I don't want you to think that I am hysterical, but sometimes I think the times call for it.

I don't want you to think that I don't think that the Lord is in charge and that truth will triumph, but I don't need to tell you that the majority of those who have lived on this planet since the beginning of the problem will be losers.

I don't want you to think that I am a pessimist, but the scripture seems to teach that you had might as well be, because the world as it presently is will pass away.

The thing that is driving me crazy is that the closer that we get to the edge of the cliff, the faster and the more careless we seem to be driving. You would think that as the coming of Jesus became more and more certain that we would be getting more and more serious.

However, it seems like for every sign that is fulfilled that lets us know that we are one step closer to the coming of the Lord--I say, for every step forward that the signs are taking us, we seem to be, collectively at least, taking two steps backward into the world.

I am sure that you must be aware that the devil is deadly serious in what he is trying to do, and he will not rest in his attempt to cause us to give up the faith until Jesus comes or until we have breathed our last breath.

If you have heard me speak before you will have heard me make repeated references to the fact that, just before Jesus comes, Satan will put forth an enormous effort that will be so successful that the very elect will just about throw in the towel.

Jesus has taken all of this very seriously. While many of us are taking our eyes off the road or indeed have run off the road, the Holy Spirit and the heavenly angels are spending twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, trying to mitigate the damages that will surely occur. Jesus Himself has pleaded with us to keep alert, to stay awake, and to stay on guard every minute of every day.

He has told us:

Luke 21:34, "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares."

I don't need to tell you that an accident is just that--an accident. They happen when we are least expecting them. What Jesus is saying is that He doesn't want us to be lost by accident.

Listen now. Our perception of what salvation is all about depends on our understanding of the Word of God. If we don't understand the Word, we will not know what His will is. If we don't know what His will is, we will become disobedient.

The problem that most people have is that their understanding of the Word of God is actually not their own, but someone else's. This is nothing new, nor do I think that to have someone else explain the Word of God to you is necessarily wrong. The scripture says, "How can they know if they have never heard?" The command of the Lord to preach the gospel in all the world means that we have the responsibility to tell others what the gospel is all about.

Our understanding of the Word of God is usually the understanding that someone else has given us or a composite of the opinions of several other people that we have joined together. I have said it before and I will say it again that, though it sounds strange, we all are interpreters of the scripture. It is necessary to interpret the scripture, because the people who wrote it are not here anymore to tell you exactly what they meant to say.

But you might say, "Pastor O'Ffill, we should let the Bible be it's own interpreter." And so we must. But even then it's own interpretation will be the way that someone has interpreted it.

This is why God has graciously given us a prophet in the context of the last days who has kind of put it all together for us. Brothers and sisters, the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy must not be taken lightly. God has not left us in the dark.

Someone could ask, "But why did God make the Bible so hard to understand?" Listen. The Bible would be much easier to understand if others had not misinterpreted it. It has taken nearly five hundred years of Reformation to point out the errors that accumulated during the Dark Ages, and the Reformation is not finished yet. This church of ours was established by God to be a tool to do that.

But back to the matter of the Spirit of Prophecy. Again, frankly I can't see why anyone would object or feel offended by the writings of Ellen G. White. If all the people around you are giving you mixed signals, it seems like we would appreciate the fact that the Lord raised up the Spirit of Prophecy to keep us from going into the wall just as the race is about to be won.

The scriptures record for us that there have always been more than enough people willing to tell you what God wants you to do. Back in the Old Testament times they were called prophets. The New Testament calls them prophets, messengers, and the like.

Listen to these words from the New Testament: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

In another place it says, "Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience."

In another place it says, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

Listen to this, "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple."

Hearing these texts maybe you are getting mad and thinking to yourself that you are fed up with ministers and the like because they are nothing but liars.

But hold on for just a minute. Those messengers who claim to be telling you something that is true, that really isn't, are just doing what they are, in many cases, being paid to do. Catch this text from the Old Testament: "...that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord. Which say to the seers, See not and to the prophets, prophecy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits."

No, if indeed there are many who are pulling our spiritual leg, could it be that we are sticking out our legs! What about 2 Timothy 4:3,4: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

Do I need to say more? Jesus has not left us to be deceived. He went to great effort to advise us to be careful and all the more as we would see the day approaching.

Friends, I am going to all this trouble to say that we are into the last great deceptions and still many of us are wondering when it all is going to begin to happen. I am telling you it has begun, and a huge number of us have already taken the devil's bait-hook, line, and sinker.

How can we know who is telling us the truth when everyone seems to be using the Bible to make their points?

In another sermon I pointed out that one of the ways that you could know whether a person was telling you a lie and misinterpreting the Word of God was by checking out their attitude toward sin.

The Word says, "...Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts." In another place it says, "How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit."

Jesus put it in real plain language in the Sermon on the Mount when He said in Matthew 7:15-20, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

Before I go on I want to read another text in Jude. Listen to this one: "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."

My attention was drawn to the word "lasciviousness" in this text. We don't use that word very much, if any. I looked it up in the thesaurus. It means: Erotic, provocative, carnal, earthy, even raunchy, romantic sensual, sexual, sexy, vulgar, obscene and some others.

How could it be that the time would come when men would try to turn the grace of God into something sensual? Excuse me, but just listen and watch. Could it have already begun with some of the so-called gospel rock? Have you ever seen pictures of some of the groups that perform the music? Enough said for now.

I have already used a lot of texts, but none of them are the ones that I have chosen for this presentation which is entitled the "Gate of Heaven." The texts for this sermon are found in the Sermon on the Mount--that is in Matthew 7:13 and 14. These are the words of the Son of God Himself: "Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Remember these are Jesus' words and they are not difficult to understand, yet these words are being overlooked or at least played down by the majority of modern prophets and messengers who are preaching in the 21st century.

Maybe it is just my imagination, but it seems like much of the information that is being conveyed to us in regard to salvation is along the lines of "be happy, don't worry." I know I am exaggerating, but much of what we are being told these days about what it is like to be saved is easier than finding a place in the Disney parking lot on a cold day.

I guess that is what I was trying to say when I first started this sermon, and that is, I can't understand how we seem to be so laid back by all of this, when we read the prophets and hear the words of the Son of God Himself. If our actions speak louder than words you might think that we have missed the point entirely.

I have said it before and I will say it again here--I wish that we would spend more time studying the gospel according to Jesus. Paul is sometimes difficult to understand--even the Apostle Peter said so. Some of the books of the Old Testament are hard to understand and the Book of Revelation is definitely not for beginners.

But the words of Jesus are not confusing nor are they hard to understand. If you get confused about the law and grace when you read in the book of James and then the writings of Paul, you can't possible be confused if you read about the law and grace as taught by Jesus. In every way and in all that matters the most, Jesus tells it just like it is.

So Jesus said there are two gates of heaven; at least that is what their sign boards say. Actually there is only one gate, but there is another gate that claims to be a gate to heaven--only it isn't. There are fundamentally two brands of Christianity being preached these days. Both brands claim to be roads to heaven. Both claim salvation, both claim to lead to the kingdom of God, but Jesus was there to set the record straight. He was saying that though there were two gates claiming to lead to heaven, only one of them in fact got you there.

I must admit that these words of Jesus would be classified today as being narrow-minded, intolerant, and maybe even bigoted. The mindset of the times in which we live is not able to comprehend that there is only one way to do anything. We have been spoiled by the marketplace.

We go to the store and there are so many choices. I don't need to tell you, even when we want to just buy some cold cereal, what to do? I remember that growing up, cold cereal to me was Cheerios, raisin bran, corn flakes, Rice Krispies, Wheaties and Kix. Funny, but I still remember the jingle they used to sing for Rice Krispies, and I still remember that Wheaties was the "Breakfast of Champions."

Times have changed. There are so many choices of everything that it sometimes is down-right confusing. I can even get confused at the "32 Flavors." I like choices, but there is a point when too much is too much. Anyway, that is my problem.

So we have grown accustomed to, and now even insist on, lots of choices in the things we buy. It shouldn't seem strange then that this mindset has leaked over into the area of what we would call faith and morals.

Many people resent being told what they have to do, especially if they are given only one choice in the matter. I have been speaking about these phenomena in other sermons in this series, but Jesus sets the record straight and is very dogmatic about it. He says that there is really only one way to be saved, no matter what they may tell us about all roads leading to heaven, and that it doesn't make any difference what you believe as long as you believe from your heart and all the rest.

When Jesus said that there is one way, that means God's way. And every other option that may be out there or may have been invented is basically the same thing, and that is what we might call "man's way." Since the beginning of time beginning with Cain, man has had his own way to be saved. And so to accommodate all of man's ways that have accumulated through the years, Jesus said that the other way is wide. I would like for us to think about what Jesus is telling us in this illustration. Notice that there are two ways, or we might say roads, that claim to take you to heaven. Jesus says that to get on to either road you must pass through a gate. We can understand that.

He told us that the gates are like the roads that they open onto. The gate that opens onto the narrow road is a narrow gate and the gate that opens onto the wide road is a wide gate.

I am sure that you could take over now yourself and explain the spiritual significance of what Jesus is talking about. This is an illustration that is not hard to follow or to understand.

In the first place, let us contrast the gates. The wide gate would be obvious. Not only could a lot of people go through it at one time, but more importantly, you could pretty well come as you are. There is room for a lot of baggage.

Those of you who fly a lot practically know by heart the announcements that they make on the PA system when they begin the boarding process. They start by loading those who need special assistance, and then the first class and frequent flyers, and then the rest of us. But you will remember, they will also say, "We would like to remind you that you are allowed to carry only two pieces of luggage with you on the plane, and these must fit safely under the seat in front of you or in the overhead compartments." They go on to say that if you have more they will be glad to check the luggage to its destination.

Entering into the gate that represents us beginning our journey to the kingdom of heaven is not like boarding a plane. You can't even carry two pieces of luggage when you enter that gate. You know what I mean. Entering into the gate that leads into eternal life is more like passing through a turnstile. Have you noticed that when you are carrying a lot of things, it is difficult if not impossible to get through a turnstile unless you set the stuff down? In the case of the gate that opens onto the road to heaven, you can't take anything--you have to set it all down. The meaning is obvious, isn't it?

On the other hand, notice the gate that opens onto the wide road that Jesus says leads to destruction. It is a wide gate. In fact, it is so wide that you are hardly aware that you have gone through a gate. It is kind of like the E-Pass that they are using on the freeways these days. The electronic eye checks you in and you hardly have to slow down. Do you catch the symbolism?

Let me repeat something that I have said before. Any plan that someone presents to you that proposes to have to do with your salvation and it is soft on the problem of sin, is a plan that will lead you nowhere but to ruin and eternal loss.

I know it may sound like I have an ax to grind. Maybe I do, but the thing out there that says that Jesus accepts us just the way we are is at best misleading. Jesus receives us just the way we are, yes, but that is as far as it goes. The thing that Jesus is telling us in the story of the two roads to heaven is precisely that we cannot enter in the way that we are. We must lay everything down.

You will remember that Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again. You will remember what each of us brought into the world when we were born? When we are born again we can take virtually nothing of the old way with us into the new way. The Bible does not leave us in the dark in this respect. It plainly teaches that old things must pass away.

Yes, come to Jesus as you are, but from there on it must be understood that there will be a new start. In this example, Jesus makes it clear that we must enter into the narrow gate. The narrow gate is the right one. It is the narrow gate that leads to the right road. There are not a dozen gates leading to the right road--only one. There are not 48 ways to salvation, but only one way. We must discover what it is.

Though people these days will go crazy when they hear it, Christianity is, in this way, narrow-minded. It is not accepting. The scripture teaches that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved. Christ is the way. He is the only way. He is the narrow gate.

We can arrive at the gate. We can stand and talk at the gate. We can even stay home and talk about the gate. But it is clear, we cannot get on the right road until we have passed through the gate.

Because the gate is narrow, it means that we must go through alone. Two persons won't fit. Like I was saying a moment ago, two people can't go through a turnstile. And so we don't come into the kingdom of heaven in groups. A commitment to Christ is an individual matter. It is not between me and you or you and us, but each of us and God alone.

People are not saved in pairs. Salvation is exclusive and intensely personal. I am saying this because we feel more comfortable when we do things as a crowd. This is why in some places the churches are growing, there are more people in attendance. What may have happened is that the barriers that used to make worldly people not want to come to church have been taken down. The gate has been made wider. It is easier to get in than it was before. Worldly people used to feel uncomfortable coming to church. Now we are actually designing our churches for the "unchurched." Unchurched could be another name for worldly people.

It is no wonder that, in many places, the churches are making the unconverted feel so comfortable that the converted are embarrassed and uncomfortable. I can see how that could happen, can't you? Scripture tells us not to love the world and the things of the world. This is because love of the world drives out the love of God.

As Adventists we are sometimes confused by the fact that the evangelical churches seem to be getting bigger and bigger and we seem to be comparatively getting littler and littler.

Through the years I think that we have hyped ourselves up into thinking that if we would really get out there and do our thing, the churches will fill up and soon the whole world would be Adventist.

We should have read the words of Jesus before we thought that if we worked ourselves into a frenzy we could fill the church. Notice what Jesus says. He says, "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, few there be that find it." Just before that He said that the road to destruction would have many people on it.

There are many people these days that are giving the impression that being saved is easy. Like "sign here on the dotted line." "Repeat after me." "Take the studies."

Now I am not saying that we have not been successful in attracting a good number of people. But we should be somewhat concerned, that having gotten on the road, that they are indeed on the right road.

Now I don't want to shock you by what I am going to say next, but I believe that it is difficult to be saved. I say this because this is in effect what Jesus said. Remember, He said, "Few there be that find it." You won't even know that it is there unless you are looking for it. I remember another text that says. "Ask...knock...seek." These words are not something that is passive; they require effort.

No, no one ever slipped and fell into the Kingdom of God. These days there is a kind of easy believeism. Raise your hand, sign the card and you are in. Say the Sinner's Prayer and you are part of the family. We are using the words "family" often these days. Of course, we are all made by the Creator. Let us not forget that even Lucifer is in that sense a part of the family. Yet we must be careful, because there are those in the family--if that is what you want to call it--who are enemies of God, who hate Him.

Listen to these texts: Colossians 1:21, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled."

1 Corinthians 15:25, "For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet."

Romans 5:10, "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."

I guess that what I am saying is that we must be careful when we talk about the family of God, that we understand that people will be saved or lost--not because God didn't love them, but rather because they did not love Him and instead chose to be His enemy.

What I am saying is that the word "family" can become a code word to institutionalize sin in the church of God. We must be aware of that and keep our powder dry.

The other day I was reading an article in a magazine that you know very well. The author had written a sermon entitled, "Are Homosexuals Children of God?" Why isn't anybody writing articles entitled, "Are Pedophiles Children of God" or "Are Wife-Beaters Children of God?" At one place in the article the person appealed to the readers to accept homosexuals into the body of Christ.

I have no problem with that or with accepting pedophile or wife-beaters into the body of Christ provided that they are repentant and in an on-going way accepting the victory that the cross has made available to all who accept it--and that includes the proud, the selfish, the bitter, and resentful, and those who have no self-control.

By now some of you may be thinking, "Come on, Pastor O'Ffill, give the human race a break. What you are saying is depressing and doesn't make us feel affirmed." I apologize. When sin is about to take over the planet, it is hard to be affirming and up-beat. I mentioned in another sermon that when things were really going bad in the Old Testament times, the king would call in, as we might say, the minister for a little encouragement. The prophets usually told it like it was. And instead of repenting, the people usually killed the prophets--which come to think of it, is exactly what they did to the Son of God.

The Bible is clear that God has set before us two choices: One is to continue the way that we are and the other is to enter the narrow gate and get on the narrow road that will lead to salvation. The prophets have made no bones about it. To enter into the gate means a complete and total commitment. To stay on the road to heaven requires us to be eternally vigilant, especially when we are more and more bombarded with false doctrines and error.

In spite of what someone may have told you, being a Christian is not easy. We must make an intense effort. We must agonize. The kingdom of heaven is promised to those who would lose their lives. The kingdom of heaven is promised to those who mourn, to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. The kingdom of heaven is promised to those who long for God to change their lives. It will not be given to people who want Jesus without any change in the way that they live.

To those who enter into the narrow gate, the promise is not that we will be rich and famous. Rather Jesus says, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

The kingdom is not for the weakling, for Pilate, for the rich young ruler, or for Demas; rather it is for people like Joseph, Daniel, Peter, Ruth, Esther, Lydia and Paul.

Those who would lead you to believe that the Christian life is easy are simply not telling the truth. It is a narrow gate. It is a narrow road. We will be agonizing all the way along over our sinfulness. We must be broken; we must humble ourselves if He will lift us up.

His strength will become ours. We are alone; we are, as it were, naked of our own righteousness. Then and only then will He clothe us with His beautiful righteousness, and that will result in a changed life--a new lifestyle.

Narrow is the gate. To enter the gate that leads to the road that takes us to eternal life, we must be repentant. Repentance means to turn around--to turn from serving sin to serving God.

The famous preacher of the 19th century, Charles Spurgeon, said, "You and your sins must separate or you and your God will never come together."

Salvation is not addition--it is transformation. The message of 1 John 1:9 has got two parts. The first part is that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And the second part cannot be separated from the first, and that is, when Jesus forgives us our sins, the Holy Spirit begins the process of cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

Salvation is always marked by a changed life. A person whose life is not becoming more and more like Jesus is not yet in the salvation loop. Those who truly are in the salvation loop will always have the desire to obey in every way. If we do not have the desire to obey, this can be a sign to us that we are not yet on the right road.

There are two roads that claim to lead us to life eternal. The road that speaks of tolerance, that allows diverse ideologies, that has no curbs or no limits, the road that indulges self, that has no humility and low moral standards, is the road that leads to destruction. Remember, there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death.

Jesus tells us that unless we hate the world, we cannot be his disciples. Jesus tells us that unless we forsake all, we cannot be his disciples.

No, if the experience of Jesus, while He was in this world, teaches us anything, it would be that, if He was the pastor of a church today, it would not be a mega-church. In fact, one time when Jesus stood up in the temple and said that the people needed to eat His flesh and drink his blood, the Bible says that the majority of his followers left. It was so bad that He turned to his disciples and asked, "Are you going to leave, too?"

Friends, do not be discouraged by what I have been saying. Though the way is narrow, there is room for you. You can pass through the gate, but you will have to leave the past behind. Once you give your heart to Jesus in total commitment, you are on the narrow road. There are relatively few on that road, but the important thing is that Jesus is with us on this narrow road. To those on this road we have the promise that, come what may, He will never leave us or forsake us.