The Narrow Way is the Only Way

Matt. 7:13

Intro: Most have no issues with Absolutes: narrow & exclusive.

• Water / Gravity / Math / Flying

Moral Absolutes Are The Dividing Line:

• “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” John 3:19 *All Scriptures are taken from the ESV bible

• The cry of the culture is, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” Luke 4:34

Jesus said, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 15:19

• The world hates the truth, the light, the right, and the good.

The Narrow Way is the Only Way that gets in the Way!

• THE GREATEST TRUTH EVER SPOKEN IS THE GREATEST THREAT

“Where does Christianity destroy itself in a given generation? It destroys itself by not living in the light, by professing a truth it does not obey” AW Tozer

Matt. 7:13-14 & 21-23

“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. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it . . . 21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

• Fall Forward.

1. “Enter by” indicates responsibility on the part of the hearer.

a] There will be no excuses: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Romans 1:18

2. “The way that leads to destruction.”

a] Jesus isn’t Politically Correct…“Destruction” is a very offensive statement.

b] Sufficient Warning: “The Lord…is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

3. “There are many who go in.” Do not follow them!

This is why many young adults go astray…

a] Finances and Spending

b] Food and Drink

c] Media and Hollywood

d] God and the Bible

4. “The road is Narrow.”

a] There are not many ways.

b] Truth is exclusive.

5. “The road is Difficult.”

a] “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” Romans 8:7

• Unbelievers are at war with God

“I would rather reign in hell than be a servant in heaven” (Lucifer in Milton’s Paradise Lost).

6. “Few find it.” They are trusting in religion, not a relationship.

“Millions of professed believers talk as if [Christ] were real and act as if He were not. And always our actual position is to be discovered by the way we act, not by the way we talk.”

YOU CANNOT LIVE WITH A QUESTION MARK HERE!

The narrow way is the only way…

…“Choose life that you may live.”