REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
TEACHING GOAL: To show the need to choose the narrow gate which is very exclusive, as the only way to heaven.
JESUS, MY ALL, TO HEAVEN HAS GONE
(Tune: “Sweet Hour of Prayer”, Words – John Cennick, 1743)
Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone,
He Whom I fix my hopes upon;
His track I see, and I’ll pursue
The narrow way, till Him I view.
The way the holy prophets went,
The road that leads from banishment,
The King’s highway of holiness,
I’ll go, for all His paths are peace.
No stranger may proceed therein,
No lover of the world and sin;
No lion, no devouring care,
No ravenous tiger shall be there.
No nothing may go up thereon
But traveling souls, and I am one:
Wayfaring men to Canaan bound,
Shall only in the Way be found.
Nor fools, by carnal men esteemed,
Shall err therein; but they redeemed
In Jesus’ blood, shall show their right
To travel there, till Heaven’s in sight.
This is the way I long have sought,
And mourned because I found it not;
My grief a burden long has been,
Because I was not saved from sin.
The more I strove against its power,
I felt its weight and guilt the more;
Till late I heard my Savior say,
“Come hither, soul, I am the Way.”
Lo! Glad I come; and Thou, blest Lamb,
Shalt take me to Thee, as I am;
Nothing but sin have I to give;
Nothing but love shall I receive.
Then will I tell to sinners round,
What a dear Savior I have found;
I’ll point to Thy redeeming blood,
And say, “Behold the way to God.”
REVIEW:
The Bible teaches that hell is morally justified due to the holiness of God and the sinfulness of mankind. It is a monument to human freedom and dignity. God, through the existence of hell, has protected our right to choose, that is, the freedom of our will. Thus hell is a direct consequence of God’s love for mankind. Further hell is God’s way of protecting sinful mankind from the awesomeness of His presence.
Hell is a real place of eternal torment (not torture) and suffering. Whatever it is like it is worse than the word pictures of fire, brimstone, darkness, gnashing of teeth etc. that are used to describe it in the NT. The greatest suffering will be the eternal realization of separation from God, the source of all joy and life, and the absence of any hope for restoration.
We receive infinite punishment for finite crimes because crimes and sins against and Infinite God are infinite crimes and infinite sins, not finite crimes and finite sins. God does not snuff people out because annihilation is not taught in the Bible and the idea is demeaning showing that humans have no worth. There are levels of punishment in hell based on light rejected and evil perpetrated.
To finish up his sermon, Jesus gives four powerful illustrations, all with a goal to pressing his listeners for a decision. All of the illustrations have within them a dire warning: destruction, fire, rejection, destruction. These warnings should encourage a positive response to his sermon. The first illustration is about gates, travel, and destinations.
INTRODUCTION:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
The Bible sets choices before us – Moses: See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction . . . Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. (Deut. 30:15, 19); Joshua: Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. (Josh. 24:15); Elijah: How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him. (I Kings 18:21); Jeremiah: Furthermore, tell the people, ‘This is what the LORD says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.’ (Jer. 21:8); The Lord Jesus: From that time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve (John 6:66-67); Peter: Repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin. (Acts 2:38)
Earlier in the SOM there were pairs/choices again and again, e.g. two kinds of righteousness, two kinds of devotion, two treasures, two masters, two ambitions.
QUESTION: List the pairs and thus the choices that are set before us in Mt. 7:13-27. (Write these on the flip chart.)
Matthew 7:13-27 is packed with pairs, choices we need to make between opposites: two gates, two roads, two groups, two destinations, two kinds of teachers (false and true), two kinds of fruit, two kinds of trees, two kinds of relationships, two kinds of builders, two kinds of foundations, two kinds of houses. In each case we are driven to a decision, a choice.
Mt. 7:13-14 crystallizes our choices concerning the Sermon on the Mount, the previous 2 ½ chapters.
“What is immediately striking about these verses is the absolute nature of the choice before us.” (Stott, 193)
Notice there is no neutral position – Yes, No, I don’t know.
What amazed me in my study is that Mt. 7:13-14 is a clear and plain statement about decisions re salvation and yet William Barclay in his commentary skirted the whole issue, said nothing about salvation.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. The Small, Narrow Gate
2. The Wide Gate
3. The Narrow Road
4. The Broad Road
5. The Few on the Narrow Road
6. The Many on the Broad Road
7. The Destination of the Narrow Road – Life
8. The Destination of the Broad Road – Destruction
THE NARROW GATE
1. THE SMALL, NARROW GATE
THE NARROWNESS OF THE NARROW GATE
The word for narrow in Greek is stenos from which we get stenography. Some feel the best translation is “the constricted” gate. In vs. 14 the word “small” is also stenos in the Greek. Maybe we could say that the gate is cramped, restrained.
Some feel it is the same idea as a turnstile used at zoos, train stations, airports with the narrow passage way and metal arms only allowing one person through at a time.
Jesus uses hyperbole to show how difficult it is for one to enter the Kingdom of heaven, e.g. the camel going through the eye of the needle. Here he just says that the gate is very narrow.
WHAT THE GATE SAYS ABOUT SALVATION
QUESTION: What does the description of the gate say about salvation?
Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), a great Baptist preacher, pictured the two side posts of the gate to be the first two Beatitudes, e.g. the need for a consciousness of spiritual bankruptcy (poor in spirit / beggars) and sorrow over sin (Blessed are those who mourn).
FLIP-CHART: Use the chart displaying the 8 Beatitudes and focus on the first four and also the “Perfect Righteousness Chart.”
John MacArthur writes: “The kingdom of God is for those who come to the King in poverty of spirit, mourning over their sin, and hungering and thirsting for His righteousness to replace their own (Mt. 5:3-4, 6).” (MacArthur, 455)
“As Jesus said in another connection, [the gate] is a narrow as a needle’s eye. Further, in order to enter it we must leave everything behind – – sin, selfish ambition, covetousness, even if necessary family and friends. For no one can follow Christ who has not first denied himself.” (Stott, 195)
It is so small that only a child or one with the humility of a child can pass through: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 18:3)
In other words the gate is very constricted and difficult to pass through. If you are destitute spiritually, if you have true sorrow for your sin, if you have a true hunger for righteousness, you can squeeze through.
Charles Spurgeon said: You and your sins must separate or you and your God will never come together. The small, narrow gate makes us separate from our sins.
QUESTION: What does the narrowness of the gate say about Christianity and about the Gospel?
THE GATE – THE NARROWNESS OF THE GOSPEL
People criticize Christians for being very narrow-minded and not leaving room for anyone else’s view of salvation. They are right. In the matter of salvation we are very narrow-minded. We are not selfish or egotistical. We simply must submit to what God has revealed and He has revealed that there is only one way of salvation and that is through the sacrificial death of the eternal Son.
READING: “When we preach, teach, and witness that Christ is the only way to God, we are not proclaiming our own view of right religion but God’s revelation of truth. We do not proclaim the narrow way simply because we are already in it, or because it happens to suit our temperament, or because we are bigoted and exclusive. We proclaim the narrow way because it is God’s only way for men to find salvation and eternal life. We proclaim a narrow Gospel because Jesus said, ‘I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved’ (John 10:9). We proclaim a narrow gospel because ‘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’ (Acts 4:12), and because ‘There is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’ (I Tim. 2:5). We proclaim a narrow Gospel because that is the only gospel God has given and therefore the only gospel there is.” (MacArthur, 452-453)
TESTIMONY: I remember how puzzled, even indignant, I was when it was first suggested to me that I need to appropriate Christ and His salvation for myself. Thank God, I came to see that, though an acknowledgement that I need a Savior was good, and a belief that Christ was the Savior of the world was better, best of all was a personal acceptance of Him as my Savior” (Testimony of John Stott as in Boice, 252)
It is an open gate – “…whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (John 6:37); It offers life to all who come in – “I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28); It, alone, promises Heaven to those who come this way – “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
JESUS HIMSELF IS THE GATE
The gate here is not a symbol for religion. People are looking for any gate / any religion and feel all gates / religions are the same. The gate here is not referring or pointing the way to the Christian religion.
Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate [door] for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. (John 10:7-9)
Paul echoes the same thought in Ephesians 2:18 – For through him [Christ, our gate, door] we both have access to the Father . . .” (Eph. 2:18).
So we can say that the gate is narrow, small, constricted but also a bloody gate because Christ is the gate due to His death on the cross.
It is a fact that millions of people admire our Lord and Savior as a great teacher but very few of those, when they visualize Him, picture Him as a bloody gate, open, welcoming all to enter.
PRESSING THROUGH THE GATE
Calvinists find Mt. 7:13-14 difficult because there is the word enter and also find in the text: “Enter through the narrow gate. . . . and only a few find it.” If you find something it means you must have been putting forth effort in looking for it. If you enter you have exercised your will.
READING: “But here Jesus talks not only about how narrow the door to life is but on how only a few find it, making it sound like maybe salvation is up to us and our searching after all. So grace looks sparse and salvation looks like a matter of our choosing the right path. Clearly our work is cut out for us this evening in making sense of yet another saying of Jesus in Matthew 7 that looks to be complex. . . . . And now we run across this saying which shakes up our ideas on grace and God’s sovereign role in getting us saved! What could this possibly mean?” (Scott Hoezee, Calvin Reformed Church, Sermon on Mt. 7:13-14)
QUESTION: How would you counsel Pastor Hoezee in interpreting this passage that he finds difficult?
The Word of God really does encourage us to seek:
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
If Matthew 7:13-14 is difficult what will you do with Matthew 11:12 – “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” or Luke 16:16 “. . . Since that time, the good news of the Kingdom of God is being preached and everyone is forcing his way into it.”?
And note the parallel verse to Mt. 7:13 in Luke 13:24 – “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” (Lk. 13:24)
“Make every effort” is translated strive sometimes and comes from the Greek word agonizomai from which we get agony and agonize. You will find it in I Corinthians 9:25 (KJV) where we read, “and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.” In Colossians 4:12 agonizomai is translated “laboring fervently” in the KJV and “wrestling” in the NIV. It is translated “fight” in I Timothy 6:12.
So we could translate Luke 13:24 as follows: “Make every effort, labor fervently, fight, agonize, force yourselves through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try (but will not agonize enough) to enter and will fail.” (Luke 13:24, paraphrase).
READING – FROM JOHN MACARTHUR, A STRONG CALVINIST: “The term agonizomai (“strive”) indicates that entering the door to God’s kingdom takes conscious, purposeful, and intense effort. That is the term from which we get agonize, and is the same word Paul uses to describe an athlete who agonizes (“competes”) to win a race (I Cor. 9:25) and the Christian who “fights the good fight of faith” (literally, “struggles the good struggle,” (I Tim. 6:12). The requirements for kingdom citizenship are great, demanding, clearly defined, and allow no deviation or departure. Luke 16:16 says, “Everyone is forcing his way into [the kingdom],” implying conflict and effort (cf. Acts 14:22). (John MacArthur, 455).
O may Thy mighty Word
Inspire each feeble worm
To rush into Thy kingdom, Lord,
And take it as by storm!
And all this agonizing to get through the gate is balanced by the fact that we are saved by grace: For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – – not of works, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8-9).
Amazing grace – how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear (and to agonize),
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
Thru many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
SO WHAT???
1. The Gospel message is narrow and exclusive only because our Lord proclaimed it to be so.
2. Total brokenness, humility, spiritual destitution and spiritual hunger are required to get through the gate.
3. Our Lord Jesus is the gate that all must pass through.
4. Eternal salvation is of such importance that we are challenged to agonize and struggle with all our might to get through the gate.
5. No matter what effort we expend to get in our theme song throughout eternity will be “Amazing Grace.”