Matthew 7:13-14 Enter Through The Narrow Gate

The Puritan preacher Giles Firmin once said, "It is the duty of all the sons and daughters of Adam who hear the gospel preached and Christ offered to them, to believe in or receive Christ, whether they are prepared or not prepared." Firmin states a fundamental biblical truth: the gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of urgent nature to the hearer. We are urgent about so many things in our lives, aren't we? Our modern Western life rewards speed: speed in business; speed in product iteration; speed in acquiring clients; speed in this, that, and the other thing. Always urgent, always in a rush.

Remember those two sisters in the gospels, Mary and Martha. Martha is running frantically around making preparations in the home, but Mary is engrossed with the teaching of Jesus, sitting at his feet and realising the urgency of hearing the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. People live a little like that; their life becomes a blur, and they keep pushing away truly important issues of spiritual and eternal nature, whereas they ought to be like Mary at Jesus' feet. At times, we are like the man in Jesus' parable, frantically trying to get ahead so that we can say to ourselves, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for years to come; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry," only for God to say, "You fool! This very night your soul is required of you." Where are those today who have an urgency for eternal matters? The book of Hebrews tells us, "How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" In 2 Corinthians 6:2 it says, "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." This is an urgent message, is the gospel.

The Lord Jesus at this point now concludes the Sermon on the Mount with the first of three stark comparisons to instil in all the urgency of the teaching on the kingdom. He will press for a decision in the ear of any yet uncommitted, and remind those who are of the nature of true discipleship. So our Lord Jesus comes to the end of his body of teaching, and he turns to the crowd and asks the question: What of you? Where do you stand in respect to these things? What urgency is there in your life to appropriate these teachings? Jesus does not merely want us to be admirers of his teaching, but hearers and doers of his word; to put our hand to the plough and never look back. It would do us no good to remain as casual observers of Jesus' teaching in person and say, "Well, these are good and wonderful things," but remain unchanged and unstirred ourselves. This teaching of the kingdom must be entered into and we must come under it.

The Narrow Way

We begin by looking at Jesus' decisive call to enter the narrow gate and walk the narrow way. The weight of Jesus' command is, I think, best understood contextually as always. You remember that we have seen the true disciple of Jesus Christ possesses a kind of inner life and attitudes which stand in black and white contrast to the externally religious, such as the Pharisees. Jesus did not come to make man religious and put him on the hamster wheel of works and tradition; Jesus came to totally transform us from the inside out, and he does so first by dying for our sins and giving us his righteousness. The kind of life that he has so far described in the Sermon on the Mount is this life of inner transformation.

Now, the first thing that strikes me about Jesus' teaching here is this: he states from the outset that entrance into the Christian faith is a narrow gate. It is not simply that the way is narrow; it is that the gate itself is narrow. The entrance, the starting point, of the Christian life is a narrow gate. From a marketing point of view, you might think Jesus seems to be against his own teaching; does he not want these things to be popular? He has gone to all this trouble in the sermon, made all these points, and so on, and now, oh by the way, no one's really going to accept this; it's a narrow gate!

But this observation alone of the narrow gate stands in opposition to how so many present the gospel of Christ, even in churches today, especially those of the seeker-sensitive movement. The seeker-sensitive philosophy is simply this: everything in the church must be made contemporary; it must be modernised; it must be adapted for the culture, or no one will ever come to Jesus. You'll hear them say things like, "Oh, we need to reimagine what church looks like in the twenty-first century. We need a contemporary style of music or the people will never come. We need inspirational speakers talking about hot topics, or no one will ever come. We need entertainment if we want to get anyone into the church." They say, "Bring the strobe lights out, bring the drama teams," all these things they do to make the Christian message more accessible and easier to swallow, less offensive. This philosophy has proven utterly disastrous; it is a satanic distraction which fills the church with goats who think they're sheep, who know nothing of the narrow way that Christ presents us with here. It disguises the true nature of the Christian faith from the outset, trying to make these things appear as unthreatening as possible. They make the narrow gate a wide one, an open mouth into which they can herd people as quickly as possible before they realise what is happening. They say, "Do not mention anything about sin, anything about repentance, anything about the blood of Christ, until perhaps later on, and only ever so subtly." My dear friends, this is one reason, always has been, why there are so many unconverted people in churches. Contrary to the plain teaching of the gospel, Jesus says from the outset the Christian life begins through a narrow gate.

Why is this gate narrow? Three primary reasons come to mind for us. First, it is a narrow gate because, in the Christian message, we declare that Jesus Christ is the exclusive way to God. There is only one way to know God, and man hates that message; it is foolishness to him. "What do you mean, only one way to God?" As Oprah Winfrey has famously said on her TV show to paraphrase, "There are many paths... to get to what different people call God, but all who seek that path, whatever it may be," she believes, "get to the same place in the end." So they think this is narrow-minded, to say that Jesus is the only way to God. Instead, they say things like, "Well, everyone has a different spiritual journey, but in the end there are many ways to get to the same destination." This is contrary to the biblical teaching. In Acts 4:12 it says, "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."

Secondly, the way is narrow because the single way man must come to God by nature he finds to be intellectually detestable. What do I mean? Because man must also accept that the living God incarnated, that he walked among us as a man, that he lived a perfect life, that he was crucified to die for our sins, that he rose from the dead, and that he is coming again. This, man finds intellectually detestable; the world mocks this as laughable fiction. They say, "He is no God who dies at the hand of man, he is no Saviour who dies a criminal's death," so they dismiss Jesus as some crazed Jewish revolutionary leader whom his followers deified and deceived the world. So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing." It is a foolish message.

But thirdly, it is a narrow gate because of the kind of morally constrained life that it commands disciples to live. Thus, as we've studied the Sermon on the Mount, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings a worldview and a morality with it which the Lord hands us as a radically new way of thinking and living. Christianity tells people if they truly believe in Jesus, they're under new ownership. Blood-bought sinners under the lordship of Jesus Christ. A new sovereign has taken over your heart to reign over your actions, your thinking, your aspirations, and man is dumbfounded at this, for he wants to go his own way. They say, "What do you mean I have to surrender all these freedoms, that I have to do whatsoever I want, when I please, whenever? What do you mean I have to be willing to be hated by people for the name of Jesus? Or, what do you mean I have to be poor in spirit, to bless those who curse me, to give more to those who take from me? I don't want to live this kind of life." The biblical teaching is quite clear: God's way must come before our own way. In Matthew 10:37 Jesus said, "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me."

So you see, the fact that there is only one way to God, and that that way alone is through the work and the person of Jesus alone, and that the life which follows is a morally constraining one upon a person—this is why the gate that Christ speaks of is so narrow. Yet, if these things are not placed before the sinner, we are advertising a false Christianity.

Now, I want to come at this from the perspective of what does this mean for disciples—what encouragement actually is there in this for us? Well, first of all, the Lord with just a few words settles our fears about why the Christian life can feel so lonely. Some of you really understand what Jesus is saying too: this narrow road is a lonely road sometimes. To be a Christian is to walk the narrow way; it's to be misunderstood; it is to face rejection at times; it's to be treated indifferently, even by those as close as family; it is to be laughed at behind your back. On the narrow way, it is to feel so, so lonely; it is even to feel like maybe you've been deceived, given so few comparatively around you follow Jesus. This is the narrow way.

So I want you to see how Jesus brings assurance to such a Christian here. Jonathan Edwards famously in his resolutions as a young man wrote this: "Resolution number one: I will live for God. Resolution two: if no one else does, I still will." That's the narrow way. If you're a believer this morning and you feel the pressure of the narrow way—perhaps ostracism in family, work, and so on—keep running the race for Christ. The way to the celestial country is marked with many dangers, obstacles, and temptations to conform to the pattern of the world, and things that tempt us to fit in. Believer, fight the good fight; run the course; hold the path; cling to Christ; walk the narrow way. Remember that our Lord Jesus is with us on this way. Remember that as in 1 Peter 3:22 Jesus is "at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him." This is the one we follow, so do not fear.

Secondly, I want you to understand that because this is a narrow way it fuels the believer's appreciation of the grace that has been shown them. The Bible speaks in no uncertain terms that our salvation is a work of God from beginning to end; even Jesus' command to enter the narrow gate and walk the narrow way requires divine aid to accomplish. Such is our fallen nature and sin that God must be the first mover for our salvation; the Bible says the born-again Christian was chosen in Christ even before the foundation of the world. And so, the mystery is not why God chooses to save some people and place them on the narrow way, it's why he saved anyone at all, that's the mystery. God is perfectly justified to leave man in his disobedience leading to destruction, but in grace, he shows mercy to his people. So the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 22:14, "For many are called, but few are chosen." In other words, many will hear this preaching of the gospel, but few will believe; only as many as God chooses for himself. The narrow way reminds us, then, of God's grace to us. Remember what the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 10:26ff: he says to them, "You do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. They follow me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand." So, be reminded of the grace of God if it is you walk the narrow way.

But thirdly, Jesus shows us that the one who walks the narrow way is brought into the promise of life with God. Matthew 7:14: "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life." By "life" here, Jesus means two things. First of all, the narrow way brings us into the only life possible now, wherein we may know and walk with God. Jesus speaks in the gospels of eternal life not at all exclusively as something future, but something we can experience now by following him, and then finally, at last, experience it in its fullness in heaven. In other words, without knowing Jesus Christ, a person can be living—they can have a beating heart, brain waves, circulating blood—but they're dead spiritually; there is no life of God in them. Walk this narrow way, enter the narrow gate; you will have the life of God in you. So it is a very present thing, but it's also a future reality. Once we have the life of God, it shall never be taken from us; when the believer dies, they are immediately, in a moment, in the presence of their God and with his saints. The Christian goes to be with the Lord, and we await the summing up of all things when we shall be given new and glorified bodies. This is at the end of the narrow way.

The Broad Way

Now, while we have considered the command to enter the narrow gate, we must also consider the urgency of Jesus' command by considering the broad way. Matthew 7:13: "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." So Christ, having immediately commanded us to follow him via the narrow gate, speaks of another gate and another way. It is a false way, but it is one that presents itself nonetheless to us in the world. The shocking thing we learn is that it is a well-travelled, open way of life that the majority are walking.

What is the broad gate? The broad gate is the way of the world and of the flesh, as opposed to the way of Christ. This broad gate is the life wherein man follows his own intuitions about what is true and just, and what is good and evil; he's not governed by the word of God. The broad gate is one that makes out that you can place upon yourself whatever demands of life you are comfortable with. It's the way where man has whatever thoughts he wants about anything; where, whatever manner of way you want to think about the divine, you can. On the broad way, if you don't want to believe in God at all, you can; you can do that. If you want to ignore him on the broad way, you can. On this path you can adopt whatever kind of morality, whatever kind of ethics, whatever kind of beliefs you want to entertain; all things are permissible. This is the way of unlimited choices; it's a broad gate with many gates, many paths to whatever the heart desires. One thing for sure is that the man or woman who walks on this broad way does not concern themselves with the message of the gospel or the narrow way.

But we need to take into consideration the context again. The truth about the broad gate is that Christ is clearly emphasising here that many religious people walk this broad way. Did you know that? Many of you, I'm sure, know some very religious people. They might even attend a church gathering on a Sunday; they might be Protestant; they might be Catholic; they might be Presbyterian; they might be Brethren; they might be Jehovah's Witnesses; they might be Mormons; they might be secular people who seem to have religious affections—on and on. Undoubtedly, these are very religious people—maybe they pay scrupulous attention to their behaviour, they're always very proper, keepers of tradition, they give to charity every Christmas. You marvel at how moral they are—amazing people, upstanding in society; they serve their community, they love their family, they might even do things of tremendous self-sacrifice and service. But, my dear friends, the Lord is quite clear; he is warning us of external religion, for a religious life is no evidence itself of being a Christian—they may well be on the broad way.

How so? Remember, the Sermon on the Mount is partly a polemic against the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the most externally religious people you could possibly imagine, zealous for the law of God. They believed that because Abraham's blood was in their veins, they were saved—they were God's chosen people after all. Jesus has exposed the fact that external religion, nor being a law keeper, will profit you anything. Elsewhere he will say to them, "If you are the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham." In other words, you must be justified by faith alone as Abraham was; believe in Jesus as the Christ. External religion before a God who knows the heart is all fluff you see, all pomp and ceremony, which in the end leaves us condemned. This is why Paul says in Romans 3:20, "Because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight." The problem with religious people is just their religion; they think that they're on their way to heaven by their own doing. Jesus has been explaining in this sermon that the distinctive marks of a true believer are quite different; there is a black and white difference between a religious person and a true Christian person. So Christ is warning us that the many who think themselves as fine religious people have in fact entered through the broad gate.

Now, there are two further striking deductions that I want you to see here. The first is this: do not be alarmed that this is the popular way, and we ought to be warned and wary of all its false charms. See, man by nature and sin does what he pleases in this life; he does not constrain himself to the word of God; he follows his fleshly instincts; he exercises autonomy; he does not yield to the truth of God; he scoffs at the cross; he sees no value in it; he sees no beauty in Christ; he thinks the narrow way is for small, weak minds and a crutch. The broad way is the way that most people in this world walk, and, dear friends, we must not be fooled to believe that somehow we are missing out, though the wicked prosper along that way. Proverbs 24:1 says, "Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them." It says that because at times we might.

We ought not to fret when they turn against us, for the broad way will often dress itself as the way of virtue. Jesus said in John 16:2, "An hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering a service to God." In other words, those on the broad way may think that they're on the path that leads to life; on the broad way they might at times call the Christian understanding of morality bigoted, immoral, homophobic, unjust, inequitable, and so those on the broad way crusade against the church of Christ, they infiltrate churches; they try to enlighten the believer to think that the narrow way is the bigoted way, it's no way to live at all. But do not be deceived.

A second thing we learn here is that on the broad way is the way that leads to destruction. Just as we saw there are two dimensions to the life that a believer inherits on the narrow way with Christ, a present reality, a future reality—there are two ways this destruction is prevalent on the broad way.

First, it is apparent in that for many without Christ, their lives reflect a constant state of self-destruction because man in sin is a slave to his nature. I just met up on Friday with a guy roughly the same age as me, who hasn't been a Christian all too long, a number of years, but not too long, and he speaks to me of the kind of self-destructive life that he used to have before he came to Christ: always drowning his problems with the bottle and substances. You see the broad way is a life of self-destruction so often. For many on the broad way, this is a less apparent reality, there are many outstanding people that we know, particularly the religious folk that we've spoken of already; they have remarkable discipline at times, self-control, they keep the laws of the land, they take care of their bodies, they contribute great things to society, and all the rest. But nonetheless, they are slaves to their own flesh, they do not acknowledge Christ.

The second aspect and most disconcerting reality to what Jesus is saying here is that when a person walks by the broad way, forsaking the gospel, forsaking God, their destruction will be fulfilled in their judgement and damnation to hell. In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says, "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." As we move through Matthew's gospel at different points, we're going to be able to consider in more depth the doctrine of hell, but a couple of comments are necessary here. To die in your sins without Christ on the broad way is to face the judgement and eternal fury of God in eternity forever; it's plain and simple as that. Destruction and destroy here do not mean annihilate, many people want to think that the soul enters some sort of eternal soul sleep, annihilation, nothing, eternal sleep. But John Bunyan wrote, commenting on scripture, these words: "The wicked come out of their graves" speaking of the resurrection to come, "the wicked will come out of their graves, having yet the chains of eternal death hanging on them, and the talons of that dreadful ghost fastened in their souls, so that life will be far from them, even as far as heaven is from hell. This morning to them is even as the shadow of death; they will then be in the very terrors of the shadow of death." You see, there is no eternal sleep of the soul, as people want you to believe; there is only eternal damnation and a God who will be vindicated against the wicked.

Jesus said, "If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes and be cast into hell", in other words, repentance, repentance, repentance! Because sin is so grievously evil against a holy God." He says, "Better to throw out your eye, tear your eye from you, enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell, where the worm does not die, the fire is not quenched; for everyone will be salted with fire" (Mark 9:47-49).

Conclusion

Friends, this is an urgent message. It's urgent for your family who don't know Christ; it's urgent for your co-workers, our friends that we interact with in different places. It is an urgent message, and we have seen that there are two gates; there are two ways; there are two destinies; and underlying all that is that there are ultimately two peoples, aren't there? The question this morning that I close on is: Where stand you? Are you walking the narrow way? Have you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? Have you surrendered all that you are to him and said, "Lord, save me, and use me"? Or are you really self-deceived and on the broad way that leads to destruction, thinking that your religiosity is going to help you get to heaven? No; you must have Christ, you must have his blood covering your sins, you must have his righteousness.