Strive to Enter - Part 2

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. Mike Abendroth here, solo, no Tuesday guy, no Austin. What should we call Austin? Wednesday guy? You can write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. Don't forget, we have a YouTube channel, No Compromise Radio.

After we lost our last channel, we're starting from scratch, thanks to Mario. Just got done filming a five-part series or six-part series on how to teach the Bible. It should be on American Gospel sometime coming up later this year.

My friend Brandon Kimber, and so I think that's kind of what's new, working on a couple projects back in Massachusetts. My daughter's getting married soon. Gracie is getting married to Dawson. I think you listened to Dawson not that long ago here on the podcast.

A few reruns this summer, but now we're up and at them, back at it. Today, part two, strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. The words of Jesus from Luke 13, 24.

The Narrow Gate and the Warning of False Profession

Similar to Matthew chapter 7. Matter of fact, I might as well just read that now. I made allusions to Steve Meister's message that got him in trouble. I told him not to do it. Just kidding. Matthew 7, 13, enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

If you skip down to verse 21 of Matthew 7, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

Same quote that's in Luke 13 section from Matthew, excuse me, Psalm 6. Well, Mike Abendroth today striving. What does this mean? Are there preparations for salvation? Are there preconditions? What do we do?

Is this a way to say repent? Is this a way to say believe? What is Jesus actually saying? Well, before I do that and get into part two, number one, you should probably listen to part one that was played yesterday.

But also, I want to just make a brief comment about what's in the news, and as you know, last week the G3 story broke. G3 seems to me to…I don't know what the root of all this is. Of course, Josh Bice was asked to step down after the shenanigans there.

I mean, can you imagine? Five, six, eight thousand people. Oh, there goes somebody just running, jogging by right now. Coming to a conference, a lot of stuff going on. Then that kind of gets shut down, and then there's a reboot of G3.

What's the name of the church? Praise Mills or something like that? Prayers Mills? I don't know. I don't understand the name. Bethlehem Bible Church? Don't understand that name either. But I then know that they…I think Scott Antiole and others still would do some smaller conferences.

I think maybe that's coming up this fall. Todd Friel, I think, is one of the speakers and others. And then they are joining with Puritan Reform Seminary slash Joel Beakey, Reformation Heritage for conference stuff.

So, it's still kind of percolating under the surface, and there's some ministry there. There are some books. Josh Banks, my friend, published a book with G3. I wrote the foreword after pulling some teeth.

Not with Josh. There's a backstory to that. We'll talk about that story as time goes on. Anyway, now the latest is, supposedly, there are some people from the G3 orbit that sent a bunch of documents out anonymously to different past speakers of G3 and others trying to defame Tom Buck.

The G3 Controversy and Accountability in Christian Ministry

Tom Buck and I are…I'd say we're friendly. I don't know if we're…I mean, I'd say, yeah, he's a friend. We don't talk that much just once in a while. He and I did some shows about living out and Sam Albury and all that kind of stuff years ago.

I still think they've stood the test of time. I think Albury is now out of ministry as of a few months ago with another, I don't know, for lack of a better word, scandal or exposure. But anyway, the G3 thing has happened, and now there's all kinds of stuff going back and forth.

Was it right? Was it wrong? Driving or flying to Texas and then putting the wrong return address on the thing, so it's postmarked there. First Baptist Lyndale, all this other stuff. How much did Tom Buck actually plagiarize?

Is it small plagiarism? Askel jumps in. Phil Johnson jumps in. And so I just wanted to make a couple comments. This is not my really jumping in, but it's just on my mind because it's everywhere on Twitter.

In one sense, the jury's still out, because I want to know what G3, Prayers Mills—I don't even know if that's a name—the church there that houses G3, and the elders there, Scott Anial, I want to know what they say.

And so I haven't really said too much about it because the world can live without Mike Evendroth's opinion on everything. But I just want to hear from them. I don't know why they haven't said anything.

I do believe that two Sunday nights ago, when this actually played as of two Sunday nights ago, they said something at a members meeting after the service on Sunday night, something close to that, about protestee is going to break something and protestee is bad and it's a gossip mag, rag, or whatever.

But I'd like to know now what they would say, because then that will help frame things. Yeah, okay, there's two sides to every story, but how they're going to get out of this, I don't know. Probably they're going to have to fall on the sword.

I wouldn't be surprised if elders resigned. I wouldn't be surprised if G3 closes. I know people are saying I want out of G3, take my stuff off their website. And so there's this kind of rally and cry, and cry for all this.

The Local Church Over Celebrity Conferences

So I'd like to know what they're going to say before I make my final comments. But for now, you ought to be very, very thankful that the Lord has given you, dear Christian, a local church with local pastors who want to preach the Word of God, and this whole celebrity machine, mega-conference, mega-celebrities, all this other stuff.

It just seemed like the Lord has just pushed that to the side, and we're back to the local church. And of course, local churches can have conferences. I think of my brother's conference, the Packham Conference in October, where you have a conference that's for your church and then anybody else that wants to come.

It's not for fame. It's not for clicks or anything like that. One of the things I appreciate about my brother is he will tell the speakers, make sure you're out talking to the people and meeting them.

If the people want to have questions, answer them. If they want to have pictures, take them. If they want to have autographs, just be a pastor. Be kind. We're not like we sit in the green room. I mean, there is a little green room at the Packham, because if you want to have a snack or you want to have a place to sit, or if you want to, I don't know, just sit down and chat, I don't know.

I think my favorite story in the green room at the Packham was the green room is an office, is what it is. And Fesco was sitting there, J .V. was sitting there, and it was my turn to preach. He should have been in the front row, but he was still in the green room, and he said, Mike, give them heaven.

Okay, it's nine minutes in, and I'm just rambling about G3. What did I say of substance? I don't think much, except I still want to hear from them before I go on an all-out, this place is rotten to the core G3.

I think Gabe, I'm trying to remember, WWT or something, what, I don't know his handle. I think he did a side-by-side or something on Tom's quoting commentaries without attribution saying that Tom did this and Tom did that.

I'll I'm not saying too much, except if everything is true, the allegations are true, and the anonymous letters, and is that mail fraud? I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. And all this other stuff, it's like something is really, really bad.

And I'm not saying Josh Bice deserved to stay in ministry, but then how people treat, what they do, what G3 stands for. Back to the passage. So, my name is Mike Abendroth. Luke 13, Strive to Enter. And we talked a little bit last time about how the Merrill Controversy, we get some truth regarding that.

Repentance as the Fruit of Faith

You don't have to forsake sin in order to come to Christ. You just believe, you just trust, you just receive, you just rest. Of course, as a fruit of faith, you will have repentance. And Jesus, in Luke chapter 13, in the chapter on repentance, is saying you need to repent.

And this is a different way to say it. That's all. This is just a different way to say repent. Strive to enter through the narrow door. We looked last show at the first 12 chapters of Luke, and we could look at Romans as well, and Galatians, and we realize that you're saved by grace alone through faith alone.

And He's not now saying, oh, by the way, you have to have works to get into heaven, you have to stop sinning in order to get to heaven, you have to have religious things happen to get into heaven. He's not saying that at all.

He's saying to this Jewish person that asks a question, or just a few being saved, there's a bigger question, and that bigger question is, have you repented? Same thing happened when, hey, Galen's mixed the blood, a Pilate, what do you think about all that?

How do you read that, Jesus? Unless you repent, you'll likewise perish. And it's fascinating, in Luke chapter 13, this guy said, are a few being saved? And then Jesus said, to them strive to enter. So this guy asks the question, and he's either kind of the ringleader, or he's most likely Jewish, of course, and hey, we Jews, we're going to make it in, Gentiles aren't.

Hey, we're the ones, you know, with all the Bible, and promises, and covenants, and commonwealth, and all this stuff. And then Jesus says, to them. And so that's why it's broad for all of us that most important question, theologically, we could ever ask is, am I saved?

Have I repented? Have I believed? Is this the equivalent of striving to repentance? Yes, strive to enter. It's just, he's talking about the urgency. And, you know, the urgency of this is because we'll all die one day.

The Urgency of Salvation Before the Door Closes

We don't know when we're going to die. It's pressing. There are many things in this world that push urgency. Limited time offer. Decide now. Only three left. Sale ends tonight. Offer expires in ten minutes.

Last chance. Act now or you'll lose the opportunity. Don't miss the deal. We see this all the time in marketing. Final hours. Sale extended. Ends tonight. But here, this urgency is real. This urgency is real.

Verse 25 of Luke 13, when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us, he will answer you, I do not know where you have come from.

There's a limitation of time, right? So you have all the time while you're alive, but you don't know how long you're going to be alive, right? People fall over at 18, at 28, at 98. People die all the time.

Heart attack, aneurysms, car accidents, right? Choking on food. There's all kinds of ways to die. I think Thomas Watson, the Puritan writer, said, as many pores as you have in your skin are the different ways there are to die, right?

You stay at home because you don't want to go outside. There might be a lion, but the wall falls in on you, as the Proverbs allude to. So we have to be careful. We have time while we're alive, but we don't know.

So today's the day of salvation, right? You would hear that in Acts 4, I believe, with Peter. We need to know that you can't believe after you die. There's no purgatory, so that's why you have to believe now.

Don't procrastinate. Psalm 32, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time where you may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. Urgency. Seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call upon him while he is near, Isaiah 55. At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation, 2 Corinthians 6.

Striving, Prayer, and the False Assurance of Religious Works

Two. This is serious, this is urgent, and so the appeal, it's a command. Strive, agonize. Spurgeon said, they will be very respectful, they will call him Lord, they will be very earnest, they will pray, Lord, Lord.

They will be very simple and very honest in their request, open to us. They will be very personal, open unto us. Such will the prayers of the ungodly be when they wake up to the fact that they are shut out of heaven.

So you don't want that, do you? Most of you, probably, who listen to this show are believers, so keep believing. And if you're listening today and you're not a believer, you don't want the door shut on you, you don't want the door slammed on your face, do you?

Lord. I mean, these people, they recognize that he is sovereign, but they don't personally know him. I mean, you can recognize God as Lord, God as God. Demons believe in tremble. I mean, when you think about the idea of Reformation, recovering the doctrine of assurance, and we want to make sure that we give Christians assurance, and that's why I regularly say when I preach, dear Christian, you're not condemned.

Dear Christian, Jesus loves you. Dear Christian, you've been bought with a price, and you're safe and secure. Dear Christian, God's never going to leave you nor forsake you. I do that because I want Christians to know that, and I want, if there's an unbeliever sitting there, to realize those promises aren't for them.

They need to be reconciled to God. They need to repent. So is there ever a time to say fornicators and adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Yes. First Corinthians chapter 6. Is there ever a time to say there's a faith that doesn't save?

Yes. James chapter 2. Demons believe in tremble. Is there ever a time to say, you know, people believed in Jesus, but he didn't believe in them? Yes. The Gospel of John records that. There's times. But on the Lord's day, with Christians getting together, ordinary means, I don't tend to always try to say, you think you're a Christian, we'll find out if you are or not, as the main theme.

It is a truth. Jesus here is saying to this person, make sure you've repented. Strive. It's urgent. Because there are going to be people who say they're Christians and they're not. Obviously Jesus did that.

Obviously it's not wrong to do that. Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say? He said that earlier in Luke chapter 6. Professions don't save people. Words don't save people. Lip service doesn't save people.

Lord, open up for us. Truly, I'll say to you, I don't know you. Depart from me. So we want to strive to enter, and if you want to theologically talk about it, you need to repent. And that repentance comes from faith.

It's the fruit of faith. You're saved by grace, always. You're saved by faith alone, always. Sola fides, true. Justification by faith alone. Nothing has changed. The language of Jesus here, in chapter 13, the repentance chapter.

Repent or perish, verse 3. Repent or perish, verse 5. Here's a fig tree that shows Israel has not given any fruit of repentance. Here's a guy who sees Jesus heal a lady who's been sick for 18 years with a demonic something or other spirit, and the guy's like, I'm unrepentant still.

I will not recognize Jesus and his works. Jesus says, hey, in the middle of all these unrepentant people, you disciples should have joy and you should have encouragement, because like a mustard seed, like leaven, starts off small, but it's growing.

In other words, the gates of death are not going to stop Jesus' building of his Church. He was sent by the Father in eternity past, given that charge in the covenant of redemption, and in time he fulfilled it.

And now what Jesus did in time is being applied to all those who would ever believe that is the elect by the Holy Spirit. So, strive. There's a narrow gate and there's a broad gate, and the way you get into the narrow gate is not by works.

It's not by saying, I have to get rid of all my sin and Satan, and it's like the turnstile, and you can't bring through different luggage in there. No, no. Believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

Spurgeon said, strive to enter the narrow gate. Jesus himself is the only gate or the door by which we can find admission. And the way to enter in through Jesus is not by working, but by believing. Then, as to the strife we are urged to carry on, it is an earnest endeavor to steer clear of all the rocks and shoals and quicksands of popular fallacies and deceitful traditions, and to sail into the deep waters with his covenant for our chart and his word for our compass, in simple obedience to his statutes, trusting to him as our pilot, whose voice always we hear, though his face we cannot see.

A long sentence, but a great sentence. Strain every nerve the NET Bible talks about for striving. In other words, you just don't get in by doing nothing. You don't get in by death. You know, it's not salvation by death, it's not salvation by skipping, it's not salvation by coasting, it's not in neutral.

There's a direction. And it's urgent. And there is a false faith. So you want to believe. You want not to procrastinate. Today is the day. I read a little poem, Jesus sinners doth receive. O may all the sane ponder who in sins delusions live, and from God in heaven wander, here is hope for all who grieve.

Jesus sinners doth receive. Come ye sinners, one and all, come accept his invitation, come obey his gracious call, come and take his free salvation. Firmly in these words believe, Jesus sinners doth receive.

Jesus as the Door and the Only Way of Salvation

Unless you believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins, John 8. John 10, I am the door, if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved. By the way, this is very interesting. All this door talk, door, door, door, door, door, when you read chapter 13, some say in between Luke 13 .21 and Luke 13 .22, in time, in a harmony of the gospels, it would be John 9 and 10, the man born blind, and then Jesus the door, Jesus the door in John 10.

Now that's pretty cool. I wonder if that's true. There's one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony born at the proper time.

Yes, it's a narrow gate. It's a narrow way. And the only way through that is faith. It's by faith. We're not redoing something now. We're not just abandoning sola fide. Jesus says, strive to enter. And the way you strive to enter, Luke 1 -12, Romans 3 -4 -5, Galatians 1 -2 -3, is by believing.

Verse 26, then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. You know, we're by you, we're with you. We didn't believe you were the Messiah, but we saw what you did.

We heard your messages. Obviously, that doesn't save. You personally need to believe. You need to personally trust in the person and promises of God. The Son says, look to me and live. The Son says, whoever believes in me shall not perish.

The Son says, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have life everlasting. You don't want to put your confidence elsewhere. The point is not anything except make sure you're trusting in Jesus.

That means you're trusting in anything else. Being good, being better, bell curve, more good than bad, circumcision, baptism, Church membership, hosting a home group. No, no. Believing. Jesus was around Israel teaching, and just because he was around Israel, hey, Jesus came to my town and he taught a sermon.

That's not saving. Actually, the message that Jesus taught was believe on him. That's the message that Jesus taught. Revelation 20, and I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne. The books were open, and another book was open, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged by the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And if anyone's name is not found written in the book of life, he was thrown in the lake of fire. Eternal destiny, soon return of Jesus.

Final Judgment and the Necessity of Present Faith

It's appointed for man once to die, and then the judgment. Yeah, but I want to sow my wild oats, and I'm young, and there's plenty of time to believe, and I'm 16 now, and sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and then I'll repent later.

And you see the urgency here. Strive to enter. The door's going to be shut one day, and you're going to say, hey, what about me? We personally knew, you know, about you, but you didn't know me. I do not know where you're from.

Depart from me, all you evildoers. And then he talks about weeping, and gnashing of teeth, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. The question is, believe. Have you believed? Have you repented? The penalty is there for rejecting this offer of grace, of love.

There's judgment. People that haven't repented, Jesus talks about judgment for them in verses 27 and 28. Weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves, emphatically, are cast out.

Why cast out? Because they didn't do enough works? No, works are fruits and evidences of saving faith. Bad works are fruits and evidences of non-saving faith. You're cast out because you didn't believe.

All of the Bible, sola fide. Jesus is not undoing that with a verse here in Matthew 7, undoing it with a verse there. If you don't have faith, you don't have repentance. If you don't have repentance, you don't have faith.

And if you don't have faith and repentance, you don't have Jesus. Have you repented? Have you trusted? Have you believed the gospel? Have you put your faith in the risen Savior, the sin-bearing Savior?

Imputed Righteousness and Christ’s Perfect Obedience

Have you prayed with Calvin, Almighty God, you set before our eyes the many evils by which you, we have provoked your anger against us, and yet you gave us hope of pardon if we repent. Grant us a teachable spirit that, with becoming humility, we may pay attention to your warnings, and also not to despair of the mercy that you offer us.

But seek it through your Son, as he has once for all made peace for us with you by shedding his blood. So cleanse us by your Holy Spirit from all sin, until at last we stand spotless before you in the day when Christ shall appear for all his salvation, and of all his people.

Judged by your works? How will that go? Any work tainted by sin, which all works are tainted by sins, aren't going to be adequate enough. The only works not tainted by sins are Jesus's works, and so Jesus merited righteousness on our behalf by being born of a woman, born under a law, that he might redeem those who are under the law.

And we get credit for his law-keeping by faith, by the doctrine of imputation. Lord, Lord, open up, hey! He's going to say, depart. Who wants to hear those words? A place of weeping, gnashing of teeth.

Sad. Especially when you think about this Jew, probably, ask him the question. And they just think they're in by, as my dad would say, osmosis. Thrown. Weeping, gnashing of teeth. Hendrickson said the weeping is that of inconsolable, never-ending wretchedness, and utter everlasting hopelessness.

The accompanying, grinding, or gnashing of teeth is that of a frenzied anger, unmitigated rage. So, dear listener, are you believing in the Lord Jesus Christ? I think you are. Keep believing. Mike Abenroth, No Compromise Radio.