 Okay, let's read Luke 13 verses 22 to 30. And he went through the cities and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to him, 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. When once the master of the house has risen up to shut the door, you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open for us. And he will answer and say to you, I do not know you where you are from. Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know you where you are from. Depart from me all you workers of iniquity. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west from the north and the south and sit down in the kingdom of God and indeed there are last who will be first and there are first who will be last. Complacency kills, complacency kills. And someone who has an experience with a particular practice or person, they can fall into complacency when you have experiences that tell you that you're all right. Experiences can make you complacent about a certain thing. For example, I got a little alligator that lives in the backyard. I can become complacent towards alligators over time. Complacency kills and complacency kills in the workplace. Every day about 15 workers in the US, approximately 15 workers lose their lives on the job and whatever practices they do. As of injuries or illness is related to the work. At the end of the year, it's around 5,000 people that die in the US in work related events. That's more people than 9-11, almost twice as many people that died in 9-11, die on a yearly basis at work. OSHA, if you go to the OSHA's website, osha.gov, they'll give you examples, practical, they'll give you real life examples about how that happens. One such example was a 17 year old assistant pool manager who was electrocuted when she contacted an underground electric motor. She was performing her work duty of maintaining the pH level of the swimming pool by adding soda ash to the water. Standing barefoot on the wet concrete floor of the pump room, she filled the drum with water, plugged in the mixing motor and placed the motor switch in the opposition. In the process of adding soda ash to the drum, she accidentally contacted the energizing mixing motor with her left hand and created a path to ground for electrical current. She was electrocuted and died. Complacency in the workplace can kill. Complacency comes from a false trust in past experience. Complacency comes from a false trust in past experience, in a trust in past destructive behavior, and it can have immediate consequences. For your soul, and that's why we're here today, for your soul, trust in in destructive behavior of the past that you haven't gotten hurt from before in the past can lead you to be complacent and can lead you to have complacency, can not only kill your body at job, but it can kill your soul. The same thing happens in the story that our savior tells about here, where there are people who are complacent about their souls because of their experiences, their past experiences, and it led them complacency kills. Let's look at the text and we'll take it piece by piece. The first piece verses 22 to 24, we see our Lord tell us and command us to strive to enter or to fight to enter the gates of heaven. In verse 22 it says, and he went through the cities and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. Here we see a very important Luke background, Pastor Rick mentioned this earlier in his Sunday school sermon, that in the book of Luke, he's constantly putting these markers about how Jesus is on a purposeful, intentional road to the cross. And we read them in Luke 9.51, Luke 17.11, Luke 18.31, Luke 19.28, Luke 19.41. All of these different markers where Luke is telling us, look at how Jesus is headed purposely for the cross. And here, we have the same setting. He is going through the cities and villages, towns large and small, and he is teaching and journeying as he goes through them. He is purposely taking a long time, but he is on a road like a swiveling road, kind of like how your wife may go through publics. She doesn't go in and out and just get something. She goes in and down one aisle, down another aisle, and down another aisle, but she's on the way out and down the other aisle, and eventually she gets there to the aisle. It's the same here with Jesus Christ. He's on the way to Jerusalem, but he has many towns to get to on the way and many conversations to get there. Here is one of those conversations. Here's one of those conversations that he gets to on the way to Jerusalem. And we know why is he there on the way to Jerusalem, because he's going there to die on the cross, to pay for the sins of all those who would repent and believe. We'll come back to this verse. In verse 23, then one said to him, Lord, are there few who are saved? Lord, are there few who are saved? That's an interesting question, right? A very interesting question. What do you think the answer is? Lord, are there few who are saved? Did you wonder about the background here? Why does this person ask this now? We don't know who he is or she is. We don't know if they're a disciple. We're not sure if they're asking to trip Jesus up. We're not sure if they really genuinely wanna know. We're not told. But what a good question that is, isn't it? Maybe they're thinking about what Jesus taught in Luke eight verses one to 15 about the parable of the four soils, about how many will call and will say they're gonna follow Christ, but some when the cares of the world come, they're gonna get choked out. Some are gonna reject the message right off, but others when they see money or riches or trials, they're gonna fall away from Christ. Maybe they're thinking about that. Maybe they're thinking about the common teaching of the day. In the Mishnah is a Jewish commentary on the Old Testament. And in the Mishnah, they quote Isaiah as saying, and misquoting Isaiah, saying that all Israel will be saved. And it was a common belief in that time that as long as you were Jewish, you're gonna end up in heaven. As long as you didn't say that the law didn't come from God, as long as you didn't, there were a few extreme things that you could do to, for example, some of those were as long as you didn't deny the resurrection, as long as you didn't become an Epicurean philosopher, as long as you didn't utter charms or you weren't like a palm reader, and as long as you didn't read heretical books or pronounce the name of Yahweh out loud. If you didn't do any of those things and you're Jewish, you're good to go. You're gonna go to heaven. That's what the Mishnah taught. That's what the Jewish commentary on the Old Testament taught. But Jesus comes and is Jesus teaching that? Much to the contrary. Almost every time Jesus preached, he's preaching contrary to that idea. So maybe we can take this question at face value, that it's an honest question. And he says, Lord, are there few who are saved? So we see that setting in verse 22, in verse 23 we see the question that is a good question. It makes you understand, or see that this person is asking a question, understanding something very important. They're saying, Lord, are there a few who are saved? Save from what? Save from what? Save from the wrath of God. This person understands a coming wrath of God, understands the need for personal salvation, understands Jesus is teaching something contrary to what's going on today. This is a good question, you would say, right? Okay, now that we see the setting and the question, let's look at how Jesus begins to answer in verse 24. And he said to them, and when the end of verse 23 where it says, and he said to them, one person asked the question, but then Jesus addresses the whole crowd. Jesus is taking this question, and he does like many other questions. He takes it and picks it up and uses it as an opportunity to preach to everybody. So the end of verse 23, he says, 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. Jesus begins to give them a direct command. He says, you all here in the strive, you all, you must fight to enter heaven. If you don't fight to enter the narrow gate, he says, many I say to you will seek to enter and will not be able. This is an unusual teaching in Jesus' time, and this is unusual teaching today. Strive to enter through the narrow gate. Jesus doesn't answer the question, do you see that? Jesus often does this. He doesn't answer the question because he's got something more important to say than the question. When somebody asks, are there a few that are saved? Jesus answers with make sure you are gonna go through the narrow door. He doesn't care to answer the question because the statistics are not important to Jesus. Souls are important to Jesus, and Jesus is saying to this man or this woman who has asked the question, this is something you should be concerned about. You shouldn't be concerned about others, be concerned about your own soul. Be concerned about what you can watch over and be watchful for. And so Jesus directs us to the more important question. If you ask the question, are there many being saved? The more important question is, will you be saved? Will you be saved? And Jesus asks that directly to them. And then more than that, he states to them, he commands them saying, you must strive to enter through the narrow gate. What does he mean by strive here? The word here for strive is agonizomai in the Greek. It sounds a lot like agonize, right? Agonizomai, agonize. It conveys the idea of a armed struggle, a competition, a fight, a striving with intensity and effort. It's used by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 saying that, and everyone who competes for the prize is self-controlled in all things. He uses it to say, this word for agonizomai is how a athlete competes. And it's how somebody who perseveres acts. This word for agonizomai was used in John 1836 when Jesus said, if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight. My servants would agonizomai. In Colossians 1.29, this is how Paul saw the ministry. He said to this end, I also labor, agonizing agonizomai according to the working which works in me mightily. In 1 Timothy 4.10, Paul says he suffers labor and suffers reproach. He labors and suffers reproach because he trusts in the living God. He labors and suffers, he agonizomies for the sake of the church. In 1 Timothy 6.12, he says to Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith, to lay hold on eternal life. This is the agonizomai, the fighting, the good fight of the faith. At the end of his life, in 2 Timothy 4.7, he says I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. He's using the same word saying I strive, I fight, I struggle. In the Christian life, it's not the how much skill you have, how much position, what position in the church you have, it's the size of the faith that you have to strive. Now, do we get to heaven by striving to get there? No. I said I would call you back to verse 22. Here's the first time I'm gonna call you back to verse 22. Look back to verse 22, why is he going to Jerusalem? To die on a cross. Is he going all the way to Jerusalem to die on a cross just so that he could tell people to be saved by striving? Excuse me. No. Yet he's commanding them to strive through the narrow gate. How are we gonna work these things out? Well, the way that one Christian, Alexander McLaren, from said, he said it, we are not saved by effort, but we shall not believe without effort. You understand how that works? We are not saved by effort, but we will not believe without effort. In other words, I say I believe in Jesus, right? And then, yes, I believe in Jesus, I believe that I need to repent, and I believe that Jesus is the one who dies for my sins and that's how I can go to heaven. And then, my friend comes up to me and says, hey, you wanna smoke some weed? My friend comes up to me and says, hey, look at this pamphlet I got from the Jehovah Witnesses. I think this is really good. You should read it. I say I believe, now I'm at a confrontation. What do I do? Do I believe the Bible? Or do I believe a little weed doesn't hurt anybody? Do I believe the Bible? Or a little Jehovah Witness doctrine didn't hurt anybody? You see, now I've got to strive with my friend. Now I've got to, I'm confronted. Because I believe, I must strive. I must strive against those ideas. I must strive against those lies that come in my mind. I must strive against those sins and I'm gonna strive to stay next to the Lord. If you have genuine belief, you must strive to enter the narrow door. How narrow is that door? It is a narrow door that the Lord will set up circumstances in your life where you will have to decide between family and him, friends and him, entertainment and him, what your body wants and him, what your mind drifts to and him. You will be forced, if you believe in the saving work of Christ and the cross, you will be forced to strive or you'll be forced to die. You'll be, and what I mean by die is you'll be forced to die in your sins. You'll be forced to go back to this life of sin. And so the Lord says here, the characteristic of a Christian and the command to a Christian, excuse me, is to agonize, to fight to enter the narrow gate. If you were to go to heaven and you were to interview the saints in heaven, every one of them would be able to tell you about how they strove, they had to strive to make it through the narrow door. Could you come up to Isaiah and say, Isaiah, did you have to strive? Yes, I had to be sought in half. When you go up to Daniel, did you have to strive to enter the narrow gate? Yes, I had to go into the lion's den. When you go up to, time fails me to talk of Baruch and Samson and many of the other Old Testament saints that had to strive because of their genuine faith. Are you any different? Are you any different? No. And all of you who fail to strive are really failing to believe. The two go hand in hand. You have got to decide and be resolved in your life that you will, by God's grace, fight to make it through this life of sin. Pilgrim's progress is a story told for that purpose, to wake you up to that purpose, that the Christian's life is not going to be easy. It never fails to amaze me when somebody who's been a Christian maybe a few years and then they come to a point where they really are struggling. And then they come to someone for counsel and they are like, this is the worst thing I've ever gone through. And in one sense, you want to help them. In the other sense, you want to say, didn't you know this was coming? Didn't you know this was coming? You act like it's a surprise. We have to strive to enter the narrow gate. Many will not strive. Many will not strive. Do you remember how Bunyan tells the story about valiant for truth? Great heart is someone who is leading a group of companions on the road to the celestial kingdom. He's leading a group of companions on the road to heaven. And they round a corner and they come across a man who is bloodied with a sword in his hand and in the distance, three others running off. And they come up to the man, they ask him what his name is and he says, my name is valiant for truth. And they ask him, where did he come from? And they ask his story and he explains, I was fighting with three other men who were trying to recruit me to be a thief with them. But I fought with them and I would not join them. And I fought with them until the sword in my hand was as if my hand a part of me. And he fought for three hours against them until the party of great heart's party began to round the corner, then the thieves ran. That idea of that valiant for truth has that I'm gonna fight until either I drop or I'm gonna fight until these three men drop. That's the attitude that a Christian has. That they have the enemy of three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Those three enemies will come at you three to one where the devil will try and deceive you in many of the various ways. Your friend, it may be through your friends, it may come through your family, it may come through false doctrine, the devil has many different ways. Your own heart will try and deceive you. You have to strive and fight your own heart. The wicked thoughts that come in your mind. You have to throw them out and choose to believe the Bible instead. You gotta fight the world system. The world, whether the university or on TV or on the internet or on a periodical, you're going to be faced with ideas from the world that fight against the Bible and the ideas in the Bible. You have to fight and strive against the world, the flesh and the devil. If you're gonna make it all the way to glory. That's the characteristic of true salvation. You cannot sit back and do nothing. You cannot sit back and do nothing. That is not a picture of the Christian life. You have to seek the Lord while he's found. You have to seek salvation with all your might. You have to continue to seek salvation and trust him to take you to heaven. The Bible must be mind. You must work at studying the Bible. Prayer must be your breath. You must live off of it. You have to endeavor. You have to stop watching what fills your mind with filth and you've gotta cut off the friends who turn you away from the church and from the gospel. You have to start now and you have to stop when you see Jesus' face. You have to seek salvation because the ones who seek salvation are the ones who strive. Many seek only salvation and few end up striving. The old spiritual says, the old spiritual song, everybody talking about heaven ain't going there. Everybody talking about heaven ain't going there. Have you heard that before? Well, lots of people like to talk about seeking salvation but not many people wanna strive to seek that salvation. Lots of people wanna go to heaven but they don't wanna leave their sin behind. Lots of people wanna, God, to accept them into heaven but they don't wanna accept God as part, as Lord over their everyday life. Do you wanna go to heaven when you die? Now is the time to strive. Now is the time to see the door is narrow. Now is the time to wake up and see that you desperately need to strive and to continue to strive because Jesus says, many will seek and will not be able. Many will seek and will not be able. So now that we see in verses 22 to 24, the necessity to fight to enter heaven. Look and we see verses 25 to 28, those rejected at the gates of heaven. Jesus tells a story here, a story that is a metaphor to say, this is what it's gonna be like for those cast into hell. And he tells this story for shaking, to shake the complacent one but also the story is to give assurance to the true convert. This story is to wake up the person who's complacent and to give true assurance to the one who's truly believes in him. Read it again in verse 25. When the master of the house has risen up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord open for us and he will not answer or he will answer and say to you, I do not know you, where you are from. Here we have a picture of the people who did not strive. The master comes, the master comes and he shuts the door. Salvation was available for a time and now not anymore. Salvation was available and now either they've died. Salvation was available and perhaps this is showing the Lord's return. Salvation was available, the door was open, but now the door shut. Sometimes the Lord shuts the door by judicially hardening someone's heart. Someone who's heard the message so many times that they've not strived, they've not believed, they've not repented and the Lord allows them to have a hardened heart. When the master shuts the door, nobody can open it. When the master rises up and shuts the door, the those who did not strive stand outside and knock and what are they saying? Lord, Lord open for us and he will answer and say to you, I do not know you or where you're from. These are terrifying words of truth. These are terrifying words that no one wants to hear. These are words that you have to believe that you will hear if you don't strive. You have to believe that this will happen to you if you don't repent. You have to believe that this will happen to many people believing this passage should change your life. It should change how you look at your family, at your friends. It should change it how you look at the scripture. This coming day is a fearful day. This day in this story should strike fear into your heart that you don't want others to go there and you should not want to go there either. Do you believe this passage? Do you believe what Jesus says? That not a few but many will end up calling him Lord. They're not looking for Muhammad. They're not looking for Buddha. They're not looking for Joseph Smith. They are looking for Jesus. They're knocking in the door asking for Jesus and Jesus answers and he says, I do not know you. Where you're from? He's saying to them, our lives were not together. You lived as if I didn't exist. You lived as if I didn't exist. And how do they argue in verse, the next verse? But they argue but they'll say we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. We ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. They argue with their personal experience. They argue that they should be able to be let in and they have an experience that is greater than any experience that you have. When you think about why you should be let into heaven, does your experience come to mind? Well, the Lord has been very good to me. Well, listen to me. You can say just because the Lord hasn't brought a judgment on you yet, doesn't mean that he won't in the future. I could say, I don't believe I'm ever gonna die. I didn't die yesterday and I didn't die the week before. Dying has never happened to me yet. Lord has been good to me so I don't think I'm ever gonna die. You would know that I'd be a fool, right? Well, so is the fool who continues to put off striving and thinks that the Christian life is just one easy, instead of strive, they think the Lord says glide. Glide to enter through the narrow gate and said, no, he says strive. These ones who glide instead of strive, they rest on their experience and what an experience they have. They have an experience better than any of ours. It says how we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. Who can say here that you had a fellowship with Jesus Christ? Who here can say that they heard Jesus teach in their hometown, in their home church, that they heard a sermon from Jesus? If you could have any experience to rest in, it would be this one, wouldn't it? Remember the analogy about the, I could say I know the president. I know President Obama, him and I are like this, you know, and I come to the White House and I can say I know President Obama, I know you. But if he doesn't say I know you, Mark, am I gonna get let in? No, they believe that they know Jesus. They're familiar with many religious activities. They are like the person who says, I've been to church. I've known the Bible. I was talking to a lost person last night who said I memorized the book of James at one time. And now he openly professes he doesn't follow the Lord. And I said to him, how could you, I'm warning you, one day you could see James sit down in the kingdom of God and you yourself be cast out. You could have the experience of memorizing James, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You can have the experience of, think about these different concentric circles. Some people say, well, I have friends who are Christian. I like Christians. I like the Pope. I like Christians. I believe that all everybody who believes in God will be saved. I'm good. You get somebody who's more refined. They say, well, I'm not only, not Christians, I am a Christian. I go to church sometimes, you know, Christmas Easter, you get more refined. I'm a Christian that's, I'm an evangelical. I'm not a Catholic. You get more refined. I'm a Baptist. Let's get a little more refined. I'm a reform Baptist. I'm a reform Baptist. And I believe the doctrines of grace. John MacArthur, we're like this. You know, I may be like this with President Obama, but I'm like this with John MacArthur. I'm a reform Baptist. My experience is refined, not like any of these other people. I have much better doctrine. I've been to many good churches. You see how you can have this kind, any kind of these experiences, ranging from the more refined to a more, a larger variety. And it doesn't matter a hill of beans. None of that is gonna get you to heaven. It doesn't matter if you've been here preaching in this very church, or you've been here serving in this very church. None of that matters. None of that matters to Christ. Your experiences, whether serving as a missionary for decades in deepest, darkest Africa, and that you're praised and lauded by men, means nothing. If you become the pope who sits in a chair in Rome, it means nothing. If you become the most well-known Christian on the face of the planet, and for centuries later Christians look back at and talk well of you, it matters nothing. None of that will get you into heaven. You need a savior. You need a savior, and in this life of the world where we're faced with the world, the flesh and the devil, if you believe in this savior, you must strive to continue to believe in this savior. You must strive to follow this savior. You must strive to trust in this savior. He is the only way that you can be let into heaven. And how does he respond in verse 27 to these greatest of experiences? He emphasizes, he says almost the same thing. He repeats that I don't know you, where you're from, but what does he add to it this time? He's emphatic. I tell you, I do not know you. Where you are and where you're from. Two times we see the person who's knocking at the door speak, and two times we see the master respond in this text. Do you see all of the use in this text? There's many use. In verse 24, I say to you, in verse 25, shut the door and you begin to stand outside and knock. You see at the end of verse 25, he says, and he will answer and say to you, I do not know you, where you are from. So you see in verse 26, then you will begin to say in verse 27, he says, I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from, depart from me all you workers of iniquity. And then in verse 28, also when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and then at the end of verse 28, yourselves. Do you see how Jesus is being very direct here? He's being very direct in the story. You've got to place yourself in the story as the person who is being locked out. You've got to set yourself in the story because Jesus is specifically addressing the crowd here saying you, you, you, you all, you all, you all. You're meant to be there seeing this, these events happening. You're meant to let your heart be faster at the thought of being locked out and him saying, I don't know you. You meant to think about your life and think, is Jesus Christ the center of my life? Is he the one, the reason why I do everything? Or is he an add-on in my life? You see how this expresses, even when Jesus says to the person who's rejected, I don't know you, what does that say about his children? He says, I know my children and they know me. It expresses, you can see here, how they understand how the Christian life is. That the Christian life here is one that is about knowing Jesus Christ. It's about knowing him more and more and about your life being centered around him. That the actual Christian cannot imagine a day without Jesus Christ being the center of that day. You see how we'll begin to see here what marks out the ones who are rejected and the ones who marks out those who are accepted. The ones who are accepted are ones who know Jesus Christ intimately. The ones who know him and their lives revolve around him. The ones who are rejected have many religious experiences but their lives are not motivated and surrounded with Jesus Christ. How else can you distinguish here in the text? How else can you distinguish who are the ones who are accepted and who are the ones who are rejected? Look in verse 27, he describes the ones he says depart from me, he calls them workers of iniquity. Workers of iniquity. So now we see here that someone who's accepted is one who is the opposite. Someone who's known by working for righteousness and the one who is rejected is known by their wicked practice. Look in Galatians 5. They give a practical way to look at this. In Galatians 5, 19, the apostle Paul speaks about the fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh. And he says in verse 19, this is how you would know you're a worker of iniquity. You do works of the flesh. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness. It's a general term for immorality. Ludeness, wild living, idolatry. You love something more than God. Sorcery, drugs mixed with spells. Hatred, contentions, which is discord. Jealousies, outbursts of wrath. You can't control your temper. Selfish ambitions, like saying I'm of Paul, I'm of Paulus. Desensions, those are rebellions against authority. Heresies, here's the more formal divisions in doctrine. Envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, drunken parties, and the like, of which I told you beforehand, just as I told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. I can't tell you how many people that I've read this passage to, and I show it to them and say, are there sins in here that you are practicing? Can you mark out here sins where it's part of your life? And many times people say, yes, I can notice a couple that are in my life. And I said, then what does the passage say to you? What does the passage say about your soul? And inevitably, you know what they say? Most of the time they say, no, I don't believe it. I don't believe it. I stay still believe they're okay with God. But what does it say that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God? What is Jesus talking about in our passage about going to the kingdom of God? What does the text say, specific sins, if you're practicing them, what does our text say back here? Jesus is saying to the people who get rejected, you're workers of iniquity. Do you believe what this passage says? I'm not asking you if you've been here for decades. I'm not asking you if you have all the experiences, if you have the experience of being in the Bible college here or preaching. I'm not asking you if you're a small group leader here. I'm not asking you if you're a pastor here. I'm asking, do you practice these things? And what does the Bible say? And I'm asking you, do you believe the Bible? Do you believe the Bible? Then it will either do one of two things. It will give you great assurance to say, I used to be this way, but by God's grace, I no longer practice these things. I'm not perfect, but by God's grace, these things are not the practice of my life. And I know that that change has happened by Christ. It will give you great assurance, or it wakes you up to say, I am gonna be one of the people who if I died right now, I would be knocking on the door saying, Lord, Lord, open for us. If you believe this, this will make you earnest, earnest for souls, earnest for your own soul. Do you believe this passage? Do you believe that there's a coming day where many will be saying to Jesus Christ, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets, where the many will be saying, I heard a sermon on this text. I heard you explain this very thing. And people will hear, what about you? Not just people, but you, you're here now. You're here now for a purpose. You're here now for a purpose and you're hearing this for a purpose. Either to give you assurance and give you fervency to strive or to wake you up that you need a savior. That you need a savior. You know the person who made the song, that with the lyrics, a lot of people are talking about heaven, may it go in there? They were probably a Christian for a long time. They were probably a Christian for a long time in order to see. When you're a Christian for a longer time, you see more and more people that you thought would never, never, never go away. And isn't that true? Isn't that true? The way is narrow. The way is narrow because few strive to enter the narrow gate. And this is a terrifying story. In verse 28, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is where the term that Jesus used continually when he talks about hell. He uses it in Matthew 812 when the sons of the kingdom are cast out. He uses it in Matthew 1342. Describing a furnace of fire. He uses it in Matthew 22, 13, with those cast in outer darkness. He uses it in Matthew 24, 51, where the hypocrites go. He uses it in Matthew 25, 30, with the outer darkness. This is the phrase Jesus uses, weeping and gnashing of teeth. One of the phrases he uses to communicate the idea of hell. The hell of hell is to hear, depart from me. The heaven of heaven is to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord. The hell of hell is to be away from the grace of Jesus Christ. That the hell of hell is to be under his wrath. To never hear a good word from him again. To never hear him speak again, but only to be faced with his undiluted fury. To burn with fire forever and ever. Do you see what Jesus is trying to do? Jesus is trying to scare you out of hell into heaven. What an evil thing to do, savior. What an evil motive. No, no, no, it's not. Jesus is the one who has the best of motives. Jesus is the one who has the best of motives and the one who has the best of motives says you need to be scared out of hell and into heaven. You need to go on, Christian, you need to go on following your Lord, scaring people out of hell into heaven. Think about the frightening picture here where you would see the kingdom of heaven sliding away in the distance as you're dragged away. And who do you see? But you see Abraham. Somehow you know that's Abraham, that's Isaac, that's Jacob, and then you begin to see as you're drifting out of sight many other prophets, Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, Ezekiel, and you're drawn out of you and you begin to feel the flames, you begin to see only darkness. And the worst part is you know it's, you know enough, you sat under Jesus' teaching, you ate and drank with him, you know that hell is forever. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all of them in the kingdom, but you're thrust out. Do you see the love of the Savior here to speak directly to the sinners? Do you see how I want to speak and have a genuine love for you? To speak directly to you now? I want to see, Josh, I want to see you in heaven. Dr. Carl, I want to see you at the feast of the kingdom of God. Jen, I want to see you there. I want you to strive to enter the narrow gate. Now, well, don't turn back from following the Lord. Clyde, you better be there and you better help others to be there. Joyce, you better trust the Savior to make it to heaven. Brian, don't have a zeal that fades away. Have a zeal that lasts and continues. Beloved, you personally are to strive to enter the narrow gate. I see many of you struggle with sins, with the world, the flesh, and the devil. And I have been with many of you for years and we have seen others fall away. And I want to love you enough to speak directly to you to say that you need to hear the word from this word from the Lord. Jesus says it to the whole crowd. He doesn't just say it to the people who are unconverted. And if you are unconverted here today, you need to be scared out of hell. You need to be one who would not be knocking at that door. You need to not be one who rejects the door while it's open. It's open now. It's open today. You can be in the kingdom of God today. I'm not talking about going to heaven. I'm talking about the kingdom of God is under his rule and right now for here, for those who follow him. And when you die, you'll see it physically. And when Jesus returns, it will be here physically on this planet, looking in verses 29 to 30. We've seen the command to fight to enter the gates of heaven. We've seen here those who are rejected at the gates of heaven, who are the ones who are accepted at the gates of heaven. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. Who are these ones who come from the east and the west, the north and the south? Look in Psalm 107. Psalm 107 in verses one to three. The psalmist writes, oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered out of the lands from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way. They found no city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. They cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them out of their distress. And he led them forth by the right way that they may go to a city for a dwelling place. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Who are these people who are coming to the kingdom? Who come from the east and the west, the north and the south? But those who once were wandering in a wilderness, those who were once were hungry and thirsty and their soul fainted. Those who cried out to the Lord. It's those who admit of all the people that deserve to go to heaven. I should be the last one there. Do you see that in the text? In verse 30, the first ended up becoming the last and the last ended up becoming the first. Who's the one who gets accepted into heaven? The one who knows that I am such a sinner that I should be the last one on earth who should be led into heaven. The one who sees their sin this way then sees their need for a savior. I said I would call you back to verse 22. Those are the ones in verse 30. The ones who are last, who see in verse 22, the savior who goes to Jerusalem. They're the ones who understand why he dies on the cross. They're the ones who see it not just as a symbol but they understand it as a substitutionary atonement. They're the ones who don't trust in their good works but trust in Jesus to let them into heaven. They're the ones who are broken over their sin and their need for a savior. The ones who admit I'm the last one who should be allowed into heaven. I deserve hell. But the ones who believe they should be first. Where do they end up? They end up last. They end up last. If you are of such an opinion that because of your doctrine, because of the place you're in or because of the particular denomination that we're in or our grouping or the fact that we have better doctrine and that somehow you deserve to go to heaven more, you may be very well the one who ends up in the last. I exhort you. Do not have confidence in yourself, in your experience but I tell you on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, strive to enter through that narrow door. Strive to enter into that narrow door. You don't go to heaven by effort but you can't believe without effort. Those who get rejected at the gates of heaven are those who rely in their experience. Those who get accepted are the ones who know that they should be the last ones in but they trust in their savior who went to Jerusalem and died on the cross to pay for their sins. Do you see how Christ centered this text is? Do you see how balanced it is with salvation? Do you see how our Lord and savior is the one who I love to hear preach the gospel. Hear his command, fear his story, strive to enter trust in his saving work today. Let's pray. Dear God, please forgive me for not being able to explain your word in a better way. And please forgive any of the people for not listening with a more in a better way. We know Lord of what you say here is true. We know what you say here is true and it should be ingrained in our thinking of how much we need you to save us, of how much we need to strive, of how many people will say they're gonna seek you but they won't enter the narrow door. Lord, help us to worship you and apply this. Help us to believe this tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and for the rest of our lives, Lord. Help these truths that you say to us here to be a key part of our lives. The many people we meet, we would exhort them to strive to enter. They will help us, Lord, to draw assurance from this. Those who are true, you know your true children in this room. Help them to be assured, Lord. And you know exactly all the ones who should be shaken up and scared out of hell from this. Please, I pray, Lord, comfort your people to this passage and please bring saving terror into the heart so those who should wake up from this passage. I pray that you would receive the worship. Do your name. The worship due to you because of your sufferings. We love you, Lord. I want to honor your name through this day, through this time, through this time of your word. Amen.