And as you're taking your seats, please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter seven versus 12 through 14. If you have a Pew Bible, this will be on page 812. And again, this is Matthew chapter seven versus 12 through 14. Hear now the word of the Lord.

¹² “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. ¹³ “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. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Pray with me, Heavenly Father, as we hear your word, we pray that you would unite our hearts. That you would give us new hearts, renewed hearts by the power of your spirit, that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand all that is contained in the good news of the Gospel of your Son, Jesus Christ, who instructs us through these words here today. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well, last week, my family and I went down to visit one of the state parks of Nebraska Indian Cave State Park. We really enjoy going to the state parks that we have a lot of fun, especially we enjoy going on hikes because hikes are something that little children can somewhat easily participate in. And so we made the two hour journey down to go visit this state park.

And when we got there, we arrived and we did a couple of things around the park, but then we came to the main event that hike. Now we wanted again this nice, easy, pleasant, gentle thing for our family to do together. And so from the map we picked the shortest trail possible. There was one that was very clearly the shortest trail. And so we chose that one. And right away we knew that this may not have been the easy, family friendly activity that we wanted as we were greeted with this sign that said warning rattlesnakes in the area. Now, I wasn't excited about this. Our eight year old was thrilled with this. In fact, his greatest disappointment of the entire trip is that thankfully, mercifully, we didn't see a single rattlesnake. But so that specter sort of hung over us the entire time we were hiking. Well, then the second thing that happened is, is as we went at first, the hike was fine. It was through a lovely wooded area. The trees were changing, It was nice. And then it turned and we realized that the trail was going to take us straight up a hill. You see what the trail lacked in distance. It made up with elevation. And so what we were doing then was climbing and huffing and puffing and trying to get little children to drag their way up to the top of this hill.

And we got to the top of this hill, and we sort of caught our breath and looked out. And I guess it was a nice view over the Missouri River. We were we were all just trying to still catch our breath most of the time. And then we realized, okay, where do we go from here? And we realize then we have to go back down. So if the way up was tiring, the way down was terrifying. Here I am with a one year old strapped to my back as we have children weeping around us, we're holding hands, helping children to slide down as safely as they can down this treacherous trail. I don't know why they don't mark this as advanced climbers only, but there we were. What started as this nice, easy family event became increasingly treacherous the longer that we went. And isn't that the case in life? Jesus, in fact, warns us here that when we try to find in mark out and choose for ourself the wide gate and the easy way, we may end up getting more than we bargained for. Because as much as Jesus talks about the way being easy here, he also warns that that easy way ultimately leads to destruction. And so elsewhere in Proverbs chapter 13, verse 15, we read that the way of the transgressor is hard or it's rugged. It's easy. In some senses it's rugged in another. What it doesn't have in distance, perhaps it makes up an elevation and other other ways that it's rugged.

What Jesus is trying to tell us is that we need to be careful about the way in which we conduct our lives. And specifically, we need to think about the way we are going in our lives, because there are some ways that seem easy and that lead to destruction. Our big idea then today is that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life Jesus is, the way the truth and the life. And so this morning, we'll look at this in three points.

1. Duty.
2. Destruction.
3. Deliverance.

Duty

Matthew, chapter seven, verse 12. Once again, Jesus says, So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Jesus is giving us a rule for how to live, how to conduct their lives. And the way this is translated in the ESV, whatever you wish, actually flattens out a little bit of the comprehensiveness of what this is saying. Jesus really piles descriptors on this to show us that this is absolutely expansive to every single aspect of our lives. The King James version is a little clearer in translating the text where it says therefore all things whatsoever you would. And whatever you wish in all things, whatever you wish in your life that others would do to you due to them.

For this is the law and the prophets. As most of us know, this is what it's called the Golden Rule. It's one of the most famous verses in all of the Bible. What we often don't consider is we think about the golden rule in isolation, as we often don't consider. How does this connect with what has come before? Now, we've been studying the Sermon on the Mount for a while. Again, Jesus is still on that mountaintop. He got up on top of the mountain, Matthew Chapter five, and he's been teaching all the way through Matthew Chapter seven. He's he's coming close to the end of his sermon. And so we have to ask, how does what Jesus teaches here connect with what he has taught us before? This is one connected sermon, and we have some help in that first word that is included here in verse 12. The word is so in the English standard version, or as I said a moment ago in the King James version, it's translated as therefore, whenever you have a therefore you have to ask what it's there for. And so if we look up just one verse, we see part of what Jesus is pointing us to in the immediate previous verse, verse 11, Jesus is talking about the goodness of our Heavenly Father. He says, If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? So you can see the connection.

Jesus is saying, if your Heavenly Father is so good as to give you good gifts. Then you in whatever you wish that others would do to you. So should you do to them. Your life should be a reflection to others of the goodness that God shows to you. Now, to think about this helps us to understand what Jesus says at the end of this verse where Jesus says that in this rule we have all the law and the prophets. Now, probably we understand what is often called the second table of the law from this verse. The second table of the law is the second half of the Ten Commandments that deals with all of the ways that we should relate to other people in our lives. So it's the fifth commandment Honor your father and mother, the Sixth Commandment. You shall not murder the Seventh commandment. You shall not commit adultery. The eighth commandment, you shall not murder the ninth commandment, You shall not bear false witness. And the 10th commandment that we had in our confession of sin today, you shall not covet anything that your neighbor has. And we can see here, if you are only doing to others what you wish that they would do to you. Well, you can see how that's a reflection of that second table of law. Elsewhere, Jesus summarizes the entire second table of the law by quoting Leviticus 19, verse 18 that you should love your neighbor as yourself.

But there's sort of this hanging question If this verse is supposed to summarize all the law and the prophets, how does this connect back to the first table of law, the first four Commandments? You shall have no other God besides me, and you shall not make for yourself a grave and image or worship it. And the third commandment You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And the fourth commandment Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy? How do those commandments relate to whatever you wish that others would do to you, to also to them? But if we remember that what we are supposed to do is summarize and captured in verse 11 as that we are supposed to reflect the goodness of our Father who is in heaven and the good things that he does for us. What don't we understand that requires a right knowledge of who God is? It requires the right responsiveness of thankfulness and Thanksgiving and a right worship of Him as the only God, the only father from whom comes from heaven. All good gifts. And as we think about our Father in heaven is Jesus summarized by quoting elsewhere, Deuteronomy six, verse five Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength that's going to be required of us as we think about our Heavenly Father in order to reflect that in doing to others what we wish that others would do to us.

So it's the whole law, The entire law, and the prophet is summarized by this golden rule. But we should also recognize that Jesus is not just giving a one off verse where he's summarizing the law for some strange reason out of the blue. He's connecting really with everything that is come in front of this in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember, Jesus has been teaching us about the infinitely high heaven standards of the law all the way back since Matthew Chapter five, especially Matthew, Chapter five, verse 17. Flip back and look at what Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, verse 17. He said there Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. Does that phrase sound familiar? Because now that's the front bookend. Now we are at the back bookend. This is the law and the prophets. But the beginning of this section, Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law of the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. What I've come to fulfill can be summarized in this simple rule. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also unto them. Everything that Jesus has been teaching us about marriage and divorce and lust and murder and hatred and all of these things, Jesus is. This is the simple summary that covers all of those situations.

You know, about the same time that Jesus walked the Earth. There were two other famous Jewish rabbis, two rabbis who really started. They were rivals in some way. They started two important streams of Jewish rabbinical teaching that are influential in the Jewish community to this day. One was called Rabbi Shmuley and one was called Rabbi Hillel. And they were rivals, but they existed at the same time. And they sort of bounced ideas off of each other and debated with one another. And that's where there's two schools came from. Well, one day a Gentile, someone who was not a Jew, came up to these two rabbis and asked a strange question. He said, Teach me the whole Torah, teach me the whole law while I'm standing on one leg. Now, that's kind of a strange question to ask, but you see what he's saying and he says, I don't want you to give me an exposition of the law over the next five years where you go into all of its nooks and crannies and nuances, summarize it so simply that I can understand what you're saying in the time that I can sustain standing on one leg. Now, one of the rabbis refused. Rabbi Schama refused. He didn't think, apparently, that he could distill the entire law to a central principle. He says, I'm going to need five years or 50 years to give you an exposition of everything in the law. But the other Rabbi Hillel, tried to take a stab at it, and he said this do not do to your neighbor what is hateful to you.

Don't do anything that you wouldn't want done to you. Now you can hear how close that is to what Jesus says here, but you can also hear how it's much more limited in its scope. Rabbi Hillel told us that we shouldn't do things that would be hateful to us. He prohibited harm, essentially. But what Jesus does is certainly would exclude harm. But it also commands that we do good to others, not just that we should refrain from doing things that be hateful, but that we must do things that we would consider good to us, to others. And thus Jesus gives us this genius summary of the central principle of law. When you think about the law, don't be like Rabbi Shmuley, who thinks, Well, it couldn't possibly be summarized and put in a nutshell. It's so confusing, so complicated. One could never really know if and when they'd be in violation of it. This is a simple, handy rule that covers every situation. It's sort of like when I was in Driver's Ed, I remember one of the questions that our driver's ed teacher posed to us was how much distance should you have between you and the car ahead of you? And I was thinking, well, I don't know, 50 feet, 100 feet. I was trying to calculate it in terms of distance. And so I gave an answer and they wisely asked a question back.

Well, what happens if you're going much faster, not just driving in town, but on the interstate? Do you still need just that space? And I was thinking, oh, my goodness, I'm not good at math. You're asking me, too, to compute all of these complex calculations. How am I going to do that and visually estimate the distance all while I'm driving? I was despairing of this, but the very simple rule that probably, you know, if you don't know, a little free advice that maybe you didn't come to get, but you're supposed to give 2 seconds of distance between you and the person in front of you. But the genius of that rule is it's so flexible. If you're going slow, give 2 seconds. Look at a spot that the car in front of you passes and you should have 2 seconds before you pass that same spot. But then if you go faster, maybe on the interstate, well, that 2 seconds, you can cover much more distance. But it's so simple, you don't have to calculate anything. The only thing you need to be able to do is to count to two. My three year old can count to two. That's how simple the rule is. And Jesus is giving us a rule that's just as simple as counting to two. Search your heart If you know this is good that you would want done to you. There it is.

And you are required to do it to the other person. Now, what Jesus is doing here is he's bringing to a conclusion this is the concluding word of the first section of the summary of the on are the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is finished now with His ethical teaching, where He taught us what is right now. He's going to move into application and exaltation where he is telling us why we should do what is right. And so in this next section and really through the next four sections, Jesus is going to speak of the two ways, these idea of two ways. There's one way that leads to destruction and another that leads to deliverance. Now, Jesus isn't the first person to talk about two different ways. This idea of two ways is all over the Old Testament. We actually sang about it this morning when we sang Psalm one. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. It's encapsulated in Psalm one. That's not just because that happens to be the very first Psalm. It is the first Psalm because you see it all through the Psalms and all through the Proverbs. You see it everywhere, though, the way the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. One way leads to destruction, the other to deliverance. So let's look at what Jesus says about these two ways. The second section, then we're going to deal with, first of all, destruction.

If our duty is to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Destruction

Now we come to this way that leads to destruction of verse 13. The first thing Jesus does is to warn us about this way that leads us to destruction. He says, Enter by the narrow gate. Now, he's not going to tell us much about the narrow gate just yet. We'll have to wait until the next verse for him to explain what the narrow gate is. But he's giving us an initial warning. Enter by the narrow gate. Don't, in other words, enter by the wide gate. For he says, the gate is wide and the way is easy. That leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. Now Jesus is warning us about the narrow gate, but it's easy to understand why we would want to avoid the narrow gate. If you've ever tried to move a bulky couch through a tight stairway, you understand why Narrow gates, narrow portals. Narrow openings are hateful because there are some openings, some stairways that it doesn't matter how what angle. You try to bring the couch in, it doesn't matter how many times or when you pivot, it doesn't matter how hard you push. There are some things that you just can't get through a narrow gate, a narrow opening. But what Jesus is telling us here is that there is another way, another gate that is extremely attractive because it doesn't have those limitations.

When Jesus is talking about a gate, he's certainly talking about the way that we begin our lives. Sort of the initial principle by which we start our way that's connected, that follows after that. And the wine gate leads to an easy way, whereas the narrow gate leads to the hard way. We'll talk about what the initial ones are for. What would that mean for the narrow gate and the hard way later. But we're talking about the wine gate and the easy way. Jesus says that its end is in destruction and that those who enter are by many. Now, it's not hard to see why many people would want to enter through the wide gate in the easy way, because you can bring anything you want. You can bring all your bulky baggage in life. There's no need to change the way you live. There's no need to turn from your sin. There's no need to reformulate any of your thinking. There's no need to repent from your sins or to seek forgiveness from your sins. Just come, just go. Just live as you are without any change whatsoever. And Jesus says, That's easy, but ultimately it leads to destruction. It's easy to understand, as I say, why everyone wants to go that path. Why everyone wants the easy way because it demands nothing from us. Now, here's the thing. The way that all of us would traverse that easy way would be different.

Can be different, is different. Because all of us, all of our lives are trying to figure out the easy way to live. We've learned from our experiences and from our reflection on those experiences and from the things that we have tried and from looking at how those things have worked out in our life, what actually works for us and what doesn't, what gets us, what we want in life, and what doesn't get us at what in life. So your way of traveling this easy way might look very different from mine, but that's okay. The gate is wide, the road is easy. You can live anywhere you want to. Whatever works for you. This is such a message for our age. And so for some people, they will travel this road by strict religion, whereas others by atheism, some by promiscuous sexuality, and others by rigorous celibacy, some by deliberately ordering their work and their lives to make great achievements and others by giving themselves over to every form of entertainment. Some by a rigorous, exacting, demanding sort of political correctness and others buy a let it all hang out shock value, some by stoicism, others by hedonism. Whatever way you want. Jesus is sort of getting a catchall idea for all of those ways of life and saying, whatever works for you that you think that you want to live by, that that's the easy way. If, even though those are all very different ways of living. They are all defined by the characteristic that I'm going to do it my way.

And it will be my way or the highway. And because of that, I'm going to get what I want in my way. I'm going to reach heaven by my own path. I am going to do what I want. And Jesus says, not only is that all connected by the fact that we are all living our way, even though the ways are different as each of us goes down this. But the other commonality is where it ends. Whatever way you take along that easy way, all of it leads to destruction. All of it leads to an eternity separated from God in hell forever. You may think that you are getting what you want. Jesus warns you that way leads to hell. But what Jesus is saying is that there's another alternative. We have to go back to that narrow way. Sometimes you might have to get rid of the couch, or maybe you have a different kind of furniture because you just have to live. Well, that's the house, That's the stairway. If I want to use this, then I'm going to have to do some planning and preparation and foresight and forethought to be able to deal with it on its own terms. And Jesus as such is the kingdom of Heaven. You cannot bring whatever you want in this and live however you want in this. It can only accommodate certain things. Because this gate is narrow and this way is hard.

But what? This way promises, is life everlasting. The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. But Jesus warned us against the way that leads to destruction and encourages us to go to the way that leads to deliverance.

Deliverance

Again at the skate park. We thought that we were taking the easy way. We saw how short that path was on the map. But what it lost in length, it made up in elevation. The narrow gate is a different kind. It's an inverse sort of a paradox. It seems to be hard. And yet this is where we find life. Jesus says, Don't be fooled by what looks easy. This is where you will find life. It's by entering through the narrow gate of faith. That means that we have to leave behind the baggage of our good works or the baggage of our our personal identities that conflict with the Bible or anything that's sin in our lives. We have to leave that behind in order to, by faith, enter in the narrow gate, to follow Jesus and learn to live a life that follows Jesus wherever He leads us, which sometimes he leads us in very hard, difficult places. But William Hendrickson, in his commentary, reminds us that when we start talking about this paradox about the the ease and destruction of the one way and the the hardness and the life that is characterizing the other way, that Jesus has already talked about much of this in the Beatitudes.

If you remember the Beatitudes, the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says that it is the poor in spirit who will possess the kingdom of Heaven, not as we might expect, the rich who could afford to buy it, or it's those who mourn, who shall be comforted, and not those who seek to comfort themselves by all kinds of self-medication. That it's the meek who shall inherit the earth, not the strong, who could take it by force. That those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who will be satisfied, not those who are willing to lay hold of gain by any means possible. It's the merciful who will receive mercy, not the ruthless who demand what they want. But it's the pure in heart who will see God, not those who are industrious to build their own personal, private tower of battle to reach up into heaven. And it's the peacemakers who will be called the sons of God, not those who attempt to take what they want by war. And it's those who are persecuted for righteousness sake who will gain the kingdom, not those who seek to conquer others. And all of this has been a paradox. Jesus has been teaching us this teaching that we cannot understand from beginning to end unless we understand it in and through him. The way up is down. The way to life requires death.

What is easy leads to destruction. What is hard leads to joy and life. This overturns all of our expectations. And it's because of this that those who find it are few. So how do we live this out? How do we live out? The the golden rule? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And how do we enter by this narrow gate and walk along the path That is hard, but that leads to life. Jesus isn't teaching us that we do all of these things in such a way that would earn something from God, that God is sort of appointed all of the rules. And if we do them well enough, then we will qualify to possess the Kingdom of God. Remember? It's the poor in spirit who will inherit the kingdom. Not those who have something, a righteousness or wealth or something by which they could purchase it for themselves. What Jesus is. Ethical teaching up through the Golden Rule demonstrates to us is how far short we all fall. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What Jesus has been teaching us has been so simple. I've had so many conversations with people who say, This is so hard, it's so simple. Jesus puts it in such simple terms. But where does that leave me? Because I can't keep any of this. It's simple, but it's not easy. Jesus wants to give us the perfect standard of righteousness, but He wants us to see that none of us are capable of living up to it.

But whereas in this passage, what we're doing is sort of straddling the two sides of the Sermon on the Mount. On the one side, we had the ethical teaching, and now that we have that Jesus wants to exhort us and carry us forward, we have to listen to both signs. So how then do we enter by this narrow gate and walk along the hard way that leads to life? Well, once again, Jesus is here hinting, but not explicitly declaring his role in all of this. I said this two weeks ago, but it's sort of like Jesus is giving us the edge piece of the puzzle, but he hasn't filled in the middle yet. The rest of the Bible does that. The rest of the Bible is like a tapestry where we are seeing the face of Jesus given to us in the Scriptures. We here just have the exterior of it. But in the middle of this is Jesus, because Jesus is the one whom we must find. If we are to find salvation, He is the gate by which we must enter. And he says this in John chapter ten, verse nine, he says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. That is the narrowness of the door. We must come in by Jesus because there is no other name under heaven, under which or by which men must be saved.

Jesus is the door. If anyone enters by him, he will be saved. But also Jesus is not only the the portal of entrance, the gate door, He is also the way to life in Jesus, as is so clearly in John 14, verse six, where he says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the way and the truth in the life. Because in Jesus we find forgiveness from the guilt of sins and the cleansing from our corruption in Jesus we receive from Him the gift of perfect righteousness that matches the infinitely high standard of God that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, and we receive from Him the promise of eternal life. Every other gate is wide enough to bring whatever we want through it. But Jesus requires that we put everything behind us and enter only through faith, acknowledging him as our exclusive king and savior. Understand. To follow Jesus is hard. You see, we enter by faith and then Jesus begins to work at us. It's not like now He's now on probation and have to do well enough for him to continue to accept us. It's that Jesus continues his work on us. He starts transforming us from the inside out, teaching us and working in us, conforming us, shaping us like a potter with clay so that we begin to resemble again our Father in heaven, so that we do unto others as as we would have them do unto us.

Remember, Jesus is the exact image and representation of his father, and He showed us what this looks like. But coming down from heaven not to be served, but to serve ultimately to serve us by dying for us. Jesus wants us to lay down our lives for others too. That is a hard requirement. But make no mistake. At the same time. To follow Jesus is easy. To follow Jesus is hard in one way, but it is easy in another. Again, what begins easy will ultimately take its toll. What it offers you. On the one hand, it will take away with the other. If the path is short, it will make it up in elevation. But to follow Jesus is hard in some ways because we have to give exclusive control and authority over to him. But yet he begins to work in us. That makes our lives easy again. The way of the transgressor is hard and rugged. But Jesus says. Come to me, all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly of heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy. And my burden is life night. The narrow gates, ironically, leads to abundance to fullness. We think it'll be too much to try to squeeze through that narrow way.

And on the other side, we find infinite abundance and fullness of life. And the hard way, Jesus says, is characterized by his easy yoke and his light burden. Whatever you are suffering or sacrificing for Jesus, take heart. This path leads to life. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And if you're not yet following Jesus, understand the reason you are so dissatisfied. The reason you cannot find what you were looking for. The reason you work so hard and never lay hold of what you want. It's because you're traveling down a path that, on the one hand promises ease and comfort that you will get to do things your way. But ultimately, that way is rugged and it leads to death and destruction. Everyone finds that way. It's right in front of us, in front of our noses all the time. But Jesus gives you an alternative gate and alternative path. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life turn to him and be saved. Let's pray. Heavenly Father. We pray this morning that you would lead us to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that by Christ, we would enter into joy and salvation. Even though he calls us to enter through a narrow gate in a hard way. We pray that you would give us faith by your Spirit to teach us Christ and to rejoice in Him, that we may rejoice in Him throughout all eternity. In his name that we pray. Amen.