Es sind zwei Weg in dieser Zeit, der eine schmal, der andere weit. That's the song we sang. There are two ways in this our day, one narrow and the other broad. who now will go the narrow way, will be despised by all abroad. This plainly God's word teaches us, the narrow entrance way go in. And then a verse we didn't sing, but he who the broad way shall go, the stairs to hell, this is the same. He now is lost, God's wrath shall know, but blessed is he who's born again. To him hath God prepared, imperiled, a crown eternity shall hold. It shall not pass away, O world. Away then with your gain and gold. We were reminded this past week that life is fragile. Life is fleeting. Are we ready when our turn comes? Are we ready to meet God? You know, we cannot live wrong and die right. And so my thoughts went to Matthew 7 verses 13 and 14 for a message. And that is exactly where that song was taken from that we sang. I was blessed. The title to the message this morning is The Two Ways, taken from Matthew chapter 7. I was almost confused as to calling it The Two Ways because it seems like the one way has many ways. There's many ways leading to hell. But we notice the term broad way in the end, all these ways that tend to bring us to this destination come together, they're all all included on this broad way. It's broad enough to include all these different little ways, little things or big things, whatever you want to call them, that take our soul to hell. They all end up on this broad way. They run parallel. So I think there are only two ways. There are only two destinations that we know for sure. Let's read in Matthew, chapter seven, verse 13 through 29, and you may stand in reverence to the word as we read Matthew seven. Verse 13, enter ye 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 few there be that find it. Verse 15, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one 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. 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 wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which build his house upon a rock, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, 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. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine for he taught them as one having authority and not as describes. Thank you. You may be seated. The two ways, there's two alternatives, which means we have to choose between two possibilities. And making this choice is how our character is established, whether it be good or bad. We just read the closing section of the Sermon on the Mount, the most powerful message that was ever preached by the greatest preacher, Jesus Christ himself. And in that message, he presents the listener or the reader with two options, two choices in a series of contrasts. The first one is in verse 13 and 14, where he talks about there being two ways. The one is broad, very spacious, lots of room. The gate is wide open. You can enter that gate with no restrictions. You can carry anything and everything you want to in your heart and on your shoulders and walk right in. The road is very popular and is traveled by many. The other way, it says, is narrow with a straight gate. It is wide enough, though, for Jesus and yourself. By the grace and mercy of God, it is not that difficult to enter this straight gate. It does, however, require a broken heart and a contrite spirit in order for us to get through the gate. It is too small to get through with the baggage of the world hanging on our shoulders, it won't fit. We have to get rid of those things that bog us down. This narrow road is not so popular and it says it is traveled by a few. So back to these two choices. Here we have a choice. We have a wide road and we have a narrow path. There's a right way and a wrong way. The second contrast is in verse 15 through 20, where he talks about there being two trees. One is good. One is bad. One tree has good fruit. The other tree has evil fruit. Indicating that others will be able to tell what kind of a tree we are by the things that come out, by the way we live, by how we look, by where we go, So again, there's a choice on our part. Are we a good tree or a bad tree? The third contrast, verse 21 to 23, talks about there being two professions, a powerful verbal testimony, but their heart is far from me having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Or we profess to be a Christian and we live it out. We've been changed. We're born again. God has done a work in our life. And it says he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven. Again, there's a choice, disobedience and hypocrisy living for self, or we're doing the will of God from the heart. And the fourth one. is the two foundations in verse 24 to 29. Hear and do these sayings of mine. Jesus speaking, you will be building your life on the rock, the foundation of Jesus Christ, and will be able to stand the storms of life or you will be building your life on the sand. You will be the one that is not hearing and doing You hear only and your life will be tossed to and fro. Nothing solid to stand on. And you will wallow in the sand of defeat. Again, there's a choice we build on the rock or we build on sand. We build on Jesus or we build on ourselves. So here he has four contrasts, each with two choices, good or bad. Today, we focus on the two ways. In verse 13 and 14, there are only two ways, a right way and a wrong way, a good way and an evil way, the way to heaven and the way to hell. An eternal destination at the end of each road. All of us are traveling on one road or the other. The choice is ours. We make the choice. God will not make the choice for us. Choices. Jesus kept it very simple. Two ways to choose from two destinations. There's not 12 ways and two destinations. We don't have to decide which of the 12 we want. There's two. One is good. One is bad. He must have known that we at least I don't do so well in making choices and decisions. You know, some of you have built new houses and most of us probably remodeled the one we're in. And we go to Schrock's cabinet and there's a whole wall of which door style do you want? Which color stain? And then there's whole rows of knobs and hinges to choose from. And you might spend half a day there trying to decide which one you want. And then you go to Keim Lumber and you want to buy paint. And there's stacks of samples you can take home trying to decide what color paint. And you go to the flooring place and on and on and on it goes. You have hundreds of options. Jesus kept it very simple here. There's two options to pick from. How much easier could it be? And yet sometimes we make it so difficult. There are only two options to choose from, heaven or hell. You know, we kind of choose the destination and we accept the way to get there. One is narrow, the way of the cross. Jesus said, I am the way. No man comes to the Father, but by me. That's the narrow way. The other is broad. It's wide open. You enter as you please. All you have to do to get onto this broad road is nothing, nothing. And you're on the broad road. Lots of room, many travelers. There's liberty, unlimited opportunities for the flesh. The carnal man thrives on this road. You can enter with all your lusts. There's no checkpoint where you have to stop and give account for your passions and your desires. You can just keep right on going. You can walk in the way of your heart and in the sight of your eyes and nobody cares. Yes, there does. Jesus does care. There is abundance of company. The Bible says many there be which go in there at. Everyone in this multitude on this broad road can choose their own route. They can make their own map. They can even erect their own road signs. You can have your own rules. Just do as you please. There's many people and we might think everyone else is doing it. If we go with the crowd. We're very likely on the wrong road. It says this road is full of people. You know, we have this thing of, well, everyone else is doing it, especially when we're younger. I remember telling dad many times, well, everyone else is doing it. Why can't we? And he would say, just because everyone else is doing it doesn't say it's right. And here we have it in the Bible. You know, but today there's many people who want the best of both ways. We can follow the crowd, we can live like the world, we can do as we please. But when we die, we want to go to heaven. It doesn't work, we can't do that. Jesus himself said we cannot do that. We cannot serve two gods. The Bible does talk about a third way. In Proverbs, there is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. You know, this way that seems right offers us many options, but requires very little sacrifice. Very little sacrifice. This way does not ask me to change my lifestyle. And there's hardly any restraints on this way that seemeth right unto man. You know, it seemed right and even reasonable to Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. What happened? It brought death. Sickness, you name it. It seemed right for Achan to be thrifty and save some of the clothes and some of the money for himself. What happened? There was a rock pile over himself and everything that he had. He lost it all. It seemed right for David to have another man's wife. It caused much sorrow and the death of the child. It seemed right for Judas to deny Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, and he took the path of suicide. You see what happens when we do what seems right? It brings about destruction and grief and sorrow, and the list goes on. Today, humanity continues to choose the path that seems right. But the end is death. You know, today, for many people, it seems right to believe in Jesus. It's fairly popular in America to believe in Jesus. It seems right. And it is right. But for many, the religion is very shallow. There's no commitments, no convictions. No separation from sin and the world. Saving faith is just kind of a mental thing. It seems right, so it must be right to just float along with the crowd. Just float away from everything that is stable. Just kind of be hanging there. Well, let me tell you, it is not safe for our flesh or the carnal man within us to decide what is right. It's not safe because it will always take us the wrong way. Our flesh is bent towards evil. To the flesh, it seems right. Or it can be justified to disobey mom and dad. It seems right to disregard for what the church stands for some of the things. It seems right to the flesh to rebel against any or all authority in their life. Through the flesh, it seems right to be intoxicated with the electronic media of our day. You know, there's so much good to be done with it while ignoring the pitfalls and snares that come along with it. We see people everywhere, unaware or oblivious to their surroundings with the toy in their hand. Somehow that seems right. Somehow it seems right to be connected to the system of the world. Social networking, watching movies, following professional sports, all kinds of entertainment, among a host of other things that should not be once named among us. It seems right to steal precious time from our spouse and children to spend time on this device. The devil is a master at making things seem right when they are not right. If it seems right, It's probably wrong. And I'm talking in the sense of the carnal man. The gradual deceptive process of traveling on the way that seems right is described in Matthew 24, verse 11 and 12. It talks about false prophets and then the abounding of sin. And it says the love of many shall wax cold. The love of many shall wax cold. This waxing is not a forceful or a radical process. It means that it is gradual and almost unnoticeable. We call it apostasy. And apostasy has a progressive nature. This way that seems right to the carnal man tends to take us the wrong way a little bit at a time. Here's what one writer said about apostasy. The first step is we cease to love the truth. Number two, we cease to obey the truth. Number three, we cease to know the truth, and finally, we begin to believe a lie. There is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof is the way of death. The exit ramp from the narrow way called apostasy includes a lack of daily communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. And instead, there will then be an increase of worldly influence into our life, whether it be through social media or business associations, and the list goes on. We then replace that daily communion with something else. There also seems to be an increase of relief and mission efforts with those who are backsliding from applying biblical doctrines and principles to their life. For some reason, they try to offset that by doing relief work. And at the same time, they're backsliding in their own life. Psalm 1-1 calls it, walking in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the scorner's seat. Not a lovely group to be traveling with on this highway of life. And if we associate with those kinds of people, we are sure to exit the highway of holiness at some point. May God in his mercy and grace spare each one of us from being caught up with the world system and end up in that awful place at the end of this broad road called hell. Praise God. There is a right way to live. There is a right way to walk on. God has provided for His people a better way to travel on. It's not always an easy way, but it is the best way. Romans 5.20 says, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. He has provided for His people Through daily fellowship with our Lord, by growing in His grace, by keeping ourselves unspotted from the world, we can be spared from the destructive influence of our day. Of the way that seemeth right, we can be spared from that dilemma. Enter the straight gate. Enter the straight gate. Travel the narrow way. It leads to life. It leads to life eternal. God's way is the right way. And like I said, it's not always the easy way. It's the way of the cross. It is the way that calls for self-denial. It is a way of restrictions to the flesh. Many don't like it. It's too confining. We enter, we get onto this road through the gate of repentance and contrition. We call it the new birth. There must be a new heart, a new spirit within us. Old things must pass away. The tendencies, the disposition of our heart and will must be changed. The gate is straight. In order to enter, we must become like little children. Humble before our God, we must deny ourselves. We must forsake all for the cause of Christ. Bless me, God, the gate is open. The gate is not shut or locked against us. It's open. We can enter at our will. And by the grace of God, it is not difficult to enter that gate. When we enter, we are not automatically in heaven. When we enter the gate, we are on the narrow way. We find ourselves on a narrow way. The songwriter says it's not an easy road. We are traveling to heaven. And again, I don't want to make it sound difficult or too hard to walk on this way. It's much easier to walk on this narrow way than it is to walk on the Broadway. If you think about all the Everything that comes your way by taking your own way, all the confusion, the heartache, the grief that goes with living for self. The path to heaven is the best way because you're walking with your savior, the one who made it possible for you to be on that way to start with. This path goes through the wilderness, through the battlefield of life. Self must be denied. There's daily temptations to be resisted. There's duties to be done that are against our natural inclinations. There's hardness to endure. There's wrestling against powers, against the rulers of darkness, against spiritual wickedness. There's a battle to be fought. The Bible says we must watch in all things, we must be on guard. The Bible calls us to walk carefully or circumspectly. There is suffering, there's trials, there's tribulation to endure on this narrow way. It's not an easy road, but it is the best road. Jesus is by our side. nudging us on, don't give up, keep going. He will even carry us through the hard times. Have you experienced that? The grace of God will carry us, gives us the strength to fight the good fight of faith. We dare not take the easy road of self. Our soul is at stake. We can't We can't afford it. We can't afford to miss taking the narrow way, entering at the straight gate. There's too much at stake. My friends, heaven will surely be worth it all. Oh, and our fellow travelers on this narrow road are a blessing to be with. They're an inspiration to our life. They're an encouragement to us to keep walking, keep moving towards that goal. There's innocent children on this road. Young people, old people who are committed to following the will of God. There's holy people on this road who call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart. the meek, the peacemakers, the merciful, the humble. There's those who love, there's those who forgive, there's those who show compassion, those who are more concerned about others than they are about themselves. That's the kind of people we're traveling with. On this narrow road. You know, somehow it feels like we Travel with the other kind too. We rub shoulders with those on the Broadway. But somehow our focus is different from theirs. Somehow we're heading in a different direction and I'm not sure if I can explain all that. We're traveling to a different place. In conclusion, choose the right road. Choose the narrow path. Or should we call it a highway? The Bible calls it a highway of holiness. Bypass the way that seems right. To the carnal man, don't exit. For the way that seemeth right unto man. It'll bring discouragement. It even brings loneliness, despite the fact that that road is loaded with people. and in the end brings destruction. Take heed. Travel carefully. Travel light. You know what I mean? Don't take the kitchen sink. Travel light. No sin. Have a pure heart. No ill will. No grudges. Travel light on this highway of holiness. Faith in God and walking in obedience brings love, joy, peace into our lives and in the end everlasting life. Enter ye in at the straight gate because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. I trust this morning we are in that group of few. Let's kneel and pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you this morning. We thank you for this blessing of being together with others of like precious faith. Thank you for your word to us. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for providing a way for your people to walk on the way of holiness, the narrow way. Thank you that you are by our side and that we can have strength by your grace to fight the battles of life. Give us victory. Help us to stand for what is right. Pray we would not exit this narrow way for some, some of our own agenda. but that we would simply be focused on you, surrender to your will, help us to walk humbly and faithfully together all the way to glory. Thank you for each one that is here. Bless our lives, Lord. Help us to be a faithful witness of what you've done for us through your son, Jesus Christ, who died on Calvary to bring us peace and rest and forgiveness of sins. Again, we give you honor and glory for what you've done for us and what you will do for us in the future. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.