Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew? Matthew, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14.
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
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for Thy precious Word. Teach us how to honor Thy Word, and even to tremble before Thy Word, because Thy Word is light, Thy Word is life, and Thy Word is truth.
So, Lord, we do come to Thy Word and ask Thy Holy Spirit to open Thy Word to us, and also to touch our hearts and our understanding by Thy Word, that Thy Word may fall into good ground and bear fruit unto Thyself a hundredfold.
We commit ourselves, we commit this time, and especially commit Thy Word into Thy loving hands. Give it to us that we may be filled. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Last Lord’s Day, our dear brother mentioned that we are expecting a prophetic word this Sunday. Now, it all depends on what you mean by prophetic words.
On Wednesday night, our brother explained it to those who were there, but unfortunately, most of you were not there.
Now, sometimes we think of prophetic words in terms of foretelling the future. Now, if that is the case, I do not pretend that I have any.
But if by prophetic words you mean forthtelling the mind of God, the will of God, then, dear brothers and sisters, every ministry should be in that category.
Why do we gather to hear the Word of God unless we want to know His mind, His will? So this is something that we all look to the Lord for.
Some time ago, as I was waiting before the Lord, these words in Matthew 7:13-14 came to me.
I do confess that in the past, I had never meditated on these words. I just took them for granted. But this time, when the Lord reminded me of these words, I began to meditate on them.
And as I meditated on them, the Lord spoke to me. So this morning, I would like to share what the Lord has spoken to me, because I believe that we all need to hear it.
The Lord said:
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.
Now, when we hear these words, what is your impression? What is your reaction? What do you mean by entering through the narrow gate? What is the narrow gate?
And why did the Lord say there is another way, another gate—a wide gate and a broad way—and many enter through it? But this narrow gate leads to a straitened way, and few even find it.
However, the wide gate and the broad way lead to destruction, while the narrow gate and the straitened way lead to life. Now, what do we mean by destruction? Does it mean eternal destruction? What do we mean by life?
I think these are the questions that we should really ask before the Lord. Now, we must remember that these are the words of our Lord Himself. He is the Word of God, the expression of God.
These are the concluding words of our Lord Jesus in the so-called Sermon on the Mount. So unless we understand the context, probably, ordinarily, we will apply it to something else instead of applying it to what the Lord is trying to say to us.
One day, the crowd came to our Lord. But our Lord climbed the mountain, and after He went to the mountain, He sat down, and His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and spoke to His disciples.
So remember, the Sermon on the Mount is not spoken to the crowd. The crowds may overhear it, but they are not the people to whom our Lord addressed His Word.
The Sermon on the Mount is a message that our Lord speaks to His disciples: people who believe in Him, who have accepted Him as their Savior, and not only that, people who followed Him and wanted to learn from Him.
Our Lord Jesus is not giving us a new law to keep. Moses was used by God to give the children of Israel the law, which was meant to be kept. If they kept it, they would have life; if they broke it, they would die.
Now, our Lord Jesus here is not giving us a new law, a higher law, a higher moral or ethical standard for us to keep. Because if you really mean business with what the Lord has said, you will find that it is beyond any man to keep. No one can keep such words.
So evidently the Lord is not trying to give us a new law to keep. What He is doing is trying to tell us what kind of life His life is, and He is trying to tell us His way of life.
And because He has given us His life, therefore He expects us to live the same way of life on earth. That is what it is. It is the way to discipleship.
How can we truly follow Him and learn of Him? He has already given us His life. The potentials are all there, and He fully expects us to live it out. And that is the Sermon on the Mount.
And in the concluding words, He gave us an exhortation. The exhortation is: “Enter ye in by the narrow gate.”
This is not a gate to so-called initial salvation. Now, we often apply it to that. In a sense, that is true.
Because if you really want to enter into the salvation of the Lord, if you really want to have your sins forgiven, if you really want to receive a new life, what must you do? You have to repent.
Our brother has mentioned that we have to repent. And what is repentance? Turn around one hundred and eighty degrees.
You cannot come to the Lord Jesus and ask to be saved while keeping back something. You have to confess your sins—all your sins. You have to be stripped of, so to speak, all your things, in order to see that all your sins have been laid in the body of our Lord Jesus on the cross.
That is the way you come to salvation, and that is why we need to be baptized.
There was a story of one man who was going to be baptized. But strangely, when they baptized him and tried to immerse him under the water, he raised up his hand above the water.
Why was that? Because he had something yet to do. He could not let that thing go under the water to death. Now, brothers and sisters, if anyone is baptized in that way, he has not been baptized.
You cannot keep any sinful thing in your life when you come to the gate of salvation. That is very true.
But, dear brothers and sisters, what is being talked about here is not the gate to salvation. It is the gate to discipleship. How can you live the Christian way of life unless you enter this narrow gate?
You know, brothers and sisters, in the early church, the name Christian was not there. The name Christians was given by the world to those believers in Antioch. You will find that in Acts 11.
Before we were called Christians in the sight of the world, who were we? You will find in Acts 9 that this arch-enemy of the church, Saul the Pharisee, went to the high priest to ask for documents so that he could go to foreign cities to seize those people of the Way.
In other words, even before the word Christian was given, those people who believed in the Lord Jesus and followed the Lord Jesus were known as the people of the Way. It is a way of life.
Why? Formerly, they were Jews, and they lived as Jews. There is a Jewish way of life. But now, after they believed in the Lord Jesus, strangely, something happened.
They no longer walked in the Jewish way of life. They began to walk in a strange way, a way that had never been seen in the world.
A way that only one Person had ever walked—that is, our Lord Jesus. And strangely, these people began to walk in that way.
Then came the Gentiles. Now, the Greeks had their way of life, their manner of life. But strangely, after they believed in the Lord Jesus, this Greek way of life suddenly disappeared.
Nobody told them what to do or how to live, but straightway they began to live differently.
And it happened whether they were Jews before or Gentiles before. After they believed in the Lord Jesus and began to follow the Lord Jesus, they all walked in the same way of life. It is a heavenly way.
It is different from anything earthly. It is a spiritual way, different from anything natural. It was something that the world did not know, and yet, strangely, without any outside force or coercion, they all began to walk in this way of life.
The Christian way of life—that is what the people who believe in the Lord Jesus and follow the Lord will know. And, dear brothers and sisters, this is the way that our Lord Jesus expects every one of us to walk, even in this twenty-first century. It makes no difference.
He calls us to Himself to walk in this so-called Christian way of life.
Now, brothers and sisters, after we have believed in the Lord Jesus, have we changed our manner of life? Have we changed our way of life?
Are we still walking in the American way of life, just like the rest of the Americans? Are we still walking in the Chinese way of life, just like the Chinese have walked for five thousand years?
Is there any change? Is the change so drastic that it is altogether different from the world—the world having never seen it before? Brothers and sisters, where are we?
This way of life begins with our Lord Jesus. In John 1:14, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth.
The Son of God, the Word of God, the expression of God, came into this world. God is a mystery. He is the greatest mystery in the universe.
Nobody knows Him. His ways are higher than men’s ways; His thoughts are higher than men’s thoughts. Nobody can predict Him. Nobody really can understand, really know, God. He is the greatest mystery in the universe.
People may know about Him, but never know Him. But one day, the Word became flesh. The unknown became known.
For the Word to become flesh, it is not an easy way. Philippians 2 tells us that He, who was equal with God and counted it not a thing to be grasped at, yet emptied Himself.
In other words, for God to become man, He had a big price to pay. He had to empty Himself.
He was so full, so perfect, so rich, so glorious, so altogether different; and yet He emptied Himself of all the glory, honor, and worship that surrounded His deity.
Now, He could not empty His deity, because that is what He is. Even after He became man, He was still God.
But He emptied Himself of everything related to, surrounding, attached to, and belonging to His rightful glory. He emptied Himself to take up the form of a bondservant.
That is what man was originally created for. Man was created to be a bondservant to God. But how man failed. Yet He came and took up the form of a bondservant.
No rights—never asking for His rights—giving up everything to His Father to become a man.
The world expected the Son of God to come into this world and be born in Jerusalem, in the royal palace. That is where they thought He should be, according to the world’s opinion.
That is why you find the magi going to Jerusalem, to the palace, to ask for the One who was born to be King of the Jews. How mistaken they were.
He was born in Bethlehem. There was no place for Him—not even a home in Bethlehem, not even an inn in Bethlehem.
He was born in a manger with the animals, wrapped in swaddling clothes. That is the sign of the Word becoming flesh. That is the way He came into this world.
For thirty years, He was hidden in the hilly country of Nazareth. There was a proverb at that time: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” But He was there.
When He began His ministry, He went down to the River Jordan. He alone, of all men, had nothing to repent of. Yet He took the place of mankind.
Throughout His ministry, full of grace and truth, He was not accepted by the world. Nobody understood Him—not even His disciples.
The world rejected Him. He came to save the world, but the world rejected Him. He was faithful to the Father, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
This is the new and living way that He has opened for us. This is the way that His life lived, and He expects us who have this life to live the same way.
Brothers and sisters, are we really living in the life of our Lord Jesus—the life that we have received from Him? Can we say we do live according to that life?
If we do, why are we not different from the world? Why are we still walking in the American way of life? Why are we still walking in the Chinese way of life, or any other earthly manner of life? Why?
Are we really following the Lord? What about our discipleship to the Lord? Have we begun? Have we started? Where are we?
Brothers and sisters, I began to ask myself, “Who am I?” We profess that we are believers. We profess that we have His life in us. We even consider ourselves as walking in that life.
But see what manner of life we live. What way of life do we live? Does it justify us?
So our Lord Jesus said, “Enter ye in by the narrow gate.”
You remember that story in Matthew 19: a rich young ruler, very moral, very religious, very pious. He ran to the Lord, knelt before the Lord, and said, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
And you know what the Lord said to him: “If you would be perfect, sell all that you have, give to the poor, come, and follow Me.”
The Lord loved that young man, and the rich young ruler was grieved and left.
Then the Lord said, “How difficult it is for the rich to enter into the kingdom of the heavens. It is easier for a camel to enter through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Hear it.
Now, we are told—probably—that this needle’s eye was a small gate in the old city walls. In the old days, you had walls around cities, and then there were city gates.
Now, when I was young, I lived in such a city, and you had the gates there. The gates were pretty wide. But sometimes the city gates were closed.
Yet even if they were closed, within the gates there was a small gate that was still open. You were still able to enter through that small gate, and we are told that this small gate was called a needle’s eye.
So when the merchant came with all the merchandise on the camel, they could not enter through this needle’s eye. They had to strip the camel of all the load, and then they would pull and push that camel, barely getting through that narrow gate.
So the lesson is: you have to strip off everything in order to get in.
Now, when the disciples heard that, they said, “Well, if the rich cannot enter in, then who can?” Now, in our idea, the richer you are, the more chance you have to enter into the kingdom of the heavens. So they were surprised. They were astonished.
And hear what the Lord said. The Lord said, “It is impossible with men, but possible with God.”
So I think probably this explanation of the needle’s eye is not correct, because if a camel is stripped of everything, he still can get through. But our Lord said it is humanly impossible.
No one can get through the needle’s eye. It is impossible with men. Who do you think can do it? The young man, the rich man, thought he could do it. He could not.
What does it mean? Who is that gate?
John 10:7. Our Lord said, “I am the door of the sheep.” He is the gate. The Lord Himself is the gate.
And this gate is so narrow that only one Person can get through it. It is the Lord Himself.
If, aside from the Lord, you want to bring something else together with you to get through it, you will not get through. You have to be stripped of everything, even yourself.
Oh, we say we have been stripped of our sins. Thank God for that. Or we say we have even been stripped of some of the world in us. But what matters if we carry a little with us? You cannot go to death bringing anything, not even your own life.
And that is just what it means. With man, it is impossible. Who is able to give up himself?
You may be able to give up sins—thank God for that. You may be able to give up the world—I doubt it. You may be able to give up some pleasures, but not all. You may be able to give up something.
But to give up even your own life, your natural life, your self-life—you, I—who can do it? Nobody.
The Lord makes it very clear: it is impossible with man. But do not stop there. There is hope. The Lord said, “With God all things are possible.”
In other words, there is grace to enable you to do the impossible. And that is the question.
Brothers and sisters, how we have lowered the standard. How we consider ourselves all right—good Christians, even to be admired by people. But where are we? Have we entered through the narrow gate yet?
Why is it our Lord Jesus said to those who shall follow Him, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me”? If anyone loves his father, mother, wife, children, or his own life more than Me, he is not worthy to be My disciple.
Why is it the Lord says, “You must lay down everything to follow Me, forsake all and follow Me”? Why? Because He is the narrow gate. You can only enter in by Him and nothing else.
You know, brothers and sisters, I have to confess: if you have ever read Watchman Nee’s Basic Lessons, I hope you do. In the first volume, A Living Sacrifice, there is a chapter called “Forsaking All.”
I often questioned that. I thought forsaking all was too advanced for beginners. It should not be among the basic lessons, as if it were a foundation. No, it is for those who are advanced in the Lord to forsake all. That was the way I always thought.
But this time, the Lord said to me, “This is the beginning.” A good beginning is half done. The reason why our walk with the Lord is not absolute is because our beginning is too loose.
You read the Gospels. Every time the Lord called a person to follow Him, what happened? He left all and followed the Lord. No exception.
Anyone who still lingered to go back—“Let me bury my father before I come”—the Lord said, “You are not welcome.” No one can put his hand on the plow and look back. No, no one. Why so absolute?
When the Lord called Peter and Andrew, they left the boat and followed the Lord. When the Lord called John and James, they left their father and followed the Lord. When the Lord called Matthew, he left the customs office and followed the Lord.
Does it mean that every one of us who wants to follow the Lord has to leave his family? Some people would like to do that. But that is not what the Lord means.
Does it mean that if you follow the Lord, you have to leave your job? Not necessarily. Sometimes, maybe. Peter still had his boat. He still had his family, even his mother-in-law. But he said, “I have forsaken all.”
What is it? Not outwardly. You would say no one can enter into the narrow gate if he does not forsake all. In other words, there is a transaction you have to make before you start to follow the Lord.
And that transaction is absolute. The Lord will not accept anything relative.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are too relative. Our family is more important than the Lord. Our children are more important than the Lord. Our work is more important than the Lord. Any little thing can take us away from the Lord. Dangerous.
And that is why we are so weak in our testimony.
Brothers and sisters, have we begun? We may have believed the Lord for so many years, but have we begun in the way of discipleship?
Is Christ really being formed in us? Are we walking in the way of the cross?
If we have not entered through the narrow gate, how can we say we are walking in the straitened way? The straitened way is the way of the cross.
Our Lord walked the way of the cross throughout His life, until He was crucified. But where are we?
The Lord said, “Enter ye in by the narrow gate.” Why does He exhort us to enter into the narrow gate? Because there is an alternative way.
There is a wide gate, and through that wide gate there is a broad way, and many go in.
This is not speaking to the people of the world. This is speaking to Christians—to us, to believers, so-called disciples of the Lord Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, we have an alternative way if we want to, if we are not careful, if we give in. There is a way. There is a wide gate there. There is a broad way there.
In other words, you can bring anything you want with you—also Christ.
And many are traveling there. This is not the world; this is the religious world. This is Christianity.
You can follow the Lord bringing the world with you, bringing your own self with you: self-expression, self-fulfillment, prosperity gospel. Why? Broad way—welcomed by the world. And many are walking there.
But the narrow gate—few are they that find it.
No wonder, because this wide gate, this broad way, is ever ready, ever available. You do not need to seek for it to find it. It is natural. You just go into it. It is everywhere. It is easy. It is popular.
But for this narrow gate, you have to find it. You know the words: if you do not seek, you will never find it.
Are we seeking the narrow gate? Are we really seeking the Lord with all our hearts? Do we really mean business with Him? Are we just drifting along? Where are we?
Why does the Lord exhort us to enter in through the narrow gate and walk in the straitened way? Why? Because the wide gate and the broad way lead to destruction, while the narrow gate and the straitened way lead to life. That is the difference.
If you live for today, the wide gate—that is the way of life. But if you live for eternity, that means destruction.
Again, you will find that the destruction and the life here must be read in the context. It has nothing to do with eternal death and eternal life.
We who believe in the Lord Jesus, by the grace of God, have received His life, and that life is eternal life. You will never die.
So what is the destruction here? What is the life here? If you read the context, you will find it has something to do with the kingdom of the heavens.
One day, when the Lord shall return, He will set up His kingdom upon this earth. And those who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, they will reign with Him for a thousand years. This is life.
But if you love yourself, if you love anything or anyone above Christ, you may live a broad life, but it leads to destruction.
In other words, as the foolish virgins and as the unfaithful servant, they will not be able to enter into the marriage feast of the Lamb. They will be cast out, reaping remorse and regretting.
Brothers and sisters, it depends on where it leads to.
I believe the Lord wants to wake us up. His coming is so imminent. You look at the world—it cannot be far away. But are we ready?
Do we still live for today, or do we live for eternity?
Do we really live for ourselves, to have a good time? Or do we live for Christ, that He may be glorified?
Dear brothers and sisters, that is the way the Lord spoke to my heart. I tremble at His Word.
How often we hear the Word, but it does not register.
My prayer is that by His grace, we do the impossible, because that is the only way He knows, the only way He calls, the only way He expects every one of us to be there.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, teach us how to tremble at Thy Word. Really allow Thy Word to sink deep into our hearts and transform our lives.
Lord, if Thou shouldest come now, can we see Thy face? Have mercy upon us.
Send us, Lord. Thou art waiting for us. We pray that our response to Thee may be, “Yes, yes. Thou art worthy to be followed.”
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.