The Inevitable Choice
Since the very beginning, God has confronted man with the inevitable choice of life or death. Every action of life is confronted with a choice, and here’s a choice we can’t evade. Every day we’re traveling toward eternity as fast as the wheels of time can take us. The decision we made yesterday has put us in the position we’re in today. And so it will be tomorrow, even up to that day when we make a decision for the last time. When God calls us from this life, we’ll end up in Heaven or hell because it was our choice. Even though He has the power to put us one place or the other, He lays that choice in our hands. The difference between life and death is: our attitude toward God’s Word.
In this lesson, Jesus puts the choice before us with many warnings. He said, “Beware of false prophets…” Our world’s full of them today, but we must go to the very beginning and get the teachings of our Lord. Man, today, has as many religions as we have different brands of cereal. If you don’t like one religion, you can choose another. Let’s not be deceived by the devil: the only choice we have is between life or death---the strait gate or the broad way.
Someone may say, “You people are so narrow-minded.” Well, we must have a narrow mind if we’re going to walk the narrow way. The mind of Christ was very narrow. He said, “…no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). That’s narrow! In John 10:9, Christ said, “I am the door [the only one, and there are no windows to come through, and the wall is too high to climb]…”
The Jews in Jesus’ day were very astonished because His teaching was in direct variance with the popular views entertained by the religious folks of His day. They supposed they were subjects for the Messiah because they were the natural descendants of Abraham. They were born of his flesh and had the mark of the covenant through fleshly circumcision.
As Jesus preached to them, however, He made it clear that it takes more than physical lineage and more than submission to ceremonial rites to be God’s people. When Christ said to them, “Enter ye in…” they became upset. He was telling them, (and us) that they were not in; they were on the outside. In other words, there was a “straiter” gate than they had entered through.
They already had one strait, narrow gate. To be Abraham’s seed, they had to come through a very strait gate. They didn’t mind making it strict, and they were quick to let the Gentile know that he was on the outside because he was not of Abraham’s seed. Jesus was letting those Jews know that there was a “straiter” gate they must go through. They became so stirred that they crucified Him.
Few Will Enter In
Jesus’ teachings are radically different from the religions in our land yet today. Most of the concepts that prevail in modern Christendom cannot line up with the simple teachings of Jesus Christ. The same spirit that had the literal Jew, has the people in our day under the same deception. They complacently do nothing about salvation because they think they’re members of a Christian nation.
The Jews went through the rite of circumcision to assure their favor with God. We have multitudes today, who have water sprinkled on them or join a church for a double confirmation that they’re going to make Heaven their home. Nevertheless, sitting just beyond any religious rite we can go through, is the strait gate. Until we go through that gate, we cannot find this life, this real Christian living.
Jesus said, “…few there be that find it [not the way, but real, Christian life].” When the Gospel is preached, the way is made plain. Nevertheless, few find the life of real Christian living because the gate is too strait and the way is too narrow. They’re not ready to give up to Christ and let Him take control of their lives. Because of this, we have millions of professing Christians who have never known the first joy or power of a Christian life. When we start this life, there will be a power come into our life to break every sinful habit, set us free from sin, and give us a freedom that we’ve never know before. Real salvation is “a million miles” from the level of nominal Christendom.
Millions actually believe that a greater part of our human race will reach Heaven, but Jesus lets us know that few will enter in. Jesus tells us that a tree can be known by its fruits or a Christian can be known by the fruits of his life. But in too many cases today, a Christian is recognized by some tag that a preacher has put on him.
I can’t get away from those three words, “Enter ye in…” It’s not enough to listen to the preaching about this gate, to study the structure of it, or admit the wisdom of its appointment---it must be entered. Sermons on repentance and faith in Christ avail us nothing unless they move our hearts to comply with them.
This gate is the only avenue of admission into the way of Christianity. If we haven’t come through the strait gate, we’re on the wrong way. We may have thought we were on our way to Heaven, but we must come right back to the words of Truth personified (Jesus Christ), “Enter ye in at the strait gate…” We must take Jesus’ warning seriously.
If we take the end of this passage of Scripture as a key to the earlier part, we will understand it better. Compare verse 13 with verses 22 and 23. He said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” Verses 22 and 23 read: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not…in they name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
True Disciples Are Marked
In the midst of all the confusion, let’s study to see how the true disciples of Jesus are to be distinguished. There are many who say they’re His disciples, but are not. I would consider myself to be “the biggest fool on earth” if I worked myself to death at religion only to have Jesus say, “Depart from me.”
There are three principle ways that true followers of Christ may be distinguished: first, by the decision of their choice; second, by the carefulness of their judgments; third, by the consistency of their lives.
Let’s consider the decision of their choice. A true disciple of Christ selects the gate which is strait. This is still one of the earmarks. Honest hearts choose strait preaching and strait living. They want it strait, according to God’s Word.
The strait gate is easily overlooked unless we really look for it. That old broad way has lights and attractions; we couldn’t miss it if we wanted to. Every one of us has walked the broad way. When we came to the age of accountability, down the broad way we went.
On the other hand, this strait gate can only be passed through with a great deal of effort. What is the strait gate? It’s the place where you come straight with God and man. Jesus taught this way. He said, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee: Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer they gift”. (Matthew 5:23-24).
When we come to confess our sins, if we’ve sinned against God, we must confess to Him (We can’t sin without sinning against God.) If we’ve sinned against our broth, we have to confess it to God and our brother. If we’ve sinned against the Church, we must confess it to God and the Church. When we get sick enough of sin, we’ll not mind “the cure”. Mo matter what God requires, we’ll be willing and ready to meet the conditions.
When we come to the altar, all we have to offer God is a sin-ruined life and a broken will. We come enslaved by sin and the habits of life. The strait gate is where we come straight. Too many are not enjoying this Christian life and don’t bear the fruit of it because they’ve never come straight with God and man.
The gate posts upon which this strait gate swings is the consciousness of our emptiness and true sorrow for sin. Whenever we come to the place of realizing our empty, unsatisfied condition, then come in repentance with true sorrow, the strait gate will swing open. We’ll be ready and willing to walk in the narrow way.
Salvation Brings a Change
Consider Zacchaeus, the publican. Because he was a little man, he climbed up into a tree to see Jesus come by. He thought Jesus was just going to pass by. Jesus may pass by a lot of people, but He never passes by an honest heart. He stops at every one of them.
All at once, Jesus stopped and said, “Zacchaeus, make hast, and come down; for today I must abide at they house” (Luke 19:5). When Zaccaeus was sitting on the limb, he was an unsaved, lost publican. When he hit the ground, he was a Christian. He had come through the strait gate somewhere between the limb and the ground. We know this is true because he confessed and said, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false causation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house…” (verses 8-9).
Too many don’t want to come straight, but they will never get on the narrow way until they do. It’s very easy to drift along with the multitudes, just hoping to make it into Heaven. But Heaven is too great and eternity is too long for God to set up a salvation that we have to gamble on. Salvation is a sure, definite plan by God.
This strait gate allows no more than ourselves to pass through. God doesn’t have a group or family plan. Jesus made it plain in Luke 14:26, “If any man come to me, and hate not [love less] his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” This is an individual experience.
Mass evangelism preaches a ten-minute message and says, “Everybody who wants Jesus, come down and raise your hand.” That won’t get us through the strait gate. This narrow way is a way of restriction, exactness and limitation. This is why many choose to travel the broad way; they don’t want to meet the conditions which God has laid down. If men could carry the world along with them, there would be a crowd wanting to get through this strait gate. But it’s not crowded because it requires us to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. The deeds of the old man (carnal man) must be put away. When we come through this experience, we become a new creature.
What Makes the Gate Strait?
Somebody may ask, Why did God make it so strait?” The word strait is applied to the entrance of this Christian life. The word narrow is applied the road of life we walk after we’re saved. Did God make it strait, hard or difficult for us to get saved? No! No! We have the wrong conception of the Gospel when we teach that. He couldn’t love us and will for us to be saved, then, make the way hard. The Bible saying the gate is strait doesn’t make it strait and difficult any more than a medical book recording small pox will give you smallpox.
If we’ll study the Bible, we’ll find that God has striven to make the way of God a broad way and the evil way a narrow way. Starting right in the Garden of Eden, He only gave man one tree that was evil. Every other tree in the garden could be enjoyed. The whole broadness of the garden was Adam’s with only one restriction, the forbidden fruit. Too many people think God finds enjoyment in making it hard for us to get saved. God didn’t make the gate strait; He just told us it’s strait. What makes the way strait, is not God, but man’s sin.
If you and I were already strait, the gate would be easy to go through. But when we become loaded with sin and carnal pride, our wideness makes it hard for us to get through the strait gate to become saved. Man, in his injustice and inhumanity, narrows the way.
This is more prevalent today than it was years ago. Today, a man is almost considered a bigot if he preaches the narrow way. It’s not any more narrow than it ever was; it only seems more narrow because people have allowed so much more sin in their lives.
The longer people live in sin, the wider they become. The farther we get away from Christian ethics and principles, the narrower the gate is going to look to us. The way is not strait in itself; we make it that way with the swellings of our pride. These things hinder us more and more from entering in.
Is there a remedy? How shall these swollen places of our soul, with their sin, pride, and uncleanness, be brought down to the place of getting through the strait gate? This can only be accomplished by listening and learning from Him who said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate…”
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). It makes no difference how bound the devil makes us think we are; Jesus is still the way. When we really want to come straight, we must simply call on Him, and He will bring us through the experience. Needless to say, there’s a wide gate, which is much easier to enter. The devil has made false religion very convenient for people.
So, the first mark of true disciples is the decision of their choice. They choose the strait and the narrow way. Notice what these people refuse when they choose the narrow way. They turn from the broad way with all its allurements. They give up what’s called by the world, apparent liberty and enjoyment. They give up all the joy and companionship of the world with its popularity and appearance of ease.
Carefulness of Judgment
The second mark of discipleship is carefulness of judgment. They realize that not only must they enter the strait gate, but they need strait teaching to keep them on the narrow way. The devil’s working on this point and making people feel that after they’re saved, they can widen out and take in some things. In any case, the strait gate only leads to the narrow way.
True Disciples of Christ count the cost of finishing before they start. They enter onto the narrow way with a resolute purpose, as did the saints of old. Right here, is the difference between people who have lived for God many years and those who have never obtained a settled experience.
A man who’s been resolute and determined in his salvation in the beginning, will be corresponsive in his life. He’ll be careful of the guide he follows because there are many, many false guides. A true disciple realizes that his eternity-bound soul is a matter of intense importance. We must remember: the more valuable a coin, the more numerous will be the counterfeits. Pure religion has more counterfeits than any one thing on the face of the globe!
We can be cheated and misled by leaders. Matthew 7:15 tells us, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Verses, 16-18 lets us know that we’ll know them by their fruits. Nature teaches us that this is always the case and it can’t be otherwise. We can’t get grapes of thorns or figs of thistles; we never have and we never will (not even in a supposed millennium). Verse 19 tells us that the absence of good fruit is enough reason to throw the tree in the fire.
Jesus is not telling sinners to beware of false prophets, but He’s warning those who are already on the narrow way. Everyone who knows what godliness is, also knows what godliness does. When leaders don’t live godly, we musn’t trust them to teach us about godliness.
Paul told Titus: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11-12). If a man is a true leader, he’ll definitely teach a change of life in real salvation. We’ll leave the sinful life and become godly right in this present world.
When Jesus said, “Ye shall know them by their fruits,” He wasn’t talking about the fruit of the Spirit. Wherever the fruit of the Spirit is spoken of, the word fruit has no “s” on it. Why? We can’t have any one of them without having all of them. If the Holy Ghost is in our heart, He will bear all the fruit though our life.
Taking this into consideration, what is the fruit of a prophet? It’s not only his life, but his message, his character, and his converts. The reason we have so many false religionists is because we have so many false prophets.
One of the first fruits of a prophet is his message. Isaiah 8:20 tells us, “…if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” I believe the greatest gift we (Christians) can have is the gift of discernment. Without God-given discernment, we’ll be misled.
False prophets don’t spare the flock, the true Church. They work at this program or that program and have no time to feed the Church and preach the old-time Gospel. Therefore the flock is hungry and weak. Whenever God gives us enough discernment to see that something is working, which will take the vitality out of the Church, we need to cry out against it. Why preach about what happened in the Dark Ages? Where are the antichrists today? They’ve crept right in among us.
Consistency of Conduct
True disciples are marked by the decision of their choice, by the carefulness of their judgment, and third, by the consistency of their conduct. What a true Christian looks for in others, he will seek for himself. Some people want others to live right to the line; however, a true disciple of Christ will seek for his own life just what he wants to see in others. Jesus taught us, “…whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them…” (Matthew 7:12). In other words, putting ourselves (right) in their shoes.
Two great mistakes are made right at this point today. The true disciple, by his consistency, will avoid both of these. First, he’ll not mistake profession for practice. Professing subjection to Christ is not subject itself. To do homage to Him is not to be loyal to Him, and to merely call the Saviour “King” doesn’t make us a subject of His Kingdom. The true disciple of Christ realizes that deeds, not words, must be the rule of his life.
Second, true followers of Christ won’t mistake work for obedience. Matthew 7:22 describes those who have made this mistake. Even Jesus acknowledged their works as wonderful, but they “went to hell” because they substituted works for obedience. Right here, is the one we need to be careful of.
We have many who try to labor for Christ in their own way. Pastors are working people to death and telling them they’re working for the Lord. Yet all the time, they’re disobeying Christ because they don’t have time to pray or read God’s Word. They don’t have time for simple obedience to God’s Word. Works won’t get us to Heaven.
The devil deceives people by making them feel that their works will answer for the things they passed up in obedience. What will Jesus say to these people? “…I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (verse 23). Iniquity is rebellion against the constituted authority of God’s Word. If we ever get to Heaven, it will be because we obey the voice of the Lord. There’s never been a time when people were working like they are today and when spirituality was so low.
How could Jesus say He never knew these people, since they had done many wonderful works? Ezekiel 33:13 gives us the answer, “When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.”
Let’s read John 10:14, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” How does He know them? They hear His voice and they obey it. Let’s not be deceived, nothing can take the place of obedience. Christ recognizes those wonderful works, but we must remember that they don’t take the place of obedience.
Are We a Doer?
In this period of time when iniquity is abounding and the love of many is waxing cold, we need to take heed that our discipleship is true. Let’s read Matthew 7:21, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” We need to note that to hear and obey is to hear with respect to God’s Word. To hear without doing is to hear with contempt against God’s Word. There are only two kinds of people, disobedient and obedient hearers.
Everyone’s building a character. Jesus called it a house in Matthew 7:24-27 when He said, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
“And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
For awhile, the house built upon the sand looks as good and solid as any other house (Here is the deception of this thing.). Yet, all it takes is the rains to start coming. Because there’s no solid foundation under it, the roof begins to crack, the partitions begin to crack and break, and the house crumbles.
On the other hand, when we build our house on the Rock, Jesus Christ, all the temptations all the trials, and even the judgment shocks of eternity won’t tear our house down.
Both buildings are exposed to the storms of life. Let’s not follow false preachers who tell us that we won’t have sickness or trials if we live for God. Whether we’re living for God or not, sickness, sorrow, misfortune, and reverses can come our way. The only difference between the sinner and the saint is: the sinner collapses in the trial; on the other hand, the saint can stand and take it, by the grace of God.
Last of all, we’re faced with a serious twofold result, either approval or condemnation and eternal ruin. We’re all coming up to judgment, that day Jesus talked about in our Scripture text. That day, among the many hearers and admirers, everybody will be a hearer. Today people may say, “Oh, Jesus, I love you. I love your Word. If there’s anything I like to hear preached, it’s the Truth. I love it just like it is.” But on that day, Jesus will only have one thing to say, “Were you a doer?” So, are we a doer? [The End]