"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 door, 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 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.’ 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, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you workers of unrighteousness.’ 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 yourselves being cast 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."
Good Morning my beloved,
We are as always pleased to welcome you to worship today in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, it is both an honor and a privilege to have you here with us today this Lord's Day. It is always a blessing to witness the Lord's grace and mercy at work not only in my own life, but in your lives, reminding me that God is faithful to His people, even when we're not. I humbly ask that you would please continue to pray for this ministry as we continue to work to introduce the Gospel and Jesus Christ to a number of countries where the Gospel less than welcome. As we continue to praise God for the significant increase of those who have already come to faith in Jesus Christ. To God be the glory! I pray that you realize how incredibly blessed we are to be able to come together, give our attention to our Lord and His precious Word without fear of persecution, as many around the world continue to give their lives to Christ, knowing they will soon die for their faith.
Deliverance from sin may not feel like a familiar word in modern Christianity but it certainly a central theme in both the Old and New Testament, reflecting God’s redemptive work in freeing believers from spiritual bondage. Jesus is not just a Savior, His work goes beyond forgiveness. He is our Deliverer, freeing those who will submit to His lordship from sin’s power. Because Satan is operating in the pulpits of many "Christian churches," masquerading as an angel of light, deliverance" has become a neglected teaching, often dismissed as culturally irrelevant or outdated, taking a backseat to the spiritual deception of tolerance and acceptance of sin, in order to present evil as good.
1 John 2: 3-6, says "And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." Instead of asking people if they're saved, we should be asking if they've been delivered from sin, walking in the same manner as He walked. In Colossians 1:13–14, Paul declares that God "has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins," emphasizing a radical spiritual transformation, freed from the power of sin.
Look at Romans 6, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you go on presenting yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were given over, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification." If you are born-again, you have been delivered from sin, unrighteousness, ungodliness, and death, into righteousness, godliness, sanctification, and eternal life. That means you can no longer celebrate both a former sinful "identity" and new "born-again" status in Christ, your new nature cannot coexist with a lifestyle of deliberate, habitual sin, because they are diametrically opposed to one another.
2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come!"
Every follower of Christ needs to ask themselves, "Who am I? Does my life reflect my born-again status?" If you are self-indulgent, if you're materialistic, if you're irresponsible with the resources God has given you, you're just not committed to heaven. You're just not committed to living as someone who has been redeemed in Christ Because once you're redeemed, you are not your own, you’ve been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19–20), and your life is meant to reflect that new identity. The Christian life is about choosing to follow Christ, its not about perfection but about daily intentional surrender— even when you fail, allowing Christ to transform you from the inside out. The direction of the Christian life is continuously moving toward holiness, and away from complacency in sin, because the Holy Spirit convicts, disciplines, and renews, ensuring that the believer does not remain comfortable in sin. Salvation is an act by which God delivers you from error to Truth. So, I want to encourage you to ask yourself, what is the direction of your life? Are you comfortable living in what the Bible calls sin? Do find yourself feeling convicted when you read God's Word or do you look for ways to re-interpret Scripture to accommodate your sin? Better to be honest with yourself, because the consequences of being self-deceived are eternal.
1 John 3:9 states: "No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." The phrase "cannot sin" is not intended to suggest that Christians can never commit isolated individual acts of sin. But, rather refers to the inability to live in a continual, habitual pattern of sin. Therefore, if anyone lives a life or lifestyle of persistent, unrepentant sin it rightfully raises the question about the authenticity of their profession of faith. (1 John 2:19) By definition, the new nature produces righteousness, not a dual allegiance to sin and holiness. If you're a Christian and not going to church because you dislike the people there, you might want to consider you're going to be spending eternity with them. I get it, some people are more difficult to love than others. You and I are two of them. I'm just saying, make an effort to find a way to practice loving imperfect people now, because you can't live stream heaven.
That's not to say that anyone should stay in a toxic church. But seek a church where the Truth is boldly proclaimed, the love is real and you’re challenged to become more like Christ. In Romans 5:5, Paul states that "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." This means God’s love is actively poured into believers’ hearts through the Holy Spirit, who is given as a gift upon faith in Christ. Don't think for a minute that corrupt people don't know they're corrupt. They just don't like anybody exposing what they do. They resent it, Jesus said in John 3:19, "And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil." It's as Jesus said in Matthew 7, there's two kinds of religious houses, one that has a foundation and one that doesn't. The foundation is hearing and obeying the word.
In Matthew 24:37–39, Jesus said that when He returns it will be just as it was in the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, people were going about their normal lives, when the flood came, they were unprepared and there were only a righteous few who were saved, rescued from the coming Judgment. They weren't unprepared because they weren't warned, Noah warned them for over 100 years, they were swept away in the Judgment because they didn't listen. And, its the same today, you can warn and warn and warn, only a few will hear and obey. Jesus emphasizes this again and again and again. Psalm 135:17 says, "They have ears, but they do not hear, Surely, there is not any breath in their mouths." The absence of breath indicates their lack of spiritual life and vitality. They're spiritually dead, utterly incapable of hearing, speaking, or breathing. Be careful who and what you worship, only God, is the source of all life and the Sustainer of life. Similarly, Jeremiah 5:21 is a prophetic rebuke condemning the people of Judah's foolishness and lack of understanding, despite having the capacity to see and hear God’s truth, calling them "simpleminded fools and without a heart of wisdom." The passage emphasizes though God's people are physically capable of seeing and hearing, they are spiritually blind and deaf—unresponsive to God’s warnings, wisdom, and works. Jesus later echoed the same sentiment in Matthew 13:13 to describe those who resist God’s message. In a call to personal repentance and a declaration of divine sovereignty, Paul boldly declares in Acts 17:30-31, "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”
I dare say not much has changed with the professed people of God today, despite repeated warnings, their sin and willful ignorance causes them to fail to tremble before Him, mistaking their religious activity for relationship. This is a frightening indication of their spiritual condition because they purported to be the true worshippers of God. It is a painful truth to apply, that God's people are often the exact opposite of what they believe themselves to be. It is a painful truth to apply, that God's people are often the exact opposite of what they believe themselves to be. It's not at all surprising that many people who sit in churches, week after week, listening to the Word of God boldly proclaimed, will one day find themselves suffering in Hell, where there is no relief from a relentlessly accusing conscience and the shame of a life of sin and rejection of the Truth of God.
It's better to be offended now, that to wake up shocked later to find yourself in a horrible eternal existence!
Let's pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we are so grateful for Your Word, for the profound clarity with which it speaks to our hearts, convicting us of our sin. We all have relatives, spouses, children, parents, those around us associated with us who have the dangerous assumption they are headed for Heaven, but are in reality headed for Hell. We going to enter Heaven because we have sinned less than others, or because we went to the right church, we will only enter Heaven because we have believed the Scripture: that we need to repent, and turn away from our sin, and put our trust in a gracious, loving and merciful God, Who sent His Son to die on the cross for those who turn to Him as Savior, and surrender to His Lordship. Lord, help us to all run to the safety of the cross and confess our sin daily, to be diligent in proclaiming Gospel to those we know and love, calling them to repentance. May we who have been redeemed live every day in gratitude for this precious gift we have received. We ask and pray these things in Christ's name, for Your glory and for His sake.
Amen.
Today's Message: The Narrow Door - Part 2
Open our Bibles with me to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 13, verses twenty-two through thirty. I pray that you will follow along with me as I read with an open heart to set the text in minds, as we conclude our study on this very difficult to accept portion of Scripture, picking up where we left off at verse 26. While we should and do rejoice in our own salvation, we can't help but to deeply saddened by the reality that we are only the few.
"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 door, 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 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.’ 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, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you workers of unrighteousness.’ 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 yourselves being cast 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."
When we left off in our last message with some horribly terrifying words from our Lord. "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.’" When the door of opportunity closes, those who are not prepared will find themselves excluded, despite their pleas. Those excluded will claim familiarity. The Lord's response is significant, in that it emphasizes that no appeal will succeed. Mere association without genuine faith and transformation is insufficient for salvation. Sin separates humanity from a holy God, and Jesus has been repeatedly warning that "eternal punishment" awaits the unrighteous, as He continues to proclaim the message of salvation and forgiveness. The thought of our loved ones being eternally separated from God, tormented in Hell is heartbreaking. The most loving act we can do is to warn our loved ones and others who are on the road to destruction and share the Good News, that the way to eternal life is through faith in Christ.
Let's look at verse 26, "Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’" Friends, it's important to recognize there is a very serious danger of being around the church where the Truth is proclaimed without truly belonging to Him and willing obedience in love to His commands. Superficial faith, self-deception, and spiritual blindness often lead to false assurance of salvation, and has severe consequences, because it renders individuals unable to recognize their own spiritual condition, despite outward their claims of association. There are wheat, those with genuine faith and there are tares, those who are false professors with phony faith in every church. While the tares outwardly appear to be Christian, through church attendance, service, and even preaching, yet they lack the fruit of inward authentic transformation. 1 John 3:4-5 states: "Everyone who does sin also does lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin." In other words, though someone may appear to be Christian, the habitual pattern of their life reveals they belong to the evil one. Usually when you go to church and you hear the preacher preach and teach the Gospel and somewhere is the service is an invitation to come to Christ by accepting Him into your heart, by praying a prayer. But, that's not the invitation that Jesus offers, He said "Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." They will not be saved because they were unable overcome their pride, their desire to control own their lives, ultimately losing the battle with their own sin.
The narrow door is a powerful metaphor for the exclusive and demanding path to salvation, which requires intense effort, humility, repentance, and total surrender that can only be accomplished by trusting Christ alone, in sharp contrast to the broad road of selfish desire, self-rule and unrestrained sin that leads to destruction. Personally, I believe this is one of the most terrifying statements Jesus ever made, that many people are going to want to enter the kingdom and aren't going to be able to in spite of what they thought, because they're not really saved. Its sad to say, but I don't believe that much of the church today really understands why Jesus came. He came not only to forgive sins, but also call sinners to repentance and grant them true freedom from the power of sin in their lives through His resurrection, which confirms that sin’s power has been broken, giving us the power by the indwelling Holy Spirit to live righteously and bear good fruit. But the key to accessing that power over sin, is to completely surrender to Christ and dying to self daily to allow Christ to live through you. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." If you want to be saved to must to be willing to abandon everything for Christ, even your own life. If you keep your life, ultimately you lose it.
Why are they shut out? I'll tell you its not because their sin was worse than anyone else's. It's because they chose to keep their own lives temporarily, but tragically in doing so, they lost their lives eternally. Salvation is a mutually exclusive shared relationship between you and Christ, you abide in Christ and He abides in you. Scripture affirms that those truly united to Christ are secure in Him, there is no way to separate the two, because it is both a present reality and a continuing ongoing union. (Romans 8:38-39), unless you really never had an authentic union with Christ. 1 John 2:19, "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us." They begin to panic, they think they've been forgotten, or accidently left out, so they say, "Hey, we're part of the group. Remember, we ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’
In verse 27, "And He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you workers of unrighteousness.’" I don't know you, depart from Me; You're not part of my kingdom, all you workers of unrighteousness. Their sin weren't covered, talk about a crushing reality. Don't be deceived into believing this isn't some isolated teaching, He said essentially the same thing in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’" A true relationship with Christ is defined by loving obedience produced by genuine faith, not merely a list of religious traditions or man-made rules kept human effort. In John 14:15, Jesus said "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Obedience is not burdensome or legalistic, but a natural expression coming from a grateful, transformed heart. In contrast, greater punishment comes to those who trample underfoot the blood of the covenant.
Verse 28, "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 yourselves being cast out." This passage serves as a sobering reminder that Hell is not only real, it is painful consequence of unbelief and disobedience. This is the anguish of profound sorrow and remorse experienced by those who find themselves irreversibly excluded from God’s kingdom and and the joy of the redeemed. How will they know? That's why they're will be weeping and grinding their teeth in futile remorse over their unwillingness to abandon their pride, their sin and their self-righteousness and their willingness to cry out, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" Luke 18:14b, says "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." Apparently, there is some knowledge of those that are not there in Hell and known to be in the kingdom of God, like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets. And, to make things even worse, the kingdom will be full of those they didn't expect to make it, for the Jews that would be all the Gentiles, whom they hated so much. One would think that such a prayer as "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" that has such a profound expression of heartfelt repentance, humble dependence would be practiced daily with head bowed, by every believer. Confession is not a one-time event, but are a part of our continuous relationship with God as 1 John 1:9 suggests, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
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." I love this. Here we see a future event that reflects the fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham, where all nations would be blessed—people from all directions, east, west, north, and south—will enter God’s kingdom and share in a heavenly banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, underscoring that genuine faith, not lineage, is what will determines one's place at this heavenly table. I believe this is the fulfillment of the Great Commission, when Jesus commanded all believers to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Bold proclamation of the Gospel that confronts people with sin will go one of two ways. It will either cause people to feel bad and repent or they will feel attacked and become angry and react. Today, we are reluctant to tell people the Truth, we don't want to hurt someone’s feelings, even if holding back the Truth will ultimately result in eternal Hell. Personally, I do not believe the Truth is the problem—its how we deliver the Truth that is.
That brings us to verse 30, "And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last." This is such a wonderful reversal, some of those who are humble, overlooked, or considered least important in this life may be exalted in eternity, while those who are proud, powerful, or self-righteous now may find themselves last if they reject God’s grace. The whole point is that you don't need to know how many will be saved, whether few or many is for God to know. What you do need to know is this, it's going to be an agonizing battle, squeezing through the narrow door and you need to live this life, in light of eternity because you do not know how long you have left on this earth, but no matter how long you have, your time is limited. And, if you have surrendered all to Christ, when you get to God's heavenly banquet, everyone is going to be equal, enjoying the blessings of salvation.
The reality is, that most people lack genuine repentance, unaware of it necessity to achieve salvation or they are self deceived by false assurance. The unfortunate result is, that many feel sorry over the consequences of their sin, but do not view their sin as an offense against a holy God, to the point of true brokenness and turning away from their sin. Without genuine repentance, faith is superficial, insufficient to lead to salvation without regret as described in 2 Corinthians 7:9-11, which says "I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to repentance. For you were made to have godly sorrow, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For godly sorrow produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world brings about death. For behold what earnestness this very thing—this godly sorrow—has brought about in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter."
Genuine repentance is not an optional add-on to the Christian faith—it is essential for true Christian, since the Bible consistently links repentance with forgiveness and eternal life. While God commands all people to repent (Acts 17:30), the ability to truly repent is a precious gift from our gracious God bestowed upon us by His grace and is the foundation of our ability to change. If you have not authentically repented, turning away from your sin, I encourage you to confess your sin, turn to Christ in faith, and cry out for His mercy. And may God grant you the gift of genuine repentance leading to salvation today.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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