A Sermon by Rev Donald Macfarlane
Matthew 7:13,14. 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.
Luke 13:24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate.
This is part of the sermon which Christ preached on the mount. We have an account of that sermon in chapters 5-7 of Matthew’s Gospel. You see that a great multitude were present when Christ preached the sermon. “A great multitude followed Him.” At the beginning of the sermon He spoke to His own people, calling them blessed several times; then He went on to speak to those who are still outside the fold, and who were in a state of nature. He is thus the great example to preachers. He did not speak the same thing to all; He made a difference, as there was a difference among the audience before Him.
In the text, let us notice three things, and if we have never noticed them before, it is time to notice them now:
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The gate which Christ speaks of here: “the strait gate”.
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The exhortation to enter in at that gate, as we have it in Luke: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate”.
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The twofold reason which Christ brings forward to enforce the exhortation: Enter, or strive to enter, (1) “for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat”; (2) “because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”.
1. The gate. It is those outside the kingdom whom Christ tells that there is a door by which they may come in: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate”. What is the gate? The great Preacher Himself tells us what the gate is: “I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture”. Again He told one of His disciples who was in ignorance, and who desired to know the way: “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me”. It is evident from what Christ said that He Himself is the gate, and that He is the only gate. From the beginning of the world, no sinner found his way to God but through Christ
1Preached in Glasgow on 20 April 1899, on the Thursday evening of a communion season. Another sermon on the same text, with the same structure but preached in Dingwall, appears in the volume of his Sermons, available from Free Presbyterian Publications. This sermon is taken from a manuscript written apparently by Roderick MacCowan, who was then a divinity student in the Church.
alone. All the believers of the Old Testament, whatever gate they tried, found out that there was no access to God but through Christ.
He spoke of the gate as strait. What did He mean by this? He meant that not everything can go through the gate.
There is a sense in which the gate is not strait. It is not strait so far as the power to save is concerned. Paul says, “He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him”. The gate is not strait so far as the invitation of the gospel is concerned. It goes to the ends of the earth. Yet some are so deluded that they think the gospel will follow the sinner to hell and bring him back again. It is very easy to talk, but once sinners are there, it is not possible for them to come back again; there is a great gulf between them and Christ. We cannot say that the gate is strait so far as the will of Christ is concerned; He said, “Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out”.
The gate is too strait for the wicked. We have Scripture as the ground of our authority for saying this. What does Christ say in inviting sinners through Isaiah? “Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord.” Many would come to Christ if they could get a licence to live in their sins. In this sense the gate is strait. When the sinner is invited to come to Christ and forsake his sins, he says, It is hard; the gate is too narrow for me; I cannot bring my sinful practices with me, and therefore I turn away. This one thing makes the gate strait.
The gate will admit the sinner, but he must leave his own righteousness outside. There are many who do not enter in, and they die in their sins because they do not cease from their sins. Paul entered in through this gate, but he renounced his own righteousness. He did not regret that, for he was telling others how he got in himself; he said; “That I might be found in Him, not having my own righteousness”. Take Christ as the Lord your righteousness. The gate is so strait that, from the beginning of time till now, no sinner entered without being born again. Christ told Nicodemus what was necessary: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. By considering these three things we can understand how the gate is narrow; others might be mentioned but we forbear.
2. The exhortation, “Strive to enter in”. A duty is here laid on those whom He addresses. There is also the manner in which that duty is to be performed: “Strive to enter in”. Someone may object: If this is said to those in a state of nature, how can they strive to enter in? There are many who try to excuse themselves, saying, We are still in a state of nature and we cannot change ourselves, we must follow on as we are doing. They are reasoning against their own salvation, and they are drawing their reasons from the prince of darkness. God addresses us as rational and responsible creatures, and Christ
not only said to those in a state of nature: “Enter in”, but, “Strive to enter in” at the strait gate. He pointed out the duty and the manner in which we are to engage in that duty, and continue in it. How am I to strive?
There are those in this congregation who are in a state of nature, and Christ still continues to speak to you. He says to you tonight: “Strive to enter in”. And you may ask, How am I to strive? What means am I to use?
If you seek to obtain the salvation you need, you must use means to obtain these good things. You may see diligent men using means day by day. The means are not the end, nor is the end the means. You need to be reconciled to God through Christ; you need to be found in Christ. Means are to be used, and unless you use these means, you will continue outside the kingdom of God. Means were to be used in Old Testament times; it was necessary to use them. Now there is a greater simplicity. The means under the New Testament are three in number:
(1.) The Word of God. This is one of the means which God uses in New Testament times to save sinners, which sinners must use to be saved.
(2.) Prayer. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.” “Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” No sinner prays aright till the Spirit is poured down upon him from on high. We are told about many in the Word who placed themselves by the wayside, and so must the sinner, as a rational and responsible creature. This is the duty Christ lays on those whom He addresses: “Enter ye in”, or, “strive to enter in”. “It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
(3.) The sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The sacraments are not essential to salvation; there are many in heaven who never handled the signs of Christ’s body and blood. The sacraments are means of grace, but not for bestowing grace for the first time; they are for furthering believers in their most holy faith. Many think that you will not get to heaven unless you take the sacraments. Well, we say that you will not get to heaven unless you take Christ. People say, Let us be converted by the sacraments; but the gospel says, Let us be converted by Christ.
Now let us consider the manner in which we are to perform this duty which Christ lays upon us: “Strive to enter in”. It is not God’s people who say, “Strive to enter in”, but Christ. And if you are in a state of nature, “strive to enter in”. As you are rational creatures, you cannot excuse yourselves; your responsibility for performing this duty will be seen at the great day of judgment. To neglect the reading of the Scriptures is not striving. To attend the gospel ordinances only occasionally, when one has nothing more important to do, is not striving. Those who do not read the Word of God through the
week, and who neglect family worship, do not strive – and there are many who, in this respect, show that they have no care for their souls.
We were told that there was a time in Glasgow when you could not pass a street on a Sabbath morning without hearing the worship of God, but now you can pass streets and not hear it. Where do these careless people go? They go to destruction. To strive is to be in earnest, to look at the salvation of the soul as an important matter, to look on grace as the most important thing. Christ calls: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”; “Those that seek Me early shall find Me”.
What is everything else to you and me, if we live in this world without an interest in Christ? But a Saviour is provided in the gospel. Christ speaks to you, sinners, tonight as He spoke to sinners on the mount. To strive is to be in earnest, and to use all diligence in the means of grace. It is your duty to make diligent use of all these means. The farmer cannot make his grain grow, but he knows that the grain will not grow unless he sows it.
God is calling many of our fellow sinners to eternity. Remember what Christ says: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate”. To strive is to act like the man who fled to the city of refuge, and like the man who runs the race that he may obtain the crown. Something is implied in the desire which the Lord puts in the soul of the man when he starts out for the city of refuge. He runs “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”. We must strive to be found in Christ. There is a striving throughout the Christian life. Again, to strive is to agonise like a man you see on a deathbed, who is in agony to keep his natural life. We have nothing so precious as our immortal soul, and the voice of God’s mercy goes forth to us.
3. The reason. Here there are two things we would consider. The sinner comes far short of striving, but as I noticed before, Christ speaks of your duty, and the duty of every sinner to whom the gospel comes.
(1) The first part of the reason is: “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat”. O my fellow sinners, do you think about those that go to destruction? Do you follow them to eternity? That should lead you to strive lest you go to the same place. There is a broad way and a wide gate leading to that way. That is the state in which we are by nature, and the gate by which we came in is transgression of God’s law. That gate is so wide that it admitted, not only our first parents, but all their posterity. What is all the present population of the world compared to all of Adam’s innumerable offspring? They come in as sinful creatures who lost the mercy of God, and the way is so broad that the sinner with all his sins can go on to destruction, unless God by His grace and providence prevent it.
There is room enough in hell for the man who keeps no family worship,
for the Sabbath breaker, the swearer, the infidel and the atheist. There is room enough in hell for the many who are on the broad way. There are many on that way who profess religion. Do not trust your souls to the broad way. The religion which cannot bring sinners out of sin is not a saving religion; it is a broad way; it is a crooked way; there are many windings in it. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” There is a great difference in the habits and practices of unconverted people. Not all on the broad way have the same practices; some are morally better than others. It is a crooked way, but all on it meet at the end, and the end is destruction. However far apart they are on the broad way, and out of sight of one another, they meet at the end.
And there is a danger in it. It is dangerous for you to be in this way for a single hour, much more so for a single day. A short time may cast you into eternity. It is a dangerous way, and yet men do not think so. You are in danger of what is before you in eternity, and although the Lord’s people are afraid of this sometimes, they are more afraid of what is between them and the grave. Their Father is in heaven; their Brother is there. Press on and strive to enter in at the strait gate. But “wide is the gate, and many there be that go in thereat”. And there is a gate at the other end of the way, and those who go out there enter into hell.
(2) The next part of the reason is: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”. This is addressed to you and me. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” There is a narrow way, and there is a strait gate too. The narrow way is the believer’s state of grace in this world. There are only two ways in this world: the broad way to destruction, and the narrow way to life. The way of holiness is a narrow way. That the way is narrow does not mean that there is any defect in it. It is a holy way; it is a strait way; and it is a safe way, because it leads to life. It is not like the broad way.
This way is narrow and there is a hedge on both sides of it, and I would say that this hedge is the law of God. The believer is delivered from the law as a covenant of works, but it is his rule of life. God’s way is a holy way. There are some who think that, if they believe in Christ, they can trample on God’s law. When the sinner is set free, he is made holy inwardly, and also in his practices.
The law of God sometimes means the Word of God. But the Christian is under the law of God, the two tables of the law. The first contains the duty of man to God, and the second the duty of man to his fellow creatures. We have to love God and our neighbour. David had respect to all God’s commandments. Paul says, “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared
to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”. He lives soberly who performs his duty to God and man. Some say that for four centuries there has not been so much dishonesty. I do not know whether that is true or not, but you may trust the Christian. You may make him steward of a million pounds if you have it, and he would not put a penny of it in his own pocket. Few find this way “because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life”. Life is given to the soul to enable him to enter in at the strait gate. We say again that no one can enter in without being born again.
Let not Christians be idle, but let them stir themselves up, and they will have more fellowship with God. The Lord’s people sometimes get so much of His presence that they think they are to be taken into eternity. Do you, in truth, love God’s ordinances? If so, you love the God of ordinances; you say, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord”.