishing traits of the true sheep of Christ, we will not only be indwelt by the truth, by the spirit of God and experience that relocation from flesh to spirit, we will not only have the identifying marks of the true circumcision, but if we're for real, we are for real because we have entered through the narrow gate and are walking upon the restricted way. If we are for real, we have entered through the narrow gate, and are walking upon the restricted way. Now, as we take up this text, Matthew 7, 13 and 14, someone said, well, Pastor, you've preached on that before. Yes, I have. But in preparation for these sermons, I've not consulted a note from previous sermons.

22:36 I've tried to come to the text as though I'd never preached it or seen it before. I've prayed that I might see things I've not seen before. I've gone back to the drawing board of my Greek text and my lexicons and my commentaries and ransacked my library and have read several hundreds of pages of sermons on the text. And I'm convinced that the text bears far more weight than I've ever placed upon it.

23:04 And I'm more convinced than I've ever been convinced if I, Albert M. Martin, am for real. It's because I've come through the narrow gate and I'm walking upon the restricted way. Now, as we take up the text, I want you to notice with me by way of introduction to the text two very basic things.

The Authority of the Speaker: Jesus Christ, God's Final Prophet and Judge

23:27 Number one, who is speaking these words and what is the setting in which he spoke them? Who said the words enter by the narrow gate? For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many are they that enter in the narrow gate.

23:47 And many are they that enter in the narrow gate. And thereby, for narrow is the gate and restricted the way that leads unto life. And few are they that find it. Who said these words?

24:03 Well, as most of you know, the one speaking is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ himself. The one who declared later on is recorded in this very gospel record, heaven and earth, shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away. This is the one who is speaking even now as God's final anointed prophet. As God's Messiah who would be God's final word to men.

24:38 And I want you to notice what is said of that final prophet by Moses quoted in Acts chapter 3 with direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 3 Peter has just called his hearers to repentance promising them that if they repent their sins will be blotted out and it will lead to the time of the return of the Lord Jesus.

25:10 And then he says in verse 22 of Acts 3 Moses indeed said a prophet shall the Lord God raise up to him. up unto you from among your brethren like unto me. To him shall you hearken in all so ever he shall speak unto you. You shall hearken unto him in every detail of whatever he speaks.

25:45 And say well suppose I don't want to verse 23 and it shall be that that every soul man, woman, boy, girl in the first century, second, third right down to this 20th century whether that soul is found somewhere in the Balim Valley in West Irian or in the bush of one of the smaller tribes in Central and South America or whether found on the corner of the Chains Bridge and porcelaining on the road in Montville every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. It is a sober thing to confront the words of Jesus. He's God's final word to men. And Moses speaking by the Spirit says the Lord shall raise up that prophet.

26:52 You shall hearken to him. He shall hearken to him in whatever he speaks unto you. And then quoting from Deuteronomy 18, 19 that everyone that shall not hearken to that prophet that is the Lord Jesus shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.

27:17 And in the context hearkening to that prophet means nothing less than hearkening in all things whatsoever he shall speak unto you.

27:28 Now why do I pause to understand my way of as it were walking up to the text and not even unpacking it that we must remind ourselves afresh of who it is who speaks these words. Well I remind you for two very basic reasons. I remind you first of all because there are some who when encountering words like these say that well we can't really establish any of those words. establish an answer to the question, what must I do to be saved from the words of Christ here?

28:04 Because he was speaking in the period of the law. And in the period of the law, there were conditions other than simple faith for a man to be saved. Well, that's sheer nonsense. The word of God says anyone who's ever been saved in any age has been saved by grace through faith.

28:22 But in attempting to get around the stringency of the words of Christ and the flesh-withering power of the words of Christ, they have sought somehow to relegate them to either a past or some future dispensation of God's dealings. But I remind you of the word of the living God through an inspired apostle in Acts chapter 3, that prophet whom God promised has been raised up and has spoken, and if you do not hearken to him, you shall be cut off. In the judgment of God. And I remind you that it's Christ who speaks these words for a second reason.

29:01 Who knew better than the Lord Jesus that men had no power to save themselves? He was speaking these words on earth. He had undergone all the inexplicable mystery of the incarnation when the second person of the Godhead, the eternal word, the eternal son, to himself, a true human soul, and body in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He knew the humiliation of incarnation.

29:32 He had been experiencing the humiliation of life in the weakened condition of our humanity. He knew better than any that the only way into heaven for guilty, hell-deserving sinners as to its basis was the work that he himself was already accomplishing, living the life under the law that we should have lived, that we might have a credit to enter heaven on the grounds of the obedience and the righteousness of another. And he was already on his way to the cross where he would die just for the unjust. No one knew better than our Lord Jesus that the only way that guilty sinners could ever find righteous acceptance with God was by virtue of his own sin. His own life as the incarnate God-man and his substitutionary death for sinners. Don't you ever think that Jesus would teach us salvation by our works or our effort when he left heaven to provide us salvation which we could not secure for ourselves again? It's sheer nonsense.

30:47 Yes, the Lord Jesus in speaking these words knew better than you or better than I that the only ground of our acceptance was to be saved. That the only ground of our acceptance was to be found in his work. That the only climate of the salvation of hell-deserving sinners would be grace and grace alone. Yet he says, comes to life and fury that finally speaks to us in all magnitude of his authority as God's final prophet and as our future judge. For he is not only God's anointed prophet and priest, but God's anointed king. And he will sit as king and judge. And he will sit as king and judge.

31:41 And he will sit as king and judge in the last day. And I remind you of his words. John 12, 48 already quoted this morning. The word I have spoken unto you, it shall judge you in the last day.

The Setting: The Sermon on the Mount and its Demands

31:56 But then in introducing our study, note not only who speaks the words, but note the setting in which they're spoken. Note the setting in which they're spoken. You familiar with the content of the gospel of Matthew will remember that Matthew 5, 6, and 7 form a unit, commonly identified as the Sermon on the Mount. It's called that because in 5, 1 we read, Seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountain, and when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, The setting of this passage that we're going to be examining is the Sermon on the Mount.

32:41 And in the preceding, the preceding chapters, the Lord Jesus has been laying out the spirituality, the all-encompassing demands, the other-worldliness which constitutes the lifestyle of his true followers. He began with that composite picture of the character traits of all the sons and daughters of the kingdom. We call them the Beatitudes. He doesn't say, become poor in spirit that you might be blessed, but he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

33:19 As grace has worked in them and upon them, it has made them blessed with the blessing of true Holy Ghost conviction that has stripped them and humbled them and brought them low. Not merely put the language of humility on their lips, but the disposition of humility in their hearts. They are poor in spirit. Is the kingdom of heaven?

33:46 Then he goes on to fill in the other contours of the character traits, that composite picture, that mosaic of what makes a true son or daughter of the kingdom. Then he says, As such, they are constituted the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And then he begins to open up the nature of the kingdom in which such people will function in relationship to the law of God. Think not that I came to destroy the Lord, or the prophets.

34:17 I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. And then he made the amazing statement in verse 20, Accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You'll in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And he describes his people as a people who, with those character traits of the Beatitudes, living in the world as salt, checking its putrefaction as light exposing its darkness.

34:45 They have a conscience about evangelical keeping of the law of God, not as an external code, but as a law which touches the deepest springs of thought, of attitude, of disposition, of desire. Throughout the rest of Matthew 5, he opens up the horrible, narrow interpretation of the scribes and the Pharisees. You have heard that it was said, but I say unto you, here is the standard of my law, and it touches the very first springs of desire, and thought, and intention, and ultimately leads to the statement at the end of chapter 5. Look at it.

35:27 Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. The perfection of moral character measured by the length and breadth and spirituality of the law of God is the standard to which the subjects of his kingdom are committed with all their heart. They pursue it. And while they will be taught in the very next chapter that they must daily acknowledge they come short of it after this manner, pray ye.

35:55 And one of the prayers is, not only give us our daily bread, but forgive us our daily sins. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. But the sons and daughters of his kingdom as he describes them will not only be marked by the character traits of the Beatitudes, the exact opposite of the Beatitudes, but the exact opposite of the ostentatious, self-confident, peace-strucking religion of the scribes and the Pharisees. Poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungering, thirsting, pure in heart, peacemakers.

36:36 And such a people unlike the Pharisees are not content to merely look at a very restricted external version of the law under the sheets with another woman. It's too late. I have not punished. Not this. Not that.

36:52 Come to another man.

36:57 Jesus said, no. My people are concerned when they even say to someone, hey, you dummy. And if they say it with an edge of disdain and hatred, that's the seed of murder. And they'll repent of it.

37:11 They'll be grieved. They'll mourn that in not keeping the commandment, thou shalt do no murder. They have fallen short of the perfection of their heavenly father to which they are called. And when they've taken the second look for merely observing, well, he or she is attractive to thinking.

37:34 And I would like that attractive person to be my sexual companion. Jesus has been broken, though you never say a seductive word or never once touch with an erotic touch. And he said, my people are concerned to keep the seventh commandment in the deepest springs of their looks and of their thoughts. And when they would be tempted to say, but how can you do anything other than lost in an evil world?

38:04 He said, my people and pluck out rather than sin and go to hell. My friends, I'm not saying this. I'm paraphrasing what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.

38:20 Then in chapter six, he says, my people are a people who, like the Pharisees, they'll give. They'll pray. They'll deny themselves legitimate bodily appetite. And pleasures fast.

38:36 They'll do that. Yes. But they'll do it for entirely different motives than the Pharisees for written over every alms deed of the Pharisee. Every prayer and all of their fasting is they do it to be seen of men.

38:51 But he said, my people are concerned not with the eyes of men, but their father who sees in secret. That's all they need to know. When they give the father who sees. In secret knows what they give and why and the measure of their giving.

39:09 And to know that the father who sees in secret will reward openly. That's enough for them. And when they pray, they go into their closet and shut the door. They don't sound a trumpet before them.

39:22 They don't pray with great swelling words to impress men. They groan in the secret place. They mourn over their barrenness. They cry out to the fellow.

39:33 Oh, the wretchedness of their remaining corruption. How little they love the Savior and how little they know the glorious God he came to reveal. They enter into their closet and they pray. And what's the focus of their prayers?

39:48 Their God-centered prayers. Our father who are in the heavens, hallowed be thy name. Lord, my name is nothing. Let it be my name.

39:59 But Lord, your name is all glorious. Let it be known and let it be vindicated in the earth. Your kingdom. Come, Lord, I've got no kingdom to build.

40:09 No financial kingdom. No reputational kingdom. I've got no kingdom to be built around my person and my plans. There's only one kingdom that matters anything.

40:20 Oh, God, it's your kingdom. May that kingdom come. May your will be done in earth, even in me, as it's done in heaven. When angels were straying, waiting for the slightest intimation of the will of the Father.

40:34 And leap into joyful obedience. Oh, God, may I be like the angels. Doing your will on earth as it's done in heaven. You see, Jesus is not putting prayers in the mouths of his people that they can't pray from the heart.

40:50 That would be to add hypocrisy to hypocrisy. He's putting prayers consistent with the state of their hearts.

40:58 That's why I said after this manner, pray. Because in grace, I've given you hearts that are moved toward my name. Moved toward my honor. Moved.

41:08 Moved. Moved to my kingdom. To sensitivity, to sin, and a willingness to forgive others. So what Jesus is doing is giving a framework for prayer consistent with the state of heart that the sons and daughters of the kingdom have.

The Kingdom's Demands: Undivided Loyalty and Heart-Centered Piety

41:24 And then living in the world of men and things, they need food, clothing, shelter. But he says, you're not going to be like the Gentiles. They lead in raiment and shelter. Things to the Gentiles.

41:41 Kiss of their lives. But no man can serve two masters. I claim a loyalty over you that will not allow you to live primarily for things. No man can serve two masters.

41:53 He that loves the one and hates the other, hates the one and despises the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. He personifies mammon, money, into a living God before which men will bow. He says, my people are those who seek first my kingdom and my righteousness.

42:08 And trust me that all other things will be added unto them. That takes you through chapter 6. And then he comes into chapter 7 and says, the subjects of my kingdom are those who do not indulge in sinful judgmentalism upon others. The Pharisees have these huge logs of duplicity and hypocrisy hanging out of their eyes.

42:31 And they go around with these huge logs saying, let me get close enough to get the little speck out of your eye. It's a grotesque caricature of an illustration. Have you ever tried to get a cinder out of somebody's eye? Have you ever tried to get a cinder out of somebody's eye?

42:46 You have to get close and even with a magnifying glass. How can you do that if you've got a ten foot log hanging out? Jesus said, the subjects of my kingdom are more concerned with the specks, the moral specks in their own spiritual eye, than they are about others. The beams in their own eye, I'm sorry, than they are about the specks with others.

43:12 And they are a people that make a difference in their judgment between those who have an appreciation. For me and my truth, give not that which is holy to the dogs. We dealt with that in Sunday school. They are a people who are confident that if I've brought them into my kingdom, my heart is large toward them.

43:31 And the heart of my Father is open to them. Ask and it shall be given. You seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you.

43:39 You see what the Lord has been doing in the Sermon on the Mount? He has been opening up the major features of His kingdom. And all the subjects in it. Who are blessed people?

43:52 The blessed people are the poor in spirit. Those who've been stripped to see they are nothing, have nothing, can endure nothing, sin, and to themselves have been forever shunned against bragging about anything.

44:12 They mourn. They mourn. Happy are the mourners. They mourn their own alienation from God and their native deadness and dullness.

44:23 They mourn the sin. They mourn the sin within, the sin without. Their disposition is one of meekness, having seen themselves as hell-deserving sinners before God. The presence of God has been fundamentally broken and ill-willed, and the presence of their fellow men has been fundamentally crushed.

44:46 That's a meek man. A meek man is not someone who temperamentally stands and he can be as proud and arrogant as the devil. Meekness is not a native disposition determined. It's not determined by your genes.

45:02 It's a disposition implanted by grace. Moses, meekest man upon the face of the earth. He had been in the presence of God forty days and forty nights.

45:21 No struck before God, no clenched fist before that God, no ill-will to his fellow man. They hunger and thirst for righteousness. They have not attained to a level of external conformity to the norms of Trinity Baptist church. The other church, and they say thus far, no further, no need with the remaining sins of irritability, of a hot temper, lazy, sluggish, to make me accepted with my brethren.

45:55 No, no, the sons and daughters of my kingdom are ever hungering and thirsting for more righteousness. It's not speaking of imputed righteousness. It's speaking of imparted righteousness. And he says, my people are hungry and a thirsty man will do whatever he's got to do.

46:19 We get to food and drink. Don't let him tell me, oh, I'm dying of thirst, while he sits with his feet up in the shade, reading a trash novel.

46:29 It is really, he's on a quest for drink.

46:35 And he'll trample over anything and anybody to get it. Hunger man doesn't roll around in his bed saying, well, I'm dying of hunger here. Hope someday some will throw me across the bread.

46:48 A man will eat to get some food. Christ's kingdom are described this way. Folks, you're beginning. You're beginning to get the feeling.

47:02 You didn't write this. Jesus spoke it to multiple others' law. As it touches springs of thought and motion and attitude and disposition of the heart. Watchers are seeking to be perfect as my father is perfect.

47:31 Oh, Jesus said, pluck it out or you'll be damned.

48:01 Excuse them in his word now or in the day of judgment.

48:05 And that's why I'm.

48:11 That not a few may well.

48:16 That's why you don't meditate on the Sermon on the Mount. Because it gets you. Where you are. And Jesus was done conception.

48:34 Did the people have a being one of his followers being part of his kingdom?

48:42 They'd have two things firmly, indelibly impressed on their hearts.

48:49 Jesus way and Jesus way.

49:16 They have judgment for not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, in that day shall enter. But he that is doing the will of my father who is in heaven. What will the will as it's been made known in his words right here in the Sermon on the Mount. And how does he close the Sermon on the Mount?

49:32 He closes it with the passage. We looked at as a supporting text to the fact that his sheep hear his voice and they follow. He closed with the illustration of the wise and the foolish builder and who was the traits of the true child of God and never cry to God, saying, Oh, God, if that's the picture of a true son or daughter of the kingdom, I'm not in it. Have mercy upon me and reconstruct me in the inner man.

50:14 Till I see. See my spiritual face in the beatitudes you've heard. You don't do now when Jesus is done, the people who both said and were regarded, if anybody's going to make it to heaven, they will. And he has said, unless you have a righteousness, it goes beyond theirs.

50:36 You'll never enter when he's all done. People would have this twofold conviction. Jesus weighs hard and Jesus weighs lonely. And isn't it interesting when he comes now as a good preacher to apply?

The Stark Choice: Narrow Gate to Life vs. Wide Gate to Destruction

50:49 What does he emphasize?

50:52 He says it's hard and it's lonely. Look at the text. I hope you see it in a new light now. That's why I've taken all this time to address the setting.

51:04 Give you a broad overview of the sermon and the mouth.

51:11 The kingdom is like what the subjects of the kingdom are like.

51:18 It's just imperative in verse 10. That's it. Jesus said, if you do, you're going to have to get stripped down. You're going to have to be bent low.

51:50 And you're going to have to unpack a lot of baggage. Because the moment you start. To fix your attention upon entering. You're going to see a very tiny gate.

52:02 That way says, enter in by the narrow gate. And no sooner do you fix your attention on the narrow gate. Then lo and behold, standing in bold relief off to the left. Is a very, very desirable alternative.

52:19 There is a huge, wide, expansive gate. You'd hardly know there was a gate. The doors are flung open. People can enter.

52:31 Clothes with whatever clothing they want on them. Carrying as much baggage as they want. These guys that travel and you women. And you see the sign, only two hand baggages allowed.

52:44 You marvel whether people can read or whether they have a conscience. You see them go on a plane and you wonder how they stand up. They got a bag over this arm, one over this arm. Carry them to a nice bag.

52:56 Well, you see, Jesus said. Let you fix your attention on my kingdom and getting into my kingdom. You face a tiny little constricted door and you say, man, I got to put my baggage down. In fact, I'm even going to have to strip off, get down almost to my bare skin.

53:16 Oh, look over here. Look at that. Big, nice, wide. Look at people.

53:22 They're just sauntering in there dressed with five layers of clothing, carrying six or seven. You carry on. Jesus said that's the thing that will be there beckoning you. Nice, big, wide gate.

53:37 And furthermore, it opens up into a very broad and expansive way with lots of elbow room. Everybody lets everybody do his own thing. Nobody's bothering anybody. But Jesus said of the gate, the expansiveness of the way.

54:06 Look at the end. Look at the end to destruction. It leads to damnation. And now to see if you can smell what comes up from the end.

54:24 And you'll smell the smell of sulfur and brimstone. Look, the dog that is never quenched and where the worm never dies. And you're going to see the vast crowd standing on this mountainside. Who've heard me preach?

54:49 Choose that way. Look at the text. Many are they that enter in. Thereby.

54:59 And the tragedy is that after hearing Jesus, they could take with them into that wide gate and that expansive way. A lot of his sayings, some of his morality, some of his teachings about life. And they might even claim to be one of his disciples. But just not quite so strict, not quite so puritanical, not quite so narrow.

Finding the Narrow Gate: A Discovery, Not a Natural Pursuit

55:31 But after Jesus speaks. He speaks with a gracious, regal imperative and what I call a gate in an expansive way that beckons and leads to destruction. Then he says in verse 14, expanding what it means to become his true disciple. For narrow is the gate and some of the old manuscripts and those who study which manuscripts ought to be given the most credit for a given translation.

56:07 The difference between two little Greek words can make it as it's translated in our 1901 for narrow is the gate, hot tea, or if it's just the tea without an O in front of it, with a H, with a with a rough breathing, hot tea. If it's tea making an exclamation as he contemplates his own words, and this is what he's saying. It's the game restricted is the way it leads up to life and few, few. Few are they look at the next word, don't say that enter in there by it says find it, find it interesting. He's used the verb to enter in the imperative by the narrow gate. He has used the same verb in a different form, not the imperative, the indicative. Many are.

57:15 But when he speaks of those who get through the narrow gate and on to the restricted way, he says they find it. Your. From which we get our word, Eureka, they discover it. It comes as a discovery.

57:32 You see, it's not the gate and the way that people are natively clamoring. It's not a game for sight, just like you're hidden in the field. Earl of great price in Matthew 13. Those two parables you remember in one case, the man comes suddenly upon the discovery of a treasure in the field.

58:04 He wasn't seeking anything, but he found a treasure. Then I was to obtain that the treasure might be his. The merchant was seeking goodly pearls. And then it says when he found one pearl of great price, he sold off.

58:23 So the discovery can come at the end of seeking or it can come. We would say surreptitiously, it can come suddenly and unexpectedly. But whatever a narrow gate and sees this restricted way. And looks to its end, turns his eye away from the narrowness of the gate and the constrictedness of the way and sees at the end a many roomed mansion, well-lit in the voice of psalm and praise.

58:58 Wax its way out of the windows. It's full of light and holy laughter. It's the place to which the Savior went his father's house, where he says there are many dwelling places to which he'd come and take his home.

59:16 You see, the setting of this particular passage, dear people, gives it far more weight than a mere extended metaphor. It interprets the meaning of the gate and the way. And God has mercy on anyone who shapes the dimensions of the gate by any other rule than that of the Sermon on the Mount itself. And what is called the analogy of scripture.

Warning Against False Prophets and 'Mix and Match' Religion

59:45 That is the overall teaching of the Bible. God have mercy on anyone who describes the constricted way by any other standard than that of the Sermon on the Mount in the analogy of scripture, because to tamper with the gate in its narrowness and the way in its constrictedness is to come under the very next warning in this setting. We still haven't left the setting, folks. Do you see what the next passage says?

60:16 Look at it. What's first? Verse 15. Beware of false prophets.

60:26 I think there's any connection. Yeah, there's a connection. The minute you stand before Jesus narrow gate and Jesus constricted way, which alone lead to life, and you're contemplating the other alternative of a great wide gate and an expansive, unstricted knowledge, you begin to hear in the ears false prophets who say, you can mix and match. Jesus has made it all angular.

61:06 If you go into destruction, the false prophet comes and says, we've got no problem with the words hell and destruction and gate and way. But you know what I mean by mix and match? You go into a certain store and instead of the trousers and the jacket being together, you can mix and match, you can take a jacket, use it as a sport jacket, buy contrasting slacks, and it's sold as a unit. You ladies mix and match outfits where you can have the same color.

61:40 One has a print. And now, alas, alas, I've lived to see it. Even different shapes and colors and sizes of prints are acceptable. What was considered just plain boorish a little while ago.

61:54 Now you can have mixed prints of mixed dominant and sub dominant. But anyway, mix and match. You know what the false prophet does? He says Jesus has made it all too absolute.

62:04 He really didn't mean that. You know, we're just going to mix and match and have a nice big wide gate. You can just trust Jesus. You don't need to strip down that narrow gate business.

62:20 If you want to go for broke and be a super duper Christian, get a bigger bag of yo-yos at the end, fine, but you can still get through. Tip your hat to Jesus. Tell him you believe he died on the cross for sinners. Tell him you're ready to say he's the only way.

62:34 And you can go tripping right through. And you know what? The way is really not quite so constricted. But you can have.

62:41 Instead of destruction at the end, you can have life or you won't get there as many bells ringing, you won't get as many bags of yo-yos at the end. But just so long as you've got enough of Jesus to help you and enough of the road to make this business narrow gate restrict mix and match. We're going to take a big wide gate in a nice, easy, broad road. But it's going to issue into life.

63:09 My friend, don't you let any false prophet mix and match. Beware. What Jesus is set in categorically exclusive category. So when he's done, then he says, enter in the narrow gate.

63:35 And if he said, imagine how he must have said it with a broken heart. Few are they that find. Do you find that the people exclaim with one voice? Whoa, Jesus, what are you talking about?

63:58 You've just opened joys and joys, Jesus. Oh, no. When he was done the sermon on the mount, nobody objected, saying, what's this picture of a narrow gate and a restricted way? After all you've told us about your kingdom, they knew exactly why he chose the imagery and what I'm urging every one of you that's dead in earnest.

64:41 Kids, I'm talking to you as well as you adults and anything in between and beyond to take the time this afternoon. And on your face inwardly, you may not be able to do it literally, but inwardly bow.

65:09 And say, oh, is this the kind of religion I'm committed to? Is this my desire with all? Is this the kind of discipleship to which I'm committed? And if not, my friend, may God help you to see you've never come through the gate and you're not on the way that leads to life.

Pastoral Plea for Sober Self-Examination and Radical Commitment

65:36 These two introductory concerns who spoke the words Jesus did as God's final prophet. He would not speak any subsequent words to his apostles that would contradict, neutralize or in A's word enter the narrow gate as the gate restricted the way that leads to life. Few there be that find it. I hope to get to three basic observations about the text. But I said, dear folks, I didn't know how far I'd get. It's not that I'm unprepared. I've taken you through the first page and a half of my notes.

66:32 And I have two and a half pages still left. But I'm not here to get through my notes and collect a paycheck. I'm on my way to give an account for your souls. And I've sought through this whole series to keep bringing Hebrews 13, 17 to mind as I've bent over my desk and gone to my knees.

66:53 They watch as those that shall give an account. They watch as those that shall give an account.

67:05 And that day is one who's gone to the wide gate of a cheap man dictated religious experience that's put you on a broad road of pseudo quasi discipleship that will lead you to destruction. I want my hands clean of your blood because there's only one composite that leads to life, and that's a narrow gate and a restricted way. Is this overdue? How long will the impression last?

67:47 So you get down in the hallway and get with your buddies and joke around and help each other go to hell. That's exactly what Jesus saw happen and said, few there be that find it. You'd rather have your buddies and your girlfriends think you're cool and break with them that you might enter into life. Horrible thing to think the smile of your girlfriends and your buddies is worth going to hell for.

68:23 If you're serious and they come up to you today. When this service is over and try to joke around, have the guts to say, look, weren't you listening? I was. And I want to know that I'm through that gate and on that way.

68:38 And if you're not concerned about those things, you and I are through. You ready for that? Teenagers, if you're not, you're not ready to go to heaven. You love the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever.

68:51 You have an idolatrous commitment to the acceptance of your friends and a wickedly sinful stinking. Rotten indifference to the acceptance of the God who made you and the Christ who alone can redeem you. This big time stuff. God hasn't got a teenage hell.

69:13 I've searched my Bible. I don't find there's a teenage hell. I don't find there's a preteen hell. God cuts you off in your sin and you've missed the narrow gate and the compressed and restricted way you're going to end up in destruction.

69:31 May God help each one of us soberly to pray through the Sermon on the Mount and if God is pleased to spare us to come tonight with the prayer. Oh, God, speak. That will be my prayer after lunch and a period of a brief rest as I go back up into my study, figure out how to piecemeal half a sermon into a full sermon and all the rest, that's my burden and responsibility. The only one I lay upon you is to love your soul enough to ask God to speak your heart.

70:13 Father, we are sobered before the words of our Lord Jesus. We confess that we've been sobered in times past only to trifle away for a pittance of the smile and the approval of our friends and peers or for some legitimate worldly concern that ought not to have intruded itself upon this holy day. Oh, God, have mercy upon each one of us that we may have deep, thorough, honest, heart. Dealing with you and that no one in this place will give himself rest or peace until he or she knows what that narrow gate is, what that restricted way is and is certain with objective biblical evidence that he is upon it. Lord, would it be too much to ask of you as we were reminded this morning, the God who can do exceeding abundantly above all. We can ask or think, oh, God, is it too much to ask you to descend by the power of the Holy Ghost upon all who sit here this morning, that each one may have heart dealings with you issuing in life and not in damnation.

71:38 Seal your word, we pray for the glory of Christ and for the good of our souls. We ask in his worthy name. Amen.