(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, so there in John chapter one, I want to point out in verse six where it says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. Now notice there it says that all men through him might believe, right? Goes on in verse eight and says, he that was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. So we see first of all that all men are enlightened. All men are lighted when they come into the world, meaning they are given the knowledge of God. They are given, and we'll see that some other examples of that here in a minute go to Romans chapter two, Romans chapter two, but what I want to point out in the beginning of the sermon is that everyone has the opportunity to be saved. I don't believe in this hypothetical person who has just never heard the gospel or has never at least had the opportunity to hear the gospel. I'm sure there are places in the world where there is no gospel light going forth, but everybody in the world knows who Jesus is, and I do believe that the Bible is true and it teaches that people, if they seek, they will find. We have the knowledge in ourselves to seek out and to find the true and living God. That's how it was for me. No one came to me initially and shared with me the gospel. I first developed a desire for the truth. I was first lightened when I came into the world, and that led me on a path of seeking out the true and living God. All men have the witness. You're going over Romans two, it says in Romans one, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. Look, they might not be able to know everything about God and the way of salvation, but what may be known of God is manifest in them for God had showed it unto them for the invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Look, everybody has the opportunity to save. All men have the witness. All men are enlightened. All have the law written on their hearts. It says in Romans chapter two, verse 12 for as many have, has, has, have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law. So that's the answer to that question that you often get out soul winning. Well, what about people who've never heard like, well, that's, that's the answer right there. As many as have sinned without the law shall perish without the law because God, you know, what takes a person to hell? Is it the fact that they never heard about Jesus or is it the fact that they're a sinner? The wages of sin is death. So that is, and that's kind of another subtopic. I don't want to go off on, but it says here, as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. Look at verse 14 for when the Gentiles, which have not the law do by nature, the things would contained in the law. These having not a law or a law unto themselves, which show the law of God, the work of the law written in their hearts, their own conscience bearing witness and their thoughts. The, the meanwhile accusing, accusing or excusing one another. So the Bible is showing us right out of the gate. And if you would go over to Jeremiah chapter 25, Jeremiah chapter 25, that everyone has the opportunity to be saved. That if someone wants to know the Lord that wants to be saved, they are going to have that option. That is something the Bible says that he is the savior of all men, especially those that believe that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So God wants everyone to be saved. God so loved the world and he gave us, he is the propitiation, not for our sins, not, not only for our sins, but for the sins of the, for the whole world. You know, I'm kind of messing that one up a little bit, but you get the point is that the Bible is showing us that all people are enlightened. All people have the witness. All people have the law written on their hearts, their own conscience, either accusing or excusing. Look at Jeremiah chapter 25, verse 15 for thus say it, the Lord God of Israel unto me, take the wine cup of this fury and at my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send me to drink it. So was Jeremiah sent only to Israel? Was he only sent to a few nations? No, it says he was sent into all to all nations to my sending to drink it and they shall drink and be moved and be made mad because of the sword that I will send among them. So he's saying, look, you're going to not only preach against, uh, you know, Jerusalem and Israel, but that must send you to these other nations and you're going to go preach hell fire and brimstone over there. Then I took the cup at the Lord's hand and made all the nations to drink unto whom the Lord had sent me to at Jerusalem, the cities of Judah and the Kings thereof, and the princes thereof to make them a desolation and astonishment and hissing and a curse as it is this day, Pharaoh, King of Egypt and his servants and his princes and all his people and all the mingle people and all the Kings of the land of us and all the Kings of the land of the Philistines and Ashkelon, Eiza and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon and all the Kings of Tyros and all the Kings of Zidon and the Kings of the Isles, which are beyond the scene, which means just everybody else because he's already listing a lot of names here, right? We're kind of getting the theme here D Dan, Tima buzz and all that are in the utmost corners and all the Kings of Arabia and all the Kings of the mingle people that dwelt in the, in the desert and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth. In Jeremiah's day, God sent his message out to all the kingdoms of all the earth. Look, everybody, there have been, everyone has had an opportunity to get saved throughout all, all of time. I believe that the Bible says that their line went out into all the earth, that their sound was heard throughout all the earth, you know, and how much, you know, we, you know, I could see maybe where people might have a question about it in the past. All the Bible is telling us this is how God accomplished it. But what about today when technology just takes the gospel to every corner of the road, anywhere people can have any kind of a smartphone? I mean, we, we're, we have people in Africa, you know, the, apparently the darkest continent, you know, ever where every missionary goes because it's just so secluded, right? Even there, you know, where people are literally sitting on dirt floors, you know, and, and are in poverty, even they have these smartphones and things where they can put their request all the time, SD cards. I mean, I can tell you about, you know, people that we know that are part of our church and friends of this church that are in Africa right now, just send another, you know, missionary came through, we gave him a big donation, doing a good work over there and he's going back to another African nation. So where in the world are these people that are not hearing the gospel? Look, the Bible's telling us very clearly that all have a chance to be saved. They're all enlightened. They all have a witness. They all have the law written on their hearts and they are all without excuse. The Bible says in Romans chapter 10 verse 18, but I say have they not heard? Yes, barely their sound went into all the earth and their words onto the ends of the world. So you can either believe the Bible this morning or, you know, what some Mormon will tell you. The Bible says that they went into that there's nobody that has not had an opportunity to hear the gospel. Does that mean a lot of people are saved though? No, despite the fact that God's word has gone out to all nations that even today it's going out in mass to people that people have the are enlightened. They have the witness, they have the law written in their hearts. Despite that, few people are saved. Few people are saved today, despite the fact that they are given opportunity to be saved. All are. But does that mean everybody gets saved? No. Go over to Luke chapter 13, Luke chapter 13. When you get there, keep something in Luke. Bible says in Luke 11 you're going to chapter 13 it says, and I say unto you ask and it shall be given you seek and he shall find knock and it shall be open unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and unto him that knocketh it shall be opened. Look, the promise of the scripture is, is that everyone that asketh receiveth. If we seek, we shall find, you know, we can apply that to our own personal lives as Christians, the things that we have need of, but how much more so the heathen who God wants to be saved, who wants all men to come unto him. If they would seek, if they would knock, if they would ask, God would make it happen. We've all heard, you know, the, the, the missionary stories that, you know, if we came up in Sunday school or anything like that, about the, you know, the, the boy in India who was out in the jungle one night looking up the stars and desired, you know, to know who God was. And then just a short time later, some missionary comes by, look, God does that. God does that type of thing. God will plan a day of visitation for an individual who was seeking, who was knocking, who was looking. So what about the person who isn't seeking and knocking? What good would it do then? What good would it do to take one of God's, you know, messengers and send them to a person who's not going to receive it anyway. So there, first of all, has to be, you know, a willing heart. There has to be somebody that wants to know the truth. And if that person's out there, they will find the truth that they seek it. Look there in Luke chapter 13 verse 22, it says, and he went through the cities and villages teaching and journey toward Jerusalem. Then said one of them, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, strive to enter into the state gate. So he says, yeah, but he gives them the long answer, right? Strive to enter in at the straight gate for many, I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able. When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut to the door and you begin to stand without and to knock at the door at saying, Lord, open to us, he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not once you are. So there is an opp, you know, that everyone has an opportunity, but there's coming going to come a day where that opportunity is removed. An opportunity is gone. Now, look, he says there, the gate is narrow, right? To strive to enter out of the, at the straight gate, meaning the narrow gate, right? Now the reason why it uses that term is not because salvation is difficult. It's not saying, look, you need to go in that straight gate because you know, because it's straight because of the fact that it's hard. You know, we think about like, Oh man, look, narrow spaces are harder for some of us than others, right? So we think about, you know, having to like make our way through. But the reason why I believe he's calls it a straight gate is because it's adequate. The amount of people that are coming in, that's what he's trying to say, look, it's a narrow gate because that's all it's needed. He said, why does the gate with the lead of thunder destruction and many there be go, which, which go in there at why is the gate to hell wide? Because a lot of people are going there. Why is the gate to heaven narrow? Because there's few that find it. You know, this always reminds me when I worked as a locksmith in the convention center of Phoenix downtown, I worked very closely with the fire Marshall who was on site there and I always had to think about means of egress, you know, whenever I was working on a door, cause we'd have hundreds, thousands of people come in, you know, over the course of several days, sometimes it's this huge facility, you know, massive openings with just multiple doors and you had to make sure they closed at a certain speed and so on and they latched so on and so forth. But one of the things you had to keep in mind, especially more so as the fire Marshall was, was the opening adequate for the anticipated max occupancy of the building. So what they do when they build the building in order to comply with fire code is that they'll look at a facility and say, okay, this building can hold X amount of people. Therefore it must have X amount of doors. It must have so many openings so far apart so that people can get out in emergency. So, you know, a building like this, the smaller facility that we're in, you know, that whole back wall down there doesn't need to be a bunch of, you know, American disability compliant, you know, doors that we just push a button. They all swing open, right? That one door is sufficient to come and go in out of here. That's the illustration I believe that Jesus is using here when he says why the gate to heaven is narrow is because there's few that find it and it's adequate. Look, if more people get saved, it would be a little bit wider and we get bigger. The gate is narrow because few that find it, there are a few that find it. Look, a lot of, all people have opportunity. All people are enlightened. All people have the gospel in their heart or the witness in their heart. All people have the law written and they all have their own conscience. They can all seek and they can all find, but not many do. The gate is narrow because few that find it. Are you still in Luke chapter 13 or Luke? Go back to chapter 12 very quickly. Luke chapter 12 and verse 32 it says, fear not little flock. Now he's not saying that because it's a flock of dwarves or something. You know what I mean? You wouldn't look at some of the guys in here and go, well, that's little, right? You'd say, well, these are big guys, right? He's not talking about the mass of the, of the people involved, right? He's talking about the fact that his flock was small. It wasn't big. I mean it was 12 and then it was 70 and it grew a little bit, but what's that compared to the masses? He says, fear not little flock. You know, Jesus admitting here, yeah, there's few that be saved. There's few that are going to be members of this flock. And what I want to start to preach to you over the next couple of weeks here is a series called rare breeds, rare breeds. And I don't know if this will be more than two or three sermons, but I want to look at different groups of people in the scripture that we would consider rare today, that we can see there's few in number, that they are precious, that they are not everywhere to be found. And the first group I want to look at this morning is the rare breed of the saved, the saved. I think I've kind of made that case there, haven't I, in this introduction showing you that look, anyone could get saved if they wanted to. The whole world could come to Christ if they wanted to. And yet despite that fact, even when Jesus himself was walking the face of the earth and doing many miracles, he said, my little flock, that all the, although the opportunity is there, not everybody takes it up. In fact, few do. And that makes those few that do take the Lord up on that opportunity to be saved, a rare breed, rare breed this morning is the saved. And look, that's me and you. If you're saved, if you know the Lord, you are in precious company. You are, you are, you know, you're in a spiritually elite group, not because of who we are, what we are, because you know, we've done some great thing, but simply because we've believed on Christ because there's few people that do that in this world. And I thought it was interesting to think about the fact that we, as God's people are a rare breed, the saved, those that have been bought by the blood, you know, we're, we're, we're a precious group. But even when you begin to look within that group of the saved, you know, if you just forget about the world and everybody else, that's not part of the saved and just start to look within that one, that group of the saved. Even then you get into these subcategories of people who are even more rare. There's people who are even more rare within that group of people that are called the saved. And I want to just look at a few examples of that this morning, when the first examples would be those that are baptized, rare are the baptized. You know, there's a lot of people, a lot of Christians out there that are part of that little flock that have gotten saved that know the Lord that are on their way to heaven, but never bothered to get baptized. But never bothered to take that, that simple step of going and being dunked and publicly professing their faith in Christ. There are few. Now, now that, now that's not the case here, but I guarantee you there's a lot of people that are saved out in the world today that don't go to church, that don't do a lot of spiritual things that we do. And one of those things that they don't do is be baptized. And I'm gonna kind of list these in order of difficulty, you know, as, as, as I see it, you know, and here's the thing, go to acts, uh, acts chapter 10, go to acts chapter 10, actually go to acts two, acts two. You know, it's rare to not only be saved, but it's also rare to be someone who's saved and baptized. It says in Matthew chapter three, then come with Jesus to Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him saying, I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me. And Jesus answering sent them to have suffer it to be so now. So Jesus, of course, himself set the example of being baptized and, you know, he went out of his way. He didn't say, John, come here and baptize me. He went to where the man doing the baptisms was and, and went out and, and went out of his way, put forth the effort to make it happen. Not everybody does that. And it's a command to be baptized it. And it's really one of the easiest commands to obey. Look at acts chapter two, verse 37. It says, now, when they had heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you. And of course, we know that repentance is talking about that they might believe on Christ. You know, it's not talking, you know, it's a subject subject when we bring up repentance, I'm not going to, you know, put a caveat every time I bring up that word, but he's saying here, look, repent and be baptized. Who? Every one of you, meaning everybody that's saved is commanded to be baptized. That's like one of the first steps of obedience. Say, well, I'm saved. Am I going to heaven? I want to serve God. What should I do? What must I do? Be baptized. It's commanded in scripture. It's the example of Jesus. Be baptized in the name of the Jesus Christ for the remissions of citizen. You shall receive the Holy ghost acts. Go to acts chapter 10, acts chapter 10. I'll begin reading in verse 46, acts chapter 10. Look, it's a rare group today. If you're saved, you're an, you're a rare person. There's not many that are saved, but if you want to be even more rare, you know, if you want to even be a more elite spiritual group within the saved, get baptized, you know, and now in Baptist churches, this might not be as big a deal. I mean, that's, that's the name on the door. We're Baptists, right? We're most, I mean, when we started this church, I think I baptized pretty much the entire church. I think one day we had 11 baptisms and that's great, but you know what? I there, I know there's people that are members of this church that have not yet have been baptized. And the question is, why not? You're commanded to do it. And until you do it, you know what? You're not going to be part of that elite group. Oh, you're saved. You're a rare breed, but you want to, you're not going to be part of that even more rare group, which is the baptized look in acts chapter 10, verse 46 for when they, they heard him speak. This is of course, speaking about the day of Pentecost when they spoke in tongues, meaning another language, another earthly language. Then answered, Peter, can any man forbid water that she, these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy ghost as well as we, and he commanded them to be baptized. He didn't just set up the water and bring it out and say, Hey, if you want to, it's an option. And that he commanded them, you know what? That's what I'm doing this morning. And if there's somebody under the sound of my voice that is saved part of that rare breed that has not yet been baptized, the command is to be baptized. You say, well, I'm not getting a baptized because is it really that big of a deal? And that's kind of, that's kind of foolish logic when you think about it. Well, being baptized isn't that big of a deal. Okay, then do it, then do it. If it's not a big deal, if it's not that hard, if it's so easy, if it's not that big of a deal, then do it because the commands there, it's the example of Christ, what we're supposed to do. If it's not a big deal, then do it. And here's the thing. I understand that the act of doing of the baptism is not a big deal. I understand that it's not a big deal. Uh, you know, to have somebody dunk your head underwater, you know, and, and, and quote some, you know, and, and, and, and say a little Denny real quick, but it is a big deal because of the fact that baptism is a doctrine that our, our spiritual forefathers bled and died over. People have gone to the stake. Literally people have been, you know, rebaptized, you know, again, in inquisitions being literally drowned and they're like, Oh, you Baptists went by other names and a Baptist, so on and so forth. You like your baptism so much, why don't you just stay down there? And people have died for this doctrine. And today we, it kind of goes by the wayside because we're not being persecuted by it for it. So the command is to be baptized. It is a big deal because it's an important doctrine. Okay. But it's, yeah, it's not a big deal as far as carrying it out today, at least, you know, we're not going to have to set the tank up real quick, you know, and, or set it up inside, turn the lights off, you know, make sure hope will be no finds out. We're not going to worry about, you know, the potpourri showing up and, and, and put us, putting us on the rack, you know, and stretching us out and pulling out our tongue and everything else that they would do back then, simply for believing in this, you know, we can do it. It's rarely easy. And maybe we kind of take it for granted. And maybe that's why even amongst the rare breed of the saved, there's an even a rare breed of people who have been baptized. You say, Oh, it's not that big a deal. Go to second Timothy chapter one. It's not that big a deal. Well, it's one third of the great commission. It's one third of the great commission. He said in Matthew 19, Matthew 19, go and teach all nations, baptizing the name of the father and the son, the Holy ghost, teaching them to deserve all things. What so I have command. I'm with you all. Look, we're going to go, we're to teach and we're to baptize. And we're gonna say, well, we're not going to do that, that baptizing bit where I'm not going to participate in that. It's, you just cut out one third of the great commission. The last thing Jesus told his disciples before he left this earth, the last thing he commanded us to do, you say, well, one third of that just isn't important. Look, it is important. And if you don't believe me, I'll tell you what, let's go out for pizza. You know, we'll get a group of guys and we'll get like, what is it? 12 slices. And I'll just take one third of that. You know, the rest of you can have the rest and split it amongst yourselves. Well, I take one third of the pizza. If I did that, you know, you guys would be that you'd be calling me glutton and you know, calling me out. Might even tackle me, right? We're going to take a one third of something away from you. You're going to notice it's a big deal. So why don't people do it? Oh, I think it's not a big deal, but it is a big deal. Another reason why people don't elect to become a part of that rare breed of the saved baptized believers, because they're apathetic, they're lazy. They don't really care. Look, here's the thing about baptism. No one's going to make you do it. I'm not just going to, you know, have this tank set up without you knowing it and just go, Hey, can we talk for a minute and just kind of sneak out there and, you know, make get you face another way. Hey, I got a surprise for you. Put a blindfold on you. Oh, what's it going to be? And then just all of a sudden bam, you know, Todd Bentley style, that heretic, you know, I'm just going to dunk you all of a sudden say, you got baptized, you know, thank me, right? Look, I'm not going to twist your arm. I'm not going to, you know, put you in a headlock and drag you over there. If you don't want to do it, don't do it. But guess what? You're not, it just means this is that you're not part of that rare breed of people who've been saved and baptized. Another reason why people don't do it is out of fear. And I think this is probably the biggest one. You know, they're, they're shy. They don't like the idea of people looking at them and watching them. But look, you have to understand the reason why people are watching is because we like seeing a baptism. We like seeing somebody, you know, follow the Lord and encourages us. We like seeing other people who are going to identify with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We're not watching because we're going to, you know, make fun of how you look when you come up out of the water. I always wonder what their hair looks like when it's wet. I guess we're going to find out today. That's not why we're watching. We're watching because we rejoice because it's, it's a, it brings joy to us. And you know what? It brings joy to the Lord. When he sees his saved people following him even further into that rare breed of being not only saved, but also baptized. In second Timothy chapter one, look at verse seven. It says, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Look, if you're afraid to follow through on the Lord's commandment of being baptized, God didn't give you that spirit. That's a different spirit. You know, that's your own conscious, you know, your own insecurities. Verse eight says, be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner. And that's what baptism is. It's a testimony of our Lord, that he died for our sins. He was buried and he rose again. Are you really going to sit there and be ashamed of that by not being baptized? Well, I'm just embarrassed. I don't want to see me. You know, what if someone records a video and ends up on an Instagram and somebody I know sees it? Praise God. That's the whole point. To be baptized is a public testimony of what Jesus Christ did for you. And maybe the reason you don't want to be baptized, be part of that rare breed, because maybe you've kind of taken that for granted. Maybe it hasn't really settled in with you exactly what Jesus did for you. You know, he went to the cross, he suffered greatly. He's just asking you to get wet for a second to dry off. And we'll even we don't have to do it like, you know, like Rafa. We can warm the water up for you unless you want to be hardcore like our brother there. He's like saying they didn't have heaters in Bible days. Fill it up. I was like, hey, man, you know, but then my hands got cold when I did it. I was like, OK, so I'll wear gloves. No, I'm just kidding. But I said, amen. That's the kind of spirit I like. It's kind of people who want to just get it done. OK, so we talked about the rare breed of the saved this morning. Right. There's a lot of people, a lot of people have the opportunity. All people have the opportunity to get saved. Not everybody does. In fact, few do. And even amongst that few group of people, there's few people that are baptized. Here's another rare breed among the among the saved are people that go to church. You know, this is a very rare breed. Are you in Hebrews? I should have had you go to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10. Look, there's a lot of people that get saved, they become part of that rare breed. They might become even more rare by going ahead and following through on the commandment to be baptized and get that done. But then they kind of stop coming to church. They never really get committed. Look, we've had people come and go. We've had people come out, get saved, get baptized here. And now they're gone. You know, people that came here and we thought, oh, here we go, another church member. And it's just a matter of time before they start. And look, that's just the way church goes. It's not because, you know, we painted the walls the wrong color or, you know, I might my beard isn't trimmed enough or something like that. It's just because that's human nature. It's just the way people are. Some people stick, some people don't. Look, if everybody stuck around, if everybody made it look, then we wouldn't be a rare breed. But look, if you're rare, if you're here this morning and you come to church on a regular basis, I'm here to tell you, you are a rare breed. Even amongst that rare breed of people who are saved and even among those that are saved and baptized, we're taking up a notch when it comes to this, you know, of being amongst the spiritually elite this morning. And not in a haughty way. I'm just saying, you know, you're a rare breed is all I'm saying. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24, Hebrews 10, 24. He says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves as the manner of some is. Look, so the Bible's showing us that there's people out there who have a manner, they have a habit, they have a way of doing what? Forsaking the assembling of themselves together. They forsake going to church. That's the manner of many people. We should not be like that. And here's the proof of that. I sat down. I thought just just very quickly, I thought, let me just count how many people we would say are members of this church. You know, here's the thing about church membership at Faithful Word. See, I want to become a member. OK, show up and then keep showing up. And then you remember, you know, my my last church, he kind of had a similar take on that, except when people were just like, well, we want it to be official. We want to have some kind of record. So what we would do is we just say they come up before the service and say so, you know, so and so wants to be members of church. It's all give him a round of applause. And that was it. You're a member of the church. Go sit down. So we did. You know, we don't keep roles here. You don't have like a log of people. I mean, I keep track of my own mind. I go, you know, who's somebody who comes to church? You know, at least somewhat, you know, you know, even amongst the church going, there's that rare breed who go more frequently than others. Right. I mean, think about it. You got you know, you got the Sunday morning glories and I've even seen the Sunday night glories. I don't know what kind of plant that would be that only comes out at night, like the like the moon lily or something like that. You know, these people that only come on Sunday night, that's another rare breed. And then and then you have the rare breed of people that come Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And then even amongst that, you have the rare breed of people who do that consistently throughout their entire life and are just in the habit of doing it. But look, if, you know, I sat down to count, we have about 40 people that come to this church off and on, 40 people. But yet our attendance doesn't average more than probably between 20 and 30. So explain that. You know why that is? It's because some people are not in the habit of going to church. And the people that are that 20 to 30 is usually brought made up of people who are a rare breed, who have not only gotten saved, who have not only gotten baptized, but also go to church on a regular basis every time they can. Look, I know people get sick, you know, schedules, sometimes they're scheduling conflicts and support. I get that. But if people are staying at a church just because they don't feel like going, well, shame on them. They should be here. They don't come because of a lack of character. And, you know, how about this? They don't become because they underestimate the importance of it, just like baptism. Well, it's not that big a deal. But it is a big deal. So we see, first of all, that everybody has the opportunity to be saved. It's, it's, it's open to everyone, but there's a rare group of people called the save. And even with that, there's fewer people that are baptized, fewer people that are church goers. But how about this? Say, well, I was, I'm baptized. I go to church. I'm here every service. I'm, I'm in the habit of going to church as much as I can. And I'm here, I'm here quite frequently, pretty consistently. But are you, are you amongst the rare group of people who read their Bible? That's a rare group. You know, just think about all the examples of people. I mean, we would say the Pharisees in their day were a rare group, wouldn't you? Not everybody could be, you know, was of the Levitical priesthood. Not everybody could be a Pharisee. And it was a rare group. But how many of them were, read their Bibles? Not very many. In fact, Jesus rebuked them over and over and again. Have you not read? Have you not read? It's just, it's all through the Gospels. Have you not read even so much as this, Jesus would tell them? So there's even a rare breed amongst the saved of those that read their Bibles. And it's unfortunate, you know, because of the fact that they've, when you don't read your Bible, you're forsaking a very rare privilege. Not everybody can pick up the Bible and understand it. But you have that ability. Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Even if you never do it, even if you're, even if you're not amongst a rare group of people that read their Bible on a regular basis, you still have the ability to understand it if and when you do read it. And I'm proof of this. I know this from personal experience. I remember when I was seeking truth and wanted to know who the Lord was, man, I got involved in everything but the Bible. I mean, it's embarrassing. I'm reading the Tao Te Ching, I'm reading books on Hinduism. I even went so far as to have, you know, my astrological chart made. It got into astrology. Now, I didn't start burning incense or anything like that, you know what I mean? You know, it's silly to even say it as a grown man to think that you were into like that kind of a thing. That's kind of like a chick thing, right? They read their horoscope. And I knew somebody who knew somebody, or I knew somebody who wrote the horoscopes. He said, I just make it up. He's like, I just say the same thing to everybody pretty much, just word it differently. And what's crazy about that, I know I'm kind of going off a rabbit trail, is that when I did that, you know, you would say, well, if you were if you're this sign in this house or whatever, then you read these book, these parts of the book, and you get certain different things out of it. And I was like, and I remember when I first did it for mine, it was like, you would benefit greatly from getting involved in, I'm not kidding, in occult practices. It's encouraging you to get into like witchcraft, that kind of thing, you should get into the occult. You already kind of are if you're doing that. That's weird. So then I did another one. I just made another one up to get a completely different birthday year. It came to the same conclusion. You would benefit greatly from getting into the occult. So it's just this door that's just trying to bring people in to get them involved in other things. The point I'm making was this, is that when I was going through that in my young life, as a young man seeking out truth, you know, that's the stuff I got involved in. And I didn't want anything to do with this book. I had a whole bunch of other books I'd read. But, you know, long story short, I became convinced, okay, I'll give the Bible a shot. I'll see what it has to say. I'll read it. I'll start, you know, I'll read the New Testament. My middle name's John. And I was like, well, look there, there's a guy named John. It's in the Gospels. I guess I'll start there. And I started reading that book, the book of John, and I didn't get very far. I got to, I got to, you know, the first chapter or two, and all I read about was some guy wearing a camel skin eating bugs in the desert. That's all I got out of it. I'm not saying that to mock the word of God. And I'm saying that's what I walked away from. And so what's the point of this? It's a silly story. That is because I was the natural man. I didn't have, even if I continued reading, I mean, I might be able to understand concepts. I might be able to understand what the Bible's trying to say. But look, there's certain things in the Bible that you can only understand, that you will only have full understanding of if you are among the rare group of people that are saved, that are sealed by the Holy Spirit, that have the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. And when you, as that rare breed, forsake the privilege of reading the Bible, you are robbing yourself of one of the rarest privileges on this earth. To be able to pick up God's Holy Word and read it and understand it and know it and have the promises and the assurances that it provides us. And now, you know, having read the Bible many times and being in the practice of reading the Bible, I mean, I'm sure other people could testify to this that you've read, got up, you read the Bible and you're just so moved by what it says. It just speaks to your heart. It has power. You're going through something in your life and you read some verse and it brings it to tears. You say, thank you, Lord, for the word of God. Now, look here in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12. Now, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. And that's how God, how good God is. He says, look, I'll die for you. I'll be resurrected for you. I'll save you by my own grace, but through my own power. All you have to do is believe. And God could just stop there and just, and that would be, that'd be good. You know, that's more than we could ever ask for. And he says, but not only that, I'm freely going to give you my word. And I'm going to give you the ability, I'm going to give the Holy Spirit and let you understand it and know it. And I'm going to continue to speak to you and help you and guide you and tell you what I'm not going to leave you just wandering without a shepherd. I'm going to show you how to live your life. We have received that spirit that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things we also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Natural man can't understand it. He reads the Bible says and is left scratching his head. He can't receive the things of the Spirit of God. He has it move. Now the world, even the Bible, even the world can appreciate the literature that's in the Bible. Even the unsaved could say it's the most magnificent, magnificent piece of English literature ever written. It's the greatest, most powerful, most beautiful book that's ever been written, but they don't understand it. They can understand, oh, it's prose, the way it's written, it's use of the language, it's just marvelous. And even they will appreciate and stand in awe of the King James Bible, but that doesn't mean they have the ability to pick it up and understand what it means and what it says and how it should affect them and their life. We do. We who are among that rare breed of people have been saved. We could pick up the word of God and be moved by it and understand the things that are written therein. We can understand the spiritual things of the Spirit of God. The natural man cannot do that, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, even if he wanted to, it's not possible, because they are spiritually discerned. Verse 15, but he that is spiritual, judge with all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord that may he instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. That's an interesting question he asked there in verse 16. Who know, who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? Question mark. And we can say, oh, nobody. Who in the world could know the mind of the Lord? He answers the question, but we have the mind of Christ. You want to know who can know the mind of the Lord? Not that we may instruct him, but you know, we can know the mind of the Lord. Right here. We have it in our hands. What does God think about whatever topic you want to think, want to ask about? Name the topic. What does God think about it? It's right here. Question is, do we forsake that privilege, that rare privilege of reading God's word and knowing and understanding it? Or are we amongst that rare group of people that actually pick it up and read it on a regular basis? So why don't people, why do, why do God's own people forsake this thing, this book that's been freely given them? Why do they forsake the very mind of Christ? Well, probably because, you know, sometimes it's work. They don't, they don't see it that way. They don't, they treat it like a chore, something to just check off their list. Well, it got that out of the way. Look, is your Bible reading a drudgery to you? I'm not going to read the Bible. Otherwise I'm going to show up church one day and the preacher's going to get up and preach about not reading your Bible. And I don't want to go through that. So I guess I'll just read my Bible so I can say, yeah, I read it. Oh, first Chronicles. Here we go. And I, and I've had people say that to me, you know, why is the Bible so dry? I mean, these genealogies, are they really necessary? Look, I'm sorry. The Bible is such a drudgery to you. You know, I'm saying, and the greatest explanation I've ever heard is, hey, the reason why those difficult passages that are hard to pronounce are in there is to make you a better reader. I mean, it had more significance in the past when they actually had no genealogies and all of that, but God kept it in there. And look, if you would just read those things out loud, they would make you a better reader. And that's kind of a whole nother sermon, but is your Bible reading just like, oh, I got to plow through Leviticus. I love Leviticus. I remember listening to it on the way down here and I'm just like, I'm hanging, I'm listening to every word because there's so many cool things in it. So many questions I've had about way things were done and that the answers are all there. Is it a drudgery to you or is it like was to David a delight? He said, I have long for thy salvation. Oh Lord, thy law is my delight. He didn't have the new Testament. He didn't have all the acts that, that, that all the apostles did. He didn't have all the miracles that Jesus did. David had Moses. He had that book Leviticus that we just drag ourselves through. And he said, it's my delight. I love the law. If you want to be amongst the rare breed of the saved, you know, all you got to do is just believe in Christ. But if you want to take it to the next level, you should get baptized. If you want to take it to the next level, you should come to church on a regular basis. And if you want to go even beyond that and become even a more rare type of individual, read your Bible. You know, and like I said in the beginning, I've kind of listed these, I think, in terms of difficulty, at least for me. So maybe I'm kind of confessing my fault here. But I think another rare breed, you say, well, I'm baptized, I go to church, I read my Bible. Yeah, but do you pray? That's a hard one, isn't it? That's a hard one. And that's one, you know, just being honest with you, that's one area I struggle with, something I have to stay on top of is like, am I praying? If I don't write it down, if it's not in a schedule somewhere, it'll go by the wayside because it's one of those things I think it's a discipline. These are Christian disciplines. Rare is the one who prays. Go over to Luke Chapter 11. Luke Chapter 11, you know, it's not, and here's the thing. What I've kind of found to be true is that the guy who preaches the most about prayer, talks about it most is probably the one that does it the least. And I don't talk about it a lot because I don't, you know, want to come across that way. But Luke, but it is taught, it's in Scripture. I mean, it's not a topic we talk a lot about, but it's something we should be doing. You know, Brother Raymond was down here last week. When was last week? Yeah, but I know he preached a whole sermon on it. I thought, that's great. We need those sermons. It says in Luke Chapter 11, verse 1, and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And I want you to pay attention to what, how he answers. And he said unto them, if you pray, you know, if you decide to pray, now, what did he say? He said, when ye pray, our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and he gives them the manner that they should pray in. Well, the fact that Jesus used that word, when he pray, tells me that not only did he teach them to pray, but he expected that they would pray. Not an if, when you get around it, if you feel like it, you know, when times are tough and you're having a really hard go, you know, and you really need some help. Okay, then, of course, if you feel so motivated, please pray to me. He said, no, when ye pray, meaning that we should pray. It should be something that we're known for. And it's a rare breed of people that pray. I mean, think about the fact, the fact that even amongst that rare group of people, that small flock of Jesus' 12 disciples, in the Garden of Seminy, not one was found. Even after he came back and rebuked them and said, could you not watch one hour? Watch, the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. And he went away again and prayed unto his father in the middle of the night, and came back and found them sleeping again. Look, the rare is the person who prays. The New Testament commands prayer. The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 2, I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. We should always be in prayer. But does it go undone in our life? And I, you know, each one of these subjects are entire sermons in and of themselves, and we can make a whole series out of every one of these. But I feel like these are topics that, you know, we touch on often here, but I'm just trying to drive home the point this morning that if you're saved, don't ever take that for granted. Don't ever think that you're just a nobody. Look, the world's never going to lift you up and think that you're, you know, you're all that in a bag of chips. You know what, in God's eyes, you're precious. You're a rare group of people. And God, you know, he, you know, he dotes on his children, and he takes, he delights in them and helping them and guiding them and leading them and so on and so forth. And if you want to go, you want to become even more precious in God's sight, you know what, you need to get baptized if you have it. You need to go to church and stay in church and get regular at church. You need to read your Bible. You need to pray. The last person I want to talk about this morning amongst this rare group of the saved is the soul winner, is the soul winner. Rare is the soul winner. Now you'd say, brother, look around. It's a, it's a room full of soul winners. These people love soul winning. This is faithful word. All we do is soul winning. Yeah, but churches like this are rare. You know, we, we think, oh, everyone's doing it. No. Rare is the soul winner. There's, the churches that are, that do soul winning are becoming fewer and farther between than ever. And if you are saved and you do all these other things and you go soul winning, I'm telling you, you are among a spiritually elite group of people who are rare this morning. The Bible says in Luke 10, I don't know if you're still there, but it says in Luke 10 verse 2, therefore said he unto them, the harvest truly is great. Look, the harvest isn't rare. The lost are easy to find. They're everywhere. But the laborers are few. What's he saying? Look, there's a lot of work to be done, but I can't find many people to do it. The labors are few. They're what? They're rare. Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labors into his harvest. And that's kind of interesting because that kind of brings us full circle, doesn't it? Why are there so few that are saved? It's because there's so few that will go out into the harvest and reap. Because here's the thing. This is what I've noticed. Is that the majority of people that will listen to the gospel get saved. It's, you know, the vast majority of people that if I say, hey, can I show you from scripture what you got to do to be saved? And they say yes, and they're willing to listen. They get saved. I mean, the vast majority of the time. I mean, I know every now and then we run into somebody who just doesn't get it or they're just kind of listening, but they fall out, whatever. I get that. But I've found that the vast majority of the time when I preach someone the gospel, they get saved. Which tells me this is that the word of God has power. And that if we would just take it to these people and preach it to them, that they would get saved. I mean, that's just, you say, why don't people go slowly? Maybe they just haven't realized that there are people out there that will get saved if you would go out and do it. Oh, it doesn't work today. It does work today. It works just as good as any point in time. Oh, it's just a different world. People aren't going to listen. Yes, they will. And the ones that do listen, the vast majority of time get saved. I mean, think about, you know, we don't have time to turn there, but think about the parable of the sower, right? How many groups, how many types of ground were there in that parable? There were four types of ground, right? And, you know, you had the wayside, the stony ground, the thorny places, and then the good ground, right? Now, those first, those last three, the thorny ground, the stony ground, and the good ground, those are examples of people that got saved. Well, that's what I believe. That those are examples of people who got saved, meaning there was only one quarter of the people who, when the seed came to them, didn't receive it. That's a perfect example of the fact that preaching the gospel works, that the vast majority of the time, when the seed of the word of God is sown to somebody, it takes root. Now, whatever happens to it, you know, we can talk about that. Not all of it's going to bring forth fruit like it could for several different reasons, but three, you know, one quarter, only one quarter is going to be snatched away where that person doesn't get saved. The vast majority of people who will get saved. I think the four grounds in that parable are a perfect example of that. But it's interesting, again, because of the fact that because there are so few that go sowing, there are so few that get saved, and the whole cycle begins again. There's a lot of people that would get saved, but so few go to get them saved, so now it just becomes this rare breed. And then there's a rare breed of people who get baptized, a rare breed of people who, you know, go to church and read their Bibles and pray and then go soul winning. They don't always make it all the way around. See what I'm saying here? It's like it's a self-fulfilling prophecy almost. It's just this vicious cycle. Because there's so few people who will become that rare breed of becoming a soul winner, then the saved become rare as a result. Because we know the Gospel has not lost its power. So I want to just point that out to you. We're going to look at some other rare groups of people in the next couple weeks. But this first one just shows us that if we want to become more rare as God's people, it's not just going to happen accidentally. You have to actually adopt certain disciplines in your life. You have to say, look, I'm going to get baptized. I'm going to read my Bible. I'm going to pray. I'm going to go soul winning. I'm going to bring corporate these into my life. They're going to be who I am. That's what's going to make you more rare as the saved. So that's my admonition. You know, seek to become a more rare type of Christian today because they're needed, because the need is great, the harvest is great. We should desire to be one of those few that go out and get people saved, become that rare breed. I want to say, let's go ahead and pray.