Broad Way Life: No Repentance, No Obedience Necessary

In Matthew 7:13–14, Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

There are many ministers in modern evangelicalism who teach that you do not have to repent or obey the Lord Jesus to be saved. You can live the broad way life and still be saved. You can keep your sins and still be saved from God’s wrath.

We do not believe that. This church has the marks of a true church. This church preaches the word with all authority. This church has two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This church exercises discipline. And I introduced a fourth mark: fellowship, meaning we talk to others to find out what they need, and we provide for them. Then we will tell them to get a job, because we are to work six days. We do so to provide. “If you do not provide for your family, you are worse than an animal” (1 Tim. 5:8, my translation). And if you love Jesus Christ, you will also obey your parents, your pastors, and your policemen.

Many people choose the broad way life, the life of disobedience to the Lord. Such a life leads to eternal destruction. Few choose the narrow road life, to live under the discipline of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this narrow road life of obedience to our Lord Jesus leads to eternal life, not destruction. There is a hell and there is a heaven.

Like Timothy, I was enabled to choose eternal life from infancy (2 Tim. 3:15). The broad way life is the opposite of the narrow way life. Most people in this church have chosen the way I did. It is the way of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The narrow way leads to heaven. It is the way of repentance and obedience. If you are elect in eternity, predestinated to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, you will be effectually called, regenerated, repenting and believing, justified, adopted, and sanctified to be glorified in the new heaven and new earth forever and ever. This is why we do not serve money; we serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Obedience Is Not Optional

In Hebrews 5:8–9 the writer says about Jesus, “Although he was God’s eternal Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (my translation).  If you do not obey Jesus Christ, you are not saved.

In Romans 8:29 Paul begins, “For those God foreknew . . .” Professor John Murray said that “foreknew” means “foreloved in all eternity.” So Paul writes, “For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”  Jesus Christ is our oldest brother. We are to conform to his image.

In John 8:29 Jesus says, “The one who sent me is with me.” Who sent him? The Father. Then he says, “He has not left me alone.” On my way to America in 1960, I remember praying in the ship: “I am alone.” But I was not alone. God was with me, and he provided everything. Then Jesus concludes, “for I always do what pleases him.” The Father fellowships with us. This is happiness in the nth degree. Money cannot bring us such happiness; only fellowship with God can.

In John 4:34, Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me.” Damned are the preachers who preach you can keep your sins and be saved! Jesus himself says, “My food [meaning my happiness, my strength] is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” He is speaking about the work of redemption. He finished it when he died for us. We sinned; he died. That is the gospel. We sinned; he died. And he finished his work.

In John 14:31 Jesus declares, “But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.” Read 1 Samuel 15:3. There we see that Saul did not obey exactly, and he was damned by God. The Holy Spirit left him and an evil spirit came and tormented him. God requires obedience–immediate obedience, exact obedience, and joyful obedience.

And Jesus finished the work God gave him to do. In John 19:30 we read, “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘[Tetelestai] It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”  Jesus finished the work of redemption for us so that we may have eternal life.

In John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” God does not beg. Many parents beg and bribe their children, and the children spit on their faces. My father commanded me, and I would come and stand by him until he turned and told me what to do. Then I would run to do it. So Jesus is telling us, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Peter denied Jesus three times. After Christ’s resurrection, Jesus met Peter and asked him three times, “Do you love me more than your life?” And Peter said, “Yes, yes, yes.” Then Jesus said, “They are going to crucify you.” Peter was crucified and kept the faith.

In Galatians 5:22 we read, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.” We recently heard of miracles taking place in a sister church in India. A man who was a drug addict attended the church and was saved. Then his mother also started coming to the church. Things are happening, and that church is manifesting the first fruit of the Spirit, which is love. Similarly, we manifest love here. There is no discrimination here. We love all God’s people and help all God’s people. That is why we talk to each other. We want to know what your need is and help take care of it.

So Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). Obedience is the proof that you are saved by God, by the Holy Spirit, by his monergistic work. And when God poured out the Holy Spirit in India in 1925 and later, we saw much love. Later, when my father was dying at age 35, the church came and prayed. My father said, “What are you praying about? I am in heaven. I am having a good time.” But God spared him and gave him many more years.

We were brought up in miracles, including the miracle of regeneration. When you are regenerated, you are given a new mind, a new will, and a new set of emotions, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you, commanding you to do what you must do. Regeneration is a miracle, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” We are new creations! The old is gone and the new has come. And I was brought up in this new way of life. The Bible says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). And you look at me, you see that I did not depart from the godly training of my parents.

In John 14:21, 23–24 Jesus tells us, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” If a child does not obey his parents and pastors, he is damned. Jesus continues: “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. . . . If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” As we said, this is speaking about happiness to the nth degree. The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit come to dwell in us in the person of the Holy Spirit. But then Jesus says, “He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.” Note the logic. If someone does not obey, he does not love God. Jesus concludes, “These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

Obedience is a dirty word in America today. Sometimes I am sorry that I came to America, but I had no choice. God sent me to this place. Before I came, a pastor in the city of Davis was given a vision that a man like me was coming who would preach the truth and people would hear it.

But for a Christian, obedience is not optional. In John 15:10 Jesus states, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” Jesus always obeyed his Father, and Christians are to obey Jesus. (PGM) That is what you said when you confessed Jesus as Lord.

In Psalm 103:17–18 the psalmist begins, “The Lord’s love is with those who fear him.” “Fear him” means to obey God, as Abraham did in Genesis 22. The psalmist continues, “with those who keep his covenant.” We made a covenant in baptism: “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

In 1 John 2:3–5 John begins, “We know,” which means “we know for sure.” John continues, “that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” When a child is not obedient to his parents, I conclude he is damned and will eventually choose the broad way life. So John is saying, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands [does not obey] is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him.” We know it through our obedient life. That does not mean we always obey. We may sin, but we also repent. And thank God that he accepts our repentance.

In 1 John 3:22, 24 we read, “[We] receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” As we said before, God always commands. He never begs. He is eternal, almighty, all-holy God. Verse 24: “Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” By the Spirit all three Persons of the Trinity live in us. This is sheer happiness. And what is the job the Spirit is doing? Applying the redemption Christ accomplished.

John also writes, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” Peter found that out. Jesus told his disciples, “Behold, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the ages” (Matt. 28:20). He was there to help them even when they were put to death. Peter was crucified. Stephen was stoned to death. Paul was beheaded. But God was with them, and he will be with us.

So Jesus is telling us, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction.” I chose the narrow road—the road of obedience to Jesus Christ, to parents, and to pastors.

Jesus prayed, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of this world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word” (John 17:6). You see, obedience matters. It is not a dirty, four-letter word. “Obey” has four letters. But evangelicalism has made it a dirty word.

Second Peter 1:10 is most important. It says, “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure.” How do we do this? By our present obedience. And if we have disobeyed, repent, and God will forgive you. Thank God, he forgives us.

In Matthew 7:21–23 Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord.’” Oh, note the spirituality in this repetition. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” The visible church is a mixture of truly saved and not truly saved, the obedient and the disobedient. Jesus continued, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’” In other words, they were saying, “You must open the gate to heaven for us!” But that is not what Jesus said. This is his response: “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” And my translation is, “Go to eternal hell!”

I once preached a sermon from Luke 16 called, “Surprised by Hell.” The rich man thought he would go to heaven and Lazarus would go to hell because he was very poor, but the reverse happened. I pray none of us will be surprised by hell.

In Philippians 2:12–13 Paul writes, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation [by obedience] with fear and trembling.” Have you seen infinite God? I have not seen him. But when you see him, you will fall down as dead. That is what happened for John in Revelation 1:17. Paul continues, “for it is God who works in you to will and to do his good pleasure.” Thank God, he works in us. And then, by the Spirit, we have the power to work out.

In 1 John 5:19 John writes, “We know for sure that we are the children of God, and the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” Many in this country are very proud of how much money they have. They have only one goal: to retire well. They have no interest in the gospel and making their calling and election sure.

In 1 Peter 1:2 Peter writes, “[To God’s elect] who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ.” Our life’s purpose is obedience to Jesus Christ. Look at 1 Peter 1:14. I disagree with the NIV translation. It should begin, “As children of obedience,” not, “As obedient children.” So we read, “As children of obedience, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.” The whole world lives in ignorance. Few live in the knowledge of God. And in 1 Peter 1:22 we read, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart.” Do you want to be clean? Obey the truth. Obey God. And Peter says, “Love one another deeply from the heart.” India is a caste society. And when God poured out his Spirit, all distinctions were gone. There were two sisters who belonged to the lowest caste who would come to our house, and I considered them as my mother. They were uneducated, but they learned, “Praise the Lord.” And all of a sudden, we saw in them joy unspeakable and full of glory.

2. Repentance Is Not Optional

In Ephesians 4:28 Paul writes, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer”—that is what repentance means—“but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.” This is what repentance means. I was brought up understanding what a true church is. We loved one another, and there was no one who needed anything. My own pastor sold his land and brought the money to the church to take care of people. That is the first use of money, to take care of people who are your family, the church.

In Acts 2:38 we read, “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’” Thank God that he forgives us. We sinned and he died. Jesus was the poorest man who lived on the face of the earth. In Luke 9:58 he said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Finally, he laid his head on the cross.

In Acts 17:30 Paul declared, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” And in Acts 20:21 Paul said, “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” Repentance means that we must leave our life of sin and follow Jesus Christ.

In Acts 26:20 Paul said, “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds,” by their good works. We must not just say that we repented. We must prove our repentance by our actions. That is what happened in our sister church. A young man was doing everything wrong. All of a sudden, he came to church and completely changed. And his mother was surprised and started also coming to the church. All this is because of a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Praise God for choosing a few people in eternity to be saved. If you are believers, prove you are saved by a life of repentance and obedience. And if you are not, I counsel you to put your trust in Jesus and he will forgive all your sins.