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One of the essential characteristics of the world is its diversity and the striking contrast that defines all that is in it and everything that happens in it. Nothing in this world exists without its antithesis; everything has its exact opposite – there is joy and sadness, there is good and evil, there is crying and laughter, there is hope and despair, there is peace and warfare, there is life and death, there are two gates (the narrow gate and the broad gate). And every person here on earth journeys by one of these antithetical gates. The question I am asking you today is: through which gate are you journeying? The purpose of this inquiry is to help you reflect on your ways; for it is crucial for every person here on earth to know the eternal destination of their soul. For your soul will meet with torment if you forsake the ways of wisdom (God’s wisdom) to pursue the desires of the flesh.
Knowing the gate we are on gives us a clear picture of where it is taking us and a better understanding of what awaits us at the other end. This is crucial, for the two gates or paths are diametrically opposed in every aspect; they do not lead to the same destination: one is the path of life and the other leads to perdition. This means we are all journeying, each to a specific destination: life or death, depending on the gate we are on. The Lord says in Mat. 7:13-14, “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 which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
This truth stands in stark contrast to what many worldly-minded people and opponents of the doctrines of grace claim – there is only one way to life: the narrow gate, and that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Besides Him there is no other way for men to be justified before God. Here is the testimony of John the Baptist concerning the exclusivity of Christ, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:35-36).
Although the broad gate that leads to perdition is not labelled, ‘way to destruction, or gate to hell, or way to death, that’s where it leads. As Prov. 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” This reminds us to be watchful, to mind where our heart takes us, lest we follow the wrong path and wake up tomorrow in hell.
To inherit eternal life, one must enter through the narrow gate. But what does it mean to enter through the narrow gate? And why enter through the narrow gate? “For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory” (Rom. 3:23), we all stand condemned before the Holy God, separated from his glorious presence, and what we all deserve is death. And the only way to be reconciled to God is to have our sins forgiven and be without blemish. But this perfect life that God requires of us, we can never live it, nor are we able to atone for our sins. But in his grace, He has given us an Advocate, i.e., the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ – “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2). So to find peace with God, to be reconciled to God, to be justified before Him, to have everlasting life, one must repent of his sins and believe in Christ the Saviour, the Way to life, the Narrow Gate, the Way to glory.
In today’s analysis, I am going to expand on the distinctiveness of the two gates as listed by our Lord, so that we can have a thorough understanding of the implications of our heart’s design and choices as we journey through this life, and an unequivocal understanding of the eternal destination of our souls.
The narrow gate, as the Lord says, leads to life everlasting; it is the ‘Highway of Holiness’ and it is difficult to go through it. Is. 35:8 says, “The unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the Way”, i.e., those who humbly recognize their spiritual corruption and their inability to save themselves, and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. For He is the Way, the only means by which sins are forgiven – “In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7). “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”, says the Lord in John 14:6.
Opponents of the doctrines of grace claim that there are many ways to heaven, because their view of God is wrong; they have a high estimate of man, they worship a god that is simply a fruit of their own imagination. They are wise, worthy and righteous in their own eyes; they justify themselves before men, and forget that “what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God” as Luke 16:15points out. All those who think they can get to heaven by their own doings cannot enter the Kingdom of God; for all the righteous acts of man are filthy rags in the sight of the Holy One (cf. Is. 64:6), and the wisdom of man is foolishness to God. Those whose hope is in their own achievement deceive themselves; those who turn down the grace of our God are in for a rude surprise. For “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Cor. 1:27-29).
It is hard for man to find the narrow gate because no one can get there by his own design; for we are all by nature enemies of God: no one seeks after Him. It is difficult to enter by the narrow gate because of the corruption of the human heart: it is prone to sin and rebellion, it is deceitfully wicked. On the other hand, there is Satan, the deceiver and destroyer who hates the truth; he lays up snares, crafts all kinds of evil tricks to deceive the heart of man, in order to drive him further away from the truth; he “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Apart from the flesh and Satan, there is also the world which is opposed to the Truth; it operates by instilling a sense of self-worth in the mind of the natural man, thereby inciting him to have a sense freedom when he indulges in the deeds of wickedness, thus furthering his rebellion against God and his truth. The world also infuses fear in the hearts of many by protecting lies and what is evil, and by persecuting those who hold fast to the truth. The world, under the rule of Satan, promotes evil and incites rebellion against God. Hence many are driven away from the truth, from the narrow path, by the flesh, by Satan and the world, all enemies of God and the Truth.
Therefore, it is only by divine grace that we can turn to Christ. There is in us no inherent willingness or ability to overcome these powerful foes that stand against the things of the Spirit. God the Saviour is the one who delivers people from the bondage of sin, Satan and the world; Christ is our victory over the flesh, sin, Satan, death and the world. Were it not for the grace of the Lord, no one would ever turn to Christ; all would die in their sins and go to hell. Both repentance and faith in Christ are God’s gifts to undeserving sinners like us; they are not inherent to our nature. So for us to enter by the narrow gate, i.e., to believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit must first work in us: He removes our hearts of stone and gives us a heart of flesh that loves Christ, and in place of our perverse mind, He gives a new mind that accepts and understands the things of the Spirit. Otherwise no one would ever know God, no one would ever enter by the narrow gate. In fact, the Lord affirms the impossibility for man to make his way to the Kingdom of God by his own doings, saying in John 6:44,“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” Later on, in John 15:16, the Lord expands upon this truth when He says to his disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name He may give you.”
It is by God’s grace and sovereign election that we can go through the narrow gate, not by human power, wisdom, merits or works. No one can turn to Christ unless he is drawn to Him by our Heavenly Father. The Lord says in Mat. 19:24, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” Although the Lord here is primarily referring to those who possess material wealth, this also appeals to all those who think they can earn salvation by works, that is, those who think they have some virtues and merits, all the self-righteous. People may strive to enter the Kingdom of God, but they can never achieve it by their own efforts; no sinner can save himself no matter how hard he labours (cf. Luke 13:24). We contribute nothing to our salvation – it is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This is where the religious people of this world and all the professing Christians who think they should add some works to their faith in order to be saved stumble.
Following Christ, the Way to life, comes with a heavy cost. Christ did not died for those who claim to have some values or virtues; He died to save those who recognize they are utterly devoid of personal righteousness, that in Him they may be declared righteous before God through repentance and faith. Christ died as our substitute on the cross; He paid the full penalty for our sins. Only those who are willing to renounce to this world and its riches, to deny themselves (laying down their pride and cherishing no sin), and to invest all they have in the Kingdom of God can enter by the narrow gate. Thus declares the Lord in Luke 14:26-27, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple.” V.33, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 9:23-24, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” This implies that, as followers of Christ we must live in perfect submission to Him, whose slaves we have become, sharing in his suffering, keeping God’s commandments, and being marked by sacrificial love for one another and the willingness to die for the Lord’s sake, if necessary. As the Lord says in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.”
It is difficult to live on the narrow gate, giving the antagonism that exists between the desires of the flesh and God’s will for man. In other words, that which the human heart desires is opposed to the will of God. To let go the desires of the flesh, to overcome the inherent desires of our human heart, becomes a daily and fierce battle for anyone who follows Christ. We must deny ourselves, renounce to the world, to everything carnal. Furthermore, we are subject to persecution, rejection, hatred, martyrdom, all for the sake of our Saviour’s name. But there is nothing mysterious about that, for the world treats us the same way it treated our Lord; for we are not of the world, we do not conform to its standards.
Contrary to the children of this world, who are controlled by the flesh, it is the Spirit of God who controls us and teaches us everything we need to know about our God. We don't depend on ourselves, we don't depend on our works; our trust rests on the power of God, for He is the source and object of our faith. Everything in our life as genuine Christians is Christ-centered; there is no room for carnality or worldliness, there is no room for self-exaltation; we walk in the Spirit and live for the glory of our God. We are a new creation, dead to sin but alive in Christ. We are Christ’s slaves, partakers of his divine nature and freed from the corruption that is in the world because of lust. In Christ, not by our own doings, we bear the fruit of the Spirit which “is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).
Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we are characterized by meekness, we recognize our spiritual poverty, we mourn over our sins, we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we are pure and merciful in heart, we are peacemakers; and all this change is graciously wrought in us by the Lord our God: his Spirit is always at work in us to sanctify us gradually, so as to conform us to the image of his beloved Son. As followers of Christ, we rely on grace and grace alone; for we acknowledge our lack of value and virtue, our inability to save ourselves, and we rest in Christ alone, the only Saviour and Lord. We are the chosen ones, graciously justified before God by the precious blood of Christ through our faith in Him; He has clothed us with his own righteousness and given us hope – “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:19-20).
Although it is a difficult path, the path of life is safe and secure, for as it is written, “even if [those who are in Christ] are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing”; [and] “everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Is. 35:8-10). The Spirit of God leads us who are in Christ in lovingkindness and truth, He keeps our paths straight and we cannot stumble – He who has begun a good work in us finishes it; Christ the Light enlightens our paths and patiently leads us on the ‘Highway of Holiness’. He showers us with joy and crowns us with everlasting life, peace and confidence. He is our righteousness and Hope, ‘a surety of a better covenant’ for his chosen ones. Christ is our everlasting Great High Priest. “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25)
In Christ, we are Kingdom’s citizens, and our Hope dwells on high with our Father and God. We have been cleansed by his precious blood and baptised into the family of God by the Holy Spirit who has taken residence in us. We are no longer children of disobedience, children of Satan, but children of God, heirs of his Kingdom. We live in union with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We are the purchase of the Lamb, protected from wild beasts and cared for by the Lord our Redeemer, the Great Shepherd – nothing, no weapon formed against us can prosper. To borrow the words from John 10:4-5, “When He has brought out all his own, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand”, says the Lord in v.27-29.
In this world we, disciples of Christ, will suffer distress, tribulation, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and even martyrdom, “For it has been granted to [us] that for the sake of Christ [we] should not only believe in Him but also suffer for his sake”, as Paul points it out in Phil. 1:29. “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (writes the Apostle Paul in Rom. 8:37). For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v.38-39). The Lord Himself says in Luke 21:17-18, “Everyone will hate you because of Me. But not a hair of your head will perish.” That is to say, although we may suffer all kinds of afflictions at the hand of the enemy, that is, the world, no eternal loss can ever affect us, we who are in Christ; our Saviour will not allow our souls to perish in hell. In other words, just as the Lord has declared it on multiple occasions, if we lose our lives for his sake, He who is mighty and faithful to preserve us will restore us.
When we set our heart on the narrow gate, when we turn to the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, we also find rest for our souls; the Lord delivers us from the heavy burden of our sins by graciously imputing to us his own righteousness, both active and passive, thus giving us peace with God. As the Apostle Paul says in Rom. 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” John 5:24, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life”, declares the Lord our Redeemer. Another privilege we have as followers of Christ is that our Great Shepherd teaches us his ways, i.e., the ways of wisdom which, according to Prov. 3:17, “are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace”, and so we are no longer hostile to the things of the Spirit, we are no longer blind to the truth. For our Lord “gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints” (Prov. 2:6-8).
As followers of Christ, the things of the Spirit are no longer hidden from us; for the Lord has given us ears to hear Him, eyes to see and the ability to understand the things of the Spirit. “But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:9-16).
Another distinctive element of the narrow gate is that there are not many people on it, only those who are the called. Because sin has established its dominion in the heart of man, the natural man does not and cannot accept, nor does he understand the things of the Spirit. So this gate is unknown to him. In other words, none of us comes into this world with the fear of the Lord or an inherent saving faith; no one is born with a saving knowledge of God. At birth we are all spiritually dead and lost in darkness; we are children of disobedience, children of wrath and enemies of God until the moment of our conversion, when the Lord Himself draws us to Himself, onto the path of life, the Highway of Holiness from which we were estranged by sin and held captive by death. That’s why, referring to our salvation, the Lord says in Is. 42:16, “And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.”
As Kingdom’s citizens, we are no longer driven by the desires of the flesh; our heart is set on the things of God. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). We walk in newness of life, we walk in the Spirit, enlightened by the glory of God. The Word of God is the Light to our path, the nourishment for our souls, the power of God unto our salvation; we are not ashamed of Him, we love Him because He first loved us. The Lord our Saviour is our righteousness and confidence, our Head and Great High Priest. In Him our reconciliation to our heavenly Father is complete; there is no more enmity but peace – “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”, declares our Lord in John 14:27.
We have been graciously redeemed by our Lord. He will hold us fast to the end and will crown us with everlasting glory. For we are his eternal inheritance, bought by his precious blood, chosen in eternity past by the Father, regenerated, sanctified, sealed and secured by the Holy Spirit who will glorify us on the day to come. As the Apostle Paul asks in Rom. 8:31-35, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” The answer obviously is no one; nothing can separate us from our Saviour. Eternal love, everlasting life is ours forever in Christ our Lord and Saviour, to whom belong all glory, majesty, honour and eternal dominion. Amen.
But all those who forsake the Way to life and enter by the broad gate will meet death, i.e., eternal damnation. The broad gate is the way of evil, taken by those described by Prov. 2:12-15 as “men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways”
It is easy to go through the broad gate, because there is no restrain against the flesh. The path is wide and easy to find, and there are many people on it. Unlike the narrow gate, this path is not alien to us, for we are all born into it. I.e., all people born of a man and a woman are marked by perversion; we are all children of wrath, enemies of God at birth. While some of us are sovereignly and graciously rescued by God from the bottomless and filthy pit where we live, many or most people in this world remain in the darkness their whole lives; they reject the hand of mercy stretched to them by the Lord, they turn their backs on his grace and love, and continue to journey through the broad gate, the side roads that lead to perdition. In other words, although the Way to life is revealed to all (cf. Rom. 1:19-21), many people choose to reject Him and continue their descent into hell, following the foolishness of this world. In bondage to sin and the flesh, they take a profound pleasure in the deeds of wickedness; their god is their natural desires, their mind is set on earthly things. They despise the wisdom of God and indulge in all kinds of abominations. As Paul says, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rom. 1:22-23).
This is nothing new. For instance, back in the OT the Lord rescued Israel from slavery in the land of Egypt, brought them to the Land of Promise, and gave them laws and commands that lead to life. But Israel forsook the Way of life, the ‘Highway of Holiness’, and continued into side roads that lead to death. In Jer. 18:15, the Lord condemns the disobedient Israel for forsaking Him, the Way to life, saying, “But my people have forgotten Me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway”. This is a clear picture of every natural man, of all those who go through the broad gate: instead of worshipping the True and Living God, they worship false gods; they hate God and reject his wisdom; they are hostile to sound doctrine, they suppress the truth. But this should not surprise anyone, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”, as the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Cor. 1:18.
Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, those who journey through the broad gate make themselves fools by pursuing their desire to live outside the will of God. They are children of disobedience, enemies of God, separated from his presence. They walk according to the flesh, they glorify the flesh; they grope about in the darkness on the way to perdition. They offer themselves as slaves to sin and wickedness, and the consequence of their foolishness is, they know neither peace nor joy; they have no hope nor life, for their ways are crooked and slippery. They walk in the midst of darkness, in the paths of injustice, led by the spirit of falsehood, i.e. the devil. Pride is the jewel of their necks, rebellion is encrusted in their hearts; they do not see the judgements of the Lord, but suppress their own conscience. They heed not the Word of God, for callous and haughty is their heart. They are in bondage to the sting of death, dead in trespasses and sin. Calamity and gloom await all of them, because they reject the Light to follow the doctrines of demons. Wrath will be their portion forever, for they have rejected the Son of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Contrary to our life in Christ, where the Spirit of God teaches us through the Word of God how to live and walk according to God’s will, there is no need to learn how to walk on the broad road; for every conceivable whim and sinful passion, all kinds of lusts that rule this path are ingrained in the heart of every natural man – deceit, malice, lack of self-control, self-exaltation, self-love, self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, contention and all kinds of wickedness are inherent to human nature. If there is anything man needs not learn how to do, it is the deeds of wickedness. We are all born with evil inclination. Thus, journeying through the broad path is easy, because perversion is at the heart of every human being; we are all inherently evil. Man's problem is not his environment or society as many think, but his perverse and deceitful heart. The prophet Jeremiah writes in Jer. 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” But when we are graciously and sovereignly drawn to the narrow gate by the Lord our God, we must learn everything that pertains to the Way. Because the things of the Spirit are alien to the natural man, we must be given understanding by the Spirit of grace; for within ourselves there is neither an inherent ability nor willingness to accept and understand them. We must be enabled by the Holy Spirit who, at the time of our conversion, gives us a new mind to accept and understand the Word of God, and a new heart to love and obey our God (cf. Luke 8:10).
The broad way is easy to walk because there is no fear of the Lord: worldliness and carnality is what governs this path; everything here is man-centered rather than God-centered – people glorify themselves, it is all about what they want, their evil desires and lustful passions. In order to gratify their pride and satisfy their lusts and evil desires, they give themselves as slaves to the deeds of wickedness; they are in bondage to sin and their wages is death. Because the Word of God is offensive to them, they reject it and follow the doctrines of demons. In order to avoid any restriction against their evil desires and lusts, they call evil good, and good evil; they establish their own rules and rights which go against God’s laws and give a prime regard to their sinful desires and lustful passions. They are spiritually dead, blind to the truth. As the Apostle Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:4, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” They reject God because their sinful hearts long for the freedom to indulge in the deeds of the flesh which are: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19-21). Therefore, pride, deceit, malice, lack of self-control, self-exaltation, self-love, self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, contention and all kinds of wickedness are their defining traits; they have no restrain against the flesh, no restrain against sin, no brokenness, because they are utterly depraved. They live in the flesh, sow in the flesh and glorify the flesh. And from it they will harvest death.
The broad gate is easy to find. I will say there is no need to search for it because we are all born into it; it is not unknown to us. So by nature, man is so familiar to it and well equipped to go through it; for the disposition of his heart, his natural inclination is toward the deeds of wickedness, everything that the sinful self desires and the lies that the world promotes. But the things of the Spirit are alien to him: he cannot understand them nor is he willing to embrace them. Only the regenerate heart is empowered by the Holy Spirit to accept and understand these things.
I believe every person on earth knows the inclination of his own heart; we know ourselves more than people around us. As Paul asks in 1 cor. 2:11, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?” Therefore, I conclude that every reasonable person is aware of the inclination of his heart, whether it is set on the things above or on the things below. Everyone should know whether they are journeying through the broad gate or through the narrow gate, unless they are self-deceived, thinking that all is well with their souls.
If you are still journeying with the great crowd, flocking through the broad gate that leads to perdition, I urge you today to abandon your evils ways and enter by the narrow gate. Flee from destruction and find refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Fountain of Life! Many worldly-minded and carnal people claim that there is more than one way to heaven: they are self-deceived and deceivers. Do not be fooled by such claims, for there is only one way – the Way – that leads to the Kingdom of God, that is, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”, declares the Lord in John 14:6.
Therefore there is no life but death for those who reject Christ the Saviour, those who trample underfoot his precious blood; their names are written in the books of death. The Lord God declares in Jer. 17:13, “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of living waters.” But in the Lamb’s Book of Life are written the names of Christ’s faithful slaves, those who follow the path of life, the narrow gate, led by the Great Shepherd – theirs is the Kingdom of God; they are citizens of the Holy City. “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Rev. 21:27).
Christ is the only Way to life, the only Way to the Father; all the other avenues that other religious systems of this world offer all converge to the same broad gate that leads to eternal destruction. That is to say, you may be a catholic, a muslin, a buddhist, an atheist, or even someone who professes the Christian faith but loves the world and lives according to the flesh; where you are journeying right now is the broad gate that leads to hell. You will die in your sins and go to hell unless you repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Your works, your merits, your nobility or religiosity cannot save you, “Nor is there salvation in any other [than in the Lord Jesus Christ], for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). Life is found is Christ alone. “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture”, declares the Lord in John 10:9. “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me”, declares the Lord our Redeemer in Luke 7:23.
I urge you to turn to Christ, no matter what your sins are – He does not cast out those who turn to Him. He died for sinners, not for the self-righteous. Just acknowledge your spiritual corruption, repent of your sins, and recognize your inability to save yourself. Flee from the broad gate, renounce to the world, renounce to the flesh, deny yourself and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He will cleanse you of your filths, clothe you with his pure garment – the robe of righteousness; all your sins, past, present and future will be forgiven, and God will treat you as righteous. The Holy Spirit will baptize you into the family of God, you will become an heir of his Kingdom, your head will be adorned with a diadem of glory, and you will spend your life in the glorious presence of God forever.
Stop mingling with the great crowd, stop following the trend of this world, stop conforming to its standards. Flee from the wrath to come, seek peace with God. I exhort you to repent of your sins now and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18). “Strive to enter through the narrow door (declares the Lord in Luke 13:24-28). For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.”
Do not turn your back on Christ’s tender mercies, “for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption”, as Psalms 130:7 tells us. If you continue with the great crowd, the Lord will give you portion among the wicked; yours will be wrath and torment forever. So repent today, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and He will save you! “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:10)!