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Which Gate Are You Entering? – Matthew 7:13-29. – Bible study

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Which Gate Are You Entering?

Matt. 7:13-29

(This message is based on a message I heard some years ago by another preacher. I have made a number of changes.)

Years ago when Carolyn and I attended a Southern Baptists church we read in it literature that the Convention had created adepartment called the Inter-Faith League which set up to have dialog with other religions and non-Baptist churches. They placed a Catholic priest in an office at their Convention headquarters to advise them on issues concerning the Roman Catholic church.

Parents I have talked with over the years have oftenproudly explained that they were not teaching their children any “religion”because they wanted them to learn them all and then chose for themselves. I wonder why these “wise” parents send their children to school? Why not apply the same philosophy and let the grow and “make up their own minds” about what they want to learn. Why force them to go to school? Why not just let these children decide for themselves if they want to go toschool or not. Do you see how foolish people can be?

What are these other religions? Are theyto be compared to biblical Christianity? What does God say?

When we say in the United States that we are one nation under God — what do we mean?

   ..Do we mean the God of this denomination or the other”?
   ..Do we mean “Allah” or “Jehovah.”
   ..Do we mean the god one of many Christian cults?
   … Do we mean a God of flesh and bone who was once a man?
   ..Do we mean a god who is a projection of our own imagination?
   ..Do we mean the god of the Dali Lama who said on Larry King that we made ourselves and that we are god.
   ..One of the gods of the over 350 religions in America.

..Or do we mean the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our true God and Creator, the God that gave us His word in His Book the Bible?

Least there be some misunderstanding, may I plainly say that this the God that I mean. This is the God that I fear and of whom I preach and that He is the only God I mean, because only He is our Creator and Savior and only He can saved….because there are no other gods…! Only He exists and if we want to know of God, we must learn of Him. If we want to go to heaven, He is the God of heaven and we must listen to Him.

The plain fact and reality is this….You either accept Him…or have no God…because allthe gods men have invented do not exist.

I. What Does God Tell Us About Himself in His Holy Word the Bible?

A. Isaiah 40:13-21, tells us of the greatness of God.

B. God asks the question in verse 25. “Who will you compare me with?”

1. Men has some really funny ideas about God and one of them is that we can explain all about God.

ILLUS: 1. A young student in Bible college e-mailed me sometime ago and asked me to explain the doctrine of election. His college professor was teaching him John Calvin’s systematizing of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. It was confusing to the young man and he wanted to know if it was true. The problem with Calvinism is that it leads a false conclusion about God, it degrades Him and is the result of man’s foolishly trying to explain every detail of God.

2. I was corresponding with a another young man attending a liberal college who had been taught that the Biblical truth of the Trinity was simply foolishness. How could God be One God andat the same time be three distinct Persons. I wrote himback telling his the truth….which is that Almighty God is not explainablein human terms, nor can man understand it. It is revealed Truth, inother words God telling us something we could never know otherwise.

B. I have often heard people make statements about God saying:

1. “the God I know would not do this….
2. “The God of love would not do this….

C. Then let me ask you a simple question?

He did. Exodus 12:29 says so.

2. Would God wipe out the entire population of the earth except for one man’s family by a world wide flood because they would not heardHis prophet Noah and turn from their sins?

He did. Genesis 6-8 records it.

3. Would God send serpents literally to strike people dead if they refused to look in faith at a brazen serpent held aloft that they might trust God?

He did. Number 21:6 tells us what happened.

4. Of all the peoples of the earth to choose from, why would God call a man in the pagan city of Ur of the Caldees, whose father worshiped idols and send him to a land he had never seen and promise it to him and his decedents forever and make them his chosen people — the Jews?

He did. Genesis 12:1f gives the details.

5. And why would God Almighty humble himself and come to the earth as a man of flesh like you and I and to suffer and die for my sins and yours? Why would He call Himself the Son ofGod, the Messiah the promised Savior of the world and tell men that He wasGod the Father?

He did. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record His coming to earth and atoning for our sin.

C. No one gives counsel to God! Heis not seeking advice from you or me as to what is fair—or what you or Ithink is just or what you or I would do if we were God because we are clearlynot.

1. I see people every day facing death and facing itwith relative confidence in a whimsical fashion — as though everythingis la-di-da. I see the funerals of men who rejected God, wholived lives without the slightest thought of God, some who believed in a falsegod, or were gross sinners…and hear that they are now in heaven. .

I hear popular TV preachers, heard by millions, tell people that God will send no one to hell.

I hear parents telling their children that their dead relatives are now angels in heaven and that everyone who dies becomes an angel and goes to heaven.

2. Why do people say such things? It is because they have false unbiblical concept of God. They never see the choice as between God or Satan, or truth or error. That is the great sin of the Protestants and liberals of our day. Men today do not believe in absolutes nor want to accept that their are absolutes. Everything today is what they call relative. Nothing is right or wrong…it is what you perceive it to be. It might be right for you and wrong for me…but the matter of right or wrong is only relative to its situation and what people want it to be. One andone might be two for you, but for me it is three if I want it to be.

Let’s go back in this message: Remember that some folks say that they cannot believer “a loving God would send people to hell.” You see they believe in a god they invented themselves. However, God of the Bible says:

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat onit, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was foundno place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God;and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the bookof life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were writtenin the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Who was on this throne? Jesus Christ…the righteous Judge…by His authority and command the lost will be cast into Gehenna.

Who are you going to believe? Someman, or your own concept of how you wish God to be …..or who He says He really is?

By the way….God would not be a righteous and just God if He did not deal with sin. Sin is destructive and a truly loving God will deal with it. It is not love that ignores a problem and overlooks it. What kind of doctor would it be who knew you had cancer and refused to tell you, admit you had it and offer a cure? Would it be love for a parent to ignore the disobedience of their child…let it go and grow into full rebellion that will destroy the child’s life? Certainly not a parent that truly loved their child. Certainty no a loving God who wants to save us from our sins.

III. But Who Is To Say Who is Right?

A. Aren’t we all trying to go to the same place — just by different routes? Is not one way as good as the other. . . especially if we are sincere about it..RIGHT?

Quite truthfully, NO, we are not . Jesus said so!

” Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, andthe life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6)

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of Godabideth on him” (John 3:36).

I think that would preclude that a man could go to heaven any other way that through acceptance and belief in Jesus Christ. It means if one seeks some other way they are lost and will go to hell.

B. We now come to our text I read in the beingof the message.

1. Now Jesus is concluding the Sermon on the Mount. Most people accept it as the greatest sermon ever preached whether they believe in Christ or not. I have actually been there and seen first hand the hill on which He stood when He preached this message to the multitude off the shore of the Sea of Galilee

2. People say this message is the greatest ethical standard. However, the Sermon on the Mount is not a sermon on ethics. It is a sermon calling for a radically different life to be lived. Andthat is not ethics, nor some optional, clearer, better standard of ethics.

3. Then what is it? Friends this is Jesus Christ, God incarnate in flesh giving us absolutes. Preaching God’s truth, His very Word.

4. This is what Jesus teaches! As in all cases with the Lord, there is no multiple choice. What He said wasnot optional or given as a suggestion to be followed it one desires to.

5. Salvation is of God and the Lord does not use your plan or mine, but His perfect and simply plan which stands forever.

B. Jesus said “There are two gates — just two.” “One is very narrow. You come in one at a time. And the way leading to that gate or beyond that gate the way is restricted; it is confined. Men find itdifficult and very few people choose it.

C. “There is another gate,” Jesus continues. “It is a wide gate. A lot of people go in at the same time. And theway that it leads to is very broad with plenty of room for all kinds of peopleand all kinds of ideas, all going pretty much in the same direction.

1. But that wide gate and that broad way leadsto destruction, Jesus said the other way leads to life. So the choice is an absolute choice…..life or destruction, heaven or hell.

2. “I want to caution you,” Jesus says. “There are false teachers. They are not posing as false teachers. . . they are posing as sheep, yes sheep!

3. These people claim to be following me and they use my name.

4. But inside, these false teachers are ravenous wolves. They are not sheep. They do not belong to me. using my name, they are teaching you all sorts of things that you want to hear. But I don’t want you to be deceived; they vary from my word. I want you to judge them by what they produce.

ILLUS: Suppose you were in the woods hiking and you heard a rustle in the bushes and out stepped a sheep how many of you would run?! Suppose on this hike you heard the bushes rustling and a snarling wolf jumped out….?! That would get a different response…right? You bet it would. But what if that wolf stepped out dress up completely in a sheep’s skin and looked like a real sheep? Do you see the analogy that Christ is using. He said that some preachers and churches were like that wolf that would kill and eat you, but to get at you, deliberately disguised themselves as harmless sheep. Jesus did not say you shall judge the false prophets by how MUCH fruit they produce, how big are their churches, how much money they have, if they are on the TV or radio, or if millions of people follow them! The Lord says you judge them by the kind of fruit, the quality of the fruit they bare. What the do, say and preach is to be examined in the light of God’s word. If they are God’s man, or God’s church…they will follow the Bible, which is God’s word. If they don’t….their fruit…meaning what they do, say and preach is a lie and they are of their father the Devil who is the father of lies.

ILLUS: I have know many people who profess to be Christians sinceI was saved. During this time I have learned to be a people watcher, which in biblical terms means I have become a “fruit inspector.” I am not much interested in what a man says, but what he does, which means what he produces.

Several godly men and women come to mind when I think of Christians I have known. One is a man named John Vernon, who is a retired truck driver. The fruit of his life is plan to see…he is a prayer warrior and a man to whom God is first. He not only gives lip service to the Word of God he lives it…he prays, he is faithful to attending the church, he tithes, he is always seeking to help the his pastorand the other men of the church. Younger men look up to him andhe is a great blessing to all. His pastor is proud of himand never has to wonder if he is going to be faithful today or gone tomorrowor whether he can be trusted or not.

I have known other men, who also professed to be Christians. One man was a great preacher, one of the best speakers I have known. While he was preaching the Gospel on Sunday, he was running around with a married woman in the church and later left his wife and family and married her. He shone like a new penny. He looked good, he called on the name of Jesus Christ, but he did not really love the Lord and I question whether he knew Him as Lord and Savior. His fruit showedwhat he was.

ILLUS: The first church I pastored had a man it in who was its most prominent member. He was Chairman of the deacons and everything else. He had taught a men’s Sunday school class for many years. When I first met him I was impressed with him, but in time I learned of his true nature. He told dirty jokes to the teenagers in the church. He messed around with other women. As soon as I began to teach that God’s people live godly lives…he became my enemy. What was his fruit?

D. You see this is what Jesus is saying. Wouldyou expect to get grapes off a thorn bush? Would you expect agood tree to produce bad fruit? Jesus was saying, “Don’tyou know that it is impossible, for a good tree to produce bad fruit?… or for a bad tree to produce good fruit?”

Speaking specifically of the false teachers, Jesus says, “ You shall know them by their fruits …by their lifestyles … by what comes out of their mouths…what they teach.”

1. If you want to know what someone really believes then watch the way they live their lives. That has never changed and that is what Jesus is talking about.

2. Jesus was speaking to the multitude and He said, “A lot of you are self-deceived. Some call me Lord, but I am not their Lord because they do not follow me. On the day of judgment you plan to come to me and you are going to say, ‘Lord, Lord, what about me? Man alive! you know what I’ve done!

Why, these false teachers proclaim, I, in your name cast out demons! I’ve done miracles in your name! In your name, I have preached! I was a member of this church or that. I got baptized, I attended lots of rituals, I did many sacraments, I was a leader in that church and I did lots of wonderful things.

4. Jesus is going to say simply, “Depart from me you worker of iniquity…….I never knew you.”

IV. There is Only One Way and that’s God’s Way.

A. Why will Jesus say “I never knew you” to these people?

1. Jesus can’t be conned. Receiving true salvation is not matter of choosing from a multiple choice. There there are not four, or five, seven or any number of answers. There is only one answer that is right and all others are wrong.

2. The sinner lost in sin, wants a multiple choice god. He does not want to give up his sin. He wants heaven, but wants to continue to be a sinner. But God says, heaven is a perfect place and no one will go there without being perfect. He says only He can make us perfect, forgive our sins and impart to us His righteousness. He says I loved you….yes, the sinner you are… I love you and want you to be in heaven with me. Isn’t that amazing?

But what would heaven be if God allowed even one sinner there….It would not be a perfect place anymore. God says I forgive and change your life….you accept me and you repent ofyou sins. You turn from sin to righteousness. You cannot be mychild and remain an unrepentant sinner. The truth is that without being born again, you as a sinner, would be miserable in heaven and destroy it.

Man wants to try and work his way to heaven, invent His own god, his own gospel so he will not be responsible for his sin and have to turn from it. Jesus in John 3:19 plainly states this. Man wants his god to overlook his sinful life. He wants God to accept his plan of salvation and not God’s plan. Again Jesus saidthe false gods of this world, invented by man are the one who attractsmost people. The false gods have false preachers who preach a falsegospel which appeals to men and that is where the crowds are.

3. They reject God’s simple plan and demand that Godaccept their makeshift way. The problem with man’s wayis that it is not a way at all. Why? Because itdoes not deal with sin.

Man says everyone is going to heaven….we are all working for the same thing….we all will make it. But the one whoholds the keys to heaven and hell says….”NOT SO!” There is onlyone way and that way is through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesusthe Christ….through His shed blood that is the only way atonement can bemade for sin.

You can join every church in America; do good works twenty four hours a day; be baptized till your skin looks like a prune, sincerely with all your heart believe in a god you or someone else make up….but it does not impress God. You come to Him His way…or no way. 4. God’s Gospel is simple, and was stated by Paul in1 Corinthians 15:1-4. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

B. For any religion to change what God has said in His Word and for any man to offer a different way is blasphemy — and it has never been anything but blasphemy.

C. And then Jesus concludes by saying, “You know, there are two types of builders.

“One man goes to build a house, and he chooses the rock. The winds come, and the storms burst upon that house — it stands; it is upon the rock.
“Others build it on sand — and when the same storms and the same blasts come … it doesn’t stand. Do you build your life upon the foundation of sand or upon the rock — Jesus Christ?”

D. One way is true and saves, the other is untrue and those that chose that road will die in their sins.

And you will notice Jesus never said it was easy. He never said there would not be storms opposition of all types. But he did say, “This is the way to build a house that will stand the test of eternity and the judgment of God.

E. Salvation is something personal, based on the truth which is God’s plan for the redemption of man.

1. Turn with me in your Bibles and lets read what Jesus our God, Creator and Savior said.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

2. Did you note verse 21? It says “he that doeth truth cometh to the light…”

3. Acts 4:12 says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, wherebywe must be saved.”

Conclusion:

   1. God gave us the best way and the only way there could be. We are all sinners, sold unto and condemned in sin….we cannot save ourselves. We are drowning in a sea of sin.
   Christ, God himself, came and took in His own body your sin, mine sin and the world’s sin.    No man could do that.
   No man could offer any sacrifice for his own sin..because he has nothing to offer.
   God way is better because once a man believes and repents of his sin, and asks God to save him…he is instantly and eternally saved.
   The best man’s corrupted wisdom could come up with is that a man should try to work enough to earn heaven and even if that was possible, which in truth it is not, when would the man ever know he had worked enough.    And if he could work enough, he could never stop working least he lose it.

2. God’s plan is simple. Believe, repent of sin, askGod in faith and He saves. Not only does He save, and make youa child of God, he is responsible to keep you saved.

3. What door are you using today? You are surely going through one of these ways… the narrow why God provides or thewide gate that leads to destruction.

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