The Invitation into the Kingdom.

The sermon series is about repentance for the Kingdom of God. Salvation and redemption start with repentance. Jesus preached about two choices: continue down the religious road or choose Him and repent. The invitation to the Kingdom has two beginnings and two gates: the narrow and exclusive gate leads to life, while the wide and broad gate leads to destruction. After entering the right gate, one must beware of false prophets who appear as sheep but are actually wolves. It is important to discern their fruit and stick to the truth to avoid stumbling into the wrong gate. We have been kind of dealing in a sermon series that just kind of fell in place that I've kind of entitled, Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. And we've been looking through basically the Sermon on the Mount. We saw that when Jesus Christ came and entered into this world that all of a sudden John the Baptist was His forerunner and He'd come and He said, Behold the Lamb of God. And everything about Jesus Christ and what He was coming to do and what He was coming to give us anchored upon this idea of salvation and redemption. But you can't have salvation and redemption until you have repented. And so repentance is where it all starts. And so we've kind of jumped through the Sermon on the Mount just a little bit and looked at several different deals. And today, we are going to look at the invitation of the Kingdom. So we've got this entire sermon that Jesus Christ preached and now we finally get down to the invitation part. And when you think about it, it's a single choice. Now, most of us live a very simplistic life. Most of us do not have to make a whole lot of really difficult decisions, a whole lot of life-changing or life-shattering. And how simple do you think life would be if all you had to make though was just two choices? You just had two choices. And that's what we're going to do today is we're going to narrow down all of life to this morning, hopefully to two choices. The sad thing is, is even with the simplicity of two choices, there's a lot of people that still make the wrong choice. You ever had a 50-50 chance on getting something? You know, I used to love multiple choice. Because if there was just four answers, I had a 25% chance of getting it right, right? But how many times do I always guess wrong? And unfortunately, that's the way it is today. And in this passage of Scripture today, it's one of the saddest verses in the entire Bible, in my opinion, we find in this passage this morning in verse 21. Jesus Christ in this invitation says, Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. So I want us to look at these two choices this morning. And I believe He begins with this idea of two beginnings. See, we have a starting point. We have an opportunity to go in. And we saw when John the Baptist came onto the scene, he basically gave them two choices. Either you can continue down this religious road, you can continue following these scribes and these Pharisees, or else you can choose Jesus Christ and me. However, if you choose me, it comes with repentance. And so there was these two beginnings when Jesus Christ came onto the scene. And as I was studying this and looking forward to next year, and I'm really excited about the first seven weeks of next year because we are going to look at the doctrine of Jesus Christ. And when we look at that, we'll find in John 14 and verse 6, Jesus saith unto Thomas, you remember? He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And everything about Jesus Christ is summarized in this way, the truth, and the life. And next year as we look at this doctrine of Christ, we're going to see that the way deals with our past. You and I, how do we get to Jesus Christ? That should happen in the past. And then we're living here in the present. And what are we doing in the present? Present the truth. And how many times did Paul tell us that we are to abide by the truth. We are to stick with the Word of God, the foundation that He has given us. And then our future deals with life. Jesus Christ said, I came to give you life and life more abundantly. And as I was looking at this invitation that Jesus Christ lays out for us here in Matthew 7, and I'm just going to summarize it for you today and just kind of hit these highlights, I want you to see that there's two beginnings which points us to the way. It's the past. You cannot end up at your destination if you don't start in the right place. And so we have two beginnings. And what does He say? He gives us two imperatives here in this passage. He tells us in verse 13, the first imperative, which is a command. It's not a choice. It's not a suggestion. It is enter in. That is a command. Enter you in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. And notice this. I didn't highlight it here on the slide, but I want you to make note of it in your notes or on your Bible this morning. He says, in few there be that find it. And as we look at this, I want us to see there's two gates. There's two paths. There's two openings. In other words, when He talks about a gate, one thing that you know about a gate, and we live out here in Kentucky community where a lot of people have gates on their drives. And you can drive up there and if it's open, you're in good shape. But if it's not open, then guess what? You have to notify the owner. You have to get permission to enter in. They have to send you a code. They have to open it up. They have to let you in. And then before you can get onto that property, you have to enter. And so Jesus Christ says, this Kingdom of Heaven, the beginning, the path that gets us to eternal life, starts with a gate. And He says, choose the right gate. And so there's two different paths that we can take. There's two different choices. Every one of us will walk down. And He mentions the straight gate. The straight gate, first of all, has to be entered. If you have a gate, you have to enter that gate. You can stand behind the gate all day long, but you're not in the property, you're not in the Kingdom until you step through that gate. And so not only does this gate have to be entered, but notice the gate also is very exclusive. It's a narrow gate. It's not a gate that a wide bunch of people is going to go. It's not a gate that's going to attract a crowd. If you've ever been down to an amusement park or something and stuck around there till closing, one of the things you find out is the entrance is not near as big when it becomes the exit, right? When you get there, first of all, you may be running a little bit late and it's not as crowded, but when everybody in the park is leaving at the same time, that gate becomes very exclusive because only a certain number of people can go in at the same time. And notice what He says about this gate. He said the straight gate is narrow. In other words, what He's telling me is if you're not very careful, you can miss the gate. If you're not very careful, you can get distracted by the easy way out and miss the narrow gate. But not only does it have to be entered, not only is it exclusive, but notice it's also elusive. Notice what He says. He tells us there that there are few that be able to find it. I mean, can you imagine a gate that is so narrow, that is so isolated, that is so elusive, that not very many people find it. However, the question that we need to ask is can we find the proper gate? Can we find a gate so that we can enter in and go? And so Jesus Christ tells us here there's these two gates. There's this narrow gate, but there's also this straight route gate. There's this wide gate. And the wide gate, kind of what He's telling me is and what I read in the Scripture is you have to enter in the narrow gate, but a lot of people stumble through the broad gate. You kind of end there by an accident, right? You ever been in a big crowd and need to go somewhere and you end up taking the wrong exit because you're following the crowd, right? And then you look up, uh oh, how did I get here? It's kind of like this broad gate. A lot of people are just going to stumble through it. They end up in that gate and they don't even know how they got there or why they got there because it's so wide, it's so broad, that it's so there that everybody and anybody can enter in. But there's not only two beginnings, but Jesus also mentions there's two behaviors. See, once we get in the right gate, once we get in that narrow gate, that exclusive gate, that elusive gate, then notice what He says. And He gives us the second command. The second imperative that He mentions here. The first one is enter. The second one in v. 15 is beware. Beware. That is the imperative. That is the command. Enter in, but beware. And so what are we to beware of? Notice what He said. Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are raven and wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes and thorns or pigs or thistles? And so notice here, He gives us this warning. This warning. And it has to do with the truth of Jesus Christ. With the whole Sermon on the Mount, what have we found out was the whole main reason that Jesus Christ was preaching the Sermon on the Mount to try to let the scribes and the Pharisees know that what they were doing was not good enough or sufficient enough to get them to heaven. And so the whole thing, and He told us the whole key of the whole Sermon on the Mount was your righteousness has to exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. And so Jesus Christ, remember He pulled His disciples to the side, but the crowds and the people came with Him. And there was this great multitude of people and Jesus is talking to His disciples there. And He said there's two gates, but also be aware because there's a lot of wolves out here that are looking like sheep. There's these scribes and these Pharisees. They're taking your money. They're giving you sacrifices. They don't care about whether you end up in heaven or not. They want their pocketbooks padded. They want their lives affixed. And so what He is warning them is to watch out because what happens if you end up listening to the falsehoods and you don't listen to the truth, guess what? You wind up stumbling into that broad gate and you don't end up where you need to. And so notice this warning. And in this warning as He gives it, first of all, we have to define these false prophets. And as I mentioned, the prophets were those that... when you look at a prophet in the Bible, a prophet is one that speaks before God or speaks about God. They were the ones that spoke in the Old Testament. The true prophets had two things on which their office was built. They had a divine commission. They were called by God. And then second of all, they had a divine message. They had a message delivered from God. And what was to happen to a prophet if he did not tell the truth? He'd be immediately killed. There is no second chances. Why? Because God can't lie. God's not going to make a mistake. And so the prophet had a divine calling. He had a divine message. And he either spoke for God or he spoke from God. Either God gave him something to speak or God spoke through him. In other words, he was standing in the authority when he spoke of God. It wasn't his authority. And he was speaking in the authority of God. And so he speaks this message and he says these guys, beware of these false prophets. They say they come speaking from God or on behalf of God, but guess what? They're fake. They're false. They're liars. They're pseudo-prophets. They're false. And we have to understand that. And so he says beware of these false prophets. And then he gives us a danger. Notice the danger. He says beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. That word beware means to hold your mind back from. Do not even expose yourself to them. Man, the sad thing is today is we have a whole lot of Christians that are exposing their minds to false prophets. And they say, well, they get some good things here and some good things there. No, Jesus Christ says don't be exposed at all. Don't listen to them. Label them. The prophet in the Old Testament was to be killed. They were to be stoned. Not to look out and decide whether is this a good report or is this a bad report. Notice what he tells us in 2 John 7-10. He explains these false wolves, these deceivers. He says for many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not died. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God's speed. That's pretty simple to me. That's pretty plain to me. And do not entertain them. Do not support them. Do not let them. Because this is the danger that we find. Because what happens is you can easily get with that false prophet and you can easily wind up in the broad gate instead of the narrow gate. But then there's also this deception. This deception of the truth. These false prophets, whether they're doing it willingly or unknowingly, whatever. Notice what he says. And here it shows the idea that they're doing it willingly because he says they come to you in sheep's clothing, and so they're trying to disguise themselves. They're trying to make you think that they are a sheep when actually they are a wolf that wants to eat you and destroy you. And he mentions their damnation. Notice what he says in verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Now that we have been warned in the truth, what should we be looking for? What should we be looking for? Well, we've been warned, so now notice what he tells us to watch for. He tells us in Matthew 7 and verse 16, you shall know them by their what? By their fruits. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? And so notice, he says, entering in, that's the way, he says beware of the truth, and now he gives us this assurance. We can know the truth. You can recognize the false prophets. You can recognize those that are disguising themselves and deceiving themselves. And Jesus gives us the confidence here to know who is real and who is not. That's why I tell you, every single week is what? Don't just take what I say. Go home and study what I say. Make sure it's right, because you have a deal. Because why? You know whether I am true or whether I am false because there's only one Word. There's only one authority. And if I'm not preaching this authority, then I'm false. I'm fake. And so, pick me up. Challenge on me. And then do that. And so we have this confidence that is there. He says in verse 20, Wherefore, by their fruits shall you know them. Now remember, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about that judging, right? We talked about judge not. And that was a command, an imperative too. And we saw that that judging is this hypocritical, this condemning, this bad condemnation type of judging. But God tells us here that guess what? We have to inspect some fruit. We have to make some judgment. We have to do some discernment. And how do we do that? How do we determine who is trying to lead us in this narrow gate, or who is allowing us to stumble into this broad gate? And He tells us we do it by their fruit. Now I am not a very good woodsman. I'll just be honest with you. I've got an app on my phone that I love. It's called Plant This or something or another. But all I've got to do is take a picture of a leaf or a plant, and all of a sudden it tells me exactly what it is. Because I have a hard time. I look for hickory wood for my smoker, and I couldn't tell you a hickory tree from an oak tree from a what tree. And I know their bark and their leaves are different, but guess what? I have no clue. But you know when I can tell the difference? When they put on their fruit. I know what a hickory nut looks like. I know what an acorn looks like, right? I can tell when I planted a bunch of fruit trees and if it wasn't me for planting, I wouldn't know my peach from my apple from my plums. But guess what? I do when they put on fruit, right? Because the fruit is what reveals to us. And so we can identify this. And so what do we look at? You know, the bark can be misleading. The leaves, the outward stuff can be misleading. That's what Jesus has talked about in this entire Sermon of the Mount. It's not about what men see, but it's about our heart. It's what comes out. And so what's in our heart is the fruit that we are going to bear. And so notice this character. Notice the character of watching. This fruit that we examine. What kind of character or what kind of personality, what's the attitude or the motive or their thinking behind what they are presenting? In other words, what kind of actions or what kind of lifestyle or pattern are they giving off? That's what character involves. Character involves who you are when no one else is looking. You know, a lot of these TV evangelists that they'll talk to you about prosperity and how the more you give, the more God will give back to you and the only ones that seem to be benefiting is the one that's delivering the message, right? They're the ones that have the big houses and the planes and the helicopters and the staffs and everything else. See, in other words, look at their fruit. Look at what is being produced. You know what to look for in a false prophet. Why? Because attitude drives character. Remember what Jesus Christ started with in the Sermon of the Mount? He started with the attitude that drives our character. Blessed are the what? The poor in spirit. Blessed are those that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those that hunger and thirst. In other words, as we change the inside, then we bear the fruit of the kingdom on the outside. And so He gives us this watching of their character. But then He also tells us to watch what they say. Watch their creed. Watch what they're preaching. Now what does sound doctrine does He have in mind? What are they teaching that Jesus Christ has in mind right here? Well, when you go back to Matthew 7, and I'm going to show you the thrust of this and kind of wrap it up, but what the issue is here, and listen to me, you can always tell a false prophet because they have a very twisted view of Jesus Christ. They have a very twisted view of Jesus Christ. And so this is this person and He has what? His work. And so we follow Jesus Christ. It's not our choice. It's not what we want to do. We have to do what Christ wants us to do. And it's His work of salvation. I cannot save anyone. All I can do is point you to Jesus Christ. He is the One that saved. And so when you start twisting this idea of Christ, well, if you start attending church, or if you give this, or if you do that, or you start focusing on works, then guess what? Their creed does not line up. They have a twisted view of Jesus Christ. And they're going to lead you to be in this group that says in the last days, Lord, Lord, when did we not choose You? When did we not enter into the right gate? But also, you not only look at their character, their attitude that performs without, not only their words, their creed, but notice their converts. Those that are following them. You can tell by who's following them. Do you want to know about a leader? Look at the followers. Look at the followers. Look at their lives. Look at what they are imitating. Because see, a leader is making disciples. And so if I am preaching and teaching Jesus Christ, my followers ought to start looking and acting like Jesus Christ. And so they ought to be different. That's why churches can survive 200 years with different pastors and different things because why? It's not about the pastor. It's about Jesus Christ. And if I am doing properly with Jesus Christ and teaching the truth, when I retire, when I die, or something happens to me, guess what? Another man that is preaching Jesus Christ is going to be able to come in here and going to continue to be able to lead. Why? Because the ministry's not about us. It's about Jesus Christ. And so, look at the followers. Look at the converts. You know, I'll question when all of a sudden a pastor resigns or a pastor retires and then the church falls completely apart. What was he building on? What foundation? What was going on? Because the people, you shouldn't be trusting in me. I'm going to fall. I'm a sinner. The wages of sin is death. I will eventually die. My ministry will come to an end. And he said also, look at their consummation. Look at the end. You can tell them by how their ending is going to be. Look at what he says in v. 19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is honed down and cast into fire. I remembered when I was studying this and looking at this immediately because I teach the book of Acts, I was going back to the Apostle Paul. Do you remember when Apostle Paul was rising and Jesus Christ called him? And he finally got arrested in Gamaliel. Do you remember? One of the guys that sat on the Sanhedrin. What did he say? It was Peter and John, not Paul. It was Peter and John as the church was growing and going. What did they tell him? They said, leave them alone. If they're of God, you're not going to be able to stop them. But if they're not of God, then guess what? They're not going to be able to carry on because God's going to get rid of them. And so look at their end. Look at the end of their ministry. It's amazing. I mentioned to you several months ago about a big religious thing that was moving. And I told you on Sunday night that I hope and pray this is a work of the Holy Spirit. I hope and pray that people are really being saved. That lives are being changed. But I also told you to what? Be cautious. Be cautious. Now three months down the road, guess what? Nobody is talking about that great revival. Those people are not gathering anymore. They're not moving anymore. What's happened? Look at the end. You shall know what their fruit was. And it seems to be that guess what? It wasn't a moving of the Holy Spirit. It was a movement of the flesh. And the flesh will not stand. Only the things of God will flourish. And only the things of God will prosper. And so notice, he gets down to this idea the way, there's only the narrow gate. Not the broad gate. The narrow gate. The truth is that we have to be sure that we know about Jesus Christ. Beware of false prophets and false gospels. The third and final thing of this invitation is the by-product. And there's two by-products. Notice he says, be doers. Be doers. This is our life. This is the fruit. This is the result. Jesus Christ said Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy. But I have come that you might have what? Life. And life more abundantly. That's future. And so he's talking about the life. Yes, we can have life now, but our hope as a Christian is not in this life. Our hope is where? In the life to come. When I see Him, I shall be like Him. That's our hope. That's what we're looking for. And so that is our life. Yes, we can have life here. Because Jesus Christ said if you are poor in spirit, guess what? Then all of a sudden you inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. If you mourn, then guess what? You will be taken care of. And so all of these things, he said you can have life now, but guess what? It only comes through Jesus Christ. And notice what he says in verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven. And then look at verse 22 because I asked you to remember that few earlier. Now look at what he says in verse 22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many mighty works? See the contrast? The few and the many. The narrow gate. The broad gate. The false prophets. The true prophets. The end result is what? Eternal life or eternal damnation. Remember back in 713, he said, Enter ye at the straight gate for a while and look at what he said, verse 14, for few there be that find it. I want you to look at just a few as we wrap this up this morning. The few are those that do the will of the Father. The few are those that do the will of the Father. Notice their fruit. Their fruit is their doers. Their doers. And look at what he says in verse 34, Jesus saith unto them, why are they doers? Because Jesus was a doer. Jesus said unto His disciples in John 4, remember they were worried about food when He went to the well to meet the Samaritan woman? You remember that story? And Jesus sent them off to be about food? And when they come back, they look and Jesus says, Behold, the fields are white unto harvest, right? Here comes all of this food, all of this harvest that is there, but you're worried about physical food when you ought to be worried about spiritual food. And Jesus Christ looks at them and saith unto them, My meat, my food, my substance that helps me to grow and mature is to do the will of Him that sent Me. And what? Finish His work. Finish His work. You know, Apostle Paul said what? I have followed good faith. I have finished the course that is laid down for me. Henceforth, there's laid up for me a crown of rejoicing, and not for me only, but also for those that look for the coming of Jesus Christ. In other words, we have to understand that we are just stewards on this earth. We have to obey the King. And He says when we call Him Lord, we're saying, You're my Master. And we say, Lord, Lord, but then we don't ever come to church. There was a deal popping around Facebook this week that everybody was sharing and liking, so you probably saw it, but why say that you would be willing to die for Jesus Christ or go to jail for Jesus Christ when you won't even go to church for Jesus Christ? See, that's the doer. That's the doer. You ever notice when you baptize somebody on Sunday and you don't see them for several weeks, months, or ever after they get baptized? See, that's what He's saying. Jesus Christ says, I am a doer. And it's not just about entering into the gate. But once you get into the gate, you have to beware of false prophets that are still going to mess you up, that are going to trip you up in order that you might get to the proper destination. We want to get to the proper destination. And the proper destination comes by doing the will of the Father. That's the fruit that we're looking for. In John 6 and verse 38, Jesus said again, for I came down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. John 6 and verse 40 says, and this is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. You see what's happening? Jesus Christ said, I came to obey the Father and produce people that lead people to obey the Father. And so we're doers. And we've got to be very careful, especially as Baptists, because we know that salvation is by grace, right? Through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any one of us should boast. But if Jesus Christ is really in your life, if you wasn't saved by your works, how were you saved? You were saved by grace. But He says in verse 10 that we never quote, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. If Jesus is in you, and He is your Lord, then guess what? You're going to be obeying Jesus Christ. You're going to be doing what He tells you to do. Your life is going to be different from everybody else in this world. And so the few do the will of the Father. The few also obey the words of the Father. See, when God talks to us and God speaks to us, the few are the ones that obey. The few are the ones that hear the Word. How many times in the Gospel of Matthew, and go through. I encourage you to read Matthew this week and underline and highlight. How many times Jesus Christ says, He that hath ear to hear, let him hear. Let him hear. What is He talking about? He's not just saying don't be hearers of the Word only, but be what? Doers. When you know what God wants you to do, Peter said, to him that doeth it not, it is sin. And so notice, the few obey the words of the Father. Look at verse 24. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house, where? Upon the rock. Upon the rock. And what happened? The rains descended. There's going to be storms in our life, folks. There's going to be problems. Jesus Christ says, I was persecuted. You're going to be persecuted. You're going to have trials and tribulations. I was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Guess what? You're going to be tempted by Satan. Right? Life is not going to always be good. We're going to face storms. But what happens when we're founded upon Jesus Christ? He says when the rains descend, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon your house, it falls not, for it was founded upon a rock. See, I question people that when life gets a little bit tough, they automatically want to curse God and forsake God and leave God and not pursue through. Because see, God also promised us that all things work together for what? Good. And it's the trying of our faith that does what? Work with patience. And that patience does what? It creates knowledge. And that knowledge does what? It reminds us of our hope that we have in Jesus Christ. So, when the storm comes, if you'll notice in this parable here, the storms stop. They do quit. They don't last forever. And so, hang in there because your foundation is not in you. It's in Jesus Christ. Look what he says in v. 26. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, there's that hearing, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. You know, you run into Christians all the time. They're missing you at church. Well, man, my life has been tough right now. Why are you continuing to build on sand? When my life gets tough, man, I want to find somebody meeting in a church service, right? I want to find someplace. When life gets complicated and I don't know what to do, if I can't find a church that's meeting, I want to get my Bible out and I want to try to meet with Jesus Christ because why? The storm is going to stop. And He's going to see me through. And I want my patience to grow. I want my knowledge of Him to increase in order that I might know that there is a hope of Jesus Christ. But notice what he also says about the few. He said the few confess Christ whatever the cost. The few confess Christ at whatever the cost. Look at v. 32. Whosoever... This is over in Matthew 10. He picks up on this later on. And so I want to jump ahead. But look at what he says. Because this is a passage of Scripture that we talk about all the time and it's always misinterpreted, misunderstood. But look at what he says. He said, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whoso shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Now look what he says in v. 34 because he starts to bring it together. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but what? A sword. A sword. And then look at what he says in v. 35. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foe shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it. And he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. Did Jesus Christ in His obedience to the Father cost Him His family on earth? Did it cost Him? Do you remember when they said, your mom and your brothers need you? And He said, I've got to be here about my what? My father's business. Yeah, they're welcome to come, but not one single time do you see Jesus Christ changing His ministry for His mama. Every single time you see His mama changing her ministry to be where Jesus is at. She was always going to where Jesus was at. Jesus never went to... So see, that's what He's talking about here. Sometimes life comes to choices. Sometimes you've got to make a choice. Am I going to go make my family upset? I know they're in from town this weekend, but we go to church. Guess what? My family, every one of my relatives know if they are at my house on a Sunday morning, guess what? I go to church on Sunday morning. And if they're going to stay at my house, then guess what? If they're going to get up really early that morning and they're going to head home, are they going to come to church with me? Because I'm not going to leave them in my house by themselves. There's no discussing it. It's already done. Why? Because I am coming to church. Sometimes you just have to be tough. Sometimes you just have to understand my service to Christ is more important. It's first and foremost. Sometimes, confessing Jesus Christ is going to cost you some things. It may cost you your job. It may cost you relationships. It may cost you some time. It may cost you some money. It may cost you some possessions. But listen, confessing Jesus Christ always costs you. He said be willing to take up your cross and follow Me. Remember what He told the rich man? He said birds have houses. Fox have dens. But I don't have nowhere. I just trust my Father. As long as I'm doing the will of the Father, guess what? He always provides me a place to sleep and food on the table. But the few produce good fruit. The few produce good fruit. Look at Matthew 12. He says, "...for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is..." what? "...my brother and sister and mother." See, He starts this idea here in chapter 7. Doers. Followers. Obeyers. The cost of going in this narrow gate. The cost of not listening to false prophets. The cost of eternal life. And notice, He carries it all the way through Matthew 10. Now we're over in chapter 12. And what did He say? He said, all of a sudden, when I do the will of the Father and you obey Me, then guess what? You become my family. John starts off and says, "...to those that believe in Jesus Christ is given the power to become..." what? "...the sons of God." And if we're sons of God, then we're joiners with Jesus Christ. Matthew 13, 3-9. We state this parable and we're going to wrap up. And I know all of you are familiar with this parable. He says, "...behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he had sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them." But notice verse 8, "...but others fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Now, we know the interpretation because Jesus gives us the interpretation of this parable. So go back into your Sunday school classes and way back under, because I haven't preached this in a long time. I don't know if I've preached it at all here. But what was the seed? The seed's the Word of God, right? The Word of God. We're just to go out there. We have no control over the seed, right? We just have the message. We just go out there to scatter the message. What is the soul? The soul, Jesus says, is their heart. Their heart. But see, when the Word of God comes, guess what? The Word of God is convicting. And it's so convicting, it's able to divide your joints and marrow in your bones. That's how convicting and precise the Word of God is. And so our job is just to go out and spread the Word of God. And then what happens? God is the One that provides the soul. See, if you go back into Genesis, what day was it, brother Morris? That He created the earth? He brought all this dirt forth, right? This is His soul. I can't do anything about what He has given me to do. But what can I do? I can still plant. I can still plant. I can still sow. The seed is the Word of God. The soul is your heart. Now the picture here is very graphic. It is very, very graphic. There are some souls that bring forth fruit. There's other souls that bring forth no fruit. Not everybody that you share the Gospel with is going to receive the Gospel. Some are going to slam the door in your face. Some of them are going to be excited and walk out at the end of the sermon and say, brother Donny, that was a great message. That convicted me today, and I won't see them until Easter. Right? I've got two preachers here that can verify, right? And so what's He saying here? He's saying other souls though bring forth good fruit. But notice the good fruit. Some do it a hundredfold. Some do it sixtyfold. Some do it thirtyfold. Do you realize not all soil produces at the same rate? Me and Brother Tracy both planted a garden this year. You know what? Brother Tracy's little garden produced more than my great big garden. You know why? Because he has cow and he has manure and he has fertilizer and he's right beside a pond and he had lots of water and irrigation and he had everything that he needed in that soil to do what? To produce great crops. He made a hundredfold. But you know what? I'm on my old sandy dry ground and it can rain five inches today and tomorrow be bone dry. But guess what? Even in that soil, I still produce thirtyfold except for squash. And squash I probably did a thousandfold, right? I was trying to give all of y'all squash and zucchini, right? Sand does produce squash and zucchini. But you see what I'm saying? I didn't get to choose where my garden was going to be. It chose me. It's where I live. It's what I have. Where I can plant, right? And so I say, well, it's just bad ground so I'm not going to plant. Every year my wife gets on to me. Why are you planting such a huge garden? Because the more I plant, the more I can produce, right? And that way I've got a better shot. The more I plant, the more acreage I'd kill up, the better shot I am of having something that I can eat. And so these other souls that are there... Now look in Matthew 13, 19. I want to bring this all in for us and make the connection. Because I want us to see this as we go into the doctrine of Christ next year. When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which is sown in his heart, this is he which receiveth the seed by the wayside. So He tells us. What's He telling us? That there's going to be some people that hear the message of the God. Kind of like them hogs, right? Some of them hogs, you're going to throw them pearls. They're not going to appreciate it. They're not going to understand what it is and what happened. But they're going to do it, but then all of a sudden, it's not going to mean anything. When anyone hears the message of entering the kingdom by faith, that means that the seed is the word of the kingdom. And that seed is the Gospel to us. What is the Gospel? If you understand the whole chapter 13, He set His disciples up to understand how evangelism will work. In other words, He's looking at Jesus Christ and twelve men, and they're supposed to go and evangelize the entire world. He's telling them that He speaks in the lead. How in the world is this evangelism going to take place? How in the world are we going to turn this world upside down? That's what chapter 13, the context is all there. And He starts with, first of all, the kind of soil. When you go out, you can't control the soil. In other words, I am not a good fisherman. And so when I want to fish, guess what? I want to know where the largest quantity of fish so I can get one or two stupid ones that are going to bite. And so I don't spend a lot of time trying to trick fish. I move on. I've learned that you know what? If I'll be like Kevin Van Dam, and I will run, I will eventually, if I throw enough cast and enough time, I'm going to eventually catch a dumb fish. And the Gospel's the same way. The more you spread it out there, the more likelihood you're going to win somebody to Jesus Christ. Because you're going to hit the right soil. You're going to hit the right place that's there. But then look at v. 44 of this parable. He said again, and then He gives this other parable. So He goes through and He talks about these three soils that the Word of God gets there, but it never does lodge in the heart. And the seed just dies. The Gospel just goes away. There's no conviction. There's no response. There's no repentance. But then He says in v. 44, the kingdom of heaven is like a new treasure hidden in a field, for which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof, goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth the field. Now look at what this guy... This guy is stumbling across somebody else's land, and he finds something of great value. And what does he do? He doesn't own the land, so therefore he doesn't own the object of value, does he? But the owner didn't know he had it either. Right? How many of us have something on our land we didn't even know we had, right? We didn't know if it was valuable or not. Well, that's what he does. He just stumbles across it. But when he finds this good treasure, what does he do? He knows it's good enough that he hides it back. He doesn't steal it. He doesn't take what's not his, but he hides it and he goes and sells everything that he can in order that he might come back and buy the property so he can claim the treasure. All this has to do with the Gospel and evangelism. And then go again to verse 45. Look at what he says. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man. This guy's doing what? He is seeking goodly pearls. That's a great treasure, right? Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and he bought it. Now let me ask you, what is the common denominator in both of these two parables? The common denominator is both of these guys found something valuable. One wasn't looking for it. The other one was. But both of them found something valuable, right? That's what we're looking at. That's what we did. And both of them did what? Both of them, the one that stumbled across it and the one that was seeking it, both went and sold everything they had in order to purchase it. Now remember, he started out with the Gospel and the seed. And what he's talking about is listen, when we find the Gospel, there are those that when they hear the Gospel, some people just stumble across of it. How many of you were saved because you just stumbled into a Bible school? Or I was invited to a church camp. Anybody here that just happened to hear the message? Maybe somebody invited you to church one time? Nobody here just stumbled across salvation? How many of you then were brought and cultivated and received it and knew what you were getting into, right? There's only two types of people. Either you grew up in church or the gospel found you. Either you found the Gospel or the Gospel found you. That's these two guys. In other words, what he's talking about is there's this exchanged life. Both of them, whether they stumbled across it or whether they were looking for it, when they found it, what did they do? They gave up everything about their life in order that they might do what? Have the life of the valuable thing. And what Jesus is teaching us, when that seed lands in that good soul, it's going to produce a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold. It's going to exchange everything. When we hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you're going to have either two people. Those that hear it and walk away from it and it does nothing to change their life, or those that hear it and it changes their life, and all of a sudden, they are sold out for Jesus Christ. Philippians 3.8 says, yea, doubtless. This is Paul talking. I count all things what? But loss. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but what? Dung, that I may win Christ. Paul said when I finally got a hold and realized the Gospel, and how valuable that Gospel is to my life. Go back and read all of Philippians. He said everything in my former life all of a sudden was considered, in a polite word of that, as boot scrapings. That's what dung is. After they walked in the cattle, and behind the cattle, and with the cattle, and the hogs all day long, at the end of the day, everything that's collected on their boot, he said that was my previous life. I exchanged everything for Jesus Christ. And Paul said, therefore, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, not I live, but Christ lives through me. Paul gave us the Gospel. He said that, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be what? Saved. For with the heart men believeth under righteousness. But what? But what? There's a lot of people that are going to say, Lord, Lord. Lord, Lord. But what did He say? But with the mouth, confession. There's going to be some fruit. There's going to be something different that is there. So as we stand for a verse of invitation this morning, I'm going to ask you, are you beginning right? Are you looking for that narrow gate? Are you willing to go in there? The crowds are not going to go there. The crowds are not going to go into that gate. If you want to stay with the crowds, you're going to wind up at the broad gate. But are you willing to begin right? Are you willing to behave right? To do what God wants you to do? Are you willing to believe right? So Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under the Father, but by what? Me. So the next question is look into your heart. Are you of the few? Or are you of the many? Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not do? And they did a lot of things. The scribes and the Pharisees did a lot of stuff, didn't they? Man, they knew the law. They obeyed the law. The Pharisees, they kept it from their childhood up. But what did He say? Your doing was done for you and not through me. And when it came time for them to repent and turn to Jesus Christ and choose Jesus Christ, they said what? Crucify Him. Crucify Him. We want nothing to do with this man. He's destroying our religion. He's destroying what we have created and what we have made. Crucify this guy. And Jesus is going to look at him and He said, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you either will have no wives in or in. Are you of the few? Or are you of the many? As we sing, what Him?