You're listening to Heed the Word with our pastor and teacher, Ken Davis. Pastor Ken is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro in Burleson, Texas. Please join us as we study the Gospel of Luke verse by verse.

You see, guys, there are many people today who have a general interest in the things of God. They like to be associated with the things of God. Maybe they go to Christian concerts. Maybe they wear Christian t-shirts. Maybe they attend religious services on a regular basis. Maybe they even call themselves by the name of Christian. But it is a general association that they have with the things of Christ. Rather than a true relationship with him, their tears among wheat.

The Gospel of Luke is the third account in the Gospels of the life and teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As believers, there are few studies that will benefit us more spiritually than studying the life and teachings of the Master. Pastor Chuck Smith has been quoted as saying, you can call yourself a cheeseburger all you want, and it still won't make you one. What is Pastor Chuck saying? Well, the point is what we just heard from Pastor Ken. There are those in the church today that call themselves Christians, yet in their hearts, they are not. Don't forget to stay with us after today's message to hear more information about He the Word, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13, verse 22, as we join Pastor Ken.

And he went through the cities and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. Jesus now is on his way to Jerusalem. And as he goes, the scripture tells us that he is visiting the cities and the villages and that he's teaching along the way. And along that route, one person came to him. Verse 23, then one said to him, Lord, are there few who are saved? Are there few who are saved? Can I tell you? That's a lousy question. Why, might you ask? Is it a lousy question? It's a lousy question because the answer to that question will not do any good for anybody. Does it have any practical application for this man to know if there are few or many who would be saved? No. Does it make any difference to you? I mean, you may have some emotional preferences there, but in terms of the actual experience of your life and the lives of those that you know and love, does whether there are going to many, be many or few saved, have any import or any impact on you directly? No, it really doesn't. It is an answer, or rather, a question that the answer of really has no bearing. The question that the man should have asked is, Lord, can I be saved? See, that's the question that's important. And honestly, that's the question that Jesus answers. Very often when people come to Jesus and they ask him a question, he doesn't directly answer the question that they've asked, but rather he answers the question that they should have asked, or the question that is truly in their hearts. Very often I've had people come to me and ask me a question pertaining to some practice or some activity and say, Should I do this or should we do that? When really what they're needing to ask is, how can I come to know Jesus better? Or what would the Lord have me do in this situation when I encounter people who are doing this or that? Because so often our desire is to look at somebody and to bring judgment and to say, well, this person's right because they do this, or this person's wrong because they do that. Now we are to look at the fruit of a person's life, absolutely. But first we're to look at the fruit of our own lives. Amen. We're to look at the fruit of our own lives. I like what Adam Clark said in his commentary regarding this question. He says that this question is either impertinence or simply curiosity, the answer to which no man can profit. The grand question is rather, can I be saved? And the answer to that is yes. And when that question is answered, yes, you can be saved. The automatic question that follows it is, how? Right? How? And he says, strive earnestly to enter through the straight gates, agonize, exert every power of body and soul. Let your salvation be the grand business of your whole life. Let those words sink in for a moment. Let your salvation be the grand business of your whole life. Every corner of your life, every aspect of it, whether it's the relationship you have with your wife or with your children or with your friends or family, or whether it's your work experience and the things that you do day by day, every aspect of your life should be seen in the light of that grand focus, and that is your salvation. There is not one corner of your life, not one situation, not one circumstance where that shouldn't be your primary concern. Where that should not be your prime directive, the guiding rule of your life, your relationship with Jesus. Moving on in verse twenty-four, Jesus begins to answer the man and he says, This strive to enter through the narrow gates. For many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Strive to enter by the narrow gate. Strive. For many will seek to enter, but will not be able. The two key words here are strive and seek. And there is a world of difference in the outcome between the two. To really understand these words, I want us to look briefly at how they're used elsewhere in Scripture. Just a couple of examples, not by any means an exhaustive word study, but just a little something. The word strive is agonizomai. Agonizomai, that's it. Agonizomai, which we derive the word in English, agonize from. And that tells us something about the word. We are to agonize to enter the straight gate. The word agonizomeai means to contend. Paul used this word pretty often, and seeing how he used it may help us to have a better understanding of what it really means. In 1 Corinthians 9, 24 and 25, if you want to turn there, I'll give you a moment to do it. In 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24 and 25, Paul writes these words Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize, that's our word right there, competes. Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. 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 or strive, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others I myself should become disqualified. The idea for striving here is in the way that an athlete would strive to run a race, to fight in a boxing match, to do battle, if you will. Strive. There is an exertion of effort, a supreme understanding that all must be sacrificed to attain the goal in sight. That's what the word strive is all about. In Colossians 1, 28 and 29, Paul used the word in this manner. Speaking of Jesus, he said, Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily. Whose working is working in Paul mightily? It's the Lord's working, isn't it? But Paul is laboring and striving in the work of the Lord. So often we look at our Christian experience and we think that it's all just supposed to come easy. That, you know, we're gonna be born again and we're gonna receive the Lord, and his Holy Spirit's gonna live in us and dwell in us and is gonna do everything for us. Well, when it comes to our justification, that's pretty true. He has done everything for us. But in the practical aspects of our experience, there is a striving that is to take place. And you say, well, aren't we supposed to rest in Jesus? Well, of course we are. But we have to recognize that there is a labor that is to be done, that there is a working out of that which God has worked in that is part of the process of our entering into that gate, of truly understanding what it is to belong to Jesus. In Colossians 4, just a couple chapters over, verse 12, Paul uses this words in reference to Epaphoras. He says, Epaphoras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. And so we look at this and we understand that striving indicates a competition. It indicates an exertion of force, a putting forth of all of our effort to attain the prize of entering in that gate. And that there is labor that is involved. Now, let's look at the word seek for a moment. The word seek in this particular instance is epizeteo. Epiziteo means to seek after, and the word refers to something that is looked for or desired. Now, let me tell you first of all that the word is not a bad word. It's not a bad thing to seek something. In fact, we're commanded that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. But what you have to understand is in that verse where it says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, it's not the same Greek word. It's a different Greek word. And to really understand that, let's look there. Let's go to Matthew chapter six. Jesus says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You can't serve God and money. Therefore, verse twenty five, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for thine they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, thine they neither spin nor to nor nor toil. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. Now the word seek, right there that we just read, is the same word, epizomei, that we read in Luke a moment ago. For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Now, that word seek, just to give you a little broader definition, is this to inquire for, to seek for, to seek diligently, and up to that point I'd say that's good. But then let's keep watching, a fuller understanding of the word. To seek in this fashion, Ebiziteo, is to wish for or to crave, to demand or clamor for. You see, it gives a little bit different slant when you look at it that way, doesn't it? It's to seek in such a way as you're wishing for something. You have a general desire for that. You might even seek it diligently and you might even clamor for it and say, hey, give me some of that. I want that, right? But is there any labor or work that's really going into that at that point? Not really. But verse 33, seek first the kingdom of God. Now that is a different, though related, word. That word is zeteo. And it means that we are to seek the kingdom of God in a way that is different from the way in which the world seeks those things that it desires to bless itself with. That word zateo means to seek in order to find. To seek in order to find. To seek in order to find a thing, or to seek in order to find out something, by thinking, by meditating, by reasoning, to actually inquire into it, to seek after, to seek for, to aim at, or to strive after. So do you see the difference? There is a huge difference between seeking for something in a way that is just saying, I'm wishing for this, versus seeking something in a way that says, I am striving to discover this or to understand this or to grasp this. Big difference. And so when he says, strive to enter back in chapter 13 of Luke through the narrow gate, for many I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. They like to be associated with the things of God. Maybe they go to Christian concerts, maybe they wear Christian t-shirts, maybe they attend religious services on a regular basis. Maybe they even call themselves by the name of Christian. But it is a general association that they have with the things of Christ, rather than a true relationship with him. They're tares among wheat. For 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. I do not know where you are from. Where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. You see, he identifies who they are. They're 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. He's saying, Listen, you've asked me, will there be many that are saved? And I'm telling you something, there are many who think that they are saved who are not. Because their trust and their faith and their hope is not in the finished work of Jesus Christ upon the cross, but is on some distorted idea of their own self-righteousness, is related in some way to their own good works or their good deeds or their keeping of the law by which no man can be saved. And Jesus says, look, salvation is a limited time offer. There's going to come a point in time where the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door. And when that door is shut, no man can enter it. We stand in the day of the open door. And we have both the opportunity, the privilege, and the responsibility to draw people in with us. I read this verse and I can't help but think of the days of Noah, when Noah was there for over a hundred years building the ark, preaching repentance to the people that heard him, and yet none would hear it. And then on that day when the rains began, as he entered into the ark, and God shut the door. And the rains began to fall, and the people that were there realized their error and said, We were wrong. Judgment is coming. Now the scripture doesn't tell us, but I cannot imagine that there was not a pounding on that door and scream saying, Noah, let us in. We're sorry, you were right, let us in. But Noah did not have the ability to open that door for them. Because it was a door that Noah didn't close. God had closed the door. And when that time comes, when the door of salvation closes, no matter how much we might want to see it opened, it will not be. Today is the day of salvation. Now, this man had been told by Jesus that if he would be saved, he should strive to enter the narrow gate. Well, if we're going to strive to enter something, we ought to know what that something is. In Matthew 7, 13 and 14, we learn a little more about this narrow gate. We find that there are two paths that we can choose. And these paths have very, very different destinations. Matthew 7, 13 and 14 says this enter by the narrow gate. For wide 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 is the way which leads to life. And there are few who find it. So when people say to you, hey, why don't you become a Christian? Because when I became a Christian, everything in my life turned around for the better. Everything just went wonderful. All my problems were solved, man. My marriage was great. My wife, she just transformed overnight into the most lovely person. And I never have any problems with my temper anymore. I just, hey, walk on by. I'm good. And you know, every time I put$10 in the offering plate, a hundred more shows up in my wallet. Praise God. Just bam, like that. Isn't that awesome? And you know what? Hey, I'm never sick. I'm never sick. I don't suffer at all. Everything's great for me. Life is peachy. That is not a difficult way. Man, if it were like that, that'd be easy, wouldn't it? Man, everybody'd be lining up to become Christians. And if you look at some of the televangelists, you'd think everybody is. And yet when tribulation comes, when trials come, when difficulties come, when situations come into the lives of these people, and they say, hey, this isn't what I signed up for. What happens to their walk? You see, Jesus said that narrow is the gate and difficult is the way. I didn't say it. Argue with him if you don't like it. Narrow is the gate.

Do you ever feel like the circumstances you're going through are more than you can bear? That God is in some way punishing you? Well, consider the words of Paul, and we know that all things work together for the good. To those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So we learn from this verse that all things, not some, but all things work together if we love God and are called according to his purpose. Just something to think about from your friends here at Heather Word. Heed the Word is the daily Bible-teaching ministry of Ken Davis, Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel in Burleson, Texas. There's a great deal more that Pastor Ken has to share with us from the Gospel of Luke, so please join us again. Maybe you'd like to add today's message to your study library. Our online media is always available and free of charge. CD copies are also available upon request for free, but supplies are limited to order today. To order a CD, simply log on to HeedTheWord.org and select the order a message option. There you'll find a convenient order form to fill out. The only information you need to remember is today's day. This ensures we get you the right teaching. So log on to HeedTheWord.org and place your order today. Or better yet, join us this Sunday for worship at 10.30 a.m. Directions are available on our website. That's heatheword.org. Well, we've run out of time today, but tune in next time as Pastor Ken will continue teaching verse by verse through the Gospel of Luke. That's next time on Heatheword.