"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to" (Luke 13:24).
How to be Saved! - J. C. Ryle
Seek Christ without delay,
and enter through the door of life while you can! Make a beginning this very day. Go to that merciful and mighty Savior in prayer, and pour out your heart before Him. Confess to Him your guilt and wickedness and sin. Open your heart freely to Him: keep nothing back. Tell Him that you put yourself and all your soul's affairs wholly in His hands, and ask Him to save you according to His promise, and put His Holy Spirit within you.
There is everything "to encourage you to do this." Thousands as bad as you have applied to Christ in this way, and not one of them has been sent away and refused. They have found a peace of conscience they never knew before, and have gone on their way rejoicing. They have found strength for all the trials of life, and none of them have been allowed to perish in the wilderness. Why shouldn't you also seek Christ?
There is everything to encourage you to do what I tell you "at once." I know no reason why your repentance and conversion should not be as immediate as that of others before you. The Samaritan woman came to the well an ignorant sinner, and returned to her home a new creature. The Philippian jailer turned from darkness to light, and became a professed disciple of Christ in a single day. And why shouldn't others do the same? Why shouldn't you give up your sins, and trust in Christ this very day?
I know that the advice I have given you is good. The great question is, Will you take it?
(3) The last thing I have to say will be a request to all who have really entered through the narrow door. That request is, that you will tell others of the blessings which you have found.
I want all converted people to be missionaries. I do not want them all to go out to foreign lands, and preach to the heathen; but I do want all to be of a missionary spirit, and to make every effort to do good at home. I want them to testify to everyone around them that the narrow door is the way to happiness, and to persuade them to enter through it.
When Andrew was converted he found his brother Peter, and said to him, "'We have found the Messiah' (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus" (John 1:41-42). When Philip was converted he found Nathaniel, and said to him, "'We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.' 'Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?' Nathaniel asked. 'Come and see,' said Philip" (John 1:45-46). When the Samaritan woman was converted, "Leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?'" (John 4:28-29). When Saul the Pharisee was converted, "At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God" (Acts 9:20).
I long to see this kind of spirit among Christians in the present day. I long to see more zeal to commend the narrow door to all who are yet outside, and more desire to persuade them to enter through and be saved. Happy indeed is that Church whose members not only desire to reach heaven themselves, but desire also to take others with them!
The great door of salvation is still ready to open, but the hour draws near when it will be closed forever. Let us work while it is called today, for the "night is coming, when no one can work" (John 9:4). Let us tell our relatives and friends, that we have accepted the way of life and found it pleasant, that we have tasted the bread of life and found it good.
I have heard it calculated that if every believer in the world were to bring one soul to Christ each year, the whole human race would be converted in less than twenty years. I make no comment on such a calculation. Whether such a thing might be or not, one thing is sure: that thing is, that many more "souls might probably be converted to God, if Christians were more zealous to do good."
This, at least, we may remember, that God does "not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). He that endeavors to show his neighbor the narrow door is doing a work which God approves. He is doing a work which angels regard with interest, and with which the building of a pyramid will not compare in importance. What does the Scripture say? "Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins" (James 5:20).
Let us all awaken to a deeper sense of our responsibility in this matter. Let us look around the circle of those among whom we live, and consider their state before God. Are there not many of them yet outside the door, unforgiven, unsanctified, and not prepared to die? Let us watch for opportunities of speaking to them. Let us tell them of the narrow door, and entreat them to "make every effort to enter in."
Who can tell what "a word spoken at the right time" may do? Who can tell what it may do when spoken in faith and prayer? It may be the turning point in someone's history. It may be the beginning of thought, prayer, and eternal life. Oh, for more love and boldness among believers! Think what a blessing to be allowed to speak one converting word!
I do not know what your feelings may be on this subject. My heart's desire and prayer is that you may daily remember Christ's solemn words,
"Many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." Keep these words in mind.
"Many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." Keep these words in mind.
Reader, suppose you should die unsaved, your doom no words can picture. Write out your dread estate in tears and blood, talk of it with groans and gnashing of teeth: you will be punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. A brother's voice would fain startle you into earnestness. O be wise, be wise in time, and ere another year begins, believe in Jesus, who is able to save to the uttermost. Consecrate these last hours to lonely thought, and if deep repentance be bred in you, it will be well; and if it lead to a humble faith in Jesus, it will be best of all. O see to it that this year pass not away, and you an unforgiven spirit. Let not the new year's midnight peals sound upon a joyless spirit! Now, NOW, NOW believe, and live.
