We're going to be looking in
Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. And I want to begin reading in
verse 18. Then said he, Unto what is the
kingdom of God like, and whereunto shall I resemble it? Or how shall
I illustrate it? It is like a grain of mustard
seed which a man took and cast into his garden, and it grew
and waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air lodged in the
branches of it. And again he said, Whereunto
shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven which
a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole
was leavened. And he went through the cities
and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 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. When once the master of the house
is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand
without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open
unto us, and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you
not which ye are. Then shall ye begin to say, We
have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast told in our streets,
But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not which ye are. Depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all
the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust
out. 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 are first which
shall be last." Now this is a very solemn passage
of Scripture, and one which would do well for
those who have a profession of faith in Christ to take to heart,
to read it, and to see what it is that the Lord is saying here. Now, the Lord, of course, as
we know, taught in parables. And He said that He taught in
parables so that those that see might see, and those that can't
see would be blinded. And so it is with all of the
preaching of the truth of God. It is a savor of life to some
and it is a savor of death to others. It is not that which
can be received by the flesh, although the flesh has a religious
bent and it is attracted to religious things. Now, he said that The
kingdom of God was like a grain of mustard seed. Now, mustard
seed is very small. You can't hardly see it at all.
And it's hard to take one mustard seed and plant it. But the Lord
said it is like a grain of mustard seed when He talked about the
kingdom of God. is something that is very small,
doesn't mean much at all, if you just looked at it in the
flesh, which a man took and cast it
into his garden. Now, the Lord is speaking here,
of course, in an illustrative way, and He's speaking about
the Kingdom of God, being as a mustard seed, which is so small
you can hardly see it, and a man cast it into his garden. He didn't just throw it out beside
the road somewhere, but he put it in a specific place. He put
it in his garden, and it grew. And it waxed a great tree, and
the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it." Now what
he is speaking about here is, I believe, an illustration of
what the kingdom of God is. It is something that is insignificant
insofar as men are concerned. It is something that they do
not have any role in at all. But it's something that a man
took and put in his garden. And of course, I believe he's
speaking about the fact that it is his mustard seed in his
garden. And he said, this is the kingdom
of God. This is how it is. He said, I have taken it and
I have planted it. It's mine. And it doesn't seem
like much at all to men. But it grew, and where did it
grow? It grew in his garden. Because
he's the planter of it, and he owns the ground that he put it
in. And that's where he put it. And it waxed a great tree, and
the fowls of air lodged in the branches thereof. Now keep that in mind as we go
further down here. And again, he said, where unto
shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven which
a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole
was leavened. Now, I wouldn't call myself a
baker, but I have messed around with making bread and various
things. And a leavening agent, the most
common leavening agent that is used in bread making, of course,
is yeast. And it doesn't take very much
yeast to yield a great result. But it does take some yeast.
in order for bread to rise, you can put all the flour and stuff
that you want to into a bowl, mix it up, but if you leave the
yeast out, it's just going to be a block. It's not going to
do anything. But that leavening agent of the
yeast, when it's put in there, it causes it to expand. And that's what he's saying here.
He said this is like the kingdom of God. It's like leaven, which
a woman, specifically a woman, because women were generally
the ones who did the cooking, and so he's using that illustration.
But keep in mind that it is the woman's yeast that she put in
her bread that caused it to rise. till the whole was leaven. Now,
it doesn't take a sack full of leaven to make
a loaf of bread, but it does take some. And the Lord takes
that which seems insignificant to men, again, and he makes it
to be something that is delightful according to the good pleasure
of his will. And so he went through the cities and villages teaching
and journeying towards Jerusalem and then said one unto him, Lord,
are there few that be saved? Now that's a sobering question.
I dare say that it is a question that is so outside the realm
of the thinking of the modern day in which we live
until most people don't even know that the question is asked
or how the Lord answered it in the Scripture. Because if you listen to the
predominant message that goes out into the world today, purporting
itself to be what the Lord was teaching here, you would come
to the conclusion it is almost impossible for somebody not to
be saved. When I hear some of this stuff
that is going out under the guise of being called the preaching
of the gospel, God just loves everybody so much,
and everybody in the world, and it just really doesn't make any
difference what you really believe or whatever, as long as you're
sincere and you really believe it, and we're all working for
the same thing, and we're all patting one another on the back,
and everything's okay, and when we die, we're all going to heaven. I mean, that's received message,
is it not? I mean, you can have a lot of
friends if you preach such a thing. People pat you on the back and
say, man, that's great, you encouraged us, we're fired up, we're ready
to go and whatever. One said unto him, Lord, are
there few that be saved? Now, just like when Nicodemus
came to him, Nicodemus never got his question out and the
Lord told him something that was true. This man, whoever he was, he
said, Are there few that be saved? And the Lord didn't specifically
answer his question. He could have said yes or he
could have said no. He could have said maybe. He
didn't say any of those things. When the man said, Are there
few that be saved? He said, Strive to enter in.
Now I believe that there are basically three kinds of people
in the world in considering spiritual things. There is the vast majority of
people that don't have any concern whatsoever
for spiritual things. They're content to go on the
way of the world and enjoy the pleasures of the world, and they
don't even have a thought. They just don't have a thought
towards the things of God at all. This question is, are there few
that be saved? Now, that has to be considered
in a comparative sense. Few is a comparative number,
is it not? Compared to the number of people
in Suwannee County, we're few. Is that not true? Now compared to the people that
normally meet here, we're not few. We're actually more than
half. So we're not few in that sense.
So few is a comparative number. And so the question that was
asked, are there few that be saved, is asked, I believe, from
the notion of that if there are not few that be saved, if the
thought is there aren't few that be saved, then we're doing okay. Now keep in mind that this was
likely a Jew that was asking him this. And so it was thought
among the Jews that the Jews were going to be saved. Now,
if you listen to a lot of folks today, you'll come to the conclusion
that that is the case. I'm talking about people naturally
born of Abraham's seed. Now, I believe all Israel shall
be saved. But I believe you'd better understand
who Israel is in the Scripture if you're going to say all Israel
shall be saved. The Israel of God is not a political
power. It's not a people born out of
someone's loins. He is a Jew which is one who
is circumcised in the heart, not in the flesh. So all Israel
shall indeed be saved. There is no question about it.
But this man being a Jew, he was actually asking, will all
of the Jews be saved or are there few of the Jews? Because he didn't
have any mind to the notion that the Gentiles would be saved.
I mean, that was just a given. They're all, I mean, they're
all going to perish. There's no question about that.
But I mean, among the Jews, are there few that can be saved?
Or are we all just going to kind of be gathered in there? And the Lord said to him, Strive
to enter in. Now, many is a comparative word
also, is it not? But many is a different word
than few. And there is a contrast in what
the Lord said. Now when you think of few, even
though that might be comparative in the number, now few could
be one, but few could be millions, because I believe few is millions
in what the ultimate answer to this question is, the Lord said. Or John said that he saw a multitude
which no man could number. Now, I don't know how many that
is. I don't think it's specific in that a man could calculate,
well, what is the largest number that men could number and then
figure out, well, it's got to be more than that. No, I think
what John means is that it's a multitude that no man, if he
stood there and he looked at them, he could ever possibly
count them all. So it is a multitude. I don't
know how many that is. It may be millions, it may be
thousands, but you couldn't stand there and count them. I would dare say this, you could
go to a football game at the University of Florida and you
could read the statistics of how many people attended that
game, but I would defy you to stand there and count them. You
couldn't do it, could you? It would be a multitude which
no man could number. It's just a large crowd of folks. How many it is, I don't have
any idea. And the Lord basically is saying to this man, it doesn't
matter if there's few or if there's many.
He says, strive to enter in because I tell you that there are many
that will say. Now, we don't know how many will
be saved, but we do know that many will be lost. See, that's what he's saying
here, is it not? The man said, are there few that
will be saved? He said, don't worry about how few are going
to be saved. He said, many are going to be
lost. That's the important matter here. He said, you don't need to be
concerned about How many, how few is going to be saved? What
you need to be concerned about is that you're not among those,
the many that won't be. Now, he says, strive to enter
in because many will seek to enter in and shall
not be able. Now look at what he said there.
Many will seek to enter in. I thought the Lord said, if you
seek Me, you shall find Me. Did He not say that? He said,
seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
to you. Ask and it shall be given. That is a true thing. But He said a father will not
give to his children a stone if he asks bread. Remember whose garden it is.
Those that seek Him shall find Him, because they seek Him with
all their heart. Now, there are three kinds of
people. I got off the track there, but I'll go back to it. There
are three kinds of people in the earth. There are those that
have no concern whatsoever for any of the things that I'm talking
about here this morning. I mean, the last thing on their
mind today when they got up was anything to do with the Kingdom
of God. That wasn't even on the radar.
They were thinking about the lake, or they were thinking about
where they could go to satisfy the lust of their flesh, or they
had something in mind, or maybe they were going out today, they
were going to work to make some money because they were wanting
to get ahead in life and want something. But there is a vast
multitude of people in this world who have no consideration whatsoever
of the Bible, the things of God, or anything else. They just go
in their way. The Scripture speaks of them.
It says, the simple pass on and are punished. They just go down
the way they don't have any idea, and they're just going down to
their destruction like pouring oil into a funnel. I mean, it's
just, pouring something down a drain, just going down there.
And they're fighting one another tooth and toenail to see who's
the first one to get in there. But then there is the people. And this is a large number of
people who have some concern for spiritual things. They're like those foolish virgins who, right along
with the wise virgins, went to the wedding. But they had no oil for their
lamps. Now they had oil in their lamps.
You couldn't look at them and say, well, these people are not
prepared for the wedding, you see. They had a lamp and it was
burning. All the virgins had lamps that
were burning. But the foolish virgins didn't
have any oil for their lamps when their lamps started to burn
out. One of the most common things,
this is the most common thing, and this is what the Lord says
here, because He said many. He didn't say few. He didn't
say there's going to be a few that's going to knock and not
be able to enter in. He said there are many, because
this is a large number of people who are religious. They have
some interest in spiritual things. insofar as the flesh can be interested
in spiritual things. Now, we have to be careful how
we use these terms. The natural man is not spiritual,
okay? The natural man is the natural
man. And there is not a part natural man and part spiritual
man in the sense that some people are partly spiritual. That's
not it. That's not the picture. Now,
we know indeed that there is a measure of truth in the fact
that even the children of God are flesh and we are spirit. The Spirit is willing, but the
flesh is often weak. So I'm not talking about that,
but I'm talking about the fact that a man is either born of
the Spirit or he is not. He is either a spiritual creature
or he is not. But there is a measure in which
the natural man can be interested to a degree in spiritual things.
And that runs the gamut of a lot of stuff. I mean, all types of
religion. You get people that are interested
in all kinds of religious things, not just Christianity. But in
our society, it would be safe to say that Christianity is the
religion of choice, would it not? I mean, we look around us
primarily among people that are religious, if you want to use
that term, they would be considered Christians. I mean, we even have
all these guys telling us that our nation is a Christian nation. There's many. You can't number
them. They're out there. Many. And they are of the opinion that it is almost impossible
not to be saved. All you've got to do is just
be sincere, go along the way that is prescribed, read the
Bible, go to church, help the poor and the needy and
do some good things, avoid most Things that people
would call bad, be morally upright, do good to your neighbor, and
all of those things. And they go down that way. And we've got what they call
mega-churches today that are filled with people from head
to foot that they're satisfied in what they're doing there because
they're having spiritual needs met. When I say spiritual, I
mean spiritual in a carnal sense, if you can grasp that. Because
there's really only one spiritual truth, and that's that which
is applied by the Spirit of God to a man when he comes to dwell
within him. And so there is this vast, great
number of people who, if you talk to them, they know about
the Bible. They know what the gospel says. They are even interested
in it from time to time. It waxes and wanes. One of the things that I have
noticed over time is that religious fervor comes in spurts. And a
guy will get all fired up about, he'll go to some meeting and
he'll get jived up and, buddy, he's on fire, you know, and everything
is great and he just, oh man, he's loving the Lord and he's
worshiping God and he's doing all that. And then six months
later you talk to him and he's, oh well, he said, you know, I
got in there and I got saved and all that, but I don't need
all that anymore. I realize that that's not really
what my life is about. I want to go on and live my life. And some have greater variations
on that than others. They just throw the whole thing
off and just forget about it and go back to being, you couldn't
tell them any different from the ones that have no concern
about the things at all. But some people, they have kind
of a nagging thing within them. They know there must be something
to it and they don't just totally cast it off, but they don't want
to let it interfere with their life in any way. And so they
go along that way. And they go to church often enough
that they're kind of buoyed up in the way and say, well, everything
must be alright because, buddy, I really love the service today.
I mean, we really got into it, buddy. And we were, you know,
shouting and praising and throwing our hands up there and all that.
And man, everything was great. And we went along our way. These are the many. Now, one
thing that is a true thing is that it is impossible for one
man to look at another man and know whether or not he is a child
of God. It cannot be done. You can't do it. You can't look
at me. I can't look at you. And we can't say, well, buddy,
he is a child of God. We don't know that. It's not
for us to know. The Lord didn't say to this man,
yes, there's few that will be saved. He said, there's many
that will be lost. He said, strive to enter in.
Because you see, the few, the many are those that are religious,
many faithful religious people, good people, salt of the earth
type people. Now, it would be terrible to
think that any of them would possibly be lost, wouldn't it?
I mean, if you had been a Jew and you looked at Pharisees,
they were incredulous when the Lord called these men vipers. He said, these are good men.
What do you mean? How could that be? When the Lord
said it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a
needle and for a rich man to enter heaven, they said, what?
People that have so much blessing from God, you mean they're not
going to enter into the kingdom of God? And so I said there were three
groups of people. There's the multitude that just
don't have any concern. There's another multitude that
are satisfied. They're spiritually satisfied.
They've got what they need and everything's great and they've
got a place in their life for the Lord. Isn't that nice? They've got a place. They might
even have a nice place built for them. A place where they
can just go and whenever they get the notion strikes them,
they can just go meet with the Lord when they want to. The Lord said, Strive to enter
in. But then there are some people
that are afflicted. They are afflicted by the Spirit
of God. And they find themselves to be
like lepers who need cleansing. They find themselves to be those
who are consumed with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't see these things as
being something that is a part of their life that they'll make
time for when they get ready, but rather it's that which consumes
their thought process. They strive to enter into the
kingdom of God. satisfied with where they are
at. The gospel affects them from
the time they get up in the morning to the time they go to bed at
night. And they lament the fact that they are no more spiritually
minded than they are. Now, the religious man, He's
kind of taken with his own spirituality. He looks at it from time to time
and says, yeah, I must be one of the children of God because
look how spiritual I am. Look at all these good things
I'm doing and all this and where I've come from. He can tell you
a testimony, how it used to be this and it used to be that and
now it's this. But you see, there are many that
are in that way. But there are many whom the Lord
said will perish. But there are few, I believe,
comparatively, that enter into the kingdom of God because they
are constrained by the work of the Spirit of God. And He has
a continual working in them, showing
them what they are by nature. in giving them a dissatisfaction
with what they see in themselves. And they think different from
the world. They can't help it. Sometimes
they wish they could just forget it and just fit in a little bit. You see, the man who has rolled
upon by the Spirit of God, he's like a square peg in a round
hole in this world. He doesn't fit in. And he's wanting
to fit in. He's not trying to cause problems. He just can't have it. Such is the work of the Spirit
of God. The Lord said, Strive to enter in. Because I'm telling
you, there's many that are going to be saying, well, Lord, didn't
we do all these wonderful things? I mean, you taught in our midst.
We listened to the gospel. We went to church every Sunday.
We went to prayer meeting. We were right there. I mean,
we went the extra mile and went to prayer meeting. We really
sacrificed. I mean, we did some good stuff.
And the Lord said, don't come around here with that with me.
He said, this is my garden. And he says, I planted my seed. And he said, some, the sower
went out to sow. Some seed fell on stony ground
and it didn't do anything. Or some fell by the wayside and
the birds picked it up. They stayed it. I mean, that
was it. They didn't do anything. Something fell on stony ground.
And it sprang up because it didn't have much root. It didn't take
much and it sprang up. But in time, it withered away. Some got in a little better place
and it grew up, but then it was in thorny ground and the thorns
grew up and choked it out. But he said some of the seed
fell on good ground. You see, the Lord's ground is
good ground. And He plants His seed and it
prospers according to the good pleasure of His will. Oh, that
we might not be as the multitude who would lodge in the branches
of the great mustard plant. You see, the mustard plant, it
grows up. Now, obviously, he must be speaking
about some different kind of a mustard plant than we are aware
of. But, maybe it's more like collards. You know, collard bushes, they
get up pretty high and birds could roost in them sometimes,
I guess. But, that's not the place we
want to be. Is it roosting in the limbs?
Is it? No, we want to be part of the
plant. See, that's the thing. It's not to roost in the limbs,
but be part of the plant. The Lord said, I am thine, ye
are the branches, if any man abides in me.