Let us turn to Hebrews 11. This is the chapter of faith. “Faith” is a synonym here for Christ. When we are reading through this chapter and it says, “By faith Enoch was translated” or “By faith Noah, being warned of God… prepared an ark,” or whenever we are reading the word “faith,” this is really referring to Jesus.
This is also how this is to be understood in a few places in the Gospel accounts after Christ would heal someone and then make the statement, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” It was not the individual’s faith; it was the faith of Christ that did this. A good way of understanding a statement where it mentions “Thy faith hath made thee whole” is to substitute the word “God.” You can substitute, “Thy [God] hath made thee whole”; then there is no problem in understanding what is being said.
Since God uses the word “faith,” which could apply to Christ or to the individual, this is where there is a little difficulty in the minds of some people in understanding what God is saying. However, if you make this substitution, then there is no trouble at all. Jesus is God. He is the One who did the work in making the individual whole. It had nothing really to do with the person’s faith, except that Christ is indicating that He Himself was their faith.
So here in Hebrews 11, in this chapter that is dealing with faith, the faith who is Christ, it says in Hebrews 11:8:
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
I will stop reading here in Hebrews. This is the verse that we want to start with; then we will move on to other places in the Bible. But notice that it was all through the work of Christ, or the doing of Christ, that Abraham “was called.”
If we go back to Genesis 12, we will see the historical situation that this verse is referring to. Beginning in verse 1, we read in Genesis 12:1-5:
Now JEHOVAH had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as JEHOVAH had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
So this is what Hebrews 11:8 is referring to. God came to Abram and revealed Himself to Abram. He became a child of God. The Lord saved him and, right away, it seems that the Lord gave him a command, “Go out of the land that you are in and go into the land of Canaan.” Hebrews 11:8 tells us that he did this through Christ, because he did this “by faith.”
Notice that God says in Hebrews 11:8:
…when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed…
So:
By faith Abraham…obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
The thing that I would really like to focus on today is how God commands things when, sometimes, we do not know much about it. We do not know what might result from it. We do not know, really, what God has in mind.
Later in Abraham’s life, God would command him, this same man, to take his son Isaac, his only son, and to sacrifice him. Abraham was commanded to take his son Isaac up to Mount Moriah, and Abraham obediently did this. He took his son Isaac, the son of the promise, and he laid him down like a sacrifice and was ready to bring the knife down. He was convicted in his heart to obey God.
Was this a reasonable command of God? Did it make sense that God would command him to take the son of the promise—the one whom God Himself had told Abraham that he would be a blessing to all of the nations through—and to offer him up and sacrifice him?
No, this really did not make sense. Maybe Abraham had some understanding of the sacrificial nature of the Messiah, of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am sure that he did, but was he knowledgeable that God was using this act to represent or to paint a picture of the Father offering up the Son, the Lord Jesus? We do not know.
It is interesting that as God uses Abraham as an example of the faith of the believers, God commands him to do things that are not always reasonable. God does not give him all of the facts. He does not provide all of the information. When God first came to him, He told him, “Get out of the land where you are and get over here into this land.”
Well, what is the first thing that naturally pops into our minds when we are told to do something? We ask, “Why?” “Why?” “Why should I?”
We all know that we learned this as children. When parents tell children to do something, after they have gotten a little older, they quickly learn to ask, “Why?”
What a parent might sometimes say is, “Do not worry about why; just do it.” We get a little frustrated that they want us to tell them all about it. “Look, there is a reason why. We know why we want you to do this particular thing in our duty as a parent, as a mother or father, as we raise you.”
This is the same thing with God, the heavenly Father. When He makes commands of people, a lot of times, they want to know, “Why?” “Why should I do something? What is the purpose for it? Why should I come out of the church? What is the point of this? Why would God, after using the church for almost 2,000 years, suddenly end the church age and command me to get out of the church and to leave my congregation? Why?”
Of course, out of God’s mercy, He has given us the answer to why in this situation. He Himself left the church. The Holy Spirit came out of the midst. Satan was loosed and then he entered into the church.
So a question could be given right back to the person who asks these things. Why would you want to be there in this situation where Satan is the one who is receiving the worship and not God?
But God does many things and, sometimes, He does not tell us why. He does not give the reason.
Let me give you one of my favorite examples from the book of Isaiah. If you think that you have things tough or if I think that I have things tough, let us read something from Isaiah 20. We will read about a man of God who was given a very hard commandment and who obeyed. He obeyed and we do not find him asking, “Why?”
We read in Isaiah 20:1-4:
In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it; At the same time spake JEHOVAH by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And JEHOVAH said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
This is what God instructed Isaiah to do. Isaiah was a very faithful prophet. He was a major prophet who had an excellent relationship with God. If you remember, it was Isaiah whom Hezekiah had sent messengers to at a later time when Jerusalem was being encircled by the Assyrian army. God used Isaiah by moving him to write this wonderful book of 66 chapters. Isaiah was not just a nobody. He was someone whom God had a lot of dealings with.
So God commanded Isaiah to walk naked and barefoot for three years. What if God said this to you or to me? We would probably say, “Lord, how about three hours? May I go out in the woods somewhere where nobody will see me? How about just three days? Certainly, not three years!”
I saw a person who might have been out of his mind while I was in India once on a Family Radio tract trip. He walked by me naked and barefoot. He was just walking around. Sometimes, people who might have a mental illness are drawn towards the Gospel. He went back and forth in front of me a few times. It is a very odd thing to see someone walking around naked. They stand out; they really do. It is also a very shameful and embarrassing thing to be naked, to be caught for a moment in nakedness out in the open.
But God commanded His prophet, Isaiah, to do this for three years in order to give us these Scriptures in this tiny chapter of five verses. Why? Why did He do this? He did this to teach a spiritual lesson. We know that nakedness represents our sin and that God provides covering for this through Christ. But, actually, I do not know the deep, spiritual meaning of this passage, and I do not think that many people do.
Maybe Isaiah could have said, “Lord, if I am going to walk naked and barefoot for three years, You really need to make more of a point about this. You need to teach something very spectacular by this!”
We do not even know why God had Isaiah do this for three years. Could God not have made His point by having Isaiah do this for only three hours? Except for writing His Word where everything is extremely important and valuable, God also might have wanted to humble Isaiah. He evidently wanted to give Isaiah a command that any one of us could understand was extremely humbling for someone to do amongst a society. God did not tell Isaiah to hide himself. No, Isaiah was to go about his business for that period of time—without any clothing.
But this is the heart of the true believer, because God changes the heart. He takes out the heart of stone, the heart of rebelliousness that murmurs at the commandments of God, that speaks back.
Again, it is like when parents tell their children, “Do not talk back.” Would it not be wonderful if we told our children to do something and they did it immediately? Occasionally, they do if we instruct them correctly. When they do obey, is this not wonderful? Is it not wonderful when a child just trusts their parents and they do listen and obey and do what they are told? However, we know that a lot of times when children are going to their parents and asking why, it is because they do not like what they have been told to do. They would rather not do it, and so they delay or they do something else.
I guess the point is that God does not always tell us everything. He does not give us all of the reasons. When He does tell us things, sometimes to our ears and to our understanding, it does not seem rational or reasonable. It was not logical for Abraham to take his son Isaac and to sacrifice him. It was not logical for Abraham to pack up all of his belongings and his whole family to go into the land of Canaan and not be told where he was going. God just did not give him all of the information.
Let us go to Proverbs 3 and we will find God speaking to all of us. It says in Proverbs 3:5-6:
Trust in JEHOVAH with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
So God is speaking to all of us and He is saying, “Trust Me. Trust Me, even if it appears to be something that sounds illogical. Even if it appears to be something that you do not completely understand, if you have a choice between trusting yourself and your own thoughts and your own reasoning or trusting Me and My Word, trust Me. Lean upon Me and not upon your own thinking.”
As we were saying earlier, God’s thoughts are much higher than our thoughts. He knows all things. He knows “the end from the beginning,” and what do we know? Who knows exactly what is going to happen to them the rest of today? Who knows what is going to happen to them tomorrow or next week? What do we know about the future, if we just have our own minds and our own limitations to depend on? We do not know anything.
This is why people are so mixed up with or involved with soothsayers and with individuals who use crystal balls and who supposedly can read and see the future. This is why we see the use of horoscopes, “Here is what you can expect today if you are a Libra or whatever sign you are.” These are big businesses that are out there in the world. People want to know what the future holds.
However, they are all the wrong sources. The only One who does know and who knows things perfectly and completely is God Himself. He is the One who wrote these things in the Bible, because He knows “the end from the beginning,” and He is telling all of us the future when He tells us that May 21 of 2011 is Judgment Day.
This is in the future. This is not too far off now, and God is telling us that we can trust in this. He is telling us that we can lean on this. He is telling us that we can be sure of this. We are not to trust others who will try to dissuade us or persuade us not to believe this. They do not really believe the Bible. This is why they say these things. They do not really believe that God is the Author of the Bible and can be trusted.
God has given us a command that is a great privilege, but it is also a great test, as far as Judgment Day. He has revealed this. We now have an opportunity to see what kind of faith we have, because it is not right here. This is not something that we can see. This is in the future. Like I said, this is not too long in the future, but it is in the future.
The Bible tells us that it was “by faith” that Noah “being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark.” It was “by faith” that Abraham went into the land of Canaan “not knowing whither he went” or what the future held. As God dealt with people in the past, it was by the faith, the belief, and the trust that God had given them that people did many things that we read about in Hebrews 11.
In our day, God is now giving us an opportunity to see what you and I would have really done if we had been in the place of Noah. Would you have believed God if He had spoken to you and told you about the flood? Would you have constructed an ark? If you do not believe May 21, 2011, if you are not preparing for this, then you would not have believed God prior to the flood.
Would you have believed Lot or the angels, who were really God, who came to Sodom and Gomorrah and warned Lot, “Get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city”? If you do not believe May 21, 2011, you would have been like the sons-in-law who looked at Lot “as one that mocked” and you would have died a few hours later.
You see, God is giving us a real opportunity. Since the first century A.D., God finished writing the Bible and bringing additional revelation. God closed the Bible and has not brought additional revelation since, nor will He in the future. Normally, we have believed in doctrines and teachings of the Bible that were not too much of a test of faith.
If someone said, “I believe in election”; okay, but how is this really trying your faith to believe in election or to believe in the resurrection, to believe things? These took no action. It involved no affliction to believe these things. But now, God is giving us an opportunity to see if we are a child of God and if we will, by the faith of Christ, understand that Judgment Day is coming.
Let us go to the book of Numbers. Turn to Numbers 14. The historical situation here is that Israel has come out of the land of Egypt. They had been in the wilderness and have arrived in the land of Canaan. Spies have been sent to search out the land. Twelve spies were sent out and they found that it was a good land. They brought back fruit. It was evidently a good place to live, to live as a farmer. But some of the inhabitants of the land that they spied out turned out to be fierce. They were considered to be giants or very large people, and so the spies came back with concerns and fears that caused the congregation of Israel to murmur against God and to not follow Moses. Caleb and Joshua were two of the twelve spies and they wanted to go up immediately and take the land. Instead, the other spies and the people were fearful. God is now going to judge them, as we read in Numbers 14:32-35:
But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. I JEHOVAH have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
So God pronounced a judgment of one year for each day that they searched the land. They searched the land for forty days, and so they would now have to wander for forty years. They had done wrong and a judgment was speedily executed upon them. God pronounced this judgment right away.
Then in Numbers 14:39-42, we read:
And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which JEHOVAH hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of JEHOVAH? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for JEHOVAH is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.
God initially commanded them, “Go up and take the land of Canaan,” but they refused. They did not obey God and rejected this idea. If you read from the end of Numbers 13 into Numbers 14, you will see that they rejected it so thoroughly that they wanted to elect a captain and return to Egypt. All of the people sinned, but those spies who gave the “evil report” really contributed to the murmuring of the people. God then judged them, “Now you must wander in the wilderness.”
Upon hearing this, they immediately changed and said, “Oh, no! We will go up. We will go fight them.” This was exactly what God had wanted them to do earlier. Now, actually, they are saying, “We will obey the earlier command,” which they do. They go up and they fight the enemy; but God is not with them, and so they are beaten back and destroyed. Again, God said through Moses in Numbers 14:41:
And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of JEHOVAH? but it shall not prosper.
That is, they are now trying to obey the former command; but God now says that this is a transgression. They are doing exactly what He had wanted them to do just a little earlier; but now at this point, it is turned.
God had an open window for a short period of time for them to go into the land of Canaan and to conquer it. This was the Promised Land that He had told them about where they were to live a blessed life; but due to their rebelliousness, He closed this opportunity. He closed this door, this window. Now, once the door was closed, once they understood what they were facing, the penalty for their transgression was forty years wandering in a wilderness—a hot, desolate land—and they had to do this for forty years. This was quite a long time.
So after rethinking it, they now wanted to go up and they wanted to obey God. The problem was that it was too late. It was too late. This act of obedience was actually no longer an act of obedience because God had already pronounced the judgment. Afterwards, then they understood. Then they wanted to obey God and do what He would have them to do, but it was just too late.
Let us look quickly in Hebrews 12. I am also going to go back into Genesis to find the historical context for this statement. We read in Hebrews 12:16:
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
This is found in Genesis 25. We read in Genesis 25:29-34:
And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
Esau was simply not concerned about his birthright. This was not a major thing to him. He was a relatively young man, and young people have things to do and places to go and they do not think about things that are off into the future, like a birthright.
So Esau was hungry. He had just come in from the field. He was probably feeling tired and lazy, so he tells Jacob that he will sell him his birthright for a bowl of soup. This reminds us of what Jesus says in the Gospel accounts of man, as He asked the question, “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Men do not really think about the Word of God and what God says about eternal life or what He warns us about concerning eternal destruction. Because of this, men give their souls up in exchange for sometimes things that are worth even less than a bowl of pottage or a bowl of soup, sometimes very much less.
So God is speaking about Esau in Hebrews 12. Let us go on to the next verse here. We read in Hebrews 12:17:
For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
So, again, here is a situation where Esau disregarded his birthright. This resulted later in the blessing being given by his father Isaac who had intended to bless his son Esau but instead blessed Jacob.
We find in Genesis 27 this historical account. We read in Genesis 27:26-29:
And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which JEHOVAH hath blessed: Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.
The only problem was that this was Jacob and not Esau whom Isaac was blessing. We know the story. Rebekah, Jacob’s mother, had arranged this and had encouraged Jacob to go into Isaac in order to receive the blessing.
But then afterwards, we read in Genesis 27:30-35:
And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father…
What this language is saying is that these events were almost simultaneous. The door just closed and in came the other son, Esau. It continues:
…Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing.
Look also at verse 38, Genesis 27:38:
And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
It is interesting as we read this because we know that God has blessed the world with many blessings, physical blessings, like life and food and clothing and things. There are just many wonderful things that God has provided for people in this world. But, really, when we come down to it, the ultimate blessing—and, finally, the only significant blessing—is salvation. It is the gift of eternal life that God gives to His people.
It says this in Psalm 133:3:
As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there JEHOVAH commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
When we read of the Beatitudes in the New Testament, “Blessed are the poor” and “Blessed are the meek,” and so on, the ultimate blessing in mind is “life for evermore.”
If anyone here, and I am sure that there are, is a child of God, then you have this blessing “even life for evermore,” which is the gift of eternal life as God has saved you and given you this great blessing that comes with salvation.
Here, Esau, prior to the time when the blessing was given out, when the blessing was distributed, prior to this, he had total disregard for it. He “sold his birthright.” He did not really care about this.
The Bible tells us that Isaac favored Esau and that Rebekah favored Jacob. More than likely, Esau had probably always gotten his way with his father. He, more than likely, was counting on just kind of pleading with his father and crying in order to get the blessing. However, he did not understand that this blessing was really coming from God, and God knew that Esau “despised his birthright.” The reason why Rebekah had favored Jacob was because God had come to her when they were still just twins in her womb and had told her that Jacob would be the one whom He intended to bless. This is just as we read in Romans where God says, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
This is exactly what is going on here. Jacob was loved and blessed because God elected him to become saved “before the foundation of the world.” Esau was hated because he was not of the elect of God; therefore, he could not receive the blessing, even though Isaac goes on to speak of some favorable things about this earth and the blessings involved with the things in this world to Esau.
But Esau did not receive the blessing and his reaction is just like what we read about Israel once they realized that God had pronounced a judgment against them because of the “evil report” from the spies. It is the same thing here. Once Esau understood that Jacob had gotten the blessing and that he had not, then he desperately wanted the blessing; afterwards, then he wanted it.
Since God uses this picture of Jacob and Esau so clearly in the book of Romans as a representation of the saved and of the unsaved, at what point are we going to know that we are blessed? At what point will anyone know? If we are truly one whom God has blessed or if we are not someone whom God has truly blessed, when are we going to completely and fully understand this? It will be on May 21 of next year in 2011.
This is because everyone whom God has blessed will ascend up into Heaven or come up out of the grave and be given a new, resurrected body, a new spiritual body. Then they will rise up. But all of the rest, whom Esau could represent, will be left behind. They will be left behind, and then all of this will be obvious. The earthquake will have occurred across the face of the earth. The bodies of the unsaved will have come up and will be lying scattered as dung across the earth. It will be very obvious who got the blessing and who did not. “They got the blessing and I did not. I did not get the blessing. I failed to get the blessing.”
What will be the reaction of people? I think that God is giving us an indicator. Let me read again from the book of Hebrews where God looks a little deeper into Esau’s tears than what we read in the book of Genesis. We read in Hebrews 12:17 again:
For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
Would it not be wonderful if people did this now? Would it not be wonderful if someone went to God now in the broken kind of way that Esau exhibited back in Genesis? I am sure that he was really crying. They were not crocodile tears. They were tears. He felt some pain. He wanted the blessing, but he did not receive the blessing. It was then that he understood, “I have to go to my father. I have to beg him and plead with him,” as we read again in Genesis 27:38 where Esau pleads:
…Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
You see, it is now that Esau realizes this.
Unfortunately and sadly and tragically, men, people, us, in our natural state, are exceedingly stubborn, exceedingly bullheaded, exceedingly rebellious against God. Yet on that day, or after the fact, after the salvation of God has come and gone and is no longer available, after the judgment, then people are going to go to God and they are going to beseech Him like Esau.
Look at Zephaniah 1. The book of Zephaniah is before Haggai and after Habakkuk. It is Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah: H, Z, and then H, Z. You can read the first chapter of Zephaniah later and you will definitely see that this is referring to May 21, Judgment Day. We read in Zephaniah 1:14:
The great day of JEHOVAH is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly…
This surely sums up our present position. It continues:
…even the voice of the day of JEHOVAH: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
This is what Esau did. He cried bitterly; and on Judgment Day, “the day of the LORD’S wrath,” the “mighty man” is going to cry out bitterly. So will you if you are still here. So will you. I think that many people will. This is why the Bible says that on that day, many will be saying, “Lord, Lord!” This is a cry. They are beseeching God, “Lord, Lord, have we not…in thy name done many wonderful works?”
Let us look at Luke 13:24-25, which says:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door…
How can we tie this to May 21? It is because May 21 is the day that the door shuts. Right? This is the whole connection of the 17th day of the 2nd month to the Hebrew calendar. May 21 is 7,000 years after the flood. God told Noah, “For yet seven days” and then He would bring the flood. Seven days later, Noah and his family got into the ark, and God shut them in on the 17th day of the 2nd month. 7,000 years later, the end of the spiritual fulfillment of these seven days, on May 21 of 2011, after an exact 23-year period, God shuts the door—who is Christ, the only entryway, the only portal—into Heaven. He shuts the door. For the five-month period of time left, never again will there be salvation on earth. This is because Christ is the only way into Heaven, and God will shut this door. He will take His people out.
So, here, Luke 13:25 is telling us that before “the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door,” do as Luke 13:24 says:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
Why is this unusual? Why is this statement strange? We may be reading this like we read another statement from Matthew 7, and yet this is a different verse. In Matthew 7:13, it says:
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Where are the “many” headed? The “many” are headed for the “broad” gate. This would relate to all religions, including Christianity and those in the churches and congregations. It is all religions, including the Muslims and the Buddhists and all who have their own ideas as to how to get to Heaven. They are all headed down this same path. It is a very accessible entryway that leads to being destroyed
Then we read in Matthew 7:14:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Do you see the difference between Matthew 7 and Luke 13:24? Matthew 7 speaks of the “broad…way, that leadeth to destruction” and the “narrow…way, which leadeth unto life.” Many go the “broad” way. Few go the “narrow” way or through the “strait gate,” just a few. But Luke 13:24 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.
This is referring to the true Gospel. The “strait gate” is the faithful Gospel. This is referring to Jesus Christ, the right and proper way. This is a correct understanding of how people are saved, which is through the Bible, through God and His work.
So why are “many” striving to enter in the “strait…and narrow…way” on that day? The answer is tied in with the next verse, Luke 13:25:
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door…
Now they believe. Now they understand! The wise understood because God gave them understanding all the way leading up until this time. They were the “few.” They were God’s elect, which really numbered probably about 200 million; however, compared to seven billion in the world, this is still “few.” They went the “narrow” way at the proper point in time.
But now, God shut the door. The earthquake happened. There was the rapture and the resurrection of the dead. It has become extremely obvious. So now they cry, “O Lord! Have you only one blessing, just one blessing? Do you not have another blessing for me? Do you not have another blessing for me, Lord?” But the door is shut.
Remember the rich man “in torments” in Luke 16. He could see Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, and he was in torment. There was “a great gulf fixed” in between and he desired just a drop. “Send that beggar Lazarus. Send that beggar to me. I just want one drop, Lord.” There will be no arrogance of man as beforehand, “You come down to me, Lord! You save me!” No. Instead, their plea will be, “Send that poor beggar, the one whom I had no time for when I was living. Send him, even with his filthy finger, because if he has even a drop of water on it, he can apply this to my tongue.”
You see, the right understanding will finally creep through that thick skull of mankind into their stony hearts. At that point, they will get it. The most important thing will not be the riches that the rich man had to offer; it will not be the things of this world. No, it will be a desire for just the littlest, the tiny and littlest drop of the Gospel that provides salvation. This will be the most important thing. However, sadly and tragically for the rich man, there will be “a great gulf fixed.” They will not be able to come to God and God will not come to them.
This gulf will be fixed on May 21 of next year. This will be a very sorrowful thing, as we continue to read in Luke 13:25-28:
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: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 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.
“The mighty man shall cry there bitterly” with “weeping and gnashing of teeth” at the closed door, at the door that God has flung so wide open today that a “great multitude” are being saved from around the world outside of the churches. He is saving people in an amazing way, unlike any other point in the history of the world.
Are you just going to let this go? Are you just going to let this opportunity that is available now pass you by? For what? What are you going to involve yourself in over the next ten months that is so extremely important? A bowl of soup, pottage? What are you going to do over the next ten months that will cause you to not be able to find the time to read the Bible and to go to God and to beseech Him for mercy?
There is no good answer to this, is there? There is no TV good enough. Are you going to sell your soul for the TV set? Are you going to sell your soul for the video games? Are you going to sell your soul because your friends think that you are a little off? What are you going to sell your soul for? What are you going to give in exchange for your soul? Whatever deal an individual makes is not going to amount to much more than a bowl of soup. This is because Judgment Day will devalue this whole earth and everything in it.
Let us just look at one last verse and then we will close. This one is also in the book of Zephaniah. We read in Zephaniah 2:1-3:
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of JEHOVAH come upon you, before the day of the JEHOVAH’S anger come upon you. Seek ye JEHOVAH, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of JEHOVAH’S anger.
“Before”; this is an extremely important word: before, not afterwards. “Now is the day”; “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”; not after May 21.
Let us close.