Well, good morning. You would
open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 11 and continue our study
this morning in Matthew chapter 11. Before we begin, let's go
to our Lord in prayer. Our father, we're thankful that
you've given us another opportunity this way to hear your gospel
preached. And father, I pray that you would
Bless Your Word. You promised that You would bless
Your Word. Father, while we cannot meet
face to face, we beg of Thee that You bless Your Word in this
way, the way that You've given to us to hear it right now. Father, bless Your Word to Your
glory. Bless Your Word to the hearts
of Your people to instruct us, to comfort our hearts, to call
us to Christ, to call us and teach us to rest more and more
and more upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, of all the things
we have to be thankful for, and there are so many, how thankful
we are for the countless many blessings that you so freely
bestowed upon us. Father, we thank you for our
Lord Jesus Christ. Chiefly and above all else, how
we thank you for a Savior who saves sinners, who saves them
fully and freely to the uttermost. Father, we're thankful. We pray
that You give us faith in Him and that You cause us to see
more of our Lord Jesus Christ through the teaching of Your
Word this morning. Father, we do pray for our world
and our country at this time. We pray that You would move in
a powerful way to heal the plague that is in our land. We pray,
Father, that You would keep Your people safe, preserve and protect
them. And Father, heal this this great
problem that man obviously has no answer for. We pray that you'd
heal and that you would enable your people to again soon meet
together in one accord in person and worship thee. Father, for
your glory, we pray. We pray for the sick and hurting
of our number, those who need you especially, Father. Meet
their need richly according to your mercy and grace that you
have purpose for your people. Comfort their hearts and heal
their bodies if it could be Thy will. All these things we ask
in that name which is above every name. In the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Amen. All right, Matthew chapter 11. The title of the message this
morning is Taking Salvation by Force. Our text is verse 12 of
Matthew chapter 11. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.
and the violent take it by force. Now in these preceding verses,
our Lord has been talking about preachers. You remember we looked
in the last chapter, Matthew chapter 10, as the Lord's preacher
school. Now the Lord begins to talk about
hearers, how we hear the gospel. And I'd like for you to think
about that for a moment. How do you hear the gospel? Do you
hear the gospel out of habit? Because that's just what you've
always done on Sundays and Wednesdays. That's what we do here in the
Bible Belt. We meet together on Sundays and Wednesdays, just
out of habit. Do you hear the gospel? You just
come to the worship service to keep your family happy. Or are
you a child and you have to come here because your parents make
you? Is that the reason you come? Do you hear the gospel like,
this is the same old, same old. I've heard this before. Where's
the preacher? a different message to harp on. Do you hear the gospel
like a critic? Trying to hear and see that as
a preacher, does he say everything just right? Does he agree with
all my favorite pet doctrine? Are you looking for flaws in
his message? Are you looking for flaws in his delivery? If
that's the way you hear, you'll never be blessed. You know, I
would think that it would be hard for a food critic to really
enjoy a good meal. A critic, if that's his job,
a food critic, would always have to be thinking about what could
be wrong with this meal? How could this have been done
better? I wonder what ingredients they used. Could they use a different
ingredient that would have been a little bit better? How about
the presentation of the meal? They're just looking for stuff
to criticize and rate all through the meal instead of just being
able to enjoy the meal. and eating it because you're
hungry and enjoying it because it tastes good. That's the way
we should listen to the gospel. We should listen to the gospel
as hungry, needy sinners who come because we need to hear. We need to hear a word from God.
We should listen to the gospel as a little child who needs to
be taught. It's not like, oh, I've heard this before, so I
know it already. No, I need to be taught. How often have you
heard something from God's Word you've heard many times before,
you've learned that lesson before, and you hear it again and it
comes to you so fresh and new? That's why we should listen to
the Gospel as a child that needs to be taught. We should listen
to the Gospel as a sinner who needs to hear from the Savior
so that we can be saved, so we can be taught of Him, so we can
be comforted by Him, so we can be encouraged by God's grace
and mercy to sinners. We should listen to the Gospel
as the message from God. This is the message from God
that I need to hear. That's the way we should listen
to the gospel. And we're going to spend the next several weeks,
Lord willing, looking at what the Lord has to say about how
we should hear the gospel. Now, this congregation, Hurricane
Road Grace Church, you've heard the gospel preached many, many,
many times. You've heard God's faithful servants
preach many times over the years. Last week, we saw how All of
God's preachers have a lot of the same traits that John the
Baptist had. John the Baptist came with the spirit of Elijah. Now, he wasn't Elijah, but what
that means is he came with the same message as Elijah. He came
with the same message as all of the prophets, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That was his, the theme of his
message. John's message, just like all of God's servants, their
message is salvation through the merits of Christ. Salvation
through the obedience of Christ, through the sacrifice of Christ.
Look at what our Lord said in verse 11 about John the Baptist.
Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women,
there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding
he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. There hasn't arisen a greater
prophet, a greater preacher than John the Baptist. Yet all of
God's preachers, while they may not be as great as John the Baptist,
all of God's preachers, do the same thing. They have the same
function to fill that John the Baptist had. All of God's preachers
are the forerunners of Christ in this way were to prepare the
hearts of God's people, to believe Christ, to hear from him. Verse
nine or verse 10, excuse me, for this is he of whom it is
written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall
prepare thy way before thee. That's what all of God's servants
are to do. They're to be the forerunner of Christ in this
sense, that they are to point out Christ and identify him for
God's people from the scriptures, to preach him from God's word
and say, now, here he is. Behold the lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. Here he is. Now you believe him.
You believe him. You go to him. You trust him.
He must increase, but I must decrease. That's our message.
And that's the way in which we preach it. And you have heard,
been blessed by God to hear Christ preach that way. You have. This
congregation has. Now here's my question for you.
You've heard the gospel. You've heard Christ preach. Do
you believe Him? Do you? Have you cast your soul
upon Him? Have you come to Christ? Has
God saved you by Christ? And if not, would you like to
be saved by Christ? Would you like to come to Christ?
If you've come to Christ in the past, would you like to continue?
coming to him. Now let's read our text in light
of that. Look what the Lord says in verse 12. From the days of
John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence. It's in the marginal reading
there is it's gotten by force and they that thrust me in the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Now the Lord says that the gospel
has been preached. and type and picture by all the
Old Testament prophets, and at that time by John the Baptist,
who was the last of the Old Testament prophets. And the people who
believe Christ, they're saved by hearing that message and by
believing that message. Those people who God saves, they
take the kingdom of heaven. They take salvation by violence. That's what the Lord says. Now,
it doesn't mean violence and force like the way we use the
words today exactly. The word violent, the Lord uses,
means those who are forceful, but forceful. They've put energy
into seeking the Lord and finding him. They put some energy into
being where he is, that they might know him. And the word
force, the Lord uses, means to seize. Those who God saves, they
seize upon Christ. They lay hold upon Christ. They
lay hold on salvation in Christ. They take salvation by faith. And they won't be refused. See,
they do this with energy and with zeal. And I tell you why
they do do it this way with force. Because the people who God saves
are people who are in great need, great need. Christ is the only
thing that will satisfy their need for forgiveness. So they're
going to lay hold on him. Well, they're going to put energy
into finding him, seeking him and laying hold upon him. Christ
is the only righteousness that they're desperate for righteousness.
He's the only righteousness that they have. And they're forceful
about seeking him. They're sinners that must be
saved. The only salvation that's there for them is in Christ.
And they're going to seek him forcefully. They need peace with
God. They need peace of heart, peace
of conscience. And the only place that peace is found is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And they're going to take it
by force. They're going to seek that with energy. And they won't
let anything stand in their way of them getting to Christ because
they're desperate. They have a desperate need of
Christ. And I tell you, when a person
needs Christ, I mean, when they need him, you know, suddenly
they don't have an excuse for not being in the worship service
on a Sunday or Wednesday. They need to be where Christ
is preached because they need him. They have a desperate need
of the Savior. When a person needs Christ, I
mean, they need him. Do you know they suddenly find
time to pick up the Word of God and read and see Christ in His
Word? Because that's where He's revealed.
You know why they do that? Now that person, they're in great
need and they need, they have to hear the gospel. They have
to hear of the Savior. And they need to hear the gospel
right now. I mean, right now, because they
have an urgent need of the Savior. But taking salvation by force,
Seeking the Lord with violence is seeking the Lord out of a
desperate need for salvation. Someone who has a desperate need
of forgiveness of their sin. Someone who has a desperate need
of righteousness. They're going to make it their
business to find it, to seek it and to find it. Look at Luke
chapter 16. We read something very similar
here in the book of Luke, Luke 16. In verse 16, the law and the prophets were
until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached
and every man presseth into it. They press into it with a great
need. The person who is in need, they
have a zeal to press to Christ with great force because they
must have him. I think a good illustration of
that is the woman with the issue of blood. She pressed to Christ,
didn't she? I mean, she had a need. So she
crawled through that crowd. She pressed to get to just the
hem of the garment of the Savior. She pressed to Him with great
zeal. And she was healed. She found what she needed, didn't
she? Now, the person who has heard the gospel, they hear the
gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. They hear God will save
His people, that Christ came and He has indeed saved his people
from their sins, that Christ died for God's elect and only
God's elect. He didn't die for the whole world
to give the son of Adam a chance to be saved. Christ came in to
save his people from their sin and he saved them. Now the person
who hears that gospel and they say, oh well, you know, I want
to be saved, but there's nothing I can do about it. So I'll just
wait and see if the Lord saves me or not. I'm going to just
have to wait and see because nothing I can do about it. A person who has
that attitude about the gospel, about the Savior. They haven't
heard the gospel right. God hadn't put a need in their
hearts yet. See, that attitude, that's blaming God for your sin.
That's blaming God for your rebellion and your refusal to bow to Christ
and to seek Christ. The person who is in trouble,
if God ever gets you in trouble, you're going to cry with Peter,
Lord save me. If God ever gets you in trouble
because of your sin, Nobody's going to teach you how to pray.
Nobody's going to teach you how to seek. Nobody's going to teach
you how much zeal that you ought to have in seeking the Savior.
With great zeal, you're going to cry, Lord, save me. And you
won't shut up till he does. That's taking the kingdom of
heaven by force, violence. Seeking the Lord zealously with
force. You know, that's not presumption
because the Lord taught us to seek him that way. You're still
there in Luke. Look back a few pages. Luke chapter
13. This is not presumption to seek the Lord this way. The Lord
taught us to seek him this way. Luke chapter 13 verse 23. Then said one unto him, Lord,
are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, strive,
strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you
will seek to enter in and shall not be able. The Lord says, strive. Strive to enter in. Strive because
you have to have Christ. Strive to be where he's at. Strive
to have him. Look back at Matthew. Matthew
chapter six. Lord, here's teaching us about
seeking him with some zeal, zealously. Matthew chapter six. In verse
thirty three. But seek ye first, first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you. Seek things first. What is it
you seek first? It's what's most important to
you. Then seek Christ first with zeal, pressed to have him. I
look back at Jeremiah chapter 29. This gives us great hope
and encouragement to seek the Lord zealously with all we've
got. It's because of the promise of
God. Jeremiah chapter 29. Verse 12. Then shall you call upon me and
you should go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and
you should seek me and find me. When? When you shall search for
me with all of your heart. Now that's a promise of God.
When you take the kingdom of heaven by force, violently, You
will find the Lord when you seek him with zeal. I'm with all your
heart. That's taking salvation by force.
And the promise of God is when you seek the Lord with all of
your heart, like that of a desperate need, you'll find him. You'll
find him. Now, that's not just theory.
We have several examples of this in scripture. Think about Abraham. Abraham, I'm sure, was doing
well. living a good life there in his
father's house. One day God came to him and said,
Abram, get out of your father's house. Go to a land I'll show
you. He's not even telling him where you're going. Just get
out. Start walking through the desert. I'll show you where you're
supposed to go when you get there. Abraham got up early in the morning
and he left. He laid hold upon the promise of God. Abraham had
to lay hold on that promise with some force because that promise
was a long time in coming. You think especially about that
day, after walking for three days to get to that Mount Moriah,
Abraham and Isaac walking up that mountain together. Abraham
that day had to hang on to that promise of God for all he was
worth. He had to hang on to it forcefully
while he's climbing up that mountain. He had to lay hold upon that
promise forcefully while he built that altar. He had to lay hold
upon that promise forcefully When he lay Isaac down, bound
him upon that altar and raised that knife to draw and quarter
his son. He had to lay hold on it by force, didn't he? And God
blessed him. God gave him the fulfillment
of his promise, didn't he? Then what about Jacob? God made
that promise to Abraham. He confirmed that promise to
Isaac and he confirmed it to Jacob. Now Jacob had to lay a
hold on that promise with some force because things often didn't
look too good for Jacob, did they? When he was on the run
from Esau, didn't look so good. When he was working for Laban
all those years and Laban was cheating him, didn't look so
good. Even after the Lord blessed him,
blessed him with sons and daughters and family, but he thought his
favorite son Joseph was dead. He had to hang on to that promise
forcefully, didn't he? Jacob took God's promise by force. Remember what Jacob said when
he wrestled with God? I will not let you go. I will
not let you go except you bless me. That's taking salvation. That's taking the kingdom violently
by force. Then what about Joseph, Jacob's
son, Joseph? God gave Joseph a dream. He told
Joseph what was going to happen in this dream. He gave him a
revelation of what was going to happen in Joseph's life. Joseph
had to lay hold on that promise. He had to lay hold upon the Lord
by force and refused to let go because those years down at Egyptian
prison were lean years, weren't they? They were lean years. Then what about Rahab the harlot?
Now we know this from scripture. Rahab believed God. She got a
promise of mercy from those spies and she believed it. And Rahab
laid hold of that promise by force. She hung that scarlet
line. They told her, you hang this
scarlet line, when we come back, you hang this scarlet line in
the window and we won't destroy anybody in this house. Anybody
here under this picture of the blood of Christ, they'll be safe
as long as they stay in the house. That was their promise to her.
She hung on to that promise by force. She didn't wait until
Israel was at the gate to knock the walls down. Right then and
there, she hung that scarlet line in her window. She hung
on to this promise of mercy from God by force. And when there
was death, and the sounds of terrifying destruction right
outside her door. The sounds of that terrifying
destruction filling that city. Rahab kept hold of that promise
by force. She didn't tell her family, let's
open up this door and take a run for it. See if we can make it.
No, she hung on to the promise by force. She stayed in the door.
She stayed in her house behind that door. She didn't even peek
outside. She stayed safe, hidden under that picture of the blood
of Christ. And here's how I know she was
hanging on to this by force. She didn't even think about having
another hope. Christ, this picture of redemption in the blood of
Christ was all of her hope. That's laying hold on God's promise
by force. This is what God's promised and
I'm not letting it go. That's taking it by force. What
about King Solomon? You know, God promised David
and he promised Solomon that Solomon would sit upon the throne
of Israel. And he did. He sat upon the throne. Then
God told Solomon, ask what you will. What would you ask for if God
said, ask what you will, whatever you ask, I'll give it to you.
Solomon at that moment had to lay hold upon salvation, spiritual
blessings by force and not let them go. Don't you think it would
have been mighty tempting of Solomon to ask for great riches
or great power? Don't you think it could have
been tempting for him to ask for a long life sitting upon the
throne? But he didn't do that. Solomon
with force held on to spiritual blessings. And he asked for wisdom. He asked for what he sought Christ
first. And God added all those other
things to him, blessed him in all those other ways. What about
the martyrs? The writer to the book of the
writer to the Hebrews says these all died in faith, not accepting
deliverance. Now, the only way a person can
do that is if they have forcefully laid hold upon the promise of
God and they've refused to let it go. They refused even when
it meant their life. That's taking hold of this by
force. Now, let me give you an example of the opposite of not
forcefully laying hold upon the promise of God, of hearing the
promise of God, and not forcefully taking it up, the rich young
ruler, that young man came to the Lord and Lord ended up, you
know the story, Lord ended up telling him, sell all that you
have, distribute it to the poor and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven. Now it wasn't a maybe, that was a promise from the lips
of God. Thou shalt have treasure in heaven
and you come and follow me. That's God's promise, the promise
of his grace. God gave him the promise. He
had the gospel preached to him. And that young man did not lay
hold upon the promise of God at all. It was just there in
his grasp and he just let it go. And he went away sorrowful. Now I tell you and I tell myself
this morning. Seek God with all of your heart.
Seek Christ and lay hold of him with all that you've got. Lay
hold on his promise forcefully. The promise of God's word is
you'll have mercy for your soul. Now, all that being said, I know
that we are completely passive in this matter of salvation.
That's absolutely true. We are completely passive in
the matter of the salvation of our souls. I'll tell you why
we're passive in this matter of salvation. It's because we're
dead. Dead people can't do any work
at all. So we must be passive, right? Because we're dead. We
can't do anything. We can't do anything to deserve God's mercy.
We can't do anything to get God to save us because we're dead. We can't do any work. God must
do all of the work of salvation. God must choose us. God must
be the one to redeem us. God must be the one to give us
life. God must be the one to call us to Christ. God must be
the one to make us come to Christ. God must be the one to keep us
and preserve us. God must be the one to present
us faultless in glory. He must do all of the work. Yet, this is also true. We will never be saved unless
God does all of the work of salvation for us and in us. Now that's
so, but this is also true. You'll never be saved unless
you beg God for mercy. You'll never be saved unless
you seek God forcefully and say with Jacob, I will not let you
go except you bless me. I won't do it. I'm going to stay
right here. You're my only hope. That's laying
hold of this promise, laying hold of salvation forcefully.
You and I won't be saved until we seek the Lord like that Syrophoenician
woman did. And here's a helpless, helpless
woman. She sought the Lord forcefully,
didn't she? Violently. She came and she wouldn't be
shut up. She came crying to the Lord.
The Lord wouldn't even respond to her, acting like he didn't
even hear her. And she just, I mean, she pestered those disciples
to death until they finally said, Lord, send her away. She's crying
out, just send her away. And she came to the Lord begging.
And the Lord, he insulted her. He did everything he could do
to run her off. I'm not sent but to lost sheep of the house
of Israel. It's not right for me to give to children's bread
to dogs like you. Just go away. She said, Lord,
I'm not going to quit begging. You're not going to run me off
that easy. I'm not going to quit begging. You're right. I'm a
dog. I don't deny that. I am a dog. But Lord, even the
dogs, he'd get some crumbs to fall from the master's table.
I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here begging.
I'm going to be like that widow woman that just kept crying to
that unjust judge or I'm going to stay right here begging. Whether
you give me crumbs or not, I'm not leaving because you're my
only hope. See how her great need for Christ
made her lay hold upon him forcefully, didn't it? Now that's taking
the kingdom of heaven violently and forcefully pressing to Christ,
pressing to Christ. And you know what the Lord said
about that woman? About how she sought the Lord, she just refused
to leave. You know what the Lord said about
her? That's great faith. See, it's not wrong for us to
seek the Lord in this way. The Lord said someone who sought
Him violently like that, forcefully, with zeal, pressing to Christ
and refusing to leave. The Lord Himself said that's
great faith. You'll find this to be true.
Needy dogs are the ones that have great faith. Great faith. So I say to you and me this morning,
let's seek the Lord. Seek the Lord with all of our
heart. Seek the Lord with all we've got. And we'll find Him. And when we find Him, you know
what we'll find out? He found me first. See, really,
He found me first. He's the one that put it in my
heart to seek Him. Really, I mean, that's true. But yet, this is
also true in it. You'll not find the Lord till
you seek Him with all of your heart. When you find Him, you'll
find out all. I was seeking Him with all my
heart because He's loved me eternally. And He's drawn me. He's always
been drawing me to Christ. That's why I came. Don't mistake
this in hearing, well, those who have salvation, they lay
hold on it by force. It's because something they did.
No, it's what the Lord enabled them to do. God, by His grace,
enabled them, caused them to do it. So let's seek the Lord. Because of His promise, let's
seek the Lord with all of our heart and depend on Him to keep
His word, that in that day, you'll find Him. Oh, may God give us
grace to seek Him. Give us grace that He might find
us, that we might be found in Him. All right. Well, I hope
the Lord blessed that to you.