The Narrow Way

A Sermon preached on January 25, 2009, by the Rev. Dr. S. Randall Toms
At St. Paul’s Reformed Episcopal Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:   Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Matt. 7:13-14

 My wife and I love to go hiking in the mountains, so when we take a vacation we usually choose a location that will offer such opportunities for us.  A few years ago we were in park that was filled with huge rocks and boulders, and sometimes the trail takes you through narrow passages where you can barely squeeze between the rocks to get through to the other side.  Every time we get to one of these narrow sections of the trail, I have to coax my wife a little because she is very claustrophobic, really hating to be in tight, confined spaces.  I usually have to convince her that the rocks have been there for centuries and they haven’t fallen yet, and just think of what beautiful things we are going to see on the other side if we go through this narrow corridor.  

When Jesus describes for us the narrow way that leads to life, it frightens many people, for the way to life does seem to be very confining and quite restricting.  The word for “narrow”  in these verses means “compressed.” The basic meaning of this word was “to press,” and it was often used to describe the pressing of grapes in order to extract the juice to make wine.    This word was used to describe how a crowd might press in upon someone.  Have you ever been in a large crowd, maybe like at Tiger Stadium, just before kickoff, when everyone is trying to get through the gate that only admits one person at a time?  This is the word used to describe such an experience (Mark 3:9).   It was also used to describe a narrow passageway that might lead between towering rocks.    Metaphorically, the word was used to describe affliction or distress.  This is the word Paul used in II Cor. 4:8 when he said “we are troubled on every side,” and in I Thess. 3:4, “For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.”  Trouble and tribulation are like being pressed in on every side by something that is very constricting.

If we understand the word “narrow” in this manner, we can see why so few people would want to take this road that leads to life. First, you must get through a very narrow gate, that narrow gate of believing that only Jesus Christ can save you from your sin; and after that, the road you travel is narrow, compressed, restricted.  Why not take the road with the easy gate to get through and the road that has so much more room to walk?

In the sermon on the strait gate, I mentioned how some Roman Catholic theologians and the more liberal denominations have tried to make the gate wide so that many could go through it; but, we shouldn’t say that these groups are the only ones who have tried to do so.  The conservative denominations and the independent, non-denominational churches have also done their part to make the gate wide and the way broad.  The evangelism techniques of the past two centuries have made the gate and the way very broad by reducing faith to the acceptance of a few facts about Jesus and a simple prayer asking Jesus to come into your heart.  In other words, entering this narrow gate was reduced to making a decision for Christ.  We reduced faith to something called “a sinner’s prayer.”  In the process, we completely divorced faith from obedience, from commitment, from love, from discipline, from the sacraments, from the Church, and from good works.  While it is true that we are saved by faith alone, we are not saved by a faith that is alone.  Though we can distinguish faith from obedience, sacraments, the Church, and good works, we can never separate true faith from these things.  What God has joined together, let not man put asunder; but we have done so in an effort to get more people “saved,” to crowd more people into  our churches.

Remember that I said earlier that the gate and the way are a person, Jesus Christ, and we must receive Jesus as the only way of salvation.  Unfortunately, we have reduced “receiving Jesus” to receiving a few facts about Jesus, the number of those facts differing from group to group and what they hope to accomplish in their evangelistic strategy.  But receiving Jesus is far more than believing a few historical facts about him.  The demons in hell believe all the facts about Jesus and know them better than you, having been eyewitnesses of what Jesus did.  Faith is more than receiving or accepting  a few facts.  Faith is a relationship with a person.  John 1:12 says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”  Believing is receiving a person, entering into a relationship with a person.  The mistake that modern evangelism made was to tell people to accept a few facts about a person.  Now, I am certainly a strong advocate about confronting people with the orthodox, doctrinal truth concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ.  There can be no acceptance of Jesus unless we understand who he is.  But what the evangelistic methods of the past two hundred years did was to boil all the necessary truths to be known about him down to one :  believing that Jesus would forgive them of all their sins if they would simply ask him.  That act is not receiving a person; it is merely accepting one facet of what Christ came to do.  To receive Christ, you must receive the whole person, which means that you must receive him as your prophet, priest, and king.  He is the Lord Jesus Christ.  All that modern evangelism does is to present the priestly aspect of his person, which is concerned primarily with having our sins forgiven.  But is this all it means to receive Jesus?  Is faith merely praying, “Lord Jesus, save me from my sins so that I won’t go to hell”? 

To make the way broad, we reduced Jesus to nothing more than a priest to forgive us for our sins, but we didn’t confront people with the fact that he is also our teacher who demands to be obeyed.  Jesus said:

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. (Luke 6:46-49)

This narrow way, then, is the narrow way of obedience to the teachings of Christ.     How many people call him “Lord,” meaning only that he is the Lord who forgives sin?  Jesus warned that many people would be surprised on the day of judgment: 

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.   (Matthew 7:21-3) 

The word that is translated here as “iniquity” is the word “lawlessness.”  Jesus doesn’t dispute their claim that they did many wonderful works in his name, but he says that he doesn’t recognize them as his children because they led lives that were characterized by disobedience.  Jesus said in John 14: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him….He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me”  (John 14:21, 24).  There are many false teachers in our world who tell people that obedience is optional.  They say that all that is necessary is to ask Jesus to forgive you, but make no mention of the fact that receiving Jesus is an act of love which results in obedience to his commandments.   So many people over the past two centuries have received Jesus as a ticket to heaven, but nothing more.  I wonder what would happen if on your wedding day, if after the minister said, “You may kiss the bride,” your bride said, “Look, I don’t want all this kissing and romance.  I just married you for your money.”  How would you feel if when you said, “But you said  that you loved me,” she replied, “Well, I do love you for your money”?  Is that any different than the modern Christian who says, in effect, to Jesus, “Look, I don’t want a deep intimate relationship with you, I don’t want to live in obedience to you, and I don’t want to walk the way you have said that your people should walk.  I just don’t want to go to hell”?  What these people don’t realize is that they don’t even really want to go to heaven.  What is heaven but an eternal, ever-deepening relationship with a person, our Lord Jesus Christ?  These people don’t really want to go to heaven; they just want to go to that big bass pond in the sky, or whatever else they want heaven to be. 

Since this road is the narrow way of obedience to Christ, many people do not want to enter.  That road looks more and more narrow every day, because the world is totally rejecting this way of life.  There was a time in our country when, by and large, the moral standards of Scripture were accepted as a standard which should be obeyed; but that is no longer the case.  Behaviors that just 50 years ago would have been considered immoral, obscene, and perverted are now commonly accepted as normal behavior, even to be imitated.  So when we tell people that if they want to enter the strait gate, they must realize that when they do, they are making a commitment to strive with every ounce of their strength to live in obedience to God, many people simply cannot make that commitment.  Many people in our generation will not walk this road because they want to live their lives free to do anything they please.  They see this kind of life as too constricting and confining.  They know they would be out of step with the behavior of modern society.  They know they would be looked upon as being antiquated, odd, strange, perhaps a little crazy even.  But never fear, the Church has stepped into help you and to show you that you don’t have to walk that narrow way after all.  It’s optional.  Furthermore, many branches of the Church will tell you that the way is not really that narrow, and that only narrow-minded bigots expect people to live by the strict, moral standards of the Bible. 

  Nevetherless,  regardless of what the world, popular Bible teachers, and various branches of the Church tell you, to receive Jesus means that you  receive him as a prophet to teach you.  When you receive Jesus, you are saying, “I receive you as my teacher.  I will learn all that you want me to know, and I will accept all of your teaching concerning how I should live my life.”    If you receive Jesus, it means more than just saying, “I’m sorry for my sins.”  It also means that you are receiving a person you love and want to please; you are receiving a person who hates sin, and you are saying you hate your sins and that you want to leave them behind you and live in obedience to Jesus Christ.  Suddenly, that gate seems very narrow, because there are sins that I don’t want to give up.  I love my sin, and I want to hang on to it.  The Lord says, “No.  To receive me means to change your attitude toward sin.  To receive me means that you will hate things you used to love and love things, holy things, that you used to hate.  When you come to this gate, you have all this sin that you love, and the Lord says, “No, that has to be left behind.” 

Now, does that mean that we never sin once we come through the gate?  No, there will still be sin in our lives until we reach heaven, but the attitude toward sin has changed.  The Christian is the one who can say that he has committed his life to walk in this narrow way.  Certainly, there are times when we fail, but we mustn’t come to the conclusion that just because we fail means that we have never been saved, never entered the narrow way.   Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it like this: 

Does a failure to live the Christian life fully prove that we are on the broad way?….  The answer is “No.”….  The questions that have to be asked in the light of this text are these:  Have you decided for this way of life?  Have you committed yourself to it?  Have you chosen it?  Is this what you want to be?  Is this what you are endeavouring to be?  Is this the life you are hungering and thirsting after?  If it is, I can assure you that you are in it….  What our Lord is saying in effect is, “My people are the people who want to follow Me, those who are striving to do so.”  They have entered in at the strait gate and are walking the narrow way.  They often fail and fall into temptation but they are still on the way.  Failure does not mean that they have gone back on to the broad way.  You can fall on the narrow way.  But if you realize that you have done so, and immediately confess and acknowledge your sin, He is “faithful and just” to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. (Studies in the Sermon the Mount, Vol. 2, 238)

 We often think that if we commit some terrible sin, it must mean that we were never really regenerate, or we wouldn’t have done such a thing.  If we look through Scriptures we can find the saints of God guilty of some very terrible sins, but we also find them repenting, forsaking sin, and striving to be holy.  The road that we travel is a road of repentance.  The gate demands repentance and the road demands repentance, and this repentance is more than sorrow for our sins, but also encompasses hatred for our sins and firm resolve to overcome our sins in the future.

Another thing that makes this road so narrow way is that it is the way of absolute surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  To receive Jesus as my king means that I have given him control of my life, thereby entering into a life characterized by self-denial.    Jesus emphasized this over and over in his teaching:   “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.   He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matt. 10:37-39).  The average person exclaims, ““What, do you mean that if I enter this strait gate, I am going to have to live a life of self-denial and carry the  cross of Christ daily?”  Yes!  Why do you think he described this as a narrow, compressed way, pressing in on every side, filled with tribulation and trouble?  St. Paul said in Acts 14:22 that “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”  The word translated “tribulation” in this passage is from the same root as this word for “narrow.”    The broad way is looking better all the time, isn’t it? 

We have to remember that this teaching concerning the strait gate and the narrow way comes toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount.  In this sermon, our Lord has described the narrow way that he demands of his followers, that way of hungering and thirsting after righteousness, that way of being meek, that way of rejoicing when being persecuted, that way of seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, that way of loving your enemies and turning the other cheek, that way of forgiving those who trespass against us.  This is the narrow way that Jesus, our Prophet and King, demands that we live.  No wonder Jesus said, “Agonize to enter through the narrow gate.”  If I have to leave all my sin, if I have to accept a life of self-denial, I can’t do it.  I love my sin, I love my life.  I can’t give them up.  It is an agonizing decision to receive Jesus Christ as your prophet, priest, and king.    Few there be that find it, because people do not want to live a life of repentance and self-denial.  They just want to have their sins forgiven so they can go to heaven.

Nevertheless, the Church still wants to make this gate and this road wide so that we can get more people through it.  One of the most diabolical means the Church used to broaden the gate and the way was to pervert the Biblical teaching concerning grace.    Many have believed that since salvation is all of grace and not of works, you can believe in Jesus,  live any way that you want, and still go to heaven.   What we have told people is this:  “You can enter the narrow gate by believing in Jesus, but then you can walk the broad way, but then in the end, wide up in eternal life.”  In other words, the broad way might lead to destruction, but it might lead to life, as well.  But for Jesus, the gate and the way are connected, and you can’t cross over into the other path and still wind up in life.  But many branches of the Church and many preachers have given false comfort and hope to people with this lie.

How different was the teaching of the apostle Paul!  Paul taught that there was an inseparable connection between faith, holiness, and everlasting life.  He wrote:  “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22).  The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates this verse, “But now, since you have been liberated from sin and become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification–and the end is eternal life!”  Paul sees the Christian life this way:  you have been set free sin and made a slave of God.  That results in a holy life, and at the end of that holy life is everlasting life.  Unfortunately, what modern evangelism has done is to say, “Believe in Jesus, live an unholy life, and at the end of that unholy life, you will still have everlasting life.”

In order to do this, we have had to twist many Scriptures to make it fit this perverted teaching concerning grace.  We had to invent a two-tier system of Christianity to accommodate those people who have received Jesus and said the sinner’s prayer, but didn’t turn out too well.  For example, in regard to those verses I quoted about self denial, many modern preachers say, “Oh, those verses refer to discipleship, not to salvation.  You see, you can be a Christian, and not be a disciple.  The disciple has to live a life of self-denial, but the average ordinary Christian doesn’t have to.”  Then we invented this idea that you can have Jesus as your Savior, but not as your Lord.  When you do that, though, you have not received Jesus.  You have merely received something about Jesus you like—the part about having your sins forgiven and going to heaven.    The modern preacher tells people that as long as they receive Jesus as Savior, they can live any way they please afterward and still get to heaven.  Now, these false prophets  often say that living an ungodly life will result in some suffering here on earth, and God will chastise and discipline you, but you will still go to heaven.  They say you will lose some rewards in heaven, you may be living in the slums of heaven instead of having that mansion over the hilltop, but you will still get to heaven.  What a wide gate and a broad way that is!  All this sin and heaven too!  Then we invented a system that has the average, ordinary Christian and the Spirit-filled Christian.  These Spirit-filled Christians are the truly dedicated ones who have a heart for God, and the rest are just carnal Christians.  To make this way to heaven broad, to accommodate these people who have said a prayer, we invented Christians who are not Spirit-filled, Christians who are not disciples, and Christians who do not follow Jesus as Lord.  But Scripture will not allow us to make these distinctions.  All Christians are Spirit-filled disciples who have submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

You know, we used to laugh at the Roman Catholics and their teaching on purgatory and indulgences.  We laughed that people thought they could live an ungodly life, but they could get out of purgatory quicker if they bought an indulgence, of if they kissed a splinter from the cross, or they went to confession.  But modern Christians invented a much easier system than that.  We just tell them, “Ask Jesus to come into your heart and live any way you please.  You won’t have to spend millions of years in purgatory if you do that.  You will just have a few years of suffering here on earth.  You won’t have to suffer in purgatory, you will just lose a few rewards in heaven.”  Indulgences, purgatory, losing rewards—it’s all the same.  It’s just a way of making the gate wide and the way broad.  I always laugh when I hear these explanations and distortions of Scripture, because I think it shows that we have this sense of justice that demands some form of punishment for these people who didn’t live godly lives.  We’ve got to get them into heaven, but surely they have to be punished in some way– they must lose something.  I always liked the split-rapture theory where some preachers say that when the Church is raptured,  the unfaithful Christians will have to stay here on earth to go through the Tribulation.  What is that but a seven year purgatory?

                In our crazy, mixed up way of thinking, we felt that the strait gate and the narrow way were incompatible with grace.  We think that if we demand obedience to Christ we are being legalistic, not remaining true to the gospel teaching about grace.  But grace is in no way incompatible with obedience.  We are saved by grace in order that we might be obedient.   Paul wrote in Eph. 2: 8-10:   “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:   Not of works, lest any man should boast.   For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”  As Paul plainly teaches, we are not saved by our good works, but we are saved in order that we might do good works after we have been saved.

                These people who pervert the Scriptural teaching on grace are the false prophets spoken of in verse 15 when our Lord warns us to beware of false prophets.  The false prophet will teach you the broad way to heaven, the easy road.  Paul, Peter, and Jude had to fight against these people who turn the grace of God into a license for sin.  When people said, “Since grace abounds where sin abounds, let’s sin all the more so that grace can abound all the more,” Paul had to tell the Romans,  “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?   God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1-2).  Jude said, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).  This is what Christianity has done.  We have turned the grace of God into an excuse for ungodly living.  Teaching people that  because of the grace of God they can live in flagrant disobedience and still have everlasting life  is a denial of Jesus Christ.  It is saying, “Let us live any way we please because we are saved by grace, not by works.”  What a broad way that is to eternal life.  No wonder so many go in at that gate.

                Our perverted teaching on grace and forgiveness has made Christianity a laughingstock, an embarrassment.  Atheists have a higher moral standard than we do.  Everywhere we look, we find Jews living by a higher moral standard, Muslims more devoted to their faith than we are, Buddhists who are more at peace with others than we are, Hindus who have a greater hunger and thirst to know God than we do, and yet we are the ones who claim that we have been born again, that we have been made new creations, that we have new hearts, and the Holy Spirit, the eternal third person of the Trinity dwelling in us.   Why do Christians live in immorality?  Why do Christians lack such devotion so that even coming to church early on a Sunday morning is a great chore, and a boring one at that?  Why do we fight and bicker among ourselves like silly children?  Why are worship and the study of God’s word such  tedious tasks to us?  All of this is the fruit of our perverted teaching concerning God’s grace, actually turning grace into an excuse for a lack of devotion and discipline. 

                The strait gate and the narrow way don’t  draw the large crowds, so we keep trying to make the gate wider and the way broader.  The health and prosperity gospel, and the gospel of self-esteem are the latest in a long line of such attempts.  In this gospel, Jesus is not so much a savior from sin, as he is a miracle worker who will keep your body healthy if you have enough faith, and who gives you financial success and freedom– if you plant that seed faith and give enough money to the preacher, of course.  This is the Savior who has come to make you feel good about yourself so that you can accomplish your dreams and all that your heart desires.  Well, people will line up to enter in at that gate.  I want some of that.  But when we offer the life that says we must mourn for our sins and humble ourselves before God, to accept the fact that we may have to lead a life of suffering and pain, that you may lose all that you have in the way of material possessions as a result of your commitment to Christ—well, that gate is a little too narrow and too constricting for comfort.  No thank you, we will take the broad way.  

W. Pink summed it up this way:  

….it is now generally held that heaven can be obtained on much easier terms than those prescribed by Christ.  The adulterous generation in which our lot is cast are quite sure that heaven can be reached without passing through “much tribulation” (Acts 14:22), that we may be disciples of Christ without denying self, taking up our cross and following Him (Matt. 16:24).  They do not believe that if their right eye offends it must be plucked out and if their right hand offends it must be cut off (Matt. 5:29-30).  They do not believe that if they live after the flesh they shall die, and that only if through the Spirit they mortify the deeds of the body they shall live (Romans 8:13).  They are fully persuaded that a man can serve two masters and succeed in “making the best of two worlds.”  In short, they do not believe the gate is as “strait” nor the way as “narrow” as Christ declared it to be” (An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, 324-5).

If I have described the strait gate and the narrow way in the correct manner, who would ever want to enter it and walk it?  Very few, and that is why our Lord said, “Few there be that find it.”  But there are good reasons to enter the strait gate and the narrow way.  Let me give you two. 

First, you have to look at the destinations at the end of each road.   At the end of the strait gate and the narrow way is life, and the life spoken of here is real life, a life of eternal union and fellowship with God.  Though entering the strait gate and walking the narrow way costs us our sins and many of our comforts, what are these compared to the life that awaits us at the end of the way?  When I was growing up, I wonder how many times I sang this hymn:

I must needs go home by the way of the cross,
There’s no other way but this;
I shall ne’er get sight of the gates of light
If the way of the cross I miss.

Then I bid farewell to the way of the world
To walk in it nevermore;
For my Lord says “Come,” and I seek my home,
Where he waits at the open door.

The way of the cross leads home
The way of the cross leads home
It is sweet to know as I onward go
The way of the cross leads home.

Yes, we used to believe there was no other way to heaven but by taking up the cross and following Christ, but that was very unpopular, too constricting, too confining.  But how did the early Christians deal with this prospect of the cross-filled life? They didn’t eliminate the necessity of self denial; rather, they pointed us to the end of the journey.  St. Paul put it like this:   “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:17-18).  Though the way may have been difficult for a few years, what is that compared to an eternity of bliss in the presence of God? 

                The other reason a person should consider the strait gate and the narrow way is to ponder the end of the other way:  destruction.  Yes, the life on the broad road may be easier, more popular, more fun, but the end of it is destruction.    Suppose that you lived 75 years in sinful pleasure, what is that compared to an eternity of suffering?

                Of course, you have to believe that there is heaven to gain and a hell to lose in order for this reasoning to make any sense, but most people don’t believe in either one.  That is one of the reasons the Church has stopped preaching on heaven and hell and emphasized the here and now.    We don’t offer a life of self denial followed by heaven.  We offer health and wealth here on earth, something that people can see right before them—now.  It takes faith to see what is unseen.

                So,  if we preach the strait gate and the narrow way, why would anyone come here. That is why I preached on prayer two weeks ago.  The only way people would choose this life is if God revealed to them the glory of it.  We can’t make it attractive to people.  All we can do is preach that this is the only way, but God must give the desire for a person to enter the strait gate and walk the narrow way. 

                In Matthew 19 our Lord was describing how difficult it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God: 

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.  And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.  When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?  But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:23-26)

It is so difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, simply because the rich are prone to make an idol of their money.  That is what the rich young ruler had done.  He could not follow Jesus because he had great possessions, and Jesus demands all that we are and have, including our dearest possessions to be used in the way he wants to use them.    When Jesus said “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,” he was describing something that was impossible.  Various commentators have tried to soften it by saying that the “needle’s eye” was a narrow gate in a wall that a camel had to get down on its knees in order to get through, but there is no evidence that this is the case.  Furthermore, the whole point of this saying is to show that it is impossible.   It might be possible for a camel to get through a narrow gate in a wall.  It is not possible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.  When the disciples heard this saying of Jesus they said, “Who then can be saved?”  If this is true, how can anyone be saved?  When I describe the strait gate and the narrow way, we could also say, “Who then can be saved?”  As a matter of fact, if this is the strait gate and the narrow way, who, in their right mind, would even want to get through that gate to walk in that way?  Answer:  No one ever will.  With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.    The only way that anyone would ever even desire to enter this gate and walk this way is if God gives them that desire.  The only way that anyone will ever desire to enter that gate is if God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, reveals to them the horror of their sins, the beauty of salvation by Jesus Christ, and the glory of an eternity of fellowship with him.  If God doesn’t reveal these realities to people, they will have no desire to enter.  But if God ever reveals these things to a person, that person will stop at nothing to enter that gate and walk that way.  Do you see why we must give ourselves to constant prayer?  There is nothing that you or I can do to reveal to people the beauty of this way of salvation.  I can describe it, but to the non-Christian it will never appear attractive unless God makes it appear so to them.  This is why we must pray, confessing that only God can do this work.  With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible, even entering the strait gate and walking the narrow way. 

Amen.