In the sermon 'Are There Few Who Are Saved?' delivered by Peter Allison, the focus is on the question of salvation and the necessity of striving to enter the kingdom of God through the narrow gate. The sermon emphasizes the importance of discipline, self-denial, and the willingness to struggle or agonize in one's spiritual journey. Using biblical references, Allison discusses the nature of the kingdom of Heaven, the deceptive nature of distractions that can lead believers away from their spiritual responsibilities, and the danger of complacency and assumed privilege. He underscores the need for a proactive and serious approach to faith, warning that many who believe they are saved will find themselves outside the kingdom due to lack of genuine striving. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's compassion and the sincere, yet limited, opportunity for grace, urging believers to heed the call to strive for salvation before the door is shut.

Luke chapter 13, for our scripture reading, beginning at verse 22. Here God's word, And he went through the cities and villages, teaching and journeying toward 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 are you from? Then you will 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 are you from?

Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. 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 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, there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last. On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to him, Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill you.

And he said to them, Go tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today, and tomorrow and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate, and as surely I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. May the Lord shine His face upon us, His servants, and teach us His statutes.

Heavenly Father, We thank you that you have preserved your word without error. We ask that you would give to us your Holy Spirit that it may come to us this morning in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. We ask that we might be transformed by your word, that you would sanctify us. And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips for this task in Jesus name. Amen Jesus has just Finished or He's in the midst of proclaiming the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven.

He's told two parables about what the Kingdom of Heaven would be like. The parable of that mustard seed and the parable of the leaven. Talking about the nature of the kingdom, how it grows, how it begins in humble obscurity, like a small mustard seed. And then it grows the smallest of all the herb seeds. How it grows organically, like leaven in dough.

There is no great outward triumphs. It's an inward organic growth. How this kingdom is a blessing to the world. The birds of the air make their nests in the branches of this mustard seed tree. How the kingdom grows to dominance becomes bigger.

This mustard seed that starts so small becomes bigger than all the other herbs. Much bigger. And he also was talking about how the influence of the kingdom is pervasive. It's everywhere. And then someone in the crowd pipes up, but Lord, are there few who are going to be saved?

That's the $64 question. Are there few who are saved? It's a question people still like to ask today. And while it's a legitimate question to ask, it is also or can be a distracting question to ask. In that it takes the focus off of where our responsibility lies.

And it takes the focus off the labor that we ought to be engaged in, and puts it on something that we have no way of knowing. You know, it's the kind of question that students ask when they want to get the professor on a rabbit trail so that he won't be able to give them as much material that they will be responsible for. If they get him talking on something that's not relevant to the course directly, if they get him sidetracked, then there's less responsibility for them. They'll have another day that goes by, and there'll be less things that they have to know. It's like that time that's recorded in John 21, when Jesus had told Peter about the kind of death that he would die.

He said, when you're old, you'll stretch out your hands and another will gurgle you and carry you where you don't want to go." And then he had said, follow me, Peter. And Peter then starts looking around and sees John. He says, well, what about him? How's he going to die? And he remembers Jesus' answer.

If I want him to live till I come again, what's that to you? That's a distracting question, Peter. That takes the focus off what you were supposed to do, the job I gave to you, which is follow me, and puts it on something that's irrelevant. And so Jesus doesn't answer that question, what would happen to John. He says, what's that to you?

That should be of no concern to you. All you need to know is what I've told you to do. And anything else is just a distraction. And so Jesus doesn't answer this question. Did you notice that?

He doesn't give an answer. He doesn't say how many are saved. He doesn't say whether it's many or few. He doesn't say that everyone will be saved eventually, But neither does he say that there won't be many saved. He simply doesn't answer the question.

Because we don't need to know the answer to that question. If Jesus, If it was necessary for us to know, then Jesus would have answered that question. It would have been recorded in the scriptures. But it's not a question that we need to know. It's a distracting question that takes our focus off of what ought to be in front of us.

It's not helpful knowledge, even if we were to know it. What if the answer was, well, only a few are ever saved. Only the elect. And there's only a few of them. Here and there, hard to find.

Everyone else is doomed to fail in their quest to enter the kingdom. Well, then people would be tempted to say, well, if God has only elected a very few number of people, and there's only a few seats on that lifeboat, then there's no point in me trying to get one of them. What if the answer was that everyone would be saved. Well, then people might begin to think that, well, everyone's going to be saved, or most everyone's going to be saved in the end, so there's no really need to worry too much about it. No need to certainly strive or agonize over it.

Everyone will mostly be saved. So we can sit back and enjoy the pleasures of this life See all so Jesus doesn't answer that instead Jesus says strive to enter through the narrow gate. 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 through the narrow gate.

Jesus took this questioner right back to where his focus ought to be. Strive to enter the narrow gate. To strive means to fight, to struggle against an enemy. The Greek word is the word we get agonize from. So you can think of this as agonize.

Agonize. Jesus is saying we need to agonize to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven without this agonizing. And he wasn't speaking to just this questioner. You notice he says, Jesus said to them, to this crowd that he was talking to, strive.

And that word strive, that's a command. It's not apparent in the English. That could be an individual or could be a group but in the Greek it's very apparent he's talking to the plural, to the plurality, to the group strive to enter the narrow gate. This is what Paul had instructed the churches that he planted throughout Asia Minor. He planted these churches and then he came back around to them, strengthening the souls of the disciples and establishing these churches.

And how did He do that? How did He strengthen and encourage these disciples and these churches that He had just planted in Asia Minor? Well, He said we must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God. We must through Many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. We must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God.

This striving, this agonizing ought to be the characteristic, it ought to characterize our walk as Christians and our life as believers. It's a life of agonizing, of striving to enter the kingdom. Paul told the Colossians, him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And Paul said, to this end I also labor, striving, it's the same word, agonizing. To this end I, Paul said, I agonize according to his working, which works in me mightily.

To this end I labor, agonizing according to his working, which works him mightily. You see, one of Amos's chief complaints against and the northern tribe of Israel that we read about, one of his chief complaints against them was that they were in ease in Zion. And he said, woe to you who are at ease in Zion and trust in Mount Samaria. Paul told Timothy, this true Son, His true Son in the faith. When He wrote these letters giving Him instructions and how He ought to conduct Himself as an elder, how He ought to conduct Himself in the house of God, He said, Timothy, fight the good fight.

Agonize. Agonize. Lay hold on eternal life to which you were called and having confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Timothy, you need to fight. Fight to lay hold on eternal life.

And then in the second letter that he wrote near the very end of his life, Paul said, I have fought, I have agonized that good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Or as Peter puts it, as we read in our confession, or said in our confession a little bit earlier, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Give heed to make your call and election sure.

Pay attention to this. Because if you do that, you won't stumble and You will be supplied abundantly into the everlasting kingdom. An entrance will be supplied into the kingdom. See, Jesus is warning these people that we're listening to Him speak. He's warning those who are confident that they will enter into the kingdom.

And so they don't agonize. They don't strive to enter the kingdom. And Jesus says there are going to be many who will seek to enter and won't be able. They will want to enter, but they won't be able because they weren't willing to strive to agonize. You see, striving calls for violence.

It implies that a degree of violence is necessary to enter the kingdom. Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 11 that from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent Take it by force. Striving calls for violence in several different ways. It calls for violence in the mortification of our sin. Violence, agonizing, Fighting.

If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire. Now Jesus is not saying here that we need to mutilate ourselves. He's speaking of this mortification of sin. It's a battle and it requires cutting away.

It requires a willingness to fight, to strive. We've got to see ourselves as those who are in a You know like like somebody who's caught in a machine that if they don't free themselves They'll be destroyed and so what what do people do I? Grew up in the Dakotas for a while and and it seemed like every winter There'd be somebody that would be die in a blizzard They get lost confused one missed the house and wander in the field and so on. But it also seemed like every summer, there'd be somebody that would die because they got stuck in a corn picker or a hay baler. And they get stuck and nobody know they were there.

They're miles and miles away from any house and they can't get free. They didn't have the ability. Some people though in those situations can cut off an arm, cut off a hand, cut off a leg and they can get free and they can save their life. That's what Jesus is saying. We have to be those who are willing to fight to mortify our sin, to put to death our flesh.

It is a battle to the death. We either kill the sin that dwells in us, or it will kill us. There might be violence in the area of relationships, and the needing to forsake relationships for the sake of the Gospel. Remember Jesus said He came, we read about that just a little bit earlier. He came to send division.

One house will be divided. Father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother. What's he speaking of there? He's speaking of this violence that those who would take the kingdom of heaven need to exercise, need to be ready. We may need like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress to forsake our families.

Now, he wasn't speaking physically. We don't physically abandon people. He's speaking spiritually. Spiritually. We have to be willing to follow Christ even if that means that these other relationships get broken.

Even if we would love for those people to come with us. But if they're not willing to come like Christian's wife was not willing to come. He pleaded with her, but she wasn't willing to journey to the celestial city. Then Jesus is saying, we have to be willing to forsake that relationship, to move on and follow Christ, even if they don't. That might mean living together in a home where there isn't that unity in the Gospel.

What about a wife who hears this and whose husband isn't willing, who thinks she's stupid? Jesus is saying she has to be willing to follow Christ, even if that means that her husband is upset. Or fathers and sons or mothers and daughters and daughters-in-law and sons-in-law and so forth. Third, there is violence in self-discipline, spiritual disciplines. Paul told the Corinthians, anyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.

Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable. In other words, he's saying people that are competing to win a race, they have self-discipline. They govern themselves. He says, therefore I run that way. He's running, he said, they do it for a perishable crown, we're doing it for an imperishable crown.

And so therefore I run, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, he said, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body. And bringing into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." See, prayer is a discipline. Our flesh is not willing often to pray, is it? We find a hundred other things that need to be done right when it's time to pray. It's a discipline, at least for me it is.

There are other things I'd rather do, but no, I need to discipline my flesh to engage in this battle, to strive. Meditation on God's Word is a discipline. Reading the Word is a discipline when there are other things that are more interesting. YouTube has lots of entertaining videos that you could spend days on. No, but reading the Word of God, that takes discipline.

That takes discipline. Because there are times when we would rather not do it. There are times When we want to put it off, we find other things that get in the way. Paul says it takes discipline. We have to discipline our body.

Hearing the Word, That's a discipline too. It takes effort to concentrate, to think, to not allow our mind to become distracted and wander away. And you notice how we can sometimes sit a whole hour and if we aren't disciplined, we can miss a lot of what is said and we go away having lost an opportunity. Paul told the Colossians about Epaphras, who was one of them, a bond servant of Christ, who greeted them, who he said labored fervently for them in prayers that they would be able to stand perfect and complete in the will of God. Epaphras was laboring fervently in prayers for them.

So it's not just prayers for our sake, but He's interceding. He's laboring. He's striving. He's agonizing. That these others would be able to enter the Kingdom as well.

Well, not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, Jesus said, would enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. We also battle not only our flesh and the world, but we battle the evil one. The Pharisees in verse 31 came to Jesus pretending that they wanted to help keep him safe. And they said, you need to get out and depart from here because Herod wants to kill you. These were the Pharisees that were trying to kill Jesus themselves.

They were the ones who hated him, who were seeking to catch him. And so Jesus sees through their pretense. He saw through it. And we can say based on his answer that that they weren't interested in Jesus' safety as much as they were interested in getting him away from the crowds that were listening to him. And they did that by trying to scare him into running for his life.

Just like Jezebel scared Elijah after he'd won that great victory on Mount Carmel. A mighty victory. Hundreds of demon worshipers were executed under the law for worshiping demons, for worshiping other gods and idols. And all the people, all the rulers of Israel had said, Jehovah is the Lord, we will follow Him. And there was this great turning and in the very next day he's afraid, because Jezebel says, I'm going to make you like those prophets of Baal that you killed." And he runs for his life.

Well, Jesus recognized that this was just an attack of Satan. He recognized it for what it was. He said, go tell that Fox. Go tell that fox, I won't be distracted from my calling. I am going to continue casting out demons.

I am going to continue healing people that are bound by Satan. And this day and the next. And then he really rebukes the Pharisees in effect saying, Is it you who will be my executioners that advise me to beware of Herod? He says, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the following day for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. That's quite a rebuke, a very strong rebuke.

The reproof extends indeed much farther. Extends indeed much farther. For he says not only are preparations being made for my own execution, my own death in Jerusalem, but it might be said of a long period of time that this is the city in which prophets have been killed. And he said that in Matthew, he does put these two together. That he said to them on you, all of the blood for all of the prophets that you have killed from Abel to Zechariah would come upon that generation.

And you remember what the Israelites said at Jesus' trial, His blood be on us and our children. When Pilate said, are you sure you want to kill this one? They said yes. May his blood be on us and on our children. And it was.

You know, the terrible, horrific wrath that fell on both Jerusalem and on Rome was some of the worst wrath that has ever been poured out on this earth. Horrific, horrific wrath. As God did bring a terrible judgment upon them. So in saying go tell that fox, he's recognizing that Herod is an evil person. Cunning and evil.

Now, Jesus' statement here, Strive to enter the narrow gate, for many I say to you will seek to enter and will not be able." There are many that are going to think they are getting in, but are not able. But rather, they're not going to be able. They thought they were going to get in, because they thought that Their church attendance would get them in the kingdom of heaven. They say, we ate and we drank in your presence. We ate and drank in your presence.

See? But their attendance at church, their attendance at prayer meetings, their worship, Jesus says that's no guarantee. That by itself is not useful. They thought that they had special privilege. They said not only did we eat and drink in your presence, but they said, you taught in our streets.

We were there when you were teaching. Yes, they had great privilege. But They were the people in those crowds listening that were consumed with these fascinating and distracting questions instead of being busy striving to enter the kingdom. Being in the covenant is no guarantee of entering the kingdom. Jesus said, these people, when they knocked, he would say, I don't know you.

I don't know you. Who are you? Where are you from? Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. He said, 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 yourselves thrust out.

You who thought you were confident, you were in the covenant, you came to church, you ate and drank in his presence. He taught in your streets. You have these great privileges. Paul called them great privileges. There's going to be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see that you're the ones that are cast out.

And all these Gentiles are coming from the East and the West, and North and the South, and they are sitting down in the Kingdom of Heaven. The last will be first, and the first who will be last. Jesus said the same thing when he marveled at the faith of that centurion who had that servant that was sick and Jesus is coming to heal him and the centurion sent a messenger and said a servant said Lord I'm not worthy for you to come into my house just say the word and he'll be healed and Jesus turned to the crowd and he marveled he said I haven't found this kind of faith in all of Israel." And that's when he said the same thing. Many will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom, but the sons of the kingdom, those people who thought they were privileged, who were in the covenant, who had all these blessings, He says they will be cast into outer darkness and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. See, a day of distinction is coming.

We need to strive because a day of distinction is coming. Jesus said the master of the house will shut the door. The master of the house will shut the door and you begin to stand outside and knock. See, right now, the church is comprised of what the Puritans would call carnal professors, those who are in the covenant but know nothing of the work of Christ in their heart. And it's comprised of the spiritual professors, those who do have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in what is described as the New Covenant.

Those who worship, if you will, behind the veil. See, and in this age, those two groups are not distinguished in any external way. They're all on the member, they're all on the role of the church. They're all written in the book of life. Jesus threatens to remove people from the book of life in Revelation.

Their names, He threatens to blot them out. See, because in this age there is the wheat and the tares, and they grow together in the kingdom. But Jesus says there is a day coming when that door will be shut and there will be a distinction. When the master of the house has risen up, the door between them will be shut. Those who are in the outer court will be kept out and cast into outer darkness.

The door, this door is going to divide between the precious and the vile. That sinners may no longer stand in the congregation of the righteous. Revelation says, He who is unjust, let him be unjust still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still.

He who is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work." See this is a question then. Are there only few that are saved? That Jesus doesn't answer, it's not for us to know. We know, what we do know, is that not everyone is saved.

There are many examples of that. Judas was the son of perdition. We have those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness because of unbelief. Jesus calls them His people that He brought out of Egypt. He then destroyed in the wilderness because of unbelief.

They were his people. They were numbered in the church, in the covenant, but they were destroyed because of unbelief. There are Thessalonians talks about those that God will take judgment on. Paul taught the Thessalonians and Second Thessalonians one that he boasted about them among the churches because of their patience and their faith in the midst of persecutions and tribulations that they had endured. He said, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you might be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you suffer.

But then he goes on to say, since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. Everlasting destruction. It never ends, their destruction. Just like the devil and his angels.

Revelation says, suffer everlasting torment. So That would happen when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed. So there are many people, we know, that will not be saved. But we know that there are many, many, many, many who are. Isaiah gives us a picture of the glorious scope of Christ's Kingdom.

He said he would create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former will not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever. He talks about, no more shall there be an infant. No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days, for the child shall die one hundred years old. And the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them.

And he goes on to list all the blessings that would come. The lion would eat straw like the ox. The wolf and the lamb will feed together. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. And then the next chapter closes with the fact that it shall come to pass from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord.

So there's a promise of great victory. There's a promise of many, many that will come. So there are these many, many promises. And, But we have to remember that even though God will conquer all his enemies, he conquers in his grace and in his wrath. Some are conquered in his grace, others in his wrath, but all are conquered.

But this is what we do know, brothers and sisters, that no person willing to come to Christ is lost. No person willing to come to Christ is ever lost. Jesus laments over Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, The one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together.

Jesus speaks of his compassion for these people. These are the people that are going to crucify him. He has a compassion for them. He has a desire, he loves them. That's why He came into the world, to give life.

He said, how often I wanted to gather your children together, but You were not willing. You were not willing. No person, no person willing to come to Christ is ever lost. There is no, nobody can say that I wanted to come, but Christ didn't let me. Jesus says just the opposite.

He wept over Jerusalem. How often, he said, I wanted to gather you. As a hen gathers her little chicks under her wings, how I wanted to gather you. But you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate.

See, God's offer, God's day of grace is sincere, it is real, but it doesn't last forever. There is a day coming when the door will be shut. And Jesus said, see your house is left to you desolate. Their house, the temple, where the glory of God dwelt is left to them desolate. The glory would depart.

That temple became destroyed. Not one stone was left standing upon another stone. God removed His presence from there and from the people and caused a great hardness to come over them. And His judgment, as I mentioned, did fall upon them. Brothers and sisters, strive to enter through the narrow gate.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you that everything that we need to know you tell us in your word. We ask that we might hear this morning with faith. That you would open our eyes, that we might see and behold your beauty. The beauty of a captain of our salvation.

Indeed it is the kindness, your kindness, that draws us and leads us to repentance. Lord, may we see, each of us here this morning, see your kindness and your grace to us in Jesus Christ. In His name we pray, amen.