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Sermon for Sunday April 10, 2022 The Narrow Door
You want to put a heading on your notes this morning? You're just as well to put the heading that is in most Bibles, the narrow door, for that is what this passage of Scripture is about. It is about the narrow door, the narrow way.
In the text today, we will see immediately how the Gospel writer is pointing to the fact and he uses these terms, journeying toward Jerusalem. You'll remember some months ago now, some chapters ago now in Luke, that really Christ set on his journey toward Jerusalem and he has not assuaged, he has not turned aside, he has not looked back.
He is fixed and he is focused on Jerusalem. For it is in Jerusalem that he must go to. It is Jerusalem that he must travel to because it is at Jerusalem where he will be mocked, tortured, crucified, slain, hung on a cross between the heavens and the earth.
It is there in which he becomes the propitiation for our sins. And so as he began his earthly ministry, so he faithfully carries out the message of the good news of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God having come to earth.
You'll recall back early in Luke again, as well as in the other Gospel accounts, when he came out of the wilderness temptation, he set into preaching and the preaching, the message was this, repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
And he has not swerved from that message. It is still the Kingdom of God that he is teaching and preaching and proclaiming. Certainly, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is, quote unquote, good news. It is only good news to those who receive the word in truth by faith.
Good morning, y 'all, who receive the word in truth by faith. And for those who deny and reject the message, it is definitely not good news, but rather bad news. And so this is kind of the bookends, the good news of the Gospel and the bad news of the Gospel.
If you remember, if you have heard it in your lifetime, have you ever had anybody come to you and say, I've got good news and I've got bad news? And then they always ask the question, which do you want first?
Well, it don't really matter here. The good news in the context of this circumstance here is that the King has arrived. The King has come. For those who believe by faith, the bad news is the King has come.
For those who deny and reject the truth of the Gospel. So the Gospel truly is good news and it is bad news. It is good news to those who are called by faith unto salvation. It is bad news who reject the message and deny it.
Now, if this were a scene in a movie, verse 22 through verse 30, I can imagine, and if those of you who like movies, you know that music really makes a movie, right? The background music. And I just kind of got to imagining here, if this were a scene in a movie, I can imagine that the background music that might be playing here, he went on his way through the towns and the villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.
I imagine it to be something like the battle hymn of the Republic. I imagine that snare drum tapping. I can imagine, I imagine the flute. I guess it's a flute that plays in that song. You hear the snare drum tapping, you hear the flute playing, and you hear the music rising up in the background.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed his faithful lightning of his terrible swift sword, because guess what?
His truth is marching on. He is journeying toward Jerusalem. I have seen him in the watch fires, as the old song says, of a hundred circling camps. They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps.
I have read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps. His truth is marching on. I have read a fiery gospel, written in burnished rolls of steel, as deal with my condemners, so with you my grace shall deal.
Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel. His truth is marching on. He is journeying toward Jerusalem. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat.
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer. Oh, be jubilant, my feet, because his truth is marching on. And as the song states so eloquently in its chorus, glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah.
His truth is marching on. And so as Jesus continues to make his way and his journey to Jerusalem, the scripture says in verse 23, and someone said to him, Lord, will those who are few be saved, or will those who are saved be few?
Matthew Henry posed this in his commentary concerning that one verse there. He said this was a question that was put to our Lord Jesus. Who it was that put it to him, we are not told. Truly, we do not know who asked Jesus this question.
However, we can make an educated inference here. It was likely one of the doubters. It was likely some of those scribes and Pharisees, or maybe their disciples. Matthew Henry goes on to say, he, Jesus, gave a great liberty of questioning him, and he returned the answers to the thoughts and to the intents of the heart.
Now, we know this, that the scripture, the word of God, is quick and powerful. It is quick and powerful, and it's sharper, the writer of Hebrews wrote, sharper than any two-edged sword. It cuts to the dividing asunder of the soul and of the spirit, of the joints and the marrow, of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Right, it gets right down to the quick of things. And so Jesus answers the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Matthew Henry said the question was, are there few that would be saved? Master, I have heard thou should say so.
Is it true? So perhaps, perhaps, as Matthew Henry said, it was a captious question. He put it to in tempting him with a design to ensnare him and to lessen his reputation. We know this to be true because we read at the latter end of chapter 11, how that when Jesus went away from there that time, that last time where he really addressed the issues of the scribes and the Pharisees, they pressed him hard, trying to provoke him, trying to trip him up, trying to catch him in his words and in his deeds.
Now, if Jesus would have said here, many should be saved, they would reproach him as too loose and making salvation cheap. If he said few, they would reproach him as precise and straight laced. They would pin him one way or the other.
They would pin him as a charismatic or they would pin him down as a legalist. However, the Lord is wise above men. The Lord is wise above the thoughts of men. The world to come, or I'm sorry, Matthew Henry said, those that have sucked in a corrupt nation are ready to make it the standard by which to measure all men's judgments.
And in nothing do men more betray their ignorance, their presumption and their partiality than in judging the salvation of others. God is the judge of all men. God is the true and the righteous judge of all men.
But they ask this question, are those that are saved, will those that are saved be few? Now, big question here, a lot goes into this and we're going to be here just a moment throughout the remainder of this text, be backing up over to Matthew.
We're going to be looking in Matthew chapter 7 and Matthew chapter 25 if you kind of want to be running ahead marking your spots there in your Bibles. But it's very, very important as we look at Jesus' answer here.
And so we had the word says this, 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. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us.
Then he will answer you, I do not know where you come from. Then you will begin to say, we ate and we drank in your presence. And we'll touch on that here in just a moment. Alexander McLaren, a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon said this, there may be a seeking which has no real earnestness in it.
Now these men who preached back in the, who were pre-Puritan before the Puritans, who came, or post-Puritan, that they really looked back and saw the meat and the heart of the gospel that was preached by these Puritan men.
And these post-Puritans, McLaren, Spurgeon, all these men of God that we so often hear their names and read about. This is what McLaren said, there may be a seeking which has no real earnestness in it.
And it is not sufficiently determined to do what is needful in order to find. Plenty of people would like to possess earthly good. We hear this in the prosperity gospel today. Many people would like to possess earthly good, but they cannot brace themselves to needful work and sacrifice.
The needful work and sacrifice that McLaren speaks of here is the self-sacrifice that we are called to, like when the Apostle Paul told the Romans, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.
Which is, as though he said, which is, by the way, your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. McLaren went on to say this in very plain terms.
Plenty would like to go to heaven, as they understand the phrase, but they cannot screw themselves to the surrender of self and to the world. They are vagrant, half-hearted, half-seeking, such as we see many examples of, and they will never win anything either in this world or in the world to come.
He would have been a very popular man nowadays, would he not have been? But hallelujah for the truth of what he spoke there. Matthew Henry goes on to say this. The reason why many come short of grace and of glory is because they rest in a lazy seeking of that which will not be attained without laborious striving.
And he goes on, they have a good mind to happiness and a good opinion of holiness and take some good steps toward both. But their convictions are weak. They do not consider what they know and what they believe.
That is very good for us today. We must be able, as Christian men, women, boys, and girls, to really consider what we believe, what we know. And not just know what we believe, but know why we believe what we believe, because the scripture teaches it plainly.
It takes us time to grow in grace and knowledge, but praise God, it is real and it is true and it is evident in the life of every believer. Matthew Henry goes on to say, their convictions are weak. They do not consider what they know and believe and consequently their desires are cold and their endeavors are feeble.
And there is no strength or no steadiness in their resolutions and thus they come short, they lose the prize because they do not press forward. We are taught in the book of Hebrews again, in the book of Hebrews chapter 12.
I believe it's beginning one through four. Seeing that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, brethren. Let us lay aside every weight in the sin that does so easily beset us. And let us run with patience this race that is set before us.
Run with patience this race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. My brethren, the Lord Jesus Christ has set a good, a great, a tremendous, a wonderful, a fantastic example of steadfastness.
And my friend, you will fail if you look to any other than Jesus Christ. But if you are faltering, if your knees are shaking, if you're about to lose heart, I say lift up your heads for your redemption draws nigh.
Look unto the Lord and be saved today. Look unto the Lord and be refreshed today. Look unto the Lord and be encouraged today, for he has paid the price for our sins. Notice here the terminology that's used in verse 24 and 25, strive to enter through the narrow door.
For many, many, I tell you, Jesus, and this is Jesus' answer to the question, will few be saved? Many, I tell you, will strive, will seek to enter, and they will not be able to enter. If we turn back to Matthew chapter 7, and you go to verse 12.
Matthew chapter 7 in verse 12, Jesus in speaking in the Sermon on the Mount says, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. By the way, that's a proof text for one of our catechism questions, right?
How is the law of God summed up? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Amen. But notice verse 13, enter by the narrow gate. We see the same word used, straight gate, a straight gate. For the gate is wide, and the way is easy. That leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow, the gate is straight, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. So we see there, the words of Christ are not changed, they are not manipulated, they are not moved around, they are not made to say something different here than he said there, they mean and they say the same thing that he said.
By the way, some may ask the question from time to time, what did that scripture mean? The Lord meant exactly what he said when he said the scripture. There is no other interpretation of the text. Many are on the broad road.
Many are on the wide path, and that path ultimately, though it seems easy in this life, leads to destruction. But Jesus said narrow is the way, and it's very important that we understand and realize the context.
Who is he speaking to? He is speaking to a group of people here who have complicated and confused and convoluted the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ so much that they wouldn't even allow others who wanted to come in, in.
Matter of fact, Jesus told them that earlier on in Luke's gospel here. And so, as we look at this, notice in verse 25, when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door. Again, very familiar terminology.
Turn over to Matthew 25 now. Matthew 25, we see this same exact terminology used. Matthew 25, beginning in verse 1, Jesus is speaking here about the parable of the ten virgins. And he says, then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
But at midnight, there was a cry, here is the bridegroom, come out to meet him. Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.
But the wise answered, saying, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came. And those who were ready went in with them to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
Same language, the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Again, we have two things in view, the coming immediate judgment on the destruction of Jerusalem. And long term, we have the idea, the truth, the reality that one day Jesus is coming back. And we base the faithfulness of God throughout history in his word.
We base our confidence, our faith, our trust. This is how we base and we strive to steer our lives according to the word of God, based upon the faithfulness of God. You can be sure of this. If God was faithful and every time he committed to judge a nation, a people, and a place, and he always judged that nation, people, and place, that he will certainly not change who he is or what he will do or what he says.
He is God, and he is faithful, and he is true. Some may say it does not seem fair that the master of the house would shut the door. What does this language mean? Well, it means exactly what the Lord was meant it to mean, that the door of salvation, the opportunity for grace, or I don't know if grace would be the right term here.
But the door of opportunity was closing on them. They had the king of the kingdom with them. They had the God of the Old Testament scriptures that promised Yahweh, the Messiah. They had him right in front of their very eyes.
And they denied and they rejected him. I've got good news. The king's here. I've got bad news. The king's here. Pilate was asked, what will you do with Christ? What will you do with Christ? What will you do with Christ?
Believe and be saved? Or reject him and be damned forevermore? The text goes on to say this. So Christ said, when once the master of the house is risen, and he shuts the door, and then you begin to stand outside, and you begin to cry, Lord, open to us the door.
Lord, open to us the door. And then he'll not pretend like you're not there, but he will recognize that call. And he will say, I do not know you. There are some commentaries who give the example or the illustration or the picture, I guess if you would have it, of how the households would work at that time.
And we all recognize the idea of the sheep gate, right? The sheep gate being a narrow gate. Christ being the shepherd of the sheep. But in the household, the servants would have an entrance to which they would come in that would be separate from everybody else's entrance.
And when it was time for everyone to be in the house, if you were not in the house, the doors were shut so that no thief or robber could get in. And when those doors were shut, those doors were shut. The expectations were set.
And my friend today, in our world, in our day, and in our time, it's a shame, sadly, that gospel expectations are not set before men. That men think that they can just be told, oh, go on another day. Like you are, you're not fine.
We are sinners before a holy God. And I know I do not preach like Jonathan Edwards or George Whitefield or Charles Spurgeon. By the way, that famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
Many of you might be surprised that historically, it's pretty reputable that Jonathan Edwards was not a high-pitched, an emotional man, that he would just stand there and he would just read the words of that sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
And though he read with no emotion, and though it seemed like there was no passion or fervor there, the passion and the fervor of the word of the living God went out. And there were folks in that congregation that day who wailed and moaned and wept because they realized their nature and their standing before a holy God.
That God is angry with the wicked every single day. And that were it not for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, were it not for the goodness of God the Father, who in sending his Son to this earth to die for our sins, we would be hopeless and we would be helpless.
But here we are, happy and holy. Thanks be unto God. This gives us a picture as well, looking back even further to the Old Testament. Everybody here knows this, the Genesis account, when God found the hearts of men to be so completely wicked that he said, I'm going to destroy the earth with a flood.
He had Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, just him and his family. Eight souls were saved in the ark. It was not Noah after the ark was built that shut the door on the ark, but it was God who shut the door on the ark.
And my friend, it is God who opens the heart to salvation. It is God who opens the mind and the will to salvation. And if the door is open, then my friend, I exhort you today, come in today that you may live.
So we see a strong language there. Verse 26, then you will begin to say, and he tells them the thoughts of their hearts and their minds, then you will begin to say, we ate and we drank in your presence.
You taught in our streets, but he will say, I'll tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And what was it that caused the weeping and the gnashing of teeth?
We have it in the text. When you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out. This is how we know who he was speaking to. He was speaking to those scribes and to those Pharisees.
He was speaking to those Israelites who had the scriptures, who had the knowledge of God, and yet who denied him openly. And not only openly, but they denied him rabidly. If we go back to Matthew chapter 25 for just a moment again, and you look over just a bit further to verse 31 in Matthew chapter 25, here we see that same language used again.
Jesus in speaking about his coming in glory, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And he will place the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.
Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?
And the king will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me.
Then they also will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? Then he will say to them, he will answer them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life. That was like the expanded version, right? And remember, Luke's gospel is eyewitness accounts. Eyewitness accounts that he jots down, that he takes down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
But in that place, verse 28, in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, grinding of teeth. Gnashing of teeth, the definition, it denotes extreme anguish, means utter despair of men who are consigned to eternal punishment in hell.
It's grinding of your teeth. It's when you're so angry and everybody in here has been there. You're so angry that you grit your teeth, that you grind your teeth. And then there's times that you're so worried that you grit your teeth and you grind your teeth.
My friends, being cast into hell, the weeping and the gnashing of teeth will be due to anger because you realized that you were stupid. Steve Lawson said, sin will make you stupid. Oh, we don't want our kids to hear that.
Sorry, too late now. Thank you. Forgive me, Sarah. Oh, sure. Okay, thank you. Don't do it again. Okay. You will weep and gnash and grind your teeth because you will remember this opportunity, this day, this moment when you heard the everlasting gospel of the kingdom of the true and the living God, that God sent his son into the world.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Oh, friends, and they're weeping, and Jesus says, you're weeping and you're gnashing your teeth and speaking to these men, says it will be due to the fact because you see Abraham, you see the father of our faith, you see Isaac, you see Jacob, and you see them in the kingdom of God, in the presence of God.
Matter of fact, the language that he uses, he says this, verse 29, people will come from east and west, from north and south, and they will recline at table in the kingdom of God. They will be around the table.
And behold, Jesus said, some are last, who will be first? Because we, the beautiful thing about us having the canon of scripture is this, that we got, hindsight is 20 -20. We know that the gospel was not to the Jews only, but also to the Gentiles.
Amen, praise God. Matter of fact, Paul put it this way, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile, to the Greek, and also unto all of him.
Thanks be unto the true and the living God. So, remembering this in closing, when we see that term, the kingdom of God used, just to reiterate what we communicated last week, the term kingdom of God in its broader aspect, when we hear this term, that God is in antithesis to man, or to the world.
The term signifies the entire sphere of God's rule and God's action in relation to the world. It has a moral and a spiritual force, and is a general term for the kingdom at any time. Remember, the kingdom of heaven is always the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of God is not limited to the kingdom of heaven, until in their final form, they become identical.
The fundamental principle of the kingdom is declared in the words of the Lord spoken in the midst of the company of the Pharisees, when he said this, later on in Luke, chapter 17, in verse 21, Jesus speaks these words, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.
The king is there. I've got good news, the king has come. Yes, amen. I've got good news, the king is coming again. I've got bad news, the king has come. I've got bad news, the king is coming again. Amen.
Will you be ready? Make your calling and your election sure today. Stand with us if you're ready.