Matthew chapter 11 is a surprising passage. Two outstanding reasons, you could say, are Bible reading certainly surprising. First, John the Baptist was despondent and doubting. It's not quite the picture you get of John when you read the rest of his life. This was, as Jesus said, Elijah that was to come. This was the man who was certainly Elijah-like in his character, in his courage, in his demeanor, and in his ministry. He was veritably a prophet of fire. John was a man who feared not the face of man, whether he was facing crowds or whether he was facing King Herod. when Herod had taken his brother's wife. He looked him straight in the eye, said, it's not lawful for you to do this. Very few preachers, if they were called to the White House during Bill Clinton's era, would have had the guts of John the Baptist. And yet here we have this intrepid preacher, lying in prison, despondent, And we're still doubting. For very obvious it is that lying in prison, John began to have second thoughts about whether the Lord Jesus was really the Christ. So he sent his disciples saying, Aren't thou he that should come? Or do we need to look for another? Now why was John so despondent? It's incredible, apparently, unless you really stop to understand human nature. After all that John had seen and heard, remember that God had spoken to John directly and said to him, there's one upon whom you will see the Holy Ghost descending like a dove. And when you see that, you know that you've got the Christ. And he saw it, for he saw the Spirit descending like a dove upon the Lord Jesus. Not only so, but he knew what it was to have the Spirit of prophecy come upon him, so that when he beheld Jesus coming at Bethabara beyond Jordan, he said, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. He furthermore saw and heard as the heavens were opened. And the very voice of God the Father identified the Lord Jesus and said, this is my beloved Son. You would certainly imagine that after all that, John could never doubt again. But you've got to remember this. Human nature being what it is, doesn't matter what your past experience has been, unless you're living in the power of a present experience, you're going to be riddled with doubt. So here he was, despondent and doubting. But when you get to really why it should be, it's difficult to be dogmatic. But as I look at this, it appears to me that John didn't really grasp the nature of the kingdom that he had been announcing, and he didn't really grasp the purpose of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, I'm suggesting that there was a bit too much of the normal mindset of the Jew and Judaism still in John. I think there is evidence that from what Matthew says and the words that he quotes from John, to support what I'm saying. John had preached blessing for the penitent, but John had also preached judgment for the impenitent. Now, lying in prison, he could hear about the ministry of the Lord Jesus. I know he could hear it because Jesus told his disciples, go and tell him again. So he had already heard it. He had heard about the great blessings. But as he lay there in prison hearing about the blessings, the question was arising in his mind, where is the judgment? Where is the judgment? And as John conceived of the king and the kingdom, he conceived that there had to be not only blessing, but there had to be judgment. And there was little evidence that the Lord Jesus was judging the nation and ridding it by judgment of its apostate rulers. Little evidence indeed. John was in a hurry. to see His nation purged, and to see its people made subject to the rule of the Kingdom of God. Now, you'd have to say that was a very admirable characteristic. I would to God that we had John's zeal, and I would to God that all our mistakes and follies grew out of such an overwhelming zeal as John's grew out of. But though it was all very good to be in a hurry to see the nation purged and made subject to the rule of Christ. That was only so as long as it didn't make him impatient with the Lord's program and with the Lord's purposes, because these were vaster and deeper than anything that John could imagine. The Lord Jesus Christ's answer to John was interesting. He said, go and tell him, show him again what you've seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Now if you study those words carefully, you'll find that there are certain messianic promises and prophesies from the I was going to say the gospel, really is the gospel, from the book of Isaiah underlying that statement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a quotation of a particular verse, but it is, in its language, taken from various messianic prophecies of Isaiah. And the message would not be lost on John the Baptist. That these messianic signs are obviously being fulfilled in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there was more. Giving this message to John, the Lord Jesus was gently rebuking his impetuous desire for judgment upon the nation. For if you look at the passages from which he is quoting, you'll discover that each of them is set in a context of judgment. In other words, though the Lord Jesus is emphasizing the blessings, yet He's reminding John, I have not forgotten about the judgment. So in other words, He's saying to John the Baptist, don't leap to foolish conclusions. Now is the day of salvation. The day of vengeance is real. The day of vengeance is certain. But the day of vengeance is not yet. I think there's a lot for us to learn there. Because I think you'll have detected this in your own heart many a time as you've prayed for America and as you've prayed about the situation that's developing right before our eyes. When you see the religious apostasy, when you see the humanism that has taken over the nation so as to become its official religion. When you look at what is happening, you see the moral collapse, the spiritual decline of the nation. You see half a million Saddamites out parading their filth and their wickedness, and it's a wonderful thing in the eyes of men. When you look at that, it's very easy to become impatient to see God judge the wickedness of our nation. I'm sure you felt that. I have heard Christians say that. Maybe you've said it yourself, how long is it going to be before California or at least San Francisco slides into the ocean? Just remember if San Francisco were to slide into the ocean because of the judgment of God, if the rest of the country were to get the same justice, there would be very little of America left, very little indeed. And it wouldn't matter what country you're from. You might be British, German, Swedish, Australian, you name it, the same thing would be true. But I've heard people say, and I've wondered it myself, when you look at all that's happening today, how long can it be before God begins to move in judgment? But this word of Christ to John is a very, very important word for us. Do not rush to conclusions and don't be impatient to see sinners cast into hell. God, give us a heart like the heart of the Savior. Oh, the boldness of John the Baptist certainly, but the patience of the Lord Jesus Christ. the love that filled his heart, and the wisdom that says God knows best when to move in judgment. Meantime, let us see God move, as Jesus described here, in mighty, mighty saving power. So, the first surprising thing here is John's despondency and doubting. But there's something then even more surprising, and that is that Immediately after such a proof of John's weakness, the Lord Jesus Christ eulogized him in terms that to the Jews must have sounded, to say the least, extravagant. The Lord Jesus asked him, what did you go out to see when you went out to the ministry of John? He wasn't a reed shaken with the wind and there was a good dig at some of those who profess to be prophetic teachers. He wasn't a reed shaken with the wind. He wasn't a man clothed with soft raiment. You went out to see a prophet, and yes, you saw a prophet, but you saw much more than a prophet. More than a prophet. What did Jesus mean? Well, He tells you exactly what He meant. He says, verse 10, He was the direct forerunner of the Christ. He was the prophet whom God entrusted with the ministry of introducing the King and the Kingdom. A unique ministry. My what a status that gave to John the Baptist. And yet you have to say, as one old time commentator put it, that the Lord Jesus is not saying John was more than a prophet just because, to use his word, he had the luck. Why he used that word, I have no idea. Why he had the luck to be the last in the line of the prophets. In other words, somebody had to be the last in line. Somebody had to be the final prophet before the Lord Jesus Christ. And it doesn't say anything special about the person involved, If he just happens, as far as he's concerned, he just happens to be that one. But John didn't just happen to be that one. John was that one by divine appointment. Verse 11, his personal character was entirely suited to his high calling. Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist. Now that's what would have sounded extravagant to the Jews. Was not Moses born of a woman? Can anybody seriously suggest that there ever has been anybody ever born to compare with Moses? To the Jew, the thought was impossible. But Jesus says, of all that have ever been born of a woman, there has never been a greater than John the Baptist. His character. was entirely suited to his high calling. He was a great man. And then you'll find that his ministry was powerfully successful in getting men to be serious about entering into the kingdom of God. Jesus said indeed, despite his greatness, the least in the kingdom was greater than he. That's a very difficult text to understand, I must confess. I think that Dean John Burgon was right when he said, you've got to understand he's talking about John as a prophet, not as a man here. The least prophet in the kingdom is greater than the greatest of the prophets, even John the Baptist. And how could that be? Well, John only announced the inauguration of the kingdom. Take the disciples of Christ. Take the apostles of Christ. the content of their ministry and message, the extent of their ministry and message, the success of their ministry and message, far outstripped anything that John the Baptist could ever have envisaged in his ministry. And yet, despite that, John did a mighty work. His work was uniquely owned and honored by God who gave it tremendous power and glorious success. And it's that thought that leads us to the verse that I want to take as a text tonight, because that's the point that the Lord Jesus pursues in verse 12 of Matthew 11. He says, And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. The idea is that John's preaching created such a stir among the people, that it aroused men to a pitch of great emotion and intense excitement, so that when the Lord Jesus appeared on the scene, they thronged Him. Now, as we'll see, there is an idea here that some of that emotion is good and commendable. Some of it would not be good and not commendable. I don't want to get off and preach before I get to the sermon, for anything I've said now is just to clear my vocal cords of the laryngitis. I haven't started to preach yet. I'm getting to the text now. So I don't want to blow it before I get there. But I will say this, if I don't get a chance to say it later, that people who want their religion to be neatly packaged like a Christmas box with nice pink ribbon on it, and nothing ever disturbs it, and it's all so quiet, and it's all so nice, and everything is in its proper place, and there's never anything to get anybody ruffled They know nothing of the religion of the Bible, and they know nothing of the religion either of John the Baptist, or of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Jesus is saying. When John preached, something happened. Oh, I would to God that was true of me, and of every one of our ministers. That when we preach, something happened. That when we preach, the devil is stirred, heaven is moved, and earth sees the impact. That's what Jesus is saying about John the Baptist. Any wonder he says he's the greatest of all who were ever born of women. As you think of this great text tonight, I want you to get this firmly entrenched and emblazoned on your heart and mind, that the preaching of the gospel stirs man deeply. So that they either violently oppose it or lay hold of it with all their might. At least that is what ought to be. And that's what was in the days of John and of the Lord Jesus. Now let me state first and foremost what the Savior intends us to grasp here. That the Gospel is a forceful message. that powerfully confronts sinners and their entire world. And I use the word confront advisedly. The gospel is a forceful message. Think of what it is in the terms of Matthew 11. It is the proclamation of a new king. It's the proclamation of a new kingdom. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, while it was intended to make us think deeply, and certainly the taunt of the so-called agnostic, but really professing atheist, Thomas Huxley. Christianity is for those who cannot or will not think. is the greatest travesty of the truth because Christianity demands that you think. When you've got rid of all the pinheads and pea-brains like Thomas Huxley, you'll find that the greatest thinkers who have ever lived have been men of God. Christianity demands that we think. But having said that, Christianity was never meant to be put on a cloister. The Gospel was never intended to be a light hid under a bushel, or something talked about in the corridors of academia. The Gospel was never intended to be a quiet, and especially it was never intended to be an inoffensive thing. By its very nature, the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be an offense to the world. Stop and think for a moment. It is a challenge and it is a threat to the kingdom of darkness. In fact, let me tell you, and this may sound extreme, but it is not extreme. The gospel of Jesus Christ and those things that it produces form the only threat on this earth to the kingdom of darkness. There's nothing else in all the world. I realize that this is going against the thought of many, but if you listen carefully to what I said, I said the gospel and what it produces. That means mainly the preaching of the gospel, but anything that that preaching produces as its fruit. is a threat to the kingdom of darkness. Higher education is not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. Universal education is not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. And I'm not saying they are not things that elevate man socially. I'm not saying that at all. But I am saying they're not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. What I'm really saying is that it matters not in the light of eternity, Whether a sinner is poor, ill-educated, can hardly speak his own language, and living in the slums, or whether he's got a PhD after his name, earning $200,000 a week, and drags a Rolls Royce, and flies first class straight to hell. Doesn't make a lot of difference, in the light of eternity. Because one minute in hell will make him forget all about his money, and his education, and his Rolls Royce. So the educational system is not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. In fact, it's usually one of its greatest supports. High culture is not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. Again, this might ruffle your feathers, but the filthy immorality of a Wolfgang Mozart is no different from the filthy immorality of the Rolling Stones. They both stink in the nostrils of God. I'm not equating their music. I'm simply saying that high culture is not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. Religion is not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. I'm a Presbyterian. But as a Presbyterian, I can tell you, if you look at Presbyterianism in America, especially if you look at the me and Presbyterian denomination, far from being a threat to the kingdom of darkness, it is a proponent of the kingdom of darkness. That's what it is. A proponent of it. A vile and filthy thing. Anything that names the name of Jesus Christ and can send back a directive to its presbyteries to start down the road to accepting and ordaining sodomites, I want to tell you, that's not a threat to the kingdom of darkness. Religion's not. There's one thing is, and that's the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it's an offense. Not only so, but this gospel is an offense to individual sinners because it doesn't come as an option. It comes as an imperative. It does not present plan A or plan B. It comes with a, thus saith the Lord, and it demands a total, instantaneous, irreversible submission to the King of glory. That's the gospel. And to make matters worse, as far as the sinner is concerned, when it comes with this demand for total submission, it does so on the basis of presenting its central truths which are obnoxious to the carnal mind. In 1 Corinthians chapter 18, you have those famous words, chapter 1 should I say, in verse 18, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. And then again in verse 22-23, the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness. Now here's the central message of the gospel. The gospel has not a thing in it to pander to the pride of man. It comes to men and says, you're sinners. Sinners by birth, sinners by nature, sinners by choice, sinners by practice. As sinners, you are under, not going to be under, but you are under the wrath and the curse of a thrice holy sin-hating God. And one heartbeat in front of you lies eternal hell. And what can you do about it? Well, first of all, there's not a thing in the world you want to do about it. Second, there's not a thing in the world you can do about it. You can join the church, you'll just be a churched sinner on the way to hell. You can get baptized, you'll just be a wetter sinner on the way to hell. You can eat and drink at the Lord's table, you'll just be a sacramental sinner on the way to hell. But there's not a thing in the world you can do to change what you are and where you're going. And when it has brought you down to the depths of utter uselessness and to let you see your depravity, then and only then does the Gospel say, but God is rich in mercy. And what is His mercy? What is His love? He sent His Son into the world to die and make a blood atonement. And how the old, wretched, carnal mind of man hates the thought of blood atonement. Anytime you get a preacher who wants to get rid of the blood, you get rid of that preacher. Anytime you get a church or a Bible translation or a commentator or a book that wants to get rid of or minimize the blood of the Lamb, bid them farewell! For this is God's Word. It's the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Now the Jews were scandalized by the thought of having to be saved by the death of God's Son. manifested in flesh. To them, it was a scandal. To the Greeks, it was foolishness. Do you remember the men of Athens, when Paul went there preaching? And he preached not only the death of Christ, but as he always did, that he rose again from the dead. No, no. These wise men of Athens didn't believe in the resurrection from the dead. They knew their gods couldn't die and rise again. They knew they couldn't die and rise again, so they didn't think that anybody else could. Do you remember how Festus interrupted Paul when he was speaking to King Agrippa? And when it came to the resurrection from the dead, Festus could stick it no longer and he interjected, Paul, much learning doth make thee mad. What an offense. Oh, the Gospel is a message of force. It's a message that confronts sinners and their entire world. tells them the truth in no uncertain terms, and holding the truth of God and stating it in what God knows to be the most offensive way to sinners, then the gospel says, bow the knee, submit totally, entirely, immediately, submit or perish. Of course, it is also true to say that in confronting sinners and their world, thankfully it confronts sinners in the world of darkness and it brings them light. In a world of hopelessness, they have tried this religion, that religion and the other religion and found that they're all a farce. And it comes now with the hope, not of religion, but of eternal life. presents them not with a dead God, but with a living God, with a powerful Savior. This is the Gospel. It's a message of force that confronts man and their entire world. So you can see it's certainly not calculated to establish the status quo. But the second thing you've got to notice then is that this gospel advances by powerful or forceful means. Now, there's been a lot of controversy among scholars about our text and its wording. Various translations translated differently, you'd wonder if they were translating the same Greek text, and yet they are. This verb, suffers violence, has caused a lot of discussion. I'm not going to get technical or try to sound scholarly, for I have no great ability in that direction. But, if you ever have, I'll not say the misfortune, but the need to study the Greek verb, you'll discover that it has various voices. We are used to the active voice, passive voice, we know what a reflexive is, at least if you've done English grammar you should know some of those things. The form of this verb may be in what is either called the middle voice or the passive voice and according to which way you understand it is going to affect how you translate it. Many take it to be a middle and in that sense the kingdom of heaven makes Forceful advance. That's what it's saying. Makes a forceful advance. There are some translations. For example, the NIV translates it this way. And I'm not at all suggesting you adopt the NIV. Stay with what you've got here. It's the best. I'm simply saying, looking on it as a middle. They say, the Kingdom of Heaven makes a forceful advance. And the idea is that it does so especially in the terms that Jesus sets forth in verse 5. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Now think of that. That's the kingdom advancing. I got a gift recently of a book. that I made sure to get read very quickly about the Salvation Army's early days and William Booth now. The more I read of William Booth, the more I can see the picture of the Salvation Army Corps in which I was saved and see this old bearded figure looking down. But the more I read of William Booth also, the more I marvel at the sovereignty of God and how he uses men. Many things that you'd have to say were sort of over the top, even selfish. But I want to tell you, when William Booth came on the scene, he was a bit like John the Baptist. He saw a country, England, sunk in sin, and he saw the poor of England's cities sunk in wretchedness. And even John Wesley's Methodist churches were too respectable ever to reach them. And so Booth and his, what became the Salvation Army, the soldiers of the Salvation Army, set out. And they started going where Christians didn't go. Preaching to people preachers never reached. They went into the pubs, the drinking dams, and they saw people converted. They went into the brothels, and they saw people converted. They stormed the dark strongholds of hell. And then they scandalized Victorian England. Because having seen these people see it, and I remember most of them could hardly read or write their own name. They were almost illiterate or totally illiterate. They had been drunkards, they had been prostitutes, they had been thieves, they had been vagabonds, they had been prisoners, they had been all sorts of vile rascals, and now they were professing Christ. Well, that was bad enough. But then he brought them forth and he went out and he said, now you start testifying. Tell the world what Jesus Christ has done for you. And so they would go back into the dens of poverty and vice, and it was converted drunkards, converted street walkers, converted thieves, converted criminals who were preaching to people of their own class and telling them of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Was there a lot of chaff? Certainly there was a lot of chaff. As Dr. Paisley once told his brother, who was a Plymouth Brethren preacher, and who said, there's a lot of chaff, Ian, said, you never have a harvest without chaff. And if you don't want to have any chaff, you'll never have any harvest at all. Oh, there was a lot of chaff. But I want to tell you, the Salvation Army didn't become a worldwide soul-saving organization on chaff. It was exactly what Christ was saying. This is what takes the world by storm. You find it in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, when the Holy Ghost came down in the day of Pentecost. What happened? There was power. God began to do things that scandalized the Jews. Now to see Jews become Christians as a subset of Judaism, that was possibly acceptable but to go out and see heathens heathens like the Corinthian heathens when you read the book of Corinthians and you see the list of sins that were still plaguing the church remember they were still plaguing the church because listen for the most part that was everyday life for these people they lived in a vile filthy wicked heathen environment and then the gospel went to them My, what a scandal that was. What a scandal that was to the respectable Jewish mind. In Acts 5.12 we read of the mighty signs and wonders that the Holy Ghost was doing. In Romans 15, 18, 19, Paul said, Christ wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God. Writing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2, 4 and 5, he says, my speech My preaching was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. The whole history of the church is much to the same effect. Wherever the kingdom was advancing, it was by the power of God. The Holy Ghost still does mighty things. I've given you the example of Booth. and the Salvation Army. You'll see it again and again, wherever Spirit-filled preachers have taken the Gospel, taken it to the remotest corners of the globe, to the darkest dens of iniquity and sin. They have seen the power of that Gospel. Men and women, let me tell you, That anytime God blesses, it's always the power of the Holy Ghost that He uses. Now, don't misunderstand me. God can use academics. Paul was an academic. Paul was a deep thinker. God can use them. And I thank God for them. I love to read John Calvin. Always amazing to read John Calvin. I would to God that all the people who call themselves Calvinists were just a wee bit like the great Geneva reformer. When you read, for example, John Calvin on prayer, you realize this man has forgotten more about the subject of prayer than I ever knew. He was an academic, an intellect such as only comes along once in a millennium. But let me tell you, first and foremost, he was a man of God, of the power of the Holy Ghost. That's the power we need today. You know, if ever we needed to grasp this, the Gospel is a message of force, of power. And it's meant to be carried forth by means that are powerful means. Preaching is meant to be powerful. Now, I realize that I'm in a very invidious position saying that because I can be condemning me. Say, well, then why don't you preach powerfully? Well, I feel the weight of that, believe me. Many a time when I leave this pulpit, I would to God, I never had to answer it again. Many a time when I go home, I lament, Lord, where is the power? What a contradiction to have the message of supreme power and to be preached with inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and powerlessness. God save us from that folly. Oh, let this church be driven to its knees to pray that this message of power will proceed by the means of power, which is the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit of God. Pray that for our students. I pray God will give them all a grasp of Hebrew, and of Greek, and of apologetics, and of exegesis, and of homiletics, and of church history, and of systematic theology. I trust that God will give them a grasp of all those things. But oh, if God does not take them and fill them with the Holy Spirit, if God does not baptize them with power, they'd be far better being garbage collectors than preachers. Their knowledge is wasted. It is useless unless it is harnessed by the power of God. Oh, this gospel proceeds and advances by powerful means. And therefore, and this is the heart of the text, the gospel arouses forceful, even violent responses. Notice what Jesus says, the violent, take it by force. Could be translated violent or forceful man, lay hold of it. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence from three sources. And I have time only to enumerate these really. It suffers violence first, from rejection by its enemies. The rejection of the gospel by the world is not some quiet little thing. It is a violent rejection. It is a bitter rejection. The forces that hold together the fabric of human society as I was pointing out this morning, are against the gospel, but they are not against it in some lofty fashion. The humanists who are running America have it as their life mission to obliterate this gospel. It's a violent rejection. The gospel, kingdom of heaven, suffers violence from subversion by false friends. That's an idea that many, or at least some commentators, take from the words of Christ, and I can see why. The idea of the forceful man laying hold of it. They look upon this as rapacious man, laying violent hands upon the kingdom. in order to turn it from its great spiritual movement into a political movement or some other kind of movement. You remember just a little later there were people who, and they thought, at least they professed to have the interest of the kingdom at heart, they sought to take Christ and make Him a king by force. They wanted a political kingdom. In many ways, the more things change, the more they stay the same. How many people still can't divorce the gospel from their political views and from the political kingdom that they think they want to set up? In this century, or should I say now the last century, the ecumenical movement launched what was called the Life and Work Commission, which was based on the assumption of a social gospel. And more and more you see this, even in evangelicalism, that redemption is not looked upon in terms of personal salvation. And that we're not, as the old time preachers and old time post-millennialists, for example, and I say this as a pre-millennialist, but the old time post-millennialists had the vision of preaching the gospel and seeing sinners saved in such numbers that they changed society because the gospel had changed men. And then as a non-post-millennialist, I say hallelujah for every evidence of God doing that. I have nothing against it. But when you take a social gospel or anything approaching to it, and you think you're going to establish the kingdom by imposing certain laws or mores or whatever on men, who are still unregenerate, you have another thing coming. It's not going to happen. That's subverting the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence. You look at the church today. What's the greatest violence that is, in this country at least, is being visited on the church, is being visited from the inside, from people who are subverting it. But Jesus had another thought in mind, and it's a glorious thought. that the kingdom of heaven, he says, suffers violence from the pressure of the great numbers of great sinners who were striving to enter in. The parallel passage in Luke 16 confirms this. Verse 16 says, The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth, it's the same verb, forces his way into it. And the Lord Jesus is describing a crowd of people who are gripped by a holy shaking of body and soul. Again, how this invades our religious comfort zone. You know, we pray for revival. I want to tell you, if God answers prayer and sends His revival, some people will run out that church door and say, those people are going mad. Just read the history of revival. Just read even in scripture. You know, we read of Christ casting out the devil and Paul casting out the devil. Read the details and you'll see that if this sort of thing were to happen in this church service, some of you would be scared out of your wits. And I think I would be too. We have this neat little picture. It's almost like an English country garden. With every rose in place. That's our view of the kingdom. Jesus' view of the kingdom is of a seething mass of humanity. A seething mass of great sinners. Hearing the gospel and forcing their way in. The respectable people don't like it. I've often quoted to you the testimony of Willie Mullen, a great Irish Baptist preacher, that the night he went into Newtonards Baptist Church, he was a tramp. He was a wino. He was a criminal. Not the kind of person you want to run across on a dark night or even in broad daylight. But he got an invitation to go in to a service. For some reason he went. And when he sat down, he sat down beside a young lady who was dressed to perfection. Totally different cut from him. The first thing that touched him that came to the Bible reading, she moved up the seat. beside this stinking wango, stinking with the alcohol. And she said, would you like to share my Bible? It's not a coincidence that that young lady, Dorrie Gunning, became one of the greatest missionaries Northern Ireland ever sent out. Because I want to tell you, you could go to a hundred churches and sit down beside a hundred well-dressed Christians and not find one of them who would make that response. I want to tell you the church is never meant to be. I'm all in favor. I'm all in favor of decorum in church. I was brought up to dress to go to church. If I would dress to go to see the Queen, then I'll dress to come and visit. in the house of God and worship the King of Glory. I understand that. I want to tell you the church was never meant to be some comfortable... People who are comfortable in life. Oh, you can be comfortable in life, but this is the place to come and get disturbed. That's what Jesus was talking about. And anytime sinners meet with Christ, anytime God makes known His glory, anytime God speaks of His majesty, anytime the thunders of Mount Sinai touch the conscience, anytime a sight of Calvary dawns upon poor, poor sinners, there is always going to be a massive conviction in the book of the Acts we read that they were pricked in their heart. They smote their breast. They cried. They trembled. Man, there's not too much of that in churches nowadays, including this one. But that's the way it was. I've listened quite a few times in recent weeks, as you'll have guessed from what I've said in prayer meeting, to the CD of the Isle of Lewis revival. And I think of the rich farmer who for twelve years wouldn't even go to hear the gospel, but came under conviction of sin. For two days, if my memory is right, certainly for a long time, was crying before God, Lord, hell is too good for me! Hell is too good for me! That's the violent conviction that so often grips people. It certainly gripped them, as Jesus said there in that day. that leads me to tell you this, and we need to grasp this, and if you're not saved in this meeting, or if you have some very easy religion that lets you come here on Sunday and say, well, I'm a Christian, but you have no thought of God or of Christ, this does not have any violent impact on your heart. I'm here to tell you, and this may sound over the top to you, but before God, I tell you it on the authority of the Son of God Himself. If your religion has not had a violent impact on your heart. It's a false religion and it will take you straight to hell. A violent impact on your heart. It grips your soul so that those who must or would be saved, must allow nothing and will allow nothing to hinder them from coming to Christ, but they will seize Christ with all their energy. They will seize the opportunity and they will grip it and say, no matter what it costs, I must have Christ. I want to tell you that's true religion and anything else is not. You come to Christ, you have many obstacles. The Jews then had obstacles. The Pharisees despised them. Especially the class of people Jesus was saving. Publicans, harlots, lepers, you name it. The very scum of the earth. He was saving the scum of the earth. But then you see every sinner Jesus ever saves, including you and me, are just the scum of the earth. We're sinners. We're rotten through and through. So much to hinder. Your own sin will hinder you. Your own pride will hinder you. The cost of discipleship may hinder you. For when Jesus says, I want you to be my disciple, He says, here are the terms. You deny yourself. You take up your cross. You forsake all. And you follow me. There's no parleying. That's it. And on that ground, you face heaven or hell. That's why Jesus said in Luke 13, 24, Strive. You don't amble into salvation. You don't drift into salvation. He says, Strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able." And I'm telling you, if you want to enter in on any other ground than what the Lord Jesus is setting forth, if you want some easy way to heaven, Jesus says you'll not enter in. You want a religion that's not going to disturb how you live. Let me tell you, you're not going to enter in. You may walk this aisle or any other aisle. You may get baptized. You may say whatever you want to say. But I'm here to tell you honestly, as one who loves your soul and is going to stand with you before God one of these days, very, very soon, that if you will not strive to enter in, allowing nothing to hinder you, but seizing the opportunity, to have your entire being violently, totally, forever changed, then you can't be saved at all. But if you'll come that way, you will be saved. And once you're in the kingdom, what do you do then? The kingdom has had a violent impact on your heart. I wish I had time. I have gone way over time, but then I don't really care too much about that. You're the ones who are uncomfortable, not I. So, I'd like to be able to follow that. Why? How it can't be otherwise? If... I've quoted C.T. Studd a thousand times in this, but I'll do it again. If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me. And no sacrifice, and in his case it meant giving up what in today's terms would be a fortune of millions upon millions and multiplied millions of dollars. Maybe a billionaire. Threw it all away to the last cent. Not threw it away, gave it to the work of God. If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him. If God came down, if the Son of God was born of a virgin, if He fulfilled the law for me, if He died in my place, if He took my sins, if He rose again from the dead for me, if He has sent His Spirit to woo me, if He has drawn me into union with Himself, then listen, nothing in all the world can compare with that. That governs me. It must govern me. If you believe that, it must govern you. This is the violent impact of the gospel. You come into the kingdom. And once you're in, you advance the cause of the kingdom with a holy violence. Do you strive with all your might against Satan? Are you willing to do that? If you're a Christian, can you do anything else, anything less? Are you willing to be counted an extremist or even a fanatic by the world or by cold church members, simply because they discern that the cause of the gospel concerns you more than anything else in the world? Will you give all your energy to pray through all the opposition of hell? Lay hold of the horns of the altar with a holy violins as with Jacob and say, Lord, I will not let you go unless and until you bless me. I'm here to touch God and I will not go until God answers me. Will you give yourselves without reserve to God for the forceful advance of His Kingdom. That's what Christ is looking for. Give us such a people and I tell you, we'll move the world. Sure there'll be chaff, there'll be emotion that's wrong, By all means, let's abhor and let's avoid this furious emotion and all false fire, but equally let us avoid with all our hearts that deadening coldness, that indifference that saps all the energy out of the work and the witness of the Church of Christ. God grant us a holy boldness. God make us a mighty forceful people with a forceful message carried on by forceful means and the power of the Holy Ghost. As we close tonight, I trust you will join me in prayer. Lord, make me a Christian who is sold out to Thee totally committed unto my Savior. I care nothing for the opinion of the world. By the grace of God, I will live only for the well done of Christ. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Let's bow our heads in prayer. I want every head bowed and every eye closed. I have made some very strong, far-reaching statements tonight. There's one in particular I want you to think about before we close with prayer. If the kingdom of heaven has not had a violent, forceful, mighty impact upon your heart, then whatever you have is not God's salvation. This is a text and deliberately this is a message to stop people glibly professing Jesus Christ only to perish because they have never really known the King. Men and women, young people, take this very, very, very seriously tonight. If God has spoken to your heart, strive to enter in at the straight gate. Strive to enter in. Let nothing keep you back, not your pride, or your sin, or your friends, or your job, or anything. Let nothing keep you. Get in. And when you've got in, and live flat out for Christ. If I can help you to the Savior, I invite you to remain as the others leave. Pastor Braham and I are here as your servants for Christ's sake. We'd love to be able to point you to Christ. Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for the Word of the Lord Jesus. Lord, we recognize that it's a vaster and deeper and greater word than we have ever begun to conceive. But Lord, take the feeble efforts of this preacher, set aside all that is of man, and write thine own word upon the hearts and consciences of men and women and boys and girls. O God, do a mighty work of force and power. By thy Spirit, convict men and women and young people of their sin. And, O God, save them for thy glory's sake. And, Lord, convict your people of becoming at ease in Zion. Lord, thou hast made a powerful impact in saving us from hell. Lord, let us tonight lay our lives on the altar say we're lunatic or fanatic or anything else. Oh God, what a strange world when somebody can go mad in support of a ball game, but if anybody has emotion or force in his commitment to Christ, he's a madman. Lord, if this is madness, make us mad. Oh God, we cry tonight. Give us that wholehearted, total surrender to Christ. Visit the preaching here with power. God, forgive me for preaching without power. God, forgive us as a church for being willing to sit without the power of God. Oh, visit us. Lord, pour out your Spirit upon us and answer us superabundantly. Hear our cry and part us with the blessing of God. Keep us in the fear of God. And let us live to the glory of God. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.