Saved - Are there many?
Jesus said words to indicate only a very few in this age!
It is sin to break any of God's 10 Commandments. If you are willfully not keeping, not observing the 4th commandment, you are practicing as a way of life breaking a commandment of God. In that attitude of living you have no salvation! Christianity is more than just a mental and emotional feeling in the mind. You can not live a way of life where you are taking God's name in vain. You can not live a way of life where you are always stealing what is not yours. You can not live a way of life being a liar. So it is with any of the 10 Commandments---- so it is with the 4th commandment.
Is the Sabbath from God? Sure it is! Did God give it to mankind? Why yes He did! We are all familiar with the verses to prove all that. Is the Holy Spirit that begets us as the children of God the very nature of the Lord? Indeed so(Rom.8:9,14-16; 12 Peter 1:3- 4). If we have the Spirit, what does it shed abroad in our hearts? Why the very "love of God" (Rom.5:5). Now what is the love of God? 1 John 5:3 tells us, "For this is the love of God that we KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS....." What else will the Spirit do for us? I am thinking about a specific found in John 16:13. Yes, the Spirit will GUIDE US INTO ALL TRUTH! What is truth? The answer is found in John 17:17. Will the Spirit lead us and teach us the truth of God's word concerning the correct Sabbaths of the Lord to observe, as found in the word of God? Ah, you bet it will, just no way around it. How can the very nature of God be in us WITHOUT that nature obeying its own love which is the keeping of the commandments? All logic says it can not, two plus two equals four, not three or five. So the Sabbath days of God in our societies "stand out" for the people in the very body of Christ, as I've said, maybe to the point where many think this only is the true sign of a real Christian, a person who will be in the FIRST resurrection at the coming of Christ. BUT IS THIS SO? Can it be possible that MANY Sabbath keeping persons WILL NOT BE IN THAT FIRST resurrection, will NOT INHERIT Eternal life when Jesus comes again to receive the saints unto Himself? A STRAIGHT FORWARD QUESTION TO JESUS WITH A STRAIGHT FORWARD ANSWER As Jesus was going through the cities and villages teaching, one came to Him and said: "Lord, will only a FEW BE SAVED?......And He said to them, STRIVE to enter by the NARROW DOOR - force yourself through it - for MANY, I tell you, will TRY TO ENTER and will NOT BE ABLE......Then you will begin to say, We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets. But He will say, I tell you, I do not know where(what household - certainly not Mine) you come from; depart from Me, all you WRONGDOERS! There will be weeping and grinding of teeth......."(Luke 13:23-28, Amplified Bible). OooohhH! What a chilling and sobering answer, what a straight forward answer to a straight forward question. I mean, no interpretation needed here, pretty plain words! Many are going to try to enter, be saved, but the door is so NARROW that they will not make it! They will claim they "knew the Lord" and had some close moments with Him, were listening to Him in the streets. Do you suppose they were at church on the....Sabbath? Do you suppose some, no, the MANY, who will fail to be saved, could have been observing the Sabbaths of God? We shall see this is indeed so! Notice, Jesus did not say "depart from Me, you who have NOT kept My Sabbaths." He said it was WRONGDOERS who were to depart from Him. The Greek Interlinear by Berry translates the word as "unrighteousness." They were working NOT the righteousness of God. And what is righteousness? The Lord answers in Psalm 119:172, "....All thy commandments are righteousness." Now Sabbath breaking by ignoring it, or observing some other day of the week but the 7th day, is breaking the commandments, but UNrighteousness CAN BE MORE! You may be a perfect Sabbath keeper and annual Holy Day observer, but still be working unrighteousness, which will keep you from entering in at the NARROW gate to be saved. This was not the only time Jesus spoke so BLUNTLY. He told His personal disciples in the famous "sermon on the mount" that: "Not EVERY ONE that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, SHALL ENTER into the Kingdom of heaven; BUT he that does THE WILL of My Father which is in heaven. MANY will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done MANY WONDERFUL WORKS? And then will I profess unto them, I NEVER KNEW YOU: DEPART FROM ME, you that WORK INIQUITY"(Mat.7:21-23). The Greek for "iniquity" is translated by Berry as LAWLESSNESS. These people were doing SOME "wonderful" works! Do you suppose keeping the Sabbaths of God were among those wonderful works? Whatever, one thing is for sure, they were BREAKING THE LAW, DOING LAWLESSNESS, as a way of life, during their life, for it kept them out of the Kingdom. Just were not there in that first resurrection to Eternal life at the coming of Christ. Can Sabbath observers still be on the outside looking in? Is Sabbath keeping only a part of being a true child of the Father? Is there MORE to being a Christian than just accepting Jesus as saviour, mentally acknowledging the commandments have not been done away, and observing the Sabbaths of the Lord? Will Sabbath keepers find themselves out in the cold and dark? Is hearing and doing the sayings of Jesus MUCH MORE than observing ceratin days as holy(Mat.7:24-27)? Ah, indeed it is! The Pharisees as a group of religious people, observed the Sabbath and Feasts of God, but in other areas they MISSED THE BOAT! Jesus told His followers that unless their righteousness exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees, they would not enter the Kingdom(Mat.5:20). More pretty plain talk. Now the Pharisees were very good indeed at keeping parts of the law of the Lord. Turn to Matthew 23 and read verse 23. Certain things mentioned here Jesus said they should keep doing, but there were some WEIGHTIER matters of the law they had put to one side. Such as JUDGMENT, MERCY, and FAITH. The keys to being a true child of God is BROADER than what many sometimes think. I wonder if the type of attitude exhibited by the Pharisees in Jesus' day, is also alive and well among the people of the Sabbath keeping churches today. Far too many not seeing the WHOLE picture. Observing certain laws very well, while not seeing the white-washing they do to other lawlessness. Read all of chapter 23 of Matthew. Now ask yourself: Will most of those scribes and Pharisees be in the first resurrection? Remember now, they were observing the Sabbaths. JESUS EXPANDS BEING A TRUE CHRISTIAN The parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 is not only interesting but very revealing. Please read verses 25 through 46. Some will make it into the Kingdom, some will not. Notice, Christ does not use the Sabbath observing law, the Festival observance, the law of tithing, clean or unclean foods, the law against observing pagan festivals, and some other well known specific laws you could think about from the 10 commandments. This parable is set AFTER Jesus has returned and is sitting on the throne of His glory, judging all nations. It is a Millennium parable. Presumably the nations during that time will have no problem with observing the above mentioned laws, as such laws will be the law of the earth under Christ's rule. Yet some during this time may not make it into the Kingdom. LOOK AT THE REASONS GIVEN BY CHRIST! Wow! Being a true Christian is MORE than mere Sabbath and Feast observance! It is getting down to some nitty- gritty practical LIVING within the context of your fellow man. You could be the world's best Sabbath observer/Feast keeper, and STILL NOT GET INTO THE KINGDOM because you may have missed some other weighty matters of the law. Kind of sobering do you not think? We will take another example along the same line from the apostle John. Turn to 1 John and chapter three. We'll start in verse 14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we LOVE THE BRETHREN. He that LOVES NOT his brother abides in death. Whosoever HATES his brother is a MURDERER: and you know that no murderer has ETERNAL LIFE in him........But whoso has this WORLD'S GOODS, and sees his brother HAVE NEED, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, HOW DWELLS THE LOVE of God in him? My little children let is not love(only) in word, neither in tongue, but in DEED and TRUTH(verses 14-18). Now that is getting down to brass tacks in what is a whole true Christian. You may be obeying a lot of the up front, well known commandments of the Lord like keeping the Sabbath, clean and unclean foods, not committing adultery, not using the words "God" and "Christ" in profanity from your mouth, but IF YOU ARE NOT DOING THE ABOVE that John spoke about, or if you are hating someone, the LOVE of God (which is the Spirit of God, the eternal life seed) IS NOT IN YOU! You are not a begotten child of the Lord, and if you remain in this condition you will not inherit eternal life at the coming of Christ. So far we have talked about why some individuals may not enter the narrow gate to be saved. Could there be whole church groups, or large segments of church congregations that observe the Sabbaths and yet fall short in other lawlessness, and so miss the first resurrection. Indeed it could be so! Turn to the book of Revelation. Yes, you know where I'm going to. The second and third chapters. The seven Churches! We shall not worry about if these are church eras, it does not matter for our purpose. They were seven literal church congregations at one time. They were the true begotten children of God, with His Spirit in them originally. The church at Ephesus had some righteous ways, were in sink with the Lord on some points. Yet they had FALLEN and were told to REPENT.....or else! Now look at the church at Pergamos. Doing some things right, maybe most things right, but a few sins had crept in such as IDOLATRY and FORNICATION(probably both physical and spiritual). They were told to REPENT! The church at Thyatira had much the same problems as Pergamos. They had fallen into the DEPTHS of Satan. The Sardis church was there but was spiritually dead in the main, most had defiled their garments, some few remained faithful. The church at Laodicea was riddled with so much vanity from physical and spiritual wealth, they became blind to their real condition. God was ready to spew them out of His mouth as unpleasant water. These were God's churches, they were probably still observing the Sabbath, some may have gone off into observing idolatrous pagan festivals. They had some of the marks of following the true God, but large segments of the people needed to repent and get back on the right track, or they would never enter the narrow gate for eternal life. WILL MANY BE SAVED? What about the conditions of the religious world just before the return of Christ? What did Jesus say about it? Matthew 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christs, and FALSE PROPHETS, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." It would get so bad that IF it was possible even the ELECT would be led astray. Jesus did say that MANY would be called, but FEW CHOSEN! When it was all said and done, there would be relatively a small group for the first resurrection, who would be faithful and unspotted to the end. Who would be covered COMPLETELY in a garment of white. For Jesus knew a whole true Christian was much more than a Sabbath keeper or Festival observer. He knew a real child of the Father's would have to be busy LIVING BY EVERY WORD OF GOD just as He taught(Mat.4:4). And to find those people on the earth when He returned.......well Jesus put it this way: "Fear not, LITTLE LITTLE flock(the Greek is a double diminutive - very little); for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom"(Luke 12:32). And again in Luke 18:8, ".....when the Son of man comes, shall He find THE FAITH(original Greek) on the earth?" The Bible shows there will be true faithful Christians on this earth when Jesus returns, but relatively not many, like the sprinkle of salt over the meal. There are literally millions of Sabbath keepers today, but there are MANY tares among the wheat. It must be so until the harvest. YOU CAN BE A WHEAT TO ENTER THE NARROW GATE Are you feeling low after all this serious plain talk from the lips of Christ? Ah, our Saviour does not leave us without showing HOW we can endure to the end and make sure we go through the narrow gate into life. "According as His DIVINE POWER has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has CALLED us to GLORY and VIRTUE: Whereby are given unto us exceeding GREAT and PRECIOUS PROMISES: that by these you might be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, ADD TO YOUR FAITH virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.......give DILIGENCE to make your CALLING and ELECTION SURE: FOR IF YOU DO THESE THINGS, YOU SHALL NEVER FALL: For so an entrance shall be ministered (opened) unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet.3- 11). Ah, along with 1 Cor.13 this section of Scripture would make for a very profitable in-depth Bible study. Brethren, let us pray for one another. ..................... (Oct.1996) |
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