The Broad VS The Narrow Way

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I would like to turn for a text this morning for a message to Matthew chapter 7. I would like to notice here at the outset just two verses. Matthew 7, chapter 7, verse 13 and 14. [00:00:31] Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. Now I believe that all of us have heard that many times from earliest childhood to now. And I think that every church service, every time we gather as brothers and sisters in the Lord, [00:01:02] it should be something that we are testing. Which direction am I going? And I've titled this message, The Narrow Way vs. The Broad Way. And this could be a series of messages. This is not a conclusive message by any means. These are just some thoughts that came to my mind as I thought of this. But I think it's so important that we know where we're headed. What comes to our minds when we think of the narrow way? [00:01:37] And what do we think of or how important is it to us or to me to be on that way? Or what constitutes that way in our hearts? It was interesting to note that the Christians were the first ones to be called those of the way, or the way, however you want to say it. Acts 9.22, Acts 19.9, Acts 22.4, and 24.14 are all verses that you can look to that they were called people of the way, or that's just what the King James says. [00:02:19] It says it in the verse. I'm not going to read that. But you know, there's nothing more important this morning. There's nothing more important than being on the way. And we talk often about the destination, the difference in the destination, and we should. That's not necessarily what I plan to talk about this morning. But we need to know what the narrow way is if we're going to be on it. [00:02:51] Now the first thing that I would like to touch on just a little bit is the narrowness of truth. And this comes, the seed for this at least comes from the minister's meetings. We had the supremacy of the word was we were taught about the supremacy of the word. Now, you know, in our day, there are many people that don't like the narrowness of this book, the narrowness of our road map to heaven. [00:03:23] It's just too narrow. But look at John 14, verse six. How many ways are there to get to heaven? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life. and no man cometh to me, cometh unto the Father but by me. No man. It's absolute. It's narrow. You can't get any narrow. That's as narrow as it'll get. One way. One way. There's one way to heaven. [00:03:55] John 6.44 says this, No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me to draw him and I will raise him up at that day. No man. That's narrow. We have a narrow truth. Our road map is narrow and I think we need to recognize we don't have to apologize for that. It's just the way it is. It's sure, it's foundational and it's narrow and it will always stay the same. I don't know what to say sometimes when people come with all these ideas. [00:04:35] But I appreciated what Brother Aidan Troyer had to tell us at the minister's meetings. He explained this, he said, math is narrow, scientific research is narrow, 2 plus 2 is There's always four. It doesn't matter if you don't. You can disagree as much as you want with that, but it doesn't matter. It's still the same thing. You get in trouble if you don't, if it's not narrow to you. History is narrow. The facts are the facts. It's always the same. We can't change what happened. It's the same. It's narrow. [00:05:14] Geographical location is even narrow Now, I'm saying this just as an analogy or an illustration of the narrowness of things And we don't always realize that What would you say if I was I would say I'm going to Denver, Colorado And I would get out here on 120 But I would go east And I would say, I'm broad-minded I can get there going east, you would say, that's ridiculous, that's foolishness, we can never do that. [00:05:50] And I think we all understand that. But, you know what, there are people in our day, and I don't think, I sure hope there's no one here that says, God's word just isn't relevant anymore. It's just not, for our day, it's just not the same. Let me tell you, it is the same. Sin was same in every age, and the truth of God's word is sure. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never. [00:06:24] I'm sure I'm not quoting that correctly, but you know the verse. It was also mentioned at those meetings that, and I hate to say this, but President-elect Obama said this, Our Buddhist friends, our Hindu friends, they'll all get to heaven. They'll just get there a different way. But my friends, it's not true. It's just not true. There's only one way to get there. Now, what if we try to widen the narrow road a little bit? [00:07:03] Or if there are things that come into our circles, Do they still look dangerous to us? Should they still look dangerous to us? I believe they should. You know, it bothers me sometimes, this passage here. And maybe I'll just look down a little further here. In verse 21 to 23. [00:07:33] The Bible says that not all people will make it to heaven. Let me just read. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works, and then will I profess unto them I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity [00:08:04] You know, I think we've all heard those words before But at that day, at that hour, facing an almighty God It must be the most awful thing that we've ever experienced If we are to hear those words I hope that nobody here has to experience that And I trust we don't have to if we stay close to the word If we stay close to the road map that God has given us and what I noticed here and I'll just say this, maybe these people were in dialogue with God and they were they were correct. [00:08:45] They were absolutely correct in one area. They because they were saying what they had done, they had cast out devils, they had done many things. But you know, I wonder sometimes, and this kind of cut deep in my heart, we can be so correct, we can be ever so correct in one area, but there may be just a little bit of disobedience or a little bit of bitterness that just continues to drag us down. And we don't take care of it. We will answer for it someday. We have to make sure that we are on the narrow way. [00:09:23] Okay, we are often exposed to the narrow way versus the broad way as a journey, as a road. And I think that's correct, a correct presentation with a destination. You cannot get out on the road hardly without thinking that you're going to go somewhere. You're going somewhere. And I think it's correct to put it in that form. But there's no third option here. There is no third road. It doesn't matter what we think. There's no third road. [00:10:05] And we observe churches, we observe families that seem to veer ever closer to that broad, what we consider the broad way. And we look at churches, but I wonder if the battleground isn't right here, right in the heart of every individual. the broad versus the narrow way you know these things show up in our churches in our schools, in our families and at the workplace or wherever we go [00:10:36] but it's right here the battle is raging right here in our hearts and we need to take care of it we are either, I know I say this and I sound like a broken record we are either awfully lost or we're saved with our sins under the blood of Jesus Christ There's only two categories in mankind. We are either saved and on our way to heaven, or we're lost. There's no in-between. Now let me talk just a little bit about the Broadway. Maybe it's, when I speak this morning, maybe I'm speaking from my perspective. [00:11:17] But it always seemed to me in hearing about the broad way versus the narrow way That the broad way is the easy way It's going downhill and it's just smooth sailing It's just easy going And it may be to some extent But think about it Give it some thought I don't think the broad way is smooth sailing You think about, think about millions of people that have been hurt by broken homes, adultery, and there's bitterness on the Broadway, there's hate, there's wars that are fought because people are on the Broadway, and there's no love there. [00:12:08] The broad way isn't necessarily the easy way. In fact, I wasn't going to say this now, but I'll just say it. In thinking about the broad way versus the narrow way, the narrow way is the only logical way, if I can say it in those terms. If you really think about it. I'll just leave that for now. Now, the narrow way. He talks here about the gate. Getting in the gate, enter ye in at the straight gate [00:12:42] And you know every journey begins with the first step The first step, we have to make the first step We have to, if we want to go somewhere, we have to get out the door and in the vehicle and we have to go We have to make the first step, if we don't make the first step to get in or go, we'll never get there Now, how do we get in at the straight gate? How do we enter in at the straight gate? How do we get there? [00:13:13] Jesus said this, Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many, I say, will seek to enter and shall not be able, as found in Luke 13, 24. Strive. I think, I would understand that it's not, it goes against human nature, the straight gate. And the Greek word for straight, I think, indicates the same thing. It's constricted. We have to strive to get in there. There's requirements for getting in at the straight gate. [00:13:47] It's constricted. There's no room for my flesh to go through that gate. If I want to get started, I have to get rid of these things that just drag me down, the flesh. And then I thought of something else, the first step to the journey, and I don't know, well let me just say this, we must be born again, and we cannot enter in unless we have made a commitment to become disciples of Jesus Christ. [00:14:20] Let me read John 3. You're all familiar with this. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto ye, marvel not that I say unto you that ye must be born again. Notice again the narrowness of this passage. There's two phrases here. We cannot enter. We cannot enter. We must be born of the Spirit, it says in that case. Or we cannot enter the kingdom of God. And the second one, you're all familiar with this one. You must be born again. Must. There's no alternative. We must be born again. We must give our lives to God. [00:15:13] There's no second guessing. There's there's just no alternative. We have to be born again to get in the gate. Now, I don't know about you, but I was I wasn't naturally born with an inclination to get rid of my my first nature. That has to be an operation of God. And that's not the message this morning. But if we could spend a lot of time talking about the new birth, then maybe we should. But I just want to point out one thing. You know, we hear a lot about the new birth, about people that say they are saved and they're on their way to heaven. But I wonder sometimes, And I'm not here to judge anybody's new birth experience, but let's be very careful that we don't have just an emotional experience, but that it's genuine. [00:16:14] And how do we know if someone's on their way to heaven if they're born again? And let me just say this, if we are born again, our course is radically altered. We are going in a different direction. we cannot claim the new birth genuine new birth and continue on the way that we were not even part ways it has to be all the way how we live how we act [00:16:45] indicates if we have been born again or not one of the things that caught my attention here and again at the ministers meeting we had two overheads on either side and some of the ministers preached with overheads And Brother Simon Schrock had an overhead up there, and on it he depicted the narrow way. And he had a narrow path going up the hill, and on either side of that path there was a ditch. [00:17:18] And in the ditch there, it reminded me of what Daniel was saying last Sunday morning. He said, for every mile of the road there's two miles of ditch. And on one side he had running parallel, on one side was the angel of light. He had running alongside there. And on the other side of the narrow way, he had wolves in sheep's clothes. Now, I don't know what that tells you, but I think that all of us would agree [00:17:51] that if we are to stay on this narrow path, we have an enemy to work against. We have the kingdom of darkness that is coming at us and the tactics of Satan can get a person that started out right, totally off course, to the point where the person doesn't even is so confused he has no idea where he's going. And with that in mind, I think if we are going to be effective in doing battle against the forces, the powers of darkness, we have to identify the powers of darkness and we have to identify his tactics. [00:18:30] And so I just, I just have a few here, just some random thoughts. I think one of the tactics that Satan uses in getting us down off the path and onto the broad way is human reasoning versus faith. And I don't know, I never put much thought in this, but in my thought process, there are some things that are beyond what I can comprehend right here. [00:19:01] And we believe in faith. We have to have faith. You know, human reasoning appeals to right here. If I can figure out what's going on, then I feel a little more comfortable. But it has to be God's way, and I have to believe. Many people have stumbled and fallen because of that. Just take, for example, human reasoning. Think about numerical success in churches. [00:19:33] Let's say you have a church over here that's full and overflowing. Well, obviously they're doing something. That's true. They're doing something. But does it necessarily say that they're doing the right thing? Let's be very careful. Human reasoning might say that yes, they're serving better coffee and donuts than we are over here. Well, that's just a figure of speech. But we have to be careful that we go by faith. [00:20:06] And we continue to practice truth. It doesn't matter what our numbers are. I don't think God is impressed with numbers. Although it does feel good when the pews are full and there's people coming. But let's be careful when the pews are full that we are still standing on truth, not on my reasoning. Isaiah 55.8 says this, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. [00:20:38] Faith keeps us on the narrow way. Faith. Just simply taking God at His word. and just going on in faith. When we bring faith in this battle, then it's not my reasoning, it's engaging God in the battle and we don't have to walk alone. The second thing that I thought of, a tactic of Satan, is isolation. And I don't know if any of you have ever faced this, but let me just say this. [00:21:11] And I don't do, I don't study war, so I don't know those things. But I do believe that in war, it's always the thing they want to do. They want to isolate the enemy. And when you can isolate an enemy or when you can isolate a person, it brings confusion. It brings lack of direction. And I think Satan tries that. In fact, I remembered back some time ago, several years ago, I don't know if you ever get to the point where you feel like the values that you're trying to hang on to are almost not worth it because you feel like you're almost alone. There's no one there. [00:22:00] I remember one Saturday morning, I believe I've shared this here before, I just felt discouraged and there was a brother that called me and we got to talking and all of a sudden I realized that this thing, I'm not alone, there's brothers and sisters that care about issues that we were facing. And I think that Satan tries to do that to us, to get us off course, off track. But we need to continue to walk in truth. [00:22:33] It doesn't matter what culture dictates or how we feel. We can't go on our feelings. And if you think we're the first ones that have experienced this, the Bible is full of people. Look at Elijah after the Mount Carmel experience. He was so discouraged. He felt so alone. He just wanted to die. He just requested that God would just allow him to die. God had to remind him there were 7,000 people that had never bowed their knee to the idol. [00:23:07] 7,000 people. You know, I think the church of Jesus Christ is going to be here when the Lord returns. And we have to remember that we are not alone in this battle. We're not alone. The third thing that I think Satan likes to appeal to, or a tactic that he uses, and I use this term rather loosely because we hear it so often, instant gratification or short-term comfort. [00:23:39] I don't know what you think about when I say instant gratification. Maybe you're thinking about putting your sandwich in the microwave and 30 seconds later you have your sandwich and you can go. Well, that's part. That may be a part of instant gratification. But I think many people have been lured off the narrow way by instant gratification. Maybe I shouldn't say instant gratification. Maybe a better term would be short-term comfort. Now, when we're tempted to lie about something, it gets us out of the bind for right now. [00:24:19] It brings short-term comfort, but in the long term, we're on the Broadway if we do it. But short-term comfort. Many people have been willing to sacrifice or lose their salvation for short-term comfort. You know, professing Christianity is even involved in business deals that bring short-term comfort. It may be a little shady, it may look rather good from the outside so that we can make quick gain. [00:24:52] But if you look at it closely, it's just short-term comfort. You know, and again, if you think we are the first ones that are tempted, look at the Word of God. What was Eve looking for? After she yielded to temptation, she wanted the fruit. She wanted instant comfort, short-term comfort. And I don't think I'm going to read, but if you care to read, or if you think of, just run this through your mind here, Matthew 4, 1-10, when Jesus was tempted. [00:25:29] Now, that passage, verse 1-10, clearly illustrates the two ways, the narrow way and the broad way. Look at what Jesus said first. Jesus was hungry. He had fasted for 40 days and he had a physical need right there. And Satan tempted him. Just turn the stones into bread and you can have your needs taken care of. [00:26:01] Isn't that the way that Satan comes to us? We're a little uncomfortable. We have a physical need and we could do something that would just make us comfortable right now. He had a physical, he wanted a short, he offered him a short term fix. And of course, Jesus didn't waver. He stayed the course. He offered next the kingdom of earth, the glory that goes with this kingdom that we're seeing around us. [00:26:33] It's so tempting even today. And I don't know, maybe in this thing, I thought of it Wednesday evening. Wouldn't it be just a lot more comfortable just to all sit together and just stay here? And it would be. It would feel a lot more comfortable. But you know what? The narrow way isn't always about comfort. But you know what? If we follow, if we stay on course, the narrow way is the way that brings peace. It brings rest to our souls like nothing else. [00:27:05] If you think about it, think of our, I guess, our forefathers going to the state and they knew what they were facing. Some of them had their flesh torn and they had seen other people maybe going the same route. They could have had that short-term comfort and said, well, okay, okay, I give up. and they would have been set free. But they chose not to do it. [00:27:36] They chose to stay the course. Now some things that God's Word teaches us about the narrow way and I don't know, maybe this is just my own thinking again. But there was a time when I thought that the narrow way was just kind of the hard way. And I've already spoken about that a little bit. But are we on the narrow way if there is no joy in our lives? And I'm not talking about momentary happiness because I have a new tractor. [00:28:09] I'm talking about joy. The joy that comes from within. That comes from God. Do we sometimes represent to the world a narrow path that is without joy? You know, the narrow way is an attractive way to the world if they see and sense joy. The fruit of the Spirit, I'll just say it, that's a simple way to say it, the fruit of the Spirit. [00:28:42] It's very attractive to them. But if we somehow think that the narrow way is just dragging us down and it's something we just have to do, I don't think it's very attractive at all. Now, we are not, I don't think, we are on the narrow way if we don't have a testimony for the Lord. I may be a little radical there, but, you know, when I'm going, when I'm doing something, and just in business, say, for instance, and I meet up with another person that is in the same business, [00:29:20] we have something in common, we're talking about it. Shouldn't it be the same way if we are on the narrow way, on our way to glory, and we meet other people, brothers and sisters, and they're on the narrow way, we have something in common, and when we go out there, we represent that way, we are talking about that way, we are talking about another kingdom, we are going in other direction, we should have a testimony. You know, God's people cannot be silent about what God has done for them. [00:29:55] We show it in so many different ways. In the way that we speak. In the way that we conduct our lives. You know, if we don't have a testimony for the Lord, or a word for God to our fellow man, I wonder if we're on the narrow way. And in closing, I would just like to say this. Though the road is rough and steep at times, I just treasure the peace, the peace that passeth all understanding. [00:30:34] When we know that there's nothing, we can rest when there's nothing between us and God. and we're just willing to follow and I know that that takes effort that's not something you know sometimes God brings to mind things and we have to again take care of things but I treasure that peace and I hope that all of us here this morning will someday hear the words well done thou faithful [00:31:07] When we have come to the end of that path, well done thou faithful servant.