Sermon
Life At The Crossroads
October 30-31, 1999
Pastor Donald Sheley

Turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 7. We're getting near the end. We've been here for some time and now at verse 13 Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few, there are few who find it. Just flip over in your Bible a few pages to the right to Luke's gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke. And it's the record of the same occasion, the words of Jesus. Luke 13:22-24. It says, And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able." 

Now Jesus has in essence finished His Sermon on the Mount at this point. He has told us about His kingdom, and we will find that in the closing verses of the sermon there are four different contrasts that Jesus makes representing four different warnings that focus on the future final judgments. He says that there are two ways to travel. We're going to talk about them today. There are two types of trees. There are two kinds of followers. And then He concludes His sermon by saying there are two ways to build, either on rock or on sand. He's talking about His kingdom and He's describing it clearly that some will enter and many will not, and the basis for a person's final destination begins with that person's decision about Jesus and about His kingdom. And so as He comes to the close of the doctrinal portion of His sermon He now brings His audience to a point of choice. It's decision time.

And verse 13 Jesus is saying enter into the narrow gate, and He's appealing for a decision. There are many decisions that are recorded throughout the Scripture that not only affect men as individuals, but as nations and I'd like for you to go with me just to a couple or three of them. Go with me to  Exodus 32 and it's the story of Moses who's been up on the mountain, you remember now for forty days, and God has taken His finger and has, on tablets of stone, written the Ten Commandments. And when that is finished Moses is told by God, get down, something has gone wrong in the camp. And you remember that as Moses nears the camp he sees the nation of Israel dancing around the golden calf. What he does in his anger he takes that calf and he grinds it up into powder and he mixes it with the water and he says, now drink it. His heart is terribly disturbed that a nation that has been so blessed, a people that has been so cared for by the omnipotent hand of God would be dancing around a golden calf. 

And then look at verse 25, Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on the Lord's side - come with me!" Saying you shamed almighty God in front of His enemies. Now it's time to make a spiritual decision. If you're on God's side then come join me. He has another decision time. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 30. And again Moses brings the people to a time of decision and choice.

Look at verse 15, "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." It's decision time. 

One more, 1 Kings chapter 18. And here's the setting to the story, Elijah is the prophet. He's deeply disturbed at the sin of his nation because old wicked King Ahab and his wife Jezebel have brought in the false prophets of Baal, and here was the nation of Jehovah worshiping Baal. The old prophet walked into the king's chamber one day and said, King, from now on till God changes His mind you're not going to have any more rain. There's going to be a famine, and he walked out. More than three years have gone by and I mean the nation is dried up, the cattle are dying, everything is dead. Old Ahab gets terribly disturbed so he goes looking for the man who announced the famine. 

Look at verse 17 of chapter 18. Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, "Is that you, O troubler of Israel?" And he answered, "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals. Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table." So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. It's time for a decision. And Elijah came to all the people, and said, "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people answered him not a word. Decision time. And in the Sermon on the Mount it's decision time. 

Jesus has said here's My kingdom. My kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy. It's a kingdom where hypocrites are unwelcome. It's a way of life of purity, of holiness, of godliness. It is living like Christ, loving like Christ, and if need be, dying for Christ. It's a life lived in total trust in God. It's a life without selfishness and pride. It's a life that's always lived with eternity's values in view. Now that's My kingdom. Enter through the narrow gate. 

The writer of Proverbs says there is away that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Now Jesus knew that at the close of His sermon, He knew that He was dealing with eternal destiny. He knew that when man finished his earthly journey he would spend eternity in either one of two places. He will either go to hell or he'll go to heaven. And Jesus is saying it's the road that you choose. It's the decisions that you make in this life that will determine where you spend eternity. There's a heaven to gain and there's a hell to shun. If you walk the narrow way you'll find life. If you choose the broad way, the life of unrestraint, the life of godlessness, the life of selfishness, the life that has no concern for the spiritual, for the sacred, for the divine. You live that life and ultimately it will lead to destruction. Now Jesus said that He'd like for us all to be with Him. 

In John 14 it says, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a pace for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." 2000 years ago when Jesus finished His ministry here He went out onto the mountains, He was ascended back into heaven. Here's what Jesus is saying, I'm going away, I'm going to prepare as place, it's called heaven, and when your journey on life is finished I want you to spend eternity with Me that where I am there you may be also. 

John 17, He's saying His prayer and He says, "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am." So the heartbeat of Jesus is that man will choose the way that leads to life and ultimately will bring him into the presence of Jesus for eternity. That's the prayer of Jesus. Now Paul takes another approach. Go with me to 2 Corinthians. And Paul in verses 1 through 10 of 2 Corinthians 5 takes a different approach, but here's what he says; For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved. Well what's he talking about? Paul likens this body as a tabernacle, as an earthly place of dwelling for the soul that will spend eternity somewhere. So he says when this earthly tent is dissolved, and he's speaking of death, he said we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. When a believer passes from this life and goes into the presence of Jesus we take on immortality, and we take on an incorruptible body, and Paul refers to that as a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

Look at verse 6. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Paul said as we live here we are going to be absent from the Lord. Verse 8, but he says, We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. And so Paul is placing the position. When we leave this tabernacle of flesh, when it is dissolved in death, the soul of the Christian goes to be with Jesus. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 

So Paul is saying in this passage, the day is coming, a day of joy, when we are finished with this human body and he regards it merely as a tent, a temporary dwelling place which we sojourn until that day comes when it's dissolved in death, and then he says we will then be in that abode, present with Christ for all of eternity. Now that's the hope of the Christian. If you love Jesus Christ and you've placed your trust in Him and you serve Him with all your heart, we have no fear of death. It's not that we like death. It's not that we cherish it, but as Christians there is a hope knowing that when our eyes close the last time here on earth we'll go to be with Jesus for all of eternity. That's our hope. But that's for those who walk the narrow way and enter in through the narrow gate. 

Jesus said there is a broad way and many walk on that broad way, and it ultimately leads to destruction. It's the way of life without God. It's the one who has no concern for the things that are spiritual, and there are some very solemn warnings to those who walk on the broad way. John 3:36; Jesus says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. That's solemn. Go with me in your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. Look what Paul writes, And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. That's serious.

Paul said the day is coming when Jesus will return from heaven with flaming swords, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And those will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of God. That's the ultimate destiny of those who walk the broad way. Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it, Jesus said, for the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life. And you'll notice that when we read our text we went to the passage in Luke, and Luke said, he added a word, he said strive to enter; strive to enter. Now that is fascinating because the word that he used, the word for strive, in the original text of the Scripture is the word for agonize; agonize. Jesus is saying agonize because to get into the kingdom can be a pathway of agony. Now it's the same word that we Paul used in 1 Corinthians 9:25 when he talked about the marathon runner, and he said, as an athlete he will strive towards the goal. And we've watched the athlete as he's nearing the goal and he's got every muscle strained to the hilt, and every bone with every ounce of energy pouring into that race, and you see him agonizing to get to the goal, and oft times when they do they fall because they have put everything. They have agonizingly won their race, and Jesus said getting into the kingdom is not an easy route. 

You see what I'm preaching today is not the sermon of a preacher because most preachers make getting into the kingdom easier than this, and that's one of the tragedies of religion today. The preacher will say, yes, tell Jesus that you believe in Him, come sign the church card, get in the baptistery, and then it's all done; you're in. That's not true. That's not true. Jesus said if you're going to make into the kingdom it's going to be, for many, for most, for all, difficult at best. You say, Pastor, that's not very positive. I'm just telling you what Jesus said. Go with me to a passage of Scripture that has fascinated me all the life of my ministry. It's Matthew 11:12. This is probably one of the most interesting verses that Jesus ever spoke. Loot at what He says, He says, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. " What was He saying? Well when you go back and you read 2000 years of church history you'll come to the conclusion that the kingdom of God and the righteous things of God have been under violent attack for 2000 years. Martyr after martyr, persecution after persecution, thousands have laid down their lives for their allegiance to the kingdom of Christ, and it has been under violent attack. And I tell you ladies and gentlemen it's under violent attack today even in America. Anything that's sacred, anything that's godly, we're laughed at and many politicians would like to take all that's sacred and all that right and rule it out of our society. The kingdom of God, the things that are righteous, the things that are godly are attacked by a world that comes from another kingdom and that's the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of darkness. Jesus said the kingdom has been at war since He set it up 2000 years ago, and Satan has hated every minute, and violently tried to extinguish the church. 

Old Voltaire, the French atheist, did everything he could, and he said the day will come there will be no more Bible. I mean he did everything he possibly could to wipe out the Bible, violently. By the way, Voltaire's home today is used by the Bible Society of Europe, but the kingdom of God has been under violent attack. And Jesus is saying always My kingdom will suffer violence. Always savage men will try to break it up and snatch it away and destroy it, and therefore only the man who is desperately in earnest, only the man whom the violence of devotion matches and defeats the violence of persecution, will in the end enter it. The kingdom of heaven is not for the well-meaning but for the desperate who, no one drifts into the kingdom, the kingdom only opens its doors to those who have prepared to make as great an effort to get into it as armies do when they storm a city to capture it. Jesus said if you're going to get into the kingdom it's going to take everything, almost a spiritual violence to fight down everything that demonic, all the criticisms, all the laughters that come your way. You've got to face it with a determination, the same determination that an army faces a city to capture it. That's not easy. Jesus said that's the way to get into the kingdom. It takes everything. It takes a sold out heart, a total commitment. It makes Jesus Lord of everything, and if He not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all. Jesus said it's a narrow gate and it's interesting. 

The word for narrow means small, limited, disciplined, restrained. You see it's not easy to be a Christian. I don't preach an easy believe it because Jesus didn't. Jesus said you've got to agonize, and it's a narrow way. How narrow is it? Well, Jesus says if any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. Jesus said if you're going to follow Me, you don't count. You must deny yourself, your goals, your ambitions. Whatever it is that may in any way hinder Christ from being Lord of your life and what He wants to do through you. It's His way that's first not mine. So I give up my will. That's hard. That's narrow. 

A rich man came to Jesus and said, Jesus, I want into Your kingdom. Jesus said, go sell everything you've got and then you can come. That was agonizing. That's narrow. And the thing that amazes me is that Jesus when that young man turned and walked away sorrowfully, Jesus didn't go alter him and maybe tap him on the shoulder and say, let me just change the requirements just a little bit. I'll just make it half. He never changed the requirement. He set the standard, go sell all then you come. That's narrow. That's hard. That's restrained. That's restricted. 

A man said to Jesus, I want to follow You. And Jesus said, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but I have nowhere to lay my head. Someone who has nothing, to gain everything. That's narrow. And Jesus said, he that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me. that's why Jesus said it's a narrow way. It's a restrained, disciplined life that will make it into the kingdom. And He added something that has always disturbed me. He said, and few there be that find it. And I say Jesus, why is it? Why is it so few want to be Your disciple? Why is it the masses walk the broad way and have no concern where they're headed? 

I've preached here in this church for 40 years and from the pulpit for 50 years. I come to the pulpit week after week and my deep longing and my prayer has been dear God, bring men and women to You and when the night closes on Sunday night, many times I walk away with a broken heart. O you say, but Pastor aren't you grateful for the hundreds and thousands of people who come? Yes, but I live with this knowledge that in a city, my city of San Bruno, with nearly 30,000 people, if I really got generous no more than three or four thousand are in church today. And that means that there are 25,000 to 27,000 within fifteen minutes from the door of this church that will end up in hell! That's what tugs at my heart, and that's what keeps me preaching Sunday after Sunday! That's my burden and that was the burden of Jesus, and He stood and said My sermon is finished, now enter, but only a few. 

Follow Jesus to Capernaum in John chapter 6 and He preaches that great sermon on I am the bread of life. Eat of Me and ye shall live, was His sermon. And when you get to the end of the chapter He lost His entire audience, they walked out on Him. Everybody in the synagogue went home when Jesus Christ the Son of God is saying; I am life, just drink of Me. And in the closing verses of that chapter, John chapter 6, I think one of the most sorrowful questions in the Bible. Jesus turns to the twelve because that's all that's left and He said, will you also go away? Only a few find it. And you follow Jesus to the cross and you realize that the multitudes he has fed and the disciples he has led, and yet when He goes to His cross the sacred book tells us that they all forsook Him and fled. 

The narrow way is a lonely way. There's just room for you and Jesus, and that's all you need in life because when you've got Jesus, you have everything. You have His peace, His presence, His forgiveness, the promise of spending eternity forever in His presence. It may be a narrow way. There may be times when to live out my faith is an agonizing affair, but I keep my eyes on the portals. I'm almost there, and I'll tell you when I walk through those portals of heaven and see my blessed Christ and know that forever I'll be in His presence, I'll sing the old hymn I learned long ago. That hymn, When I see Him face to face. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. It will be worth it all when we see Him. Life's trials will seem so small when we see Jesus. Just one glimpse of His glorious face all sorrows will erase. So bravely run the race until we see Christ.

Let's pray. Jesus, You never minced words. You made it just as honest and straight and as clear as we need to hear it. And today there are people who sit here who have yet to make their decision. They're at the crossroads of life. And today they've heard the truth, and I pray, Lord Jesus, that before this day is out somewhere in the quietness of their life, somewhere where they can pray, may they submit their lives to You dear Jesus and make You the total master, the Lord of their life, Savior of their soul. And Lord Jesus we who sit here today want You to know that we want to love You with everything inside of us. We want You to know Lord that You are the focus of our purpose, You are the object of our love, You are the person to whom we're devoted. You're our God and we choose to walk the narrow way today so that when our journey is finished and this earthly tabernacle is dissolved in death, we shall walk into Your eternal presence. May that be true of all of us here today, in Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. God bless you.