The most sobering teachings from Jesus from His sermon on the Mount are found in Matthew 7.  Some things He said are hard to hear, but they are part of His teachings on the kingdom that we all need to hear. They start in Matthew 7 1 when Jesus says judge not lest you be judged. As we continue in Matthew 7 we come to, Matt 7:13-14  13. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Here in the picture provided, I want to present a visual to help us understand what Jesus is saying. This is a picture of a large gate with the majority of people in this photo are going towards it. This photo is symbolic of paths we choose today. The wide gate leads to destruction and many are those who enter by it. It doesn’t say many are those who choose it. These people don’t know they are going down a path of destruction. It’s a non decision. They go along because they think that is the only way or because it seems that’s the normal way since everybody else seems to be going that way. They have been going down this path all their lives. Many of them are church goers.

In Proverbs Solomon says twice in Proverbs in chapter 14:12 and again in chapter 16:25 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

Can you see another gate in that photo? How many people are going toward that gate? This is a perfect illustration of what Jesus is telling us. The road less traveled will lead to Life. Few people find the small gate to the narrow path because they are not looking for it. If you don’t seek it, you cannot find it. How many people that go through the wide gate believe in God? They are going through life as if everything is normal taking one day at a time.

In Matthew 24:37-39 37. “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah, 38. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark.39.and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

The first thing we must know is there is no warning. We must be prepared. Notice in verse 39 they it says “they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.” Basically, they didn’t know what hit them but, “not understanding” didn’t change anything. They were still a victim of the flood.
In these last days, God has put in place a plan of redemption that all of us who know this plan will seek His kingdom and His righteousness, be born again, receive the Holy Spirit, and have an interactive relationship with our King. Those who die to themselves will have everlasting life. He made it where we either choose Him through our obedience or we choose the world.

Remember Noah? He was found to be righteous in Gods eyes Gen 6:8-9  8. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

Then in Genesis 7:1 Then the Lord said to Noah, Enter the ark, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.

Noah spent 120 years building the ark. You see?, the ark was gods plan of salvation at that time. Only those who entered the ark would be saved. Only those God found to be righteous could enter the ark. Noah proved his righteousness by being obedient to God and building the ark. Was Noah able to build that ark any way he saw fit? No, absolutely not. If you have time, read Genesis chapter 6. There you will see Gods plan to flood the earth, the condition of man, along with Noah’s instructions to buid the ark. Noah did built it according to Gods will, not his.

Thank God for Noah. Today, the bible continues to be the number one best seller. It has been the best seller of all time. I know that in this part of the world, if you were to ask people, probable over 80% of everyone asked would claim to be a Christian. Most of them (not all) probably own or have owned a bible at one time or another. But I would venture to guess that less than 10% have read the bible all the way through. Not even the new Testament. If you stop and think about it, the bible is the only source we have that we don’t have to discern whether it is from God. We just have to discern what others tell us it says or what certain scriptures mean.

I want to do a little exercise with you. Try to imagine that there is going to be a second flood and everything and everybody will be destroyed. You learn that God had someone build another ark according to His specifications and everyone that wanted to be saved from a second flood could enter it. You also learned there are many others who heard of the upcoming flood were going to build arks too. Lets say there would be 49 fake arks that had the outside appearance of Gods ark. These 49 arks were built by men who thought they’re way to build the ark would be easier, hold more people, and make it enjoyable for those on board. However, unbeknownst to them, none of these 49 arks would float more than 30 days.
You learn there was a blueprint of Gods ark. Anybody could get a copy of the blueprint if they ask for it. Once you received your copy of the blueprint, you realize it didn’t tell you where the ark was located. You learned from the blueprint how big it would be, who was building it, how to enter it, even how to conduct yourself and get along with the other passengers.

So, with a copy of the blueprint, you can recognize it, so you decide to seek it. You take the blueprint along your journey. You get all excited about seeking this new ark and finding it, you want to tell everyone you know so they can choose the same ark as you. After seeking and going through some rough places it starts to feel right and you feel like you are being led to the ark. You start to realize now that there is no turning back and your life will never be the same. When you look on the other side of the blueprint, you see a manual attached to it. When you open the manual it tells you what it will be like inside the ark, and that you will be safe until a man named Jesus comes to take all the passengers home. The manual even tells you who Jesus is and how it came to be that He would gather all who are in the ark and take them home.

That blueprint and that manual becomes your most cherished possessions. You study them as often as you can so you will know when you find the right ark. You can’t afford to get on board the wrong one.

After seeking and seeking and seeking, you come over a hill and down below you find what you are looking for. You see an ark. Is it the right one? You look around and you don’t see very many people around. What’s the deal? Does nobody want to enter this ark? You see a ramp lowered to the ground that leads up to a door. This door is closed. You walk around the ark and don’t see anybody or any other way to enter. You go back to the ramp. You’ve looked at the manual and blueprints so many times that you believe it looks like the ark that you’ve been seeking. You decide to walk up the ramp all the way to the door. You know you need to enter this ark. You decide to knock on the door hoping someone would open it so you could enter. As you guessed, the door was opened. Once inside, it was realized that they never would have found that ark if they had not asked. They realized they would not have found that ark if they didn’t seek it. They realized they wouldn’t have been able to enter the ark if they hadn’t knocked.

In this exercise, the ark represent the kingdom of God and the blueprint represents the scriptures that show us how we will recognize His kingdom, and the manual make up the scriptures that teaches us the laws of the kingdom, including how we enter, and all the benefits along with the sufferings. The manual also warns us of teachings that do nothing but tickle our ears and to beware of false teachers with false teachings.

Matthew 7:14 “For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few there are those who find it.”

There are numerous reasons why there will only be a few who find it. First reason is because the won’t seek it. You can’t find something you don’t seek. Some will start out looking and decide it’s too hard. God want us to choose Him and seek Him no matter what.
Mostly all reasons few people will find it will lead back to Satan one way or another. He couldn’t keep the kingdom from coming, so he has to go to plan B. To stop us from finding His kingdom. Satan will allow us to go to church and believe that Jesus is the son of God. He and his demons believe that. We are the only ones that will give an answer to God. Our preacher can’t stand up there with us. Nobody can.
Our goal is to let God write his laws onto our hearts and in our minds. We have to know His word well enough to discern the truth from a false teacher. Always know that Satan is the deceiver of the world, Father of lies, and will use ways with the appearance of good to destroy us because we did not diligently present ourselves approved to God handling accurately the word if truth.

2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.

We continue with Matthew 7:15-23 15. “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? 17. So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20. So then, you will know them by their fruits.
21. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. 22. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23. And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS”.

Jesus has just warned us of a broad path that leads to destruction. Now He wants us to know that there are many who will try to lead us along that path. The first step to combating these false prophets or false teachers is to know that they are everywhere. They think they can lure is in with their large crowds, smooth talk, and successful lifestyles. When I say successful I mean according to mans standards. Some people tend to think that the bigger the house, the richer they are. and an eloquent speaker must be blessings from God. I’m not saying that having those things means you cant be right with God, I’m just saying that those are not a way to measure Gods approval of their message.

They will come to you wearing sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves: It is in the nature of these false prophets and teachers to hide their true character to deceive us. They deceive even themselves, believing themselves to be sheep when in fact they are ravenous wolves. Again, Satan is at work to deceive and confuse us.

“The basic fruit of the false prophet is their own self interest.” They show it by a desire for gain or an easy life, a desire for mans approval, or they promote their own ideas and not God’s ideas.

You will know them by their fruits: We protect ourselves against false prophets by knowing their fruits. This means observing the habits of their life and ministry. They may brag on all their education to impress how smart they are without telling you how they were poor in spirit at any point in their life and how they hungered and thirst for righteousness. No, I’m not judging, I’ll let God do that, but i would never put my soul in their hands and be spoon fed. Seek for yourself. Learn Gods word so not to be tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:13-14 13. until we all attain to the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ. 14. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried out by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the craftiness in deceitful scheming;

We should also observe the manner of living a teacher shows. Do they show the righteousness of God, do they show humility and faithfulness in their lives? We should most importantly discern their biblical teachings. Is it in accordance with God’s Word, or is it man-made doctrine, appealing to ears that want to be tickled.

verse 21: Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

Pay close attention here, first of all, these are religious people. Don’t confuse being religious with being righteous. They feel like they have a relationship with our Lord. We know this because they call Him Lord, Lord. It could be assumed that these people prayed to our Lord and thought they were living a religious life. We will see that they were living a self righteous life and their relationship with their Lord was on their terms.
Jesus then says “but he who does the will of My Father”. He is telling everyone what is required to enter the kingdom of heaven. Here we can clearly see that Jesus is letting us know that false prophets or false teachers can lead us down a path that makes us think we have a relationship with our Lord, when in fact, we don’t produce good fruit because we are not following the will of the Father. They may have let someone just tell them what the bible taught, or just assumed that it didn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe. First of all, they didn’t ask, seek, or knock to learn Gods will or seek the righteousness of God to be right with God. Abiding by His will.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him, (did he say seek?)

In verses 22-23 Jesus is declaring that there will be a time when it will be too late. That will be judgement day! That is what he meant when He said “On that day” It’s also very important to take notice that these were not bad people. These are very religious people. Do you remember when Jesus told the people in Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven “? Remember how the people were shocked because they thought that the scribes and Pharisees were the standard for righteousness and couldn’t understand how they could be more righteous than they were. It didn’t become clear until they saw that the new covenant would be based on the motives of our hearts.

Matthew 7: 24-27 24. “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell, and and great was its fall.”

Simply hearing God’s Word isn’t enough to provide us the secure foundation. It is necessary that we are also doers of His Word.
The sad truth here is that even though we hear or go to hear Gods word, and then doing nothing makes us the same as an unbeliever. The storm is coming whether we act or not.
Matthew 7:28-29 28. When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29. for He was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

The people were astonished at His teachings: Whenever God’s Word is presented as it truly is, with its inherent power, it will astonish people and set itself apart from the mere opinions of man.

Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory.

Follow Up Reference: Article – Matthew 6 Seek First the Kingdom of God

Videos – Nature of God’s Kingdom