The Mount No.23 The Right Direction

Psalm 1. We're going to be talking later on about two ways, the spiritual way and the way of the unbeliever. Our Lord Jesus gives some impressions about that, some teaching on that in the Sermon on the Mount, but well before his day the Psalmist had something to say about it. So let's read together the first Psalm.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of markers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither, whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. I danced in the morning when the world was begun, I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun, I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth, at Bethlehem I had my birth.

Dance men wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance city, and I'll lead you all wherever you may be, I will lead you all in the dance city. I danced for the scribe and the pharisee, but they would not dance and they wouldn't follow me. I danced for the fishermen, for James and for John, they came with me and the dance went on.

I danced on the sabbath and I cured the lame, the holy people said it was a shame. They whipped and they stripped and they hung me on high, they left me there on a cross to die. Dance men wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance city, and I'll lead you all wherever I may be, I will lead you all in the dance city.

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black, it's hard to dance with the devil on your back. They buried my body and they thought I'd gone, but I am the dancer and I'll still go on. Dance men wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance city, and I'll lead you all wherever I may be, I will lead you all in the dance city.

They cut me down and I leap up high, I am the life that will never never die. I'll live in you if you live in me, I am the Lord of the dance city. Dance men wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance city, and I'll lead you all wherever I may be, I will lead you all in the dance city.

Dance men wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance city, and I'll lead you all wherever I may be, I will lead you all in the dance city. The reading this morning is from Matthew chapter 7, commencing at verse 13, where our Lord continues his words to his disciples and the crowds on the mountain. Matthew 7 13.

Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. Watch out for false prophets, they come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, thus by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you, away from me you evildoers.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash. When Jesus had finished saying these things the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority, not as their teachers of the law. This is the word of the Lord.

We do want to thank you for your goodness and for your grace. When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he's done for me my heart cries out hallelujah. Praise God for saving me.

Amen. Let me read to you again the two or three renderings of the couple of verses that Andy Milne who as you've gathered if you read our notes and news is one of the people that we want you to affirm as a deacon I want to read to you a couple of verses that he read to us earlier from the seventh chapter of Matthew's gospel. Here it is in the in the RSV version.

Verse 13 chapter 7. Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. Now the New English Bible's rendering. Enter by the narrow gate the gate is wide that leads to perdition there is plenty of room on the road and many go that way but the gate that leads to life is small and the road is narrow and those who find it are few.

Now all of you with the NIV read together the rendering there chapter 7 verse 13. Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. One of the things that we were told and so many years ago now I care not to remember the exact number at theological college in regard to the calling of preaching is that one is always going for a verdict.

You don't want to leave the congregation in a spirit of indecision. You want them to say yes or unhappily you want them to say no. But one thing you do want is for them to make a response.

Now that piece of advice it was well placed because it comes from the illustration of the preaching technique of our Lord Jesus Christ. There as we have visited that scene many many Sundays sometimes consecutively occasionally broken because of Christian festivals as we've come to that northern part of Palestine and envisaged our Lord giving this great Sermon on the Mount reference has been made to the thousands of people in attendance listening to his every word as he's preached it with a back cloth of a natural open air theatre or a natural arena and over in the far distance is the Sea of Galilee and between him and the sea are these hundreds and hundreds of people and our Lord is concerned. He's concerned that they understand the way into the kingdom of God.

He's concerned that they make a response to what he has to say. He's out for a decision. There are those who think that when Matthew wrote this Gospel he had in mind the Pentateuch that is the first five books of the Old Testament and he sees the Lord Jesus as a greater than Moses laying down the new law and I think there's perhaps some justification for that.

Now when Moses was preaching his final sermon to the Israelites in the book of Deuteronomy you'll find in the 30th chapter in the 15th verse he pushed them to make a decision. Choose life or death. Respond to what I have to say because the words that I bring to you I have received from God.

So our Lord Jesus is very concerned that people respond to all this lovely teaching in terms of the Beatitudes and the variety of responses that one ought to have to the requirements of God on one's life, the use of time, the use of money, our willingness to exchange worry for peace, our concerns not to judge other people. The Lord Jesus is very concerned that you respond to what he has to say in a very positive fashion. And so true to form in all his teaching having set up this marvellous code of ethics, this marvellous lifestyle he now applies what he has to say because he's coming to the end of it from the 13th verse to the final verse in the 7th chapter and so he makes the application and he talks to us about various alternatives.

There are two ways, the broad way and the narrow way. Which one are you on? Says our Lord in the 13th and the 14th verses. There are two types of preachers, the false prophets and the good prophets, the true prophets.

Which one are you listening to? The 15th verse. There are two types of fruit, the good fruit and the bad fruit, which sort of fruit are you producing as a Christian person? What sort of deeds are you engaged in? Verse 21, 22. Good deeds in terms of actions or deeds that really are words with no substance at all.

What foundation are you building your life on? That of sand or that of, or that of rock? Verses 24 to the end. So you see how our Lord Jesus is tying together all the teachings that he's brought and he wants the people to make a response. Actually there's only two options available.

We don't like to be pressed into a decision one way or another. We don't just want the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, but we want various options don't we? And perhaps in the political realm that's quite honourable. But as far as our Lord Jesus is concerned there are only two options.

There is the way that leads to life or there is the way that leads to death. There is the acceptance of the ethics of the kingdom and the dedication of one's life so that one can live out those ethics as one responds to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Or there is the declaration of UDI, going your own way.

Jesus said if you're not with me you're against me. Well then let's pick up what he has to say from these 13th and 14th verses because as I mentioned here he sets in front of us the picture and it's an easy one for us to grasp. It's the picture of two gates.

There you are going on a ramble like the church rambles. You pass through a field, there's a wide gate and it's open. Everyone gets through easily and as you go beyond the gate you see a very wide track down which you can all progress.

But sometimes in the subtlety of those who devised the down walks centuries ago there's just a little path that leads off. And you've got to be very quick if you're following the leader to ensure that you don't miss what is not so much a wide gate but a narrow one. One that's more equivalent to the turnstile shall we say at a football match where crowds can't get through at once or if they do then they have the same problems as in my native Sheffield and Hillsborough football stadium and all the tragedy there.

Now when our Lord is speaking to these people and by extension speaking to us he's saying there are two gates. There's a wide gate and it opens to a wide thoroughfare. In the city of New York there is a street called Broadway and that's what our Lord Jesus has in mind.

Not the literal Broadway but all that Broadway stands for. And then he says as you go through life there's not only this wide gate there's the narrow one. It stands for my teaching and it goes on and on until eventually it leads you into the kingdom of my Father.

Now which road are you on says Jesus? I want an answer. Are you deliberately choosing the narrow way? Narrowness is not a very good word is it? I mean it's not popular. How do you define Christianity? Oh well I'm a broad-minded person you know.

But there is a sense in which being broad-minded is a negation of all that Jesus has been teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. It's interesting isn't it? What the media do to Mary Whitehouse. I recognize her as being one of the greatest ladies in our country.

When anyone says that she's got a hang-up against sex and then they really are quite absurd. How can you have a hang-up against sex when you're a grandmother with your own kids and your own grandchildren? There is a sense in which the media take anyone to task who is laying down a definitive ethic and saying this is the way that we ought to go. Now that was the ethic that Jesus was setting down.

Here we are there are two ways and two gates and you can go the way of the narrow path or you can go the way of the broad path that says Jesus your future destination will be determined by the selection of the road down which you move. There have been some commentators who looking at the 13th and 14th verses here of Matthew 7 wonder if our Lord is not so much speaking of the gate in terms of conversion but the gate in terms of the pearly gate. You know you get the idea in Revelation don't you that when you pass from from this life to the next you you go through the pearly gate into the heavenly Jerusalem so forth.

Well I do believe that when you die you go consciously into the presence of God and there is a sense in which the gates open wide as the gates of heaven open to receive the resurrected ascended Lord Jesus Christ. But it seems to me that pure logic here says that our Lord is is in using this terminology of the gate thinking not so much of the end of our pilgrimage at the beginning. In other words the moment of dedication, the moment of commitment, the moment of conversion.

What I'm suggesting that is that when our Lord gives this advice enter through the narrow gate he is referring not only to all the teaching that has preceded the 13th verse of this 7th chapter but he's also referring to himself. You see he doesn't want your patronage about the Sermon on the Mount. We've had enough socialist politicians who've told us in in decades gone by that the the philosophy of socialism is is that of the Sermon on the Mount and they're they're very pleased to agree to the ethics and so on and so well that may be all very well but it is patronage.

You see our Lord is not asking you what you think of it. Our Lord is not asking you for your commendation he's asking you for your consecration. He is saying that for a person to to live by these standards he has first to ensure not that he's turned over some proverbial new leaf but that he has come to the Lord Jesus confessed him as Savior for our Lord says I am the door.

Our Lord elsewhere says I am the way. There is no other road into life eternal but through him and the person who is going to keep the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount needs to accept the saviorship of the Lord Jesus and know the filling of the Holy Spirit and as a result humble himself herself so that all that our Lord has set down by way of requirements for the kingdom over which he is the king can be lived out in that individual's life. Enter through the narrow gate that which marks out the Christian life is a life of narrowness.

It's a life in in which the broad-minded philosophers of this world have got no part no parcel at all and it's a life which you can only enter into hear me on your own. What do you mean by that? Well you see we all tend to follow the herd instinct by nature don't we? We're like the cows in the field and the gate opens and one cow goes through or one sheep goes through and as a result the whole herd the whole flock of God but you cannot be a Christian on in the herd instinct. You can only be a Christian as you go through that small gate the turnstile there's only room for you to do this on your own.

When our Lord talks about taking the right direction here what he's saying in effect in regard to the two ways and the large gate and the small gate is if you're going to go the way of the small gate and on the narrow road you're going to have to rid yourself of excess baggage. There are certain things that you will have to strip yourself of. There are certain disciplines which you will have to accept.

You see that's so much the difference isn't it? This this entry into eternal life through the gate represented by our Lord Jesus and the acceptance of his teaching and what goes on on the so-called broadway. You see there there are no restrictions. There anything can go.

Their tolerance is a virtue. The anthem of the broadway is we are broad-minded people. Says Alois Huxley in a very honest passage when he was a student he determined not to believe that the world had a purpose and he says this I had a motive for not wanting the world to have a meaning and therefore I assumed it had none and was able without difficulty to find satisfying reasons for that assumption.

He went down the broadway. He didn't want a purpose in the world because he believed if there was a purpose if there was a God and if his God had spoken it would put certain restrictions on him. Now don't you see that that's what Jesus has been teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

Come my way and live like this and when he talks about the the way in which we are to live and conduct ourselves he has a very different ethic than the average person on the broad road. He talks about blessedness in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Well you get no prizes for being poor as far as the attitudes on the broadway is concerned. Blessed are the meek and yet down that broadway it's all up for grabs. It's the lord of the jungle the weakest to the wall.

Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those now here our lord surely must be joking but he's not.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness sake. Now you don't get this philosophy on the broad road. In fact the broad road needs no requirements it's do as you please it's laissez-faire.

You're swept down the broad road not so much by a conscious decision but it's the way that human instinct takes you. Now our lord says be careful don't be swept along you're more than an animal you're more than a dumb beast pause for a little while enter not by the broad road but enter rather by the by the narrow road. It means however losing some of the baggage that normally you would perhaps have taken through life.

I add to that and argue it means saying goodbye to the spirit of this world. Now that sorts us out doesn't it a lot have we really got rid of the spirit of this world as Christians? The spirit of this world well it's it's one that uh that is controlled by the forces of evil. It's one which enthrones self.

It's one which has not got any concerns to glorify God. And now says our lord Jesus here is this turnstile you can take the your a new direction and you can follow this narrow pathway but as you do remember that the spirit that's in the world is not the one that you are to take with you. And it's so easy for Christian people because our lord is speaking now ideally to keep scooting between the two paths the narrow road and the broad road the philosophy there the materialism there all that they're living for there to do a sort of reconciliation between it and our lord says no ideally that cannot be the case the spirit of this world excess excess baggage that you don't need get rid of it kill it.

Are you determining to do this during your life? Again our lord I repeat is preaching the ideal as you're progressing along that narrow road you have to watch that broad road that's running somewhat parallel to it though a little off course and eventually will take you into a completely different direction but you can see it because you're both at the points of a journey when when roads just start to broaden out and out and out but you can see what's going on on the broad road and here you are as a Christian and there's a possibility of carrying through so our lord says no come back to the sermon on the mount listen to what I have been saying remember that no one can serve two masters either if I hate the one or love the other you cannot serve both god and mammon you're not to be so preoccupied about material things even about your physical health and strength that you forget that the most important thing in life is to seek god and his kingdom the spirit of the world you need to slay it it's difficult to do that so all the time as Christian people we need to come back to the sermon on the mount to be reading it and asking ourselves am I living like this let me speak a word to you parents you see you so condition your children by the examples that you set them and the problem is today that broad-mindedness has become almost a cult that everyone is involved in that the Christians are engaging in compromise and the possibility is that those kids that you that god has given you are not receiving from yourself that example that they need in their young lives so that when they become mature they will follow the lord jesus and be prepared to take that narrow road an earlier decade this century emphasized holiness and separation the lines of demarcation in evangelicalism have been eroded somewhat you may be able to hang on yourself you've got your roots in the Christian faith but what about those children of yours those of you perhaps who are blessed with good jobs who are somewhat affluent are your kids having everything that they require if so you're doing them wrong are you remembering that sunday is the lord's day and there is a way in which one can enjoy sunday and certainly i'm not arguing for the sabbatarianism of the victorian age but i am so concerned that the special nature of the lord's day is becoming eroded in Christian families to the extent that kids don't really recognize the difference and if we're on holiday then it doesn't matter if it's a religious festival it doesn't matter that's often to the seaside or here we are in worthing let's forget about the the possibilities of of coming to church let's enjoy the fresh air and so on and so forth well in one sense there is fresh air to enjoy seaside to enjoy material things to enjoy but unless you are showing to your children what is the greatest important greatest thing of importance in life then when they reach your years it may well be that you discover much to your eternal concern they're not on that narrow road and one of the reasons was that you allowed the influence of the broadway to permeate your family i didn't enjoy saying that but i said it because i believe that the lord told me to say it the earlier hours of this day you go on the broad road you get rid of unnecessary baggage you try to slay the spirit of this world within you you say goodbye to the self when were christians called to coddle the self jesus said unless a man take up his cross and follow me he cannot be my disciple blessed are those who take that narrow way which leads to life what a distinction it is this narrow road compared with the broadway broad equals spacious and roomy says john stock it is the road of toleration it has no curbs it has no boundaries of either thought or conduct the traveler follows his own inclinations it's full of superficiality self-love hypocrisy mechanical religions false ambition judgmental nature these things says john stock do not need to be learned or cultivated there's no effort to resist them you're carried along because this is the life and the atmosphere of the broad road and jesus says don't go down that road go down the narrow road so he talks about two ways he talks about two roads he talks about two different sort of people in in terms of the multitudes that are going one way or the other enter through the narrow gate for wide is the great and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it someone will say well look you've painted such an unattractive picture of the narrow road i'm not really sure that there's a great deal to commend it well ask yourself where lies the end of the journey what will be the final destination our lord says small is the gate narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it wide is the gate and wide the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it ask yourself what is life for what is the end purpose of life our lord jesus will tell you that life is given for you to live out before god to prepare yourself for the next life for the next world and he says that at the end of life as we now know it there is judgment and the people who have lived their lives in such a fashion that they've gone down the broad way and have had no cares for god and the things of the lord then they will go into an existence where god is not and jesus defines that as destruction elsewhere he calls it hell do you remember the psalmist he has a problem i have one too hard the problem was simply this in the 73rd psalm the unrighteous they they seem to do so much better in this world than the righteous surely god is good to israel but as for me you remember the psalm and halfway through the psalm as the as as the the writer is is toying with the problems of the seeming unfairness of god the word comes through to the psalmist consider the end consider the end of these people the bible says that the path of the just is as a shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day he doesn't say that the narrow road is strewn with primroses he says it's stained with blood but he says that alongside the the problems that come that there is also a sense of the joy of the lord there is a knowledge of of him there is the christian fellowship that you can enjoy one with the other as you move week by week and and year by year down the narrow road until ultimately you enter into life eternal there are according to jesus two ways a hard way and an easy way there's no middle they're entered by two gates they're broad and narrow there are no other gates they're trodden by two crowds large and small there's no third group they end in two destinations destruction and life there's no third alternative there is no popular via media so our lord like moses centuries before says choose this day choose life you ever thought how interesting it is that when the apostle paul was on the horse on the damascus road he was told to go to the street called straight and there he would find someone who into that but but it seemed to me that that street where paul would get the sound advice that he required was well named there's a road in jerusalem or rather there's a road in in london in the east end of london in the city that's called thread needle street ever been down thread needle street often wonder how the road got that name probably there were seamstresses in in years gone by who who used to work there there is a road in jerusalem or a little alley down which you can go and it's known as the eye of the camel the needle's eye you you you can't get your camel through that gap unless you get rid of all the extraneous baggage that you don't really need you have to deal more severely with yourself than if you're at heathrow airport trying to persuade the baggage handler that the fact that you've got 40 kilos and only are allowed 20 kilos is something that they ought to close their eyes to somebody has said that the only animal ever put together by a committee is a camel and to get it through a small gap is very difficult the only way you can get that camel through is by getting rid of the luggage that you don't require our lord jesus puts up the idea of the wide gate and the narrow gate the wide you can get anything through and you can live any way and it might seem that you're having the best sort of life but the end says jesus is destruction there is a turn style however which illustrates our lord jesus and when you commit yourself to him and you can only do it on your own you get rid of all the clutter that you don't really need in life you start to move down that narrow road he promises you that it will lead to life eternal you see he wants people to live by the ethics that he's been teaching but for them to so do they have to make a definite response to the message that jesus was preaching he wants a decision for he's the king setting up the ethics of the kingdom he's the savior who's going to die for the people have you chosen life have you chosen the right gate through which to pass let us pray lord we are amazed at the teaching of our blessed savior he sets down the patterns of life that he wants us to live he sketches a different scenario from which this world generally knows and then he tells us to elect which way to go by your grace we want to go his way by the empowering of his spirit we want to live the life that he wants us to live to know the joys and the freedoms as well as the difficulties and the challenges help us this morning to determine to go his way for his sake amen i'm gonna stand and sing the lord's prayer