WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED?
Lk. 18:26
How easy is it to get something for nothing … or at least, something for very
little? I would suggest it is not easy at all. Many of the possessions we own
have been at a significant cost. Jesus asked, Mt. 16:26 what is a man profited, if
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Another passage that relates to this subject is Lk. 13:22, And he [Jesus] went
through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Then said one
unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, 24 Strive to enter in at the
strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 25 When 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: 26 Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy
presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not
whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 28 There 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. 29 And 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. 30
And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.
… Lord, are there few that be saved? … What a question! It arose out of the
disciples noticing the small numbers of people who actually came to trust in
Christ for salvation … Lord, are there few that be saved? … Put another way, Lk.
18:26 Who then can be saved? It is obvious that, - in this third and final year of
Christ’s public ministry, - the vast majority of the people with whom He came
into contact, - were not being saved … There were only a few, relatively
speaking, who turned to Him in saving faith. Disappointment was setting in
among His disciples who had been expecting more success than they were
seeing. Indeed, it seemed if anything substantial was to be achieved, it needed
to be soon!
He performed miracles, exorcised demons, attracted large crowds … but the
number of people who were actually believing in Him were few. There wasn’t
anything remotely of the glory the people had associated with a Messiahfigure. There wasn’t any of the regal splendour they expected. The nation had
not turned in repentance to God. … His Name was called Jesus for He would
save His people from their sins (Mt. 1:21), but it wasn’t happening! He had
grown up before them as a tender plant in Nazareth, He had no particular
outstanding form or comeliness, and there was no overwhelming inducement
about Him that made the people desire the Gospel He presented.
2
His message was salvation, but there were comparably few coming forward
to receive it. It wasn’t that they didn’t want salvation, the kingdom, and
Heaven … they simply didn’t see the need when Jesus offered it.
Why doesn’t God save sinners every time the Gospel is preached? Since it is
His will that none should perish (II Peter 3:9), why does it seem very few are
being saved these days? … And what about this verse that seems to say some
people who want to be saved aren’t able to be saved, Lk. 18:26 Strive to enter in
at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able?!
Strive … That is not the way the Gospel is often presented though. Usually, if
you say you want to be saved you would be surrounded by folk eager to get
you to repeat a prayer … and ‘hey presto’, you’re saved … Then, they send
you off with the peace of mind that if anything happens to you, you have
‘covered’ yourself to gain entrance into Heaven.
One thing, - above all others, though, - we must get right is the application of
the Gospel for if it is not a Gospel that takes us to Heaven, it is a ‘gospel’ that
will condemn us to and abandon us in Hell. … And so, someone asked Jesus,
Lord, are there few that be saved? ... Well, of course, that is a question God only
knows the answer to … He knows all who will be saved … and He is not
merely counting them in the hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands or
millions for Rev. 7:9 tells us the number of the redeemed is a great multitude,
which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.
There is not a description in human terms that can quantify the elect of God,
for in all things He will have the pre-eminence (Col. 1:18). … So, then, what
Jesus instructed the enquirer to be sure of was that he would be saved.
And to get there, - to get to Heaven, - He emphasised you must strive! The use
of such a word rejects a type of gospel that would have you amble up to Christ
with a half-hearted attitude … “I’ll get there whenever …! I’ll be saved when
it suits.” But, that’s not what strive means! It is the word avgwni,zomai, and it is
where our English word ‘agonise’ comes from. In the Greek language it was
the word used for the athlete who entered a contest to strenuously compete for
the prize. Once he started he would not stop until he achieved his purpose and
‘crossed the line’. He would contend with the adversaries around him. He
would carefully watch for obstacles in the way before him. No matter how
exhausted, he kept going. There was no rest until he finished and completed
the race. He would struggle, when necessary, to achieve his goal …
3
That is the word Jesus used to describe how a person would be saved. There
is nothing easy about becoming a Christian.
We have got to be careful also, though, for He was not saying you can become
a Christian through your own efforts. He wasn’t saying you could work your
way into Heaven for that would be to undermine what He would do on the
cross … when He took upon Himself the sinner’s punishment. Salvation is not
by our works … by our own personal achievement.
Actually, there are many people who want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by
their own achievement, but Jesus made it clear they are not going to be able.
… Becoming a Christian is the most unnatural action anyone can take. It is
totally against our nature. Our nature is focussed upon us … but to become a
Christian all the focus is on Jesus, and that is contrary to how our mind works!
Nevertheless, He purposely emphasised the use of this word ‘strive’, Strive to
enter in at the strait gate. … If you don’t strive you’ll not enter! And it is
important to grasp that fact because when you are talking about being saved
you need to understand what you need to be saved from.
You see, it is sin that has not been dealt with by Christ on the cross that keeps
the sinner out of Heaven … And when Jesus says you must strive, He knows
the fullest possible meaning of the word because He Himself stedfastly set his
face to go to Jerusalem … He strived towards the cross, with all its shame and
pain, in order to die for you. He died for you in order to deal with your sin.
And when He said, Strive to enter in at the strait gate, He means for the person to
be saved to agonise over their sin and recognise their need of the Saviour …
And if they fail to recognise how far they are away from Christ, and how
much they need Him, they will have no compulsion to come to Him and be
saved … Their sin will blind them from acknowledging their need to be free of
it … their sin will hinder them going to the Saviour. …
We have all been born in sin, and all our life we have been committing sin,
and it has a greater hold on us than we can appreciate for it will fight to keep
you! It will throw everything at you in order to hold on to you! … Your
friends, your lifestyle outside of Christ, your ambitions that centre around you
… you will not be freed from them unless you earnestly strive. It will be hard,
it will be difficult … but that is the way Jesus said, - by using this word, - it
has to be, in order to come to Him.
4
There is no easy way to believe in Christ. There is no cheap grace or shallow
repentance. Your salvation was purchased at the harrowing price of the
shedding of the blood of the Saviour Who strived all the way from leaving
Heaven until He died on the cross of Calvary for your sin, the Son of God, who
loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20). … This is eternal salvation we are
talking about, and no wonder it has such a high price upon it … It is not
something that doesn’t matter … It is of greater importance than any of us
could imagine! Those of us who are saved know we are saved and we are
going to Heaven, and we also know we are saved from Hell but no matter how
much we try to understand what we have been saved from, we could never
come to any sufficient comprehension of how terrible Hell is, and what Jesus
suffered that we should not go there.
You see, Jesus set it out plainly, Strive to enter in at the strait gate … Sadly,
though, many do strive … to a degree, and they arrive at the gate, only to find
they are barred from entering. They are kept out, and they are not allowed in!
… What’s wrong? They have lived a life they reckoned was good enough.
They had joined a church. They were involved in its activities … but when
they come to the gate, they will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. … How is
that? It is because they were striving in their own strength, and according to
their own form of religion which was merely a form of godliness (II Tim. 3:5).
They consciously would not recognise that to be saved they needed to hand
control of their life over to Christ … and they weren’t prepared to do that.
They sang the hymns of salvation in their church … and they read the Gospel
in the Bible but they would not accept it. They were ‘faced’ with it, but
refused it. Consequently, their own directions would lead them astray … They
would arrive at the gate, but they had taken the wrong road to get there!
How many people have come into church wanting to be a Christian, but when
they heard what it entailed they went away not accepting Christ! … Salvation
is on God’s terms, not ours … That is the reality!
Then you hear about those same people going somewhere else where they
would be accepted as being a Christian … So are we saying the only kind of
Christian is a Baptist Christian? No, we are certainly not saying that because
being a Baptist does not make you a Christian. But neither does belonging to
any other church or religious affiliation … Singing in the church choir,
playing the church organ, lifting the church collection, or standing in a pulpit
won’t make you into a Christian. …
5
No matter who you are or where you come from, the only way to become a
Christian is to strive and not to be put off until you are brought to Christ by the
power of the Holy Spirit and earnestly led to repent of your sins, and seek the
Saviour’s forgiveness through the blood He shed on Calvary.
It’s not easy because none of us wants to think of ourselves as being
particularly unworthy of God’s grace. … “I’m a fairly good person; God
wouldn’t keep me out of Heaven!” We naturally want to think there is
something good about us but as far as the judgment of God is concerned …
none of us deserves to be saved … Two men went to the temple. One went
believing he was right with God for his religion made him good enough. The
other man went with the fear God would not be interested in him.
Nevertheless, he strived, and with every ounce of repentance and faith he
could muster, he cried out, God, be merciful to me a sinner (Lk. 18:13) … Under
the leading of the Holy Spirit, he strived at the gate, and was given entrance
for Jesus said about him, v.14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
Here again is the warning, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto
you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
From the perspective of God … While you must strive, here is what He says
about how you must strive, Is. 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters … 6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is
near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let
him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he
will abundantly pardon. … Salvation is open to all! When you call upon Him He
will hear. He will answer you and open the door and welcome you in. …
There is no one who will stand before the judgment throne and accuse God of
not having been given the opportunity to believe, Rom. 1:20 for the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without
excuse. The most primitive peoples in the jungles have no excuse, neither is
there a single person in Kirkcaldy that has an excuse for not being saved.
But Lord, are there few that be saved? … Lord, is there just us, and maybe a few
others dotted throughout the land? Is that all there is?! … But do you see how
Jesus responded? He turned the conversation round to the person asking the
question, [You] strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you … Don’t
be looking at others, pay attention to yourself! Be sure of your own salvation.
6
Strive to enter in at the strait [narrow] gate … The door is very narrow, in fact, it
is so narrow, it is hard to get through. … If you have a heavy load on your
back, you have to set it down and leave it behind. You want to be saved, Jesus
says to you, Lk. 9:23 If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but
whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it … Mt. 11:29 Take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me.
That is what you must do to be saved … You see, it is not easy but it is what
God shows you you must do. Everything in you reacts against the Gospel. Of
yourself, you don’t want to repent and ask for God’s forgiveness, - you don’t
want to lower yourself to such shame and humility. But, that’s what you have
to do before Christ in order for Him to receive you and save you. He only
receives those who come before Him in true repentance and sorrow for their
sins … For example, look at how Bartimaeus came, and Mary Magdalene, and
Zacchaeus … that was how they came.
But also look at others who came, for example, the rich young man … He
came not as a repentant sinner, but as someone who believed himself to be
righteous … Look at that Pharisee who went into the temple and told God how
good he was … Look at those who said they would follow him, but that they
had to go first and look after other issues … They showed no repentance and
no sorrow. … Look at those people who came to Jesus to be healed … They
went away having their bodies renewed, but their souls remained untouched
by His grace.
You want to be saved? Then, there are some things that have to be done first
… and they must be done in your heart. In Is. 40 we read, v.3 the voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the
desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and
hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places
plain … What an impossible work has to take place before you can be saved,
and it is beyond the ability of any of us for it is a work of God’s grace that
prepares the heart to believe. … The valley is the low place that needs to be
made high, and the crooked pathways need to be made straight, and the rough
roads need to be smoothed … That’s a work that can only be achieved by the
Holy Spirit in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls. … It is He, the
Holy Spirit, who brings the repentant sinner through to the Saviour. … It is not
an easy ‘gospel’ or a popular preacher that does it. …
7
No, the Lord comes to the heart that has been prepared by the Spirit through
repentance to receive the Good News of the Gospel for that is the salvation
which is of the Lord.
So, you see how hard it is to be saved. Jesus did not make it easy because
entrance into Heaven requires absolute sinlessness for no sin is allowed there
… and that sin of the sinner had to be taken and dealt with decisively and
forever on the cross of Calvary. It wasn’t easy on the Saviour either for in
order to have His people in Heaven, He took all the sins of every sinner He
would save upon His own body on the tree.
So, you see, it is not of the sinner, - left to him or herself, - to be saved. That’s
why they will try every other way but Christ. If the Holy Spirit had not come
to you and worked in your heart, you would have tried everything else too. …
There are plenty of ‘gospels’, but there is only one that saves, and it is the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, for His answer alone is the only one that matters when
the question is asked, Who then can be saved? He replied, Strive to enter in at the
strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
You have loved ones who are not saved, and you are praying for them. Keep
on praying, for the means by which the Lord saved you is the same means by
which you are praying to Him to save them. He worked a miracle in your life
… He can do that same miracle for them too.
Who then can be saved? … Those who strive, - not under their own power, but
under the power of the Holy Spirit, - to enter in at the strait gate, through
trusting in Christ as Saviour and owning Him as Lord … May we indeed know
in Whom we have believed, that we are persuaded we are trusting in the only
One Who is keeping all that we have committed unto Him against that day …
and when we stand there, - before Him, - we shall not be standing in our own
righteousness, but in His perfect righteousness alone, “To God be the glory
great things He hath done”. Amen.