“Strive to Enter in by the Narrow Door” (Luke 13:24)

Introduction and Historical Setting: Jesus' Journey to Jerusalem

0:00 And chapter 13, and I shall read in your hearing verses 22 through 30, and since we have some with us this morning who are not here last night, you might ask what version or translation of the scriptures that I'm using for the public reading. It's the Old American Standard, the 1901 edition, and I automatically drop the Elizabethan endings of some of the pronouns and the verbs, and so it is the 1901 brought into contemporary idiomatic English.

0:40 Luke chapter 13 and verse 22. Luke, giving us a record of this period in the life of our Lord Jesus, writes, And he, that is Jesus, went on his way through cities and villages, teaching and journeying on unto the kingdom of God. And one said unto him, Lord, are they few that are saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in by the narrow door.

1:11 For many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter and shall not be able when once the master of the house is risen up and has shut fast the door, and you begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open. Open to us, and he shall answer and say to you, I do not know where you are from. Then you shall begin to say, We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets. And he shall say, I tell you, I do not know where you are from.

1:49 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. When you are gone, I will not be able to see you. And you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and yourselves cast forth without.

2:10 And they shall come from the east and west and from the north and south and shall sit down or recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be second. And there shall be last. Now, as we take this passage in hand this morning, I want us to seek to grasp its message as we think through this portion of the word of God under three very simple headings.

2:44 First of all, we'll look at the historical setting identified and described for us in verse 22. And then we will look at this unusual question asked by an unknown individual in verse 22. And then we'll consider the sobering response given by our Lord in verses 24 to the end of the paragraph. First of all, the passage begins with what on the surface seems to be a rather innocuous, innocent little historical snippet.

3:20 We read, And he, Jesus, went on his way through cities and villages, teaching and journeying on to Jerusalem, We could render it in Jesus was going on his way through cities and villages, continually teaching and continuing his journey on to Jerusalem. And that little historical snippet has profound significance for this entire paragraph. If we seek to understand and apply to ourselves the teaching of our Lord in this portion of the word of God, while blotting out the significance of verse 22,

4:05 we will leave ourselves open to a tremendous misconception and distortion of the significance of the words of our Lord Jesus. We are told that he was on his way, passing through cities and villages, but the cities and villages were not the focus of his attention. He was on his way, journeying to Jerusalem. And why was he going to Jerusalem at this period in his life?

4:35 Was he going to seek some R&R with some friends he had made in his earlier Judean ministry and who perhaps left him with standing invitations that any time he came to Jerusalem he could be sure of a bed for himself and some of his intimate followers? There are places all over the world where I have such standing invitations. Pastor Martin, if you can ever come here, there, be assured. A telephone call.

5:01 A brief letter telling us when you're coming. You and your wife will have a bed and a table spread with food. And in some cases, they said, we'll rent a car. You can have some valid R&R at our expense.

5:13 And I'm sure there were some of those who had come to embrace the Lord Jesus, who in the various cities and villages of Palestine left this kind of standing invitation to our Lord. So was he going to take up one of those invitations and have a little R&R at Jerusalem? Or was he going to Jerusalem for an extended preaching session? We know that our Lord did not go about his ministry willy-nilly.

5:39 He had a tremendous sense of what he was to do and when he was to do it in obedience to his Father. Well, the scriptures make it very clear that Jesus was going to Jerusalem for one purpose and for one purpose only. And he was not ignorant of the way in which that purpose would be fulfilled. Earlier in Luke's Gospel, chapter 9 and verse 51, we read these very significant words.

6:09 And it came to pass when the days were well nigh come that he should be received up. He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Our Lord is conscious that the time is drawing near when having accomplished his redemptive work upon earth, he would be taken back. He would be taken back into the presence of his Father.

6:34 And in the light of that knowledge, he steadfastly sets his face to go to Jerusalem. And he's not ignorant of what awaits him at Jerusalem. For we read in Luke 13 and verse 33 these very significant words. Luke 13 and verse 33.

6:55 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following. For it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the place where prophets perish. And the Lord knows he's going to that place as God's great and final prophet who also will perish at Jerusalem.

7:25 Chapter 18 of Luke's Gospel, verses 31 to 33. Become even more. Explicit. And he, Jesus, took unto him the twelve and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written through the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of Man, for he shall be delivered up unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon, and they shall scourge and kill him.

8:00 Our Lord goes. He goes to Jerusalem with no misconception as to what he will face at Jerusalem. As the one to whom John pointed early in his ministry saying, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus now steadfastly sets his face to Jerusalem in order to lay down his life for his sheep.

8:27 He is fully conscious of his identity. As God's. Only appointed lamb as a sacrifice for sinners. And he knows that in going to his death, he will go in the most shameful and painful way.

8:43 We are told by those who have studied the whole subject of crucifixion, and God willing, we'll have more of that in detail. Lord's Day morning that there was no form of execution in which a man was more stripped of every last vestige of dignity. And. Here our Lord is conscious of some of the things that are going to happen to him.

9:05 He's going to be handed over into the hands of Gentiles. He shall be mocked. You remember how they mocked him, put on him a purple robe and bow before him in mock worship and say, Hail, King of the Jews. And then they blindfold him and they cut him with their fist until his face is a mass of contusions.

9:29 And then they beat him with. Robs and then they lay his back bare in that horrible discipline of scourging. And then he is taken out and impaled upon this horrible instrument of execution upon which some were known to hang for two or three days before they died for Jesus. Jerusalem meant one thing.

9:52 Shamefully treated, handed over into the hands of the Gentiles, mocked, spit upon, killed, murdered, and killed in that horrible form of execution. And it's critical that we understand the setting of these words in Loop 13 that we're going to consider together, because no one knew better that the only way for men and women to be saved was for the Son of God to lay down his life a ransom for many. No one need teach the Lord Jesus that we sinners,

10:31 to stand in such a condition of guilt and hell deservingness before the bar of Almighty God, that nothing less than the bloodletting of God incarnate can secure a righteous pardon and just forgiveness. And whatever the words of Jesus mean as we work through the passage, we must never consider them as negating, contradicting, diluting, or denying that the salvation of sinners is entirely the work of Jesus Christ.

11:12 He is that name given under heaven whereby men must be saved. And Peter says there is no other name of him. The angel spoke to Joseph and said, don't be afraid to take Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her as of the Holy, the Holy Spirit, and she shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Jesus for he it is he and he alone that shall save his people from their sins. Now keep that firmly fixed in your mind, because as we move into the passage and we take it face value,

11:51 the words of Jesus agonize to enter in by the narrow door. Some of you are going to. Instinctively say, oh, but wait a minute. I thought salvation was all of God and all of grace and all of Christ.

12:06 It is. And no one knows that better than Jesus. You and I need not teach Jesus the way of salvation. He is that way.

12:16 And the one who is that way speaks these words agonize to enter the narrow door. And in the mind and heart and consciousness of Jesus, there is no. Contradiction, no incongruity between a salvation procured by his own sacrificial death and his command to you and to me to agonize, to enter in by the narrow door. So much then for that historical setting as it's identified for us by the spirit of God in verse 22.

The Unusual Question and Jesus' Sobering Response

12:55 Now note with me. Second, the unusual question asked, while our Lord is going through cities and villages on his way to Jerusalem, obviously a crowd of people has gathered around him. How large? We do not know.

13:12 But in the midst of that crowd of people, suddenly a voice is heard above the murmur of the milling crowd. And that voice articulates this question. One said unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? Now you can imagine.

13:32 How the electric current would have immediately gone right through those that heard this question. Someone is bold and cheeky enough to cry out, Lord, we want you to address this question concerning the relative number of the saved and of the lost. And this question or whoever he or she might have been. For on another occasion, we read of a woman who cried out in the midst of a crowd.

13:57 Blessed is the womb that bore you in the breast that nursed you. It could have been a man or woman. One cries out from the crowd. Lord, are they few that be saved?

14:10 We want you. You who speak with such authority from God. You who claim to speak only the words of God. You who teach the way of God and the way of salvation.

14:23 Rabbi, Lord, Master, give us a word concerning the relative number of the saved and of the lost.

14:32 Jesus of Nazareth, you are eminently qualified to address this question. It is one that our rabbis continually discuss, and they give us to believe that whoever is in the kingdom, they will certainly have connection with Abraham, and perhaps in mercy and grace, Yahweh may extend his grace to some of the goyim, the Gentile dogs. But, Lord, we want to hear your pronouncement concerning this issue. Who this man was, what his motives were, who this individual was, God tells us nothing.

15:09 And old Bishop Ryle very wisely says, we do not know who this inquirer was. He may have been a self-righteous Jew, trained to believe that there was no hope for the uncircumcised and no salvation for any but the children of Abraham and those who are willing to become children of Abraham by circumcision. And commitment to the whole Mosaic framework become full proselytes. He may have been an idle trifler with religion, who was ever wasting his time on curious and speculative questions.

15:41 In any case, we must all feel that he asked a question of deep and momentous importance. Here is his question. Lord, pronounce for us, with some degree of authority, the relative number of the saved, and of the lost. Are there few that be saved, implied, or are there many?

16:02 Lord, speak to us on this issue. So we've looked at the historical setting. Then the unusual question asked. Now note with me thirdly, and here's where we park for the remainder of our time, the sobering response given by Jesus.

16:18 The sobering response given by Jesus. Look at the text. The man's question is still ringing in the ears of the multitude, and he says, Are there few that be saved? And he said, now notice, not unto him, but unto them.

16:36 That is, to all within earshot. They had heard the question. Now Jesus responds not to that individual in a direct response to his specific question, but he uses his question as a springboard to address the entire multitude. And he, Jesus, said unto them, Strive to enter in by the narrow door.

17:01 For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able when once the master of the house is risen up. Jesus gives what we can only designate as a sobering response to this question. And if I were to paraphrase it, it'd be something like this. Mr. Abbey, I'm going to bypass any direct answer to your question right now,

17:31 Your question has turned all of the minds of all who have heard it to the issue of salvation. And I have a much greater concern than a discussion of the relative number of the saved and the lost. The real concern of my heart, as I go to Jerusalem in order to procure salvation for a vast multitude whom no man can number, I will table a direct answer to your question for now. And I will use your question in order to press something of far greater importance, and it is this.

18:07 Whether the saved be few or many, none are saved but those who enter the door of true conversion. And therefore, that being so, marshal all of your faculties and concentrate all of your attention not on the speculative question, are there few or many that be saved? But on this burning personal question, am I saved in the only way that anyone can be saved? As we shall see later on, he does answer the question, and he says many shall come from the east and the west.

18:51 He does answer the question, but he addresses a far more crucial issue as he does give his response. It's as though, we're standing outside a tenement house, an apartment house, and for some reason it is now a raging inferno, and there are dozens of people trapped inside, and the fire department has come, and the extension ladders are making their way up to the upper windows. The hoses are trained on this inferno. Ladders are being run up the side of the building.

19:29 People are hanging out the windows saying, Help us! Help us! And then suddenly, someone hanging out the window looks down at the fire captain and says, Captain! Are we all going to get out of here?

19:45 We'll only a few. The captain answers back and says, Forget your silly question. There's the ladder. There's the extension boom.

19:57 Lay hold of a fireman's hands and let him carry you to safety. When you get safely to the ground, you talk about how many were rescued. If you're in a burning building, the great issue is not how many will be rescued, but will I be rescued? That's what Jesus is doing.

20:17 He's the captain saying, Forget the issue for now. How many will be rescued? The great issue is, How can I be rescued? And am I in the way of being rescued?

Principle 1: Only Those Who Enter the Narrow Door of True Conversion Will Be Saved

20:32 Now as we seek to unpack this sobering response of our Lord, we're going to see seven vital principles that are bound up in these words from verse 24 to verse 30. The first principle is very clearly stated by our Lord and it is this, Only those who enter the narrow door of true conversion will be saved, whether many or whether few. Do you hear me? Only those who enter the narrow door of true conversion will be saved, whether many or whether few.

21:12 Our Lord likens the kingdom of heaven to a large banquet hall or to a large mansion with a huge banquet room attached to it. But as we look at that banquet hall or that banquet room, something strikes us that the door into it is disproportionate to the size of the banquet hall. It is a large banquet hall. That can accommodate many.

21:40 For the Lord says later on in the passage, Many shall come and shall recline at table. It's the image of a vast banquet hall filled with numberless guests. But there is a door disproportionate to the size of the banquet hall and Jesus describes it as a narrow door. Some of you have heard the medical term.

22:03 Someone has stenosis of the spine. That's a very real issue with us now. One of the problems my wife has been struggling with along with the cancer for three years. It's a narrowing of the normal structure.

22:16 Jesus says enter the stenotic. Enter that narrow door. It's the same as the stenotic gate of Matthew 7. Enter in at the narrow gate.

22:30 There you have the picture of a beautiful garden that has a gate and a path that leads to life. Here you have the image of a banquet. Not with a gate, but with a door. And Jesus said the door is narrow.

22:44 Oh yes, the Lord of the banquet hall sits by the door and invites all passers-by to come in. But he never takes hammer and saw and makes a larger door. It is always a narrow door. And Jesus said you must strive to enter in by the narrow door.

23:06 There is but one door into the banquet hall of the consummate blessings of the kingdom of God's grace and glory. Only one way of entrance. And Jesus says it is a narrow door. It is that narrow gate of Matthew 7.

23:24 It is that door and that gate where we natively proud, self-sufficient sinners not born naked spiritually. When the scripture says, naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked I'll return to the earth, that's true physically but not spiritually. You know we are born with thick down padded jackets and coveralls filled with native pride and deception and self-will. They go astray from the womb speaking lies.

24:03 And when you and I come up to that narrow door, we can't sit with all of our puffed up, down-filled clothing that we inherit from our father Adam. We've got to be prepared to be stripped down to the bare skin of our native nakedness and undoneness. That's why Jesus said in the first beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the banquet hall.

24:35 Only those who've come to that narrow door and by God's law and by God's gospel, we are stripped of all of our self-sufficiency and all of our pride and we stand naked and undone and we enter in without any reservation to the cry of that publican recorded in Luke 18 and we say, Oh God, be propitious, be merciful to me, not a sinner, but the sinner. We come to the place where our sinfulness is not a theological concept and just like kids will say, Oh yeah, I had the measles. The whole household got them. Yeah, I'm a sinner.

25:18 Everybody's a sinner. Sinners, minners, so what? My friend, listen to me. Boys, girls, men and women, until you've entered in, if not in the precise words, in the spirit and disposition of that publican, to where you stand in the presence of Almighty God, oh, God, have mercy upon you.

25:36 No, come on. I'm with you. I'm with you. I've got to continue.

25:40 Please. I've got to continue. Please. My friends, I have an answer for you.

25:45 I just want to ask you, and I've got to wait for you. I want to come to you and I want to be with you. And tell me. In the presence of God, I have to be with you.

25:53 You are the Savior. You are the One that I have chosen. You are God, the Almighty God. And yes, I am so Иисус and the Father, and the Son, the Son of God, the Son of God, and grossly demeaned this God whose image you and I are to reflect, then we will know something of what it is to be stripped of all the down-filled, puffed-up clothing of our own self-sufficiency, ready to throw ourselves upon a perfect Savior, to be saved entirely by His grace so that there is nothing in which to boast but the Lord our righteousness.

26:35 It's a narrow door, and you'll never squeeze through until you're stripped. Have you been stripped? I mean stripped.

26:47 No man, no woman, boy or girl is stripped and doesn't know it.

26:53 Strive to enter the narrow door. It's narrow because we must be stripped of this padded, down-filled clothing of native pride and self-sufficiency. But further, we must know what it is to bend the long, stiff neck of stubborn self-will. Each of us comes up to that door in the description of Isaiah the prophet.

27:16 All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned each one of us to his own way. We're going to do our own thing. We want what we want when we want it, and we'll get it in any way that we choose to have it.

27:32 We're made to be little self-determining, autonomous gods, we were made to be sons and daughters and servants of God, to find our delight in doing His will. But by nature, we think that our truest happiness comes in doing our own thing, and so we live unto self with a long, stiff, outstretched neck of unbending and indecorate self-will. Jesus said, you've got to get through the narrow door. That neck will have to be shrunk and made supple.

28:08 By the mighty work of the Spirit of God. So that when the prophet goes on to say in chapter 55 of Isaiah, seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake what?

28:22 His way. That way of long, stiff-necked self-will. That's the way that must be forsaken. And let Him return unto the Lord, for He will have mercy upon Him and to our God, for He will abundantly, pardon.

28:41 Further, it's a narrow door. Not only the down-filled, padded clothing of self-sufficiency must be stripped from us, and the long, stiff neck of self-will, but further, it's a narrow door because we must be ready to put down all the baggage of our willful pursuit of sin and the world in our companions, in our secret life, in the music we listen to, in the friends we choose. We come up to that gate with all this baggage and idolatrous attachment to people and to things, and we try to get through with that baggage and we can't make it.

29:24 And the Lord of the banquet hall sits by the door and says, if you would come in, you must be prepared to deal with sins as precious to you as your right hand and your right eye. And if that right hand has become distorted and is a large, grasping hand upon some idolatrous pursuit, cut it off, Jesus said, or you'll go to hell. So Jesus said, cut it off. Better to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell.

29:57 This whole idea that we can believingly embrace Christ and His finished work on behalf of sinners while not fundamentally, irrevocably repudiating sin, as the purposeful pursuit of life is a travesty upon the biblical doctrine of salvation. Except you repent, you'll perish, Jesus said. And He commissioned His disciples to preach repentance unto remission of sins among all the nations. And the Apostle Paul said, I testify to you, repentance toward God as well as faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

30:36 And then perhaps what is the most difficult for many of us, is that we have to repent. It's a narrow door because not only must self-sufficiency be stripped from us, and that long, stiff neck of self-will be shrunk and bent to embrace the gracious will of the Lord, of the banquet hall, even Jesus, and not only because there must be a repudiation of sin and sins, specific sins, but there's got to be a deliberate enunciation of the world as our companion, and as our affirming context. We are all desperately desirous to be accepted.

31:19 And Jesus said, if you're going to come after me, you must say no to yourself, take up the cross. Now what did that mean for a first century Palestinian? It meant only one thing. When you got up in the morning and you made out your shopping list and you were going to the local bazaar, to the local market to get your food for the day, you didn't have a refrigerator and a freezer, and a microwave, and you had to go down every morning and buy the commodities for the day.

31:46 And if on your way to market you saw a man walking through the village with a crossbeam upon his shoulders, you knew some very fundamental things about that man. He's been rejected by society. He's been stripped of all dignity. He will soon be utterly naked, hung up, and they'll let the birds pluck out his eyes and eat his flesh.

32:13 For first century, Palestinian under Roman rule, a cross meant one thing. It meant rejection by all that's around you. Jesus said, you want to get in the banquet hall? There's the door.

32:28 It's a narrow one. And you can't come through with your arms around the world. That is life and society with all that's involved in it, divorced from God, divorced from his law, divorced from the word and will of Christ. That's the world.

32:45 All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vain glory of life is not of the Father. And we are all world things by nature. We die rather than have the frown of our peers. Oh, look at you.

33:03 You won't wear jeans that show your belly button. You're a nerd and a dork. Huh? Hmm?

33:13 Oh, you mean you don't know this group and you don't know her? Oh. Taking up a cross means I'm identified with a Jesus who was driven out of town, stripped naked. In gracious modesty, the artist put a loincloth on him, but he had none on Golgotha.

33:42 He hung in the shame of utter naked. He says, you want to be mine? And you want to end up with me and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the banquet house? Sit down at the marriage supper?

33:55 The Lamb kissed the world goodbye. Take the ring off and throw it in the deepest part of the lake. Wherever I go, that ring says, there's one woman in my life, and I'm unashamedly identified with her. If I'm on a plane and a woman's sitting next to me and I'm praying for an opportunity to witness, first thing I do is make sure before I start talking to her that I have an itch over on this arm.

34:21 You see? My travel agent always gets me an aisle seat because I'm a lefty and I don't like to be poking people in the ribs if they serve up those little cheap snacks. And so I get an aisle seat, I get an aisle seat, and then I make it very plain and my first comments are always about my wife and my children and my grandchildren. I'm not ashamed to let anyone know for 45 years that woman and I have been one.

34:47 Jesus said, you're going to be my disciple. That's the way you get married to me. And the ring that is natively on your finger that says I belong to the world. Look at me.

34:55 Listen to my words. Look at my clothes. Come in and look at my stack of CDs. Watch what I watch on TV.

35:00 If you have any question that I am married to the world, just watch me and you'll have every indication that I'm married to the world. Jesus said, you got to be prepared to have a divorce. Take the ring off and throw it away and know that from henceforth you and the world have no common concourse. You see, the cross on which Jesus died not only puts the sins of his people as far away as east is from west, but listen to what Paul said.

35:33 God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which I have been crucified to the world and the world unto me. What is he saying? He's saying the cross on which Jesus and I marveled reading yesterday morning in 2 Timothy chapter 1 for Paul as a Jew who thought Jesus was a blasphemer, for him to say, Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ, of Yeshua Messiah, what that must have meant for him every time he wrote the words. He must have thrilled with the wonder of it

36:18 and he said that cross on which my Messiah died is the cross by which I have become as attractive to the world as a cadaver hanging on a cross with the birds plucking out its eyes. That's what he said. The cross on which Jesus died in which I pin all my hopes for forgiveness in the embrace of faith has not only been the door of forgiveness but it's been the declaration of the divorce through which I am crucified to the world. You know what the world thinks of me when they see me?

36:56 They think I'm crazy. Remember, one of the Roman leaders said, Paul, much learning, a few bricks less than a full load. You're mad. You're a wacko.

37:06 You're out of your tree. And you watch this man saying, I glory in my infirmities. I love that situation in Ephesus where there's a crowd milling and about to have a riot and Paul's chomping at it. Let me get in there and preach.

37:21 And his disciples wisely say, no, no, Paul, we've got to spare you. Why could he be so indifferent to the world's smiles and frowns? He says the cross is what severed me from the world because the cross on which Jesus died in which cross is my only hope of salvation has so exposed the rottenness, the foul nature of this world system and everything that it contains. Its idea of what is fun, its idea of what's right and wrong, its idea of what is meaningful, what's a worthy object of my devotion and my passions and my life and energies.

38:01 He says that whole world has been exposed by the cross of Christ. And because I live in the light of that exposure, the world regards me with as much affection as it regards a dead cadaver on a cross. And then he says, you know what? The feeling's mutual.

38:17 Through which the world has been crucified to me. And he said, and I to the world. To the world. I see the world.

38:29 How attractive is it? I think of a cadaver hanging on a cross and I want to puke. He said that's what I think about when I think of the world. And furthermore, when the world looks at me through its own eyes, they want to puke on me.

38:43 The feeling's mutual. And it's the most wonderful thing in the world to be crucified to the world and the world to you. Now you're free to live life in blessed communion with the God who made you. Through the Christ who died.

39:01 And in the power of the Holy Spirit who has been given. And it's wonderfully freeing. Not to have to be nervous about whether the world is smiling or whether it's going, naughty you. You don't like our music.

39:16 You won't watch our movies. You won't be groovy. You won't be hip. You won't be cool.

39:22 And I say, so what? Christ free man. Christ free woman. Whom the sun sets.

39:34 The sun sets free. Is what? Free? So free that at age 67 you feel you could dance when you think of it.

39:47 That's the first great principle. If we miss all else, we've got to get hold of that. Only those who enter the narrow door of true conversion will be saved, whether many or whether few. Second principle.

Principle 2: Personal, Conscious Concern and Concerted Spiritual Effort

40:01 We'll move more quickly through the others now. And here I get personal. If you have any hope of entering the narrow door, you, not somebody else, you must make this issue a matter of conscious concern and concerted spiritual effort. Now listen to my words carefully.

40:20 Even you kids. I'll explain the ones a little big. If you have any hope of entering the narrow door, that door by which alone men are brought into the banquet house of God's gracious salvation and kingdom. If you have any hope of entering the narrow door, you must make this issue a matter of conscious concern.

40:40 That is, something that you are thinking about. Right now, if you had picked up a sliver sitting on a log and it was embedded in your backside, you would be conscious of the sliver in your backside while you're trying to sit on the chair. You couldn't forget it. And finally, you'd nudge your mom or dad and say, I've got a sliver in my backside.

41:02 It's something you can't ignore. You've got a toothache. It's a conscious thing. You don't ignore it.

41:09 A real toothache will just, it'll make you give attention to it. I'm saying, if you have any hope of entering the narrow door, you must make this issue a matter of conscious concern and concentrated spiritual effort. In other words, you must set your mind to this issue. Whatever I do in the remainder of the hours of this day, and if God spares me to tomorrow, one thing is going to have supreme focus in my heart and life.

41:39 I must know that I've entered the narrow door. Now, why do I use that terminology? Because Jesus uses a word translated in most of our Bibles, strife. But that's a weak translation.

41:51 It is the standard word you would use in the Greco-Roman world if you were to see two wrestlers at one of the Grecian games, all their body hair shaved, lathered with olive oil, and they're in the ring, grappling bone and sinews, and muscle and brain, pitted one against the other. And if you were to see them and describe what they were doing, you'd say they were agonizomizing. They were striving. They were wrestling.

42:19 If you were to see a newsreel of a first century Roman battalion, a Roman legion going out to war, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with shield and sword, thrusting and defending, you'd say they were agonizomizing. They were striving. They were warring. If you were to see the marathon runner coming into the last segment of his race, his legs feel like lead, his lungs are burning, he's a bit heady, and yet he grits his teeth and he strives until he crosses the line, you'd say he was agonizomizing.

42:55 That's the term that Jesus uses. And he uses a form which means do it now and keep on doing it until what you're doing issues in the result. Keep on striving to enter the narrow door. That is your responsibility.

43:15 Ah, but someone says, Pastor Martin, I thought you were a proper Reformed theologian. I have been taught in my catechism and in the preaching and in my Sabbath school that as a sinner I am enticed, enticed in total spiritual inability. And if you'd like, Pastor Martin, I can quote the verses to you. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him.

43:45 The carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. I am dead and could do nothing for my own salvation. Furthermore, I know until the Holy Spirit gives me spiritual sight I'll never see the kingdom, much less enter it. Did not Jesus say to Nicodemus, except one be born of the Spirit he cannot see the kingdom, except he be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter.

44:12 So you see, Pastor Martin, listen, this is not my word, this is Jesus' word. He knows a lot more about what you need to know and do than I do and than you do. And on his way to die for spiritually impotent, dead, rebellious sinners who cannot wiggle a finger in order to procure their own salvation, he says, agonize to enter the narrow door. Jesus lays that mandate upon you.

44:41 Don't go out of him. I don't agree with Pastor Martin. Oh, my friend, the issue is not Pastor Martin. You tell Jesus, Jesus, I don't like your judgment.

44:48 You should never have told those people to agonize. Don't you know you give the impression to them that they can do something for their own salvation? You know what the Lord would say to you? Put your hand on your mouth.

44:59 I'm God and I know how best to get people into my kingdom. Keep your vaunted wisdom to yourself. You and I must face this reality. If we have any hope of entering the narrow door, we must make this issue a matter of conscious concern and concentrated spiritual effort.

45:24 Again, listen to the wise old Bishop of Liverpool, Bishop Ryle. Whatever others may do in religion, the Lord Jesus would have us know that our duty is clear. The gate is narrow. The work is great.

45:37 The enemies of our souls are many. We must be up and doing. We're to wait for nobody. We're not to inquire what other people are doing, whether many of our neighbors and relatives and friends are serving Christ.

45:48 The unbelief and indecision of others will be no excuse at the last day. We must never follow a multitude to do evil if we go to heaven alone. We must resolve that by God's grace we're going to go, whether it be by faith, whether we have many with us or few. The command is plain.

46:05 Strive to enter in. Whatever others may think in religion, the Lord Jesus would have us know we are responsible for exertion. We're not to sit still in sin and worldliness waiting for the grace of God. We're not to go on still in our wickedness, sheltering ourselves under the vain plea.

46:23 We can do nothing till God draws us. We're to draw near to Him in the use of the means of grace. How we can do it is a question with which we have nothing to do. It is in obedience that the knot will be untied.

Principle 3: Many Will Desperately Wish They Had Entered

46:37 The command is express and unmistakable. Strive to enter in. Then we move thirdly to this sobering response of our Lord Jesus. Listen to what He says.

46:51 For many, for many will seek to enter in and shall not be able when once the master of the house is risen up and has shut fast the door. What's the third principle in this passage? It is this. A day is coming when many will desperately wish they had entered the narrow door of true conversion.

47:16 A day is coming when many, perhaps some from this congregation, will wish, will wish that they had entered the narrow door of true conversion. The command of Jesus is buttressed with a prophecy. Look at the connection. Strive to enter in by the narrow door for many.

47:38 This man wants to know, are there few that be saved? Jesus said, for now I table my answer, but I will tell you this. Those who will one day wish they had entered will be many. See how Jesus puts the emphasis on numbers where it really counts.

47:55 There will be many when the house Lord, the oikodespates, that is the house Lord, Jesus himself, who stands by the door, who is that door, who invites and welcomes, he will rise up and shut fast the door. And there will be many, many that begin to stand without and knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us. He shall answer and say to you, I don't know where you're from. Then you begin to say, imagine the cheekiness, debating with Christ in the day of judgment.

48:30 And you shall begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. And he shall say, I tell you, I don't know where you're from. What is our Lord saying in this most graphic description? He's saying this, if you're tempted to take lightly my command to strive to enter the narrow door, if you're tempted to think surely salvation can be had at a much cheaper price, surely salvation can be had without such a radical, disjointing from my pride and self-will and from the world in my sins.

49:07 Jesus said, look, when I tell you strive to enter, remember in the last day when I've shut the door of mercy and the day of salvation has issued into the day of eternal judgment, there will be many who will wish they had entered. Now they come and knock. And notice what they say when they knock. They say, Lord, you were where we went.

49:34 See the language? You begin to say, we did eat and drink in your presence. We heard you'd come to town. And when we heard that, we dropped what we were doing and we came to where you were and we found hospitality and we sat down and ate with you.

49:52 And in that eastern setting, to eat with someone is something short of a covenantal commitment to friendship. Many men hear my voice and open the door. I'll come in and sup with him, eat with him, he with me. They are saying, Lord, we gave you something of an expression of identification with you.

50:11 We came where you were and we sat down and ate with you. We had some relationship to a covenantal friendship. And furthermore, they say, not only did we, were you where we went, we were where you came and you did teach in our streets. And when you taught in our streets, we thought enough about your words to leave the shop and leave the kitchen and leave the playground and leave our university textbooks.

50:43 And Lord, we thought your word was important enough to go and hear it. And what does Jesus say on both accounts? I don't know where you're from. In other words, I don't recognize you as those who came through the door while the door was still open.

50:58 You claim you had something of a friendship, even something bordering on a mutual covenantal relationship. And we took the time to go where you taught and hear your words. You see the application? Almost without exception, you are people.

51:18 You go where Christ is. He's present in the assemblies of his saints in a special way. Every Lord's Day, two or three gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. And you enter the realm where Christ sits and feeds in covenantal love with his people.

51:36 And you get so close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. It won't do to say, Lord, look at the language. Lord, we ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets. There will be many who desperately wish they had entered the narrow door of true conversion but who were content with surface relationships to Christ and to his truth.

52:10 They didn't run through the streets saying, he's a heretic, don't anybody listen to him. When Christ was teaching, they were there listening. When Christ was sitting in a banquet hall eating, they were there. I tell you, this is a frightening word to people who are regular church attenders, regular Sabbath school attenders, regular attenders of catechism class and preachers.

Principle 4: Disowned and Banished to Unspeakable Torment

52:37 It is not enough to have a surface and regular acquaintance with Jesus. You've got to get through that door. And you've got to get through that door at any cost to yourself. I hasten to point out, skipping over one of the principles, those who never enter the narrow door will be disowned and banished to a place of unspeakable torment.

53:10 Those who never enter the door will be disowned and banished to a place of unspeakable torment. Look at the language again of verse 27. And he shall say the second time, I don't know where you're from. I don't recognize your origin, your identity.

53:28 Depart from me. That's banishment. Disowned. Depart from me.

53:34 I don't know you. I do not recognize your claim to have a special relationship to me. It must be mutual. If I do not confess you to be mine, all of your protestations, that you are mine, are utterly useless.

53:50 He disowns them and then he says, depart from me. What is hell like? If there were nothing else but these words, it would be horrific and unspeakably terrible. Depart from me.

54:06 Get out of my presence. Who's saying those words? The sum and substance of all the gracious saving light that God has given me. That God has given to sinners.

54:18 The light of the world. The bread of life. The water of life. Jesus, friend of sinners.

54:25 The one in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. The rose of Sharon. The chiefest among ten thousands. Depart from me.

54:36 Banishment to a place of unspeakable torment. There. This is not a simple use of the word there to help express a simple future. There is a special word there in that place to which you're banished shall be the weeping.

54:52 The definite article is found and the gnashing of teeth. Depart from me into a place where there is the weeping. The consummate weeping. The consummate gnashing of teeth.

55:07 When Stephen's being martyred, those who hated him and hated his Christ had said they gnashed with their teeth the expression of intense frustration and anger. Revelation 16 speaks of those who gnaw their tongues for pain. You'll never forget the first time I traced through in the Gospel of Matthew alone how many times Jesus used this very construction the weeping and the gnashing of teeth six times alone in the Gospel of Matthew. Think of it.

55:41 Our gracious Lord whom the common people heard gladly. The Son of God who was so at home with children that when he needed an illustration he'd say, Hey, Sonny, come over here. The little kid popped right up on his knee and he uses him. There was nothing intimidating about him.

55:57 Everything that was winsome and lovely and was in the language that is used of a certain statesman of another generation, he was all steel and velvet. Our Lord had the steel of his commitment to his Father, fearless, and yet there was the velvet of his meekness and his gentleness. His lowliness. But from the lips of the Son of God six times in one Gospel the weeping, the wailing, the gnashing of teeth.

56:28 I know it is not popular in our day for respectable preachers to talk about the torments of hell. But when we become more respectable than the Son of God, may God have mercy on us. Jesus is using this as a motivation. Strive to enter for I tell you.

56:48 Listen to me. If you are tempted to go out of this meeting this morning and say, Oh, just another preacher trying to emotionally manipulate and getting all worked up. I'm not going to be concerned about it. Then maybe these words will arrest you.

57:02 Strive to enter for. An hour is coming when if you do not enter that narrow door, you will be the fulfillment of this prophecy. I won't need to expound to you what the weeping is. And the wailing and the gnashing of teeth are.

57:19 You will exegete those words for all eternity. You'll exegete them. Your wailing, your gnashing of teeth, your plunging into outer darkness will be an eternal commentary on the fact that the words of Jesus did not exceed the reality of the experience. Few things make me want to run out of a pulpit and hide.

57:53 But this truth is one of them. Would God I could bypass it, but how can I when the Son of God is buttressing His own gracious command while the door is yet open and the House Lord has not shut it fast. He says enter for. Many, many, many there will be who wish they had entered when they are banished and cast out.

58:17 And furthermore, he says, their torment will be heightened when they realize what could have been. Look at the text again. He shall say unto you, verse 27, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.

58:32 There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and yourselves cast forth without. This passage along with Luke 16 teaches in a way that I'm not prepared to open up with any precision that part of the hell of hell will be the sight of the glory of the redeemed and you will know for all eternity the wretched remorse of what could have been had you listened to Jesus, had you listened to His servants, had you stopped playing games with your never dying soul, had you stopped worshipping at the shrine of what will Henry think and what will Susie think

59:16 and what will this one think and that one think. And you said, as for me, one thing matters. I'm going to get through that door by the grace of God. But then, the Lord does finally answer the question.

Principle 5 & 6: A Vast Host Will Be Saved, and the Last Shall Be First

59:32 That's the next principle we see. Principle number five. Multitude shall enter the narrow door and shall constitute the saved of all ages, a vast host. Look at verse 29.

59:44 And they shall come. I love that. They shall come. How do you know they're coming, Lord?

59:52 Because I'm going to Jerusalem. And my death does not merely make the salvation of an indefinite number possible. I'm going to Jerusalem to secure the salvation of a vast multitude whom no man can number out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue and nation. And they shall come.

60:13 I tell you, it thrills me to think when Jesus said those words, He had Albert N. in His mind. And in the winter of 1952, He came. He came.

60:25 Why? Because Jesus went to Jerusalem to secure my salvation. And He sent His Spirit who in His own way in mysterious operations brought me to that place where Christ became the pearl of great price for whom I was prepared to sell. Multitude shall come.

60:48 My friend, listen. Don't get the notion with all of the entreaties of God's grace that you're somehow going to ruin God's joy and the joy of His people if you go to hell. You won't. Because many shall come.

61:04 And God's going to be glorified in you one way or another. He's going to glorify His grace in you or glorify His justice. But God will be glorified in you. He made you to glorify Him and glorify Him you shall and you must.

61:23 Many shall come. And shall sit down recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God. And He says, you shall see them. Children, you want to see mom and dad sitting down with Abraham, Isaac and the prophets while you gnash your teeth?

61:43 Or you want to be snuggled up to mom and dad and grandma and uncles and aunties and all those who know Him and love Him. Got to get through that door. Got to get through that door. And because He went to Jerusalem, many are going to get through that door.

61:58 Abraham and Isaac and Jacob got through that door. And the prophets got through that door. And a host of others will yet get through that door. Yes, a multitude shall be saved.

62:10 And in that salvation, Jesus said, a vital principle will be illustrated again and again. Verse 30. And here's where we close. And behold, the Lord says, pay attention.

62:21 Whenever you find the word behold, it's God saying, shake the sleepiness out of your head and splash yourself with cold water and pay special attention. And behold, there are last who shall be first and there are first who shall be last. He doesn't say all the last shall be first. But some of the last shall be first and some of the first shall be last.

62:43 What's He saying? Well, He uses this fascinating little statement in several different contexts with different nuances in the Gospels. But here, I believe this is what the Lord says. The Lord is saying, there are those who are last in light and privilege who will be first in experience.

63:00 There will be those who do not have all the benefits of the light of Old Testament Scripture and the nation of Israel and all of its history of God's mighty workings. And the Lord is saying to some of these who heard His gracious words, who saw Him, who touched Him, who were in His presence in that day, it will be evident that some who were first in privilege I'm sorry, those who were last in privilege, some from the Goyim who had none of this rich heritage, they never went to Sabbath school, they never were catechized, they never heard preaching, and lo and behold, someone gave them a track and the first time they heard the Gospel, they were subdued and brought in to the narrow gate. They were last in privilege but first

63:44 in experience. And alas, there are first in privilege and opportunity who despise that opportunity and they should be last in experience. In other words, the measure of your light and experience is of no account before God. What really counts are you through the gate, are you through the door.

Conclusion: The Urgency of Christ's Call Through Preaching

64:09 That's what counts. Well, as I said last night, dear people, Christ in the livingness of His Word comes into our midst in the act of preaching. And I want to say something again that is so sobering for a preacher. And I say to my fellow ministers, think of this every time you preach.

64:29 The only way men and women are going to hear the voice of Christ till they hear it in the shout of triumph at His second coming is when they hear it through your mouth speaking His Word in His name in the power of His Spirit. That's a sobering thing. You children, you say, oh, if Jesus only came and stood in front of us today and looked us in the eye and said, strive to enter the narrow door. If only Jesus then I would embrace it.

64:54 No, Jesus will not come and speak to you any other way than He's speaking to you now until He speaks at His second coming. That's what makes preaching glorious and sobering and awesome. How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach except they be sent?

65:15 And the whole rationale is that none come to faith but by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And how does the Word of God come to us? It comes to us when His servants speak to us in His name, His Word, in the power of His Spirit so that Paul can say to the Ephesians, He, Jesus, came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to you who were nigh. Jesus never went to Ephesus, but this converted Pharisee did.

65:42 And he said, when I came in Christ's name with Christ's Word, Christ came. Dear people, would to God I could more accurately reflect Him. I pleaded with God this morning O God, make me a mirror of something of the love and the tenderness and the earnestness of Jesus. I fall far short, but my friend, we servants of Christ are all you've got of the Word of Christ coming to you in preaching until the final day.

66:10 God grant that His words will fasten upon your hearts. Strive to enter. Have I entered that narrow door of true Biblical conversion? Notice I did not say you must be able to etch above the door the date you got through.

66:28 No, I'm not saying you must be able to write a dramatic story of how you got through. The Bible nowhere teaches you must have a dramatic story or know the day. I don't know the day I pass from death unto life, but bless God I know I'm through the door. And God's etched the time and the date in His own calendar.

66:48 I could care less. No, I'm not saying you must have a dramatic conversion. You must know the time if you curse Him. But I am saying Jesus' words mandate this assertion.

66:59 You must get through that door or you're forever undone. God grant that you'll press through that door and be among those who sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And for you who can say bless God I'm through the door and on this side of it fixing your eye to banquet hall. It's waiting.

67:24 It's waiting. The next great redemptive event is the shout of our Lord who comes as the triumphant warrior. The voice of the archangel amening His shout of triumph. The blast of the trump of God.

67:38 The coming of the Lord draws near. The banquet is...

67:43 I can... Can you smell the things He's preparing?

67:46 Can you see the flagons of wine? We're going to sit down and eat and drink with Him in the marriage supper and forever admire the grace that caused Him to go to Jerusalem to die for the likes of us. Our Father, we have again been sobered as we have sought to open our minds and hearts to the words of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. And yet we acknowledge that the most sobering words will do no good unless You by the Holy Spirit bring them home

68:31 to every heart with power. And we ask, O God, that in this place today there would be boys and girls and young people, young men and women, older men and women who will no longer be content that they eat and drink in the presence of Jesus and are present when Jesus teaches but who know nothing of true conversion. O God, give them, we pray, no rest, no peace, no delight. Put a worm in the gourd of every earthly pleasure until the great issue of their relationship to You through Christ is settled.

69:12 God have dealings with us in mercy and in grace. We plead for Your glory and for our good. Amen.