Finding the Narrow Way to Heaven

today on grace to you no man comes to the father but by me i am the door he is the savior of the world because he's the only savior in the world he's the only mediator between god and man so you must enter through christ there is no other way to heaven no other religion will get you there it'll say heaven it'll take you to hell what in the world makes us so embarrassed about the gospel i determined to know nothing among you except jesus christ and him crucified [Music] open your bible to matthew 7 matthew 7 and i will read for you a very familiar and very important portion of scripture matthew 7 13 down through 27 matthew 7 13-27 enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves you will know them by their fruits grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles are they so every good tree bears good fruit but the bad tree bears bad fruit a good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce good fruit every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire so then you will know them by their fruits not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter many will say to me on that day lord lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles and then i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded on the rock everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and great was its fall the old spiritual said everybody talking about heaven ain't going there and that essentially is drawn from this passage everybody talking about heaven ain't going there how true that is obviously across the world millions of people feel religious many of them come under the title christianity but have absolutely no hope of entering heaven and escaping hell even millions who claim to believe in jesus believe in his life and death and resurrection there were people like that that jesus ran into himself according to the last couple of verses in john chapter 2 there were many who believed on him but he didn't commit himself to them because he knew it was in their hearts it was a superficial kind of belief it was a self-serving kind of belief it lacked the character and depth and repentant attitude and full knowledge of christ to be real saving faith this fact is clearly stated by our lord in verse 21 not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven and he then says many will say that this looks at the future when people arrive into the presence of the lord and say lord lord we're here to which he will respond i never knew you verse 23 depart from me into hell you who practice lawlessness so here at the end of this sermon called the sermon on the mount that started in chapter five three chapters five six and seven the lord preaches this immensely significant sermon and it comes down to verse 13 essentially this is the end of it and this is where he asks for a response this is the invitation at the end of this greatest sermon in the new testament it is make up your mind time on the mountain and the whole sermon is a series of sharp defined contrasts between false religion and true religion and there are only two kinds of religion there's true religion and false religion true religion comes in one form and that is the word of god and the work of christ and the gospel false religion comes in endless forms but they're really only two religions two paths two approaches to god one comes through faith in christ alone by grace and one comes by trusting in your own works to any degree your own merit your own religiosity and your own morality whatever the title of that kind of religion it is the religion of human achievement and the other one is the truth of divine accomplishment you cannot mix the religion of human achievement with a religion of divine accomplishment they don't mix paul in romans says if you add any works to grace grace is no more grace and that redefinition is deadly now the jews of jesus day were the illustration of the wrong kind of religion they were part of the human achievement religion and when jesus came he actually assaulted them they had not maintained the true religion of the old testament which was to recognize your sin and to recognize the inability for you to do anything about your sin and throw yourself on the mercy of god they had left the category of divine accomplishment they had left the category of the desperate sinner crying out to god for mercy and they had developed a form of judaism by which they earned their way to heaven at least they thought they did and in romans 11 28 a fascinating statement the apostle paul refers to the jews as the enemies the enemies of the gospel there are only two categories of people in the world there are those who believe the gospel and there are those who are the enemies of the gospel jesus basically in the sermon on the mount earlier attacked the prayers of the jews he attacked the alms or the giving of the jews he attacked their ceremonies he attacked their forms of worship all of which were designed to earn god's favor by some work that they were doing romans 10 3 says as paul looks at judaism as a former pharisee that they had so twisted the truth that not knowing about god's righteousness they went about to establish their own righteousness they thought god was less righteous than he is they were more righteous than they were and so god would accept their righteousness that is the lie of all false religions and that is what our lord is addressing in this sermon on the mount this was devastating truth striking at the jews you are spiritually bankrupt you are helpless and hopeless you have nothing to offer by way of commending yourself to god you have to hunger and thirst for a righteousness that you do not possess and cannot gain on your own this is a new kind of teaching for the jews this is salvation by grace through faith as we read in ephesians 2. so he comes to the end of his sermon and he pulls together these two realities the religion of human achievement the religion of divine accomplishment and as we come to the end as i began to read in verse 13. i want you to see the contrast they are vivid there are two gates wide and narrow there are two ways broad and narrow there are two destinies life and destruction there are two crowds many and few there are actually two trees good and corrupt and two fruits good and bad there are two behaviors the sayers and the doers there are two builders the wise and the foolish there are two foundations the rock and the sand and there are two houses the one that stood and the one that fell this literally reduces the spiritual world and the religious world to two options one is the path to heaven and the other is the path to hell but it's never marked hell it's always marked heaven it's just a lie nobody sells tickets to hell no religion is offering you hell they're all offering heaven but only one goes there so let's look at these contrasts first of all two gates verse 13 and 14 enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it this is the entrance into the kingdom of heaven this is the entrance to the highway that goes into the presence of god again both roads are religious both roads promise heaven that's what religion always does it always promises heaven but only the narrow road goes there the true way to heaven is spelled out and it is the narrow way it is the narrow way says verse 14 that leads to life it is the broad way that leads verse 13 says to destruction so let me break this down very simply here's our lord's invitation and it's in the form of a command enter verse 13 enter you must enter at the end of this sermon in which he has basically dismantled false religion and affirmed the truth he says you must enter this is a call to immediate response it's make up your mind time on the mountain this is a command without an alternative not enough to look and admire the narrow gate not not enough to be happy that other people are going in not enough to listen not enough even to study the truths regarding the narrow gate and the true gospel hell is full of people who admired the bible admired jesus went to church were baptized but they were never in the narrow gate on the narrow way you must enter this way and it is narrow because it is only through christ no man comes to the father but by me i am the door there's no salvation any other than me he is the savior of the world because he's the only savior in the world he's the only mediator between god and man so you must enter through christ there is no other way to heaven no other religion will get you there it'll say heaven it'll take you to hell so you must enter you must enter this gate you must enter this gate alone one soul at a time this is individual salvation repentance and confessing jesus as lord and acknowledging that he died in your place paid the penalty for your sin rose again for your life and in that confident trust in him you receive the very righteousness of god which satisfies god because it's his righteousness imputed to you something you could never earn so you you must enter you must enter this gate you must enter alone you must enter with difficulty it is only entered by the truly penitent by the wholehearted by the zealous by the serious who are willing to say jesus is lord and i will be his slave i will give my life to him for the gift that he offers which is the forgiveness of all my sins and the promise of eternal life that is hard for sinners to do that is difficult for proud hearts and it is part of human nature to love lust lust of the eyes lust of the flesh and pride of life so you must enter you must enter this gate you must enter this gate alone with difficulty and just another thought you must enter this gate naked as it were you can't go through a turnstile with your luggage it's a gate that requires you to drop everything and then again you're back to uh if any man will come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me the only thing you can take through the turnstile is your cross a willingness to suffer for christ all self all sin all self-righteousness all of that has to be abandoned that is hard for the unregenerate heart to do and will not happen unless it is enabled by the wonderful working of the holy spirit who breaks the grip of sin on the heart from the start jesus called for repentance a recognition of your own spiritual emptiness sorrow over sin eagerness to turn from it be rescued from judgment at any cost willing to abandon everything and come [Music] naked deny yourself take up your cross follow me that's confessing jesus as the lord that's true worship that's true religion and salvation is marketed today as if it was cheap and easy and it is not again you enter you must enter this gate you must enter this gate alone with difficulty naked and in submission to lo to the lord whom you confess as lord and master now contrast with that the wide gate in verse 13. the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction you can come with the whole crowd you can come with all your baggage you can come without self-denial you can come with your own pride your own sin you can come with no repentance you just become religious the huge crowd of of the religious people have come in the broad gate and are on the broad road and it's broad enough for you to live any way you want you can bounce from side to side it doesn't require anything this this can be a lgbtq same-sex transgender form of christianity that we're hearing about these days it can be anything and huge crowds of people are on this road thinking it goes to heaven when it goes to hell so there are two gates secondly there are two ways two ways very different broad is the way verse 13 that leads to destruction room for diverse doctrine room for tolerance of sin no curbs no boundaries all the desires of your fallen heart are tolerated the prosperity gospel fits into this it is a broad road religion whatever you want whatever your desires hunger for this is acceptable this is what psalm 1 6 calls the way of the ungodly and it says the way of the ungodly will perish but on the other hand narrow is the way constricted pressed together like the narrow gate because essentially it requires that you observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you as our lord said in matthew 28 in the great commission it requires the narrowness of obedience to the lord it requires godliness purity virtue holy living you can't live any way you want when you hear people talk about being christians and tolerating all kinds of sins and violation of scripture that's the broad road kind of christianity which is just another form of human achievement and it leads to hell and thirdly there are two destinations and that's obvious the broad road verse 13 leads to destruction the small or narrow gate and the narrow road leads to life destruction that's hell the sign says heaven but the truth is it goes to hell the entrance to hell is from a road falsely marked heaven that's what all religion does all of it on the other hand for those on the narrow road there is life eternal life glorious life full rich life provided by god through the resurrection of christ there are two crowds look back on the broad road there are many into verse 13 there are many on the narrow road verse 14 there are few most of the people in the world are on the broad road most of the people who claim some commitment to christianity are on the broad road few find the narrow road so there are many on the broad road and the same many show up again in verse 22. many will say to me on that day lord lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles and then i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me who practice lawlessness that's the majority many then there are two kinds of behavior verse 21 not everyone who says to me lord lord later in the verse but he who does the will of my father so you have the sayers and the doers the doomed are branded as those who say empty words out of empty hearts no real repentance no real faith no real love no real obedience no real sacrifice but their eternal destiny will be based not on what they said but on what they did whether their claim lord lord is supported by a life of repentance true faith and loving obedience hell will be full of people who were religious who were in christianity in some form but who are empty hearted and spout empty words they say we we've worshipped you don't you recognize us we're your people to which he responds in verse 23 i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness i have no idea who you are now what makes this passage so shocking is the disparity between what people think and what is reality many are going to believe that they are about to be ushered into heaven and they will be sent to hell from the portals of heaven from the doorway in a sense they have respect for christ they have a measure of orthodoxy they may have had religious experiences and they may have gone through ordinances and sacraments they may have served in some capacity but they are nothing but counterfeits and the lord says i don't know you i have no relationship to you and the reason that that's obvious is because they say and they do not do they say and they do not do that is the difference back in verse 21 not everyone who says but the ones who do why call me lord but do not the things i say you call me the way and walk me not you call me the life and live me not you call me master and obey me not if i condemn you blame me not you call me bread and eat me not you call me truth and believe me not you call me lord and serve me not if i condemn you blame me not faith without works is dead so two gates two ways two destinations two crowds two professions and finally two foundations two foundations verse 24 everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them does them maybe compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock then in verse 26 everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them does not do them would be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand you have two foundations rock and sand both build a house in the same place because the same storm hits both both build essentially in the same way and from somebody standing there and looking they look like equally impressive religious structures but there's a massive difference and that is one house is built on the rock of sound doctrine true repentance and faith in jesus christ salvation by grace alone the other is built on the sand of hypocrisy false religion human works and religion but we never would sit in final judgment on someone looking at their religious house the house and the on the rock and sand look essentially the same in the same place same congregation you might say how do we know the difference how do we know who the hypocrites are well you're not going to know really until the storm comes and when the storm comes in verse 25 the rain fell the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and yet it didn't fall for it had been founded on the rock and then verse 27 the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and great was this fall why because it was built on sand judgment will reveal the true condition most people are self-deceived anybody in any form of religion under the category of human achievement is deceived why would you be in religion at all why bother with it why bother with all the fault of all why bother with the morality of it whatever that morality requires why bother why restrict your life why make an effort to subdue your sin why why is religion successful because it promises heaven and delivers hell that will not be known until the flood and then they'll be brought before the lord lord lord we did this we did this i never knew you don't have any relationship with you at all so the bottom line and what jesus is saying is you better examine yourselves whether you're in the faith as spurgeon said whether your religion is true or false it will be tried whether it is chaff or wheat the great winnower will fan the grain and the truth will be brought to light spurgeon said if you have dealings with god you have to do with a consuming fire whether you be really or falsely a christian if you come near to christ he will test you as silver is tested judgment must begin at the house of god and if you dare to come into the house of god judgment will begin with you these are the words of our lord at the end of this great sermon don't be on that broad road find an airway cry out to god to give you the strength and disconnect you from your sin and all that hold you back come through the door of jesus christ to the narrow way which truly leads to heaven [Music] the bible tells us a lot more about heaven than most people know the bible tells us in revelation chapter 21 some details about the divine supernatural eternal architecture of heaven and occupants of heaven but if you go through all of scripture you find bits and pieces of glimpses into heaven that led me a number of years ago to to write a book called the glory of heaven heaven comes down to this the presence of the lord jesus christ and an inheritance undefiled unfading laid up for the believer in the presence of the lord and it's an inheritance of joy peace blessing profound profound happiness forever so it isn't just that heaven is described sort of architecturally it's more described in terms of what it brings to the heavenly heart and that's what draws believers

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 120,861

Rating: 4.9227719 out of 5

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, Grace to You

Id: 4p-r9mbsbYo

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021