Jesus has made it clear that hell is no empty threat. Today, R.C. Sproul earnestly pleads with us to consider the state of our souls before a holy God.
For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. Again, this is not my opinion. This is the teaching of the Lord Jesus. He sets before His disciples two contrasts: a narrow way and a broad way, and the other contrast is with respect to the number of those who go each way. Those who go the broad way that leads to destruction are many. But those who go the straightway to the narrow gate are few.
Now here’s what I hear Jesus saying. Most, if not the vast majority of human beings that you know and that I know, are on their way to hell. And if they were to die tonight, would go to hell. Statistically there’s a significant number of people in this room right now who if they died tonight would wake up in hell because they’re on the broad way that leads to destruction.
Now Jesus is not denying justification by faith when He says, “Strive to enter into the narrow gate. Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many I tell you, will seek to enter, but they won’t be able.” They think they can get through the narrow door by living on broad way.
Now here’s the problem. It gets worse. Jesus doesn’t stop there about the few and the many, the narrow and the wide. But He said, “When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door and you begin to stand outside to knock at the door saying, ‘Lord, open to us.’” They don’t just say, “Who’s ever in there, please open to us.” They say, “Lord, Lord, open the door!” And Matthew’s version, and He said, “They will say to him, Lord, Lord, didn’t we do this in your name, didn’t we do that in your name?” And Jesus said, “And I will say to them, who are you? Please leave you workers of iniquity.”
Now He knows cognitively every one of those people that’s knocking at the door. But He doesn’t know them savingly. And so He says, “You are not known by Me in a redemptive way. So, I can’t hear your knocking at My door. It’s too late!” Jesus said, “‘Lord, open to us.’ And He will say, ‘I know not where you’re from.’ And you’ll say, ‘Well, we ate and drank in your presence. We came to the Lord’s Table. We celebrated holy communion. You taught in our streets. I was there when You came through our village and healed the paralytic. I saw that. I was at the wedding feast at Canaan. I saw You turn water into wine. I’ve seen many things of mercy and grace that You have done.’ I tell you, ‘I don’t know where you come from. Depart from Me all you workers of evil.’”
