Sermons

Introduction

I'm excited, I'm so glad to be here. I do not take this for granted, and I am glad that you are here as well. We are, as a church at Trinity Bible, in a period of transition. And it feels like in this transition that we were about to close one chapter of the church and open another chapter.

And we have been so blessed as a church. And when I consider the last seven and a half years in this first chapter, if you will, it has been amazing, the Lord's provision, the Lord's blessing upon this church. And quite honestly, it's beyond what any of us have ever expected.

And yet, as I say that, I firmly believe that the best is still yet to come. There is a young mother in the audience that about eight months ago met Marilyn and I for dinner with her husband. And she said, “I cannot wait to see what the Lord does next. And it's been a wonderful eight months, but I agree. I cannot wait to see what the Lord does next.

As I look back at the last seven and a half years, probably the most asked question for the elders, the most asked question to me had the subject of pastor. Who are you going to get for your pastor? When are you going to get a pastor? Are you even looking for a pastor? You know who you are. I know who you are. Santa Claus is not the only one keeping the list of who is naughty and nice.

Even our own, very own Andrew Curry sat in my living room about four and a half years ago, and with that soothing Irish accent, he said, after the second service, “Mark, do the elders at Trinity feel any pressure to get a pastor?” Oh, ye of little faith.

You know, at one o'clock today, what’s gonna happen is I'm going to hand the preaching schedule to the new pastor and elder, Andrew Curry, and I'm not gonna worry about it. I may not get up here again, I'm going to break. We sent the punter home. We’re going for it on fourth down today. The answer that I gave Andrew was no, basically no. We are trusting in the Lord’s sovereignty to raise up the right man.

It's interesting. He was surprised. I think he was a little surprised by the answer. It's basically the same answer that I've given many of you over and over again. I don’t think anybody that I gave that answer to was fully satisfied with that answer. Well, I have, praise God, changed my answer. I have a more satisfying answer now. The problem is nobody is asking me the question any longer.

But if somebody came up to me today and said, Mark, do the elders at Trinity feel any pressure to get a pastor? My answer would be simply this, no. The Lord has proved Himself faithful yet again. The Lord has answered prayers even now. The Lord has provided beyond what we could have ever expected, and the Lord has raised up the right man for the right time right now.

So, we are so excited, and I'm fully convinced the best is yet to come.

Before we get too excited, before Andrew takes the pulpit, we have nine verses that we must consider this morning. They are strong and they are sobering, but they are verses that each one of us as individuals need to grapple with. We need to internalize them. We need to understand the meaning of what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying in these verses. And as we go through these verses, I think the application for us today is so obvious that it jumps off the page. But as you're reading and following along, I want you to read this in context of your life.

If you're with me, turn to Luke chapter 13. The verses that we have set before us today are verses 22 through 30. Follow along as I read.

[Scripture] “And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching and proceeding on his way to Jerusalem. And someone said to him, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? And He said to them, strive to enter through the narrow gate. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house  gets up and shuts the door and answer and 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. Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank had your presence and you taught in our streets. And he will say, “I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me all you evil doers. In that place, 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 you yourselves thrown out. And they will come from east and west and from north and south and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

[Prayer] Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask for His help. Dear Heavenly Father, what a wonderful passage. I pray, Lord, that Your word would sink into each and every one of our minds today, that we would seek to reconcile these words with our lives. Lord, that we would take these words and internalize them and struggle with them and have dealings with them. I pray, Lord, that You would pour Your spirit out upon Your Word, Lord, that You would affect each and every one of us. And Lord, I pray that You would draw Your people to Yourself. I pray, Lord, that You would open the eyes of the blind, that You would, the spiritually blind,  I pray, Lord, that You would change the heart of the wicked and that You would point them to the Lord Jesus Christ. To You be the glory, we pray these things in Christ's name, amen.” [End]

Teaching The Kingdom of God

I have titled this passage, “The Day of Salvation is Today.” And I've broken these verses into three sections. The first is “Teaching the Kingdom of God.” It's verse 22 and the beginning of verse 23:

“He was passing through from one city and village to another teaching and proceeding on his way to Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?”

Luke is presenting the Lord Jesus Christ as Israel's long expected Messiah. Luke is also presenting the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of all types of men, of mankind, of the people that are even lowly and downcast. And at this point, I think to really set up these verses and to dig into these verses, we need to consider what was going on in Israel, what the mindset was when Jesus was speaking these words. I don't wanna miss the context because I think it is so critical for us to understand what is being said.

At that time in Israel, the Jews were expecting God to send them a Messiah, the Christ as we would translate it in Greek, the Messiah to restore the kingdom to Israel. They were looking forward to a Messianic kingdom. They pictured it in the light of David, a Davidic kingdom, a kingdom that would subdue all the foes, defeat all the enemies. This kingdom would have the glory and the splendor of Solomon. And all those that were physically from the line of Abraham would be in this kingdom. That's what the rabbis taught. That was the thought. That’s what the people were hoping for. That's what the people were expecting. Paul even uses this play on words in Romans 11 when he's talking about the hardening of Israel today and future salvation when he says, “all Israel will be saved.” That was the mindset. In this Messianic kingdom, all the nations of the earth would be drawn to Israel, and they would come in submission under the king. That was the vision. The Lord knew that. The Lord Jesus knew that. He knew that that was the expectation of the people, that they were looking for that type of Messianic king.

It's interesting that thought even perpetrated the thought of the disciples after the resurrection. If you're in Luke, turn forward to Luke part two, the book of Acts. Acts chapter one and look at verse three. Acts chapter one, verse three:

“To these,” (the apostles whom Jesus had chosen,) “to these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering,” (this is Him in his glorified body, this is after the resurrection.) “By many convincing proofs appearing to them for a period of over 40 days, speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.”

That's our subject before us today. Skip down to verse six. He’s teaching them for 40 days. This is after the resurrection:

And “so when they,” (the apostles) “had come together, they were asking Him,” (they were asking Jesus) “Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

That was the predominant thought of the day that they would throw off the Romans. While Israel was looking for a conquering king, what we think of in the second coming, which will be fulfilled in the second coming of Christ, they missed the first coming of Christ. They missed the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. They missed that the Lord Jesus Christ came to call sinners to repentance. They missed the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross to bear the wrath of the Father due sin. They missed when He was on the cross that He was quoting Psalm 22 when He said, “my God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” They missed it.

What Israel was expecting they did not get. What Israel was putting their trust in, that they were physical children of Abraham, which they thought was enough to enter the kingdom of God, because they thought the kingdom of God was their birthright. And Jesus knew all this. And He knew that Israel had misplaced hope. He knew their thoughts and their beliefs, and He challenged them with His teaching of the kingdom of God.

So, Luke writes, if you're back in Luke chapter 13, Jesus was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. What was He teaching? What was the subject? The subject is the kingdom of God. Do you remember the verses from last week? Look up at verse 18. “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?” Verse 20, “to what shall I compare the kingdom of God?” He's teaching the kingdom of God. So, let's dig a little deeper.

Let's define what is the kingdom of God? What is He teaching? The kingdom of God really has two views. It has a future view, and it has a view here and now. In the future view, we view the kingdom of God, and we think of the kingdom of God where we picture the Lord Jesus Christ as the reigning king. There is rule, there is a realm, there is reign. The Sovereign King is upon the earth. Jesus' physical reign is in Jerusalem. It's the millennial kingdom. It's what to come. That is the kingdom of God, future. But there's a part of the kingdom of God that is now, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ reigning in the hearts of all His people. It's the Lord Jesus Christ reigning in the hearts of all who believe. He's proclaiming the gospel. He's proclaiming the good news of salvation. He is proclaiming how one enters into the kingdom of God. He is the entrance to the kingdom of God. All those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have been delivered from the domain of darkness and they’ve been transferred into the kingdom of His beloved Son.

In John 10, Jesus in the parable of the good shepherd, He says, “I am the door” in verse nine. “If anyone enters through me, he will be saved. And he will go in and out and find pasture.” Verse 10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

The kingdom of God is salvation now and it is gained by the means of faith. The kingdom of God is entered now by the new birth, by being born again, by being born of God. Remember the conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God is growing. It is growing right now, one soul at a time, and it's growing in a way that isn't really even visible to us. That was the analogy that Jesus just used in verse 21 about the leaven. You put a little leaven into the flour and mix it in, and over time, that little leaven affects all the flour, but you don't see it happening. It's the gospel going forth right now, one soul at a time, drawing God's elect to the Lord Jesus Christ, one soul at a time. It's the kingdom of God.

Go forward to Luke chapter 17. The Lord Jesus Christ talks about the spiritual nature of the kingdom of God, and it has application for us today. Verse 20, it's the same question that’s being asked all throughout this gospel. “Now having been questioned,” verse 20, “by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming,” (That was the Jewish mindset.) “Jesus answered them and said, the kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, look, here it is, or there it is. For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst. It is here, it is now, and I am telling you, (the Lord Jesus Christ is saying) how to enter the kingdom of God.”

He is passing from one city and village to another, and He's proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. In Luke's gospel, in chapter nine and verse 51, it sets Jesus's march to the cross in motion. Luke 9:51 says, He resolutely set his face towards Jerusalem. He won't get to Jerusalem until Luke chapter 19, verse 27. This has been the travel log. The route that He is taking is not a direct route, but it's His purpose to go through all the villages and cities, primarily in Judea, all the way to the cross.

He's, as He's going through all these villages, and as He's talking to all these people that are Jewish, who think that they're already in the kingdom of God, He is going as an evangelist. He's preaching the gospel as an evangelist. He's teaching the kingdom of God. He is the best, think about this. He's the best evangelist. He’s the best preacher because there's never been anyone born of a woman who knew, was more acquainted with the good news of salvation. The good news of salvation was in Him. Today is the day of salvation. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He was preaching and teaching Himself all the signs and all the miracles that the Lord Jesus Christ did. They attested that He was sent by God. They attested to the fact he was the Son of God. And they gave credence to everything that came out of His mouth was from the scriptures and that it was true. He preached with authority because He is the very embodiment of the gospel.

In Luke four, when He starts his public ministry, He said to the multitude that was searching for Him, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” So, He kept preaching in the synagogues of Judea. That's the Lord Jesus Christ's purpose, that's His direction. He is going to the cross and He is sharing the gospel.

Verse 23, somebody who's following Him says to Him in one of these cities and villages, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? If we just take this statement at face value, this is probably a disciple of Christ. And He's probably hearing the Lord Jesus Christ and the words of the gospel and entrance into the kingdom of God and trying to reconcile that with the Jewish mindset that all the sons and daughters of Abraham would be saved. And so, He asked the question, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? Have you ever caught yourself in a crowd looking to the right and the left and just wondering to yourself, Lord, maybe asking the Lord, are there any righteous here? Are there any righteous in Christ here? Are there any that I rub shoulders within my daily life? At work, at school, wherever, whatever station of life you are in, you look to the left and you look to the right, and you go, Lord, it doesn't seem like there are many. So, I think that we can identify with the question.

The term saved. John MacArthur said, “When we say someone is saved, we are saying that they are saved from God and they're saved by God.” That's what's being saved. That's what's being said. The one who is being saved is being saved from the wrath of God to the penalty of sin. And the one who is being saved is saved by the grace of God and the grace of God alone. It’s fascinating that as He's marching to Jerusalem, this person asked the Lord Jesus Christ about those that were being saved. Well, this man obviously had heard Christ teach. The reason he's asking the Lord Jesus Christ the question is because the Lord Jesus Christ had a message of salvation. He knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was preaching salvation, that He was teaching entrance into the kingdom of God. That is teaching the kingdom of God.

Entrance Into the Kingdom of God

Second section, “Entrance into the Kingdom of God.” The last little bit of verse 23, all the way down to 27. The Lord Jesus Christ responds to this question by changing the focus of the question completely. And he said to them, verse 24,

“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

The Lord Jesus Christ takes the question that looks at others, looks outward and says, how many are being saved? And He says, what about you? Are you saved? It goes from outward to inward, because the real question in life is, are you saved? Instead of, it's so easy for us to look at others, tell you what's wrong with other people, to be so critical of other people, and yet we often skip right by ourselves. On the appointed day, each one of us will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. That conversation's not gonna be about your neighbor. It's gonna be about you. And the question is, are you ready for that day? Are you ready for the conversation you're gonna have with the Lord Jesus Christ?  Are you sure that you are in right standing with God? Again, He’s not gonna ask about your brother, He's gonna ask about you.

I think we're somewhat surprised by the answer that the Lord Jesus Christ gives. It's not the message that we typically hear. Strive to enter through the narrow door. Strive, agonizami. It pictures an athlete giving maximum effort, giving effort to the point of agony. It pictures a runner that has run as hard as he can and collapsing at the finish line. It's giving everything that you have. The word here is translated strive. It's also translated as fighting. In John 18, the Lord Jesus Christ is before Pilate and He says, “my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting (agonizomai) so that I would not be handed over to the Jews, but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.” Paul tells Timothy in the first letter to Timothy, chapter six, verse 12, “fight (agonizomai) the good fight of faith, take hold of eternal life to which you were called, and you make the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

So as a believer, when I hear these words from the Lord Jesus Christ, I go, okay, in what way am I to strive and fight? In what way in the Christian life am I to strive and fight? And what the Lord Jesus is saying here is you and I need to make every effort possible to enter the narrow door of salvation. We are to strive; we are to do it as much as we can to the best of our ability. There is nothing more important seek the Lord Jesus while he can be found. The narrow door that we are striving towards is the exclusive way of salvation. It is the narrow door. It's the only door. It's the narrow door because it's the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We’ve already defined that in John chapter 10. He's the door that leads to salvation. This door is so narrow that you are not bringing anything with you in this door. There's nothing to commend yourself to. There are no good works. There is nothing that you can hang your hat on. As the hymn goes, “nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress.  Helpless look for thee for grace.” You come just by yourself. It's the narrow door. There’s nothing that you add coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Europe, there are great cathedrals. Much of them are empty, but they’re great cathedrals. And one of the things that my family likes to do is we like to go to the very top of the cathedral. And often you have to pay a little bit more, and it leads you to this little staircase. The steps proceed without end. You get dizzy going around and up and up. And the further you go up, the narrower the walls get. I don't know if you've ever been in one of these, the Duomo or something like that. And depending on your size and your height, you are just trying to squeeze through. It just is, you get to a pinch point where you go, I don't know if I'm gonna make it. That’s the narrow door; that's the picture here. This striving that the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about, it's nothing new. It’s all over the Old Testament. I'm gonna read you a few verses.

Isaiah 55:6. “Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.”

Jeremiah 29:13, “you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.”

Moses in Deuteronomy writes in chapter 4:29, “but from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

I wanna be crystal clear here. I wanna make sure that we’re not confused at all. The believer is saved by the grace of God alone. It is the gift of God. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished salvation at the cross. The resurrection is proof that the Father accepted the payment made on your behalf. If you have any questions that salvation is of the Lord, see Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. Salvation is from the Lord. At the same time, you and I are commanded to believe. It is an act of the human will. You must believe. You'll believe because of the prompting of the Holy Spirit. You'll believe because of the grace that God pours out upon you. You will believe because the Lord has given you a new heart. You will believe because the Lord has made you able to do so. But we come to the Lord Jesus Christ by the means of faith. The Scottish minister, Alistair McLaren said, “we are not saved by effort, but we shall not believe without effort.” And that's so true. We fight a battle, and the battle that we fight is against ourselves. The enemy is ourselves and the world. We have seen the enemy, and he is us. The battle for the believer is forsaking self, forsaking this world and following the Lord Jesus Christ.

Go back to Luke chapter nine with me. We've already covered this. The calling is high. The effort is great. This is following the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 23 of Luke chapter nine, Jesus says:

“If anyone wishes to come after me, He must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. (That's the person living for himself.) But whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it.”

It will cost you everything and you will gain even more. That's the Christian life. Jesus says:

“For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

Not only is the way of salvation narrow in the Lord Jesus Christ, not only is the way of salvation exclusive, not only is the Lord Jesus Christ the only way to the Father, it even seems as if it even gets tighter and more restrictive in the fact that the door of salvation is only open for a limited time. When you take your last breath, and who knows when that will be, when you take your last breath, your fate, your eternal fate, your eternal destiny is set forever without change. The day of salvation is today. This door, the offer of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, it's here today. All you and I have is today. All you and I have is this moment.

It reminds me of the cute sign in the ice cream shop where the sign says free ice cream tomorrow. It's never tomorrow. The ice cream is never free. If you say or saying in your heart, I will deal with the Lord Jesus Christ tomorrow. I have stuff I need to do today. I will deal with this tomorrow. Not only will tomorrow never come, but you will find yourself waking upside, outside the kingdom of God. Look at verse 25. “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door,” this is the door to the kingdom of God, “and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door saying, ‘Lord, open to us.’ And he will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.”

The Lord knows everyone. He knows where everyone is from, but He does not know these people unto salvation. And that's the point. Verse 26, “then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets. And he will say, ‘I tell you, (here's the second time,) I do not know where you are from, depart from me all you evildoers.’”

These people think that they're in the kingdom of God. The door is shut, life is ended, and they wake up and they find that they are not in the kingdom of God. This is so parallel to Matthew chapter seven. Turn back with me to Matthew chapter seven. If you've been in the adult class, you’ve heard Matt, and I go to this verse quite a bit. Verse 21, Matthew 7:21. “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.” The play is the tension is between the word say and the word do. “Not everyone who says to me will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does.” Between saying and doing, “but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you.’” Unto salvation. ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

The Jews that Jesus is talking to believed that they had secured entrance into the kingdom of God. And they wake up after death to the eternal surprise that they are not in the kingdom of God. Can you imagine the deception? Can you imagine the eternal consequence of a miscalculation? Those that think that they were in right standing of God only to find out they were not in right standing of God with God and they were never in the kingdom of God.

You know, earlier in this chapter in Luke chapter 13, we looked at in verses six through nine, the fig tree. The fig tree is the person who doesn't produce fruit and they're cast away, cut down. But the fig tree also represents Israel and all the blessings that Israel had had. The oracles of God, the chosen people of God. And they were fruitless, they did not believe. And so, is it great to have spiritual privilege? Yes. Is it great to be here this morning? Yes. Is it great to be a child of Abraham? Yes. Is it great that you have Christian parents? Is it great that they were God’s chosen people? Yes, it's great if your parents are believers. Yes, they had the oracles of God. Yes, it's great if you have a Study Bible. But they did not have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. An entrance into the kingdom of God is faith.

Think about Israel's history. It's been this way all throughout the Old Testament. The Lord raises up Moses to lead millions out of Egypt. And they grumble. And they grumble. They've seen the mighty hand of God. They've gone through the Red Sea. He's feeding them daily with manna. And they grumble. And all perished in the wilderness except Joshua and Caleb. They were the only two that made it into the promised land. They were the ones of faith. It is not enough to have spiritual privilege.

They looked, think about this, they looked at Abraham as their father. They had Abraham’s DNA. But when we look at Abraham, we know that Abraham is the father of faith. That in Genesis 15:6, he looked at the stars of the heavens, he believed the promises of God, and the Lord credited it to him, accounted to him righteousness. It's always been a faith; it will always be a faith. So, Paul writes to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 6, “behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.” All you and I have is this moment. All we have is today.

Jesus says that when they shut the door, they will say that they knew Him. that they walked with him, that they saw Him, they ate with Him, they were in the synagogue, they listened to his teaching. Andrew, when he taught this, talked about this as proximity to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone here this morning has proximity to the Lord Jesus Christ. But Andrew said, the thing that they were missing was intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t confuse proximity with intimacy. Do you know that the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins at the cross? Are you a new creature in Christ? That's the question.

“I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.” A good question is, do you know Jesus? That's a good question. Do you know Jesus? The better question is, does Jesus know you? That's the best question. If God is Lord of salvation, if it is the Lord, the one who is the one who saves. I hope the Lord knows you because He’s the only one that can save you. It's great if you know Jesus, it’s better if he knows you. Depart from me, I never knew you. That's what happens at the end.

John 6, turn with me to John 6. Forward to John 6. Verse 27. It goes back to this striving, this “agonizumai.” Jesus tells them in verse 27, “do not work for food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give to you, for on him the father God has set his seal. Therefore, they said to Him, what shall we do? That we may work the works of God?” Great question. Jesus answered and said to them, “this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” You and I, in order to lay hold of salvation, it is given through the means of faith, you and I have to believe. That is what we are called to do.

Participants In The Kingdom of God

Third section, last section. “Participants in The Kingdom of God,” verses 28 through 30. The results of who in the final day, in the final analysis, who's in the kingdom of God, who’s not in the kingdom of God, to man will be shocking. Many surprises will be revealed, but not to the Lord. He's the one who knows who are His. He has saved His people. He knows exactly what the roll call will be. But there will be those who are surprised as they're outside the kingdom of God, looking in, verse 28.

“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.”

Now, Jesus' audience is primarily the Jews, the sons and daughters of Abraham. Again, they thought they were in the kingdom of God. And he is telling them; you will be surprised at the end of your unbelieving lives. This is the door, you have rejected the door, and you will be cast out from what you think you have. And He says, there will be weeping. It's the weeping of remorse. It's not the weeping of repentance. It's the weeping of remorse. There will be fierce anger and hatred eternally against God. That's the gnashing of teeth. Can you imagine the eternity of that condition? Somehow, as the Lord describes it, they're able to see who is in the kingdom of God and who is not. We're gonna get to it in a couple weeks, but in Luke 16, my mind goes to Luke 16 with the rich man and Lazarus.

The rich man and Lazarus both die, the rich man is in Hades, and he can see Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom being comforted. And he calls out and says, send him to dip his finger in water, that it may touch the tip of my tongue, for I am in agony here. And Abraham says, there is a chasm, a great chasm between us and it is fixed. He is in the torment of hell. He is in the eternity of hell. He is eternally paying for his sins. I think it's beyond what the mind can bear. As we concentrate as much as we can on hell, it is so fearful, it's so frightening. I don’t even think we even want to go there.

For Israel, this picture that the Lord is painting even gets worse. Not only are they on the outside looking in at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but there are people that they thought were outside the kingdom of God that are in their places in the kingdom of God. And specifically, it’s the Gentiles. They can't believe that the pagans, the Gentiles, the uncircumcised, are in the kingdom of God, verse 29. “And they will come from east and west and from north and south and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.” They thought that they had salvation locked up and that everyone else was on the outside looking in. This has always been God's plan of salvation. Israel was God's chosen people,  but all the way back to the promises made to Abram, made to Abraham  in Genesis 12:3, “The Lord said, in you, all the nations,  the Gentiles, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”  So, they're on the outside looking in. Jesus in verse 30 continues:  

“And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

In the final analysis, The Lord turns everything upside down. It's always upside down because our logic is so warped. And it's always surprising to us from a human condition. For a time, Israel has rejected the Messiah. It has ushered in the age of the Gentiles, the church age, because the Lord has poured out His grace upon the Gentiles. He has brought them to faith according to the sovereign hand of God. And so, Israel thought it was first, they thought of the Gentiles were last, and everything has been upside down. There's also another way to take this verse. The Lord saves the low and the downtrodden. As He looks at the heart. The Lord saves those that are poor in spirit, and the proud and the self-righteous are cast down. Everything that is last shall be first. Everything that is first shall be last. The Lord knows the heart. That’s what the Lord looks at. Today is the day of salvation. Turn to the Lord and seek Him with all you have. Participants in the kingdom.

Conclusion

In Pilgrim's Progress, as you read about the narrow door, your mind may have gone to Christian and his journey through Pilgrim’s Progress. The journey is difficult. He falls into the swamp of despair. He is convinced to go to the city of morality by the worldly-wise man. He finally gets to Goodwill, and Goodwill says to Christian, “we refuse entrance to no sincere pilgrim, not standing all the wickedness they have done before they arrive here. Therefore, my friend, come with me and I will teach you about the way in which you may go. Look ahead of you. Do you see the narrow way? This is the way you must go. It is built by the patriarchs, prophets, Christ, and his apostles, and is as straight as can be. This is the only way that you must go.” The question, the application. That each and one of us need to grapple with. Are you sure that you're in the kingdom of God? There's no more important question for you. With everything that you have, strive that you may be, seek the Lord while He may be found. Because in the end, when the accounts are settled, you’re either gonna be inside the kingdom or outside the kingdom. May the Lord help you to do that.

Let's pray.

[Prayer] Dear Heavenly Father, You have poured out your blessing upon Your people. You know the heart. You know the condition of each and every one of us. I pray, Lord, that Your people would be sure that they are in You, that when they see the Lord Jesus Christ, they know that He has paid for their sins, and they are clothed in His righteousness and His righteousness alone.  And Lord, for those that appear to be outside the kingdom, I pray, Lord, that You would draw them with your grace and mercy, that You would open their eyes, that they would repent and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. To the praise of your glory, we ask these things in Christ's name, amen. [End]