So we don't have a mute control
here, so if you're at home on Zoom, please mute your computer. So turn with your Bibles this
morning to Luke the 13th chapter. Luke 13, and today's scripture
lesson is called The Straight Gate. By way of background, remember
last time we had the grain of the mustard seed gospel, where
the disciples were concerned, as we find throughout the Old
Testament, the prophets were saying, I'm all alone and they
seek to kill me. And who has believed our report?
There doesn't seem to be many of us. And the Lord says, I've
reserved to myself 7,000. And Paul wrote, and even so at
this present time, there's a remnant according to the election of
grace. And so we have these disciples that are concerned. There don't seem to be many of
us. And when you fed the 5,000, and
most of them, when you declared sovereignty and grace, a lot
of them said, well, that's a hard saying. Who can take that? We're leaving, and so the Lord,
with His disciples, comforts them and says, well, you know,
it's like a mustard seed. It doesn't seem to be much, and
it's little, and it's like the leaven. It doesn't seem to be
much, but when it's used, it creates a great result. And so
here we are in Luke chapter 13 now, and we'll begin reading
in verse 22 and read down through verse 30. And he went through
the cities and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. His face was set like a flint
to go to Jerusalem to redeem the church, to give his life
a ransom for many. Then said one unto him, Lord,
are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive
to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you, will
seek to enter in, and shall not be able. And once the master
of the house is risen up, and is shut to the door, and ye begin
to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord,
open to us. And he shall answer and say unto
you, I know not whence you are. Then shall ye begin to say, Well,
we've eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught
in our streets." Remember, in the very first verse that we
read here, he said he went through the villages teaching and journeying
toward Jerusalem. You've taught in our streets.
But he shall say, I tell you, I know not whence you are. Depart
from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the
prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out."
That's a violent term. When you thrust something out,
it's just not a passive gesture. It's thrusting. "...And they
shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north,
and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold, there are last which
shall be first, and there shall be first which shall be last." As I delved into this, it just
got more fascinating and more fascinating and more interesting.
And I have to say that thanks to my friend, John Bunyan. You
know, in his book, he writes the introduction things and he
says, your friend, John Bunyan, boy what a and he is so thanks
to him for pointing me in the direction of a couple scriptures
that are pertinent to the study and and one quote that we'll
we'll use from one of one of his books there so today's lesson
the straight gate they said are there few that
be saved And you know, we say that today, you know, it just
seems like we're a small group. And saved from what is kind of
the question, and it ends in the Kingdom of God and in Christ.
And so, in preparation for today's lesson for Luke 13, the straight
gate, it would be good for us to go back and look at a couple
of Old Testament Scriptures. Because, you know, we always
find a couple of things. We always find that the New Testament
is the Old Testament applied. And that's what they preach from.
And then the next thing we want to always keep in mind is that
the Lord is always greater and deeper, and there's more than
what seems to be on the surface. And He just gives this seeming
quick response to them. Are there few that be saved?
So He brings this reference up. So if you turn in your Bibles
to Psalm 118, I like to read verse 19-21 there. He said, enter in at the straight
gate. In Psalm 118 verse 19, it says,
Open to me the gates of righteousness, and I will go into them, and
I will praise the Lord, the gate of the Lord into which the righteous
shall enter. I will praise Thee. For thou
hast heard me, and art become my salvation." Boy, what a picture
of the gate we have of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our next Old Testament
reference comes from Ezekiel in chapter 40. And at the beginning
of Ezekiel chapter 40, I'm just going to paraphrase it because
we don't have time to read the whole chapter here, but he has a vision from God. And the Lord showed him this
vision of this heavenly city that was on a mountain. And in
this heavenly city, there's the temple, this vision of a temple,
and it had gates. It had gates on
the north, and gates on the west, and gates on the south, and gates
on the east. And remember back in our scripture,
Luke says, they shall come from the north, and the east, and
the west, and the south. And Mike Richardson brought this
this message one time called let the redeemed of the Lord
say so and that comes from Psalm 107 verse 2 and 3 it says let
the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he hath redeemed from
the hand of the enemy and gathered them out of the lands from the
east and the west and from the north and the south. And there's
references in that in Revelation where He says He shall send His
angels out and they shall gather His elect from the four corners. So it's very pictorial of why
we have these gates and that He's going to bring His people
together from every corner of the world, from every kindred,
tongue, and tribe. And so the next verse we'd like
to look at comes again back from Ezekiel. We turn back to Ezekiel
in chapter 40, and he gives a description of these gates that's very important. And in the Ezekiel chapter 40
in verse 39, he says, The gates, there were four gates
and they each had two leaves, so they open like this, not just
one big single panel gate, but two gates that open and they
were each six cubits wide. And it's interesting that it
gives us these precise dimensions about the gates. And so you have
an entrance that's 12 cubits wide, so that's You know, that's
fairly significant. That's a pretty wide entrance
there. And then, once you got to the gate, there were a table
on each side of the entrance. A big, long table. And on this
table, it said there were two tables on this side and two tables
on that side in the porch of the gate. and to slay there on
the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering.
So right at the gate, there was a place for the sin offering.
Boy, what a picture of our Lord. What a picture of the very things
that we're celebrating even today. He completed this sin offering
and now He's risen. And we'll see a little bit more
of this information on these gates and the tables. And if
we turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter 23, 2 Chronicles chapter
23, and it's written there, Also
Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the Lord by the
hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had distributed in
the house of the Lord to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord,
as it is written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing,
as it was ordained by David." Boy, what a thing to... rejoice
and sing in is that the offering for sin has been made and he's
taken care of our issues. In verse 19 of 2 Chronicles 23,
and this is very important here, and he set porters, and that
word means gate warden, someone to guard the gate. He set porters
at the gate of the house of the Lord, that none which was unclean
in anything should enter in." Isn't that interesting? And a
little side quote here from John Bunyan that he wrote from prison. The gates were each six cubits
wide and yet so straight that none that were unclean in anything
might go in." Boy, what a picture of what's required for entrances
is to have your uncleanness taken care of by the Lord our righteousness. And again, as always, The New
Testament is just the Old Testament applied. And so we see the Lord
says, are there few that be saved? And He says, enter in the straight
gate. Now, we mentioned the mustard
seed gospel. about the few, and now it turns
out to a multitude that no man could number. And so today the
lesson kind of focuses more closely on the who, what, where, and
how that occurs. And he says, strive. Strive to
enter in at the gate, the straight gate. And it emphasizes that
striving to enter in It's because of the serious nature of attaining
entrance. It's a serious thing. People just have such a small
view of that. They have such an inconsequential
understanding of their problems in sin and their relationship
to God. Jesus says, come all ye that
are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.
My yoke is easy and my burden is light. And yet, people, they
won't come. And this striving brings to us
this most serious nature of this situation of life and salvation
or death and eternal separation from God. He says you'll find
yourself thrust out. It's just a significant, violent
term there about being not just No, you can't come in. Thrust
out. You know, this striving, it just
struck me that this striving implies the great effort and
task that requires the greatest effort that is on our part is
to cease from our own works. That's the hardest thing. Cease
from our own works to lay aside every vestige of self-righteousness
and trust in Christ alone for all our salvation. Boy, I remember
that time. Just trust the Lord. Just trust
the Lord. Just trust the Lord. Well, how do I do that? And much
as you might try, you can never do that. It has to come from
above. It has to come through the rebirth. And yet, religion takes us down
the opposite road. It takes us down the agonizing
wide road of works to try and enter in on our own, which will
never allow passage." That's what he says. Many will strive
to enter in and will be unable. The first thing that I wanted
to note in our scripture reading today is that there is in fact
a gate. And it's a spiritual gate. And
it's the only portal in. And it's called, it's in the
singular, it's called the straight gate. They're not, you know,
religions always telling us, well, there are many paths to
Jesus, many paths to heaven, many, Many, my version is just
as valid as your version. Well, he says, the straight gate
is pretty definitive. And you know, a purpose of a
gate is keep things out that you don't want in and keep things
in that you don't want out. And we have several around our
place to keep our pets in and keep the other things out that
we don't want in. and secondly the gate is described
as as straight and in the concordance it's there's an interesting definition
in the concordance and it says it describes it as narrow from
obstacles standing about. Isn't that interesting? It's narrow from obstacles standing
about and those obstacles you know there's it's kind of a two
part picture here, there's obstacles from our side, in our natural
condition, there's obstacles of self-righteousness, of unbelief,
of works, keeping the law, lineage by birth, membership, ordinances,
and all those things above themselves prevent man's entrance. And then
from the Lord's side, He has the gate wardens. And his job
is to keep out anything unclean from entering in. Kind of like
in Genesis, they had the angel with the flaming sword to keep
out those that weren't allowed access. And so, thirdly, we find
that many try to enter in by their own means or some other
way. And I was thinking back to the news report here a while
back about some, the government was trying to engage in some
activity that was in opposition to the Constitution. And they
said, we came up with a workaround. We know it's illegal, but we
have a way around that. We have a loophole here. And that's how man views it.
Well, we don't necessarily agree with the straight gate thing. We have a workaround. We can
do all these works. We can come at it from our own
version. But you know, he says, they'll
not be able. No ability. That's pretty straightforward. No ability because of the natural
state that we're in. We're dead in sins. We're without strength. We have
no sense of sin. I remember Norm, in one of his
Revelation series, I think, says, no sense of sin. They're numb
to it, really. They don't see it as anything
bad in particular and no consequence, no penalty. So
there's really no need to be saved or to submit to the only
righteousness that's found only in Christ, who's the door, the
gate. He's the master of the house
that shuts and no man openeth and no man shuts. He opened it
for His people and shuts it to those who are not. He shuts to
the door, and it means to close fully. There's not a crack there
that you can wiggle in through. That's found in Revelation 3,
verse 7. If you want to look in your Bibles
there to Revelation 3, verse 7, it says, of the Church of
Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy, he that
is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and
no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. Well, you
know where that's found in the Old Testament? That's found in
Isaiah 22, 22. Again, the New Testament is the
Old Testament applied. And then it made me think of
Noah, a preacher of righteousness. And, you know, I don't know how
many people were on the earth at that time, but there was eight,
say, in the ark. And in Genesis chapter 7, verse
1, it said, The Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house
into the ark. For thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation." And then if we move forward to
Genesis chapter 7 verse 16, and the culmination of it says, And
they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God
had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. The consequence was that he shut
the rest out. And so, it's significant. He that openeth and he that shutteth. He has that sovereign control
over that. And I wanted to turn over to
Matthew. Matthew has a record of this
same straight gate message, and he adds a couple of things to
it that are pertinent. In Matthew chapter 7, in verse
13 and 14, He says, enter ye in at the straight
gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because
straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it. It's a couple of interesting
things that he adds in there that's not found in the Luke
version about the broad way and having to find it. It's very significant. And the
straight or the narrow way versus the wide gate and the broad path
that leads to destruction, the narrow straight gate and few
there be that find it. You know, to the Jews and the
Pharisees, and remember that he's dealing a lot with them
in this block of Scripture that we're going through in Luke. In John 7, verse 14, He says,
You shall seek Me, but will be unable to find Me. And He was
right there in front of him. Isn't that interesting? He says,
You shall seek Me. It's kind of like, you will seek
Me, but not for righteousness. They sought him for evil purposes. And you shall seek me, but will be
unable to find me. And where I'm going, you cannot
come. No ability. To you, the gate
is shut. And not to all of them, but generally
speaking, It was shut. And it says, then they took up
stones to cast at him in John 8, 59. And Jesus says, Jesus
hid himself and went out of the temple going through the midst
of them. That's just an instance of divine
sovereignty and power and miracle. He hid himself, though he was
right there in front of them and passing through the midst
of them. Yet they were unable to see Him. He passed through them and just
went on by. Unless you be born again, you can't see the kingdom
of God. That is the application of that
scripture right there. So, to those whom the Father
draws to the Son by the Spirit of God, in Jeremiah 29, verse
13 says, you shall seek Me and find Me. What a difference. To those that are shut out, He's
right there, but they can't see Him. And He passes through the
midst of them unnoticed. But in Jeremiah 23, 29, 13 says,
You shall seek Me and find Me when you shall search for Me
with all your heart. Boy, what a scripture that is. You know, it's another spiritual
mystery. Like He said, I was found of
them that sought Me not. How can that be? The Scripture
says there's none that seek God. In our own nature of our old
unregenerate self, there's none that seek God. The heart is desperately
wicked. So when you add those things
together, when you search for God with all your heart, you'll
find Him. Well, how can you do that if
your heart is desperately wicked? There has to be something happening
there that changes that. We always read that in Ezekiel
36, I'll give you a new heart. Because the old one's no good.
The old one's dead, desperately wicked. Who can know
it? When do you come to that knowledge
that The heart is desperately wicked.
That's an interesting point there. You don't think your heart is
desperately wicked when you're in your old state. You think,
I'm just as good as the next person. But a new heart is needed. It's absolutely required. And
it just requires a remarkable change that can only be implemented
by the Holy Spirit in the new. You must be born again. And you
know, the comparison of the narrow gate that leads to life versus
the wide gate that leads to destruction, it's the narrow gate of grace
in Christ. And we find that gate at the
end of the road for believers, the elect, those obstacles have
been removed. It's kind of like in Numbers
where it talks about the cities of refuge. They filled in all
the valleys and they shaved off the mountains, kind of like going
over to the coast. They took all the curvy part
of the road out and filled in the canyon and built bridges
and made this nice, wide, straight, shot to the coast. And that's the way it is to the
city of refuge for those that the Lord directs there. Christ
our refuge. And it's like entering that gate
there to the holy city that was shown to Ezekiel there in chapter
40. And you have those tables where the sin offering was made.
And no unclean thing shall pass there. John chapter 10, it gives
us a little bit more information on that. In John chapter 10,
verse 1 it says, and we'll read down through verse 9, Is verily,
verily I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door, to
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a
thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep." You know, there's just so much
in that first verse there. Thief and robber, trying to take
the glory from God, trying to take the grace from God, and
substitute your own things there. It's a thief, and it's a robber. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep, and to him the porter, the gate
warden, the person that's there to make sure that no unclean
thing enters in, to him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his
voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name." How specific
is that? He calleth them by name, and
leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them. And the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice. And a stranger they will not
follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of
strangers." Boy, how true that is. You know, once you know grace,
you just can't listen to that other stuff. You just won't. This parable, again a parable
that we've talked about so many times, spake Jesus unto them.
You know, we're not really actual woolly sheep. It's a picture,
a spiritual picture, and all those things that are alluded
to here in a spiritual way. This parable spake Jesus unto
them, but they understood not. what things they were which he
spake unto them. So he says, unto you it's given
to know. And so he explains it to them.
He gives them the key, the knowledge that they need to understand
this parable. He says, Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door that I just told
you about. I am the door of the sheep. All
that ever came before me are thieves and robbers. But the
sheep did not hear them. I am the door. And I think that
you could capitalize I and am there because eternally He has
always been the door and He will always be the door. By me, if
any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out
and find pasture. In and out. You know, in Revelation
it says the gates are not closed. Once you're there, the gates
are open. The thief cometh not but for
to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they
might have life, and they that might have it more abundantly.
I am the door. If any man come by me, enter
he, and he shall be saved. How appropriate is that to our
lesson here in the straight gate? Many shall seek to enter the
straight gate by their own terms, by their own works, in our text
in verse 24 says, they shall not be able. Just very, very
blunt, very plain. And you know, they say, well,
you know, there's many paths that lead to heaven. And my way
is certainly as valid as your way. We always hear that. And in fact, they criticize you
for being so narrow in your view. You should have the wide view. You're just too narrow in your
scope. And yet, you know, our view is
as narrow as the Bible view. Straight as the gate. Few there
be that find it. And the problem then is really
not with us so much as it is the problem with God. want what
He has said. They don't want His righteousness.
They just want to be called by His name. They don't want to
apply any of it. They're like those ones in John
6, 6, 6, where He fed them all and He says, you just came because
you wanted the free lunch. And when it came down to the
rubber meeting the road with the sovereignty and grace, They
said, whoa, that's a hard saying. Who can do that? And many walked
no more with him. Romans 10.3 describes these ones
who strive to enter in by their own means and shall not be able. And Romans 10.3 says, for they
being ignorant of God's righteousness, the righteousness that He has
supplied, and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
My way is just as good as your way, but it's not. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. So what is the
key? We have this broad path, and
we have the narrow path, and we have the straight gate that's
full of obstacles, our own self, everything that we do approach
God. So what's the key? It's the gospel. What's the path? It's the blood
of Christ that gets us past the gate because we have to have
that sacrifice that's pictured on those tables so that no unclean
thing entereth in. Because of that sacrifice of
Christ, we're without spot. We're without wrinkle. We're
washed from our sins in the blood of Christ. So, we look at those things and we
say, well, where's the spiritual compass that takes us from the
wide, broad path that leads to destruction to find? He says
you have to find that gate. Few there be that find it, is
what Matthew said. Few there be that find it." Well,
it's the Holy Spirit which enables us to find the gate. And once
it's found, to actually enter in through the new birth. And
it says it must be found and few there be that find it. You
know, when you're on the broad path, there's no need to find
the broad path because you're already on it. You're on the
wide road that leads to destruction, and it takes the Holy Spirit
to say, take exit 84, turn right, go up to 10th Street, and then
go to some place where you'll hear the gospel. So, you know,
no man, Jesus said, I'm the way, I'm the truth and the life, and
no man, cometh unto me, cometh unto the Father, but by me."
He's the narrow gate. And no one is going to get past
that any other way. Again, can we do that on our
own? Well, the scripture, again, we
read from Psalm 14 and Romans chapter 3, where it says, there's
none that seek God, none that understand Him. So
the key to this clear division between those that are on the
the broad path that leads to destruction, and those that are
guided by the Holy Spirit to find the narrow gate, the narrow
way. It's strictly in the sovereignty
of God who's chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And, you know, many hear the
gospel of Christ, and there's probably been a million sermons
go out today on Easter probably don't really focus on
the gospel and go virtually unheard. People that just go there to
put their time in and check the box and say, well, I went to
church on Easter and completed my religious duty for the year.
Many hear the gospel of Christ and his substitutionary death.
in the place of his people, but unless it's mixed with faith
and then they inherit it, it has no effect. It has to be mixed
with total reliance in Christ, and that only comes through the
new birth. And apart from the miracle of the new birth, there's
no belief, there's no entering in. Jesus said in John chapter
3 to Nicodemus, and we've used this scripture quite a bit because
it just becomes more and more apparent. I say unto you, except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he can't enter into the kingdom
of God." He can't enter. And before that, he said, except
a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. He can't
see or find the narrow path. He can't see or find the gate.
He cannot see the kingdom. He can't see it. Just like Jesus
passing through their midst. He was right there among them,
and yet they couldn't see Him. He was hidden. And again, we
want to look at what, or perhaps better, who is the straight gate,
and that's none other than Jesus Christ and His sole righteousness,
which He imputes to those whom the Father gave Him in the covenant
of grace and for whom He gave His life for ransom. Jesus said
unto them in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life,
and no man cometh unto the Father, but by me, the straight gate."
And Acts 14, 12 says, neither is there salvation in any other.
There's none other name given under heaven among men whereby
we must be saved. There's no other path. There's
no other gate. In John, he's called the door
of the sheep. And in the Greek, that's this
word thura, which is just another word for portal or entrance.
I'm the door of the sheep. I'm the entrance. I am the door of the sheep, not
the door for anyone else. He's very specific in that I
am the door of the sheep. He's the guardian of the gate,
too. You know, we find so many times that Christ fulfills all
these different offices. He's our prophet, He's our priest,
He's our king, He's our savior, the good shepherd, the door.
We find all these offices that He fulfills on behalf of His
people. Every single attribute that He has is focused on and
geared to the redemption of the church, to saving His people.
He says he's the guardian of the gate, that porter, that gate
warden that it talks about in John chapter 3. The porter openeth
the gate, the sheep go in and out. He's the good shepherd.
He knows all his sheep. He's the good shepherd that lays
down his life for the sheep. Very specific. And he said all
others are hirelings or thieves and robbers. To them, the gate
warden opens not. The gate is described as narrow.
I wanted to have a paraphrase from John Bunyan. He says, it's
narrow, but it's wide. It's 12 cubits wide. It's wide
enough for the greatest sinner to come in through the righteousness
of Christ. And yet it's narrow enough to keep out the smallest
atom of self-righteousness or self-works or all those other
things that are termed as obstacles. It's narrow but wide. It's like
that eye of the needle that the Lord talks about. It's pretty
small. You know, the greatest obstacle,
again, is self. The greatest obstacle is self-work,
self-righteousness, unbelief, obstinance. You know, he says,
you will not. How oft would I have gathered
you and you will not. And so many times we find in
the Old Testament, they stopped up their ears, they closed their
eyes, they would not hear, they would not see. And we just find that over and over
again. We see that example in Adam hiding himself and sowing
his own fig leaves. I'm sort of naked now, but God's
looking for me, and I don't want to come out like this, so I'll
just make my own little apron out of fig leaves. Refusing the
robe of righteousness that's provided in Christ, and he does
that until the Lord God Almighty made them coats of skin and clothed
them. Hebrews 3.19 says, They could not enter in because
of unbelief. What an obstacle that we have.
You can't overcome that on your own. You can't undo that obstacle
of unbelief until something makes you believe. And Ephesians 119
says, we believe. according to the working of His mighty power,
which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead."
That very thing that we're celebrating, that same power that it took
to raise Christ from the dead, works effectually in His people
to cause them to believe. You know, in verse 24 it says,
many will seek to enter in and shall not be able, And that term
is very interesting. We'll seek. We'll seek to enter
in. Concordance, it gives the sense
to seek, either literally or figuratively, but specifically
by a Hebraism to worship God. So, the understanding then is
one who, by their own religious efforts, which are really only
a surface and a false worship, try to claim a right to entrance
by or through their own works. It's like those Pharisees that,
I've kept all the law from my youth up. I've done this. I've
done that. All the boxes that get checked,
I tithe. Fast three times a week and all
those things that we Religiously check off and and so it gives
us many seek to enter in by religious through religious works But they
will be unable and he says that here in Luke he says well We've
eaten and drunk with you Kind of makes you think about communion
and those people that ate of the 5,000 that ate of the bread. We've eaten and drunk with you.
And we've listened to you teach. But they're only a surface. He
says, you worship me with your lips, but your hearts are just
far from me. Woe to you lawyers, you take
away the key of knowledge, which is the gospel, and you enter
not in yourselves and them that are entering, and you hinder,
those are obstacles at the narrow gate, at the straight gate. And
it's many who attempt this in all ages. Cain, I thought this was interesting. I never really paid much attention
to it before, other than we know that his offering was not accepted
by the Lord because it wasn't a picture of the lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world. But he brought an offering
of the fruit of the ground, which just a couple chapters before
that, the Lord said, the ground is cursed for your sake. He brought
an offering of the curse. to the Lord and God says, I'm
not taking that. I have no respect for that. It's
kind of like him saying, I've overcome the curse and here's
the proof. Here's my stuff that I've been
able to produce. But Abel brought an offering
in the first of his flock, a picture of the lamb. slain from the foundation
of the world, and to this God has respect. And this was the
compass, this was the key, the Holy Spirit to find the narrow
gate and the key to entering in, the gospel of that Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And the many are always employed
in self-serving, seeming worship, which they think places God in
obligation to them to let them in. He's not fooled. And to which
He owes nothing. The Scripture says He knows their
thoughts afar off. Well, we're out of time for today,
but He said there's going to be weeping
and gnashing of teeth, and those that don't come in through the
straight gate are going to be thrust out. Yet, for His people,
He's removed the obstacles. He's led them with the Holy Spirit,
tracks down every one of the ones given him from the Father
and the covenant of grace, and steers them to the gospel, or
steers the gospel to them, and causes them to believe. And what
a mighty work that is. So we'll stop there, and next
time we'll kind of pick up there in the last verse. Many shall
be the first and the first last, and
how that applies here. Anyway, in the meantime, cease
from your own works, believe the gospel of God's dear Son,
and enter in at the straight gate of Christ. Thank you for
your attention and as always, be free.