Jesus Wants Everybody To Be Saved
By, Ron Coale
Luke 13:22-30 And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, 24Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 25When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 28There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 29And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.
A man came up to Jesus one day and said, “Lord, are there few that be saved?” He was a little confused because he thought it was kind of an elite club; not many people can get saved. But you know that the Lord Jesus Christ died for everybody. Everybody or anybody can be saved, but they don’t want to be.
It makes me think of old Old Herb. He was the thriftiest farmer in the area. One day he stood on the bridge idly gazing down at the water. A canoeist coming down the river suddenly overturned. He came up gasping. Herb just looked on. Down the canoe went again. When he came up, Herb shouted to him, “If you don’t come up the next time, can I have your canoe?”
Old Herb wasn’t thinking about saving the guy. He was thinking more about the canoe. In fact, Herb’s was not thinking about the canoe, he was thinking about himself.
This is a lot like what we do as people. We think of self even though we strive not to. We cater to self. If we didn’t cater to self, we wouldn’t take bath’s, or dress up nice. We wouldn’t get clean or buy the things that we like. We wouldn’t live in the places that we want to live. We can’t get away from it. Old self wants what it wants.
This is just like the man who asked Jesus if there were few that be saved. He was worrying about what He could get out of the deal and wanted to make sure he would get in. If there were only a few slots for people to get saved, then he wanted to get in the front of the line so he could be sure not to miss an opportunity to get one for himself. In contrast to that, Jesus was thinking about the many who would not make it. We tend to be selfish where the Lord tends to think of everyone.
The Bible says that many will seek and not be able. That’s what Jesus said to him in verse 24. He said, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” Well, the man’s asking if there are few that be saved and when Jesus gives an answer like that, he begins thinking, “Wow! There’s a lot of people applying for heaven. There’s a lot of people standing in line to go to heaven and even though it’s free, Jesus said that there were only few who would get in there. In fact the first word that Jesus used when He responded to the man was: “STRIVE”.
The word “strive” is an interesting word. It’s not an easy word. “Strive” means that you’re going to have to fight. Strive means that you are going to have to struggle. “Strive” means that you are going to have to give. It means that there are going to be some things that you’re going to have to go through that you don’t want to go through in order to get that what you want.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Salvation is not something you work for.[/pullquote]
Salvation is not something you work for, but there is a straight gate. This means that there is also a crooked gate. We can go in at the straight gate or we can go in at the crooked gate. It doesn’t matter. The straight gate means: go straight to it. The trouble is that we get off course. We get a little off to the left or we get a little off to the right.. We get a little distracted here. We turn around and talk to this person here or there. We forget something and we have to go back. We zig-zag all of our way through our Christian life to get to heaven. There are few that be saved. God made a straight way for everybody to get saved, but people don’t take it.
The reason that you strive to get saved is not because you are required to work for your salvation. You have to work to put SELF down so that you can go and humble yourself and take the salvation that is freely offered. Strive! When a friend was witnessing to me about getting saved, something inside of me began to stir. I didn’t just listen to what he said and say, “That’s a good idea. I think I’ll do that! That’s a good deal. Can I get an extra to take home with me for a little later?” I didn’t think like that. What I thought was, “Uh Oh! This guy wants something from me.” In fact, something inside of me began to struggle.
I am sure that you know of the cartoon that shows the proverbial two sides of us. A little angel sitting on one sholder and a little devil sitting on the other. They are both speaking to you and you are going back and forth trying to make a decision. Well, it wasn’t really like that, but similar. It was really in my heart. It really wasn’t a devil and an angel. It was really SELF and the denial of SELF.
To get saved you have to deny your SELF. You have to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. That means, you have to be humble. To get saved, you have to admit that God is right and you are wrong. To get saved you have to give up doing things your way, and do things His way. Strive to enter in at the straight gate.
God made it very easy to get saved. All I had to do was believe Him. I had to believe Him and exercise my belief until it became a faith. And it has become a faith. It is a faith so much so that I cannot really remember not going to church. I like it, but it took some work.
I know when the preacher started telling me things like I had to read my Bible every day, I thought, “Man. You just leave your Bible in the car so when you go to church you have it handy so you can just pick it up and carry it in with you. Maybe you’ll try to turn to some of the verses and maybe not.” I remember when I didn’t know were any places were in the Bible. I remember sitting next to my wife and she would tell me, “No. It’s a little to the left,” or “It’s a few pages to the right.” I would get all full of pride and say, “That’s it! I don’t want to read it!” I really got that way when my little children would sit next to me and say, “Oh no daddy, this way”, or “that way.” I’d think, “Oh yeah! That’s okay.” I’d be proud. SELF!
I determined I was going to learn the books of the Bible. My kid’s could recite them from memory, but I didn’t even know them. I knew Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, John, Mark, Luke, Matthew and Revelations. I didn’t know about all of them other ones in there. I just knew how to say them, and I didn’t even know all of the other ones. I had to work at it. I had to work at learning the books of the Bible so I’d know where to go when the preacher was calling out some verses. Maybe even learning the books of the Bible was motivated by a little bit of pride; I don’t know.
I remember when the preacher said I have to pray. I read it in the Bible. It says, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), and I started thinking, “Man, I have to pray.” The Bible says that we are not to be ashamed of Jesus (Luke 9:26; Rom. 1:16). I didn’t want to be ashamed of Jesus. When I would see the Mormon people sitting around there table praying at a restaurant, I would get convicted. Id feel ashamed of Jesus. I would cough up a little prayer. I’d drop my napkin and when I bent over to pick it up would say, “Hurup, Thank you God for this food.” It took some swallowing of pride because I was afraid to pray in public. I’m not afraid now. It took some striving to win over SELF.
The preacher said I had to do the hardest thing of all–give (Luke 6:38). Giving invokes love. Love is: giving of yourself. You can give one of three things: your time, your talents or your treasures. I decided to pick the easy one–my treasures. That way, I didn’t have to give anyone my time or my talents. My time and talents were used to make money. Since then, the Lord convicted me and told me I needed to learn how to give. I started putting in a buck here and a buck there.
The preacher started talking about tithing. I read that part in the book of Malachi where it talks about robbing God; stealing from Him (Mal. 3:8). I thought, “My goodness! God really wants me to tithe. How am I going to pay my bills? I can’t do this!” The way I did things was to pay all of my bills and then give God what was left over after keeping about 20 bucks spending money for me. Finally I decided that I was supposed to tithe on everything I made. I was to give 10%. That’s what I learned from the Bible. If I was going to enter in at the straight Gate I’m going to do what God wants me to do. If I’m going to go His way, and not get off course and go zig or zag, I’m going to do something for God.
When I began tithing it was not easy. I was in a situation where if I paid the tithe as I was supposed to, I was not going to be able to pay my electric bill. It was either tithe, or electric bill. I finally decided to bite the bullet and tithe. I gave 10% of my earnings to God. I had no money for that electric bill. I laid that thing up there on my desk and I said, “God, you said you’d take care of us. We’re not buying anything extravagant. All we are buying is food (with four kids, it was the hot dog and macaroni-n-cheese menu for us.) to get by with.” That electric bill was eighty six dollars and I couldn’t pay it.
I tithed and guess what? Three days later in the mail the electric company sent me another letter. I picked it up and thought, “Uh Oh! This is it. God we didn’t pay our bill and they are not happy. I’m really in trouble now.” I opened it up and do you now what was in there? An eighty six dollar check from the electric company with a letter saying, “We’ve over billed you.” It covered the outstanding bill exactly, from an over billing that happened months ago. All I could do was look at that thing and say, “Thank you God! Thank you God!” The Lord taught me right there: you give Him 10%.
The Lord’s blessed me and taken care of me. Do you know what that is? It’s entering in at the straight gate. It takes a little bit of striving. It takes some striving to get up in the morning and read your bible. It takes some striving to get victory over SELF and put in that tithe to the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes striving to get on your knees and pray. It takes striving to keep under SELF. There’s a straight way through a straight gate and there’s a zigzag way through a crooked gate.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]People don’t get victories in areas of their Christian life because they don’t take the first step. They don’t seek![/pullquote]
The Bible says, “Seek and ye shall find” (Luke 11:9). Do you know why people don’t get victories in areas of their Christian life? It’s because they don’t take the first step. They don’t seek. They don’t put their toe in the water. They don’t put God to the test (not that we should really test God, but that we should apply the things that He teaches us).
The Bible also says that if we seek Him, we will find Him (Jer. 29:13). The reason why people don’t get saved is because they don’t seek the Lord. They don’t seek the Lord because nobody told them what the value of the Lord is. Nobody shares their stories with them. Do you know why people don’t read their bibles? It’s because nobody shares their victories with them about what reading the Bible has done for them. I make my Bible Students write the whole New Testament out by hand. Why? Because they have to learn some discipline about reading the Bible. They have to learn about looking at the words and punctuation. They have to learn about and respect God’s word. It takes some effort. It takes some striving.
Getting in is free. Getting saved is free. Developing as a Christian takes some determination. A lot of people stay as babes in Christ because they learn what it takes to grow up in Christ. God said to strive. Salvation takes a little bit of striving.
Jesus has enough blood to save everybody. Everybody can be saved. The reason people die and go to hell is because they don’t try the Lord Jesus Christ. They don’t seek. Salvation is free. People of this world will go and get anything that is free. Why not take an opportunity to get free salvation today? It doesn’t cost you anything. You don’t have to do anything. All you have to do is accept it and then go your way.
Many will Stand without and will not be known.
There’s a very interesting phrase being used here when it says, “When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door…”. It doesn’t say, “shut the door.” It says, “shut TO the door”. Have you ever shut the door to? When you push the door to the jam, you are shutting it to (as in from you to away from you). When you are pulling the door to the jam, you are shutting it closed (as in from you to you). When you shut the doors to, it means the crowd on the outside has no control of the doors. The handles and locks are on the inside. If there is someone standing in the middle of the doorway and the doors are shut to, then they get pushed to the outside. They don’t get pulled to the inside.
A lot of people like to straddle the fence about getting saved. They like to take the position of standing in the doorway. They think that they will want to get saved some day, but they want to wait until the last minute. They feel they still have some things to do in their life; they have some things they want to explore, but they think they will jump inside at the last minute. It doesn’t work that way. Here’s what happens. At the last minute, they are pushed out as the doors close. You are either all the way in or you are not. When the master of the house comes down, He is going to shut to the door, pushing you out. You can’t jump in at the last minute. You can’t decide at the last minute. You can’t wait until you get that pain in your chest and be taken to the emergency room. You can’t say to the doctor in the emeregency room, “I want to be saved before I die.” You may not even be coherent enough to speak to somebody. How are you going to get saved once that pain hits? You can’t straddle the fence. When He decides to shut the door, the door is shut! There is coming a day when that door is shut and no one else will be allowed inside. God shut the door on the ark (Gen. 7:16). When the rain started coming down, the door was shut to by God. After He shut the door, nobody could get in. You have to accept God now.
When we are being self centered, we think the whole world revolves around us. Unfortunately, if you think this way, you are sadly mistaken.
One morning on the Today Show, Willard Scott was talking about this very thing. He said he had occasion to fly into a small community airport that only had one runway and one small hangar. As he was getting off the plane, he noticed a group of about seventy-five people all cheering and clapping, so he made a sweeping bow and waved. And that was when he noticed that the people weren’t watching him; they were watching an airshow.
We’re not always as secure as we think we are. Some people may actually find out that they are not going to heaven because they are trusting in something else other than a RELATIONSHIP with Christ.
People think way to highly of themselves. Have you ever heard people say they don’t need church? Have you ever heard people say they don’t need “that crutch?” Well, Jesus as a crutch is a good crutch. One day, these people are going to wake up and find out that life wasn’t all about SELF. The problem is that people don’t accept this until it is too late.
A new employee was habitually late. His boss got so mad about it that he finally went up to him and said, “Don’t you know what time we start work around here?” The employee said, “Not really because every time I get here, everyone else is here already.”
People think about themselves. We really need to start thinking about others. If you are not saved today, then you need to think about your future. You have a future coming. If you get the chance to talk to them, you need to tell your relatives about Jesus, who He is and what He has done for you. Tell them to stop straddling the fence. One day the doors are going to be closed and they will not have an opportunity. That day may not be the end of the world. It may be the end of their life.
My father-in-law was told that he was terminal. A doctor had said that he only had a certain amount of time to live. I’m here to tell you that everybody is terminal. The life span of a man in the United States of America is about 70-80 years old. There are those who live well beyond this, but it is not guaranteed. There are also those who die much younger. There comes a time in a person’s life when they begin to have more friends who have passed on then they do have alive. It is a natural course of things. We are all terminal.
If you are saved, maybe you have a relative, a husband, a wife, a grandchild, a child, In-laws, friends, that don’t know how to be saved. Not only are you terminal, but they too are terminal.
I’m terminal. I’m going to be departing this life. No doctor has told me that. I didn’t need a doctor to tell me that. I already knew it way back when I was a kid. I’m going to be departing this life. I don’t know when, but the song says, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin through.” That just about says it all.
You need to tell people about getting saved. You need to invite people to church. Tell them!
Jesus was asked, “Are there few that be saved?” Do you know why there are few? Because people are too hung up on themselves. People straddle the fence. People don’t want to hear about getting saved. The saddest thing of all is that Christians just don’t tell people. Christians don’t invite the unsaved to hear the gospel.
The political atmosphere of the world today is very anti-Christian. I don’t mean Catholic, Mormon or big money activities. I’m saying Jesus. They are anti-Jesus Christ. They are making a move to put Christianity under the rug. There are people out there working against us. There is not enough of us working; doing what we should be doing in the first place.
There was a lawsuit by the atheist to try to get atheism as a free religion, recognized in the American education system today. They are getting serious debate over this. I don’t understand why they are getting any debate at all because they said in a public school you can’t say anything about God. If you can’t say anything about God, and you can’t say anything about Muhammed, why should you be able to say anything at all about atheism? Why is this even being considered? Because the world is against Jesus Christ.
The homosexuals have come out of the closet and they are now everywhere in our society. Real Christians are not against homosexuals, they are against homosexuality. And now, the whole of society is promoting it. In many cases, this has caused Christians to lose heart. Society is now taking those empty closets, and are trying to fill them with Christians. They are being successful because too many Christians are straddling the fence.
The Great Italian Socialist Gramsci said that Christianity was the glue that binds the classes together and you will never achieve communism with Christianity present. You will never have socialism with Christianity in society. This is why Christianity is under such vehement attack today.~
