Are Few Saved? Strive to Enter

In this part of the sermon: Martin examines the question 'Lord, are they few that are saved?' as a concern for the comparative number of the saved and lost. He speculates on the questioner's identity…

Compares the question 'Are they few that are saved?' to instinctively asking 'how many survivors?' after a disaster, illustrating the natural human concern for the number of those rescued.

In other words, the questioner is concerned with the comparative number of the saved and the lost. He wants to know whether or not among the vast multitudes of humanity, whether few or many will be rescued and brought into a state of life and salvation. It's the kind of question we ask instinctively if we hear over the news that an ocean liner with 2,000 people aboard was struck by a freighter in the North Atlantic and sunk quickly. The first question we ask is, how many survivors?

6:28 - 7:05 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin examines the question 'Lord, are they few that are saved?' as a concern for the comparative number of the saved and lost. He speculates on the questioner's identity…

Recalls instances where Jews were angered by Christ commending Gentile faith, suggesting the questioner might be a bigoted Jew offended by the kingdom's expansion beyond Israel.

And there is some hint in the latter part of the passage, that perhaps it was a self-righteous, bigoted Jew, who had learned, even from the two preceding parables of our Lord, that the kingdom was to grow and to expand. It was to grow into a mighty tree. It was to have, like the influence of leaven, that which would be marked by extensive influence. And he may have had his Jewish nose bent around his left ear by this teaching of the Lord, for you remember, in other parts of the Gospel record, this was a very offensive thought, when our Lord commended the faith of a Gentile person in the presen...

8:41 - 9:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin examines the question 'Lord, are they few that are saved?' as a concern for the comparative number of the saved and lost. He speculates on the questioner's identity…

Describes a type of person who asks superficial religious questions ('Where did Cain get his wife?', 'What about tongues?') to avoid heart issues, suggesting the questioner might be such a person.

They were angered to think that faith would be present in a Gentile dog that was greater than any faith seen in Israel. Or it could have been that in that crowd, as in any religious crowd, the person who asked this question was one of those triflers in religion who loves to ask, all kinds of questions that don't touch the heart. Lord, what's the comparative number of the saved and of the lost? Let's discuss that moot point, that oft-debated issue.

9:23 - 9:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: it's a matter of little concern at this point whether few or many are saved. But there are two issues that are the real burning life and death issues, and these two issues I set before you in these words, strive to enter…

Explains the 'narrow door' metaphor by likening the Kingdom of God to a large, well-furnished banquet house with only one narrow, low, constricted entrance, emphasizing the singular, difficult way to salvation.

All who are now or ever shall be saved are saved by entering the narrow door. All who are now or ever shall be saved are saved by entering the narrow door. are saved by entering the narrow door. Now, by the use of this figure of a door, and then you will notice later on he speaks of the master of the house or the house lord, the kingdom of God is set before us in a beautiful extended figure of speech.

13:58 - 14:31 Read in full sermon

Driving home: only bent low, made utterly small, disrobed of all righteousness of our own, and wholly willing to have the coat of the flesh removed from us, down to the last rag can we get through that narrow door.

Illustrates the meaning of 'strive' (agonizomai) by comparing it to the intense, all-out exertion of college or high school wrestling, where opponents pit strength against strength, emphasizing the agonizing effort required for conversion.

We must count no exertion too great actually to enter that narrow door. We must count no exertion too great actually to enter that narrow door. The word translated in our Bible's strive is a word that is taken from the realm of athletics. And it's the word that one would use to describe what happens, to the people who are lost, to the people who are lost, to the people who are lost, to the people who are lost.

18:06 - 18:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: you must agonize to enter, you must count no exertion excessive if it is necessary to get through the narrow door of a true and a sound conversion.

Uses the biblical metaphor of cutting off a right hand or plucking out a right eye to convey the radical, painful self-denial required to deal with cherished sins that impede entering the narrow door.

temperamental disinclinations to the radical claims of discipleship, there may be relationships to be adjusted. Adjusted or severed, sins as dear as right hand and right eye to be cut off and cast away. There may be pride to be consumed, there may be rebellion to be humbled, but our Lord is in dead blood earnest, my friends, and I am this morning, hear his words, on his way to Jerusalem to do what? To die.

20:52 - 21:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: None are saved but those who enter the narrow door of true conversion, and true conversion is costly. Spare no pains to enter, agonize to enter.

Highlights Christ's own 'agony' in Gethsemane and on the cross, sweating drops of blood and travailing under sin's weight, to demonstrate the immense cost He paid to provide salvation, thereby underscoring the necessity of sinners' agonizing to enter.

To go into the agony of Gethsemane, and that's the word used of our Lord. The Lord's wrestlings in Gethsemane, there as he faces the cup of the Father's wrath against our sins, he is in a great agony and sweats as it were great drops of blood, and then he goes to the greater agony of travailing upon the cross under the weight of the sins of his people, until he is crushed beneath that weight, and from one standpoint he is the victim consumed. While at the same time, he is the victim consumed. At the same time, he is a living, active priest, offering himself up without spot unto God.

21:24 - 22:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Pay any price necessary to get through the narrow gate, understanding that nothing is worth the damnation of your soul.

Uses the image of parents wishing to hide their children in their pockets or garments to bring them into salvation, illustrating that parents cannot save their children; each individual must enter the narrow door personally.

You must enter. Mom and dad can't take you through in the folds of their garments. God knows we would if we could. We'd hide a kid in every pocket and if we had some pockets left over, we'd take somebody else's.

35:11 - 35:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Pay any price necessary to get through the narrow gate, understanding that nothing is worth the damnation of your soul.

Shares his personal experience of loneliness and ridicule ('holy roller,' 'Holy Joe') after his conversion in high school, to encourage young people facing similar social costs for their faith, emphasizing the blessed companionship of Jesus that outweighs any regret.

It's the same loneliness that I had 30 years next month that God by his grace brought me through that door. And I remember the loneliness from being one of the most popular guys in my high school. I remember the loneliness when the guys would roll down their windows and yell out of their cars, Hey, oh, holy roller! Walk on your heels!

36:37 - 36:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself: Have I entered that narrow door of true conversion? Have I truly repented of my sins? Do I believe in the Lord Jesus?

Uses the image of trying to use a 'wrecking bar' to widen the narrow door, illustrating the futility and impossibility of altering Christ's terms for salvation, emphasizing that the door's dimensions are fixed by Jesus.

You may not like it. You may want to take your wrecking bar and pull down the studs and make it a little wider. The Lord Jesus will rip your wrecking bar from your hands. It's a narrow door.

41:33 - 41:43 Read in full sermon