I felt a little variety as the spice of life. I don't like things too spicy, but I do like variety. Words expose thoughts. The content of our invisible stored thoughts is revealed by the words spoken by our tongues, be that content treasure or garbage. Words expose thoughts. The Word of God exposes the thoughts of God. Second Timothy 3.16 says that the Scripture is God-breathed.
What that's saying is that the Scriptures expose to us in their words the very thoughts of the invisible, infinite, and personal being whom we call God. The Scriptures are God-breathed and expose the thoughts of God. Jesus Christ, likewise, is named the Word of God because His life, His deeds, and His teachings reveal God to us, the invisible God. In Jesus we see what God is like, what He thinks, and what His purposes are. Therefore, words are important.
Now we do communicate in ways other than words, for example, by our deeds, by body language, by touch, facial expressions, etc. But we use words to most accurately express our feelings, intentions, and understanding. And our words have impact on others. Browning said, words may not break bones, but they do break hearts. Browning was right, and because of that another poet by the name of Anne Nonimus writes these words. I am careful of the words I say to keep them soft and sweet.
I never know from day to day which ones I'll have to eat. Good advice for all of us. When used to teach truth, words are especially important. They need to be clear, simple, and correct in their usage. Too often professional communicators fall into the trap of verbiage. We see this in many different realms, but one example that I read recently in John W. Stott comes out of the 19th century when the British statesman Disraeli was speaking about and describing his great rival William Gladstone.
He described him in these terms, a sophisticated rhetorician inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity. What a great example of verbiage. And I think Gladstone could say to Disraeli, it takes one to know one. And words that paint pictures in the minds of hearers are especially effective in communication. The use of illustrations or mental images is a key to effective teaching.
J.C. Ryle quoted an Oriental proverb that went like this, he is the eloquent man who turns his hearer's ears into eyes and makes them see what he speaks of. I believe in this regard the Lord Jesus Christ was a master communicator. His choice of simple words, painting mental pictures to teach the truth of God made him the greatest teacher of all time. An example of his simple words, painting mental pictures, can be found in the statement of his mission in coming into the world, why he came.
And to see this I'd like you to turn to the Gospel of Luke, the fifth chapter with me. Jesus states here why he came, not in an elaborate manner, but a simple manner. You will notice that he's in conflict with the scribes and Pharisees. In Luke 5.30 it says, and the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with the tax gatherers and sinners?
And Jesus answered and said to them, it is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. Notice the picture that he draws there, the mental image of a physician. He goes on to say, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. What a very simple statement of mission. Jesus drawing upon a word picture says, I am like a physician who has come to heal those who are sick. He does this again in Luke chapter 19, if you would turn there.
On this occasion, nearer the end of his ministry on the earth, we have Jesus coming out of the house of Zacchaeus. And beginning in verse 9, he speaks and says to Zacchaeus, today salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham. And then he says, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Notice again the mental picture that he draws, there is something that is lost that needs to be found.
And he says, I have come to seek and to recover, to rescue, to save that which is lost. Jesus came into the world to bring salvation to sinners, those who are lost. He came to appeal to sinners to be saved. And then of course he went on to provide by his cross the singular means by which sinners may be saved. In his ministry, Jesus uses simple word pictures to communicate not only his mission, but what salvation is. And that's what I'd like to focus on this morning in the rest of the message.
It's time for us to look at some of these simple mental images that Jesus drew upon the minds of his hearers so that we might consider what salvation is as we think about his appeal to the lost. We're going to limit our thinking to the Gospel of Matthew and I'd like you to turn back there with me to chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. Verses 13 through 29 actually are the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount. In this conclusion, Jesus appeals to sinners, to the multitude listening to him.
Yes, his disciples were there, but in addition, numerous other people. In the sermon, he had explained to them the facts about his kingdom, the hard attitudes of those who are its citizens, the contrast between those who like the Pharisees are self-righteous, self-reliant, self-sufficient, and those who accept and order their lives by his principles.
Now having explained all of this, Jesus concludes with an appeal to the hearers to make a choice to enter the narrow gate that leads to life or to salvation. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. In these two verses, Jesus gives us one picture of salvation. He says to us that salvation is a gate to enter.
That's the simple mental image that he's using. The picture contrasts two gates, two ways, two destinies, and two groups. He talks about the narrow gate that leads to the narrow way, which destiny is life, and he says there are few that find it. In contrast to that, there's the wide gate that opens to the broad way that leads to destruction, and he says there are many who enter by it. Notice that Jesus' appeal here is that those his hearers might enter the narrow gate.
He does not appeal to them to enter one gate or the other. The reason for that is that his hearers, like all of us who are sinners, have already entered the wide gate, and we are on by our natural birth the broad way that leads to destruction or to hell. The appeal of Jesus is for those who are already on the broad way to turn to the narrow gate and to enter in. The narrow gate that Jesus talks about is God's way of salvation, which he provided through Christ.
But why does Jesus call this a narrow gate with a narrow way? Well there are several reasons I'd like to suggest. One is that one can enter this gate one at a time. Jesus does not take groups or families, but he takes one sinner at a time. Thus it is a narrow gate. Several may enter, but they must enter one at a time. Then it's narrow because our Lord allows no excess baggage to come through the narrow gate, the baggage like that of the Pharisees, their own self-righteousness, their works.
And it is narrow also because there is no place for other loves in coming through this gate. There must be singular devotion to Jesus Christ. An example of this is found in Matthew 19. You may want to just look at this quickly where the rich young ruler comes to Jesus. And he says, teacher, what good things shall I do that I may obtain eternal life? Jesus wants to make sure he understands who he's talking to, so he responds by saying, why are you asking me what is good?
There's only one who is good, but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. Now Jesus is answering the question the man asked, what good things shall I do? So Jesus said, keep the commandments. And the man responded by quoting some of them. And he says frankly in verse 20, all these things I have kept. What am I still lacking? So here's a man who has kept the commandments, but he seems to be saying he is still lacking something. How many people can identify with him?
Being religious, being good, being moral, but still having that inner emptiness. What am I lacking? So Jesus said to him, if you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. When the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved, for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Is Jesus teaching that one can be saved by selling all that he has and giving it to the poor? No. Jesus is simply exposing to the man himself the excess baggage, the other love that he wanted to bring with him through the narrow gate. And Jesus said no. If you come to me, it must be with repentance. And now with some kind of self-dependence that you have built into your lifestyle, all of that goes aside, it's a narrow gate.
We can pay nothing for salvation, but it costs us everything that we have to enter the narrow gate. Now we can give up nothing to enter, but the fact is that if we long to hold on to what God forbids, we cannot enter. It appears to be a paradox, doesn't it? The wide gate that Jesus talks about allows for anything, self-righteousness, sins, religion, self-interest, pride. One can take anything he wants through the wide gate and the broad way. That was the way of the Pharisees.
Jesus says, enter the narrow gate for that is the one that leads to life. The picture here teaches the exclusiveness of salvation, that it is only one way that we may obtain life, and that is through the narrow gate that God provides in his Son. There are not many ways that lead to God. There are not many roads that many people travel and eventually we'll all get to the same place. That is not true.
Jesus says that that broad way that embraces many roads and many things, and onto which a person can bring lots of extra baggage about himself, leads to destruction and ruin forever. And if one wants to be saved and to have life, he must come to the narrow gate and enter in. And so as Jesus pictures salvation, his appeal to the lost is very simple. It is, enter the narrow gate. There's another picture I'd like us to look at right here in the same context of Matthew 7.
Jesus goes on to warn his hearers of false prophets who would come preaching something else like the Pharisees. He says, you can tell them by their fruit, and he talks about a good tree and a bad tree. He says in verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that something? Jesus says that there will be those who will address him as Lord, and the repetition of that word means they say it intensely.
Did not we prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons, they say, and in your name perform many miracles? So you see, these are people who not only call him Lord, but they have served him in some religious sense. Even cast out demons and prophesied. He says, I will declare to them I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. These are the people who've come by the broad gate and the broad way, who want to bring their sins with them, who practice lawlessness.
Jesus says, I don't care what you say in calling me even Lord. I don't care what religious things you may do, even to the casting out of demons. He says the true proof that you belong to me and have entered my kingdom, have come through the narrow gate, is your life. Those who practice as a lifestyle, who habitually are involved in sin, are lost.
However, they may claim the Lord, however religious they may be in their duties in his name, it's the lifestyle that tells the proof, that exposes the fruit. And then he goes on to say in verse 24, and we come now to another picture of salvation, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.
The rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house, and yet it did not fall for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and burst against that house and it fell and great was its fall.
You have to be impressed by the similarities of the two builders of houses in this picture. By the way, the picture of salvation here is that of a foundation on which to build. First it was a gate to enter. Now Jesus says salvation is a foundation upon which to build. Both of the builders heard the words of Christ. They knew what he taught. Both of the builders built houses which in the context of this picture represent their lives.
Both of the builders experienced the same storm apparently as described exactly the same. It's a terrible storm of rain and wind and a flood. And the storm became the test, the ultimate test of the construction. And we see finally that the houses, both of them, appeared to be the same from the exterior. Jesus doesn't say that one man builds his of rock and another of wood or hay or stubble. But both houses seem to be the same. But there's a basic dissimilarity and that's the point of the story.
The dissimilarity is in what the builder built upon. Jesus says the one builder built upon bedrock, that's the word there for rock, the bedrock. That's where his foundation was. He's the wise builder. The foolish builder built his house upon the sand. The point that Jesus is making here is that the foundation is what makes the difference. He says the one who hears my words and acts upon them has a foundation upon which to build.
But he warns that there are those who hear his words also and who do not act upon them. And though they may build a house very similar to the other one, in the end it will fall. And he says great was its fall. There are those who go along with salvation who from outward appearances are Christ's who build their lives like true believers. But in the end when the ultimate test of God's judgment comes, great, tragic, devastating will be their fall because they've not built upon salvation.
By acting upon Jesus' words he means entering into the narrow gate, receiving him, trusting him for who he is. That's the foundation. So Jesus gives a second picture of what salvation is. It's a foundation upon which to build. The story is not teaching that one is saved by doing good things, by doing works. The point of the story is the foundation upon which one does build. And so Jesus says here, build on the right foundation. That's his appeal to the lost.
I want to come to one more picture in the Gospel of Matthew before we close, and so I hurry on to Matthew chapter 11 where again Jesus is speaking not just to his disciples but to a large multitude, to the lost. And he says at the end of chapter 11, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my load is light.
The next picture of salvation that we'll look at this morning in the final one is that salvation is a yoke to take. Jesus says, take my yoke upon you. The picture here is very familiar to his hearers. The yoke was a hand-hewn wooden frame or collar that was placed upon a beast of burden such as an ox. The yoke came to symbolize even in that day servitude or bondage.
Jesus appeals to the lost among his hearers using this symbol of the yoke, and he calls them to exchange their present yoke for his. You say, what is their present yoke? Well, in the fuller context as you come down into chapter 12, it's very clear that the present yoke that they are wearing is the one given to them by their religious leaders, primarily the Pharisees and the scribes. It was a yoke of law, a yoke of traditions.
You see this in the language of the Pharisees as they begin to question the disciples in chapter 12. Notice, when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, behold, your disciples do what is not lawful on the Sabbath. You see, that's their yoke. Down in verse 10, you see the same thought again. They question him saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? So that's the whole context of their religion. Is it lawful? Does it meet up with the standards of the law and with our traditions?
That's the yoke that the Jewish people were wearing in Jesus' day, and the result of that yoke was oppression. Notice Jesus described them as weary and heavy-laden. The Pharisees had a list of over 600 minute detailed commandments and restrictions which they placed upon the Jewish people. Trying to maintain that list brought exhaustion and burden upon them. And so Jesus appeals to them, take my yoke upon you.
Put aside your present yoke of law keeping, of trying to keep the traditions of the Pharisees and take my yoke upon you. His yoke is a yoke of grace, forgiveness. His yoke will bring rest, he says, to their souls. That is refreshment that one might have, for example, after a long trip or after a hard day of work. He says, my burden is light. It is easy. It is not wearisome, in other words. It is not burdensome to you.
His point is that it brings joyful liberation to you so that you can become all that God created you to be. To the lost, Jesus said, take my yoke upon you. Now the yoke pictures submission to him. To be saved or to have rest of soul meant to submit to a new yoke, or we might say to a new servitude. When we say that, there is a natural question that has to be asked. To what extent must there be submission to Christ when coming to him for salvation?
When coming to him for salvation, does one have to give every area of his life over to Christ? Well the fact is that no sinner has any idea how many areas of his life need to be given over to Christ. However, he does have some idea of where he is convicted of his sinfulness. The light of conviction has hit his soul, and it may only be like a small spotlight in a large vast area, but it hits something in his life where he is convicted.
And in order for him to come to the Savior, that area of his life must be dealt with, must be submitted to the yoke of Christ. Now in principle, I suppose you might say that's everything else. But a sinner cannot come to Jesus Christ with the light of conviction on that area, whatever it may be, and say, I accept you, but I will not submit this to you. There is no repentance and faith in that. He's trying to bring excess baggage through the narrow gate.
The submission must be as broad as the light of conviction at that moment of salvation. But it is submission. When Jesus himself was appealing to the lost to come to him, what did he say? Come, take my yoke upon you. Now there are many other pictures of salvation that Jesus used in his teaching. He spoke of salvation as a birth to experience. He spoke of it as water to drink, as bread to eat, as sight to gain, as healing to receive.
Whatever the word picture Jesus may have used, the bottom line is the same. This appeal to the lost was to come to him that they might be saved. Salvation is provided by God only through the person of his son. If there is another way to be saved, it makes mockery of the cross of Jesus Christ. The lost sinner must respond with personal faith to appropriate for himself the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus had not yet done that work.
Those examples that we've read today and the many other pictures of salvation that he used. From this side of the cross we understand that for the lost to be saved, he must come to the cross and receive the Christ of the cross who has risen from the dead. That appeal to the lost is the same appeal that we make today in Grace Church. If there is one in the sound of my voice who is lost, the appeal of the Savior to you today is enter the narrow gate.
Stand upon the foundation of Christ and the salvation he gives. Come take his yoke upon you and you will find that yoke will liberate you and allow you to become fully the person that God created you to be. Let's pray. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed, and the Spirit of God brings to the heart of those who are lost the appeal of the Savior this morning. Will you respond, my friend? Will you respond? Will you come to the Savior who invites you?
In two of the pictures that we looked at this morning, Jesus warned of the ruin, the destruction, the hell to come for those who do not come to him. And yet in grace he invites you to come now, today, to seek him to be saved. Where we are seated in the quietness of this moment, will you respond to him? Lord I pray for that one who is struggling this morning, who senses very deeply within the spotlight of the Holy Spirit bringing conviction of sinfulness.
And I pray that that one, by the grace of God, will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, will enter the narrow gate, build upon the foundation of Christ, and take the yoke of Christ upon himself and know liberation. With our heads still bowed, I wonder if there is one here with an uplifted hand who would say, Pastor, call God spoke to my heart today in this message. And I have today done business with God. I have recognized my lostness, and I have responded in faith to the appeal of the Savior.
And I am trusting him and him alone. I have come through the narrow gate this morning. I now have a foundation. I have exchanged my former yoke for Christ's. Will you lift your hand and indicate that? God bless you. Is there another? You can put it down once you have lifted it. Yes, I see that. God bless. Is there someone else? Thank you. Yes, they are in the back.
And I want to say that those of you who have lifted the hand, I would like for you to get a note to me this morning or to call this week so that we can get some important material into your hand to help you grow as a believer. Father, thank you for what you have done this morning for all of us. Most of all, thank you for what you did 2,000 years ago in sending the Savior for us. We rejoice in him and we worship him as we worship you, whom he revealed. Amen.