believe that when lemmings become too numerous that they run over the cliffs and into the water committing mass suicide. Scientists think this is a myth. Lemmings, it seems, are very good swimmers. Apparently they can swim rivers and lakes that are over a kilometer across. Now the legend that lemmings deliberately join in a death march to the sea where they drowned is untrue. Lemmings migrate periodically from their home area when the population begins to exceed the food supply. They swim across streams and rivers in order to find land with food. Sometimes, however, lemmings try to swim bodies of water that are too deep and too far and may drown in great numbers like oceans. So while lemmings are not literally rushing headlong over cliffs to commit suicide, they are whether rushing, sauntering, or meandering drowning nonetheless. By now you're probably thinking, why is he talking about lemmings? The answer is because it illustrates the point that Jesus is making in verses 13 and 14. There are two roads. One is wide and easy and leads to destruction. The other way is narrow and hard but leads to life. So imagine with me for a minute, lemmings heading toward the ocean. It's usually downhill, therefore it's easy. And one lemming stops and looks around and notices a steep hill at the top of which there seems to be lots and lots of plants and grass food for them to eat. So the one lemming says to the other, hey Finn, these are Norwegian lemmings. What do you want now, Arkin? What do you say we head up that hill and eat some of that food? No, that's okay. I'll swim with these fellas. Now we think that's silly and it is, yet spiritually speaking, that is exactly what we are up to in this country and to some degree in the church. And I fear a greater degree than we would like to think. One book about 40 years ago expressed the sentiments in this title, I'm okay, you're okay, which was followed by a book entitled, I'm not okay, you're not okay and that's okay. In spiritual matters we think that almost anything goes. The church and along with its gospel has been redefined. There are all sorts of books by people who claim to have new insight. Some of the older ones are celestine prophecy, conversations with God, a return to love. They've all been runaway bestsellers and if you went to a local bookstore you might see them actually in the Christian inspiration section. Of course this new age spirituality is not really new. It's old age shamanism. The eternally delightful experience of the universe is energy. That's what religion is for, they say. There's no need for faith. It's the ecstatic experience itself that gives one faith in the intrinsic unity and integrity of the universe and ourselves as integral parts of the whole that reveals to us the sublime majesty of our universe. This is what's known as word salad. They say a lot of things that sounds important but they really haven't said anything. The dangers here is that many people proceed happily down this road to their own destruction because it's easy and it's wide and this is where the false prophets are connected to the wide road which leads to destruction. They're the Pied Pipers of those who follow certain destruction. As we read Christ said, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You'll recognize them by their fruits. The problem with false prophets is that they seem real. They seem like they are true teachers of the word. What they say has a ring of truth and it's popular and if there's anything true of North Americans is that we are lemmings when it comes to popularity. For instance, think about music. Mozart, for example, is great as is Beethoven and Bach. I'm a particularly favorite of mine is Mozart's 23rd and 40th. They'll still be performed a hundred years from now along with Beethoven and Bach. A hundred, two hundred years from now they're already much older than that. Taylor Swift on the other hand is popular now but she may be unheard of in 30 years. You don't believe me? Next month I am going to my 50th high school reunion. I know I don't look at you. You were supposed to laugh. But here's the selection of the artists that were popular 50 years ago. These are music groups. BT Express, Ace, Sugar Loaf, Blackbirds, Bazooka, Hamilton Joe, Frank and Reynolds, the Ozark Mountain Daredevil singing Jackie Blue, Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony, a guy named Freddie Fender had two hits in the top 22 in 1975. Janice Ian won a Grammy for the best song. Most of you haven't ever heard of any of them but they were all very popular. In 1965 there was a group named Herman Hermitz and they had three of the top 22 songs. Why am I talking about this? Because popular is fleeting. What is popular now won't be then. One commentator put it this way. He said if you look at a big city newspaper, the Toronto newspaper, the Montreal newspaper, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, any of them, and you go back 30, 40, 50 years and read articles that say we now know, you would be embarrassed because what we now know or what we now knew 30 or 40 or 50 years ago we don't any longer think. It's true with music. It's even more so with religion. With the gospel, false prophets are the Pied Pipers of popularity. Those who follow them are the Lemmings falling into the sea of destruction. So how do you tell? You will recognize them by their fruits. We can inadvertently head right back down the road of popularity because as North Americans, as I said, we're Lemmings for it. So how do you know? Well a man named Kent Hughes is a pastor at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois and he offers four tests to judge whether someone is a true or false preacher or teacher of the words. Why do we need a test? Because false teachers are not obvious. Paul writes, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ and no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it's not surprising of his servants also that they disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. What is Paul's point? He says that these false prophets can sound true initially or especially if you're uninformed, which is exactly why all of us need to be regularly reading our Bible, studying our Bible, being involved in a Bible study when they start up in September. So here are the tests that Kent Hughes suggests. The first he says is the false prophet avoids preaching on things such as holiness, righteousness, justice, and the wrath of God. Any exposition of these truths would be disconcerting, especially to the unbelievers in his congregation. Second he says he avoids the false prophet avoids preaching on the doctrine of final judgment and the biblical doctrine of hell. According to Hughes, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons do this and many who call themselves Christians do as well. Third, the false prophet fails to emphasize the fallenness and depravity of mankind. The truth that man is sinful to the core of his being and cannot save himself or consciously avoided. One clergyman still quoting Hughes said he never used the word sin in his preaching. Prophets like this don't actually believe the biblical assessment of man's predicament. We preach what we believe. If we do not preach it, it's because we don't believe it. Fourth he says false prophets de-emphasize the substitutionary death and atonement of Christ. They may talk about Christ's death on a cross, but they don't have the vicarious substitutionary atonement and view. They might sentimentalize it. They even sing about it, but they don't believe it. False prophets believe that you can in some way either affect or contribute to your own salvation. We've said this here many times before that the only contribution that we make to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary. Like the Pharisees, whether well-meaning or not, they are wolves in sheep's clothing. Paul writes this. He says, I wish you would bear with me a little foolishness. Do bear with me. I feel the divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus, then the one we proclaim, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Paul is warning against false prophets. He's saying that though they may be popular, you are betrothed to one husband, Jesus. Don't look for another. What is the narrow gate? The narrow gate is the gospel. Why is it hard? Because of what you must believe about yourself, what I must believe about myself, that we're sinful and broken beyond repair. We must believe that we cannot fix or save ourselves. We must believe that our sins are offensive in the sight of a holy and righteous God, and that we justly deserve his wrath. Believing that you, believing that you must believe that Jesus lived the perfect life that you should have lived, and then died the death that you should have died in your place. And in that great exchange at the justice bar of God, we receive his righteousness in place of our sin. The way is narrow because there are no other gospels. It's not one of many. It's not a buffet. It's not a smorgasbord. It is Jesus and him alone who is the way and the truth and the life. It's hard because sinful people like you and me don't want to admit that we are sinful people. We might admit it in general, but we don't want to get specific. But the reality is I'm more sinful and needy than I ever dared think and yet more love than I ever dared hope all at the same time. Jesus is talking about the same thing when he gets to the illustration of the houses. Just like the narrow gate and the hard path, there is the house that's built on the rock. And just like the easy path and the wide gate, there is the house that's built on the sand. You see, Jesus really concluded the sermon before he got to the narrow and wide path. And then this section is application. And he's saying, after you've heard everything I've said, I want you to recognize that there are two ways. One is easy. One is hard. One is listening to the truth. The other is following false prophets. The one is being honest about who you are and what you need in Christ. The other is fooling yourself to think that your good works are all you need. But you see, Jesus says in John chapter 14, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. He's claiming exclusivity and people don't like to hear that. He's saying, I am the only way to the Father. I know there are many other religions. There's all kinds of them. There's the popular ones, the older ones, the ones you would probably recognize are Islam and Judaism and Hinduism and Buddhism. But there are all sorts of others. There are hundreds of religions, maybe even thousands. And those are all on the wide path. That's why it's wide. It's like a freeway and there are so many religions, so many ways that supposedly lead to heaven and they don't. They lead to destruction. And the gate is wide. But when Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through me, he's saying, I'm exclusive. I'm the only way. That's why it's hard. It's like the limbing and the illustration that turns and goes up the hill rather than following the rest of them into the ocean. He says in the same chapter 14, if you had known me, you would have known my Father also. And from now on, you do know him and you have seen him. You've seen me, you've seen the Father. Do you see what Jesus is saying here? He's saying that he's the only way. He's saying that he is God himself. He said these things before in John chapter 10. He says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my Father's hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. Now that's very encouraging because what it says is that if you're a Christian, if you have been delivered from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the beloved Son in whom there is redemption and forgiveness, that you are secure and no one is able to rest you away from your salvation. But then Jesus says, I and the Father are one. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I and the Father are one. What is he saying? That I am God. John 58, 858, I'm sorry, said, truly, truly, I say to you before Abraham was, I am. He uses the name, the name of God in the Old Testament when Moses was being told by God that he wanted him to deliver the people from the Egyptians and go to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. Moses said, who should I say sent me? What did God respond? He said, tell them I am, sent you. I am that I am. And so Jesus says, truly, I say to you before Abraham was, I am. When Judas, along with a cohort of soldiers, along with the Pharisees, came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was crucified, they came and they said, Jesus said, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth, he said, I am. Use God's name again. He said, I am. And they all fell down. You see, he is God in the flesh. That's why he's the only way. That's why there's no other way but through him. That's why it's the hard road and the narrow gate. But as exclusive as the way is, it's also very inclusive because you don't have to be wealthy. You don't have to be from the right nationality. You don't have to be from the right country. You don't have to be from the right economic background. You don't have to be any of that. You have to follow Jesus. So although he's exclusive, he's also inclusive in that you can follow him. He doesn't differentiate. Paul says there is neither male or female, Greek or Jew in the kingdom of heaven. It's all encompassing. In Revelation, it says that there will be before the throne of God a number so great that no one can count. So while it's exclusive as to who or how you get there, it's inclusive as to who can get there. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus you who are far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So verse 19, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Jesus is the cornerstone of the foundation. He is the solid rock. When Jesus says build your house on the rock, if you're wise, essentially what he's saying is build your house on me, my trustworthiness, my words, who I am, what I've done, what I will do, I'm the rock. The scripture itself says he's the cornerstone. If you know anything about building a foundation, the cornerstone is the most important stone in the foundation. The reason for that is according to Paul in Ephesians 4, he says that we're no longer to be children tossed to and fro by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Does that sound almost exactly like the passage in Matthew 7? That if you build your house on the rock, you'll be safe. If you build your house on the sand, you'll be tossed to and fro by waves, by every wind, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Then in verse 15 he says rather speaking the truth of love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ. If your life is not sunk into the rock, you are susceptible to the shifting sands of current opinion. You're in danger of being tossed to and fro. The hard path, the narrow gate, the rock is all Jesus, who he is and what he's done. If your life is built on him, you'll be able to withstand the blowing winds and the rising water and the shifting sands. But if it's not, if you are being swayed by the winds of popular opinion, the shifting sands of what's gone wrong in your life, the beating rain and rising waters of misfortune, then your house will fall. Now you might be thinking, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I mean, Jesus writes there are those who fool themselves. Depart from me. I never knew you. I want you to ask yourself, what is their response when Jesus tells them? What is their response? Is it to throw themselves on the grace and mercy of the Lord? Is it to plead for his mercy and grace and to say that it's because of you, it's all because of you, it's because of what you've done, it's because of the life you lived and the death you died and that you rose from the dead and have interceded on my behalf ever since then. Did they say any of those things? No, they don't. When confronted with this, they talk about their works. But I did this for you. I did this for you. I did this. I did this. And so these people apparently trusted in their good deeds. Their righteousness is based on their works. This is house. This is a house built on sand. So I'm asking you, is that what you're trusting? Some of you have gone to church all your life. But if you were asked, why should I go to heaven or why should you go to heaven? If you were to come face to face with the Lord at the end of your life and he says, why should I let you into heaven? There won't be a quiz, but let's just say that there is. What will you say? I did this for you. I did great deeds for you. I went to church all my life. I gave money to the church. I if that's your defense, if that's what you would say, then you're likely to hear the words depart from me. I never knew you. But if on the other hand, your answer is it's all because of Jesus. It's because of who he is, because of what he's done. Paul says in Romans chapter three, verse 21, now a righteousness of God has been made manifest apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith propitiation. That there's that word again and we've talked about it many times. Propitiation means that the wrath of God has been satisfied. It's been spent on Christ. The rock is Jesus. You were saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Now does this mean I don't have to obey Christ? Well Paul said, if I'm saved by grace, should I continue in sin? May it never be. So does it mean I don't have to obey Christ if I'm saved by him alone? No, it doesn't mean that. You will want to obey. You will want to obey. And your obedience, imperfect and flawed though it may be, is out of a gratitude for his grace. It's not to earn his favor. When you come to this table in a few minutes, I want you to understand that your salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. That your good works have nothing to do with it. Your good works are created in Christ, created beforehand by God that you should walk in them Ephesians 2.10. Don't confuse the two. Your obedience flows out of your faith in Christ and what he's done for you. It's an act of gratitude. It won't be perfect, but that's what it is. And if you think in any way it's causing you to earn your salvation, you're missing the point. In Christ alone, by faith alone through grace alone, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We pray as we come to the table that you would open our hearts and minds so that we may see, feel and taste the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.