Lord, just once again, how grateful we are to serve You. What a wonderful Lord—gracious and merciful, so kind, loving us perfectly. We are just so grateful, Lord.
And now, as we would look into Your Word, we really depend upon You, that You would translate this to our hearts, that we might see You more clearly and, in seeing You, be changed. This is our prayer, Lord.
We do want to tell You, dear Lord, that we love You, and we are so grateful for Your great love for us.
Yeah, I am part of the Italian cohort that has been imported here to Richmond, Virginia. There is the rest of the troop right over here, and in some other places. Wonderful.
When I was in the service many years ago, in the Army stationed in Colorado, there was a training session that we were going to go through. It was called an escape-and-evasion maneuver.
The idea was that they were going to take you and drop you behind enemy lines, and you had to infiltrate the enemy lines to get back to your base camp. They paired you up, and I was paired with this other young man from California. His name was John Alvarez. I will never forget him, and you will probably find out why shortly.
They paired us up and brought us behind the enemy lines, and we did not want to be captured. We heard stories that when you were captured, they really made it rough on you. I even heard of guys getting broken arms, so we were going to really play this game to the hilt.
They dropped John and me off, and it was still daylight. He says to me, “Len, do you know how we have to get back?” I said, “John, no problem. Follow me.” That was the first mistake.
“Follow me. We just have to go over these two ridges, and on the other side of that ridge is the base camp.” So we started out. We were sneaking around, with our guns and all in camouflage, and we were really playing it to the hilt.
But after being out there a few hours, and the sun going down, we were not so sure of ourselves anymore. After a while, I had to confess to John, “John, I do not know where I am going. I do not know how to get there.”
But we still tried to escape, or at least not be caught by these other troops that were looking. Finally, we got to the point where we just knew we were lost—big time—in the mountains of Colorado.
Now, John had been following me for some time, and finally John says, “Well then, let me just take the lead for a minute.” I said, “Yeah, fine.”
Well, I am not exaggerating. Within thirty seconds, he was walking in front of me. It was pitch-black dark, and all I could hear was him screaming because he had walked himself off a cliff and literally rolled down this embankment almost thirty feet.
I am screaming down to John, “John, are you okay?” I was more concerned that I would have to be out there by myself now, really. But he had gone down this embankment.
To make a long story short, we were lost for thirty-six hours in the mountains—cold, freezing, wet from the rain that started. We were so grateful to be found the next day.
So what is the moral to this story? Do not follow me, act number one. But there is a way to go. There is a right way to go, and I did not know it. Neither did John, and we were lost out there.
The moral of the story is: you have to go the right way.
So if we look in Matthew’s Gospel, in the seventh chapter, reading the thirteenth and fourteenth verses, it says:
Enter ye in by the narrow gate:
for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,
and many are they that enter in thereby.For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life,
and few are they that find it.—Matthew 7:13-14
To really understand, or better understand, these words of our Lord, we need to look at what preceded them to find out whom He was addressing here. That is very important to understanding these words. Who is the Lord Jesus addressing?
If you turn back to Matthew 5, in the first verse it says:
And seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain:
and when He had sat down, His disciples came unto Him:
and He opened His mouth and taught them, saying.—Matthew 5:1-2
Just prior to this, Jesus had been ministering in Galilee, and people were coming from Syria and every place to be healed and to be touched by Him. Many were healed of all different kinds of diseases. Demons were being cast out, and the crowds were growing and growing and following Him.
It comes to this point that He separates Himself from the multitude, and He begins to address His disciples.
We know that in Matthew 5, in what we call the Beatitudes, He speaks about the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the gentle, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
He goes on to speak to the disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”
He says that your righteousness needs to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. He says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit murder,’ but I say if you call your brother a fool, you are deserving of the hellfires.”
He says, “You have heard it said that you should not commit adultery, but I say to you, if you so much as look at a woman with lust in your eye, you have committed adultery with her in your heart already.”
He says, “You have heard that you should not make false vows.” But your words should be such that when you say yes, they know it is yes with you; and if you say no, they know it is no with you. Anything beyond that is sin.
He says, “You have heard it said that you should love your neighbor and hate your enemies, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
He teaches them to beware of performing their religion in front of men for their approval, but to live their lives out with God in such a way that they would have a hidden life with Him.
He talks to them about praying and the priorities of prayer. He speaks to them about where your heart is—there is where your treasure lies. He speaks to them about the difference between being anxious in this life and trusting God for your life.
Then He comes down to this, and He also speaks about judging others. The way you judge others is the way you will be judged. How could you judge others? Well, all you have to do is look at yourself.
Then He comes and begins to speak about this issue of entering by the narrow gate.
Why is it that from Matthew 5 through Matthew 7 He is addressing His disciples only? Why could He not announce this to the general multitude?
I think this will give some light as to why He separated His disciples and spoke these things to them rather than to the general populace, rather than to the throng that was following after Him for healing.
If you read 1 Corinthians 2:12-14, it says this:
But we received, not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is from God;
that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God.Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth,
but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with spiritual words.Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him;
and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.—1 Corinthians 2:12-14
Those things that the Lord was talking about in the chapters we just referenced had to be appraised spiritually. They could not be understood by the natural man. They do not make any sense to the natural man.
He knew that the people who were following Him, for the most part, were after what He could give and not after Him. That is what makes all the difference, my dear brothers and sisters. Are we after the things of God, or are we after Him?
If we are after the things of God, then your life in God will be very shallow—and is very shallow. But if you are after Him, and, as Isaiah says, pray that in Him we find our fullness and completeness, then that is something altogether different.
These were spiritual issues, spiritual matters that just could not be understood by the natural man.
Another reference would be Matthew 13:34-35:
All these things spake Jesus in parables unto the multitudes;
and without a parable spake He nothing unto them:that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,
I will open My mouth in parables;
I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.—Matthew 13:34-35
And then again in Luke 8:9-10:
And His disciples asked Him what this parable might be.
And He said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God:
but to the rest in parables;
that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.—Luke 8:9-10
When we come to Matthew 7:13-14, it starts off with Jesus saying, “Enter by the narrow gate.”
We should really hear the Lord’s heart in this. The Lord knows what is going on. The Lord knows the end from the beginning. His heart is for His people. The heart of the Lord Jesus is always good toward His people. What He does is always right.
Speaking from that heart—the heart of love, the heart of wanting the best for you and the best for me—He says, “Enter by the narrow gate.”
It is the heart of a father who loves his children. “Enter by the narrow gate.” There is something behind that which speaks of care and concern, of not wanting us to stumble where we do not have to stumble.
It is like a father who would tell his son or daughter, “Listen, do not do that, because if you do, you will get hurt. You will get burned. I have been there. I know about that. You do not have to go through the same pain that I have gone through.”
It comes from that kind of a heart—the heart that loves, wants to spare, and wants us to come into the good.
Enter by the narrow gate.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man;
but the end thereof are the ways of death.—Proverbs 14:12
Another translation says that the end thereof is destruction. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is destruction.
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and