Strive to Enter Through the Narrow Gate

Introduction and Prayer for Spiritual Awakening

0:03 Now may I encourage you to turn with me to a portion we read a few Lord's Days ago in our morning worship service, the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 13.

0:18 I shall read verses 22 through 30. Luke 13 and verse 22. Recording the activities of our Lord Jesus at this point in his earthly ministry, Luke writes, And he went on his way through cities and villages, teaching and journeying on unto Jerusalem. And one said unto him, Lord, are they few that are saved?

0:47 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, and has shut to the door. And you begin to stand without and knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us. And he shall answer and say to you, I do not know where you are from.

1:21 And 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. 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 yourselves cast forth without.

1:56 And they shall come from the east and west and from the north and 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.

2:15 Let us again pray and ask God by the Holy Spirit to cause his word to come to our hearts with clarity and with power. Let us pray.

2:29 Our Father, as in your providence, we have come in our regular reading of the scriptures to those very sobering words of our Lord Jesus. And as we return, to this passage read in our hearing several Lord's days ago, we are very conscious that there is very little in our society that would in the slightest way cause us to think long and hard and seriously upon these weighty issues. And we pray that by a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, you would, as it were, yank us out of the world of sense and of time, of time, of fun and games and feelings and earthly and sensuous delights. Lord, we pray, as you laid hold of Lot and dragged him, as it were, out of Sodom, will you not lay hold of some today and by gracious power loose them from their bondage to that which can only damn them. And may they mark this day, as the day when they determined that they would enter into the narrow door. Hear us, oh Father, hear us, and answer us for Jesus' sake.

The Historical Setting: Jesus' Journey to Jerusalem

3:55 Amen. As we take up this passage this morning, the passage which I have preached on over the course of my 39 years several times, and it has been several years since I did preach on the passage, I want us to note as we, look at this portion of the Word of God, first of all, the historical setting identified by Luke in verse 22. The historical setting identified. Whatever follows in the passage, Luke, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, thought it important to put it in a very specific framework of reference in terms of its historical setting. And he does so with these words. And he, that is Jesus, went on his way through cities and villages teaching and journeying on to Jerusalem. So whatever follows in this passage, we are to understand it with the shadow of these words cast over the entire section that at this point when our Lord speaks, he speaks as one one.

5:14 who is making his way through cities and through villages, teaching as he goes, but the crosshairs of his mind are set on Jerusalem. He is journeying unto Jerusalem. And we may well ask the question, why is his mind set on going to Jerusalem? Is he going to Jerusalem to celebrate one of the national feasts?

5:43 Well, that's part of it, but that's not the real focus of his mind and heart. Was he going for a bit of R&R? Was he going for an extended preaching and teaching mission in Jerusalem? Well, Luke does not leave us any doubt in terms of the proper answer to that question.

6:04 If we turn back to chapter 9 of the Gospel of Luke, we find this recorded in verse 21. After extracting from Peter the confession of his identity, Jesus charges them and commands them to tell this to no man, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up. Here he begins in very explicit terms to tell his disciples that he is going to go to Jerusalem. He is going to go to Jerusalem.

6:44 He is going to go to Jerusalem. He is going to be rejected. He is going to be killed. And he is going to rise again from the dead.

6:51 And we read in verse 51 of Luke 9, 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. And here Luke says that it is our Lord's consciousness that the days were drawing nigh, in which he would be received, a reference to his exaltation and his session at the right hand of the Father. But he was fully conscious that prior to that there would be rejection, suffering, and death.

7:29 And he knows that this will take place at Jerusalem. And he sets his face to go to Jerusalem. And then when we turn to chapter 13 and look at the substance, subsequent context, we see again this clear emphasis in Luke's account. Verse 33 of Luke 13, 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.

8:06 Jerusalem for our Lord meant rejection, betrayal, suffering, and death. Jerusalem for our Lord meant rejection, betrayal, suffering, and death. Jerusalem for our Lord meant that as God's final prophet he would join the other prophets who are killed at Jerusalem. And then by the time we come to chapter 18, our Lord becomes even more explicit with respect to what he knows awaits him at Jerusalem.

8:36 Luke 18, 31. He took unto him the twelve and said unto them, Behold, we go up, to Jerusalem, and all the 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 him and kill him, and the third day he shall rise again. Our Lord is conscious of all that awaits him at Jerusalem.

9:15 Here are some of the gory, R-rated details. He is going to be handed over to Gentile authorities. And having been handed over to those authorities, he is going to be mocked, he's going to be shamefully treated, he's going to be spit upon, he's going to be scourged, he's going to be murdered. And as he faces all of that gruesome reality, he faces it with the confidence that the other side of all of this, he shall rise again from the dead.

9:51 Now why is it important to establish that bit of the historical setting of what follows in this passage? Well, for this simple reason. No one knew better than the Lord Jesus why he had to go to Jerusalem. Why he had to be betrayed.

10:12 Why he had to be handed over to the Gentiles. Why? Why he had to be mocked, spat upon, scourged and crucified. No one knew better than our Lord Jesus why Jerusalem was in the crosshairs of his mind and was the terminus towards which all of his movements through cities and villages was pointing.

10:39 Jesus knew better than any that it was only in his sufferings that his people could be redeemed. Jesus knew better than any that the only way that sinners could be justly pardoned and righteously accepted as sons and daughters before the living God would be if he, the innocent one, was willing to take the place of the guilty. If he, the sinless one, was willing to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Whatever follows in this passage coming from the lips of Jesus cannot in any way be construed as teaching that we have power to save ourselves. That there is something that we do that contributes in some way to our salvation. Nothing that Jesus says in the following passage in any way dilutes, in any way twists or negates, the truth of Scripture that salvation is based upon the work of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners plus nothing. Now you must keep that in mind as we come into the heart of the passage that the historical setting

The Unusual Question and Jesus' Sobering Response

12:05 forever establishes that salvation is all of God and all of grace based upon the suffering, the death, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Now in that setting, as our Lord is passing through cities and villages teaching and journeying on to Jerusalem, it is assumed when we come to the next verse that as we read in other settings, crowds are following Jesus as he makes his way through the cities and villages teaching as he makes his way to Jerusalem. And someone, in the immediate crowd, other than one of his disciples, blurts out this question. So we move from the historical setting identified to this unusual question asked. That's our second heading. The unusual question asked.

13:05 And one said unto him, an individual, Lord, are they few that are saved? Hear this unusual, unusual question is blurted out by an unnamed member of the crowd that is following Jesus. And the question obviously has reference to the relative number of the saved and the non-saved. Lord, are they few that are saved?

13:38 Now who would have asked such a question? We don't know. Various conjectures are made and perhaps the best thing we can do is to embrace the very straightforward words of the good old Bishop of Liverpool, Bishop Ryle, who commenting on this question writes, 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 hordes of the Gentiles and no salvation for any but the physical seed of Abraham.

14:12 He may have been an idle trifler, an idle trifler with religion who was ever wasting his time on curious and speculative questions. Where did Cain get his wife? In any case, we must all feel that he asked a question of deep and momentous importance. Here the question raised has to do, are there few that are saved, yes or no, Lord?

14:39 If yes, tell us. If no, affirm no, there are many who are saved. One unnamed individual asks this unusual question. Now then, we come thirdly, having looked briefly at the historical setting identified, the unusual question asked, we come to the sobering response given.

15:04 How does Jesus respond to this question? Look at the text. And he said unto, and it doesn't say him, but unto them, one out of the crowd asked the question. Obviously, everyone heard the question.

15:23 And if we think back what it would have been like to stand in the milling crowd, to hear someone blurt out the question, Lord, are there few that be saved? And if there were a moment of pause or a few moments of pause, one can just see the crowd, someone whacking someone in the ribs, saying, hey, that's a question I've been wondering. Are there few that are saved? Are there many?

15:49 Are there few? And our Lord, sensing that the question had reached not just his ears, but the ears of others, without repeating the question, as we will sometimes do in a public forum, repeat it because not everyone heard. Apparently, everyone heard because the answer is directed to everyone. The text says, and he said unto them.

16:10 He is speaking in the hearing of all of those who are around him, in this particular city or village in which he is teaching as he makes his way on to Jerusalem. And in this sobering response given, our Lord says in essence, look at the text, strive to enter in by the narrow door. For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter and shall not be able when once the master of the house is risen up and has shut the door. And you begin to stand without and knock saying, Lord, open to us.

16:52 How does the Lord respond to this question? Let me paraphrase. It's as though the Lord says, I hear your question. The entire crowd has heard the question.

17:05 But for now, I'm going to table my answer to the question, is the relative number of the saved many or few? I'm going to table the answer to that question for a while. And I'm going to press on all of you something that is of far greater importance than knowing whether the number of the saved is many or few. And the issue that I want to impress upon you is this, that you must be saved by entering the narrow door of true conversion.

17:43 And if you seek to be saved in any other way, you will find yourself exposed in the day of judgment. I want you all to know some basic realities concerning not the relative number of the saved, but who and how men are saved. And they are truly saved when they pass through the narrow door and such will be owned by me in the last day and all others will be utterly, finally, and eternally rejected. And only when our Lord has made that telling point, as we shall see in many ways, does He answer the question, is the number of the saved many or few? Toward the end of the passage He answers it. For He says in verse 29, they shall come from the east and the west and the north and the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. Yes, the number of the saved shall be many, but rather than sit and discuss the relative number of the saved and the lost, our Lord is anxious that they would have their minds and hearts taken up with this issue.

Principle 1: Only True Conversion Enters the Narrow Door

19:11 Am I saved? Am I of the number of the saved? And have I come to that professed acceptance of salvation in the way appointed by God? Now as we look at the passage, we're going to do so Bishop Ryle fashion.

19:31 I'm not following any of the heads of Ryle, but we're going to look at several very basic principles that our Lord enunciates in responding to this great issue. Principle number one is this. Only those who enter the narrow door of true conversion will be saved, whether they are many or whether they are few. Only those who enter the narrow door of true conversion will be saved, whether they are many or few.

20:03 Look at the text. 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 will seek to enter and not be able when once the master of the house is risen up. Here our Lord likens the kingdom in its consummate blessing and in its consummate realization like a large banquet hall, an extensive banquet hall.

20:36 Because down in verse 29 he says that those who come from east and west, north and south shall literally recline in the kingdom. It's the picture of a vast, wide, spacious, expansive banquet hall and people are all reclining eastern fashion as they feast together. But there's a strange thing about this large, expansive, ornate banquet hall. It has a disproportionately small door.

21:09 It would be like a three car bay in a house. Having a door that was only big enough to let your dog in. Get some of the incongruity. Here's this large banquet hall able to hold people from north and south and east and west and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the prophets all reclining in this expansive banquet hall.

21:34 There is this very narrow, low door. And Jesus says by that imagery that is the only way of entrance into the kingdom. The only way of entrance into a certain possession of the kingdom and the consummate bliss of the kingdom. It's almost identical to the language used in the Sermon on the Mount.

22:01 When our Lord is drawing near to the end of that sermon, having described the character traits of the sons and daughters of the kingdom, having described their impact upon the world as light and salt, having described how they seek to live under the light of God's law, touching thought and motive in words, having described them as his kingdom subjects who hold loosely to the things of this world and seek first his kingdom. As our Lord is pressing people now to enter it, he uses these words in Matthew 7 and verse 13. Enter in by the narrow gate, a different word, but gate and door are almost synonyms. Enter in by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are that go in thereat because narrow is the gate, and compressed is the way that leads unto life. There he uses gate opening into a way. Here he uses door entering into a banquet hall. But he says of both, they are narrow, they are compressed, they are not large doors into which someone can stumble, laden down with all kinds of stuff and junk.

23:20 No, the Lord says you must strive to enter in by the narrow door. You must be ready to be stripped of all of the padded, down-filled clothing of your native pride and self-sufficiency, prepared to be stripped down to the naked bare sinner that you are. Coming in the language of the hymn writer, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Speaking in this setting where there were those Pharisees whom our Lord will address particularly in the 18th chapter, who thought that what they were by birth and association and what they did in religious exercises somehow gave them a right to enter. They come to that door with all of the padded, down-clothing of their own righteousness. And Jesus said, you can't get through, you've got to strip. And that door is not high.

24:23 You come strutting, arrogant, proud, self-willed. You've got to bend your neck to get through that door, ready to put down the baggage of your willful, deliberate attachment to thoughts and words and relationships and standards that are dictated by your own depraved flesh and by a world in which in rebellion against God you've got to be ready to put down the suitcases. That's repentance. Willfully, deliberately, reject the world as your companion and standard, willing to be identified with Christ and His cross and His people.

25:01 Only those who enter the narrow door of true conversion will be saved, whether many or whether by few. Now remember, our stripping off our down-filled garments of self-righteousness, our bending the neck, our putting down the baggage of our attachment to sin and to the world and its standards, this does not earn admission. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem to lie, because no one can present any coinage at the door and secure a right of admission. Christ must present the coinage of His own life's blood and He's on His way to Jerusalem to do it. But now listen to me carefully. Jesus didn't go to Jerusalem to die to make the narrow door wide. He went to Jerusalem to die to secure that a great multitude whom no man can number will come through the narrow door.

26:11 That's why He's going to Jerusalem. And any notion Christ is thrown to Jerusalem to widen the door, to increase its height and its width, no. It was a narrow door then, it's a narrow door now. And Jesus is making it plain that only those who enter the narrow door of true conversion will be saved, whether many or whether few.

Principle 2: Salvation Requires Supreme Concern and Striving

26:38 Second principle in our text, and it is this, and I make a direct address to you. If you, any sitting here this morning, if you have any hope of entering the narrow door, you must make this the issue of supreme concern in your life. If you have any hope of entering the narrow door, you must make this issue the supreme concern of your life. On what basis do I say that?

27:13 Well, look at the text. And He said unto them, Strive. He uses the word agonizo from which we get our word agony or agonize. And He uses it in a present imperative.

27:29 Think what this meant now. You're standing there in the crowd. You've gotten excited that maybe Jesus is going to give an answer to this vexing question, are the number of the saved many or few? And suddenly Jesus is saying to you, for now that question is irrelevant.

27:47 The issue of importance is any who are saved are saved by getting through the narrow gate. And this is so true that I command you to do whatever is necessary in the way of conscious deliberate exertion to get through. This is the word you would use of two wrestlers on the mat together. This is a word you would use of an athlete straining to break the tape just a few, excuse me, a few feet in front of his closest competitor.

28:19 It speaks of the marshaling of all the faculties and like a laser point focusing them upon a given endeavor. Jesus said, be continually striving to enter the narrow gate on His way to Jerusalem to die. Because we can't forgive our own sins. We can't break our own chains.

28:43 We cannot renew our own hearts. But Jesus who knows that better than you or me says strive to enter. Agonize to enter. That is, if you have any hope of entering the narrow door you must make this issue the supreme concern of your life.

29:03 And here I want to put my heart out in the pew this morning. As I went down through with the directory early this morning named out the names of dozens of you sitting here. Most of that list children of parents, who are members. And as I reflected of what I know about some of you and what I fear may be true of a lot more of you.

29:35 This is the truth that gripped my heart and I said to myself, oh God, help me, help me to somehow break through the wall of words and get into their conscience. There are not a few of you sitting here. You don't openly deny the things of God. Some of you have passed the years of your minority, you are now legal adults.

30:03 Your parents couldn't make you come, but you come. You sit under the word. You wouldn't dare deny what the word teaches. There's enough of a sense that these things are real and true that you would not openly profane them and deny them.

30:18 And there are many others of you who find yourself in that sphere of reference in which you say I'm not disinterested in the things of God and spiritual realities and forgiveness of sin. But you know what the problem is? Those issues have never become number one priority and preoccupation to where you said from this Lord's day on anything that is not absolutely necessary in my life is going to be laid aside until I know that I'm a child of God and until I'm presuming God's sovereignty and God's grace. Let me get more particular. Until some of you sitting here are ready to go out of here this morning and when your girlfriends and your boyfriends gather in the foyer, out in the hallways and want to make small talk, you're going to say, hey, I don't know if you heard the preaching this morning, but I did. Unless you're ready to speak to me, to encourage me to seek God and get through the gate right now, I don't want small talk.

31:38 And you'll go home and you'll be ready to say to your siblings with whom you may spend the Lord's day afternoon in innocent activities, I'm sorry, John. I'm sorry, Mary. I'm sorry. As soon as we're done eating and helping with the dishes, I'm going up to my room or in the basement.

31:57 I'm going to find a place to pray and I'm going to seek God and I'm not going to give myself rest until I know that I've entered the narrow gate. It breaks my heart that so few of you are in that place. Somewhere, somehow, by one means or another, the great issue will be settled, but I don't want it to cost me. You listen to the Son of God who's going to Jerusalem to die.

32:31 He says, strive to enter in. Is it a form of internal agony when you know your friends in Trinity Church, in the Christian school context, in your home school relations, they're going to say, huh, why are you getting pious? It'll cost you something. It's a form of internal pain when there's social ostracization because you're serious.

33:09 But if you believe Jesus doesn't lie, you better believe Him that He expects you to strive if you're serious about entering. Strive to enter. Only those who enter the narrow door of conversion will be saved, whether many or few. Secondly, if you have any hope of entering the narrow door, you must make this issue the supreme concern of your life.

Principle 3: The Day of Desperate Regret for the Unconverted

33:38 Thirdly, in this passage, we see that a day is coming when many will desperately wish they had entered the narrow door of true conversion. A day is coming when many will desperately wish they had entered the narrow door of true conversion. Look at the passage. Jesus is going to buttress His gracious command with a very startling rationale for that command.

34:14 Strive to enter in by the narrow door for, I'm telling you, Jesus said, strive to enter now for many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, I say to you. And when Jesus pauses to say, I say, when it's clear that He's speaking, He's taking His own words and putting an orange highlighter through them. Many, I say to you, I who speak truth, I who am the truth, I say unto you, many shall seek to enter and shall not be able take away any punctuation mark at the end of verse 25, it flows right into verse 24. Many, I say, shall seek to enter and shall not be able when once the master of the house is risen up and has shut or bolted the door and you 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 are from. Then you shall begin to say, we did eat and drink in your presence and you taught in our streets.

35:27 And He shall say, I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. Jesus says a day is coming when many will desperately wish they had entered the narrow door of true conversion. The command of Jesus is enforced with a prophecy.

35:53 And the prophecy is spoken by Him who is truth. I say to you, when the master of the house shall rise up and shut the door, the door to the banquet house is not shut by an inadvertent gust of wind. You know what that is, don't you? Sometime last week, I was taking out the garbage and I carry it from the patio in the back through the hallway and out the front door.

36:23 And there was a good wind blowing and I was not conscious of it. And when it caught that door and slammed it, I'd like to have a heart attack. It was shut inadvertently by a gust of wind. The door of the banquet hall here is not shut by a gust of wind.

36:41 It's not shut by some narrow-hearted guest who gets up and says, there's enough people in here, time to shut the door. Look what the text says. You will seek to enter and not be able when once the master of the house is risen up. The picture is that he's reclining, eating with all his guests, overtones at the marriage supper of the Lamb, when the people of God shall sit down with their beloved Lord and feast together.

37:09 It's the master of the house who alone has right to control the door. He rises up and he shuts fast the door. The word kleo, to shut, has a prefix which means to shut firmly, to shut and to bolt the door. And when he does, then a great group of people called many are going to make it plain that they wish they had entered the narrow door while it was still open.

37:44 Enter, strive to enter. Why? Many, many, many will seek to enter and not be able when once the master of the house, those are frightening words, many will seek and not be able. You hear them?

38:04 Many will seek and not be able. You're now able to seek. The door stands open and you will not. You'll go on in the idolatry of your attachment to people and things and temporal interests and treat your soul like a piece of junk.

38:22 The hour is coming and some of you will be part of the many. Many, many. Fourth principle. In that day, the greatest grief will be to those who were satisfied, with a passing acquaintance with Jesus, but they never entered the house by the narrow door.

Principle 4: Grief for Those with Superficial Acquaintance with Jesus

38:49 In that day, the greatest grief will be to those that were satisfied with a passing acquaintance with Jesus, the master of the house, but did not enter the house by the narrow door. When the master rises up to shut the door, what do they do? Look at verse 25. You begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us.

39:17 He shall answer and say to you, I don't know where you are from. I have no acquaintance with you. I do not own you as one of mine. Those who are here in the banquet house with me, they not only profess to know me, but I joyfully confess them before my Father and the holy angels.

39:38 I don't know where you're from. You are strange and foreign stuff to me. And so they begin to debate with the Lord. And so they answer him.

39:47 Look at their answer. And you shall begin to say, we did eat and drink in your presence. And you did teach in our streets. And he shall say, I tell you, I don't know where you are from.

40:01 What is their protestation? What is their argument with which they seek? They have the master open the door. He's talking through the door.

40:12 The door is shut. They're on the outside. The conversation is passing through the door. Well, their basic claim is this.

40:19 Where you were, we went. Look at the text. You begin to stand without and say, Lord, open to us. He said, I don't know where you're from.

40:31 We did eat and drink in your presence. Where you were. Now this may have had some literal fulfillment of some of our Lord's contemporaries. Remember when Matthew got converted, Levi?

40:45 He had a banquet, invited all of his friends. Maybe our Lord is envisioning some of them. But surely it has an extended application down to this very day and until the day of judgment. People who are satisfied to be where Christ is, they go.

41:05 Now where is Christ? He's at the right hand of the Father, yes. But he is also present by the Spirit in the company of his saints. And here are people when the Lord says, the door is shut.

41:18 Oh, but Lord, we were where you were. We went to Trinity Church. We sang from the Trinity hymn book. We heard the reading and preaching of the word of God.

41:30 We went where you were. The Lord does not debate their claim. He simply says, you may have been where I was, but you never embraced me for who I am. I don't know.

41:45 I don't know where you're from. Then they come back with an objection that's a little different. Notice. We did eat and drink in your presence and you did teach in our streets.

41:57 We were where you were and you came where we were. You taught in our streets. We didn't, in this instance, go where you were. You came where we were.

42:12 Jesus was going through cities and villages on his way to Jerusalem. Literal, historical fulfillment. But surely there's an application to us. Every day, every day, Christ comes to your table.

42:27 And mom and dad gather the family, read the scriptures. Christ comes in these ways of his own institutions and he comes near. You hear his word. But that word never takes root, never becomes the regulating power and formative influence of your life.

42:50 The day is coming when many will wish desperately they had entered the narrow door and in that day their great grief will be that they did not enter that door. Satisfied with a passing acquaintance with Jesus. But not an intimate saving acquaintance that would have him confess you as his own. And there is another vital principle in our passage and it is this.

Principle 5: Disowned and Banished to Unspeakable Torment

43:28 Those who never entered the narrow door will be disowned and banished to a place of unspeakable torment. Look at the text. What will he say to those who give their protestations and he answers them. We read that when he says depart from me all you workers of iniquity there in that place to which you depart there shall be the weeping and the gnashing.

44:04 That's horrible language. There are six times in the Gospel of Matthew alone when Jesus speaks of weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth. In the scriptures the gnashing of teeth is a combination of anger and of frustration. They gnashed on Stephen with their teeth.

44:30 They ground their teeth. They were so angry. Wailing is the uncontrollable sob that comes from intense pain. Here's the gracious tender loving son of God on his way to die and he says to real live human beings within sound of his voice many of whom he could touch and they could touch him.

45:04 He says those who've never entered the narrow door will be disowned by me. I am the master of the house and in the last day I will be your judge and I will not be moved by your claims that you came where I was and that I came to where you were. I never knew you. You never knew me.

45:31 I don't know where you are from. Depart. There shall be the wailing and the gnashing of teeth. And that grief will be intensified in a way that I'm not prepared to fully explain but it's here in the text.

45:48 Look at what Jesus said. 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. Is he using the imagery of the banquet hall? Did it have some windows which as they were being banished they could look in and see the guests seated?

46:19 I don't know. But we read from Luke 16 this morning which our Lord there teaches that in some way the damned in hell will see the bliss of the glorified in heaven. It's a horrible thing to be outside the banquet hall and to know what could have been if only you'd entered the door. Sadly, who never entered will be disowned and banished to a place of unspeakable torment and no little factor in intensifying the torment will be the realization of what could have been if I had only taken the counsel of the pastor that first Lord's Day in April in the year 2001 and said there's something more important than putting my face on and trying out new makeup and whatever else girls do to try to find their femininity. Something more important than wondering what's going to happen

47:46 in the NCAA finals tomorrow night. Something more important than anything else that will occupy your time this day. What a horrible thing to think there may be people in this place. Jesus saw when he said, many, many, many.

Principle 6: A Vast Multitude Will Enter the Narrow Door

48:10 And you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, and the kingdom, and yourselves. Another principle, thank God this is in the passage, multitude shall enter the narrow door and constitute the saved of all ages a vast host. Multitude shall enter the narrow door and constitute the saved of all ages a vast host. Verse 29 And they shall come from the east and the west and the north and the south and sit down down in the kingdom of God. And what was their right to sit down? They came through the narrow door. That door at which they owned their sin.

49:10 That door at which they turned from their sin. That door at which they kissed the world goodbye and embraced Christ crucified as their only hope of life and salvation. Took up their cross and followed him and they are with him in the banquet house from the east and the west and the north and the south. The scripture says, I saw a great multitude whom no man could number out of every kindred tribe and tongue and nation.

49:52 Lord, are there few that be saved? The Lord says, now I'll answer your question. No, there are many. They'll come from east and west and north and south and shall sit down in the kingdom.

Principle 7: The Last Shall Be First, and the First Shall Be Last

50:08 A great multitude. And then as they are gathered, the final principle in our passage, verse 30. Behold, there are last who shall be first. And there are first who shall be last.

50:25 This is a cryptic saying that our Lord uses in several different contexts in the gospels. And I believe its significance here is this. The first shall be last. The last first.

50:38 The first last. The last first. What's he saying? I believe what our Lord is saying is that in those who come in through the narrow door and will be found in the banquet hall in the final day, this principle will be operative.

50:54 Some who are last in privilege shall be first in the enjoyment of the actual conferral of grace. And some who are first in privilege will be last, excluded, cut off from the banquet house. And that should be, on the one hand, both encouraging and terrifying. It ought to be encouraging if you sit here this morning and you say, Pastor Martin, when you talk about mom and dad gathering the family for family worship, that's not my experience.

51:27 It wasn't my experience growing up. When you talk about those who come and hear the preaching and time and time again are pleaded with, that's not been my experience. This is the first or only the second, third or fourth time I've even heard of the necessity of being saved. Heaven and hell were not in the language of my church.

51:48 Everything was be nice and kind and sweet and get some brownie points and all will be well. And you feel yourself utterly last in knowledge. Jesus said, in those who constitute his kingdom, there are last who shall be first. You don't come through the door based on how much you know.

52:11 You know enough about yourself to know you ought to be banished. And you know enough about Christ that he has died for sinners and risen from the dead. You know enough about his claims that you're prepared to throw the full weight of your hell-deserving soul upon Christ and take up with Christ as master and lord and sovereign of your life. Willing to bear reproach in your identification with him.

52:42 Willing to bear hardship if that comes in the path of following him. If you know that much, you need know no more. You lay hold of Christ. Christ who comes to you in the gospel and says, I'm yours if you will have me.

52:58 I'm yours in all the plenitude of my grace and power and all of the virtue of my saving work if you'll have me for who I am. I'm yours. And you may be last in knowledge and privilege but first in the wonderful experience of grace. They're our first.

53:19 This is the frightening part. Who will be last? You children, you are first in gospel privileges. You've not been reared in a home where the name of Christ is only used as a curse word.

53:36 You've not been reared in a home where dishonesty and infidelity, preoccupation with nothing but stuff and things is the order of the day. You've been reared in a home with all of its imperfections. You know that Christ is central to mom and dad. You know that sin is odious to mom and dad.

53:59 You've not been reared in a church where you've been tickled and made to giggle and laugh at everything sacred so that so-called preachers and youth leaders can prove they're nice guys and so they coddle kids and tickle them and fall over them and never confront them with the great issues of salvation. You've been first in privilege, reared in a home, in a church, in associations where the word of God has been central. What a horrible thing if these words are fulfilled in you. They're our first and shall be last.

54:41 You see why those of us who preach, though unplanned humor occasionally comes into our preaching and we know God gave us the ability to laugh, not the devil. And as I've often said, the God who made monkeys must have a sense of humor. And the God who made us must have a sense of humor. But dear people, we don't break our back to be funny in every sense.

Conclusion: A Call to Serious Self-Examination and Action

55:05 This is the stuff we're dealing with. This is the stuff. And as we bring our meditation to a close this morning, I ask you sitting here, if Jesus were to rise up today and shut the door, that's what he does at his second coming. Would you be found reclining with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, with the multitude who come from east and west and north and south?

55:38 Or would you be outside pounding on the door, wishing you were on the inside? If you cannot say, by God's grace, I'd be reclining with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the multitude who come from every point on the compass. And I have Biblical ground to believe that that confidence is not delusive. It is a well grounded, Biblically founded confidence.

56:16 If you can't say that, my friend, Jesus' word to you is get serious about getting in. Get serious about getting in. How serious? Serious to the point of agonizing.

56:34 Strive to enter. Nothing is more important than getting through the door. God help you to say, I don't care what John does. I don't care what Mary does.

56:51 As for me, I am committed to give myself no rest till I know. And if, as you're determined to strive to enter, you feel you need guidance from the Scriptures, you know your pastors, your parents, the two are Christians in this place. Any one of us would count it an unspeakable privilege to sit down with you, to open up the Scriptures, to pray with you and for you. We're not priests.

57:25 You don't go to God through us. But we are your servants for Christ's sake. And if we can be your helpers, please don't feel you're making an unwarranted intrusion upon our time. God grant the day comes when we don't have enough hours in the day to sit with those who are deeply concerned with one issue.

57:48 I must get through the door. Our Father, we acknowledge in Your presence that this portion of Your Word is indeed a most sobering portion. But we thank You it is a most hopeful portion that that door into the banquet hall still is open. And You bid us in the Word and by the Spirit to strive to enter.

58:25 Surely, Lord, You have not spoken those words to mock us. You have promised You shall seek me and find me in the day that You search for me with all Your heart. We thank You for Your gracious command to seek You while You may be found, to call upon You while You are near. And we pray that this day some would lay hold of that gracious command and promise and find that Your Word is true, that You will indeed abundantly pardon.

58:56 We pray for those of us who are Your people that You will give us a fresh sense of wonder and gratitude that by Your grace we have entered and we have the wonderful prospect of sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets and all the redeemed from every point on the compass. O Lord Jesus, hasten the day when the banquet will be held and be merciful even this day that others may be given right and title of entrance by laying hold of You and of Your grace. Hear then our prayers. Seal Your Word to the heart of every listener and may the blessings of Your grace and presence rest upon us. We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.