Transcript

Let’s go back to Luke. I don’t often do this but I want to finish the section that we began looking at this morning as we were talking about discerning the kingdom. I’m just picturing in my mind, it’s just very penetrating, the thought of this stranger from Galilee, this lowly, rural, unsophisticated at least as far as his heritage, the town he’s from, his parentage, a man named Jesus which was a common name in that day. He’s traveling across the countryside, mostly in the region of lowly Galilee and he’s headed to Jerusalem. Along the way, he’s giving these public teachings and discourses, of course, along with great miracles and healings and wonders and signs and he’s speaking with such authority and sovereignty. I don’t know if you can somehow fit that in your mind, some guy coming from Cherokee, not to pick on them, but he was just a guy who drove the tractor and hauled hay like I did growing up and he just starts walking through our cities and he starts teaching and preaching with great boldness and radical authority. I mean, what would you think about that? You’d say, “Hey, wait a minute. You’re a hayseed from Cherokee. Who are you?”

That’s sort of what we’ve got here. That’s the way the people of his day would have thought of a common carpenter’s son from the regions of Nazareth or Galilee. It’s just a startling thing the way he approaches things and the way he does things. Why I love Christ so much is he absolutely shocks us all the time. You just can’t put him in a nutshell and say, “This is what Jesus would do.” I shouldn’t say that. Be careful wearing this “What Would Jesus Do?” You have no idea what Jesus would do. You just don’t. He’s God Incarnate; he knows men’s hearts; he has wisdom you don’t have. You’re better having a bracelet that says “What Would the Apostle Paul Do?” He said, “Imitate me.” That was in your Sunday School lesson, wasn’t it? Because he was a mortal human being who was really striving to walk with God to the extent that with imperfections he could yet say, “I’m a good example to look at.” But you can’t know what Jesus is going to do. On one occasion you think, “Well, Jesus is just going to be so meek and lowly and compassionate to a person,” and he turns around and he just rebukes their socks off. And then vice versa. Here we have, again, strong, bold, cutting statements from our Lord.

Let’s look at it again. Luke 13:22,

“ 22 And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to Him, ‘Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?’ And He said to them, 24 ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

Let’s stop right there. We first of all talked about the unperceived power and growth of the kingdom, that is: God does his work through his gospel, in his way and in his timing. And very often, just like you parents are sitting there with your children or maybe even your grandchildren and some of your great grandchildren and you wonder, “Is God doing anything?” Well, it’s unseen. Very often it’s just unseen and sometimes when you think, “Well, this child is just the most least likely person to have any interest in spiritual things,” yet God is doing something unseen in example after example. You’ve just got to have the maturity as the head of your household to anchor your family where the truth is and where love is and where a genuine devotion to God and God’s word is and trust that God is going to do his work through that movement, through that ministry and not perceive things with the eyes and the ears as to whether or not it’s truly of God, at least not that only. You must go by the word of God.

Then we went to the second thing and that is that relatively few are those who enter the kingdom. Now, there are millions, I believe, in the kingdom either those already glorified in heaven or on the earth but compared to the number of those through the ages who have professed to be God-fearers or followers of Jesus, there are only a few that are really in the kingdom, that are really entering in and Jesus made this very clear. First of all, he talked about the demands and that’s where we ended this morning. He said the demands are pretty significant. Verse 24, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Brother L. reminded me this morning that in this day, they built walls around all of their cities and gates and they would have a main gate but then they’d have a little narrow gate over to the side that really no one used and it was quite difficult to maneuver in and out of it. So, they knew that picture that he didn’t say, “Go through the main gate,” he said, “Enter the narrow gate.” It’s more difficult over there. You have to go to some extra trouble. You may have to unload all that you’re carrying and pull it through one at a time and stack it back up and carry it again on the other side. The narrow door is difficult and he literally means, the wording here is describing “agonize.” He said, “To become my disciple, you set off on a course where you put yourself against the status quo religion of your generation.”

Listen, this wasn’t just true for Jews 2,000 years ago, it’s true for Baptists today, or Presbyterians today, or Assemblies of God today, or whoever you may be in your heritage attached to, you can be sure if you get genuine about following God, you’re going to find some real winds of opposition from your own religious community you’ve been associated with. Now, there are some exceptions. Amen? I hope at Grace Life we are raising up generations of an exception to that. There are some exceptions where your grand-daddy and your daddy and aunts and uncles encourage you in the faith and tell you, “Hey, where we compromised don’t follow us, follow Jesus.” Amen? Moms and dads, isn’t that what we want? Isn’t that what we want for our grandchildren, “Where we were a little weak, you guys be strong and go on forward for God.” So, that’s what the Lord is saying to these guys here, “You’re going to have to strive against this.” You just cannot comprehend tight-knit, pressure-controlled, organized state religion of Judaism that these folks were in and Jesus is saying, “You’ve got to learn that only a few are going to enter and follow me and prove they’re true disciples by staying with it, by striving to keep on going through the narrow gate because it’s just going to be hard.” It’s just going to be difficult.

In conclusion on this, as we think about this particular context and how the application goes for us and for every other generation. You do understand this is more than a history book. This history is recorded because the same precepts apply to us. So, Jesus is saying to all of these guys, “Look, when you enter the narrow gate, it means for you Jews that you’re going to have to endure the persecution of divorcing yourselves from the congregation of Israel and pledging allegiance to Jesus, the stranger from Galilee.” In other words Jesus says, “I’m not allowing you membership in both groups. You’re going to be leaving one entity, one fellowship,” and again you and I don’t understand a state religion thing where to leave your religion is to be a traitor to your state. I mean, these people, in effect, to follow Jesus were publicly declaring that they were traitors to Israel their country. That’s powerful stuff and they did it publicly. They weren’t allowed to be baptized out in a private room somewhere, they were baptized to show forth publicly. They were changing allegiance. They were switching allegiance and you think it’s hard. When you joined maybe Grace Life Church, whatever it is, striving to be in a true church and that you’re leaving grandmother and grand-daddy’s church, you think that’s hard. That’s nothing compared to what they were doing.

But the principle is true for all of us. Striving to enter the narrow gate, the agonizing and difficulty, the headwinds and the challenges and the persecution was that you’re leaving one group that you belong to, you’re denouncing it, to join up with Jesus and the new group. Now, what’s the word “church” mean? The word “ekklesia”? It means “God’s called out ones.” It means God through his gospel is calling out and collecting together those who are truly his people. He does that in every age and in every generation. For these people, he’s calling them out from the backslidden, legalistic religion of Judaism into the freedom and grace of following Jesus Christ, the Son of God, but there was an agonizing and a striving to separating and connecting to a new group and that’s what local church membership is. When you join a local church, you’re leaving the allegiance of other things and pledging an allegiance to a new body, a new collectivity, under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus says, “Relatively few are going to be willing to go against the culturally accepted comfortable religious system of their day to really follow me, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now, I long for that season of time when true revival hits an area. We haven’t seen that in a long time but history records some of this where the majority of church-goers were serious about Christ and you could go to many places and find great preaching and genuineness and humility and devotion to God. You would find them very serious about church discipline and genuine conversion and membership actually meaning something, not just putting your name on a roll and never showing up again. I mean, revival and awakening coming, wouldn’t you like to see that? To where even among denominations that have some differences, their love for God is so true and so genuine and the gospel is so hot and powerful and preachers are preaching the word of God? That you could just kind of fellowship about anywhere but that is the rare exception. It seems that God sends one of those around every 100-150 years and they don’t last, they do fade off. I’ve had people say before, “Well, if it was true revival it would last, wouldn’t it?” No. No. Nothing is going to last in perfection and glory until we get to heaven and are glorified. But thank God he does give some seasons. He does give some seasons.

But typically we are where these Jews found themselves. We are where these disciples listening to Jesus on this day found themselves: that is, they were going to face some trouble, some difficulty and some headwinds. They would have to strive and agonize to keep following Jesus. It would be like squeezing through and fighting through a narrow gate. Are you willing to do that? Are you doing that? The next time it gets hard to identify with God’s people and try to walk in the principles of God’s word and have convictions for your Christian life and fellowship in a congregation that is striving to be biblical and healthy, the next time you get some headwinds from that, you just need to speak to yourself the truth and say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is normal. This is part of going through the narrow gate.” And, “few,” Jesus said, “are going to be willing to do that. I’m glad I pastor a church where at least in the church, the majority are narrow gate people. You are narrow people, do you know that? You are narrow. Do you feel inferior? Do you feel non-enlightened? That’s what the world would say you are. You’re not broad enough. You’re not open enough.

Well, let’s go further. Not only because – there’s my subpoint A. – the demands are difficult, it’s like going through a narrow gate but also the deadline is immovable. There is an immovable deadline about when you can come. Now, you’ve got to get in context. He is speaking to all of these religious Jews of one level or another. He said in verse 25, “ Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’” So, he says there’s coming a time when the head, and he’s talking about himself, now here is this lowly carpenter’s son and just to be honest, in our vernacular, redneck from Galilee walking around claiming this authority that he is the head that’s going to one day shut everybody out of the kingdom of God. I mean, you either loved Jesus or you hated Jesus as he began to teach this kind of stuff. There was no neutral ground. He wasn’t going to let you stay a regular Jew and just add him on as to what you’re missing. By the way, he’s not going to let you stay an average Baptist and just add him on. You have to abandon all your other false allegiances and cling only to him.

And you must do so, he says, before it’s too late because there’s a deadline. The head of the house, the head of the kingdom, the head, Jesus Christ, is going to get up. Now, he’s the head who is head over all rule and authority, the Bible says, and as head of everything, listen, he is absolutely sovereign. Let me remind you again what being sovereign means: it means he is completely unaffected by outside opinions. Live that. “Yeah but, wouldn’t Jesus this?” or “Wouldn’t Jesus that?” or “Jesus would be like this.” or “Jesus would be like that.” Look: Jesus is who Jesus is because he’s absolutely sovereign, he’s unaffected by your opinion or my opinion. I mean, he just is. He’s completely unaffected by the opinions of men and mankind. He has an immutable resolve whereby he is unmoved by both the whims or the warrings of the men of this world or the spirits of darkness. The people of Capernaum got angry at Jesus because he didn’t fix and heal and bless them in all the ways they wanted to be blessed. I really believe if Jesus showed up at Joel Osteen’s church, they’d all hate him because they don’t know him. They haven’t been preached anything about him, that’s for sure.

My point is: when you get people inwardly thinking about Jesus’ whole goal is to make me better, happier, more blessed, more rewarded, more successful in this life, he may do some of that in his sovereignty but that’s not his primary goal. So, Jesus goes to Capernaum and he doesn’t give them all the “worldly temporal blessings” they want and they get mad at him. Why? Because he’s absolutely sovereign. He didn’t come just to give you your temporal blessings, he came to go to a cross and he’s not going to be deterred from that no matter what anybody else’s feelings or opinions are.

I love what this says here: it says the head, look at it there in verse 25, “Once the head of the house gets up,” what a picture. Now, at my house, there are a lot of loaded guns. Does that make you nervous? I could have my hands on a loaded gun in maximum three seconds from almost anywhere in my house. That’s just kind of the way I was raised: my daddy had guns around the house, my grand-daddy had guns. My grand-daddy kept one by the door in case there was somebody he wanted to shoot who pulled up in his driveway and that’s no exaggeration. Ask the hippies in Summertown. He almost shot them. They wanted to come down the road by his house and he didn’t want them to come down there I guess because they were hippies, I don’t know. But he sat on the porch with a shotgun and there was a row of hippie buses all the way back. They came from California and they were lined up all the way back and he was sitting there and he just told them, “You go down that road and I’m shooting you with my shotgun.” I remember, I was there that day when the Sheriff came. It’s just like Mayberry. It was just like Mayberry. The Sheriff comes and, “Mr. Smith, now look, you’ve got to let them go down that road.” “They ain’t going down that road. They’re not going down there.” “Why?” “They’re just not going down that road.” I don’t know why he wouldn’t let them go down the road but they were hippies. It turned out, it was kind of neat because they would come to my grandmother and grand-daddy’s house and chop wood and clean their house. They were very loving people. They didn’t know the Lord but they were into love, you know. In many ways you don’t want to know about but they were into love.

But there are times when the head of the house is sitting there, he’s drinking coffee, he’s reading the paper, he’s talking to momma, they’re trying to figure out the riddle on Family Feud and something happens. Something is bothering him, the dog’s barking too much or some child back-talks a little too much and the head of the house gets up. That’s the picture here. The head got up and said, “Alright, this right here is about to stop.” That’s the point Jesus is making: when the head gets up and says. “I’ve had enough of this. I’ve had enough of your rebellion. I’ve had enough of your worldliness. I’ve had enough of you playing games in my church. I’ve had enough of you bearing my name and not living like you know me. I’ve had enough of you twisting my Scriptures. I’ve had enough of you demoralizing and demeaning and mocking the absolutes I gave you to live by. I’ve had it.” The head gets up because he’s had enough and he shuts the door and these people, the text says, cry and scream and beg and moan and complain and he is unaffected. Why? Because he’s sovereign.

Let me ask you: how much longer do you think Jesus is going to put up with us? How much longer before the head is going to rise up? How much longer do you think he’s going to put up with the wickedness of this country you and I live in? I mean, our President and our Congress can pass laws and they uphold and celebrate sodomy and the murder of unborn babies. I’m preparing my sermon just this last Friday and a news flash comes across my screen that tells us that our Attorney General Holder has given federal recognition to gay marriage in Michigan. Well, the people of Michigan voted almost 60% against gay marriage. I mean, a liberal judge strikes down the will of the people. This celebrating and sanctioning of perversity and wickedness in our culture, that may float in New York City and Los Angeles, California and perhaps in the inner city of Chicago but the rest of us are growing tired of these liberal elitists shoving their perversity upon us by the force of appointed judges whose values are more clearly in line with Sodom and Gomorrah than traditional America. How much longer do you think the Head is going to sit down and say – look, he’s about ready, I think, to rise up. He says, “I’m about ready to shut this thing down. I’ve about had enough.”

It ought to be a fearful thing. Folks, we have always at least had, even Bill Clinton had some moral compass as far as his public policy. We have a President now that almost, one could say, he’s never seen a sexual perversion he wouldn’t celebrate or an unborn child he wouldn’t terminate. And when the head gets that wicked of your country, I believe that’s when the true Head starts growing agitated. How much longer is the Head going to put up with the wickedness of this world?

The Bible says he’s going to get up and he’s going to shut the door, verse 25. Now, the context is that all the religious of this day and all the religious generations of every day who claim to be God’s people, so many of them are going to be locked out and it’s going to be too late. Well, who is he talking to here? It’s so very obvious. Look at what he says, look at verse 25 again, “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you,” who is he talking to? The “you” is the great crowd of people. “You begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’” Verse 26, “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.” Who is he talking to? That great mass of people who were worshiping him and adoring him. He turns on them and says, “The Head is going to get up and you guys are going to be lost forever. Shut out.” Powerful stuff. Does that make you love Jesus? It makes me love him because I love his sovereignty. I love his sovereignty. He didn’t stick his finger in the air and say, “What’s going to make me the most popular Messiah this year?” No, he just set his face like flint to Jerusalem which was his Father’s will and stayed on the course.

In verse 27, notice what he says, “and He will say,” he’s saying to all of those people who are going to be on the outside that said, “Wait, we ate and drank in your presence. You taught in our streets. We know you. We clamored around you. We yelled Hosanna to you.” Verse 27 he says, “I tell you, I do not know where you are from: depart from me, all of you evildoers.” Evildoers. One Puritan author said this word “evildoers,” now listen to this: this means “to be abandoned to the love of and the occupation in sin.” To be abandoned to the love of and the occupation in sin. That means they’re in a stronghold that they love sin so deeply they are incapable of turning from it to embrace Christ. They are locked in it.

Now, when he calls this crowd – these are ordinary folks mostly, these are not the Jewish religious elite. Now, he had very condemning rebuking things to say to them for sure. This is the average religious crowd of the day. These are blue collar. These are good old salt of the earth Jews. He called them evildoers. “You’re going to be locked out.” You see, my friend, an evildoer in this context is anyone who looks to religion, morality or good works for their salvation. That’s an evildoer. Did you hear that? Look, that lady next to you in your subdivision, that man that works with you in the other office or on the assembly line, may be the finest, most moral, best daddy you know but listen to me: if he has not totally abandoned all hope to Jesus Christ and Christ alone, Jesus will look at him one day and say, “You were an evildoer.” Are you hearing your pastor today? Quit defining good and bad by all and only what you can see with your eyes or hear with your ears. The Scripture tells us about who the evildoer is.

You see, the greatest evil on earth is not the child molester or the mass murderer as hideous and heinous and vile as those sins and crimes are. That’s not the greatest evil on the earth. The greatest evil on earth is those who substitute human religion and human good works for the new birth. They look to their own source of “I prayed the prayer. I walked the aisle. I went to the priest. I took the sacrament. I drank the holy water,” or whatever it is. They look to some thing instead of only to Christ. Christ says those are evil workers, evildoers.

He said, “I’m going to shut the door on them and you’re not going to get in.” Can you imagine what the talk was like around the dinner table of these people that evening after they heard Jesus that day? “Goodness, have you ever heard anybody chop us in two like he did? Leave us in such a state of condemnation? Why would Jesus do that?” Because he loved them. This preaching might break them, but it might cure them. They had to be shocked out of their generations and generations, centuries of infused works, external, law religion that cannot save. The worst form of worldliness is works religion. It might be why we see in general tone, Jesus having more time and compassion on the “wicked” of his day, those who were in open and outward immorality, than the compassion he had toward the religious elite of his day. Why? Because they were just so steeped in their ritual, their forms and their works and that’s the lowest and deepest realms of worldliness. Jesus calls them here “evildoers.”

Well, hurrying along, 3. let’s notice the misery and despair of those who are shut out. The misery and despair of those who are shut out. We see it beginning in verse 28, “In that place,” that means after they’re shut out and separated from the kingdom of God in the last day, “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.” what a strong statement. He didn’t say, “You yourselves are going to be let out.” It’s the picture of someone in agony screaming for help. Instead of you helping them and saving them, you cast them into the destruction they were trying to avoid. That’s the picture. Tie that Jesus on, liberals who want to make Jesus into some half-effeminate, sissy kind of person. In true and holy manliness, he wants us to get the picture that there is coming a day when those who are not in, will cry to be removed from the wrath and destruction and he will bodily cast them out as they’re trying to get in.

What sorrow and despair and bitter anguish will be to those who are shut out. Now, I think there’s an interesting truth here and I don’t want to go too far with this but I do think it’s true and I want you to see it. In verse 28 he says, “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” notice, “when you see.” See. He says to all of this crowd that he says, “The majority of you are not going to enter in, you’re not going to make through the narrow gate, it’s too hard for you. You’re not going to go against the grain of the culture. You’re just going to go along and the Head is going to get up and shut the door and it’s going to be too late and then you’re going to be enabled to see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourself will be thrown out.” That’s interesting. You’re going to be able to see. Now, I balance this with John 3:3 where Jesus said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Now, think with me. Be a thinking person tonight. Jesus said, “Unless you’re born again, unless there is a regeneration of your spirit, you can’t see the way to salvation nor can you enter into salvation.” The Spirit of God has to do a drawing, convicting and regenerating work for you to be saved or you can’t see it.

Now, in contrast or in antithesis almost, on the other side, those who are condemned and shut out, he’s going to regenerate their hearts but not a regeneration into salvation. He’s just going to enable them to see what they’re missing, what they lost and what they should have had. That’s what he’s saying here. They’re going to long to be in there. He’s going to throw them out but they’re going to long so God is going to enable them to grasp with understanding something of the great glories, the great pleasures and the great joys they could have had. And the only way I know this could have happened is if he enables them to see it. He tells them, “You’re going to see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” The Bible says in Revelation 1:7, “When he returns, behold he’s coming with the clouds and every eye will see him even those who pierced him.” Isn’t that interesting? It says that again. Notice, God is going to make sure every one of his enemies, all the shut out ones waiting for condemnation will be able to see what they’re going to miss and the blessings they didn’t get in on.

I’m convinced this will require God supernaturally enabling them to see his glorious return just basically because of the geographic and physiological impossibility of people all over the globe seeing him. Somehow he’s going to enable all to see. Revelation 6:16 says, “And they will say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.” They’re going to see it.

Now, he says in verse 28 that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the prophets are going to come together. For a Jew, again in this context, the greatest misery for any devout Jew particularly of this age, would be to know that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the godly prophets are going to be gathered together but they’re locked out of that. That great homecoming, that great celebration, that great company of God’s saints.

Lastly, 4. notice the inclusiveness and the paradox of those allowed to enter in. Notice the inclusiveness and the paradox of those who are allowed to enter in. He says in verse 29, “And they will come,” this is talking about those who are going to get in on the kingdom, “they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.” “Well Pastor, you said the text teaches there is relatively few and now you say there is an inclusiveness.” There is. God is going to see to it that all that the Lamb redeemed by his own precious blood on the cross from all peoples, tongues, tribes and nations will come to him. All of them. They’re all going to come.

I have mentioned it a few times and I’m going to mention it again. During the Moravian th Missions movement in the early part of the 18 century, the Moravians were a unique breed of Christians and church historians tells us that at one point during their missions emphasis, 50% of their church members loaded up on boats and went to share the gospel all around the world. 50% I don’t mean they did it in one week but that was just the average of those who would leave and go out to share the gospel all over the world. Now, this is a day where you only traveled by boat and it was quite perilous and history tells us that they would literally make coffins before they left and they would load their wooden coffins on the ship. Their statement was: we’re not coming back. Wherever we go, we’re going to stay there and die spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the great slogan of the Moravians was that as they would leave port, both their loved ones on the shore and those in the boats departing would yell out, “May the Lamb receive the reward of his suffering.”

The Bible says, let me just read it to you in Revelation 5:9, “They sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased,” past tense verb, “purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.” The Moravians were Calvinists; they believed in election. They knew God had elected and already purchased with his own blood men from every people, tongue, tribe and nation. They were just going out there to find the elect and tell me this kind of preaching doesn’t promote missions. If you’ll study church history, you’ll find the greatest missions movements of all times were from Calvinist or sovereign grace believing people. Why? They believed they could not fail because God already had foreordained to save them. They were just going to get in on it. That’s what Jesus says. He says, “I’ve got my children I’m saving with my own blood from the north, the south, the east and the west. They’re all coming. They’re all going to be joined together.” But his warning is, “But a lot of you Jews are going to be locked out.” May the Lamb receive the reward of the suffering.

That was the inclusiveness. Verse 30, Jesus ends by saying, “And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.” Now, there is application beyond the immediate context but the immediate context is obvious: the Jews were the first. Therefore, father Abraham was called. They received the prophets. They had the teachings. They had the Scriptures. They had the temple ordinances all pointing to Jesus. They had God’s blessing and God’s light and God’s truth. They were the first but they missed it. And the gospel was turned to the Gentiles, to us, and then the Gentiles now have taken the lead in God’s work in God’s kingdom. So, the Gentiles were last in getting God’s truth, in getting God’s light and God’s blessings but the Gentiles turned around and came to him first and the Jews are at the last. However, this truth is taught throughout the word of God. We know that Jerusalem was first in the eyes of the people as far as the center of their religious establishment and the center of “holy things,” but God took one of the least places, Bethlehem, to start his work on earth. Isn’t that just like God? The first became last and the last became first.

In 1 Corinthians 1, you remember the Scriptures tell us that it’s not many wise and not many noble according to the flesh that God calls into salvation. God saves some of the high up in the culture; God saves some of the wealthy. God saves some of the power brokers in the community but he just doesn’t save many of them. I’ve heard preachers say, “Now, God can save you leading men but he just has more trouble doing it.” That’s not what the text teaches. God has no trouble saving anyone. It’s that God chooses not to call many of those to salvation. He just calls more rednecks and plain folks and blue collar folks typically than he does others to salvation.

God’s just got a way of making those that seem to be first down to the last and the last he brings up to the first. It’s just kind of a pattern. Not absolute, you have those anomalies just Charles Haddon Spurgeon who was an absolute genius. That’s not a figure of speech, he was a genius. He could have done anything but he loved God and loved the word of God. I think one of the greatest crimes of modern education is that children do not have to study Spurgeon when they study English Literature. The man had a brilliant grasp and use of the English language. So, there’s an occasional guy that in the world’s eyes would be an elitist and God decides to save him and use him but typically God does it right the reverse. He takes nutcases like me and let’s me be your pastor. If you knew what I was, you wouldn’t come back. I mean, you’d think, “What is this?” And that’s just God’s pattern. I think he does it so surpassing glory might be of him and not of us. Amen?

Well, two conclusions about Jesus preaching all of this and Jesus saying that the demands are high, not many are going to want to keep striving to make it through the narrow door. Pretty soon they just give in and go with the culture and the religious establishment of the day and make it easy. Then he said the Head is going to get up and close the door but then he gives that promise, “But the ones who are truly mine, I keep forever and they’re going to make it all the way in from the north, south, east and the west. They’re going to all come and dine in my kingdom.” So, on the one hand he warns against presumption. Don’t you think because you come from good Baptist or evangelical heritage that you’re in, that doesn’t mean you’re in. You’d better know that your faith is vile enough that you have connected yourself with the right collectivity. You’ve left the old groups and you’re connecting yourself to a serious and devoted church and you’re willing to walk a striving lifestyle of serving the Lord against the opposition that may come your way.

So, he warns you about presumption but also this same text strengthens us to overcome despair because it is despairing at times when it seems everybody’s against you and everybody thinks you’re on the wrong track and everybody thinks you’re thinking bad.

I’m going to close with this preacher illustration and I wish it wasn’t a preacher because most of you aren’t preachers but typically when it comes to truth, the preacher who is trying to stand on truth receives persecution but also the people do too, so they are one together on it. But you’ve heard something about him. I’ve mentioned this before in one way or another but Charles Simeon was an Anglican pastor at the Trinity Church in Cambridge, England for 54 years. Now, if you know anything about the Church of England or Anglicanism, you know they appoint pastors. Charles Simeon’s father was a very wealthy and influential man but an unbeliever. You’ve got to understand you’re sprinkled as a baby and you become part of the church. You don’t have to be converted. So, they had a huge mess. As a matter of fact, this is the whole season of time when our forefathers were coming to America to get away from this stuff because they saw it was rotten and corrupt and ungodly and unregenerate men were heading the church and they wanted to get away from it and they came to America to start a new England. That’s why it’s called New England, one that was truly godly. They said the old England’s lost its way. It was supposed to be God’s place so we’ve got to go over here and start a new England and now we’ve lost what they started.

Nevertheless, his dad who wasn’t a believer had a lot of influence and he got Charles appointed to the Trinity Church at Cambridge. Well, you know it’s at Cambridge that Cambridge University was there and it was a bastion of God-hating liberalism. They hated the Bible. They really hated evangelical preachers who would preach about sin and repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. They wanted you to just leave them alone, “We were sprinkled as babies. Don’t bring anything else up. We’re going to go on with our worldly lifestyles.” Well, Charles Simeon became the pastor there in 1782. Here he is this genuinely godly, newly converted man preaching in this godless backslidden church and the people in the congregation hated him from day one.

Do you remember the story about Charles Simeon? It was a tradition of the day that the church chose the evening lecture. It was like our evening worship service, what we’re having now, but it was the church’s prerogative about who got to do that. Now, they always picked the pastor. Even though it was their choice, the pastor got to do it. For 12 years, they wouldn’t let him preach the evening service just to be in your face to say, “We hate you.” For 12 years in his own church he sat somewhere else on the pew and somebody else filled his pulpit.

That was in the day when you bought your pew and your pew had a door on it and you had the key. Now, Ted over here about two rows, “I’ve got two rows at my church.” Robert would get 2-3, you know. Jim would have four back there because he wants all the postal guys to come and sit with him on Friend Day. So, you’d buy your pews. For ten years they got together and they locked the pews and wouldn’t unlock them. He brought chairs in so people could sit in the aisles and hear him preach and the church custodians would go throw the chairs out in the street. So, for ten years on Sunday morning, he preached to whoever would come and stand in the aisles and never quit. What an amazing picture of persevering when you’re in the minority and when the winds are blowing against you.

A couple of other things here. The church finally obtained some peace and he talks about th those sweet years and then in his 30 year, strife and division occurred again and he talked about later in those years how – listen to this – for the first time when he was walking across Cambridge University campus, somebody walked with him and talked to him. It’s hard to think about but you’ve got to understand this was a long engrained church-state thing and he’s up here thundering the gospel, telling them they’re lost and going to hell if they don’t get saved. Again, that was kind of like being a traitor to your church and to your state because they were sprinkled as babies and they were supposed to be okay. But Simeon, kind, humble but stalwart never failed to be faithful.

Students and others often protested in the streets the historians tell us. They would crash into the doors of the service while the people were standing in the aisles and disrupt the services and when some of the students were converted and became followers of Christ, the Cambridge professors persecuted them. They would take away awards and wouldn’t th give them credits and different things happened and someone asked Simeon in his 49 year, he stayed there 54 years, “Charles, how did you do that? How did you put up with that?” Do you know what his answer was? He said, “Brethren, we must not mind a little suffering.” That was his response. “Brethren, we must not mind a little suffering.” He said, “You know, I figure if you’re going through a brushy hedge” – we had a hedge around one side of my yard growing up and I used to just love to push through it. It’s just a neat thing. And Simeon said, “If you’re going through a hedge of briars, if you get your shoulders and head through, it don’t bother you too much for it to cut and nick your legs because you feel like, I’ve got it now.” His point was: I’ve got my shoulder and head through on this thing so I think I’m going to be okay now.

What was his secret? He said it was his security in God. He knew he was one of God’s. He knew he belonged to God and God had called him. It didn’t matter how many were against him. That was where he got his hope and that’s how he overcame falling into total despair. He said he knew who he belonged to and who he would answer to.

So, in this text as Jesus is discerning the kingdom, we do have a word about being presumptuous. Don’t you think you’re okay. Don’t you sit under Jeff Noblit’s preaching and face Jesus one day and say, “I prayed that prayer.” Don’t you do that. Don’t you sit under my preaching and say, “Well, I put a check on the card that I asked Jesus to save me.” Don’t you do that. Not under this pulpit. You need to say, “I continually tested myself to see if I was in the faith. I continually humbled myself and my cry in my life was to look to Christ and him alone. Not just one time years ago but that’s who I became. I became one who was striving to enter the narrow gate.” And don’t you appreciate the way the Lord worded it. Striving means you’re not always perfect at it and you might stumble some and you struggle some but you don’t quit. You get back up, you reunite with the people of God and you go on again striving. That’s what true believers do.

So, it’s a warning about presumption but there’s also a strong word of hope here against despair that we know whose we are. We are part of those who are his that he will call one day into his kingdom from the north, the south, the east and the west. Amen.

Let’s stand together in prayer.