Title: Enter through the narrow door!
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: Matthew 7:13-14
Title: Enter through the narrow gate!
This world is a place where anyone can live well as long as they put in effort. And in a world where you can have anything if you have money. So everyone is busy trying to make money. Giving young children tutoring from elementary school and sending them to hagwons is a stepping stone to eventually getting out of a good college and getting a job in a well-paying place. These days, there are a lot of people who are aiming for a lot of money, so they are jumping into making money without choosing any means to make money with little effort. As a result, terrible crimes are continuing every day everywhere.
Christians who believe in Jesus are no exception to this. Christians, like unbelievers, do not choose any means to succeed in this world. It is even more speculative that Christians are using Jesus and God appropriately for their own advancement. The Lord clearly told me to forsake myself and stay away from this world if you want to follow me, but they don't care about these words of the Lord.
These Christians believe that it is God's blessing to eat well and live well in this world, and that is God's will. However, it is a word that Christians have invented to rationalize themselves, and the Lord never said it that way. These people are simply Christians and Christians, but in reality they have nothing to do with Jesus alone. The Pharisees at the time of Jesus were such people. These people live and flutter their mouths, but do not lift a finger.
If you ask those who want to succeed in this world to leave everything and enter through the narrow gate, as the Lord said, how many would really want to give up everything they have and go in through the narrow gate? They say that they will all abandon them and chase them, but in reality, no one follows them like this. The 'narrow gate' here is not the narrow gate we think it is. I really should be able to throw everything away. I must be able to give up all of my pride and personality, not to mention the world, and even be willing to give up my life.
But among Christians who believe in Jesus, how many people will abandon themselves like this and follow the Lord? So, does that mean that Jesus wrote these words in the Bible even though humans could not accomplish these things at all? Absolutely not. Obviously humans can do this too. The Bible does not record things that Jesus could not do because he was a human being. So how is this possible? It is only possible when you are born again as Jesus Christ.
Many people today mistakenly believe that they were born again as Jesus Christ after believing in Jesus and having received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given to Gentiles to announce the presence of God and live according to the law of the Holy Spirit, not to be born again. Also, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the essence of the Father, not the Spirit of the Son. Therefore, just because Christians believe in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit does not mean they can be born again. Christians must be born again in the Spirit of Christ to be born again.
The Spirit of Christ refers to the incarnation (blood and flesh) of Jesus who died on the cross and was resurrected. He also came in the flesh at first, but after he died and was resurrected, he ascended into heaven and received the glory of the Father, and he also became a spirit being like God. He who is Spirit must come into our hearts and cast away corrupt human hearts and minds, and He must become our master with total control over our hearts. Such a person can be said to have been reborn as Christ.
But today, there are many people on this earth who believe in Jesus and have received the Holy Spirit, but why is it that they all fall at the end, unlike when they first believed? That is, the beginning and the end are always different because the Spirit of Christ to rule the hearts and minds of corrupt Christians is not in their hearts. This proves that even Christians who have received the Holy Spirit have corrupt hearts. It is in the same vein that Christ does not come into human hearts from the beginning, but comes last. This is the same for all Jews who lived under the law.
So, ?쐔he narrow gate??in the Bible means to give up everything you have taken from this world and follow the Lord. However, the people living in this world never want to say this. So, the Lord says that not everyone can receive these words, but only the elect can put these words into practice with the help of God. In the same vein, the saying that it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven means that no one can attain eternal life with the world in his hands.
Even if you ask a hundred or a thousand or a thousand people in this world, you will pursue the visible reality, but who will pursue the unseen life? However, eternal life is not given just because you sit still, and can only be won after fighting a bloody spiritual battle. But who would buy such suffering? So the Lord says that this road is not for everyone to go. That is why the Lord also says that the road to destruction is wide and wide, and many enter it, but this road is strait and few find it.
Now we need to examine ourselves to see if we are going through the narrow gate or the big and wide road. Therefore, if the path that he is currently walking seems happy, he is on the road to destruction in nine out of ten times. This does not apply to anyone, but only to those who have set out to follow the Lord. Therefore, even believers, these words are completely irrelevant to those who are running for success in the world.