The Narrow Gate and The Difficult Way, Part 1

Our Lord's teaching in these two verses is of vital importance to every man, woman, boy, and girl on the face of the earth. He speaks of two gates (the narrow and the wide), two ways (the difficult and the broad), two kinds of travelers (the few and the many), and two ultimate eternal destinies (life and destruction). In these two messages we wrestle with two vital questions about our Lord's preaching:

1. What makes the narrow gate so narrow and the difficult way so difficult?
2. What makes the narrow gate and the difficult way so desirable?
   In this first message we discover four inter-related answers to our first question:
3. The narrow gate is narrow because of its exclusivity.
4. The narrow gate is narrow because salvation is granted by grace ALONE through faith ALONE in Christ ALONE.
5. The narrow gate is narrow because it will not allow your lawlessness to pass through it.
6. The narrow gate is narrow because it will not allow your righteousness to pass through it.
   May the Lord be pleased to help many to find and enter the narrow gate and the difficult way that leads to life, and may He encourage weary travelers who are journeying on the difficult way to not lose heart, nor grow weary in well doing.