Today on Real Life Radio. My sheep can hear my voice, Jesus says. I know who they are, and oh, by the way. Every time, so to speak, Jesus looks over his shoulder and he sees behind him, what? His sheep.
What are they doing? They're following him. This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible.
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Pastor Jack now continues his series called The Parables of Jesus with the message titled Parable of the Two Gates and Two Ways, Part 1.
Now see, whenever Jesus spoke to crowds, he often spoke using relatable stories with common everyday themes called parables.
Now in this parable, Jesus is teaching us about a remarkable truth. It's a parable that's often missed, but it sums up the Sermon on the Mount by helping the listener to discover its deeper meaning, that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and we can only find Him through the narrow path of repentance.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that there are two gates and two paths. One is the narrow way for those who follow Christ, while broad is the way of destruction for those who choose to live by their own rules.
Now, with his message called Parable of the Two Gates and Two Ways, Part 1, here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Higgs.
Some scholars hold it as a parable, and some scholars just hold it as a simple. illustration of Jesus and his teaching.
So, it's going to be kind of cool tonight.
So, let's pray for wisdom. Father, we ask that you would give us exactly that wisdom from on high that we might consume, Lord, your word and walk with you tonight through the scriptures. Jesus, lead us and guide us. We pray in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen.
So, church, grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7. And tonight we're going to be looking at verses 13 and 14. But I'm under no illusion. We might get through verse 13 tonight.
We'll see how it goes.
Now, your eyebrow is going to be raised up because you might say, Well, I'm pretty familiar with the parables, but I've never heard of this one. And that's a good thing for you to pick up on. We would call this tonight the parable of the two gates. And two ways. You say, I've never heard of that before.
Well, that's that's because In most of your study Bibles, for example. A study Bible would be one that you paid a lot of money for. That has a lot of helps and has broken down, for example, chapter breaks and thematic breaks and Paragraph breaks. In the proper places. And so tonight, as we come to Matthew 7.
Verses thirteen and fourteen We look at this sometimes called parable.
Sometimes considered just an illustration. I don't know how you could say just an illustration when Jesus is the one saying it. But this is very, very deep stuff. And I'm going to ask you guys tonight to set your plow. Blade to deep.
Because it's not going to be that we're going to say profound. Or hard to understand things, it's that what Jesus says tonight will shake you and I to our core. And I want to tell you, I can't wait to teach this message because I want to get it off of my heart and onto yours because I'm tired of dealing with it personally. This is Tough stuff. And I want all of you to be thinking about that tonight, especially in light of the way the world is going or the world of Christianity.
I say that loosely. Uh If a Christian is smart, a Christian will read the Bible, study the Bible, obey the Bible. When a Christian does not decide to do that, then... That's a scary thing. And Jesus tonight, listen, his words never change, they're always the same.
And what he meant is what he says. What he says is exactly what he meant. There's nothing Smoky about it. There's nothing gray about it. And so tonight is going to be a night that I think is valuable.
to the depths of our soul. And in preparing for this, I wrote something down, and I want to make sure I read it to you because I don't want to flub it up, okay? Are you okay with that?
Okay, listen. A parable. You've been hearing about parables for some 20 plus weeks throughout this series. Tonight, I want to remind you of what a parable is and make sure that regarding this particular Teaching tonight of what Jesus says, we understand it.
So, church, a parable is a common word picture. Remember that. It's what Jesus paints with words. that you can relate to. He uses an imagery or a story to illustrate a deeper truth or lesson.
The parable creates in the mind of the hearer a mini-drama. of pictures. That are painted by his words that describe the reality of the illustration. A parable shows a likeness between the image of an illustration and the object being illustrated. It defines the unknown by using the known.
Remember, always use something common to show a deeper truth. It helps the listener to discover the deeper meaning and underlying truth of what a common reality can represent. A parable can be a figure of speech or a comparison to better see the eternal spiritual reality. And that's very important. Jesus is going to use a common picture that they all would have known of in the audience.
And it's not going to be abstract. You're going to get it. You're just not going to like the meaning of it. I got to tell you. Just in putting the final preparation for this message tonight, I told the pastors in our prayer time tonight that I just had to go before the Lord and say, Lord, search my heart and examine me from.
Top to bottom to make sure, God, that I am yours. That I'm not missing Somehow, in some way. The path. that you have defined. And so this is extremely, extremely important.
So listen, here it is: Matthew chapter 7, verse 13 and 14. Oh, and by the way, make note of this: this parable illustration or parabolic illustration. Comes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the famous Amazing Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
So Jesus sums up the Sermon on the Mount by saying this: enter by the narrow gates. 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.
to life. And there are few. Who find it? Leave it on the screen for a moment. Church, look at this.
Many We'll learn more about this tonight. Many. Many. Go in by the destructive path. Many.
You're going to be shocked at the actual meaning of that word, many. And then Jesus ends verse 14 by saying, Only a few. Make it M. Only a few.
Now, first of all, in the context of what Jesus is saying, he's speaking of the grandeur of all humanity from start to finish. From Adam to the last human being. And all of the billions and billions of people who would have been born and died in that. Parenthesis of humanity, Jesus says only a fraction make it to heaven. But don't think for a moment that God is the one keeping them out of heaven.
Those who don't make it, don't think that. No, no, no, it's amazing tonight because Jesus, listen everybody. This may slam right upside some of your theology based upon how you were raised in a certain denomination or a certain. Way of thinking. Jesus is laying down at the end of the Sermon on the Mount a decision or a choice for every human to make.
You choose, he's saying. Between two gates Or two. Ways. The choice is yours. And he's saying, in a nutshell, unfortunately, most people choose the broad.
Huge, massive path. That leads to destruction. And Very few people choose The narrow straight. Gate and way. Immediately, Jesus puts The responsibility for rejecting his offer upon those who do, in fact, reject him.
But for those of us who have chosen Christ, we don't pat ourselves on the back that we chose him. No, we give him all the glory because he provided the way of salvation. It's not our doing. For salvation, the Bible says, is of the Lord. And so while on earth Jesus in his 33 Year ministry.
Technically In the three and a half years of his public work. Jesus, in my opinion, I made up this term and I'll have to explain it to you, but Jesus practiced what I call. Negative church growth methods. That is negative church growth methods. She said, what do you mean by that?
First of all, Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 27, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. Can you mark that down? Jesus said, My sheep, church, does he know who his sheep are? Yeah.
My sheep hear my voice. That's an awesome statement.
So the question is, have you heard his voice? I know them. And they follow me. Look at it carefully. My sheep can hear my voice, Jesus says.
I know who they are, and oh, by the way, Every time, so to speak, Jesus looks over his shoulder and he sees behind him. But his sheep. What are they doing? They're following him. Listen, don't answer out loud.
Are you following Jesus? Is this the biggest heartbeat passion of your soul is to follow Christ? is to draw closer to Jesus. Listen, if your answer tonight is yes, that's what I live for. I mean, I may be an engineer, or I may be a pilot, or I may be a housewife, or a house dad, or whatever, but my number one passion.
is to draw closer to Jesus. You know why that's true? It's true because you've heard his voice. And When he spoke to you, You responded to him. He knows you.
Because you're one of his sheep. What if I'm a goat? A goat doesn't ever ask if it's a goat. A goat could care less about anything except self. And goats eat junk.
Have you noticed? A goat will eat a filet mignon and they'll eat a tin can in the same moment. Sheep, listen, sheep have to have a shepherd. Sheep are very, very incredibly stupid. They'll walk right into a river to get a drink of water and go right down the river.
Did you know that? Sheep have to have a shepherd. Goats, they'll run around, they'll climb mountains. They're just rebellious stinkers. But a sheep have got to have a shepherd.
And it's amazing. It's just absolutely amazing. But you are one of his sheep if you've heard his voice. And if you've heard his voice, And if you're his, And he knows you, and you know him, there's no greater passion to the beat of your soul than to get nearer and closer to Jesus. And tonight I say that because you need to be thinking about where is Jesus on your scale of.
Priorities. Because a Christian, Jesus doesn't even appear on the scale. Jesus, we would coin in modern phrase as off the charts. Jesus is not on a priority sheet because there's no priority sheet that can contain Jesus. He's not number one on a list of ten.
He's one on a list of one. He has no rival in your soul. Do you understand? You're listening to real life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com.
That's jackhibbs.com. And for now, let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor Jack. Think of the rich young ruler. What are some of these negative growth tactics?
Remember the rich young ruler? He came to Jesus. And you know the story, but he listed, Good Master, what must I do to be saved? I've kept all these things since my youth. Jesus didn't dispute that, by the way.
Jesus wound up telling him, Why don't you sell everything that you have and Come and follow me.
Now, that's not how you get saved, is it? You don't get saved by selling everything you have. What is Jesus doing? Jesus, listen, please listen. Jesus, here's a man that any church would have bent over backwards to get into their.
Tithing ranks, a rich. Young Yuppie. Ruler. And Jesus said, Here's the deal. Sell everything you have and come and follow me.
And the Bible says the man was absolutely grieved over that because he had great possessions and he was very sad. And the man walked away very, very sorrowful. And by the way, the Bible says Jesus was sad too. You know what a church would have done? Dude, what do you want?
I mean, you want to sit up front? You want your name on the seat? You want to have a parking spot out there for you? Way, we want you at our church, man. No, no, Jesus said, You know what?
I know exactly what's wrong with your heart. You've kept all this stuff, but here's the problem: you have tons of idols in your life, you love your stuff. And Why don't you get rid of it all and follow God? Again, that's not how you get saved, but Jesus strikes him in the heart. of where his treasures were at, right?
Jesus practiced negative church growth methods. The guy turned around and walked away. There's another one, and there's others, but there's another one. The woman begging it and said, Master, you know, can you bless my life? I need a healing.
I need you to minister to my family. And Jesus said, Listen. Um I'm not here to give food to the Gentiles. I'm here to feed the house of Israel. And the woman said, But Jesus, even the crumbs.
that fall from the table and hit the ground, the puppies eat. And Jesus said, wow. That's awesome faith. What was he doing? He knew exactly what he was doing, but he was drawing faith out of her life.
He wasn't turning her away. He was trying to get her to make a confession of truth. But it seemed as though Jesus was practicing negative church methods. The next one is the blind men on the road. The Bible says that they were crying out for a healing, and Jesus walked right by them as if he didn't see them or hear them.
Was he aware of them? Absolutely he was aware of them. But they cried out and said, Son of David, have mercy. And that got him. That's a messianic call.
Son of David, have mercy on us. Boom, that stopped him. And Jesus called for them. The other thing is this. Do you remember when the man came to Jesus and said, Jesus, I'm going to follow you, just I need to.
Go bury my father. And the Bible says Jesus responded by saying, Let the dead bury the dead. You say, well, that's a cold-hearted statement. Yeah, it's not what you think. The man's father was not dead, he was not even dying.
The statement means, Jesus, I will come and follow you when it's convenient for me. I'm still under my parental authority. And I'm still insured by their health care plan. In my old age. And so I've got a weight.
Until they kick the bucket, and at a more convenient time, I'll follow you. And Jesus said, you know what? That is the logic of a dead world. You just go on your way. What is he saying?
He's saying that you need to really decide if you want to have a spiritual life and live for God. I'm all for decisions for Christ. We do this here, but I've never begged people to do it based on this very thing. You know, if you want to accept Jesus Christ, you know, raise your hand or stand up or come forward or whatever I'm feeling led by God to say or whatever I'm thinking, just like whatever you stand up. It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter. But if you choose Christ, if you decide on Christ, don't ever put stock in the fact that you went forward. Dude, I got saved. What happened? I went forward.
That's not how you get saved.
Well, I raise my hand. You don't get saved by raising your hand. There's something that's supposed to happen before all that stuff happens later. It's supposed to be an absolute change of heart and mind, and we'll see this in a moment. But this is critically important.
I gotta tell you. This is a very, very necessary Parable that we need to look at today in our culture. Point number one: it's this: the parable. of the two gates and the two ways. Verse 13 is this.
Number one is make sure you're on the right path. I mean, this kind of sounds redundant, but let's not race across this and make a mistake tonight. God help us if we get through with this message, and you have not been brought to that place of decision. You need to be brought to the place of decision, and even us who are Christians tonight need to be reminded of the decision that we've made. And we need to ask the question: would we make it again?
Think of that. Have you ever heard married couples after they've been married for a while? Um would you marry me again? I mean, that's a low. What are you asking that question for?
Don't ask that question. Because even if you say yes, I mean, the risk factor is huge on that one. Because even if you mean it, It could come across with a different tone. You could burp halfway through it. It's like, yes, of course I.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Would you just would you Listen. Tonight Isn't it true for all of us as Christians that we would? We would choose Jesus again.
Again and again and again. No, we don't need to do that. Regarding salvation. But do we not get up every morning and choose Jesus again in obedience?
So make sure you're on the right path. Verse 13: this way. Number one, keep your eyes on heaven. Oh church, listen. Keep your eyes on heaven, not on the earth and not on the things of the earth.
Keep your eyes on heaven. Matthew 7:13, enter by the narrow gate. Mark it. Mark that down. This is absolutely an awesome mandate, a command of Jesus.
Jesus says, listen, enter by the narrow gate. It's a command. Christians, listen. Because there's, as we mentioned on Sunday, we need to say it again. There's a Jesus being painted out there by the.
by a religious community. Their Jesus doesn't say this kind of stuff. This Jesus of the Bible says, enter by the narrow gates. Narrow gate, enter. First of all, enter.
He's telling us, enter. See, we want him to get us through the gates. And look, he will do that if we keep our eyes fixed on him. He does it. Watch this.
Listen. Are you listening? He does all the work, but then he turns to us and says, Because I've done it all, you walk now in my footsteps, so to speak, right? You walk. I'm going ahead of you, but you walk in my steps.
If we wander outside of his steps, You're in uncharted waters. You understand that? You're going to get hurt. If I had an umbrella, And you know, we had a big rainstorm today, right? It rained 100 thousandths of an inch, I think, in Chino Hills today.
Good thing winter's over. Um But if you would have had an umbrella, you would not have gotten wet. If you would have moved out from the covering of the umbrella, what's going to happen? You're going to get not you won't get wet here. You'll get damp You'll get damp hair.
But right? You move out from his Covering. Jesus says, enter by the narrow gate. The cool thing is, we'll see in our following studies that He is the way, He is the gate, He is the door, He is the entire journey. Stay focused on heaven.
Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called. Parable of the Two Gates and Two Ways, Part 1. Thanks for joining us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Parables of Jesus. It's a series highlighting the teachings of Jesus while he was ministering here on this earth.
and will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Mm. Hey everybody, we want to introduce you to what we're calling our summer bundle. It's two great books and you're going to want to get them for the little ones in your life. The first book is called Prayers and Promises for Kids.
It's a great resource to not only teach your children about the promises of God, but how do we take those promises and pray them into our lives? You're going to find this a great resource to develop a prayer life with your child. And then the book, The Red Coats Are Coming, written by our own Nancy Sanders, who attends our church. It is a great, great book. It is featured by Adventures in Odyssey and the wonderful people that focus on the family, Prayers and Promises for Kids, and The Red Coats Are Coming.
They're two children's books that are very powerful. Get a copy of both these books as we bundle them for the month of July. That's The Red Coats Are Coming and Prayers and Promises for Kids. A couple of great books. Available as a bundle for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com.
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