One of the Few

                         

                                                              One Of The Few 

                  "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matt. 7:13-14)          
            Only  a few? The words of Jesus Himself. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Not exactly how  He is portrayed by a vast number of Christian teachers today. It seems most want Jesus to be a cosmic bellhop at their beck and call.
           “Hey Jesus, I need you to take this seed money of mine and  multiply it a hundred fold.” “Woe, Jesus, dude, how about a healing now, you said none of your children should be sick.” “Come to Jesus and all your troubles will melt away, why he wouldn't want His children to suffer.”
            Jesus is not some hopping from here to there,  crowd pleasing, plate balancing vaudevillian tap dancing his way into your heart. That's  a skewed  view by those whose god is their belly and their glory is in their shame.They set their minds on earthly things. (Philippians 3:19)   In their greed these false teachers exploit you with stories made up. (2Peter 2:3) and for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” (2Peter 2:17)  
          Jesus said,  "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” There's that will of God again. Not our will, but His will. Sound familiar? Jesus praying in the garden, sweating great drops of blood, knowing that shortly they would come for him, try him, pronouncing  “Crucify, Crucify .”  The outcome being His death on a cross.
         Yet, God's Holy One, of whom the Father said “In Him I am well pleased, Hear Him” uttered “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup from me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done.” Jesus always but always did His Father's will. And we should rejoice in His choice. That's the gospel, the good news. Why? Only Jesus had glory with the Father  before the world was. (John 17:5). “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” And He being in very nature God, humbled Himself  in the likeness of  men so that He who had no sin might be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (Phillippiaans 2:5-11;  2Corinthians 5:21)              
         Try as they must various groups of heretical teachers have declared Jesus was only a prophet or a good man and even sinless or He was the archangel Michael,  God's first creation, or an avartar of enlightenment.  Friends if they are right there is no hope. No hope that anyone gets to heaven.
         Psalm 49 says “the redemption of souls is costly...that he should continue to live eternally and not see the Pit.”  None of us by or for ourselves can do anything worthy in the sight of God to save ourselves from the wrath of God. “We are all like an unclean thing and all our righteous acts are like fithy rags;” (Isaiah 65:6)
       Theologian Matthew Henry sums it up in his commentary of this verse with,”we are so corrupted and polluted that the best of our performances are but fit for the dunghill. There is not only a general corruption of manners, but a general defection in the exercises of devotion, too. When we would do good evil is present with us. And sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and cannot endure to look upon.”  
        The author of Hebrews  speaks of the first covenant having a tabernacle where a priest performed the services where once a year the blood of goats and calves was offered for the priests and for the peoples sins.” (Hebrews 9:7) “According to the law almost all things are purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)  No forgiveness without the shedding of blood of a spotless lamb.
       Harkening back to  the time  before God hardened the heart of Pharoah in anticipation of Israel's exodus from Egypt , God through Moses said , “take a lamb without blemish, a male of the first year.”  This young innocent lamb was sacrificed and the blood put on the door posts and door frames of their houses and Israel's  firstborn were spared when the death angel passed through Egypt claiming the lives of all their firstborn. (Exodus 12).       
         “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John the baptist proclaimed when he saw Jesus walking toward him. (John 1:29) And Paul wrote “Indeed Christ, our passover, was sacrificed for us.” (1Corinthians 5:7). Seven hundred and fifthy years before Jesus birth Isaiah the prophet  wrote about a man without beauty, despised and rejected,  led like a lamb to the slaughter,  stricken for the transgressions of the people, bearing the sin of many. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him,  "He  was wounded for our trangressions, bruised for our iniquities, and by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53)     
      John the Apostle said,  “In this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for sin.” (John in 1 John 4:10.)  Paul proclaimed, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace.” (Ephesians 1:7)  and “God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:8-9).
        Your eternal destination depends not on what you do but on who you know or rather who knows you.  No confession (Romans 10:9)..... No salvation.... No repentance (Luke 5:31; Acts 20:21). No forgiveness by the only one who can forgive....Jesus....the only name under heaven by which we can be saved. (Acts 4:12) Jesus who came to save His people from their sins. Those given to Him by His Father.  Saved unto eternal life in the presence of God and the glory of His power.(2Thessalonians 1:7-9)
        Scripture tells us it is appointed to men to die once, and then the judgement. Jesus tells us "the Father judges no one but has committed all judgement to the Son , that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (John 5:22-23) He is the image of the invisible God, who being the brightness of His glory and exact representation of His being and sustaining all things by His powerful word.   After he had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  So He became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.(Hebrews 1:3-4) As He said, I and My Father are one.
        His is the name to which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.(Phillippians 2: 10-11) He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36).It is Jesus who saves us from the wrath to come.
        Where does your hope lie? In your own self righteous adherence to a  religious  system of do this or that and God  may  open the gates of heaven for you. Or have you been born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:3)  
        Whether you are present on earth when the Lord comes down from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel and trumpet call of God. Or you depart this life before his return  and pass into eternity, remember you  will spend forever somewhere.         
        Peter wrote “ be even more diligent  to make your call and election sure” . And Paul said, “ “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” Are you relying on your own filty rags of righteousness to secure entrance into heaven? Or are you resting in the way, the truth and the life, Jesus the Christ. The only way to come to the Father. (John 14:6)
       As Paul pleaded 2000 years ago his words still  ring true today “ Do not receive the grace of God in vain. For God says, “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salavation I have helped you. Behold , now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2-3)
      Will you be one of the many who travels this temporal life on the broad and wide road that leads to destruction and hear Him declare “Depart from Me, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. I never knew you.” Or one of the few who enters by the narrow gate and hears the Masters words, “Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord.