Are There Few?

The concept of fewness is found all throughout the scriptures. 

We see it related most famously to the “broad and Narrow way” that Jesus spoke of, but it is not limited to only to that of salvation.

Few there were who feared God’s words and warning and entered into the ark at the time of the pouring out of God’s wrath on a God-forsaking world at the time before the flood.

Few there were found righteous in the lands of Sodom and Gomorrah before the fire and brimstone fell from heaven and devoured the people and the land. The ashes of which are to be shaken off the feet before modern day tourists enter their busses.

Few there were among God’s own people who heeded the warnings of the prophets before the Babylonians took them away, and NONE at all would listen to Jeremiahwarning to obey God and submit to the Babylonian King.

When Jesus came, many followed him, but few remained and all scattered when he was taken to be crucified.

Few were in the upper room when the Spirit of God fell upon them and the Church began, 

Few again who believed the Gospel, Fewer still who remained faithful to the end.

What is fascinating about all of this is that through the entirety of the Bible, it is The Few that God is pleased with. 

The FEW that end up being in the right, the FEW that hold to the truth, the FEW that are not deceived…. And the FEW that be saved!

It is the exact OPPOSITE of that which the world thinks is true, where majority opinion governs and might makes right. 

Jesus said;

“…WIDE is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Mt 7:13)

Pray

Are There Few That Be Saved?

Luke 13:23–30

23 Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, 

24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 

Are there few that be saved?

Strive to enter in at the strait gate:

Clear impression we have is that there shall be less people saved than we like to think.

Long ago the disciples asked the Lord Jesus saying, “what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Mt 24:3), Jesus never did shy away from answering the question, and he did so with many clear and explicit descriptions, descriptions that all converge toward that one specific timeframe.

We have seen individual elements over the last two thousand years, but it is fair to say that today we are living in the Time of The Signs, so many things OBJECTIVELY converging toward that end the disciples spoke about.

Before that time comes the Bible teaches that Christians, true Christians, those who have personally believed in their heart that Jesus Christ died for their sins, are going to be “caught up“;

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:52 tells us what it will happen;

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

This is that bizarre time that we refer to as the Rapture of the Church (a latin word that simply means “Caught Up“). 

If it were not in the Bible, we would all be right to think its nuts….but there it is, and not just there but in several places in the Bible, with several other historical examples.

The point is that for decades people have speculated that SO MANY PEOPLE are going to disappear that its going to disrupt the entire world system.

They have counted all the people who live in what is referred to as “Christian Countries” and ‘called themselves “Christians“. 

These include people baptised as babies, people who go to church, people who say they are Christian etc.

They look at the statistics and read Christians make up 2.63 billion people of the Earth and then claim this to be true. That is a lot of people, and yet Jesus claims the opposite is true.

When the question is asked, “are there few that be saved?“, again, Jesus answers; 24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

Beloved, the Bible plainly states that not all who call themselves Christians are Christians.

In a parallel passage in Matthew we see it presented clearly;

Matthew 7:13–14

13 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: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Then down in verse 22 we read

Matthew 7:22–23

22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Christianity is not a nation of people who affiliate with a similar idea, a Christian is an individual who has personally trusted that Jesus died specifically for them and that their sins are washed away by his blood. 

Such are immediately “Born Again” according to Jesus words in John 3:3, not physically, but spiritually, they experience what is known as “the New Birth“.

They are given the Holy Spirit and something dramatically changes in them, they are different now. 

What they liked before, they now hate, and what they hated before they now loved….not necessarily Brussel Sprouts but….

True Christians have had a “changed heart” not a change of mind.

There are NOT MANY of these!

But there are MANY entering the broad way

Matthew 7:13

13 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: 

It is not because the way is difficult, eternal life is not difficult to attain, it is because there is ONLY one way to obtain it.

John 14:6

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Therefore there are indeed “few that be saved“

But there are also few who labor for the work…

Are There Few Who Labour?

Matthew 9:35–38

35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

What if one of the reasons Few are Saved is also because The Labourers are few?

Mark 16:15–16

15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Romans 10:13–15

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

Its not like we are not aware of the great commission of Jesus Christ, we are very well aware of it. 

Its also not like we are ignorant of the fact that none can believe in him unless they hear of him; 

This is logically true and ought to place in our hearts a tremendous sorrow and horror that there will be people in hell for all eternity because we have neglected the work of the gospel of Christ.

That is the REALITY!

I know that this is uncomfortable to hear it beloved, but I begin to believe that all the descriptions of hell that are presented in the Bible is not to frighten the damned but to motivate the hearts of their rescuers.

We are the labourers of the Lord that are sent into the world to continue the work of Christ. 

10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10

Our work is to continue to preach the glad tidings that reaches the hearts of the Lost and to save them, like firebrands plucked out of the fire, and the time of that work is NOW!

Death is not AN END, it is a gateway into ONE OF TWO ENDS and that for all eternity.

This temporal life has its exit through death, you cannot get out of life alive! 

It is the natural end of all of mankind, it is not a speculation!

It is the single most absolute, ABSOLUTE, LIFE has a 100% mortality rate.

WHEN THIS TEMPORAL LIFE ENDS, the ETERNAL BEGINS.

Daniel 12:2

2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

There IS a heaven and the IS a hell and I fear so greatly that far too many of the labourers that are saved TURN A SHAMEFUL AND BLIND EYE to this reality.

Far too many are entangled on the hear and now, far too many are being carried away by the devils distractions to even CARE for those who WERE ONCE IN THE SAME STATE AS YOU!

       DO YOU KNOW what will come of your friends if they never hear the gospel beloved?

Do you understand that they will ALL DIE and ALL face that end that was prepared ORIGINALLY for the devil and his angels, if they never hear the glad tidings, the good news that Jesus died for their sins.

Hell is the exact opposite of heaven, and we sit here, Labourers waiting for a sunny day before we go out into the harvest.

But not too sunny, lest we get burnt a little. 

And the temperature needs to be just right, don’t want to get a chill.

The way also must be convenient for me; cant be too hilly, nor to steep, must be paved and not muddy, cant have any obstacles to the gospel.

And the person needs to look right too….cant be ugly, but also not too pretty. 

Demure… they need to be nice and not judge me.

Lastly, I really need to “FEEL” like asking them if they know where they will go when they die, if I dont feel like it then I wont say anything, ill just walk by and hope someone else tells them.

Also, I got to make sure that its acceptable to them….I wont be too direct, cant have the water too hot or too cold now can I?

I could go on with the excuses.

We have tracts on the board at the back of this Church that I rarely refill.

Please allow me to motivate the labourers for a moment.

Everything heaven is, hell is presented as its opposite.

• Heaven is filled with light – Hell is presented as absolute darkness, even a darkness that can be felt, and then ultimately cast into outer darkness where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 22:13).
  • Where heaven is peace and comfort, hell is eternal fire and conscious torment as, “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night” (Rev 14:11a)
  • Where heaven is perfect fellowship and relationships rejoicing together eternally, hell is presented as absolute solitude for ever and ever, the rich man in hell does not even want his brethren there with him in Luke 16:27-28.
  • Where heaven is given as timeless with him who “inhabiteth eternity”, hell is given as time bound “where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched” (Mrk 9:44, 9:46 & 9:48).
    • If dust could be numbered, and all the dust of the earth fitted into an hour glass, with each spec representing a day, one may have hope of an end. If each grain in all the sands of the beaches of the world, represented a year, you can still have hope of an ultimate recovery to look forward to. 
    • Hell however is an end, not a journey. There is no purgatory, this Roman Catholic invention was for lucre not liberty.

This is the final place of family and friends whom lazy labourers refuse to tell Christ.

Are there few that be saved? Perhaps it may be that “the labourers are few”.  

Perhaps it is also because TOO FEW BELIEVE God’s words anymore.

Are There Few That Believe?

2 Thessalonians 2:1–5

1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 

3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

The time of our “gathering together unto him” is the time that I spoke of earlier in this message, it is a time that is imminent, it can occur at anytime, “at the last trump” and “in the twinkling of an eye” when we shall meet the Lord together in the air“, yes I know, sounds mad, sounds crazy and yet there it is again and again.

In verse 3 we are told of a “falling away“, it refers to a “departure from the faith“, what is often referred to as the “apostasy“. 

People will turn away from God, they will stop believing the word of God and thereby make shipwreck of their faith.

Even in those days when this was written, such was already occurring. Paul writing to Timothy, a young pastor in the faith wrote encouragingly, saying;

1 Timothy 1:19

 19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

Jesus himself was concerned that this will increase all the more and reach a low point just prior to his return.

Luke 18:8

8….. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Will there be few that believe? 

What shall cause the unbelief in that day? 

If we are seeing this occur today, as the Bible plainly tells us, ought we not therefore believe it?

Turn to 2 Timothy and see how Paul encourages Timothy, in spite of the time he knows shall come.

2 Timothy 4:2–4

2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Hope Baptist Church was established for this very reason.

The pastor had NO INTENTION EVER to scratch itching ears regardless of any disagreement of doctrine or scriptures within the church. 

The Bible IS our FINAL AUTHORITY,

But, when we WILL NOT endure sound doctrine, the Bible becomes just another book that we can take it or leave it even while we convince ourselves that it remains our authority.

Scripture plainly teaches that the end of the Church will be that of apostasy. The plainness of the Bible denied and we wont even go to Church when my pet doctrine is denied.

Tragically what this then does is close the mouth of the preacher. He “Self Censors” from preaching the whole counsel of God because he KNOWS that what he will preach is going to upset someone.

He turns to “fables” stories are always easier.

He stops preaching the truth, you stop believing the truth, and all because our lack of humility denies the plainness of the truth.

Welcome to Laodicea.

Outreach will stop.

Preaching the gospel will stop.

Preaching against sin in the Church will stop.

And the “church” will get more popular….interesting.

We said at the beginning that that which is popular almost always matches that which is in error when it comes to a belief system. 

This is what we see here in this passage in 2 Tim 4.

Are there now few that believe?

Beloved, if the gospel is at the forefront of your mind and you are broken hearted for the Lost, you are one of the few.

If you break your heart before the Lord for your own sin, and desire daily to be challenged by him and grow, no matter the growing pains you will endure, you are one of the few.

If the Bible, this book, the King James Bible, is your trusted final authority, and you believe that EACH AND EVERY WORD is there perfectly in its place, and God means what he says and says what he means, even though we are still growing in our understanding, your humility here testifies again that you are one of the few.

Finally; if no decision is made, no relationship decision, important decision etc is made, without you automatically running in your mind searching for an example in the Bible to help answer the problem, you are again one of the few, even one of the rarest of the few

I promise you however, there are not many that believe like that. They are few.

With Few he Changed The World

Acts 17:4–6

4 And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. 5 But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

Perhaps there is a reason that the door of history swings on his name.

A reason that the date of every persons birth is referenced from the life of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. 

A Reason that every new year is a celebration FROM HIS YEAR, and every date we pen begins from when he died and rose again!

These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

12 men changed the world. Not by sword, not by force. 

None of them prospered through the process. All of them suffered tremendous trials, torture, imprisonments and afflictions. 11 of the twelve were killed directly for the message of the Gospel itself, the one who died Old was tortured in a vat of boiling oil which he miraculously survived, before he was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos where he wrote The Revelation, the last book of the Bible.

Yet they changed the world. 12 men who left all and followed Christ, willingly died for the gospel.

Understand that these men are they who walked with Christ, talked with Christ and saw him alive AFTER his crucifixion. These men were eyewitnesses. No man would willingly die for what they know to be a lie. 

No. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ is the single most affirmed and attested event in all of history. Multitudes of people throughout history tried to deny its truth, but ALL arguments had fallen flat, because IF they employed those exact same arguments to other historical events, they too could be denied.

An essay was written in 1819 by Oxford Professor Richard Whately. It was titled HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, which was his answer to the atheistic writing of David Hume with exactly the same title but RELATIVE TO JESUS OF NAZARETH.

In that essay Richard Whately employed the exact same arguments of David Hume to prove conclusively that Napoleon Bonaparte does not exist, even while Napoleon was still alive and imprisoned on the island of St Helena at the time.

The message of the gospel is TRUE, and these men TURNED THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN.

You see beloved;

God does not work through committees.

God does not work through boards.

God does not work through democratic meetings casting their popular vote.

God does not hold popular elections to see whom the people all agree should be the best fit to do his work;

God works through individual people who believe him, who trust him, who love and adore him, and who fear him.

GOD LOOKS FAR AND WIDE, simply seeking after ONE man or ONE woman who will believe him at his word and trust him with their whole heart.

Everything else set aside, if God makes clear this is his will for my life, then I will sell all I have to pursue it and leave to him the consequences of my life.

In 2015 a book was published that tells the account of a young American missionary couple who started a work in a Muslim nation where Christianity was Illegal.

The book begins with the murder of her husband. Stephen Foreman was shot multiple times by al-Qaeda extremists.

When asked why she came with her husband with the statement “did you not know that you could likely be killed?” The now widowed Emily Foreman simply responded, with what became the title of the book, “We Died Before We Came Here”.

BELOVED, this is the right and true responce for the gospel of Christ. 

If you truly beleive that HELL is real and that multitudes are going to end there if YOU will not share the truth of it to all you can, YOU WILL BE WILLING TO DIE FOR IT.

The Labourers are FEW because FEW BELEIVE it and it is so heartbreaking to see.

BUT God only ever works with THE FEW, NEVER with the many who fear.

Never with the many whose hearts wax worse and worse.

Never with the many whose faith fails them in moments of distress or fear. 

“All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus SHALL suffer persecution” 2 Tim 3:12, it is a PROMISE and yet;

Romans 8:18

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

If the Gospel is TRUE, Where are YOU?

God works with the FEW!

Can this Church provide THE FEW?

Can men and woman find a heart for the Gospel and be willing to sell out for the truth of it to this sin wrecked world, a world that is swiftly headed to rack and ruin before Christ comes to judge it.

NO MISSION IS MORE IMPORTANT.

NO MESSAGE IS MORE VITAL.

NO TIME BETTER EMPLOYED.

NO EFFORT WITH BETTER REWARD.

This world is not worthy of men and women who sell out for Christ, it never was.

Hebrews 11:32–40

32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Why does Hope Baptist Church exist?

This is why.

My life’s purpose is to encourage The Few!