Striving Faith: Few Pursue What Jesus Commands

I would like to have you open your Bibles to Luke 13. So I'm going to tell you right off, I want to deal with strive. You know the text.

Strive to enter through the narrow door. And so the account, you have it there in Luke 13, verses 22-30. Now let's read this.

He went on his way, the Lord Jesus, verse 22, and I'm reading from the English Standard Version. He went on his way through towns and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to Him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? Now this isn't fiction.

We're dealing with real life. 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. They don't answer you. I do not know where you come from.

Verse 26, then He'll begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. But He'll say, I 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 when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west and from north and south and recline at table in the Kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

Now, you'll notice that verse 23 has the word someone. I want to talk about that someone just for a second. We know very little other than the question that He asked the Lord Jesus Christ.

But we know this, this guy came to the Lord with his ideas, with his theories, with his mindsets. This guy had presuppositions. This guy was thinking.

Something produced this question. Something, he was observing Jesus. He was probably listening to Him.

He had been around. He had been hearing what was said. It makes me think.

You remember what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10? He's talking about the fact that men have these opinions. Men have these strongholds, these fortresses of opinion, of high thought. They have their theologies.

Men have their ideas. They have their ideologies. They have their psychologies.

Men have ways of thinking. Men have all their opinions, all their mindsets. They have all their religions.

And Paul talks about the fact that we come along in our warfare, it is not of the flesh. Our warfare is divinely empowered. And the thing that we are doing is we are attacking these mindsets that men have.

Mindsets like some great fortress, some great stronghold, some great stone edifice. You see the castles. We've got the walled cities here.

We're visiting Chester. We've seen New York. You've got these walls that they defended.

And these kinds of fortresses are men. Imagine this someone. Here he comes.

He's got this fortress built around his head. These are his mindsets. Mindsets that imprison men.

Their belief systems that will eventually be their tombs like MacArthur says. Brethren, people have their suppositions. We have them.

You've come in here thinking certain ways. When men approach Christ, they have certain mindsets, certain ways that they think. People fortify themselves with these systems and these systems are anti-God, anti-Christ, and that's what we have here.

And Jesus challenges how this man thinks. Jesus challenges us as to how we think. That's what we're called to do.

We're called to challenge the world and how they think. When we go out there and we're bombarded on all sides and you've got the homosexuals and you've got the Muslims and you've got the different things that we're encountering out there, people are coming at us with these preconceived ideas about everything. You had them.

I had them. You think about the woman at the well in John 4. She had her ideas. She's kind of dialoguing back and forth with Jesus about what those ideas were.

Nicodemus, he had his ideas. You had yours. What were your ideas? I mean, some of you may have grown up in a Christian family and you may have been exposed to the truth from the very beginning, but I wasn't there.

I didn't get exposed to the truth until I was 25 years old. What sort of mindsets do we have? I can tell you what I had. I had the mindset that Mary was important.

Jesus was effeminate, weak, and that He just virtually begged me to be His. I had these ideas that popes and priests, they knew how it really was. Like they had the secrets that I didn't know.

I had the idea that Bibles, crosses, they somehow had some kind of mystical, magical power. Do you remember the mindsets you had? Some of you still have these kinds of fortresses that have to be knocked down. This is what we're called to do.

Knock these down. And if there's anything we know, well, we don't know this someone in verse 23, but he probably hung around long enough where he was hearing Jesus. I mean, do you recognize that if you stay right here in this chapter, back up to the beginning of this chapter, let your eyes go back up there.

Think about what Jesus had been saying. He says in verse four, those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, and notice this wording, you will all likewise perish. I mean, brethren, I ask you this, what does this do to your strongholds? When you tell people out on the streets, like Jesus was, think about this.

I don't know if the someone in verse 23 was there when this was set, but he might've been. He might've been hanging around. One of the reasons he might've asked the question, Lord, are there many that are gonna be saved? He might've heard something like this.

And his mind is clicking away. You see, it's challenging these strongholds. That his belief system, you had a belief system about how many people were going to heaven.

And you know, Jesus tells a story. He said, you guys know, this is like the current event. This is front page news.

You guys all know about this tower that fell. This tower randomly falls on 18. Folks, these were not 18 Gentile sinners.

You see what he says there. He said, the tower in Siloam fell and killed them. And he said, do you think they were worse offenders than the others who lived in Jerusalem? You recognize who these people are? These are Jews.

These are Jerusalem Jews. A tower randomly falls on 18 who lived there. Direct descendants of Abraham.

You all see that. And Jesus says this, they all perished. Was that your mindset about how the world is? Has that always been your mindset? Angus, was that your mindset? Before you were a Christian, was that your mindset? That if a tower fell on these people who are supposed to be God's people, Jerusalem Jews, a tower randomly falls on 18 people and Jesus says they all perished.

Isn't that what he says? Isn't that what he says? They all perished. Perhaps as someone heard that, it begins to be a little bit unsettled. You know what? This starts making our strongholds shake.

Lord, will those who are saved going to be few? I mean, a tower randomly falls on 18 and you're saying they all perished? Lord, are there only a few? Because Lord, it sounds like that's what you're saying. Now you know what? If Jesus had said to us, if the truth here today was this, and we had to go out on the streets and proclaim this, that Jesus taught that most would be saved, most, it'll turn out okay within the end, then what would we think? What would our conclusion? I'll tell you this, no ideologies rattled here. No strongholds of belief systems get rattled there.

I mean, because what happens, most people, they look at that and they say, well, that's how I thought it was. Basically, no urgency. Most people, you know, when we hand out tracts, how many of them, we hear this in the U.S., but I heard this all the time here in Manchester City Center.

I'm okay. Okay. There it is.

And you know what? If Jesus had said most people are saved, we'd just kind of say, well, you know what? Most people imagine that they are okay. Apparently they're all right. Everybody's right in believing that.

Nothing's shaken. No divine power needed to shake anything there. What if Jesus had said half? I mean, what if that was the conclusion where we basically look around at humanity and we recognize, wow, one out of every two is going to have a fatal ending.

We'd wonder, because men are always wondering, what tips the scale? You'd be trying to figure that out because a lot of men, they just want to figure out how to just tip that scale and be on the right side. They'd be looking, you know, are they more likable? Are they more religious? Did they do more good works? I mean, we might be thinking, what is it? What is it? Folks, we want to deal with reality no matter how much it rattles our ideologies, no matter how much it shakes our strongholds. You know what the reality is? You see it.

The reality. Folks, the truth is dreadful. Do any of the rest of you lay awake at night and think about this reality? I do.

I saved few. He doesn't come right out and directly say it here, but he does over in Matthews. But Lord, are those who are going to be saved few? So few indeed that out of 18 upon a tower randomly falls, there's none.

Why? Go to the next chapter. I mean, let's see it. Jesus, virtually in the context here, verse 16 of chapter 14, He tells us a man once gave a great banquet, invited many, Luke 14, 17.

And at that time for the banquet, he said to his servant to say to those who had been invited, come, for everything is now ready. Look, salvation to the uttermost is offered. There it is.

The whole banquet is ready. All things are ready on God's front. That's what God says.

God says to everybody, you don't have to figure out whether you're elect or not. He says to everybody, the claim of God to mankind is everything is ready. Don't get all hung up on limited atonement or whatever.

Listen, everything is ready. That's what Scripture tells us, but it tells us more. It says He invited many at the time of the banquet He sent to His servant.

Everything is now ready. Christ is willing to receive sinners. Christ is the one speaking this.

All things are ready on God's part. The whole thing is ready to go. But what happens? You see it there.

Luke 14, 18, they all like began to make excuses. And you know what the excuses are? These people are wickedly wedded to their idols. I've got a wife over here.

I've got land over here. I've got oxen, I can't kill the... Don't be crazy. I've got more important things to do.

Excuses. You know what? The reason that so few are saved according to Jesus is because sinners aren't willing to come. And so the result is what? Few get saved.

Listen, in the face of that reality, Jesus says something that I wonder. I wonder, how many of us, if we're out on the street and we're actually dealing with somebody that's religious, a Jew, a Muslim, a Catholic, how many? An Anglican? A religious lost Baptist? How many of you are going to look at them and tell them, you know what, you need to strive to enter in. I find that we default to Pauline doctrine.

One of the things that I've done a lot lately is just try to listen to what Jesus told people. You talk about shaking our ideas about things. In the face of the reality that few people make it, that many are on the outside trying to get in at the end, in the face of that reality, Jesus exhorts, you see it right there, back up to Luke 13.

Luke 13. "...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..." You know what? When that happens, you don't hear anybody saying, oh, I've got a wife, I've got oxen, I've got land. The excuses are over here. They're going to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us.

Then He'll answer, you. Can you imagine if you're this guy and Jesus says it that way? Not that the Lord will answer them. The Lord will answer you.

Now He's pretty direct. There's a door. Jesus is telling us there is a door.

You and I must get through that door and it's going to shut. It's not open forever. It's going to shut.

And we've got to get through it. And many are where? What does it say? See? They're not on the same side as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the prophets. I'll tell you where they are.

They're on the side I don't want to be on. Why? Why? In light of verse 24, why are they on that side? They didn't strive. Is that what you tell people? They didn't strive.

Lots of excuses. No striving. No agonizing.

And I just say, wait, is it only me? Or is Jesus making it sound difficult to be saved? Let's take a closer look at Jesus' answer. Strive to enter through the narrow door. Many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

Wait a second. Do people get saved by striving or by not striving? Do we talk like Jesus? Would you have answered the man this way? Who's the evangelist? Sonny, you're the evangelist. What do you tell him? Would you answer him that way? Strive.

Strive. You say that to a religious person. And you see, the thing is, brethren, ladies and gentlemen, we all have to face the Lord Jesus Christ.

We can't escape Him. See, this is one of the things. You go through the Pauline doctrine and you know, you have a, well, by grace we're saved through faith.

And you know, we can go to Romans and we can go to Ephesians. We talk that way. But when I read Jesus, it's like the way He talked to people, it disturbs us.

It ruffles our... It goes against the grain. It's like He's always telling people to do something. And so we all have to face this.

He said things like, you know, the kingdom of heaven. He said things like the violent, take it by force. And brethren, I just look at this and I say, look, our commission is to go into all the world with the good news.

And brethren, wouldn't you say that we ought to learn from Jesus? I mean, don't we all agree He's the best evangelist? Isn't He the best? Isn't He the example? I mean, wouldn't we all say whatever technique He used, whatever approach He used, whatever words He uses, I mean, He sets the pattern for the rest of us. Don't we all agree with that? And yet here He is, and we're like, we're not saved by works. This is not, Lord, this is not what You tell people.

Strive? Strive? And then He doesn't even define His terms. It's like, Lord, don't You have to explain Yourself here? I just say this, He tells us to strive. He tells us there's a door to get through.

He tells us you better be on the right side when that door closes. And here's a narrow door. I mean, He says it.

Mark it down. Mark it down, folks. There is no more important striving in all the universe than that striving that gets you through that door.

Strive to enter through the narrow door. Many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. I mean, what do we say to this? Obviously, He's saying something like strive, agonize.

There's some kind of exertion required. Like there's a work here. There's a labor here.

This is great. It seems like there's a battle to get in. The enemies are many.

The enemies are strong. There they are. We must be up and doing.

Wait. I mean, the idea is strive. You need to go after this thing.

Don't wait for anybody. Don't worry about what others do. Don't worry about the unbelief and the indecision of people.

Don't do that. And don't hold that up as an excuse. If you've got to go to heaven alone, striving like this then result by God's grace to go.

The command is plain. Strive to enter. You are responsible to so exert yourself.

Don't sit still in your sin thinking God's got to zap you. God's got to come along and somehow draw you. And then you can do nothing.

Jesus looks at men, stares them in the eye, and says, strive to enter. Because many are going to be on the wrong side of that door when it shuts. And they're going to want to get in and all their excuses are done then.

And so He's saying, up immediately. He called men to follow Me. He looked at men, follow Me.

Leave your nets. Leave your tax station. Follow Me.

Strive. And you think about it, what did the guy ask? What was the question on the table? And the man asked a question about how many are going to be saved. That's what's on the table.

Salvation is the issue. Strive, Jesus says. What's with all this striving? By grace through faith, Lord.

Striving. Brethren, listen, I'll tell you this. If there's anybody that isn't misleading us, the devil will mislead you.

The Son of God will never mislead you. He's not contradicting Himself. He's not trying to confuse us.

Not in any way. The truth is, if we're going to be faithful to the souls of men, we never need to be afraid to talk the way Jesus talks. Now, I want to show you something.

We dealt with this portion of Scripture in our preacher's class in San Antonio. I assigned certain things and then I will randomly pick the guys. Okay, you're today.

And he's got to go up and he's got to speak for 15 minutes. So I had three guys speak for 15 minutes on this portion of Scripture. Then we analyze and we critique and we go through all of it.

And I said, guys, the first guy went and he didn't even talk about what is this striving? How do you even explain it? I told him, brother, you didn't even deal with that. Don't you think we've got to deal with that? Jesus said this is life and death. You've got to get through that door.

If you don't get through that door, you die, you perish. Not many are going to make it. You want to be among the few.

How do you strive? We've got to explain this. We've got to tell people. What does this mean? We thought we were supposed to believe.

And you know, as I was thinking about this, there is a place in Scripture that I think as much as anywhere is very helpful here. And I want you to turn over to Hebrews. We caught a little glimpse of this earlier when Jeremy was moving through the book of Hebrews.

Go to Hebrews 4. Especially in the English Standard Version, you actually get the same English word the way the translators of the ESV did it. But I mean, you may have a different translation. But you look at Hebrews 4.11. Let us therefore, the ESV says, strive to enter.

Here's the same idea. Strive to enter. Here it's not the door, it's the rest.

Now your Bible may say be diligent. I believe the New American Standard, KJV, says labor. There's a translation that says make every effort.

So we see it again. In Hebrews, when the question is asked, what must I do to enter the rest of God? What's the answer? Strive. Labor.

Be diligent. Make every effort to enter. And strive not to fall like the disobedient Hebrews did in the wilderness.

But here's the thing. Here's the thing that I want you all to see. This is critical.

Notice verse 11. Hebrews 4.11. What does it say? Let us, how do you get in? By what? Striving. Okay, go to verse 3. How do you enter? Say it.

What does verse 3 say? Hebrews 4.3. We who have believed. Does anybody feel better now? Here's the thing. Apparently, the author of Hebrews believes that making every effort to labor to get into God's rest and believing in order to get into God's rest are not incompatible partners.

Would you all agree with that? Would you all agree that in his estimation, there's no disharmony here? There's no contradiction here? Hebrews is not saying that there's two different ways that we might get into the rest. One is by striving and the other is by believing. That's not the way.

It's not one or the other. Believing and striving are two ways of saying the same thing. Do you get the idea here that what God is looking for is a faith that strives? Striving faith.

You'll agree that's the picture we have here. Energy required, right? Yes, we need to apply ourselves. But we're looking to Christ.

We're leaning on our God. We're leaning on His promises. Christ is working through our striving, through our tears, our groans, our sighs, our desires, our desperation, our hopes, our actions.

But you know what really jumps out at me? I mean, as I was thinking about this whole text, the thing that the author of Hebrews, as he's going through this, and you know what he's doing. He's using Psalm 95 to exhort these Hebrew Christians to stay the way, to continue in their confidence. And notice what captures his attention.

Chapter 3, verse 7, Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, where does he say it? He says it in Psalm 95, Today, if you hear His voice. Go to 3.13, Exhort one another every day as long as it is called today. Look at 3.15, As it is said today, if you hear His voice.

And then you go to Hebrews 4.7, Again, he appoints a certain day today, saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted, Today, if you hear His voice. Now here's the thing, in asking how we are supposed to strive to enter, it's like the writer of Hebrews seems more interested at first with asking the question, when we should strive? Rather than just how, do y'all see that? It's like the author grabs ahold of Psalm 95, and you know what jumps out at him? That word T-O-D-A-Y. Today, there it is.

He reasons, hey, today, as long as there's any day called today like today is called today, then this applies to me, this applies to us, this applies to these Hebrews, this applies to us in this place. This is for us. Today is this day.

Any day you call today. That's the idea here. It's now.

Psalm 95 is for today. It proclaims the rest that must be entered today. Today is the day to strive to enter.

That's how he's reasoning. He looks at this and says, brethren, Hebrews realizes one of the most basic strategies for striving to enter God's rest. Listen, let's go back to where we started.

There is a door. That door must be entered. We are to strive to enter.

Many are gonna want to get in. They're gonna use every kind of plea with the Lord. And when that day comes, and that door is shut, and we need to be striving to get through.

And when you come over to Hebrews, the idea here is this, striving to enter this rest, what's so essential to it is that we need to live the Christian life today. I mean, that's the issue. Look at Hebrews 3.13. Exhort one another every day as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

We have come to share in Christ. Jeremy read this. We've come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Firm to the end. We're not to the end yet. You know where we are? We're today.

If you're gonna hold your confidence firm to the end, you gotta hold it today because you don't have tomorrow yet. And you can't hold it for yesterday. All you have is today.

Verse 15, it says, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Holding fast is not something you did yesterday and now it's done. We have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Brethren, what I want to stress to you, we need to strive. We need to be people that are pressing in. We need to strive the way Scripture speaks about striving.

You know what? God speaks. Today is the day not to harden our hearts against what God has said. Today we are called to hear His voice.

Today we are called to trust. You recognize that when we trust the Lord, when we step out in faith, when we step out and do things entirely trusting Him, when we're like Jonathan and we say, you know what? Whether that hill's taken by many or by few and the Yena be defeated, God can do it one way or the other and we're gonna charge ahead. You know, decisions like that are made today.

It's today's when somebody decides, you know what? I am going to memorize Ephesians. It's today when somebody says, I'm gonna gather and huddle around my family and we're gonna open up the Bible and we're gonna talk about the things of the Lord. Today is the day we're to exhort one another to avoid being hardened.

Brethren, this is no small matter. All sorts of professing Christians look to enter in based on yesterday's victories or yesterday's whatever. They procrastinatingly expect to somehow live for Christ tomorrow.

This writer is saying that neither of those types of Christianity work as far as the striving after God's rest. The Christianity of the Bible is the today kind of Christianity. Brethren, here we are.

I mean, we're called to press on. We're called to press through this door. We're called to strive.

The Lord Jesus Himself says it. He looks to us. He looks us eyeball to eyeball.

Strive to enter in. We need to strive to keep going. Faith strives today.

Obedience is for today. We endure today. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden.

We live the Christian life. You know, these guys were drifting. There comes days when we drift.

There comes days when we wake up and we don't get into the Word of God. There's days like this. This happens in the day that we live.

We make decisions or we strive to press ahead. Specific to days when decisions are made not to get up early and pray. There are days when, well, I'm too tired to meet with God's people and come together and pray together.

There are days when we determine not to storm the strongholds of the enemies. Today, brethren, you know what the reality is? There are todays when YouTube sucks the life out of you. There are todays when you get lazy.

There are todays when... I heard Jeremy say it. You don't even entertain the thief. There are todays when we let such doubtful thoughts come to our ears.

We allow the influences, bad companionship corrupts good manners. And we allow it into our lives. And you can allow that companionship to come across the TV, through the movies, through YouTube, through the people that you're interacting with on social media.

Brethren, there are todays when you entangle yourself with a thousand types and forms of fruit-hindering, heart-hardening, flesh-pleasing distractions. And that's just the reality. Brethren, we've got to strive.

We're not at the end yet. We haven't endured to the end yet. Brethren, we need to rise up.

We claim to be the people of God and have the promises of God and have the God of glory, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, this great God, this God of all the promises. All the promises are yes and amen. Brethren, it is todays that we live on such promises.

It is todays. Do you not know that when you have a race, everybody runs. This is how Paul reasons.

Everybody runs. There's a race. But he looks at it and he says, but you know what, at the end of that thing, there's only one that receives the prize.

And he says, you need to run so as to obtain. We've got a lot of people running. But brethren, it isn't enough just to run.

You want to win. You want to get through that door. We want to press ahead.

What is Christ calling us to do? What did He call His people to do? I mean, He walked around and He told people, look, I don't have a place to lay my head. You want to follow Me? That's what you're in for. Brethren, you know what? What you don't want to do is just settle down, get comfortable in this life.

And those things happen todays. It is todays you decide to get a bigger TV so that you can sit more. It's todays when you fall into the lap of luxury.

It's today when you make decisions about whether you're going to follow Christ. Really follow Him. He said follow Me.

But you let your eyes go through those four Gospels and see where He went. See what He did. See how He lived His life.

Brethren, it's today when we kind of tone that down, we take the edge off. Those things happen on days. Brethren, don't only run.

Be sure you win when you run. You remember that guy? You remember that guy in Pilgrim's Progress? You remember the one where you had the guy at the table and he had the list and he walked up and he was taking names? Remember that guy? Remember that guy? And one guy said, put my name down. And he had a sword.

And there was a gate. It was a city. He had to get through that gate.

It said he took out that sword and he ran out onto that battlefield and he went to hacking and receiving and giving blows. And Christian said, I think I know what that means. Brethren, this is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And He looks at us and He says you've got to strive to enter. The true faith of Scripture is a striving faith, folks. It is a fighting.

We fight the good fight of faith. That's what we're hit with. Be violent for it.

You've got to run. Few obtain it. And in the end when you get the many, I just can't imagine that these are like the Muslims who are just like, oh, Lord, we got it all wrong.

Let us in. I think these people that are crying now, they thought they had it right. They might have even thought, You're our Jesus.

You ain't in our streets. You're our Messiah. Brethren, running, running, run, run, run, run! So as to obtain.

That happens today. It doesn't happen yesterday or tomorrow. Let me tell you something.

There's a today. A today when we put together... Brethren, I think of text. Think about what kind of striving we should expect.

I go to the Scriptures and I find things like this. Okay, there are sheep and goats. I find things like this.

The sheep, they went and visited people in prison and they helped people that needed to be clothed. I find the true and undefiled religion before the Lord is to visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction. Okay, so if you're going to strive, what should you be striving today to do? I mean, it ought to be obvious.

I ought to be striving to come up with plans. Trying to figure out ways of sacrificially getting out there and finding the naked and finding the hungry and finding the thirsty. I ought to be finding the widow and I ought to be finding the orphan.

I ought to be strategizing. I mean, brethren, if I come to Scripture and I find that I have these, this kind of people gets into the kingdom and this kind of people does not get into the kingdom. So if my righteousness is to exceed the scribes and the Pharisees, brethren, you know what ought to be happening today? If you want to get through? If you're living by faith? If you're really taking Jesus seriously, what should you be striving to do? I mean, brethren, if not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of those who do the will of the Father, then what should you be doing today? I mean, brethren, we need to take Scripture.

If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It's better for you to enter the kingdom than Jesus says, you basically have two eyes and you get thrown into hell. So what should we be doing today? Men, what should you be doing about your eyes? How do you live by faith today? I mean, you got all these kind of, you got these people that are called children of the devil or children of God.

Well, if the thing that characterizes the children of God is that they practice righteousness, then brethren, we ought to be giving ourselves. Brethren, you can't do this in your own strength. That's where the faith comes in.

But we recognize that He that tells us what to do is going to give us the strength to do it when we attempt to do it. And you can't sit there and wait to be empowered when you're doing nothing. You've got to strive.

You just don't sit there and wait. You got to go, why? Because He tells us to go. He tells us to follow.

He tells us, He presses us on. You got to deceiving your own selves, pastor. You know, like I said, be doers of the Word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Or if anyone thinks he's religious, doesn't bridle his tongue, deceives his heart. Well, in light of verses like that, what are you going to do today? If it's doers of the Word, then you're going to be striving to be doing the work today. Or you got these truths.

If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in the darkness, we lie and don't practice the truth. Or if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments is a liar.

The truth is not in him. Brethren, if you come across verses like this in the Scripture where if I act that way, do that thing, live that kind of life, the truth isn't in me, then what are you striving to do? Brethren, you're striving not to be either. That's what faith does.

It isn't like, oh, I believe Jesus is Lord and I believe that He's a Messiah and I believe He died on the cross and then I just go and sit there. Jesus says, up, at it, when? Paul says, wrong that you may obtain. No loitering, don't wait around to see what the other guy's doing.

This is heaven, this is life, this is death. You get parables of the wise and the foolish virgins. Listen, whatever the oil is, you better have it.

So you better be striving to have it. If you're gonna look and say, well, there's a parable of talents and the one guy over here, the wicked guy buries it. I'll tell you this, then strive not to bury it, strive to be up and using it.

Strive. Sheep and the goats, like we talked about, strive. If anyone comes to me and he doesn't, you know what he says, hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Brethren, then what should we be doing today? Strive to lay all your dreams, all your ambitions, all your desires, all your longings on the altar, all your relations. Whoever does not hear is, bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Or anyone who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Brethren, that's for today, today kind of Christianity. You gotta run, no passivity, all out fight today. Fight the good fight of faith, that fight of faith.

Unless you renounce everything, you can't be his disciple. What should you be striving to do? Lord, confess, I got this thing, help me. I wanna be totally submitted to you.

All out, agonize, struggle, lay the weights. You see it, the race that's run there later in Hebrews. You gotta lay down all these weights, all these things that hinder, all these encumbrances.

We strive, we strive, we strive. You consider the life and death passages. If you live according to the flesh, you die.

If by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you'll live, so what should you be doing? Lord, help me by the power of your spirit, help me to put these things to death. Brethren, this is not for the timid, this is not for the weak. Christ doesn't save us to be timid and weak.

He saves us to do this, to go to battle. He saves us to declare war on sinful deeds of the body and have victory. This is not for cowards, this is not for quitters.

This is not for the thin-skinned. Don't let anyone snatch your crown. You ever come across that? You know, Jesus said that to a church.

Don't let anybody, wait, that just violates my Calvinism. Listen, don't you let anybody snatch your crown. Jesus isn't saying that in some useless fashion.

Brethren, the kingdom's taken by force. Yes, you need strength above and beyond your own. You trust God for it, you lean on Him, you call on Him, you cling to Him.

What say you? Brethren, should we put your name down? Are you ready? When you have the city, you're going to take the gate? Brethren, this is your life. And you know what? We're told the time's coming when the master of the house is going to rise and shut the door. And most, brethren, few find it, most get shut out.

It's the end. God's patience for sinners is over. The door of mercy, it was open for so long.

It's going to shut. The blood of Christ that offers so much hope to mankind is never more going to be offered again to those on the outside. It's over.

The master of the house, he's going to gather from the east and the west and the north and the south. He's going to seat them beside Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the prophets. They're shut in with Christ, shining like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

But you know what? You know what's happening outside that door? Many, I tell you, will seek to enter and they're not able. But once the master of the house has risen and shut that door, you begin to stand outside, knock at the door. Lord, open to us.

I can't imagine that there is a more pitiful, desperate... Just imagine their desperation. They're just saying anything and everything they think might prevail. A day before, the Lord would have responded to their desperation.

A day before, they weren't desperate. They weren't striving. And now they can cry, they can scream, they can argue, they can weep, they can negotiate.

They can strive, but to no avail. I do not know you, where you come from. That is interesting.

You're a foreigner. I don't know where you come from. You're foreign to me.

I don't know your people. I called, you stayed far off out there in some foreign land. You didn't come seek refuge under my wings.

I just don't know who you are, where you are from. J.C. Ryle, he says there's something peculiarly striking in our Lord's language in this prophecy. It reveals to us the dreadful fact that men may see what is right when it is too late for them to be saved.

There's a time coming when many will repent too late, believe too late, sorrow for sin too late, begin to pray too late, be anxious about salvation too late, long for heaven too late. Myriads shall wake up in another world and be convinced of truths which on earth they refuse to believe. Hell itself is nothing but truth known too late.

Strive to enter. Strive. Trust in Him.

Strive. Fight the good fight. Strive, strive, strive.

We have not yet arrived at the final rest, folks. The race is still before us. Today, if you hear His voice, today, today.

Brethren, I just leave this with you. He said, unless you forsake all that you have, you can't be My disciple. Brethren, all over.

Forsake all. You know where that happens. It happens in the heart.

We let go. All on the altar. Brethren, today, if you hear His voice, today.

Brethren, we need on a regular basis to come back. Lord, I am Yours. I want to live for You.

All out for You. Lord, show me what isn't right. Search me, O God.

Help me. I want to be bowed to the Master. Not live in my own way in a thousand things.

Not live in my own way in doing my own things and using my own time to do what I want to do. And we can get to the place, brethren, where we have our little time of amusement, our little time of relaxation that we kind of separate. And God's not in control.

And we kind of amuse ourselves and rest and revive ourselves out away from where we imagine, almost not under His gaze. Brethren, today, today, all out, all afresh, all out for Christ. It's all Yours.

My time, my members, my eyes, my tongue, my all. I'm Yours. My money, it's Yours.

What do You want me to do? How do You want me to live? All over, fresh commitment, forsaking all. Brethren, He says He's going to cleanse us from our idols, but we know of anything about ourselves. Those idols have a way of creeping back in.

Just when you can get to the place where you feel like, yes, I've abandoned, I'm totally surrendered, totally abandoned to Him, and then they come creeping back in. Anybody else find that happen? Brethren, oh, I knew we need to come back. Come back to Him.

Brethren, say it to Him. Say it in your own heart. Lord, total abandonment, total surrender, total forsaking of all.

No part of my life held back. Today, we got to strive, brethren. We're not there yet.

He told us to follow Him. You're not going to find a way inside that door if you're not following Him. By faith, you put your eyes on Him, and we keep after Him.

While we stagger and we stumble along the way, thank the Lord His blood washes us. We're clean, we're free, we're forgiven. Brethren, He's calling us.

He's calling us to the hard way. He's calling us to suffer. He's calling us to walk in His footpaths.

He's calling us to talk like He talked. He's calling us to live like He lived. He went about doing good.

Brethren, He calls us in that path. He calls us to reach the world. He came and He was a light to this world, and now we're the lights to the world.

People out there are perishing. Today, today many of them are going to die and they're going to go to hell, and they were within your reach. And He didn't bring the truth to them.

Brethren, today, today is the day to scheme and to plan as to how we are going to sacrificially live and give ourselves all out and run this race. Brethren, I know that running this race and the way I'm talking, brethren, it can be really radical right there where you're raising your three children and you're a stay-at-home mom because you say this, I am going to raise my children in the fear of the Lord. I'm going to raise them with an open Bible.

I am going to give myself to praying for my children and praying for the people in the church and for doing good. And I'm going to strive to love my husband and I'm going to strive, and Lord, I'm all yours. And you've called me to do these things.

And I need your help. We don't do this in our own strength. That's where the faith, we're looking to the help of another.

But brethren, we are not at the end yet. And you know, I've passed for long enough to see people fall out of this race. You read your Bibles, there's Demases and there's Judases, and there are those who made shipwreck of the faith.

We haven't made it yet. We're not there yet. You got to keep running.

Run so that you may obtain. Don't fall out. There's still missionary endeavors.

There are nations that are unreached. There are people out there that are perishing who's going to take the truth to them. Church of England, don't go to sleep.

This is not the day, the time to go to sleep. We've got to press on. That's what Jesus did.

He ran. He came to do the will of His Father. Brethren, a lot of us are doing our own will.

And we can do our own will and ask God to come in and bless it. You ever notice that? You already figured out what you want to do and now you're asking God to bless rather than being doing what He wants us to do. Brethren, like I say, Jesus said some tough things.

But you know what? He didn't come to mislead us. And we follow Him. He'll take us to the end.

He'll take us through that door. He'll take us all the way. Amen.