The Narrow Gate Alone Leads to Eternal Life

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, September 17, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, will you please follow in your own Bibles as I read several portions from the early chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 4, verses 23 through 5, 1, and then chapter 7, verses 13 and 14, and 28 and 29. Matthew chapter 4, beginning at verse 23.

0:44 And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all the world. And he healed all manner of disease and all manner of sickness among the people. And the report of him went forth into all Syria. And they brought unto him all that were sick, held with diverse diseases and torments, possessed with demons and epileptic and palsies, and he healed them.

1:19 And there followed him great multitudes from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. And 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 he taught them. Chapter 7, verses 13 and 14.

1:49 Enter in 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 there by four. Or how narrow is the gate, and compressed or difficult the way that leads unto life, and few are they that find it. Verses 28 and 9.

2:23 And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. Well, let us pray that God, by the Holy Spirit, will come and bless the opening up and the application of the Word of God.

2:54 Our Father, we pray that the Lord Jesus, by the present activity of the Holy Spirit, would stand among us today, speaking with all the authority of his office as our final prophet, in all of his regal glory as your messianic king, in all of the compassion and ability to come to us in our need as sinners, ministering to us as our great high priest. O Father, come, we pray, and uphold and strengthen and give utterance to your servant, and give hearing ears to those gathered in this place, we plead in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Centrality of the Narrow Gate and Way

3:54 The great burden of my heart as I preach to you this morning, and again, God willing, this evening, and again, next Lord's Day morning, and possibly next Lord's Day evening, is to open up with clarity and with intensity the words of Jesus found in Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14. In these words of Jesus, there is set before us the fact that the only way to attain eternal life is to get through what he calls a narrow gate and to walk upon a compressed, a difficult, and a hard way. Enter in by the narrow gate, for narrow is the gate, and compressed or difficult or hard the way that leads unto life, and few. And few are they that find it.

5:13 And since these words in chapter 7, verses 13 and 14 are part of the fabric of what is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount, a portion of the Word of God identified by chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the Gospel of Matthew, we must spend just a few minutes seeking to grasp the larger and the more immediate sense and setting of these words of our Lord Jesus.

The Larger and Immediate Context of the Sermon on the Mount

5:44 Let me say something about the larger context. According to chapter 3 of Matthew and verse 1 and 2, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When John appears on the scene, he appears preaching that men are to repent, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. God's rule and reign in grace and power is near at hand, and it has become near at hand because the adult Jesus of Nazareth is just about to break into the theater of public ministry. And because the King of grace in that kingdom of God is about to break into the theater of public ministry, is about to break into the theater of public ministry, is about to be introduced, John can say, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then when our Lord Jesus is baptized, driven out into the wilderness to be tempted, and then upon the imprisonment of John the Baptist, he removes himself up to the northern area of Palestine in the region of the Sea of Galilee, he begins to preach and to do the things,

7:10 the things that are recorded in the verses read in your hearing. He goes about, verse 23 of chapter 4, all Galilee teaching, preaching, and healing. And his message is one that focuses on the kingdom. He went about preaching the gospel, the good news of the kingdom.

7:34 John says, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John says, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus appears on the scene, and in the Lord Jesus, that kingdom has come, and Jesus even picks up the theme of John, chapter 4 and verse 17, from that time began Jesus to preach and say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so, the larger context of the Sermon on the Mount is this tremendous emphasis upon the imminence, the presence, of the kingdom of heaven in the person and work and manifest power of the King of grace himself, even our Lord Jesus. Now, the more immediate context of our verses in chapter 7 are the substance of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has now gathered great multitudes about him, chapter 4 and verse 25, seeing the multitudes, chapter 5 and verse 25, verse 1. He goes up into a mountain, sits down, and notice his disciples come unto him.

8:46 So, in the presence of the multitudes, and we hear of the multitudes at the end of the sermon, so we know they were present throughout the entire sermon. When he finishes the sermon, the multitudes are astonished at his teaching. So, he is preaching with primary concern to his disciples, but in the presence of the multitudes. And the great theme of the Sermon on the Mount is what many have called, it is a manifesto of the kingdom of God.

9:18 He's been preaching the kingdom. The King himself is present, and he is manifesting his power as the King of grace and of glory. And so, as he preaches the kingdom, multitudes gather in the context of the message of the kingdom, and so our Lord now, articulates this manifesto of the kingdom. A manifesto is a public declaration of policy by someone in authority.

9:50 And our Lord in this sermon is going to describe the nature of this kingdom of which he is King. This kingdom that has come near in the presence, in the person, in the preaching, in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we can trace through the sermon on the Mount in terms of it being just that. A manifesto, a public declaration of the nature of this kingdom that he has come to establish in the hearts of men.

The Nature of the Kingdom and Its Subjects

10:23 He begins with what we call the Beatitudes. Eight blessings, perfectly happy. Happy with true happiness are these. And he gives us a portrait of the fundamental character trait of all the subjects of the kingdom.

10:42 Notice the first Beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Do you want to know what the subjects of this kingdom are? When they have truly embraced the King, when they have come under the transforming power of the King, when they have entered the kingdom by new birth, when they are now under the tutelage of the King himself, what will they look like?

11:13 What will be their character traits? Well, the attitude, the Beatitudes are a description of the fundamental character traits of every, every, every son or daughter of the kingdom.

11:32 There are none in the kingdom who miss any of the features of the true sons and daughters of the kingdom. Then our Lord goes on in verses 14 to 16 to describe the influence that the members of his kingdom will have upon that world of those outside the kingdom. That world in which they once were, but from which they've been delivered by being brought into the kingdom of grace and of power. And he says, you as my subjects in my kingdom, you will be both salt and you will be light to that world, to that kingdom of death.

12:11 And then our Lord goes on in verses 17 to the end of the fifth chapter to describe the righteous standard by which the members of the kingdom will frame their lives. Do not think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. And then he speaks of keeping the least of his commandments.

12:36 And then he takes several of those commandments and he tears away all the encrustment of the external view of the commandments propagated by the official teachers in Israel, the scribes and the Pharisees. And he lays the demand of God. It is God's character traits of all the subjects in the beatitude.

13:26 Having showed the subject then demonstrates and in their divorce of men, here, and the eye, our heavenly father, the great emphasis, chapter six. Conservative subjects of the king live in a world and they need clothing and they need food. And they need clothing and they need food. And the Lord says, I'm in money.

14:47 And where they must have of their life, they justness and I am of their needs. And then when we come to chapter seven, he described a seek to do to others.

The Gracious but Regal Command: Enter the Narrow Gate

15:46 And so I've been announced of the king of green himself is pressed the lead that kingdom. But then he doesn't dissent that either his the sucking, the scripting them experience radical repentance, Jesus. And he preaches this. And now when the Lord comes, he says, he comes to the end of his manifesto,

17:05 beginning in verse 13 kingdom. And so we're which are the beginning of this concluding of the Sermon on the Mount. And in the time that remains the who again in the, the one of whom most profit like unto me, to him shall you make God. And I want you to know the gracious,

18:16 but regal, the narrow gate. The gracious, but regal to the narrow gate. As the multi. And no doubt at the authority at the radical.

18:49 The king by the narrow, his manically happy, but and the power. And now the way of this King's and a power.

20:09 And now I, but now notice, oh, he gives this and the club. I don't know what it's like there in Newark. It's been a long time. If ever I've been to the subway system there. And when you come up to that, you come up to aid and down suitcases or shopping bags, you've got to take. And push them underneath or hand them over to someone else.

21:15 You've got to get stripped down. And when the Lord in the full, the old blessed ones, would you buy this narrow this. And if you, the only other,

22:15 someone had spoken out on the other place in the scripture where you find that terminology. Enter by and God willing, I will seek to identify what makes, what is it that when we come up to it, must be the irreverent from our hearts, and from our, and if not get us it,

23:15 not the narrow gate, but no sooner. If they look at the text and the difficult, the moment and gracious and a foreign, I command you to get inside and always. And in every case,

24:37 a narrow gate with all a narrow gate, Jesus then gives the gracious, but regal to be aware of an attract her native to the narrow gate.

The Gracious but Regal Warning: Beware the Wide Gate and Broad Way

24:58 He gives. So give to the narrow, give to the narrow gate for what's the destruction and was the hearts of men. And John two, it's not that any should have man and no doubt as away. All of the ex not not only a false about their stand with God's and Ruben hits.

26:16 And they had begun to proceed to be a member of his kingdom means I must undergo a radical of the mental change and everything in would want to, before he even amplifies on the fact that the narrow gate leads, but regal to the narrow gate. What are the features of it? A wide gate. You can come up to this gate and enter without jettisoning anything, whatever and yet get through. It's why no demands, no,

27:36 no, it's so good. And oh, I like that. Nice way to gate. And then a broad a life within the kingdom that's easy and comfortable and no difficulties. Popular alternative for Jesus went on to say, and many, many are they that enter in there. And I believe in the basis of these words about that relationship to Adam and being conceived in sin and board structure.

28:58 We do. We're part of that way from our conception. This is taught a way that is entered. It is a game that is, it is a gate to a way that we chew.

29:21 And I hope it is not the gate of a, not the gate of the way of a flick at life, but in the con it's the gate of conversion.

30:37 Many are they that enter in there by, he knows soon hates his dream by the narrative to the narrow gate. And it obviously of the narrow gate.

31:08 And all turn. It's really be overly righteous obedience. One need not be Ruth with his sins and plucking out right. I really the case.

The Inseparable Relationship: Gate, Way, and Life

31:48 And we, Jesus said in grace to warn us, but in regal of thought of an attract and popular alternative to the narrow gate. But not only do we have the gracious, but regal command enter the kingdom by the narrow gate, the gracious, but regal warning to beware of an attractive and popular alternative to the narrow gate. But thirdly, no, the gracious, but regal insistence of the in separate ship between the narrow gate, the compressed way and eternal life. Notice Jesus speaks with gracious and regal authority that there is an inseparable relationship between the narrow gate, the compressed or difficult way and the blessedness of eternal life. Look at verse 14 for some of you may have in your margin how narrow an exclamation. It's the difference between the little Greek word hotty H O T I and just T I and the better manuscript evidence would seem to indicate that at this point,

33:15 Jesus speaks with exclamation entering by the narrow gate. The wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many are they that enter there by how narrow is the gay stands back as the representative of the mind and will of the father for he says, I speak not my own words, but the words of him that sent me what I hear. I speak and as he contemplates in his own mind, the narrowness of the gate, even Jesus, exclaims latent or pressured or difficult that leads unto life and few there be that find it in Jesus mind. There's no way to attain life in its consummate bliss in the new heavens and the new earth. Sometimes eternal life is spoken of as a present possession and it is sometimes in terms of its future consummate glory. As in Mark 10, Jesus said,

34:35 those who forsake houses lands for my sake to receive many in this life with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. It's that sense in which he uses it here and he says, would you attain to all that I have and will yet teach you about the glory of the age to come in the new heavens and the new earth. Then if you're going to get there, you'll get there by getting. Through the narrow gate and walking on the compressed or difficult way.

35:11 There's an inseparable relationship between the gate, the way and life in your Bibles with your own eyes, the gate, the way and life. There is no unless you get through the gate, that narrow gate, that gate of a radical of the spirit of God got to get through the gate. To get on the way. And the only proof that you've got through the gate is that you're on the compressed way. No way to get on the compressed way discipleship to be found because hard. But if you see through the gate is you're on the way you see you don't have a narrow and then a big broad leads to life. You say yes,

36:37 but that can lead to a nice, easy, worldly, flesh indulgent, liberty pushing. Lifestyle go to heaven. I got news for you. You're getting there some other way than that which Jesus prescribes.

36:58 He says how narrow the gate and compressed the way that leads to life. The way the gate life and they are utterly infallibly inseparable. Only those come through the narrow gate, and are walking in the compressed way will inherit eternal life. But someone objects.

Addressing Objections: Few Find It and Justification by Faith

37:33 If so, aren't many that are really saved, are they? That's right. Jesus said it. Look at the text, though there are many that enter in there by to the wide gate in the broad way.

37:53 There are few that find the narrow gate and the narrow way. Yes. Yes. Yes.

38:00 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

38:00 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

38:00 Yes. The aggregate of the save will be a multitude of no man can number out of every kindred tribe and tongue and nation. Yes, Christ will have a full inheritance in his bride in his blood bought church. But remember the context again in the midst where there is revealed religion.

38:19 Jesus was not speaking to pagan Gentiles speaking to people gathered in that one spot of the universe where for centuries God's special revelation. Beamed down out of heaven and shone in brightness and he says there where his revelation where his temple where his priesthood where the prophets spoke in that setting with all that light. Few, few are they that find it. This is a regal pronouncement.

39:00 Few find it as then. So now. Few willing. Few willing to search it out.

39:08 Few willing to take seriously the issue of Jesus words. There's another objection perhaps rising in some of your minds. Pastor Martin, doesn't this contradict what you've been teaching us about justification and what I hope you're going to continue to teach and I have every purpose to complete that series that the ground of our justification is the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. Yes.

39:35 In fact, I had more having to do with the world as I said earlier. What I believe with this matter is that the ground of our justification is still in its former glory. We are going to find that deep soil, we are going to find that deep land, where in this moment of the world there is no more the joy that the world is receiving and no more is there any help or need in this time of sin and of sin. Yes, no matter what kind of sin we may be facing.

40:03 And then of course we are really in the middle of this world. And we are going to find that the ground of our justification is there and we are going to find that the ground of our justification is still in its former glory. us by way of Mary's womb and eventually by the way of the agony of Gethsemane and the forsakenness of Golgotha, the open tomb and the ascension back to the right hand of the Father. He knows better than you and I do that the only ground upon which hell-deserving sons and daughters of Adam can be accepted with God is his work on their behalf. But listen, he who knows it better than you or me says that no one comes to possess that perfect righteousness except they get through the narrow gate and they are found upon the compressed way. My getting through the gate doesn't earn my salvation. My getting through the gate proves that I have a salvation, a salvation that does not merely pronounce me innocent in the court of heaven, but a salvation that looses me from the grip of this world and its standards for life, its standards for

41:16 religion, its standards for the basis on which I conduct every facet of my life. It liberates me as Paul says in Galatians 1, Christ gave himself for us that he might deliver us out of this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people away from, apo, from their sins, not in their sins, but away from their sins. And this objection that this somehow threatens the doctrine of justification based upon the perfect obedience in full satisfaction of Christ and received by faith alone has no basis in reality whatsoever. The Lord Jesus knows better than you or I the only way that we can have acceptance with God is found in his work on our behalf. But he never applies that work to sinners who think they can come into the kingdom through a wide gate and remain in the kingdom on a broad way. No, the Lord

Future Messages: Radical Conversion and Discipleship

42:37 Jesus knows of no such entrance into life. The Lord Jesus knows of no such entrance into life. And therefore he puts together in this inseparable relationship the narrow gate, the compressed and difficult way that issues in life. God willing, tonight I want us to consider together what are those things, and primarily out of the Sermon on the Mount itself, what are those things that must be jettisoned, abandoned.

43:12 Thrown overboard consciously and deliberately and irrevocably if we're to get through the narrow gate. We come up to the turnstile and we see ourselves laden with all kinds of baggage. And you can't take it and push it underneath and meet it on the other side. It's got to be abandoned or we'll perish. What are those things? God willing, I want to identify four of them tonight. I believe they are clearly established, not only from the Sermon on the Mount, but the general analogy of Scripture. And basically what we're going to be considering is the nature of radical conversion. Real, Holy Ghost wrought biblical conversion. And then next week, God willing, we're

44:04 going to look at what makes the way pressured. The Greek word there is the word we use for tribulation. Pressured. Radical. Constricted. It's not an easy ho-hum. Slide along and don't know your liberties. Have no concern about the will of Christ in every detail of life. My friends, that broad road leads to destruction, not to life and to heaven. And we're going to look specifically at those things that mark that road that I'm going to call radical discipleship. Radical conversion leading to radical discipleship.

The Unchangeable Nature of God's Gate and Way

44:44 That narrow gate in that compressed way alone lead to life. God does not have another category. And I fear that some of us in our hearts have been tampering with the dimensions of the gate. And we've been messing around with the construction of the way. We've gotten weary of a gate that's so narrow. And in our minds, we've gotten weary of a gate that's so narrow. And in our minds, we've gotten weary of a gate that's so We've taken the hammer of our own carnal desires and the low standard of godliness and professed discipleship around us. And we've knocked out the timbers and we've widened the gate. You can't widen God's narrow gate. You may have done it in your mind and in your heart, but you can't do it in reality. He has made it a narrow gate. And the narrow gate it will be. He was speaking to rational, intelligent men and women when he said,

45:50 Enter into this kingdom. But if you enter, it's through a narrow gate and it will lead into a narrow, compressed, difficult way. And it's interesting. He told them on the outset. Though he began his manifesto with blessed. And they would have understood immediately when he used that word. It would have associated in their minds passages such as Psalm 1.

46:18 All the blessednesses. Of the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. They would have known from their acquaintance with the Old Testament. He is speaking about a way and a kingdom of deep God given blessedness and happiness. This is not morose. This is not do heavy. Would you come into that way of blessedness? You got to reckon with a narrow gate. Got to reckon with a narrow gate. And he said in the loop passage, you got to be prepared to undergo.

46:51 Spiritual agony if necessary. Agonize, strive, contend to enter the narrow gate. For many will seek to enter and not be able when once the master of the house rises up and you begin to knock at the door and say, open to us. And he from within shall say, I never knew you. You didn't get through the narrow gate there on earth. The door to my eternal presence is.

Conclusion: Laying the Truth to Heart

47:19 Dear people, that's serious. And I trust that God will help us in these couple of messages to lay them to heart that we might be utterly, thoroughly persuaded. Gate, way, and life are inseparable. Jesus grace and with his regal authority commands us to enter the kingdom, but enter not by a gate of our own construction, but by the narrow gate.

47:57 The gate of true conversion that will issue into a life of radical discipleship, which is called a difficult, a compressed, a narrow way. But blessed be God, it issues in life. Eternal life. Life now. The blessed life of the Beatitudes now. Perfectly happy when persecuted. Only the true child of God can understand it.

48:26 Perfectly happy. While mourning, perfectly happy. While hungering and thirsting. May God grant that the words of our Savior will not be treated lightly, carelessly, indifferently, but that we may lay them, each one of us, to heart. Let's pray.

48:47 Our Father, we thank you for our Lord Jesus. We thank you for the penetrating nature of his words. The simplicity and the clarity of them. We pray that your spirit would seal them to every one of our hearts. That we would not trifle with our own never-dying souls, nor trifle with the souls of our children, our spouses, one another.

49:24 Gracious God, we ask you by the Holy Spirit to take these words and make them effectual in the hearts of many. We trust you, our Father, to one another. To watch over your own word. To accomplish your own purpose. To the praise of your grace. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.