“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. Many are those who enter by the wide gate and the broad way” (Matthew 7:13-14).
Destruction is eternal hell. Did Jesus speak about Hell in the Sermon on the Mount? He certainly did. He spoke about it three times. Let's look at the way to destruction. In Matthew 5:22, Jesus said, “If you're angry with your brother, you’re guilty before the court. If that anger gives expression to words of anger, then you are guilty before the Supreme Court. If it goes further to serious words of anger, then you’ll be guilty enough to go to hell to destruction.” Again, Jesus says in Matthew 5:28, “If a man looks at a woman with lust for her in his heart, it is better for him to pull out his right eye. Otherwise, you can be thrown into hell. It is better to cut off your right hand if it leads you to sexual sin.” Otherwise, Jesus says in Matthew 5:30, you can be thrown into hell. That is the way to destruction. The way of uncontrolled anger and uncontrolled sexual desire is the wide way, and there are multitudes of people walking along that way. The world is full of people who are angry and saturated with sexual lust, uncontrolled sinful sexual desire, exploiting poor women, etc. That is the broad way to destruction.
What if a man says he's a born-again Christian, but watches internet pornography, taking advantage of poor women being exploited? What if this Christian expresses his anger outwardly? That is the way to destruction. Whether he calls himself a Christian or a non-Christian, it makes no difference. He is on the way to destruction. It is the wide way.
The way is sometimes made wide by preachers who say we don't have to be so narrow-minded and say that only those who overcome these things are going in to eternal life. No, they make the gate wider than Jesus taught. Jesus said that the way to life was like a needle’s eye. Can a camel go through a needle’s eye? No. Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for the man who is rich in himself to possess the kingdom of God. Our richness is not only in wealth. It could be in our intellect. It could be our intellectual arguments when we come to Scripture. We take away the seriousness of God’s words with intellectual arguments. You are not going to enter God's kingdom through the wide road that leads to destruction. But the gate is small, and the way is narrow, that leads to life. That is the way Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount. What Jesus is saying is, “All that I've spoken here so far is a very narrow gate and a very narrow way, but it is the way that leads to life. There are very, very few people who find it.” Do you expect multitudes of people to choose the way described in the Sermon on the Mount? Not at all.
The Sermon on the Mount is not meant for non-Christians. It is not meant for non-disciples. It is meant for those who have already laid a foundation in their life of repentance and faith in Christ, who are born again, and who have become God's children. If a person has not taken that first step when he tries to follow the Sermon on the Mount, he is like a person who is building a house without a foundation. But here, it is speaking about disciples who are seeking to follow the Lord. They will find that this is a very narrow gate, and that there are very few who find it. I don't expect multitudes of people to come rushing to obey the things written in Matthew 5-7.
When you see mega churches with thousands of people sitting there, you might wonder if these are the “few” people who have found the way to life. Or are these people are being led astray by false preachers, and going on the broad way that leads to destruction? We do not want to judge any of them. I would be delighted if thirty thousand people in one little area want to obey the Sermon on the Mount and follow Jesus. I would be happy if there is a church of three hundred thousand people who want to follow Christ. I would not be happy with 300,000 people who just want to go to heaven without following Christ on earth. From what I have observed, the people sitting in most churches want to go to heaven without following Christ on earth. That is not the true church of Jesus Christ. That is a church against which the gates of hell will certainly prevail, and where the preachers have made the gate wide so that multitudes of people can get in without paying the price. The gate is wide enough so that you can love money and imagine that you love God as well. They made the gate wide, and are deceiving themselves that they are making disciples of Jesus in that church.
We need to see very clearly that it is at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus explained this gate is very small, and this way is very narrow that leads to life. There are very, very few that actually find it.
The very next thing He says is, “Beware of the false prophets” (Matthew 7:15). We need to see who these false prophets are in the context of this passage. Are these false prophets the ones who come to church but talk about some other religion, and start teaching from the holy book of some other religion? No. False prophets are those “who come in sheep's clothing.” Sheep's clothing means the appearance of being a servant of Jesus Christ and being a sheep of Christ. They come in sheep's clothing. They look like sheep. They come with the Bible in their hand, but they made the way broad. They explain away the commands of Scripture, saying, “This command is not necessary,” or “It does not mean exactly this…” These people have tried to explain away so many things in Scripture. If they come to verse like Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” they say, “It doesn't mean 24/7. It means generally speaking, or most of the time.” When it says in Philippians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing,” they say, “It doesn't mean ‘nothing.’ It means generally speaking, you should avoid anxiety.” When it says in1 Thessalonians 5:18 that we must “give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus,” they say, “That it doesn't really mean every single thing.”
You will discover in the final day when you stand before Jesus Christ that God meant exactly what He said. Christ meant exactly what He said. If you do not believe these words in the Bible, you must be honest and scratch them out or tear up those pages in the Bible.
You are being dishonest and hypocritical if you say the Bible is God's Word, but then you do not follow it. God is going to judge this hypocrisy. God loves an honest person. I believe God loves many atheists more than hypocritical Christians because they are honest. They do not believe there is a God. They act like there is no God. The businessman out in the world says there is no God but money. He worships money, and he is honest. But Christians, who say that Jesus Christ is the true God and the Bible is God’s Word, if they live like those worldly people, they are the hypocrites. Remember that when Christ was on earth, He condemned the hypocrites more than anybody else. The adulteress was saved. The thief on the cross was saved. The murderer was saved. But the hypocrites went to hell.
