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Study in Matthew’s Gospel

Study in Matthew’s Gospel. Presentation 31. Sermon On The Mount Two Choices Chap 7v13-14. Presentation 31. Introduction.

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Study in Matthew’s Gospel

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  1. Study in Matthew’s Gospel Presentation 31

  2. Sermon On The Mount Two Choices Chap 7v13-14 Presentation 31

  3. Introduction Are you one of those people who always choose the wrong checkout at the supermarket or the wrong lane in a motorway tailback? With the benefit of hindsight we reprimand ourselves and say, ‘I should have known to take the other queue.’ Or perhaps you are out walking in the country and are confronted with a number of possible routes. You make your choice and hope for the best. It is not often an informed choice and as a result you are soon wading up to your knees in mud and you are heard muttering, ‘If only I had known....’ Presentation 31

  4. Introduction Jesus knew that men and women had crucial choices to make, choices that would affect the destiny of their lives and he is determined that our choices should be informed choices. This is why he spent so much of his time teaching. It is clear from our study of the gospels that he would spend hour upon hour with people unpacking God’s word, explaining its implications. Jesus never asked people to make decisions without first explaining the significance of the decisions they would make. And it is now in these verses after a large block of teaching that indicated what was involved in being one of his followers that we come to the climax where he presses upon his hearers the importance of responding by making the right choice. For there are only two ways to live. God’s way and the world’s way- and the world’s way often wears religious clothing. It is time says Jesus to make an informed choice. Presentation 31

  5. Introduction As we look at chap 7.13-39 we will discover that our choice is related to three different areas: First, the direction of our lives- Will we choose to walk in X’s ways? Secondly, the influences that will shape our living- What kind of teachers and teaching will we submit to? and Finally what kind of foundation have we been laying in our lives? As Jesus presents these choices in keeping with the overall theme of the sermon he indicates that one of the sets of choices facing us is deceptive in its appeal. The broad way, the false teacher, the immediate success story all have their own appeal. But they are all dangerously deceptive. This evening we concentrate out attention on the first choice; that which influences the direction of our lives and Jesus develops his teaching here in a series of contrasts. Presentation 31

  6. Two Entrances We are encouraged to see life as a journey and on the journey we are faced with two different gates. There are only two gates there are no alternatives. If we refuse to pass through the gate J sets before us then we pass through the other by default. The gate J encourages us to pass through is described as narrow. Why is it so described? It’s easy to miss. It’s a gate that has to be sought. We need to give ourselves to the discovery of its whereabouts.. But its narrowness speaks of something else. We will mot be carried through this gate by the rush of the crowd or by family or Xn friends. We must enter individually and by a conscious decision of the will. It is a turnstile admitting only one at a time.. Presentation 31

  7. Two Entrances A further characteristic the narrow gate suggests to us is that we will not be able to carry any baggage through. J has already outlined the things which the Xn traveller will need to be prepared to leave behind, sin, selfishness, wrong ambitions, and our self righteousness.. Many people find this incredibly difficult to dump their baggage for it has become almost a part off them and in many cases a treasured and highly prized part of their lives. Paul graphically describes his own personal trauma in Phil 3. 4-9... The word ‘loss’ used here is only used elsewhere in the NT in Acts 27. 9, 21 where it is used to describe the abandoning of a precious cargo in order to save life. Presentation 31

  8. Two Entrances Do you see the picture. The things we require to throw overboard if we are to enter the narrow. We can perhaps understand why Bunyan when writing his Pilgrim’s Progress and describing the gate through which Pilgrim was required to enter, described it as a low Gate which required him to bend down. It is a humbling experience. We cannot enter this gate with our heads held high, trailing all our accomplishments behind us believing that they will secure God’s favour. many men and women will not enter this gate because they refuse to stoop. Presentation 31

  9. Two Entrances There is an easier gate. It is very broad and makes no demands upon us. It is extremely accommodating. If we travel by this route we will discover that there is no luggage limit. You can enjoy your sin and bring it along by the truckload. If you are pleased with your righteous accomplishments and good deeds then placard them on the sides of your baggage van. This gate will make you a star in your own eyes. It will applaud and cheer as you pass through. The gate promises to make life easy. There are no customs searches you just go with the flow. If you require to enter the narrow gate by a conscious choice of the will then this gate is quite different you are carried through quite automatically unless you resist. If only those who pass through could see where the road ends. It is only as we think through the implications of Jesus teaching about the choices we are faced with in the light of biblical teaching that we are undeceived. Presentation 31

  10. Two Roads J makes it clear that the gate we choose in turn leads in a particular direction and to quite different road surfaces and gradients. The narrow gate leads to a ‘hard way’. It is rough, steep, difficult to climb up. I am constantly impressed by the fact that J did not pull the wool over peoples eyes. He did not teach that discipleship would be easy and trouble free. You will remember that earlier in the sermon that he promised his followers persecution from a world that operated with a different sense of values. This way is considered ‘hard’ because the boundaries are clearly marked. God has published principles of conduct in his word that are designed to hem us into himself. And to our lawless natures this can seem so restrictive. Presentation 31

  11. Two Roads Listen to C.S.Lewis as he describes how as a boy of 13 he decided to throw over the traces: Oh the relief of it...from the tyrannous noon of God’s revelation I passed into the cool twilight of ‘Higher thought’ where there was nothing to be obeyed and nothing to be believed except what was either comforting or exciting. But he was soon to learn that this new found freedom was a bondage and to realise that God’s law was good and designed for our safety as we travel and not the product of a petty tyrant. It is only when we begin to see the law of God in this light that we begin to understand J when he said that his yoke was ‘easy’ and his burden was ‘light’. Presentation 31

  12. Two Roads Rejection of what people see to be a ‘hard path’, the pursuit of righteousness and godliness leaves them on what J describes as an ‘easy way’. For here a man is a law unto himself. He determines to do as he likes as he indulges himself in a realm of moral permissiveness. There are no curbs to his conduct, no restraints on his revelry, no boundaries for his behaviour. Travellers who go along this route follow the inclination of their hearts. If a particular thing feels good to them they do it. This road produces people who are captivated by self love and that can include people who are no more than the superficial practitioners of a mechanical religion. Presentation 31

  13. Two Roads You do not need to cultivate self love, it is a weed that flourishes in the soil of corrupt human nature. Before going off on holiday I had carefully dug and tended part of the garden. Upon my return and without any effort on my part there was vigorously growing jungle of weeds. In the same way the seeds of corruption in our hearts flourish without any active involvement on our part. This is why the ‘easy way’ is so popular! Presentation 31

  14. Two Goals J’ logic is quite devastating,. The gate leads to a way of life and the way of life in turn leads to a destination or destiny. There are only two destinations, life or destruction. Now it is almost certainly true that those travelling on the broad path seldom think of their destination. They are too taken up with enjoying the journey of life to ponder where they are heading. This is the way in which Lewis suggests the blurring of what lies ahead is part of the infernal strategy in his Screwtape Letters. This is the advice of the Senior tempter to his junior: Keep everything hazy in his mind now and you will have eternity wherein to amuse yourself by producing in him the particular kind of clarity which hell affords. Presentation 31

  15. Two Goals To speak about hell is not at all popular today. We are told that to speak of such things is to insult people’s intelligence and that a great deal of psychological damage is done by frightening people. But J believed in hell. The majority of NT references to hell are found on his lips. And J was not above using fear to exhort men to choose the narrow gate, if by so doing he would save them from destruction. Presentation 31

  16. Two Goals Think of a man walking along a cliff top and he looks behind to talk to someone following after him. You see he will shortly fall over a precipice. What do you do? Do you keep silent for fear of frightening him of to you shout out to warn him of impending danger thus saving his life? I very much doubt if he would complain that your shout gave him a fright knowing that it had saved his life! Martin Lloyd Jones was on occasions charged with frightening his congregation and this is his response: I am not afraid of being charged as I frequently am of trying to frighten you for I definitely am trying to do so. If the wondrous love of God in Christ Jesus, and the hope of glory is not sufficient to attract you then, such is the value I attach to the worth of your soul, I will do my utmost to alarm you. Presentation 31

  17. Two Goals Now it is important to grasp that when J speaks of destruction he is not speaking of annihilation. The fate of those on the narrow way is not the destruction of consciousness- when your dead your dead- but the dissolution of personality by a condemning conscience. Believe me there is nothing that is lovely or good or joyful in hell. There will be a consciousness not only of the loss of God but of all that is good and that makes existing worthwhile. It will therefore be a place of self condemnation and self-loathing. And J makes it clear to his hearers that any of them who stand under the wrath of God will do so because they have chosen to reject the narrow gate and the narrow way. Presentation 31

  18. Two Goals But for those who have chosen the narrow gate their destiny is also clearly marked out. Their experience is ‘life, life eternal life’. Their fellowship with God which begins here on earth will reach its consummation and perfection in heaven. And there they will find perfect fulfilment in the selfless service of God. Presentation 31

  19. Two Groups: Where Do You Belong? J saw the whole of humanity polarising into one of two groups, ‘the many’ and ‘the few’. J is not naive in his understanding of human nature he tells his hearers that the majority will chose to travel along the broad way and only a minority along the narrow route. The reason that J’s followers will be in the minority is that following him requires a conscious choice which goes against both popular opinion and the natural inclination of the heart. Selfish desire does not easily submit before X’s Lordship. Presentation 31

  20. Two Groups: Where Do You Belong? But another reason why so few find the narrow gate is that so few are looking for it. The vast majority of men and women do not want to give serious thought to eternity. Whether it is because they are wilful or complacent, lazy or indifferent, they stubbornly refuse to invest time and energy into finding out the cause of their spiritual emptiness. When J speaks of only a minority passing through the narrow gate he is not for a moment suggesting that the number of Xns will be small. Wee told in the book of Revelation that heaven will be populated by a host which no man can number. But that that number will be smaller than the countless numbers of men and women who have made the wrong choice. Presentation 31

  21. Conclusion In his preaching J did not merely impart information. He preached with an objective in view. And the objective of the sermon on the mount is to impress upon his hearers the importance of making the right choice and of challenging them to do so. So many of the choices we make in life are uninformed; Which queue in the supermarket or on the motorway will clear most quickly? We do not know. But no one who hears these words of J will be able to say they did not know what their fate would be for rejecting the narrow gate. Have you settled your heart on eternal life? Have you found it in Christ? Presentation 31

  22. Conclusion Dr Who, the exiled Time Lord, was a household TV favourite in my youth. Those of you who belong to my generation will know that he travelled the universe in a spaceship called the Tardis. The Tardis, from the outside, looks like an old fashioned British police box. But on the inside the Tardis is spacious and comfortable and the setting for a whole world of excitement and adventure. The paradox of the Tardis reflects the teaching of Jesus on the subject of the kingdom of God. Everything depends on whether you experience it from the inside or the outside. Only on the inside do we find that the road that at first appeared narrow is the only one that leads to life in all its fullness. Have you made that discovery. It’s only made once we have stepped into the kingdom through the narrow gate. Presentation 31

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