luk 13v23 Are There Few That Be Saved
"ARE THERE FEW THAT BE
SAVED?"
Luke 13:23
Sometimes people poke fun at
those who preach the doctrine of Divine election, saying, "You folks
believe that there are only a select few who will be saved." Well, yes, that
is what we believe. Our Lord Jesus Christ said plainly, "Many are called,
but few are chosen" (Matt. 22:14).
Those are the words of God himself. That settles the question. I know that in
the end God's elect will be a multitude which no man can number, ten thousand
times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. Who can tell how many elect
infants God has mercifully taken to glory in his acts of judgment upon their
ungodly parents?
Yet, at any one time, God's elect in this world are
very few, when compared with the multitudes who
perish. In the days of Noah, only Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Lot
was the only person in Sodom whom
God had chosen. Of all the multitude who left Egypt,
only two, Joshua and Caleb entered the land of promise. The rest perished in
unbelief. Among the many prophets at Carmel,
only Elijah knew God. When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem,
he said, "I and some few men with me" came to do the work (Neb.
2:12). Isaiah said that after the
judgment of God came upon the earth, there would be "few men left"
(Isa. 24:6). A great multitude was carried away unto Babylon;
but when they cane to Jeremiah in repentance, they said, "We are left but
a few of many" (Jer. 42:2). Our Lord Jesus said, concerning the way of
faith and life, "Few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:14). And in his parables Christ made it
plain that there are "few that be saved" (Luke 13:20-25). At the last time, in that age of the church
depicted by Sardis there were only
"a few names" found among the faithful (Rev. 3:4).
This is plainly the teaching of Holy Scripture: AMONG
THE MULTITUDES WHO WEAR THE NAME OF CHRIST, AND PROFESS TO BE HIS FOLLOWERS,
THERE ARE ONLY A FEW WHO KNOW HIM AND ARE SAVED. THE REST ARE
PERISHING UNDER THE DELUSION OF A FALSE HOPE. Hear the Word of the Lord,
and be warned. Are you among the many who are perishing; or are you among the
few who are chosen, the few who trust Christ alone for eternal salvation?