The Wide and Narrow Gate

we're back in luke 13 tonight we're gonna i think we're gonna look at the end of this chapter so if you have your bibles turn to luke 13 and we're going to start verse 22. heavenly father we love you so much and lord we thank you for this opportunity to come to worship you lord now as we open your word i pray that your holy spirit would come and speak to us lord that you would speak to us through your word let your word penetrate and transform lives in the name of yeshua amen all right luke 13 verse 22 and he went through the cities and villages teaching and journeying towards jerusalem then one said to him lord are there few who are saved and he said to them strive to enter through the narrow gate for many i say to you will seek to enter and will not be able when once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying lord lord open for us and he will answer and say to you i do not know you. where you are from then you'll begin to say we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets but he will say i tell you i do not know you where you are from depart from me all you workers of iniquity though 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 and you yourselves thrust out they will come from the east and the west from the north and the south and sit down in the kingdom of god and indeed they're at last who will be first and they are first who will be last so as i was looking at this passage i noticed two words that just really kind of jumped out off the page of me and it was the word strive and the word seek i don't know if you guys caught that as i was reading this but he said strive to enter through the narrow gate for many i say to you will seek to enter and will not be able strive to enter because many are going to seek to enter and will not be able and when i saw that contrast it really kind of stood out to me and grabbed my attention because you know i know there's lots of passages that talk about us seeking the kingdom and here he says don't just seek the kingdom strive to enter and so i want to look at those words real quick just to kind of get some a little more depth as to what he's talking about here the word strive is in greek is agonizimi it's where we get the word agonize and it means to contend for a prize to struggle to fight or to labor earnestly so this word it indicates conflict it indicates striving it indicates really struggling and fighting it's a word that's used in connection with war and in connection with competition it's like you compete in a game you compete in an event it's the same kind of word you're agonizing you're striving you're pressing forward you're you're going beyond you know like you think about a runner who just runs as fast as they can they put out their best effort they agonize in that race so that they could win if you know if you're war you're fighting somebody you fight with everything you've got you know especially you think about like a hand-to-hand combat they're fighting with all their might because to lose would mean you'd lose your life so you're fighting for your life that's the kind of what this this word is encompassing so you're agonizing you're fighting for your life paul's paul uses this word also in first corinthians 9 verse 24 through 27 it says do you not know that those who run in a race all run but one receives a prize run in such a way that you may obtain it and everyone who who competes for the prize is temperate in all things now they do obtain it now they do it to obtain a perishable crown but we for an imperishable crown therefore i run thus not with uncertainty thus i fight not as one who beats the air but i discipline my body and i bring it into subjection lest when i have preached to others i myself should become disqualified so this concept of running the race fighting with everything he's got uh disciplining his body in such a way that he would win is what he's talking about this is that agonism i that agonizing striving to enter the kingdom and so but yeshua says if you want to be saved and into the kingdom then fight agonize strive the question was how many will be saved are there few who will be saved and he said lord are there few who will be saved in yeshua instead of saying well yeah there's not going to be very many he turned to him and he said strive are there few who will be saved strive to enter because many will seek to enter and will not be able to i think that's an interesting answer to the question paul also talks about fighting the good fight of faith in first timothy 6 12 it says fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confession and have confessed a good confession in the presence of many witnesses fight the good fight of faith again this is this idea of striving and pressing forward and contending giving it your all [Music] and then yeshua contrasts this word strive agonism he contrasts that with the word seek so you strive to enter through the narrow gate because many will seek to enter and will not be able you think about it's a narrow gate and he's saying strive to enter through it and i can imagine you know i'm i'm a fairly large guy i'm not a small man i'm there's bigger guys than me i know but you know i'm over 200 pounds i'm six feet tall i'm a i'm a decently large guy and there are sometimes you find small narrow doorways or small narrow places where you have to really kind of squeeze to get through you know like if there's a crawl space under the house and you have to crawl under to go fix your plumbing or something you have to really squeeze to get in there that's kind of what this is it's kind of a good picture of what he's talking about here is it's a narrow place and you have to squeeze in you have to really wrestle to get through you have to really push hard to get through it but this word seek he says seek many will seek to enter and will not be able to the word seek there is uh zateo and it means to seek to search to desire to inquire and to investigate so this really has a lot to do with mental assent someone who is trying to learn they're they're desiring something they're inquiring about it they're investigating it it's it's a lot of it's just head knowledge so they're seeking it they they want to know about it but they're not striving to get there this is the the contrast that he's making many will seek but they don't strive few strive and so this word seek is is kind of referring to a mental ascent and so they're seeking by investigation but you know we know in other places that yeshua says to seek he'll say like for example matthew 6 33 seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you so we're told to seek the kingdom matthew 7 7 ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you seek and you will find these it's the same word here it's not a different greek word i looked at him to make sure this is the same greek word being used in these other places so he's saying seek the kingdom but don't just seek the kingdom don't just stop there actually strive to get in there you seek it and when you find it you strive to get in press on to get in press on to enter continue fighting this is one of those passages that really kind of contrasts with a lot of what we've been grown up to believe what we've we've been taught to believe in christianity you know we've we've grown up in an era of christianity the 19th century 20th century this era the really from the early 1900s until now is kind of when it was popularized and when it started but this idea of well if you want to be saved just you know raise your hand come up front and we'll pray a prayer with you and then you'll be saved that wasn't christianity throughout history that was that's christianity in modern day times that's modern day uh how to get saved that's not what was taught first century christianity it's something that was popularized in the early 1900s and so a lot of the evangelists like billy sunday and billy graham they're the ones that kind of popularized this formula this is how you get saved pray this prayer you're in and you search the scriptures and you're not going to find anybody saying stuff like that i'll just pray this prayer ask jesus into your heart and you're saved you're good to go what we see is yeshua coming and he's saying repent because the king of heaven is a hand turn from your wicked ways turn to god repent repent and be baptized is what peter came preaching in acts and this idea of repenting is you're going to stop doing the things that god hates and you're going to start doing the things that draw you closer to god stop doing the things that are pulling you away from god start doing the things that draw you closer to him stop disobeying stop sinning and start obeying and start doing what's right stop living a lawless life and start living a godly life and so when people get up and they say well if you want to get saved you just just believe in jesus and pray this prayer and ask him in your heart and you're saved and they add on to that if you try to do anything on your own then you're counting his grace as nothing i've heard preachers preach this and it's it's taken from galatians they're taking a verse out of galatians and they're kind of misapplying it but basically they're saying you're trying to earn your salvation by trying to keep any of god's commandments or trying to obey god in any way you're you're throwing your salvation away and you're you're trampling on grace this is the kind of thing a lot of people teach and especially in like the the televangelist circles where you have you know these tv proofs who they'll get up and they'll preach things like you don't need to keep any of the commandments not even the ten commandments and you know if you try to keep any of god's commandments then you're you're just throwing throwing away god's grace you're trying to earn your salvation and that's not at all uh when someone says i you know i believe in yeshua and i follow him and i want to obey him we're not saying i have to obey so that i can be saved we're saying i want to obey because i love him i want to serve him so there's a big difference in saying i'm trying to earn my salvation i got to do all these i got to do all these works i got to do all keep all these commandments do all these right things so that i can earn my salvation that's not what we're saying and i don't know that i've ever heard anybody actually teach you have to do so much righteousness to be able to get saved like i don't think anybody actually teaches that but that's what the misconception is that so many people have and you know there is church that's kind of the idea that's being taught in a certain way you know that you you do certain acts to atone for certain things and so there is a little bit of some of that being taught in the catholic church but even a catholic church they're not teaching a complete works based salvation but that's what a lot of people in in the uh certain christian circles that are you know grace only faith only don't try to do anything they they basically say that you know you're you're just trying to earn your salvation and so even when guys like john mcarthur or john piper or paul washer get up and they say well you know you should be living a life of obedience even though they don't teach keeping the sabbath and eating kosher and keeping the feasts they don't teach those things but they're saying you should be obedient i mean i know i don't know how many times i've heard guys like paul washer and john macarthur saying things like that that you need to be obedient and even even get criticized by a lot of people who are grace only you know because well if you're trying to obey in any way then you're you know you're throwing your salvation out but then you get to something like this and yeshua says he's like well wait a minute you're saying it in one hand these this one group of people are saying you shouldn't do anything salvation you shouldn't do anything that you just sit back and let jesus do it all step back and let yeshua take the reins jesus take the wheel right i'm just gonna let you take over and i'm not gonna do anything at all you know his righteousness is imputed to me i i don't you know i i don't even have to try i'm just going to let him cover me and then we get to this and he says strive to enter and so it's like wait a minute if i'm if i'm not supposed to do any put forth any effort to enter the kingdom why is yeshua saying strive agonize strive to enter the kingdom the two seem to conflict with each other don't they but he says strive to enter through the narrow gate for many i say to you will seek to enter and will not be able now there's a similar passage in matthew 7. and i'm going to get to that in a minute but i want to present to you when he's talking about enter the narrow gate and not the wide gate into the narrow door and not the wide door take the narrow road and not the wide road those concepts he's not saying follow jesus versus don't be an atheist the wide road is not the way of the world he's presenting to you these are two choices religiously the narrow road and the wide road and the wide road is where many go to try to seek to come into the kingdom of god many go down the wide road to enter the kingdom of god he's not he's not even talking about the world he's not talking about the pagans he's not talking about the irreligious the atheists he's not even talking about them he's talking about religious people who are seeking god and so let's let's listen to how he describes it in matthew 7. enter by the narrow gate for white is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate and difficult as a way which leads to life and there are few who find it now if you're familiar with this passage in matthew 7 this is in the sermon on the mount he starts off in matthew 5 on the sermon on the mountain he says let your righteousness exceed that of the righteousness of the pharisees he goes through a number of things and he gets to matthew 7 and in matthew 7 he says this the narrow gate not the white take the narrow road not the wide and then he says many will come to me and say lord lord did we not prophesy in your name do we not do many miracles in your name do not demons in your name and he says away from me i don't know you it's the same thing that he's saying here in luke strive to enter through the narrow gate for many i said he will seek to enter and will not be able when the master house comes opens the door he shuts the door and you stand at the door and knock and say lord lord open to us he says i do not know you or where you are from he's talking about religious people people who are trying to follow him in fact the people who call jesus lord people who call yeshua lord and so let me present to you that there is everybody teaches that yeshua is the gate yeshua is the door yeshua is the way he's the road but some of them are presenting a wide road some of them are presenting an easy road they're not presenting the narrow road they're presenting a jesus that just wants everybody to be saved they're presenting a jesus that wants to let make your life easy a jesus that says i want you to be rich and i want you to be comfortable and i want you to never have any conflict i don't want you to ever face any kind of persecution i don't want you to have any kind of pain you're just going to have a great life just just give jesus a try and you'll have a wonderful life that's the wide road they're presenting jesus as the road as the gate as the door but it's a very wide door they're saying anybody who wants to get saved just pray this prayer ask jesus into your heart and don't change a thing about your life you just keep on being you that's a wide road and that's what a lot of people are teaching and you said many will seek to enter but will not be able to but you strive for the narrow gate why does he tell his disciples to strive to find the narrow gate because it's few who are going to find it few who are going to enter by it so yeshua here is not talking about atheists and he's not talking about other religions he's not talking to a buddhist he's not talking to a muslim he's not talking to a hindu he's not talking to an atheist he's talking to religious people he's talking to pharisees and his disciples he says if you want to enter the kingdom strive to go through that narrow gate so we have these two gates both of them claiming to be jesus one of the jesus gates is a wide and easy road the other jesus gate is narrow and difficult this wide gate they say jesus is the way to salvation that's scripture right jesus is the way he's the only way the way the truth in life no one comes father except through him here's jesus here's yeshua but then what they tell you about him what they present to you about him is not what we see throughout scripture instead of saying you know follow him follow the issue of scripture which would how would you define following if you were a disciple living in the first century and you you know jesus yeshua came up to you and he said hey follow me what would that look like what means you walk around with him live with him go out through your daily life with him observing what he does trying to imitate it trying to emulate it trying to be like him you listen to his teachings learn from them and apply his teachings to your life and try to live according to his teachings that's what a disciple does right they learn from the master and they impl they implement it into their life so it's not just head knowledge but it's what they do that's how they live so he teaches them various things about uh practice so you know they get doctrine and they get practice they get both and so they learn the right doctrine and they do the right practices but what we have in most of christianity is we have this to follow jesus doesn't mean living like him and to follow jesus doesn't mean doing what he says it just means asking him into your heart and believing that he exists that's a wide road jesus the narrow road is saying you need to live your life like him you need to walk as he walked that's what john said in 1st john walk as he walked well how did he walk well says that he kept all the commandments perfectly wait a minute i can't i can't do that i can't keep all the commandments perfectly i guess we just better throw that all out the door he says strive do your best don't give up if it's hard don't give up if you fail keep striving keep pressing forward keep doing better okay so we we imitate his life we try to be as much like him as possible we try to live a godly life a righteous life a holy life living modeling our life after him so we love our enemy pray for those who persecute us right these are things he's teaching his disciples love your enemies pray for those who persecute you do good to those who do bad to you forgive seventy times seven right love not hate you will know you'll be known by your love for one another that's how you know that your disciple is by your love for one another these are the kinds of things that yeshua says and so if we're not modeling our life after his example and after his teachings are we on the narrow road well yeshua taught the torah and he was a torah scholar he was a torah teacher you look at the sermon on the mount what is he saying you've heard it said this but i said i tell you this you've heard it said this is a reference to most cases something written in the in the torah in a couple of cases is written it's it's referencing um interpretation of what's written in the torah but most of most in most of those examples it was something that was written in the torah and he says you you know like for example you've heard it said do not murder but i had to be angry with your brother if you call your brother a fool of the judgment you're in danger of the of the can of fire that's a that's a high standard he's not teaching something new though and i've heard people say well he he added to the torah he's greater no he's actually just teaching torah principles he's teaching the spirit of the torah the spirit of the law you've heard it said not to look uh not to commit adultery but i tell you not to look at a woman with lust they say well see he's expanding on that he's making a more difficult harder no he's teaching exactly what the torah was teaching where is that found it's found in the ten commandments do not covet your neighbor's wife it's one of the ten commandments do not commit adultery is another one of them but he's showing that it's there you're not supposed to covet something that belongs to your neighbor you're not supposed to lust after someone else's wife he's teaching the torah so we have these two gates these two roads these two doors and everybody calls both of these roads jesus or yeshua so it causes confusion people think well i'm following jesus i'm following yeshua and they don't realize which road they're on am i on the wide road or i'm on the narrow road did i go through the wide gate or did i go through the narrow gate because both of them have the jesus label on them both of them have yeshua written on the door so which road am i on which door did i go through yeshua said enter by the narrow gate and strive strive to enter through the narrow gate he said it's difficult the way to life is difficult he says and few find it many will go down this easy road many will go down the path that's easy to go down he said strive to go down that narrow narrow road go through that narrow gate the difficult way he didn't come to sugarcoat it he didn't come to say if you follow me life is going to get easy for you if you follow me everything's just gonna be great you follow me you're not gonna ever be sick again you follow me you're you're not gonna ever have to worry about losing your job you follow me you're never gonna have any kind of pain you're never gonna have any persecution you're never gonna have any anything bad happen to you it's just gonna be great just follow me and you'll have a wonderful life he didn't say that did he follow me and you'll be rich he didn't say that either follow me and you'll be happy i didn't even say that listen what he did say luke 9 23 if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me take up your cross deny yourself and take up your cross that sounds difficult is that the road i'm on or am i avoiding that road take up my cross daily and deny myself daily that's difficult what is deny yourself well you know i i want that i like that i need that i that makes me happy i'm going to do that thing that i like that i want that i need that makes me happy well but god said not to well yeah but it's okay he'll forgive me and that the attitude a lot of us have just this one i'll just do it this one time he'll forgive me he'll overlook it he's gracious he's good he'll forgive me and i'll be okay that's not denying yourself that's indulging yourself take up your cross crucify your flesh die to self that's not the easy this is not the easy way crucifying your flesh crucifying your sinful self crucifying the desires of your sinful nature is not easy getting sin out of your life is not easy it's not comfortable nobody likes it that's not the easy road that's the road you're supposed to take it's difficult and it's narrow and few people actually go that direction few people go that direction crucifying my sinful flesh daily few people go that direction take up your cross and follow me he says he didn't promise health and wealth and happiness he said in john 16 33 in the world you will have tribulation you say have you're going to have good life in this world you're going to have tribulation i promise you you're gonna have tribulation i think buddha promises happiness maybe if you want happiness go that direction yeshua is promising this tribulation are we sure this is the road we want to take this difficult road in this world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer i have overcome the world okay that's great that you overcame the world but i still have tribulation why is that good cheer for me why do i need to be of good cheer you overcame it great but i'm still having to go through this why should that cheer me up because if we follow his example and we live like him and we model our life after him and we follow in his teachings and follow in his footsteps we can overcome that as well because he overcame it as our example if we model our life after his example then we can overcome it too that's why we could be of good cheer so you're going to face tribulation when you go down this narrow road when you go through this narrow gate but don't give up be of good cheer you can overcome you can get through it you can get past it you can conquer he said we're going to have tribulation persecution affliction and distress but don't be discouraged he overcame those things and he can help you overcome those as well it's interesting to note that the word tribulation in greek used in this in this verse here but used in various other places in the new testament the word for tribulation is flips us and it means a narrow place that hems you in that's what the word tribulation means is a narrow place that hems you in and i think about when israel left egypt what happened they had the mountains on one side and the red sea on the other side and the egyptians persecuting pursuing them from behind they were hemmed in it says that's tribulation you're being hemmed in you're being forced into this tight narrow spot that's tribulation he says in this life you're going to have tribulation if you follow me you're going to go through difficult places difficult times you're going to get in tight spots it's going to be uncomfortable you're going to be persecuted it's going to be hard but what's past that and when they came through got part of the red sea they had to go to that tight spot before they could see the miracle god's provision god's deliverance you know i look have you ever looked at a map and wondered why did they go the route they went when they left egypt you know instead of uh you know for me i'm i'm gonna go this direction but for you it's probably gonna be like that because we're backwards from each other but it's like there's egypt here and then over here is israel and instead of just going straight up to israel they went down and then up like why didn't they just go straight north like that makes no sense why didn't they just go straight to israel israel straight to the promised land because god took them to this tight spot he took them to the red sea on purpose to cause them to go through tribulation to gauze them to turn to him and to cry out to him have you ever thought about that we go through things sometimes in our life to cause us to draw us closer to him to cause us to draw to call out to him so they turned to god and he parted the red sea he made a way of escape where there was no way before this narrow way may have walls of water on both sides this narrow path may have walls of water you ever thought about that that's how israel escaped was by taking a narrow path i saw a really interesting documentary on the red sea crossing and these archaeologists were looking at various places on on where that might have been and they think they found it because on one side there's a pillar this says they set up a pillar on both sides well on the other side there's no pillar but it it looks like it'd been taken down and what's interesting is that there's a land bridge a narrow strip of land that's higher where shallower water that goes all the way across and they found these coral formations that look like wagon wheels like a chariot and they and actually because of the type of chariot style that was used in different type times during egypt they can pinpoint which era of egyptian wagon wheel was being used at that time and it's like this is all the evidence points to this being the red sea crossing but it's like god took them intentionally to this narrow place if they if they had gone anywhere further north or further south there's no land bridge there's no narrow path for them to go down we just took them right to the place where that path was they parted the waters and showed them the path made a way where there was no way before yeshua didn't say if you follow me your life's going to be easy and you're not going to have any trouble he said in matthew 24 9 then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my name sake which which jesus which yeshua are we wanting to follow the one that says hey i want you to have a nice easy life i want you to be happy with the jesus yeshua that says you're going to face tribulation and possibly death they're going to hate you because they hate me you see the two different kinds of roads that are being presented in christianity the two different jesus that's being presented you're going to be hated by the world and they'll want to kill you and that's the result of following yeshua that's a narrow difficult path isn't it it's a path that you think i don't know if i want to take that road wouldn't it be so much easier just for people to like me i'll just be a likable guy i'll get along with everybody i don't have to worry about persecution won't have to worry about people being mad at me or calling me names or wanting to kill me right i'll just just be like everybody else blend in or we can take the difficult road say i'm going to do what's right no matter what the cost yeshua said a disciple is like his master remember that verse a disciple is like his master that's the goal of being a disciple is that you'd be like your master he said if they hated me they're going to hate you if they persecuted me they're going to persecute you again this word strive it means to agonize to fight to struggle to press in hard if i was to ask you which of these roads do you if you look back at your life and you look at your walk with the lord which of these roads do you feel like you've been walking on are you walking down easy street and following the jesus that just makes your life great are you walking down the difficult path that you feel like you've really been struggling and agonizing to follow him crucifying your flesh something i want you to think about why would we expect following yeshua to be easy you think about you know you had this guy he says come follow me and the guy says yeah i'll follow you but let me first go bear with my dad he says let the bed let the dead bury their own dead come follow me what kind of a what is that saying to us are we going to be concerned with the things of this life are we going to be concerned with following him and doing what he says he's not saying i want to make it easy for you what is it he told parables why it wasn't to make it easy for everybody to get it you remember what it said he told parables to conceal it to hide it to make it difficult for them to understand because what isaiah prophesied that in hearing they do not hear and in seeing they do not see nor do they understand he's saying i tell parables to keep things of the kingdom hidden from those who don't have understanding from the holy spirit and there were so many how many times did the disciples after he told the parable the disciples came up to me said can you explain that parable to us because we don't even get it and so he'd have to explain it to his disciples and say okay let me let me tell you what this is the seed is the word of god the different types of soils those are different types of people the good soil is this the bad soil you know the rocky grounds this the weeds are this he had to explain it to them because they didn't just get it he wasn't making it easy to follow him he was making it more difficult to follow him you're saying if you want to follow me you're going to have to put some effort into this and christianity says yeah you want to be a christian it's real easy go to church pray this prayer you're good enjoy your life that's a wide road jesus he said if we follow him we're going to be persecuted john 15 18-21 if the world hates you know that it hated me before it hated you if you were of the world the world will love its own yet because you are not of the world but i chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you remember the the world uh remember the word that i said to you a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me they will also persecute you if they kept my word they will keep yours also but all these things they will do to you for my name's sake because they do not know him who sent me whatever they did to him just know that they're going to try to do it to us too he says is that the road you want to take you want to follow yeshua to the cross you look at the disciples they were all martyred except john and they tried to kill him numerous times have you ever looked into some of the stories of on how they were martyred how they were all the disciples were persecuted and killed and martyred and peter hung upside down on a cross he didn't he didn't want to be hung up right upright he said hang me upside down because i don't i'm not worthy to die the same way that my lord did hang me upside down they tried to kill john several times from what i understand they they tried to tar him dunk him in tar some reason he didn't die and you look throughout history if you look like just get a copy of fox's book of martyrs and just look through our history at all the different martyrs ways people have been persecuted and tortured and killed and jailed things like that for their faith and then you tell me that following yeshua's easy if you're really following him it's not easy it's not it's not the life that he's presenting to us he's not saying i'm going to give you an easy life he's saying i'm going to give you eternal life in this world you will have problems but be of good cheer i have overcome the world paul says that death is the final enemy that we face but yeshua conquered death because of him we we can have eternal life it's not that we're going to have a great life now your best life now right popular book title your best life now that's not what jesus promises that's not what yeshua promises he says this is not going to be your best life you're going to be tortured you're going to be persecuted you're going to have tribulation but be of good chair because you get eternal life you get a reward you get to spend eternity in the presence of god you get to inherit the kingdom rejoice when they persecute you because of righteousness why because you get to get you get entrance into the kingdom i'm going to open the door for you and say come on in you see what the difference is he's not saying you're going to be rich and happy and get everything you want in this life he said blessed are the poor blessed are the peacemaker blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness blessed are those when they hate you and persecute you blessed are you it's just completely upside down from what a lot of people are teaching so what does it mean to follow yeshua like i said we follow his example we follow his teachings we try to live our life like him try to embody his teachings in our life live him out try to live our life the way he lived his life treat other people the way he would he would treat them right so when satan tempted him yeshua resisted temptation and he defeated satan with the word of god if we want to follow our master that's what we should be doing right temptation comes we say no get behind me satan for it is written you shall worship the lord your god in him only shall you serve if that's what our lord did to resist temptation then shouldn't we be doing the same thing in our life when men persecuted him for teaching yeshua continued teaching anyway you need to stop teaching this your teaching is not allowed here we're not it's not acceptable this is not appropriate it's not pc you can't talk about that kind of stuff you can't be anti this or that because that's controversial you should just said man i'm teaching the word of god you can't talk you can't tell me to stop that was his response basically wasn't it they tell him to quit and he just kept on kept on going kept on doing it anyway you can't heal here you can't heal on the sabbath you can't do these things really why not that was kind of his response wouldn't it why can't i there's more details involved in that but that's basically he said i'm just going to keep on healing i'm going to keep on preaching i'm here for a purpose and i'm going to do it and he wasn't terribly concerned with what the religious people thought or what the government thought the religious religious leaders tried to stop him and the government rome tried to stop him but they didn't even after they killed him they didn't stop him because he just rose from the dead so whenever they come up to you and they say well you can't you can't say that on facebook right i know that's silly you shouldn't be on facebook anyway i hate facebook facebook is the devil really seriously i hate facebook so many problems on facebook if people just stay off facebook they would have less problems you'd have less people fighting with each other over stupid stuff because that's what you do people post them on facebook and somebody misunderstands it then they get mad then they go talk about them behind their back and or they get jealous because so-and-so has something i don't have or you know like all kinds of just stupid it's pointless but you know when they try to censor us and say well you can't preach that do we do we just say okay you're right i'll i'll keep quiet that's not what peter and the other apostles did was it i mean look at how many times they got thrown in prison for preaching the gospel they weren't afraid of going to jail for preaching about yeshua is that i mean is that our fear are we just well you know they might put us in jail they might give us a fine they might persecute us in some way okay you're in good company that's what they did to all the other apostles you're going to take the wide road or the narrow road which which messiah do you follow which jesus do you follow which yeshua is your lord the wide road or the narrow road when men hated him he did not hate them back he was hanging on a cross and he said father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing he didn't hate him back following yeshua and actually trying to live our life like him that's difficult that's the difficult road let me tell you that the goal of salvation is not about escaping punishment have you ever thought about that the goal of salvation should not be that we escape punishment i get my fire insurance all right get out of free get out of get out of jail free card make sure i don't go to hell make sure i don't get thrown into the lake of fire so i got to get saved get that stamp punched on my passport so i don't go to hell that's that's what most people think salvation is i got to get safe so i don't go to hell so i don't get punished so i don't i have to face punishment for my sin i have to have consequences for what i did in my life i don't want to have consequences for what i did so i'm going to get saved i don't have a guilty conscience so i want to get saved like that's in most people's mind that's what they think salvation is about is getting out of hell getting out of the lake of fire not having to face eternal punishment of some kind the goal of salvation is verse to be transformed into the image of yeshua do you realize that that is the goal of salvation paul talks about this in first corinthians he says you are currently made in the image of adam the man of dust but what's going to happen is we're going to be made into the image of yeshua made into his likeness that's the goal of salvation is that we become like him that we become made in his image transformed into his likeness so when salvation starts is when we decide hey i wanna i wanna start following yeshua i'm gonna repent repent and turn to him he died to save us from sin the bible says he died to save us from sin so what does that mean he wants us to get out of sin he wants us to be set free from sin he wants us to live a life of holiness and righteousness so we have the sanctification process in our life where we become transformed more and more like him he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion the bible says he's begun this work in us he's trying to transform us trying to sanctify as he's working on our lives working on our hearts but have you guys ever noticed that there are if you ever work with animals you know that there's some animals that are easy to work with and some animals that are hard to work with if you tie a donkey up to a uh plow how long do you think it would take you to plow that field versus the guy who tied an ox up to that plow that ox will just plow that field and keep on plowing that donkey's going to set down on you more times than you're going to want and you're going to beat that donkey silly and he still won't get that job done right yeshua compares this to sheep and goats he says he's going to separate the sheep from the goats the sheep on one side the goats on the other side why does he use that analogy because sheep follow goats do their own thing right sheep follow the shepherd ghosts just kind of do what they do so getting you know escaping punishment from sin is a nice side effect you know that's an added bonus to salvation but salvation is about getting into the kingdom of god transformed into his likeness becoming more and more like him becoming less and less like the world when we enter through the narrow gate we know him and he knows us because we're pressed in closer together we're in a tight space we're in a narrow space together with him so he knows us because when we're in that tight space we call on him for help we lean on him we depend on him we listen to him we seek him because we're walking in that narrow space and it's hard and it hurts we get stuck and we say god i i'm stuck you sure please help me get unstuck help me get out of this tight spot i'm wedged in here please open up part the red sea for me or something because i need i need help but when we're in those tight spaces it causes us to draw near to him and to call on him he says i do not know you are where you're from to those who don't strive to enter to those who take the wide road those who only seek to enter the kingdom but they don't strive to enter the kingdom he says i don't know you i don't know where you're from what does that mean i don't know you i don't know where you're from he said something similar in the sermon on the mount matthew 7 19-24 every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire therefore by their fruits you will know them not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven many will say to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied in your name cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name then i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness therefore whoever hears these things of mine and does them i will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock again he's talking to religious people people who are claiming to follow him christians who call him lord believers who call him lord followers people who claim to be following him calling him lord he says i don't know you he's not even talking to the pharisees who reject him he's talking about people who call him lord and say i'm following you i'm doing things in your name he says i don't know you you're practicing lawlessness yeah you did many righteous works in my name but i don't know you what does it mean to say i don't know where you're from and back up just a second so they call him lord he says i don't know you that means he doesn't have a relationship with them okay do you have you guys ever done research or learned about a particular person in history like you know you you did a bunch of research in history class on abraham lincoln or george washington or something right and you you do all this research and read all these biographies and you learn all you can about that person and you know you could become an expert on abraham lincoln for example just say you're you're an expert you know everything that's possible to know about abraham lincoln do you know him does he know you no you just know a lot of stuff about him right and that kind of the same thing there's a lot of people who know a lot of stuff about yeshua but that doesn't mean they actually know him it just makes you like a fan boy doesn't it i'm a super fan i know everything to know about him but he doesn't have a clue who i am he says i don't know you so our goal should be to get to know him and that he would know us isn't it we should want to know him and he and we should want for him to know us but how does that happen it's not by mental ascent it's not by head knowledge it's not by learning all the stuff you need to learn it's about spending time with him spending time in prayer worship spending time with him getting to know him and letting him get to know you that's important he says i don't know you or where you're from that phrase i don't know where you're from was an interesting one it again just kind of jumped off the page of me and i thought this is curious this is significant why is this here what does it mean to say i don't know where you're from and i it brought me to joshua chapter nine something really interesting happened in joshua chapter 9. starting verse 3 it says but when the inhabitants of gibeon heard that joshua heard what joshua had done to jericho at ai they worked craftily and they went and pretended to be ambassadors and they took old sacks on their donkeys old wineskins torn and mended old and patched sandals on their feet and old garments on themselves and all the bread and the provisions was dry and moldy and they went to joshua into the camp at gilgal and they said they said to him and the men of israel we have come from a far country now therefore make a covenant with us when the men of israel said to the hivites perhaps you dwell among us so how can we make a covenant with you but they said to joshua we are your servants and joshua said to them who are you and where do you come from now if you keep on reading you you figure out you'll realize that they deceived israel they fooled them they tricked them into thinking they were from a far off country and so israel made a covenant with them and so israel couldn't invade their country and destroy them and drive them out what ended up happening instead is they became servants of israel they cut the wood and fetched the water and things like that but it's because of their deceit that they were able to enter into covenant with israel and yeshua says the same thing i don't know you where you from who are you where are you from is what joshua said yeshua said there's going to be these people who i'm going to say i don't know you or where you're from and i will not let them joshua and the people of israel were deceived by the midianites and they were allowed to enter in the covenant yeshua saying i'm not going to be deceived if i don't know where you're from you're not coming in if i don't know who you are you're not getting in i'm not going to be deceived that's what he's saying so we may be able to put on a good face and deceive each other we may be able to put on the the christian mask i'm a good happy christian i'm doing all the right stuff i'm following jesus i'm worshiping we may be able to see if everybody in here he says i'm not going to be deceived yeshua is not going to be deceived he's going to say who are you and where are you from i don't know you i don't know where you are from i'm not gonna open the door for you so what what good does it do us to deceive each other doesn't do us any good what goes what good is it if you live your whole life deceiving yourself and deceiving everybody else you get to the end of your life and you're like man i didn't actually know him i didn't actually get in what does he say that there's going to be you're going to look into the kingdom you see abraham isaac and jacob and all these other people in the kingdom and you yourself thrust out and you'll be weeping and gnashing your teeth if you're not one of the people that gets into the kingdom you're going to be outside weeping why are you going to be weeping outside the kingdom because you you wanted to get in again he's not talking to atheists atheists aren't going to be outside weeping oh no i didn't get to go into the kingdom with jesus that's not what the atheist is going to say right the atheist was going to say well i didn't want to get in there anyway i didn't care about him in my life why would i care about him in my death right he's talking about people who are trying to follow him who want to follow him who want to be christians who want to be followers of him disciples people who are seeking the kingdom of god but who are not striving to enter it many will seek to enter and will not be able to you have to strive to get into that narrow narrow gate and narrow door he says i'm not going to be deceived who are you and where do you come from i don't know you i don't know where you're from we're not going to be able to say i i know you i i heard your teachings i said at your feasts i know you i preached in your name i prayed for people in your name i prophesied in your name i know you he says i don't know you what a shock that'll be for some people again we've got two doors two gates two roads they're both called jesus one's narrow ones wide the narrow gate gets you into the kingdom the white gate gets you standing outside saying hey why can't i come in too it brings you right up to the gates and the gates slam in your face on that wide road the narrow road gets you in the door get you in the kingdom you get to hang out with abraham isaac and jacob in the kingdom of god he says but the wide road is going to leave you standing outside weeping and gnashing your teeth is this a an easy message to listen to is this a hard message to listen to did you guys all go to sleep this is a hard one it's a hard one that's what yeshua was saying he didn't come to to make it easy for us he said it's hard it's difficult difficult is the way that leads to life and few find it the narrow gate is difficult but it causes us to know yeshua and it causes him to know us it's not just knowing about him it's knowing him it's not just following him not just believing in him it's living her life as a disciple following him serving him obeying him imitating him following him to the cross when things get difficult it causes us to we must strive and struggle when things get difficult we must strive and struggle you have options you can go the other way and say you know this is too difficult i'm going to turn around but when it gets difficult we need to strive press in push forward go further dig deeper keep going pursue righteousness when things get difficult strive to enter through that narrow gate let me tell you you don't accidentally go through the narrow gate it doesn't happen by accident you don't just walk along and be like huh how'd it get here you have to seek it and you have to strive after it you don't accidentally you don't just trip and fall through the narrow gate you have to you have to seek it out intentionally you have to intentionally go through that narrow gate intentionally follow him make a conscious choice to do what's right make a conscious choice to obey him takes effort it takes discipline takes willpower you have to be intentional you have to strive he says that's what that's what a disciple is isn't it the disciple and discipline they're they come from the same word if your disciple you have discipline if you are disciple you are being disciplined by your master he's teaching you discipline he's teaching you a discipline he's teaching you how to be disciplined he's disciplining you there's a number of different ways you can look at it but it's discipline a disciple follows his master he does what his master says learns from him imitates him becomes like him discipline is doing what is right even when things are difficult isn't it it takes discipline to do what's right when things are difficult doesn't it what is striving you strive when things are difficult you're disciplined you see the connections between being a disciple and striving to enter the kingdom it takes discipline okay let's stop there i didn't get you out early tonight i'm sorry you don't believe me anyway yeah oh okay you won't you don't leave anyway that's true that's true even after i dismiss you just hang around huh oh okay actually i didn't tell you i was gonna let you out early so i was just hoping to i didn't want to lead you on by saying hey maybe we'll get out early tonight i don't want to lead you on and then let you down so would you buy your heads with me

Channel: UNLEARN the lies

Views: 5,779

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Keywords: unlearn, unlearn the lies, unlearnthelies, lex meyer, bible truth, Yeshua

Id: JqXMplmshYA

Length: 74min 8sec (4448 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 24 2020