You Have To Make A Choice - Which Will It Be?

Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. For how narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)

We'll notice that there are four pairs here in these two verses. Essentially, there's one command, which is enter. But there are two gates: there's a narrow gate and a wide gate. There are two paths that you're taking: the one path leading to the broad and the one that is difficult. There are two sets of people, which are the many and the few. And there are two destinations and only two destinations: either destruction or life. And what Jesus is doing here is presenting this startling choice.

He is not saying that there is a middle path, there is a middle road that you can work it out. He says there is either "you go with the crowd or you follow me. If you go with the crowd, it is destruction. If you follow me, there's life."

And what we need to do is to use our imagination and our thinking as Jesus describes all of these different kinds of instructions about the lamp of the eye, what we worry about, considering the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, looking at the plank in or taking the plank out of our own eye, pearls before swine, asking, seeking, knocking, God being greater than a human father who might give something nice to his child but giving good gifts; all these things...

Now he's asking us to imagine, to use our imaginations. And so do that. Think about it now.

Imagine the pathway that the vast majority of humanity, according to Jesus Christ, many, follow. There is a broad, big, broad avenue. It's easy to get on there. You can take anything you want with you because there's plenty of room. You can have your nice car, your nice house, you can have all the baggage you want, you can have all of your ideas, everything that you possibly want on that big, wide road.... And then when it comes to entry, well, there's no restriction on entry because the gate is really wide and many, many crowd onto that road and go down it.

But what is at the end of it? What does it lead to? It drops off into what? Destruction.

And that's the word: destruction. Gone. Everything is gone.

You can try to take all of that with you and all of the things that you want, but in the end, it will be destroyed. It'll be gone. There's no path for you. You're done. You've chosen your way, and that way is destruction.

There was something that God told humanity, Adam and Eve, at the Garden of Eden right at the beginning. What was it? He said to them, there are two trees, right? There's one tree which is the Tree of Life, and there's another tree which is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

He said don't touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but the Tree of Life is open to you. And what did Adam and Eve choose? They chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They chose for themselves the one that God had said don't take.

And what was the result? What had He warned them would happen? He said in the day that you eat of it, what? You shall die. That's death. It's a death sentence. You take that path, it's a death sentence. There's only one way to life, and that's the one I've offered you over here.

The vast majority of humanity is dancing on the way to their own grave, and that's it.

And some are in great distress, some are whooping it up and having a party. It doesn't matter which end of that they're on. Some are in great power and authority, some are greatly oppressed. It doesn't matter. If they've chosen that path for themselves, there's only one destination in the end.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, in verse 27:

"Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak it in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hellfire" (Matthew 10:27-28).

It's destruction. "Destroy". That's the warning that he gives.

The biblical doctrine of what happens at the end of life is very clear, which is death. That's it. Destruction. Except that God then also says there will be another resurrection to life, in which He will judge all people, and then will come either for them life or the final death.

And then that's it. Burnt up. Gone. Destroyed.

Not sitting around in a purgatory with the possibility of coming back. That's the end of it.

It is a stark warning from Jesus Christ right here towards the end of His sermon.

Which path will you choose? Which path do you want? Do you want the path that goes to destruction?

Or let's imagine the other one.

So He says then there's a difficult way, and a narrow gate.

So the gate at the end of it, the word there means it's very tight. And the other one, it says it's a spacious road. There's lots of space. And this one, it says it's very tight. That gate is small. The path is difficult. And in fact, the Greek there, the word is restricted. There are all these restrictions on it.

So almost like there are walls hedging it in, saying, "Well, you've got to only go this way. And if you try to break out of that, then you're off the path."

Imagine that.

And that then, because of the narrowness of the path, there isn't a broad crowd on there. There are only a few people along that path. In fact, it's only one at a time.

Martin Lloyd-Jones, a Welsh preacher from the mid-20th century, conceived of this as a turnstile at the gate. When you get to the gate, you've got to hand over your ticket, essentially, and He admits you one at a time.

Now, Jesus confirms this later on, right at the end of the sermon, when He says, "I'll be there admitting people one by one to the kingdom of God."

We cannot ride any other people's coattails into the kingdom. That's just the reality of salvation. It is one individual at a time.

He said many are called, but few are chosen. But those who enter in are the elect.

Taken from the Sermon, "Are You Part Of the Crowd Or One of the Few?".

Watch the whole Sermon here:

https://youtu.be/OgRvnNbKwDs