Hello everybody, it's ministertall23 back with another video.
I'm going to do a quick sound check first to make sure that the sound is working.
Yep, alright, so this video, an alternate title to it could be, so I titled it, God's
people have always been a minority.
It could also be, God's people have never been a majority.
So I was thinking about what to name it, either title would be fine, just going to keep this
one for now.
But in this video I want to talk about a fact that we ought to realize, and that is that
God's people, Christians, have never been a majority but always a minority throughout
the Bible and even into the modern day.
Those who are truly worshippers of the Lord, those who are redeemed, those who are saved,
those who are the children of God have never occupied a large portion of the world's population.
And unfortunately that will always be the case.
The Lord Jesus Christ promised that only a few people would find the way of life.
In Matthew chapter 7 verse 13 to 14 he says,
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 that go in thereat, because strait is the gate, and
narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
So this is about the number of people who will find the way of life.
It's not about how difficult it is to get into heaven as some of the modern versions
will change it to mean, like the ESV and the NIV and all the modern versions of the Bible
will kind of change this passage.
But if you read what it actually says, it's about the fact that there's not many people
who are going to find the way of life.
It's narrow.
Now Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
So the way that leadeth unto life is Jesus himself.
We know that neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
If we're going to be saved, it's through Jesus Christ alone.
So according to Christ, there are many that will go the way that leadeth to destruction.
Most people, not just now but throughout all of history, have gone to hell.
They've perished instead of finding eternal life through Jesus Christ.
The way that leadeth unto life is narrow, meaning not many people will enter into it
and most will not find it.
Most go off into eternity trusting their own works or trusting another god or worshipping
a different god and not trusting in the sacrifice of Christ and his resurrection to save them
from their sins.
They've never believed on Christ.
They've never called upon the name of the Lord.
Even if they might believe in God or go to church or try to do good in their life, they
do good deeds and they trust in that.
If they've never been born again, if they've never put their trust in Jesus Christ, they've
never received him as their savior, they will never find life.
Now a similar passage in the book of Luke begins with a question by the disciples in
Luke chapter 13 verse 23 to 24.
It says, Then said one of them, Lord, are there few that be saved?
And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many I say to you
will seek to enter in and shall not be able.
The question is, are there few that be saved that is raised by the disciples?
The answer is basically yes, there are many who will want to be saved, who want to find
life but will not be able to enter in.
There's only a few people who shall find life.
The majority of people alive today and throughout history as well have not and will not find
Christ but instead will go to hell.
This is an important discussion for several reasons.
Firstly, to keep those who go out soul winning from not getting discouraged.
We need to understand as bad as it is and as much as we care about the souls of the
lost, as much as we want people to get saved, not everybody is going to turn to Christ.
Not everybody we witness to is going to get saved.
There's a lot of people who we might even give the gospel to who might be interested
but who aren't willing to receive Christ as their savior because they make some excuse.
I know there's the parable of the feast in the gospels where Jesus talks about sending
laborers forth to bid people to come to the supper and he goes and first they go and they
find a bunch of people who make excuses and then they're called to go into the highways
and the hedges and to find the poor of the nation to bring them in.
But originally there's a whole bunch of people who make excuses who even though they have
the potential to get saved, there's nothing actually stopping them.
They make all these ridiculous excuses.
They might even want to go to heaven but they just don't want to receive Christ as savior
because they're trusting in their own works or they're prideful or whatever.
Or they don't want to give up their gods, their false gods or their false religion or
whatever.
So it is our mission to find those who are willing to hear the gospel and be saved which
although it's a minority, they're still out there.
Another thing this helps us to do is understand that in this world we live in today, most
of those who call themselves Christians are not true Christians.
Giving yourself a title, calling yourself a Christian does not make it so.
One who is not born again does not belong to God.
As the scriptures say in Romans chapter 8, if any man have not the spirit of Christ,
he is none of his.
Meaning those who do not have the spirit and dwelling within them do not belong to Jesus
Christ.
So large denominations and sects like the Roman Catholics or various orthodox churches
out there which claim to be the only truth or the only true church, they're not of God.
I mean there's only or there's over 1.4 billion Roman Catholics in this world and yet the
scriptures say a few shall be saved.
1.4 billion is not a few, it's like a fifth of the world's population.
So in fact in the world today, and of course I'm not completely sure about this, we can
never really know exactly how many people are saved, how many people are true Christians,
but I would say that probably less than 30-40 million people in this world today truly know
Christ as their savior.
Maybe it's a little bit more, maybe it's a little bit less, we don't know that for
sure, but even many who go to churches which in time past have taught the truth such as
those in Baptist churches are being deceived by false prophets in this day and age who
teach works salvation or they never hear the gospel whatsoever, but they simply sit in
a church because it's their tradition.
There's a lot of people you find that are like that, that simply consider themselves
a Christian by tradition because of the fact that they were raised that way, but they don't
know Christ as their savior.
They don't know anything about salvation and the gospel.
Most people you find out door knocking do not know for sure that they have eternal life,
and many who say they do know for sure believe so on false pretenses like I've been baptized
or I'm a good person or whatever.
Now this was the same in ancient Israel too, it's not just in the modern day, it's not
just in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament as well, even among the Israelites
of people to whom had been given the oracles of God who should have known the truth, who
had the holy scriptures, who had grown up in the traditions of worshiping the Lord,
who had prophets among them preaching the truth.
Even among them, few people were true worshipers of the Lord.
It is written in Romans chapter 11 verse 3 to 4,
Lord, they have killed my prophets and taken down thine altars, and I am left alone and
they seek my life.
But what sayeth the answer of God unto him?
I have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of
Baal.
This refers back to the conversation of Elijah the prophet with the Lord, the former,
which believed that he was the only man of God left during that time.
It was during the reign of Ahab and the entire nation had apostatized, they were worshiping
a false god.
So it's written in 1 Kings chapter 19 verse 14 to 18, and he said, this is Elijah speaking,
I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have
forsaken thy covenant, throw down thine altars and slain thy prophets with the sword.
And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus.
And when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.
And Jehu the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel.
And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abba Mahola, shall thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.
And it shall come to pass that him that escaped the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay.
And him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.
Yet I have not, or yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have
not bowed the knee unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
First, Elijah says in verse 14 that he is the only one left of the children of Israel
who has not forsaken the covenant of the Lord.
At this time during the reign of Ahab and Queen Jezebel, there were true believers,
those who preached against the worship of false gods like Baal, they were killed by
the wicked king and the queen, and Elijah's life was sought also by the king and the queen
of Israel as well.
Yet God tells him first, anoint these three, Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha, and by the sword
of these three shall the prophets of Baal and the wicked of Israel who have forsaken
the Lord be slain.
Then after that, after promising judgment upon Israel, God promises Elijah that there
are still seven thousand in the nation of Israel which have not bowed the knee unto
Baal.
At this time, there were hundreds of thousands in Israel, hundreds of thousands in a nation
which had been given the written law of God who knew the Lord at one point, who had the
prophets of the Lord preach unto them.
And yet out of all of those, only seven thousand remained.
That's the remnant that is referred to in Romans chapter 11, the remnant according to
the election of grace, people who were actually saved.
It's only a small portion, only a remnant of God's people, even in the Old Testament
were actually saved.
It's written in Romans chapter 9, verse 27, Isaiah also cries concerning Israel, though
the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.
In the Old Testament, the physical nation of Israel, those who were descended from Jacob,
they were called to be the people of God.
And it is declared by the prophets that even though the number of the children of Israel
as the sand of the sea, meaning that there's an innumerable number of people descended
from Jacob, and yet only a remnant, a small portion left over, a residue, a tiny minority
of the greater nation is actually going to be saved.
Those who are truly God's people, those who are the children of God, who have been saved
by grace through faith, isn't always have been a minority.
Jesus promised that few people would be saved.
So when we look at this world today, even amongst those who call themselves Christian,
few of them are actually saved.
Just think about the different false religions out there and the different cults which classify
themselves as Christian, and yet they do not believe the Bible, who are trusting their
own works or trusting a different God or Mary or the Pope or their church or their baptism
or something like that, instead of trusting Christ for their salvation.
They're not seeking to be saved through faith in Christ, but through the works of the law.
And if you read the last portion of Romans Chapter 9, Paul explains that's the reason
why the Jews are not saved, because they do not seek righteousness by faith, but by the
works of the law.
And this is one of the reasons why we as Christians ought to be careful about ecumenicalism and
the push in this modern day towards uniting together and tolerating all religions.
There are many which may appear good outwardly, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
And we, of course, know how that's going to go down in Bible prophecy and talk about the
end times, about how the Bible talks about that in the last days there will be a one
world religion and that all the people who are not in the Book of Life will worship the
Antichrist, will worship the Beast, according to Revelation Chapter 13.
So true Christians are but a minority in this world, a remnant who have truly turned to
the Lord in faith.
Few people will be saved, the scriptures tell us.
Most people are seeking the way of life by themselves, by their own righteousness, by
their own works, although the Bible tells us that salvation is of the Lord.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, this is an important thing to keep in mind when going out soul
winning as well, that a lot of the people you run into are not actually saved.
And this should also encourage us to go soul winning as well, to understand that although
most of them, most of the people we run into, although there could be exceptions in certain
regions or certain cities or areas, some places are more receptive than others.
But most places that we go to, if you live in the United States or you live in the Western
world, I'm just assuming most of the people who watch my channel probably in the United
States or United Kingdom or Canada or something like that.
If you live in an area like that, most people you run into are not going to want to hear
the gospel, okay?
But don't let that discourage you because you ought to understand that because there's
so few Christians out there, there's even less who are also serving God.
I mean, out of all the people who are saved, not everybody is committing their life and
their energy to soul winning.
Or even if they don't spend a lot of time doing that, they don't do it.
There's a lot of Christians who don't do that at all, never win somebody to Christ in their
entire life.
So that's another thing you ought to keep in mind.
So let's not forget that God's people have always been a minority.
They've never been a majority.
Few people will be saved and that's unfortunate, but that's just how it is.
Most people are going to reject the gospel.
So that's it for this video.
That's really all I had to say.
So thank you everybody for watching and goodbye.