“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 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.’”Matthew 7:13-23
I would like to, in the beginning, clear up a common misconception about this passage of scripture. Jesus is talking to people that are already following Him. People that want to hear what He has to say. He is not talking to people that hate Him, He is, for the most part, speaking to followers. The reason I say this is because this is not a contrast between people that are openly hateful toward Christianity and Christianity. This is a contrast between those who believe themselves to be followers of Christ and those who truly are followers of Christ.
The first thing to notice in this passage of scripture we seem to know pretty well. “Enter through the narrow gate”. We have been taught that Jesus is the only way to salvation.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” – John 14:6 “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” – Acts 4:12
“He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” -I John 5:12
There is no other way given “by which we must be saved”. Jesus is the only way and this is a point of much contention between us and the world which hates Jesus Christ. Watch t.v. talkshows for a while and you will find this to be true. Universalism, which is the belief that everyone goes to Heaven has swept the country side and most of these people hate true biblical Christianity because they do not want to believe in the exclusivity of it. The Gospel is not inclusive it is rather exclusive. Only those who enter in through the “narrow gate” will enter in and we will find as we move throughout this teaching that few will actually enter in.
“for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.” This is where this talk gets a little scary. We all begin our lives on the broad way which leads to destruction and the Bible is very clear about just how evil we really are. I want you to look at something quite interesting that you probably have never noticed in the Bible before. We will look at the Flood. In Genesis 6 God says, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” – Genesis 6:5. Now we will look at Genesis chapter 8 which is after the flood and we will see if anything has changed. “The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. – Genesis 8:21 Before the flood the intent of man’s heart was “only evil continually” and after the flood the intent of man’s heart was and still is “only evil continually”. Just how evil is all of mankind in their natural state. Well, we are so evil that all of our thoughts are “only evil continually”. David said it like this after his great fall with Bathsheeba, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” – Psalm 51:5 David is saying, I was born in sin. I have been sinful from the moment I took my first breath. People begin their lives on the broad way “that leads to destruction”. The only way off of this path is through faith in Jesus Christ, as we spoke of earlier, but faith in Jesus Christ brings forth results.
Those who place their faith in Jesus Christ will also walk in the “narrow way”. This is something that is not taught very often anymore. There are people out there that will tell you that you can live like the world and be a saved individual, but the Bible tells us this is not even to be thought of. A Christian will, as a style of life, walk in the “narrow way”, and the reason is quite simple. Every person who has ever and will ever become a Christian has been transformed by the power of God. Paul says it this way, ““Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” – II Corinthians 5:17 Notice Paul’s usage of the word “if”. If you are a Christian you have been transformed, if you have not then you are not a Christian. It is quite simple. “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God”. – Romans 8:13-14 Those who have been transformed live according to the Spirit and will live, those who have not been transformed live according to the desires of the flesh and they will perish in the lake of fire. The narrow way that few are on leads to life, the broad way that many are on leads to damnation in the Lake of Fire. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it” These are sobering words from our Lord if we just think on them for a second. “There are few who find it”, and one must remember He is talking to people that have been following Him around to hear what He has to say. The narrowness also refers to the trials and tribulations one must go through to enter Heaven. Quite honestly being a Christian is not easy and anyone who advertises it that way is an out and out liar. Here is what Jesus says about it. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” – Matthew 16:24-25 It is hard to be a believer. We must give up our lives for the cause of Christ. We are either following Christ on the ‘narrow way’ or following Satan on the “broad way”, and there are few people who are following Christ.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Do you know how you can tell if a person is a false prophet or not. It is by the message that they bring. They can tell you things that sound good and sound right, but if they are false then they are a false prophet. These people are teachers and preachers that tell people what they want to hear and as they do so they mislead many people. These people are very dangerous and so Jesus says “beware” and Jesus actually warned other times that this would happen. “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many” – Matthew 24:11 So, be on the lookout and measure everything anyone teaches you against the Word of God and if it is not true then throw it out.
In one sense Jesus is talking about false prophets, but on the grander scheme of things He is talking about everyone. Listen to these words, “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.” It is a repeat of what has already been said, a true Christian will live on the “narrow way”. Well, here it is said another way, that they will produce “good fruit”. There will be evidence that God has saved them. If there is no evidence at all, then one can know that God has not done a work in their life. Jesus did not come so that we could be saved from the penalty of sin, but continue to live in sin; He came to separate us from sin. “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” – Romans 6:6-7 Listen to this quote by Charles Spurgeon.
“Christ Jesus did not come in order that you might continue to sin and escape the penalty of it; he did not come to prevent the disease of being mortal, but to take the disease itself away. Many people think that when we preach salvation, we mean salvation from going to hell. We do not mean only that, but we mean a great deal more; we preach salvation from sin; we say that Christ is able to save a man; and we mean by that that he is able to save him from sin and to make him holy; to make him a new man. No person has any right to say, “I am saved,” while he continues in sin as he did before. How can you be saved from sin while you are living in it? A man that is drowning cannot say he is saved from the water while he is sinking in it; a man that is frost-bitten cannot say, with any truth that he is saved from the cold while he is stiffened in the wintry blast.”-C.H. Spurgeon-
Did you hear that, no one can claim to be saved from sin while they are still living in sin. It makes no sense whatsoever. Christians still battle sin. It is true. They may only be one step forward and two steps back for a while, but they will be fighting and you will see proof in their life that God has worked and is working in them, and that is why Jesus says, “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.” Fruits are the sign that God has done something in you. We are not saved by works, we are saved by grace, but grace working in us produces works and that is the evidence of our faith. If you are still living in sin you can have no assurance of salvation. The Bible doesn’t offer you any assurance of salvation, none whatsoever.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father will enter” I cannot emphasize enough the people that Jesus is talking to, He is talking to people that have been following Him, and this is what He says. Many people profess to be Christians who are not. That is the fact that Jesus is bringing out here. On the day of judgment many people will be very surprised when they are cast into the Lake of Fire. They claim to be Christians yet their lives do not show it. This is because God has not worked in their life. They have not been transformed, because they never repented and placed their trust in Jesus Christ. It had never happened. They claimed to be Christians, but they were not followers of Christ. A born again believer will do “the will of My Father”. “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.” Many people will be very surprised. God, I did this and that for You, but look at what Jesus will say to them. “I never knew you; depart form Me, you who practice lawlessness”. This word lawlessness, quite simply means that they acted like they were never given a law to obey. Can a person who acts as if they were never given a law to obey actually be called a Christian. Since they are not following Christ. Of course the answer is no, and this is the answer that many people will get someday.
So, the question tonight is has God changed you? Has God done a marvelous work in your life? Have you turned from your sin and turned to God?
Dwain Minor