Are Few Saved? The Kingdom of Heaven

Introduction: The Setting and the Question

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, December 6th, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:19 Those of you who were with us this morning will already know that we purpose to turn to the passage that we began to consider this morning and look at it again this evening, Luke chapter 13. And will you follow, please, as I read again in your hearing, verses 22 through 30. Luke 13, beginning with verse 22. Luke, writing of the activity of our Lord, says, And he went on his way through cities and villages, teaching and journeying on to Jerusalem.

0:59 And one said unto him, Lord, are there few that are saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in by the narrow door. For many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able, when once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us. And he shall answer and say to you, I know you not whence you are.

1:36 Then shall you begin to say, We did eat and drink in your presence, and you taught in our streets. And he shall say, I tell you, I know not whence ye are. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you shall see them.

2:05 And ye shall be yourselves cast forth without. And they shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last. Let us once again seek the face of God and ask the blessing of the Spirit upon the ministry of the Word.

2:34 Holy Father, come again in our emptiness, in our spiritual impotence and ignorance, and pray that you will fill us as we come with our emptiness, that you will strengthen us as we come with our impotence, and oh, that you will enlighten us as we come with our ignorance. Breathe upon us by the Spirit, that the Spirit and the Word, may be powerfully operative in our minds and in our hearts. We ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

3:23 Now in our meditation on this passage this morning, we had occasion to consider the setting of these very sobering words of our Lord, the setting being His determination to go on to Jerusalem, there to die, to lay down His life for sinners, and as He is making His way steadfastly to Jerusalem, apparently at a rather leisurely pace, so that He might pause in cities and villages along the way to preach and to teach, a certain individual speaks out of a crowd gathered in a given city or village, or somewhere between two villages, and he asks a very simple question, the question being, Lord, are they few, that are saved? And his question had to do with the relative number of those who will be rescued from sin, unto a state of bliss and salvation, and those that will be left to perish in their sins. And in response to this simple question, our Lord gives a striking command to all who are within the sound of His voice, and the command is given in the language of verse 24, strive to enter in by the narrow door. And in that striking command,

Christ's Specific Answer: 'No, a Multitude'

4:51 our Lord sets forth two great principles. The first, none are saved but those who enter the narrow door of true conversion, and secondly, since this is true, no pains are to be spared in order to get through that narrow door of true conversion. And then from the simple question and the striking command, our Lord launches in to this solemn prophecy in the latter part of verse 24 through verse 28, a prophecy which obviously has as its context the final day of judgment. The subjects of this prophecy are people who have the privileges of gospel light and truth, but who fell short of entering the narrow door, door when the ultimate issue set forth in this prophecy is the issue of being eternally disowned by Christ and eternally cast out from the presence of Christ. Now tonight I will attempt to complete this brief study in this portion of the Word of God by directing your attention to what I'm calling our Lord's specific response to the

6:14 initial question, and that's given to us in verses 28 through 30. Our Lord's specific response to the initial question. You remember in our study this morning we noted that our Lord almost, as it were, brushes the question aside, uses it as a launching pad. He had to press home the great and weighty issues of the necessity of conversion, but He has not forgotten the question.

6:45 And very subtly, but very certainly, as He is pressing this matter of the solemn prophecy of the final day when this tragic separation will come, and those who were indifferent to entering are now concerned about entering, our Lord does in fact answer the initial question. Lord, are there few that be saved? And He answers it in such a way that when we take the strands of His thought and bring them together, they spell one simple two-letter word, no. Are there few that be saved?

7:24 No. And the expanded answer is given to us in the language of this very text, that multitudes will comprise the kingdom of grace. And of God, multitudes from east and west and north and south will be numbered amongst those who are rescued by the grace of God from sin and its consequences. And as our Lord responds to the initial question, He does so in terms of describing the saved in the terminology of the kingdom of God.

The Universal Scope of the Kingdom of God

8:02 You will notice that phrase at the end of verse 28. You shall see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets in the kingdom of God, and also in verse 29, shall sit down in the kingdom of God. So the number of the saved is pictured or set forth in this context as those who comprise the kingdom of God. And in answering the question, are there few that be saved?

8:35 Our Lord does so with respect to three fundamental perspectives with regard to the kingdom of God. And the first one is this, the universal scope of the kingdom of God. Our Lord here asserts that there will be a gathering together in the final manifestation of the kingdom that will be like a great homecoming feast. Now some of you poor Yankees don't know.

9:05 A real good homecoming feast is. You have to be a southerner or spend some time in the south. And that amen was not spiritual, but geographical and cultural. That was a little geographical and cultural chauvinism coming out in that amen.

9:24 That was not a Yankee amen, I assure you. But some of us who've been privileged to spend some time in the south have also been privileged to spend an afternoon at a homecoming feast. One real good homecoming feast. Now relatives seem to literally ooze out of every knothole and from under every blade of grass and come together usually in the churchyard somewhere where tables have been set up and they have a grand feast and they come from the east and the west and maybe not from the north.

9:56 That would be a bad word at a southern homecoming feast. But at least in terms of the point of the compass in that region, they will come from east and west and north. and south and feast and laugh, and if they are Christians, fellowship together and have a delightful time. Well, that's the imagery given here.

10:16 Our Lord carries on that whole image of the kingdom of God being lightened to a great banqueting house with this strange, low, narrow door as the only point of interest, a point of entrance, and when he describes the scope of the kingdom of God as being universal, he does so in language that still derives its perspective from that concept of a great banquet. You will see the language in verse 29, they shall come from the east and the west and the north and the south and sit down, or as the marginal reading has it, they shall recline in the kingdom of God. And you know, some of you who've seen pictures of how they eat in eastern countries, they don't sit upright at the table, but they recline upon one elbow in what would be like the bench in a diner, sort of a semi-couch, and the table coming right up to it. And so the picture here of the kingdom of God is a picture of people who have gathered together in this great homecoming feast. But the thing that is of great significance. With respect to the initial question, are there few that be saved, is our Lord's description of those who come to the feast as coming from all points of the compass.

11:43 They shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. And here our Lord speaks with a certainty that I find tremendously encouraging, notice the language of certainty, they shall come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. They shall come and they shall sit down or recline at this feast of the consummation of the kingdom at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And those of you who have any familiarity with your Bibles, I am sure many of you have already thought of that grand picture in the book of the Revelation in which John records the vision given to him in chapter seven and verse nine. Revelation seven and verse nine, after these things I saw, and behold a great multitude whom no man could know. One could number out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tons standing

13:07 before the throne and before the Lamb arrayed in white robes and palms in their hands. And they cry with a great voice saying, salvation unto our God who sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb. One out of the crowd cries. Lord, are there few that be saved?

13:31 And our Lord bypasses the question for a moment to drive home the issue of greater concern, namely none shall be saved unless they enter the narrow door. And since that's true, we must spare no pains to enter. But ah, my questioning friend, I will respond to that question. Are there few that be saved?

13:57 My questioning friend, no. There shall be a great multitude. They shall come from east and west and north and south, and though each one must come individually through the narrow door, though each one must experience the pain and the spiritual agony of the stripping work of Holy Ghost conviction, though each one must experience the inward spiritual agony of having to say with me, I am saved. I am saved.

14:25 I am saved. I am saved. I am saved. I am saved.

14:29 I am saved. With Paul, all the things that were gains to me, I count them loss for Christ, though each one must deny himself and take up the cross, must welcome the Savior and give him a place above father, mother, brother, sister, yea, and his own life also. Each one has come through that narrow door, and those who come through shall not be a few. my friend, they shall be a multitude whom no man can number from east, from west, from north, and from south. And so our Lord's specific response to the initial question is couched, first of all, in this description of the universal scope of the kingdom of God. But then in the second place, he answers by pointing in the direction of what I'm calling the dispensational unity of the kingdom of God. The dispensational unity of the kingdom of God. Now, what do I mean by that language? Well, the Bible clearly teaches that God has revealed

The Dispensational Unity of the Kingdom of God

15:42 himself progressively in human history. When God came with the first intimation of gospel purpose and promise in Genesis 3.15, he did not put a Bible comprised of the Old and the New Testaments in Adam's hands. He came with a little seed promise, and the promise was there will be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And then throughout history in the language of Hebrews 1, God in various ways, in various epochs and periods, unfolded his mind and his will to man kind. And with the increasing measures of light, there were increasing privileges. And there is such an advancement in what the Bible calls these last days, the days in which Christ actually comes in the flesh. And after he lives and dies, the Holy Spirit is sent, and the fullness of revelation is given through the apostles. God says that the privileges of the Holy Spirit are

16:56 such in that age of fulfillment are so great that in some ways it's stated in marked contrast, Old Covenant, New Covenant. Jesus can say of John the Baptist, none greater among all the prophets, but he that is least in the kingdom in its present light and privilege and manifestation is greater than the great of the old epoch. So the Bible clearly teaches, these epochs of the unfolding of God's purposes, his promises, his saving activity. Now those epochs are often called dispensations. Now you won't hear that word frequently in this assembly, but there's a sense in which it's proper to use it. And if we mean by that word what I've described, then it's a legitimate word to use to describe that. But now when our Lord is answering the question, are there few that be saved? He answers not only by underscoring the universal scope of the kingdom,

18:06 but also by underscoring the dispensational unity of the kingdom. Look at the language of our passage. Verse 28, there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets of the world. And when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets, where? In the kingdom of God and yourselves cast forth without. Now what happens to these who come from the east and the west and the north and the south? They sit down in the kingdom of God. So there is an identity between the place where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets are found, and those who will be gathered from the east and the west, and the north and the south. You do not find Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, believers under the old dispensation, in one part of the banquet hall, separate from others, or in an entirely different banquet hall. And what is clearly inferred in this passage is

19:19 explicitly asserted in the parallel passage in Matthew 8 and verse 11. So you'll understand that I'm not pressing more out of the text than is there. In Matthew 8 and verse 11, Jesus says, in a context in which faith is being manifested by a Gentile, faith greater than that seen amongst the Israelites, and I say unto you, Matthew 8, 11, that many, not a few or some, many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down, not opposite to, above, but sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. And so our Lord, in answering that initial question, are there few that be saved, broadens out the vision by asserting this dispensational, dispensational unity of the people of God, indicating that whatever differences have existed

20:35 amongst God's true people throughout the various dispensations or epochs of the unfolding of His redemptive purposes, and differences there are, and some of them are great, but in their fundamental spiritual standing and privilege, they are one. Because there is but one Redeemer who was on His way to die at Jerusalem, not just for the sins of those who would yet be gathered from east and west and north and south, but who is designated in Scripture as the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world, whose death was the foundation of Abraham's justification, of Isaac's justification, and the justification of all the prophets who was going to Jerusalem, not only to die for the sins of those yet ungathered, but to die in human history for the sins of those who had already gone to glory on the basis of the death that He would die. That was an accomplished fact in the reckoning and purpose of all the apostles there. Acts 18, and countries like the Pumpkin Tree TRANSLATION End of Almighty God. And so when we understand that great principle,

22:03 it's as though the Lord is saying, Furthermore, my inquiring friend, are they few who are saved? No. For not only is there to be a great universal ingathering in the future from north and south and east and west, but looking back, all of those who came to faith Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those great leaders with whom God identifies Himself as the covenant God, the God of grace, saying, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of the prophets, the God of those who are described in Hebrews 11 as believers, though they had much less light than the prophets, on many points than we have, and though they had more limited privileges in many areas, the Word of God makes it plain that the people of God are fundamentally and essentially one in every dispensation, one in their fall in Adam, one in their gracious inclusion in the sovereign electing mercy of God, one in being given to the people of God, one in being given to the Lord Jesus,

The Underlying Principle: Last Shall Be First, First Shall Be Last

23:28 one in Christ as their head and surety and representative, one in the basis of their acceptance with God, and one in their ultimate destiny in the consummate glory of the kingdom of God. And so the Lord does indeed answer the initial inquiry, first of all by pointing to this universal scope of the kingdom of God, and secondly, by pointing to the dispensational unity of the kingdom of God, and then finally, by underscoring in the conclusion of the passage the underlying principle by which the kingdom is constituted. The underlying principle by which the kingdom is constituted. And here we have this cryptic saying found elsewhere in the Gospels, found in other contexts, and also having differing shades of meaning in other contexts. Verse 30 of Luke chapter 13. Notice how our Lord concludes the section.

24:40 And behold, fix before your minds this great principle. And here it is. There are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last. What is our Lord saying in this particular setting?

25:04 And don't assume that the same emphasis is to be given wherever you find these words. Identity of words does not mean identity of meaning.

25:15 And there are other points of emphasis in the use of this cryptic terminology. But in this setting, and this is not a bizarre or unique position I have taken, it's fundamentally the position of Hendrickson, of Lenski, of old Bishop Ryle, so I'm in good company. And asserting that this is what I believe to be the meaning. What our Lord is saying is this.

25:38 Are there few that be saved? Well, if the principle underlying the establishment of the kingdom is a principle that where you have great privilege, that you will have great accessions to the kingdom, then perhaps the relative number of the saved will be few. But he says the principle upon which the kingdom is built is this. Behold!

26:04 Look at it! Think upon this! And here's the principle. There are last who shall be first.

26:12 That is, there are those who are last in privilege who shall be first in responsiveness to the light and truth of the gospel.

26:26 And there are those who are first in opportunity and privilege, but who, because of their impenitence, and indifference to that privilege, even as we had in this context, Lord, did you not eat in our streets? And were we not where you were? And didn't we hear you teach? There are those who are first in privilege who shall be last, that is, who will be utterly bypassed in terms of the conferral of grace.

26:57 Now this has been true all the way through both Testaments. Were there not, Jesus says, many widows? In the days of the prophet. But unto none of them was God sent.

27:12 There was all the firstness of the privileges of all the widows in Israel, and God bypassed them all and went to a Gentile widow of Zarephath and revealed His grace to her.

27:26 Were there not many lepers in the days of Naaman the Syrian?

27:32 People who were first in privilege, first in proximity to the prophet? But none of them was healed. It was Naaman the Syrian. You see, the great principle in Jesus enunciated that in the opening days of His ministry.

27:52 And you remember the Jews were so incensed that they tried to murder Him early in His ministry. And we see it in the days of our Lord. In the passage quoted in Matthew 8, He said, I have not seen so great faith. No, not in all Israel.

28:09 Here is Israel, first in privilege, with the great heaven, heritage of the law and the prophets. And yet, He says, here is a Gentile who is first in faith. You see it throughout the apostolic ministry. You see it right on through the history of the church.

28:26 The principle by which God extends His kingdom is one which is calculated to underscore both His grace and His sovereignty. And to magnify, we may say, the sovereignty of His grace. And the grace...

28:42 The graciousness of His sovereignty. And because that's true, because that's true, then the kingdom will be a vast kingdom. Made up of a multitude whom no man can number. Out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation.

29:02 Now notice He doesn't say all of the last are first. He says, no, there are some last ones who shall become first. And there are some firsts, who shall become the last ones. This is not an absolute rule.

29:18 No, there were those within the pale of privileged Israel who in the language of Romans 9 were Israel within Israel. They are not all Israel who are Israel. But there is an election, a remnant according to the election of grace. But you see throughout all of God's dealings in gathering His people, this is the underlying principle.

29:42 God. God remains free to be God in the conferral of His grace and in bringing sinners into the kingdom. And if we have the record of some of those Gentiles in the Old Testament, and it's an amazing record, what they knew of the mighty deeds of God and how they responded in fear and awe to the God of Israel. How many, how many did God bring through the gate who were last in light and privilege even under the Old Testament?

30:19 Occasionally God pulls back the veil and you're amazed. I'm not talking about a hope that men will be saved apart from saving truth. No, no. I'm talking about the fact that with a very minimal measure of truth, as in the case of Naaman, as in the case of others recorded in the Old Testament, you look at those sailors on that ship with Jonah.

30:45 When they see the mighty power of God and even have a testimony of a backslidden prophet, they throw their gods overboard and they sacrifice unto Jehovah and they make vows.

30:59 There was a handful, a shipload of pagan sailors last in privilege, first in grace.

31:09 Now if that's the principle by which God operates in gathering His people together, our Lord is saying in essence, to the man who asked the question, are there few that be saved? Well, if God is to gather together His people based upon the calculations of the latest whirring computers at the church growth centers, then we may say, well, perhaps only few will be saved. But God is free to be God. And in the gathering out of His own, this great principle is operative.

The Certainty of Christ's Prophecy: His Redeeming Death

31:45 Now having sought, sought to open up at least basically the meaning of the words of the passage,

31:53 our Lord's answer to that initial question, are they few that are saved? An answer that is a resounding no. Coming to us in these three dimensions, the emphasis upon the universal scope of the kingdom, the dispensational unity, and the underlying principle by which the kingdom is constituted. One more question, and yet remains for us to answer.

32:20 How could our Lord speak with such certainty of these things? How could He say, they shall come? They shall sit down? There are those who are last who shall be first.

32:41 And there are those first who shall be last. How can He speak with such certainty? How can He speak with such certainty about these matters? The answer to the question lies in the fact that He was on His way to Jerusalem to die.

33:00 And it is in the profound realities involved in that death that the certainty lies. For you see, that death was a death which would actually redeem a people. It was not a death calculated simply to make a people happy. It was not a death calculated to make a people redeemable or to make salvation possible.

33:26 It was a death calculated to redeem a people.

33:33 Our Lord could say, the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. And the Scripture tells us that He gave Himself for us that He might redeem to Himself a people of God. A people of God. A people of God.

33:51 A people of His very own. He died actually to redeem, to rescue, to deliver a people. And that death will secure the personal deliverance, the entrance through the narrow door of everyone for whom that death was undertaken. Jesus could say in the language of John 12, 32, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will, will draw all men unto Me.

34:24 This spake He signifying by what death He should die. He says, If I am lifted up to die, the consequence of that death is the certainty of My drawing all men, not every single individual, no, no, but the all men upon whom My Father set His love in eternity, who were marked out in the grave, the gracious decree of election, who were given to Me, for whom I assumed all of the obligations with respect to the unmet debts to My Father's law, on whose behalf I have lived the perfect life, on whose behalf I will die a death under the curse of a broken law. If I be lifted up in that capacity, I will draw all men unto Me. And so our Lord could say in the language of John 6, 37, All that the Father giveth Me cometh unto Me, and him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out. Or in the language of Ephesians 5, He gave Himself for the church that He might not make it savable, and might possibly make it presentable.

35:48 No, He gave Himself for the church that He might sanctify, cleanse, and present it to Himself a glorious church. It was a death undertaken in the context of electing grace. It was undertaken in the context of the pledge of the Father to the Son that He would see of the travail of His soul and would be satisfied. And some of you who may be a bit acquainted with what these issues are called in terms of theological debate, this is not a mere preaching of a theological viewpoint.

36:24 It was this very reality according to Hebrews 12 which sustained our Lord in the agony of His death. The writer to Hebrews says, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. And what was that joy? Is there any joy in going to a death that may not result in any certain salvation for any sin?

36:51 Certain people know the joy was seeing that multitude from north and south and east and west being brought in and sitting down ultimately with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the prophets in the kingdom of God. My friends, Jesus could talk of such certainty when the man out of the crowd asked the question, Are they few that be saved? Our Lord's answer is a resounding no. There is a great multitude to be saved and they shall come and shall sit down because I have set my face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. And I'm going to die not to make some man indescript and unknown to me, merely salvable, but I'm going to lay down my life for my sheep. I'm going to secure their redemption. I am going in the confidence that if I die, my Father's pledge to me will be fulfilled, that I shall see of the travail of my soul and be satisfied.

Application for Believers: Encouragement and Zeal

38:09 I will not be a Savior who travails and brings forth a stillborn child. I'll bring forth all of my elect as the new humanity, and they will sit down as one in the kingdom of God. Oh, dear people of God, as we come in a few minutes to the Lord's table, what a wonderful expression of this very prophecy we are. Here we are tonight, gathered where?

38:41 From east, from west, from north, from south. Many of us, we were last in privilege as we have sat as elders, and heard the testimony of some of you from totally pagan backgrounds. The name of Christ was nothing but a foul curse word. You never had a Bible verse taught to you.

39:05 You never memorized one as a child. You were brought up a perfect, the perfect example of American paganism. And what did God do? Though you were last in privilege, He reached out and He laid hold of you, and He's made you first in the possession of His grace.

39:26 You're living monuments of everything Jesus said here. And He could say it with certainty, because He was on His way to Jerusalem to die, to redeem you, to redeem me. He had us upon His heart. He had us upon His heart.

39:46 And as we come to the table, surely it should be our great delight to remember such a Savior. And then when we rise from this table to go out into a wicked world, seeking both by life and by lip to bear witness to the gracious salvation of which we have become partakers through no goodness of our own, but simply because of God's free, sovereign grace in Christ. Oh, child of God, don't be discouraged. You say, what hope is there?

40:21 I go to an office full of pagans who have no interest in the things of God. They are last in privilege, in apparent responsiveness and sensitivity. But God, in a moment of time, one word from God becomes in power, and God can turn them around. You ought to go into that office with hope, into that school with hope, into that neighborhood with hope.

40:49 And then when we gather on Wednesday to pray, perhaps there are times when you say, Pastor, when all these concerns of the kingdom of God from hither and yon are laid, hither and yon are laid upon us, it's just so oppressive at times. There are such enemies to the gospel and such indifference. How can we, a bunch of imperfectly sanctified saints who come many times bowed down with the weight of our own failure and sin and dullness, how can we pray with any confidence and faith for such expansive, visionary ideas as the spread of the kingdom to the ends of the earth? Well, my friends, we can do so.

41:28 Because the Lord Jesus died to accomplish that. It doesn't rest upon the warmth of your heart or upon the level of your present spirituality. He died and they shall come. And therefore we can pray and we can plead with God, Thy kingdom come.

41:46 Why? Because Jesus died to secure the reality described in this passage. Are you men going to preach the gospel when people tell you your theological conviction, your convictions are a tempest in a teapot, they have no practical bearing? May God help you to see there's all the practical bearing in the world to these things.

42:10 I think I would have packed it in long ago if I didn't have the certain confidence that my Lord will not be robbed of one bit of the fruit of His suffering. In the face of blatant unbelief and crippling indifference and discouraging dullness, what is the thing that keeps us nerved and pressing on? It's the confidence that He shall see of the travail of His soul. And though we with Him, and it's interesting how balanced the Scripture is, the chapter closes with Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.

42:50 And though we with Him must weep and say, How oft would I have gathered, but ye would not. And that's not playing games. That's the broken heart of inward spiritual disappointment in the pursuit of men's salvation. And that's a dimension of our Lord's sanctified humanity in which we must be like Him.

43:15 But don't you ever reason from that to any notion that He is ultimately a disappointed Savior. We share with Him in the fellowship of His sufferings the pain of wanting to bring all while only some come. I'll never forget kneeling in prayer with a dear friend of mine who has served God in another country for years and we met at a conference. And he was pleading with God for a number of young people.

43:44 It was in a young people's conference where we were gathered together. And with tears I remember him pleading, O God, O God, I know that from eternity You've set Your love upon a people and that Your Son died for them and that You will infallibly draw them. But Lord, I can't help but want to see them all come. I believe God smiled at that prayer because it reflects the heart of the Savior.

Call to Action: Strive to Enter and Be Encouraged

44:13 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I would have, but ye would not. No, no, this kind of theology, it doesn't make cold-hearted preachers, but it helps warm-hearted preachers to be kept from total despair and the discouragement that would paralyze them and enables them as our Lord who went from weeping over Jerusalem steadfastly on to Jerusalem to die, knowing that the Father's purposes would not be frustrated. Are there few that be saved? My friend, the great question is, are you saved? Are you saved? If you are, you've come through the narrow door and you've been willing to pay any price to get through that door. If you're not saved, my friend, take the command of our Lord to heart.

45:15 Strive to enter. Count no cost too great to get through. And if you are through, and by the grace of God, your agonies are not the agonies of getting through, but the agonies of staying on the way, then, my friend, be encouraged. You're in a great, vast company of the fellowship of the agonizers.

45:40 They shall come, east and west, north and south, as we gather to the Lord's table, may it be with great joy, with great confidence, with renewed devotion to our blessed Savior who has drawn us to Himself, because when He died, He had us upon His heart and gave His life for us. Let us pray. Our Father, what can we say when we gaze even for a few minutes upon the mystery of Your sovereign, electing love, upon the mystery of Your ways constituting that great principle that of the many who are first in privilege, they are last in experience? Many of us who were last in privilege have become first in grace and in the experience of Your forgiving mercy. How we praise You for Your ways, so calculated to magnify Your sovereignty and Your grace.

47:08 And we bless You that when You passed by and revealed Yourself to Moses, it was as a gracious and a sovereign God. And so You have revealed Yourself in the Lord Jesus to us. We pray for any who sit under the Word tonight, who yet have not entered that narrow door. O God, will You not have dealings with them?

47:37 Do not allow them to go on in careless or smug indifference, or even, Lord, with a concern, but a concern that stops short of true repentance and faith. We ask for us who are Your people, help us to be encouraged from the ministry of the Word tonight. Fill us with renewed confidence in the ultimate triumphs of the grace and of the saving mercy of our Lord Jesus. Give us a new zeal to witness, a new zeal to be consistent in life and fervent in our testimony.

48:18 And, O God, may our prayers reflect a renewed confidence in the ultimate triumphs of Your grace, knowing that an hour is coming when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. O, we pray, hasten the day when the role of Your elect is complete in terms of all being gathered in, that our ears may hear the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God. O Lord, hasten that day. Even so, come.

48:55 Lord Jesus, as we gather to that table of His appointment, remembering Him even until He come, O, may something of the Spirit's ministry through the Word be present upon our hearts as we eat and drink in remembrance of our Lord Jesus. Hear us then in this our prayer and answer us for the honor of Your beloved Son. Amen.