LUKE 13:22-30 NOT MANY WILL BE SAVED2013 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 13:22-30 Not Many Will Be Saved

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2013. The title of the message today is Not Many Will Be Saved. And as we begin to look at this, I would ask, are you ready to be challenged? Are you ready to kind of be shaken a little bit to the core? Are you ready to kind of grapple with some difficult truths?

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Because as I was studying this passage, I really began to understand this is a very challenging passage. Not because it's complicated, not that there's these, you know, complex ideas, but there's real weight to it. It's a heavy passage. Now this passage is one that I've known since I was a kid.

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We've learned about, you know, even in Sunday school, the narrow way versus the broad way. And it's a truth that I'm familiar with and have known for a long time. And I think as a result of that, I kind of missed the weight of it. I knew it without really considering it all that much. But as we look at this portion today, the reason why I titled it this way is because that's really what Jesus is talking about.

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And we need to come to grips with this truth. Not many will be saved. Let that thought sink in. Not many will be saved. And at first that should be

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Well, not that it should be, but it probably is pretty surprising to us to think about that. That not many will be saved. That not many will enter into heaven. And yet, as we look over the scriptures, we can see the pattern for this throughout the scriptures. You look there in Genesis 1.

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With Noah and his family, while the world is destroyed by the flood, it's just a family of eight that is saved, that is preserved through the midst of that. Throughout Israel's history, as they were established as a nation, as they rebelled against God, God in his messengers would always talk about the remnant that would be saved.

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In general, the nation was conquered and destroyed, but there was always the remnants, that few who would be saved even while the nation was destroyed. Or you could look at the example of Jesus and his life and ministry, and he only had a few followers.

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It wasn't, although he was ministering to the multitudes, we can see in the gospels that the multitudes thin away really quickly. There wasn't that many that were actually loyal or faithful to him. There was really only a few. The 12, you know, apostles or maybe the 72 that he sent out. Maybe you can consider the 120 in the upper room. You know, even if it's

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The 120 or even the 500 that he visited in Galilee after his resurrection, that's a few in proportion to the nation of Israel at that time. And so we see this pattern throughout the scriptures, but I think in our minds, at least in my mind, I kind of have this the opposite way. And so it's important for us to remember, as Jesus teaches here, not many will be saved.

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Now I would like to think that everyone who attends Calvary Chapel Living Water will be saved. I would like to think that. And I hope and I pray that that is true. But Jesus challenges us here with some thoughts that, well, we really can't know that. That's not guaranteed. Not many will be saved. Now as we talk about this, it is a heavy subject. And so understand that the enemy would like to use this

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this hard truth this heavy truth he would like to use this to discourage you and i want to prepare you for that don't give in don't think about or entertain the thoughts that the enemy or your flesh is going to bring this morning so if looking at this subject of not many being saved says to you or you begin to say to yourself well maybe i should just give up i mean you know it's

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Probably not me anyways, so why bother trying? Now, that's not the Lord. That's not God speaking to you. The enemy will always try to push you away. Jesus is always calling you to come close. And so don't let this be an excuse to give up.

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But let this be a reason, as Jesus will tell this man who asks the question, to strive, to work hard, to walk with Jesus. And that's really the call to action this morning. So, Not Many Will Be Saved is the title. Three points I would like to share with you from what Jesus shares in response to this man. And we find the first in verses 22 through 24. And that is, many will try to enter.

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Verse 22 says, Now back in Luke chapter 9, we saw that Jesus began his journey to Jerusalem. It says that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. And so in Luke 9 51, that kind of began that last journey to Jerusalem. And so in Luke 9 51,

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And so we're on the way to the cross with Jesus. And the things that we've been studying over the past couple chapters, you know, are part of that journey. The things that we'll be studying throughout the rest of the Gospel of Luke are those final days of Jesus as he travels to Jerusalem and then is going to be ultimately crucified there. And so he's headed to the cross. He's going around and ministering from city to city along the way. Verse 23, Then one said to him,

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Lord, are there few who are saved? And he said to them, strive to enter through the narrow gate. For many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. So as Jesus is going from town to town, city to city, on his way to Jerusalem, this guy comes up to Jesus and asks a question. I like this about Jesus. We get to see this a lot in his ministry. People were constantly asking Jesus questions.

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Can you imagine that? Just being able to walk up to Jesus and say, Jesus, I have a question. I have a thought. I'd like to pick your brain and understand what this is all about. Remember the guy who said, hey, I have an issue with my brother. He's not sharing the inheritance. Will you help me with that? People felt comfortable to come up to Jesus and just kind of say, here's my problem. Here's my question and share it with him.

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It's interesting to me how available Jesus was to the people. And I think that's a great example of the humility that he expresses in being available to the people in that way. Well, this guy brings up his question and he says, Lord, are there few who are saved? Is there only a few? Is it a big number? Is it a small number? What's the whole deal with, you know, those who will be saved? Now, they suggest that

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The rabbis of the day, that was a big discussion. That was always something that would come up and the rabbis would go back and forth on how many people would be saved. And so this guy says, well, let me see what Jesus has to say about that. And so he asked this question and then Jesus responds. And Jesus responds there in verse 24 and he says, "...strive to enter through the narrow gate."

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Jesus, instead of giving him a number of people who is, you know, going to be saved, he says, don't worry so much about the number. Don't worry about that, about how many so much as are you going to make it? He kind of turns it and makes it personal to the guy. And he says, here's what I need you to do. Here's what you need to be focused on. Strive to enter through the narrow gate.

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This idea of the narrow gate, as Jesus is talking about it, is that he is saying, he's declaring, there is only one way to be saved. It's a narrow gate. There's only one option, one way in. There's not many roads that lead to God, as is popularly thought.

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But there's a narrow gate. And so he says you need to strive to enter that narrow gate. You remember in John chapter 14 verse 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That narrow gate that is required to enter into for salvation is Jesus. He is the only way.

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And he is the only way to the Father. And so Jesus is saying, strive to enter in the narrow gate. Strive to enter in through me. I am the only way. We also see this same illustration of this narrow gate that Jesus uses in Matthew chapter 7.

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In verse 13 of Matthew 7, Jesus says, And so Jesus builds a contrast there in Matthew chapter 7. There's a narrow gate and there's a broad gate.

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There's a narrow way and there's a broad way. And just to kind of help this, you know, visually in our mind, we rearranged the chairs a little bit this morning and had you walk down the center aisle, which we narrowed so that you could understand, hey, you could go down the broad way on the sides or you could choose to enter in the narrow way, the narrow gate. Okay.

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And Jesus says, that's where you need to be. Understand, there's many who go down the broad path, but you, he says to this guy who's asking the question, you strive to enter by the narrow gate. This word strive, it's in the Greek agonizomai, which is where we get the word agonize from. And it means to contend for victory.

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specifically in the public olympic games to to contend to fight for victory it's kind of not you know a little bit of a friendly competition type of word it's a i gotta go for gold i gotta go all out i gotta give everything that i have the new living translation puts it this way work hard to enter through the narrow gate

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Or another translation puts it this way, exerts every effort to enter through the narrow gate. The idea that Jesus is communicating here is this real hard work, this striving, this agonizing to enter in. It's an all-out effort. You must agonize.

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to the point of agony to enter into that straight gate or that narrow gate. You know, we have the saying that we always use, you know, I gave my life to Jesus. And I think we kind of say it without really thinking through the whole meaning of that. But the idea of giving my life to Jesus is, it's not just, well, I said a prayer and I received, you know, forgiveness. But giving my life to Jesus is

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is an ongoing process of giving him my life, my moments, my days, my hours, my energy, giving him my attention, giving him all that I am. And this is the picture that Jesus is painting here. This is what it takes to be saved. That you and I, we are required in order to be saved, in order to enter in, that we make it our life's purpose, our life's pursuit to know Jesus and walk with him.

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To enter by the narrow gate is going to take some hard work. It's going to take hard work to walk with Jesus. It's going to take a struggle. It's going to be a fight.

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Jesus says, strive to enter through the narrow gate. Now, he's not talking about, and I'm not talking about doing good works in order to be saved. That's not the striving that we are talking about. So do a lot of good things, you know, work real hard, be diligent, be very committed and sincere, and then you'll be saved. No, no, that's not what Jesus is talking about.

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No, it's striving to enter by the narrow gate. That is striving to stay in right relationship with Jesus. It's striving to know Jesus. Work hard to keep yourself completely devoted to Jesus. That's something that takes work. That we're going to have to invest ourselves in. That we're going to have to struggle to maintain. You don't automatically stay devoted to Jesus. Right?

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In fact, naturally our flesh, this world, the enemy is working against us to pull us away from the Lord. And we have to fight all of those things to stay devoted to Him, in love with Him, passionate about Him, walking with Him, hearing from Him. It takes work to walk with Jesus, to enter in through that narrow gate.

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And so this guy asks, are there few who will be saved? And Jesus responds saying, well, here's what you need to be worried about. Strive, struggle, work hard, agonize to enter in by the narrow gate because there's only one way. And Jesus here is making the point that many will try to enter, but they will fail. Many will try to enter in, but not many will strive.

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He goes on in verse 24 to say, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. You see, many people are going to try. Many people will seek to enter, but they will fail. They will not be able to. They won't have the power to enter in, even though they want to, even though they try to, even though they seek to.

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I think it's a pretty clear, you know, statement for us that many people want to be saved. That's not really surprising, right? If you go anywhere and do a survey, you know, who wants to go to heaven? You might have a couple, you know, troublemakers in the crowd who say, I don't want to go to heaven. But for the most part, everybody wants to go to heaven. That's not surprising. Many people want to be saved. And Jesus is saying many people will try to be saved.

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Now consider that. Let that thought sink in. That there are people who will try to make it to heaven. They want to be saved. They want to enter in. But Jesus says they will not be able. The word seek here, it means to seek by thinking, by meditating, by reasoning, by inquiring, even by demanding or craving.

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And so there are people who are going to be thinking hard about how do I get into heaven? And they're going to try to think of the best possible answer that they can come up with. They're going to be meditating. They're going to be reasoning and trying to figure out. They're going to be craving. I want to be into heaven with a strong desire and even demand that God you must let me in to eternity with you. Many will seek. Many will try Jesus says. But not many will strive.

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To enter through the narrow gate. Many will try to enter. David Guzik says. There is a real difference. Between a mere seeking and striving to enter. A casual wish to be saved isn't enough. Because there are too many obstacles on the way. If you desire to be saved. That doesn't make you saved. If you desire. You want to make it to heaven. That doesn't mean that you will get there. And you can even try really hard. To get there and not get there.

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Many will try. They will have a genuine desire to be saved. They will do their best. They will give their utmost. I'm not talking about people who have no interest in entering into heaven. I'm talking about people who want to be there, who will try to be there. They're very sincere. They're doing their best. And Jesus says, even though they seek to enter, they will not be able. I think too often we have the attitude that, you know, most everyone will be saved.

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And that's our mindset. That's kind of how we look at things, I think, too many times. What if Jesus had answered this guy differently? Jesus, are there few who will be saved? And then Jesus said, no, no, no. Mostly everybody will be saved. There's just a few exceptions. Or if he said, you know, everybody who wants to be saved will be saved. That would be an entirely different answer. An entirely different gospel.

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Than what we studied last week as the gospel message. We would live very differently if Jesus responded differently. But this is the reality. And it's a hard truth. It's a hard truth. It's okay that you grapple with this. It's okay that you're wrestling with this. It's okay that you're agonizing over it. Because it's a hard truth. But it is the truth. Jesus says many will seek. They will try.

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But they will not be able to. Many will try to enter. Now as this guy asks the question, Jesus turns it back to him and says, you need to be worried about you. Will you enter? You need to strive to enter. And so I would ask you here this morning, will you enter? Will you enter into the kingdom of God? You know, it's not as easy as people think. Are you striving to enter by the narrow way? Is it your life's pursuit? Your life's purpose?

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Now, Jesus is saying it's going to take hard work, but understand Jesus is not saying give up. It's so hard you shouldn't even bother trying to be saved. Especially you, you know, because you're such a loser. So just give up. No, no, that's not Jesus. The way of salvation, he made it as easy as possible by doing the work for us upon the cross.

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So that it's not a matter of us running around and having to do a lot and if you, you know, don't do enough stuff. No, it's that we approach God by faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work upon the cross. But what you need to understand is it takes work to continue to approach God by faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work upon the cross.

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It takes work to stay there. What we naturally tend to do is we begin to build our religions and then we begin to approach God on the basis of our works and our merits. Or we stay away from God on the basis of our failures and sins. But we must work hard to keep ourselves in the place where we come to God and we have a relationship with God and we connect with God because we believe in Jesus.

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And by faith in Jesus, we come to God. And so Jesus is not saying, give up, don't even try to be saved. He's just making sure we understand it's going to take some work. You have to strive at it. He's also saying, give up and don't try to save others. No, no, no. Reach out and share and invite people to salvation because, well, they need to understand not many will be saved. And people are of the mindset that

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That most everybody, as long as I'm good enough, as long as I don't kill anybody, you know, I'll be okay and God will have to let me in. But many people will try to enter and will not be able. And so we must strive.

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The word strive, as Jesus commands this guy to strive, it is a command. It's also in the present tense, which means it's an ongoing command. That is, don't just strive one time to pray really hard and then you'll be saved. But strive and then tomorrow you strive and then the next day you strive and you continue to work hard to maintain yourself in that position where you are saying, God, I come to you by faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Because he is the way, the truth, and the life. That narrow gate. The only way of salvation. Strive. Give that all out effort. Make it your life's purpose and pursuit to enter in to the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus. Many will try to enter. Will you? Or will you be like, well Jesus is about to talk about those who do not enter in.

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And let this image that he paints here horrify you. Let it horrify you. Because, well, we must strive to enter. And we don't ever want to be left outside of the kingdom of God. And so as we move on now in verses 25 through 27, we see the second part of what Jesus is talking here about not many being saved. He says that many will knock, and I put it with shock. They're going to be surprised.

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They're going to knock with shock. Look at verse 25. So Jesus is saying, many are seeking to enter and not able. And what happens?

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When they get there and they're not able to enter in. Well he describes it as a master of the house. Rising up and shutting the door. And the idea is the master of the house is throwing a feast. And as everybody comes in who was invited. Then he gets up and he shuts the door. Because everybody who is invited. Everybody who is coming has come in. So now the door is shut. And so Jesus is painting this picture here.

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Of this door being closed, the opportunity is completed. He's letting us know that time is limited. There will be a point when the master of the house rises up and shuts the door. Your opportunity to be saved is only available for a limited time. The New Living Translation puts it this way.

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When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. There's a limited time for you and I to enter in by the narrow gate. And there's a point where that door is shut, where that gate is closed, and it is not available to us any longer. When is that door shut? Well, I think we can see clearly from the scriptures that death is one way that that door is shut.

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Hebrews 9.27 tells us it's appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. While we have life here, we have opportunity to enter in by the narrow gate. But when we die, whether it be by old age or by surprise, we didn't expect it, we didn't see it coming, that closes that door. Your decision is made in this life. Another way that this door is shut, you could consider, is possibly the rapture.

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The Apostle Paul talks about it in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. When the rapture happens and the Antichrist is revealed, there will be a strong delusion that the Lord sends on those who've heard the gospel.

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And I point this out because there's a lot of times people in the church who say, you know, I know about the things of God and I do believe in God, but, you know, I'm not going to make him my life's pursuit just yet. I'm going to wait. And, you know, if the rapture happens, I know it'll be hard, but at that time I'll choose, I'll decide to follow Jesus and I'll really give it my all then. But that's a very foolish thing to do for a lot of reasons, but one of which is

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Paul says there's going to be a strong delusion that God will send. And so you're putting yourself in a very dangerous situation. You might not receive the truth. You might not turn and follow Jesus after the rapture takes place. And I know you would think, well, I mean, I would see that all the Christians are gone. It'd be so obvious. Of course I will. But don't have such great confidence in your ability to not be deceived. We're so easily deceived.

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And that's why we need to enter in by the narrow gate right now. So the door is shut when death occurs, possibly by the rapture. Or the other way that the door is shut, we find in Revelation chapter 14, those who take the mark of the beast shut the door on themselves. That even though they're alive after they take the mark of the beast, they no longer have opportunity to be saved. And that happens during the tribulation period. So for you and I,

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We're not in the tribulation, so we don't need to worry about the mark. We're looking forward to the rapture. So until we die or the rapture happens, that's our limited opportunity. That's our limited time to be saved. And once one of those things happens for us, pretty much the door is shut. And look at what Jesus describes happening here. So the door is shut and then he goes on to say, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open for us.

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And he will answer and say to you, I do not know you where you are from. So here's these people who were seeking to enter in, but the door was shut. So they're knocking at the door. Lord, Lord, open the door. We're here. We're ready to enter into heaven. We're ready to enter into the kingdom of God. These people are expecting the door to be open. They're expecting to enter in.

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And they're surprised that the door is shut. They're shocked that the door is closed. Again, I say it's a horrific picture. It should kind of have that feeling in your gut that's like, oh, this is sickening. I don't even want to think about this. But it's the truth. It's a hard truth, but it's the truth. Not many will be saved. And there'll be many people who are knocking at the door expecting for God to let them into eternity forever.

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And he will answer, I do not know you. They'll be standing outside and knocking as they call out to him, Lord, but he is not their Lord. They call him Lord, but he is not their Lord. He says, I do not know you. And they're shocked. They're surprised because they hung out with him. Look at verse 26. Verse 26.

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Jesus goes further. He says, then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. Here they are shocked and confused. Lord, open the door. He says, I don't know you. What do you mean you don't know me? I ate and drank with you. I was in your presence. You taught in our streets. I was there with you. You know us. We were with you. We listened to you. We ate and drank with you.

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I went to church. I partook of communion. What do you mean you don't know me? What do you mean I can't enter in? What do you mean the door is shut? It's going to be a surprise to those who are not able to enter in. And they'll say, wait, you taught us. I mean, we read your word. I can quote Bible verses. I know what the Bible says. I heard you teach many times.

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What do you mean you don't know me? Let me in. Remember when Jesus told the parable of the wise and the foolish builders? He made a distinction between those who hear him and do what he says and those who hear him and don't do what he says. Hearing Jesus is not enough to save you.

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Hearing Jesus is not sufficient. Knowing his word, reading the Bible, partaking of communion, coming to church, hanging around Jesus is not enough to be saved. You must strive to be saved. It must be your life's pursuit. You must be wholly devoted. You must be completely committed. It must be the focus and the center of your life. People think that it's enough to just be near Jesus. People are convinced it's enough to be religious.

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There's various camps in that, you know. Some people will say, well, it's enough to be religious, whatever religion you practice. That's fine. As long as you're sincere and genuine and you practice that religion, then you'll be okay. Others will be more limited and say, no, it's only Christianity and you have to be, you know, part of a Christian church and be baptized and partake of communion and you do those kinds of things and then you'll be saved. But religion is just those outward rituals and rules that

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That's not enough. But people think it is. People think it's enough to attend church. But I come to church, you know. I must be saved. I'm okay. People think it's enough to be reading the Bible. People think it's enough to respect or admire Jesus or even love Jesus. A lot of people tell you, oh, I love Jesus. But if they're not striving to enter through the narrow gate, they'll be on the outside knocking. What do you mean you don't know me? Let me in, Lord.

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You can do all of those things and still be locked out and still not enter in. Verse 27, Jesus gives the response. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know you from where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. He says, I don't know you. Notice he doesn't say, you didn't do enough good works. That's why I'm not opening the door. You didn't read your Bible enough. You didn't have enough communion. So I'm not opening the door. No, he says, I don't know you.

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You didn't walk in a relationship with me. You didn't strive to know me. And so he says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Many will knock with shock. They'll be surprised on that day. Why isn't the door open? You need to consider this morning. Will that be you? Will you be on the outside knocking, expecting the door to open? While God replies, I don't know you. Depart from me. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus says,

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teaches in verses 21 through 23 that not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. We would expect that those who call Jesus Lord would enter into the kingdom of heaven. But Jesus says, not everybody who calls me Lord will enter in. Instead he says, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Jesus goes on to say, many people will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord,

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We prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We've done many wonders in your name. And Jesus says, I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. It's the same picture here. People knocking. I listened to your teaching. I read your word. I even served you and I did miracles in your name. Let me in. And he says, I never knew you. Will you be on the outside knocking? Shocked and surprised to find out you're not able to enter in.

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Jesus is not saying give up and don't try to be saved. He's not saying give up, don't try to save others. He is saying you need to have this very clear in your head. There's a narrow way. There's only one way of salvation. There's only one way to be saved. And you got to work hard. You got to pursue that in your life. That has to be your life's mission and life's goal to enter in by the narrow gate. And you need to make sure that that's what you're focused on. That that's your pursuit. Make sure that I'm your God.

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Make it your life's purpose to know Jesus and walk with Him. Well, the picture that Jesus is painting here gets even more horrific as we go in verses 28 through 30. Point number three, many will weep with regret. Verse 28 says, 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 and yourselves thrust out.

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This is a horrendous scene. This weeping and gnashing of teeth that Jesus talks about. It's incredible sorrow, agony, and pain. So those who are on the outside knocking, Lord, let me in. Lord, let me in. They're surprised.

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Again, this is not the people who are saying, I don't want anything to do with God. I'm going to live my own life. I'm going to do what I want to do. No, these are people who are seeking to enter in. They're trying to make it to heaven. They're even working hard to get into heaven. But they're not entering by the narrow way. And so they're surprised. What do you mean you don't know me? And then there comes this weeping. Weeping.

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And this gnashing of their teeth as they begin to realize, I'm not entering in. I'm not entering in. And notice what causes this. What begins the weeping and gnashing of teeth? He says 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 and yourselves thrust out. He says when you see. You understand what Jesus is saying here?

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Those where they're knocking, they're desiring to enter in, they're surprised that they're not able to enter in, but they get to see other people enter in. And they begin to weep and gnash their teeth. They will see others enter the kingdom of God. And there's going to be this intense regret as they weep that they're not able to enter, but others are going in. When I was young, I was probably a young teenager, 18.

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And my dad has to pull over. He can't fix it. Sorry, kids. We're not able to make it up the mountain. We can't get there. We got to turn around and go home. Unless we begin to see, hey, that's Pastor Tom. Hey, hey, hey, stop. There's Cisco. Stop, Cisco. We're on the side of the road hoping some of the other people from church will see us so that they could stop and then they could at least take us kids up there and we could have a good time. But nobody saw us. Nobody stopped.

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And we went home very sad that day. Now that's much lighter than the issue of eternity. But I remember that. I remember that feeling. And I'm sure you know what that's like. That you're hoping, you're expecting, you're thinking, hey, I can enter in. But then it's shut. And there's that great regret, that sorrow. And there will be those who are there and they're seeing other people go. They're seeing other people enter in. But they're not able. And they will weep.

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Verse 29. Verse 30. They'll see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob enter into the kingdom of God but that's not it. They'll also see people come from the north and south and east and west. People from all over. A reference to the Gentiles who will be saved. Verse 29.

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People from everywhere. From all directions, all shapes and sizes, all colors, all backgrounds. And they'll see these people enter into the kingdom of God. Even the surprising ones. That's what Jesus is talking about in verse 30. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. There's going to be some surprises in heaven. People that you would never think. You might say, that's the last person who I'd ever think would be saved. And they're first in line.

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And then there's also people who you think, for sure that person is going to be saved. They're probably going to be first in line and they're not going to enter in. There's going to be some surprises in heaven, Jesus says. Meanwhile, those who do not enter in will watch the rest go in. Many will weep with regret. And so I must ask, will that be you? Will you be one of those on the outside knocking, surprised that God's not letting you in?

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watching in horror with great regret as others enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus said, strive to enter in. Strive to enter by the narrow gate. This is a hard truth, but it is the truth. And you can wrestle with and grapple with. There's a lot of kind of outlying things to consider around this truth. There's a lot of side issues that you can be wrestling with, but you should make it personal.

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Just as the guy asked the question, are there few who are saved? Jesus looks at him and says, strive. Keep on striving to enter in by the narrow gate. This is not about evaluating whether or not others will be saved. This is not about trying to figure out who's saved and who isn't. Well, if I do this, or if they do that, or if they're with this group, or they're with that group, then are they saved? That's not what this is about. This is about, here's the truth, not many will be saved.

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There'll be many who think that they're saved until they get there. And they'll be filled with regret. Knocking, weeping, but not able to enter in. So don't get distracted by those other thoughts. First, come to grips with the command. You strive. You fight. You struggle. You make it your life's purpose to know Jesus and walk with Him. And that is the perfect thought for us to go into now a time of communion.

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You strive. You make it your life's purpose to know Jesus and walk with Him. That's what communion is all about. So I want to invite the worship team to come up and the ushers are not going to get ready. We're going to do it different today. The hard truth, the reality is that not many will be saved. Many will try to enter. Many will knock with shock when they're not able to enter. Many will weep with regret as they watch others enter in but are not able to enter in themselves.

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This morning as we come to the communion table. I would ask that you partake of communion. And as you do. That you let it be a deliberate choice. To give to Jesus all that you have.

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That you would say, yes Lord, I'm giving all that I have to follow you. I'm making it my life's purpose. The focus, the center of my life is going to be a relationship with you. Because I want to strive to enter in by that narrow gate.

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Jesus gave us the communion elements as a reminder of what he accomplished for us at the cross. The cup represents his blood that was shed. The bread represents his body that was broken that he paid the price. He made the way so that he is the way, the truth, and the life. It's only in him that sins are forgiven. It's only in him that we can have new life. It's only in him that we have the entrance into the kingdom of God.

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So strive. It's a command. It's in the present tense, which means it's not a one-time decision you make a long time ago, but it's a constant decision you make to approach God, to know God, to walk with God by faith in Jesus Christ. And a casual desire is not sufficient. It must be an all-out effort. So what I'm asking you to do this evening, actually this morning, I taught long, but not that long.

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What I'm asking you to do. The ushers aren't going to hand out the cup and the bread. Instead, they're going to lead us in two songs. And as they lead us, at any time, you're free. At any time, come down the middle aisle, because that's the narrow way. Grab your elements. You can take them back to your seat and just partake between you and the Lord. I'm not going to lead you in a prayer. I'm not going to give you any further instruction. Because this is about you and God. And don't partake if it's not...

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A deliberate choice to say, yes, God, I'm living for you with all that I am. And I'm receiving your forgiveness. I'm giving it all to follow you. I'm going to strive to end. Don't put on a show for us. That doesn't help you. It doesn't help us. But you come and partake when you're ready to say, yes, God, I give my life. I'm making it my life's purpose to know you, to walk with you by faith in Jesus Christ.

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And so as they lead us in these songs, at any time, come on up through the narrow way and remember Jesus just as He commanded us to. If you've never received Him, if you realize, hey, I haven't been striving to enter in, you don't have to wait to another time to then be ready. This is the time. Choose right now. Give your life to God. Receive His forgiveness and make that choice to pursue Him.

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to love Him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Let's worship the Lord together and come and partake as you make that choice. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.