(Article for publication week of 3-11-2009 AD)
“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14).
We have noted in previous articles the urgency and difficulty of true conversion as taught by our Lord in the latter part of the Sermon on the Mount. The next thing that we wish to show you is that our Lord said that true conversion is a very rare thing. The Bible tells us that only a few will be saved. The vast majority of the human race will spend eternity in eternal hell where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Our text tells us that there are few who enter the difficult gate of conversion (repentance of sin and faith in Christ) and persevere in true holiness and finally arrive at the Celestial City. “FEW there be that find it.” But this is not the only place in the Bible where we are told that there are few saved. Our Lord said in Luke 12:32, “Fear not little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” The Lord’s people are a LITTLE flock. Again, in Romans 11:5 we read, “there is a REMNANT according to the election of grace.” A remnant is, of course a smaller part of a larger whole. There are few that are truly saved.
Many of you have the idea that most everybody is saved. Sadly, when I go to a funeral or funeral home, I hear everybody talking like everybody is saved. How many people I hear say at the funeral home, “well he (or she) is ‘better off.” But my friends, if your relative that died was not one of the few spoken of in my text, they are not better off, for they are now in hell and will never get out. Most preachers preach at funerals like they are Universalists. I made up my mind a long time ago that if I do not have clear and Biblical evidence that a person was saved, I would not say at the funeral that they are in heaven. I imagine that is the reason I do not get asked to preach many funerals anymore. Most people want the preacher to get up at their mama’s funeral and preach her into heaven whether she was a holy person or not. But neighbor, no preacher can preach your loved one into heaven if they were not savingly joined to Christ. And if you die without Christ, no preacher can preach you into heaven.
Now, I want you to just stop and consider that it is a miracle of God’s Sovereign Grace that any are saved. Were it not for God’s electing grace there would be none saved. The whole human race (that includes you) is doomed and damned in our federal head Adam. When Adam fell, he and his whole posterity became sinners. We are fallen sinners; we are natural sinners; we are practicing sinners. “The soul that sinneth it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). You and I and your grandmother and your grandfather and the whole human race deserve eternal death because we are sinners. If God had left the whole human race in sin and sent the whole world to hell, He would still be thrice holy and just. God is not obligated to save any sinner. My friend, God is not obligated to you. If He leaves you in your sin and sends you to hell, He will be a good and just and holy God. So, those of us who have been saved by grace know that it is all of God’s mercy that we have been spared the awful wrath of God. Praise God for His sovereign Grace that rescued a remnant of the human race. Praise God that He sent His Son to die for His little flock and they shall be saved. Praise God that He draws His people to the strait gate and sweetly forces them in.
Now dear reader, the question for you is, are you one of the few? Be sure if you are not in the narrow way the leads to life you will go to hell with the vast majority of the human race. And be sure the only way you will ever get into the narrow way is through the gate of conversion. Any that tries to come another way is a thief and a robber. Are you one of the few? Only if you are saved by the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Flee to Him poor sinner. He is able and willing to save the chief of sinners.
“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14).
We have noted in previous articles the urgency and difficulty of true conversion as taught by our Lord in the latter part of the Sermon on the Mount. The next thing that we wish to show you is that our Lord said that true conversion is a very rare thing. The Bible tells us that only a few will be saved. The vast majority of the human race will spend eternity in eternal hell where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Our text tells us that there are few who enter the difficult gate of conversion (repentance of sin and faith in Christ) and persevere in true holiness and finally arrive at the Celestial City. “FEW there be that find it.” But this is not the only place in the Bible where we are told that there are few saved. Our Lord said in Luke 12:32, “Fear not little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” The Lord’s people are a LITTLE flock. Again, in Romans 11:5 we read, “there is a REMNANT according to the election of grace.” A remnant is, of course a smaller part of a larger whole. There are few that are truly saved.
Many of you have the idea that most everybody is saved. Sadly, when I go to a funeral or funeral home, I hear everybody talking like everybody is saved. How many people I hear say at the funeral home, “well he (or she) is ‘better off.” But my friends, if your relative that died was not one of the few spoken of in my text, they are not better off, for they are now in hell and will never get out. Most preachers preach at funerals like they are Universalists. I made up my mind a long time ago that if I do not have clear and Biblical evidence that a person was saved, I would not say at the funeral that they are in heaven. I imagine that is the reason I do not get asked to preach many funerals anymore. Most people want the preacher to get up at their mama’s funeral and preach her into heaven whether she was a holy person or not. But neighbor, no preacher can preach your loved one into heaven if they were not savingly joined to Christ. And if you die without Christ, no preacher can preach you into heaven.
Now, I want you to just stop and consider that it is a miracle of God’s Sovereign Grace that any are saved. Were it not for God’s electing grace there would be none saved. The whole human race (that includes you) is doomed and damned in our federal head Adam. When Adam fell, he and his whole posterity became sinners. We are fallen sinners; we are natural sinners; we are practicing sinners. “The soul that sinneth it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). You and I and your grandmother and your grandfather and the whole human race deserve eternal death because we are sinners. If God had left the whole human race in sin and sent the whole world to hell, He would still be thrice holy and just. God is not obligated to save any sinner. My friend, God is not obligated to you. If He leaves you in your sin and sends you to hell, He will be a good and just and holy God. So, those of us who have been saved by grace know that it is all of God’s mercy that we have been spared the awful wrath of God. Praise God for His sovereign Grace that rescued a remnant of the human race. Praise God that He sent His Son to die for His little flock and they shall be saved. Praise God that He draws His people to the strait gate and sweetly forces them in.
Now dear reader, the question for you is, are you one of the few? Be sure if you are not in the narrow way the leads to life you will go to hell with the vast majority of the human race. And be sure the only way you will ever get into the narrow way is through the gate of conversion. Any that tries to come another way is a thief and a robber. Are you one of the few? Only if you are saved by the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Flee to Him poor sinner. He is able and willing to save the chief of sinners.
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