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THE REWARD OF HEAVEN [Part 4]

Heaven will be sparsely populated. Only few will find and successfully traverse the Narrow Way.

“SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND”

The Greek word is ζητέω zētéō (dzay-teh’-o). Its primary definition is “to seek in order to find.” When the Lord Jesus stated this relatively simple truth He was not referring to a brief flippant attempt at possible discovery in which finding would be easy as if all one had to do was look under the first proverbial rock one stumbled upon and there it was. In reality, it is pretty much just the opposite. Why? Because on the one hand the enemy of humanity does his best to hide what must be found and do all he can to lead people away and astray. He has many means with which to do this including the creation of false doors that appear real by which most people are deceived. On the other hand the Lord also makes that which must be found a challenge in that only the dedicated devoted steadfast faithful committed give-it-their-whole-heart crowd will discover the otherwise seemingly secret entrance. And what is more, one must keep what one has found by maintaining a lifestyle toward that goal or else it could well be lost and even possibly become unrecoverable. As the Lord stated:

“I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” [Revelation 3:11-13]

Most Christians understand the concept of the “one pearl of great price” (Matthew 13:46), the “treasure hid in a field” (Matthew 13:44), and the “lost piece of silver” (Luke 15:8-9). In each of these cases and many more, the Lord was teaching on both the need for discipline and perseverance in the act of “seeking in order to find” but also the great reward thereof when one at last finds what one was duly searching for. And one would think most Christians also understand that which is by far the greatest of all rewards given by the Lord, other than Himself, of course, who gave His very life for His sheep which is the only gift/sacrifice that makes heaven possible.

Therefore, let us look again at the following familiar passages and glean from them all we can regarding the process of salvation and finding the “secret” entry:

KEEP ASKING / KEEP SEEKING / KEEP KNOCKING

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” [Matthew 7:7-8]

THE SMALL NARROW GATE / THE NARROW WAY

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” [Matthew 7:13-14]

THE “FEW” WORD

I still retain a very clear memory of an event I had at a church I was attending many years ago. I was a member in very good standing but that did not matter so much at the time. After a church service I was talking to a friend and the discussion had turned to salvation. I told him about how there would only be a relative few that would actually be saved. Now, this particular place was a mega church in the making and it eventually got there in a very big way but when I was there it was still relatively small according to such standards. The pastor was a man with a giant vision. He had started the church from scratch. He worked very hard. He was certainly a dedicated and gifted man. And everybody knew who was in charge.

As it happened, after my little discussion, no doubt because the person with which I was having the discussion was not so aware of the written Word, that the word had somehow gotten back to the pastor that I had used the otherwise dreaded “few” word. Such a word does not dovetail so well with the word “mega.” It is the only thing to explain what occurred. I think it was a midweek service. Picture a congregation of about four or five hundred. I was sitting not too far from the front. At one point in the service the pastor said something to the effect that some people want to limit God and believe such things as only “few will be saved.” He was looking right at me when he said it. And he was not happy.

With that being said we must take a look at the “few” word a little closer. The actual verse in which this word appears is Matthew 7:14. It is from the Greek ὀλίγος olígos (ol-ee’-gos). Strong’s Concordance defines it as such: “of uncertain affinity; puny (in extent, degree, number, duration or value); especially neuter (adverbially) somewhat:—+ almost, brief(-ly), few, (a) little, + long, a season, short, small, a while.”

Here it is according to The Outline of Biblical Usage:

little, small, few
of number: multitude, quantity, or size
of time: short
of degree or intensity: light, slight

I could go further here and cite additional sources but you get the idea:

THE LORD JESUS SAID ONLY “FEW” WOULD FIND THE SMALL GATE AND THE NARROW WAY AND BY IMPLICATION SUCCESSFULLY FOLLOW THAT NARROW WAY TO THE VERY END.

This means we as Christians in general and especially as ministers of the Gospel should preach and teach the Word that the Lord Jesus preached and taught because He had an extremely good reason for it, instead of watering it down and changing it into something more palatable and socially acceptable, perhaps for the purpose of gaining greater numbers and possibly also to create and build a much more “successful” Christian enterprise.

Now, if it happens that the Lord wants to collect a great many of the “few” and put them all under one big giant massive roof in which maybe a hundred thousand may fit then such is all well and good and proper. But He will never cut corners or water down or change His Word in order to do it and the people there are still going to comprise a portion of the relative “few” worldwide and heaven itself will ultimately still be relatively sparsely populated and the great bulk of humanity will still never find the door.

Also, I think if most of us had our way and our heart is right we would want EVERYONE to be saved, but this is simply never going to happen primarily because only a “few” will ever repent of their sins properly and fully and give their entire lives and all their heart to the Lord Jesus. This does mean we are to limit our witnessing or sit around waiting for the inevitable end as if we could not help the Lord seek the lost. We must remember that in His ministry He sought the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Matthew 15:24) and found them and saved them even though the majority of the nation rejected Him. In our case, however, we can never make judgments regarding who is “worthy” of salvation and therefore we must desire the salvation of all.

THE REWARD

As the apostle Peter wrote:

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. [2Peter 3:9-18] [1]

Posted in Teaching

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Tags: Apostle Paul, Apostle Peter, Discipleship, Enter Through the Narrow Gate, Finding Our Way Home, For Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen, Heaven, Lord Jesus, Narrow Way, Real Christianity The Nature of the Church, Real Repentance, Salvation, Sinners Saved By Grace, Spiritual Warfare, The Great Awakening, Unreal Christianity

AWAKE, SLEEPER

Nov 2

Posted by RJ Dawson

[If you are reading this on the WP Reader please read it at my site. Thank you.]

Useful Unbelievers—Gullible Sheep

Those Who Ne’er Try to Waken From Sleep

Dreaming Through Existence

Their Obscure For Instance

Lives, Never Touching Eternal Deep

What Could Have Been Was Scripted Forward

A Plan Discarded As Untoward

Alternative Chosen

Their Heart’s Fire Frozen

Full Steam Ahead, a Course Set Backward

They Bought Into the Deceiving Lie

Too Lazy or Uncaring to Vie

For Truth, They Fail to See

To Be or Not To Be

They Flunk the Question and Then They Die

The Lord Said the Saved are Only Few

Who’ll find the Gate That’s Narrow and True

All the Rest Give Their Best

To the Broad Way, a Fest

And Reject the Way That Leads One Through

Give Praise to the Lord Who Paid the Price

Who Gave His Life to Cleanse Us From Vice

And Bless With a Welcome

To His Present Kingdom

A New Living Way For Those Born Twice

Posted in Verse

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Tags: Enter Through the Narrow Gate, Father of Lies, Finding Our Way Home, For Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen, Gospel Truth, Kingdom of the Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, Praise, Real Christianity The Nature of the Church, Sinners Saved By Grace, The devil's a Liar, The Great Awakening, The Sacrifice Lamb, The Way of Life, Unreal Christianity, You Must Be Born Again

A Heavenly Homeland on Planet Earth

Mar 24

Posted by RJ Dawson

Many of us are aware of a world beyond the senses.

In the moments we allow ourselves the time to reflect on life instead of merely living it out day by day, we often perceive something beyond mere nature—an unanswered depth—a fleeting reality that is both difficult to grasp and easy as a dream. There is something there, beyond us, and certainly beyond a cheap existence characterized by routine and the mindless pursuit of material needs.

Yes, we must possess the material if we are to live—we must have a living—but for what purpose? I learned very early in life that working to earn a living meant survival for most people. It meant something to do to pay the bills. It rarely was something enjoyed or chosen for its own benefit. For the few who enjoy their work at earning money, as if it is not about earning money, there is a happiness and lack of anxiety that does not exist in the lives of seemingly everyone else.

For those who make peace with their profession—not because they enjoy it as a first choice or would choose it if earning money was not the primary option—they have accepted the sacrifice of themselves for the greater good and being comfortable as a solid member of society. They have eliminated any possible criticism of failing to carry their own weight, have their financial bases more or less covered, and the resultant peace is worth the price.

But there is another peace that cannot be found in living for this world. This is the peace many search for but often never find or have a very difficult time finding. It is a peace that arrives from without, again, in those rare moments of reflection we allow ourselves. It is the same peace a child knows in his time of innocence when he doesn’t know any better. He never considers that he will not be taken care of or protected or fed. The child simply considers it a given.

Most people want that kind of peace. It is never really about whether or not we will work and achieve and stay busy and accomplish things and be productive. It is instead about doing something and achieving something that goes beyond this mere mortal world in which people live for a short time and then go away forever.

         When we allow ourselves such a time of thinking about bigger concepts and deeper perceptions, we are actually attempting to look into eternity.

         We are attempting to secure our place there.

         We are trying to find our way home.

Jesus came to us and met us on our level. There is no possible way for God to meet us otherwise. We can certainly never get where He is through our own means, even though we may try through various pursuits. Real Christianity is thus characterized by God reaching out for us, whereas religion breaks down into a fruitless search for God.

The irony of searching for truth is that one will never find it.

But the hungry in heart are those who God sees and appreciates, and at some point He begins guiding the searcher to Himself. The one who refuses to cease from the search is the one who can be led and eventually lands at his or her destination.

Contrary to this, most people, including most “Christians,” accept substitutes for truth or watered-down versions of the Lord’s message. It is sad when people allow their strong wills and discipline to chain them to a religious life they see as a better life than the mere mundane—a spiritual life of sorts—but one falling far short of the spiritual reality the Lord wants for us. It is sad because these people cut themselves off from the very thing they are ostensibly searching for.

It is as if one desires a college education and a Masters Degree, but becomes so enthralled with graduating from third grade he desires to travel no further. As a seasoned nine-year-old, he compares his new life of enlightenment to his old life when he was an ignorant child of five and could not read, could not understand arithmetic, and had next to no knowledge beyond his tiny existence. He ponders the facts: A third-grader can read. A third-grader can add and subtract and multiply and divide. A third-grader is a quantum leap above the child he was a mere three or four years before.

This is how most Christians are. They become satisfied with eating manna because it’s better than starving. They have no desire for moving on and fighting for an elusive future. They have next to no faith to allow God to take them into a Promised Land of milk and honey. They exist in a quotidian circular pattern of routine and redundancy that takes them nowhere but where they were yesterday and last year and last decade.

They are not following God. Maybe they did. But they stopped at some point and became comfortable with a Sinai wilderness light years from the birthright and the place God tries to take them.

You see, God is a romantic at heart. He is a traveler. He is an explorer. He loves doing new things. But when you know everything it’s no fun unless you can take others on the journey with you. It is the same as when you read a book that has a giant impact on your life. You want others to read it and enjoy it as well. You may not want to see your favorite movie again at a particular time, but would love to watch it with someone else who shows an interest. It becomes a new experience due to the possibility of someone else enjoying it as you do.

God is like that. He loves to turn us on to stuff and take us to places we’ve never been. He loves it when we have eyes filled with wonder, when we trust Him as an innocent child, and when we expect something really cool to come our way because He loves us.

But there is a problem. There is a guy named Snidely Whiplash whose entire goal in life is to tie us and our dreams of eternal things to railroad tracks. He strives to destroy us by first destroying our dreams and innocence. He attempts to tempt us into the bondage of sin and bad habits and hate and fear. He tries to develop within us a cynical and bitter attitude. More than anything else, he tries with all his might to distance us from God and keep us from God and stymie every effort we make toward God.

In the end, he will make many, many more converts than the Lord Jesus ever will. He will be more successful than God in this sense. Of course, he is not so much making converts as he is enforcing the default destination of the unrepentant soul without God.

But God doesn’t keep score by numbers. He never has. And He has made a Way toward Life for all to discover. That the majority of humanity will miss the boat is not His problem. Eternity is not for timid souls with third-grade educations. It is for those with an explorer’s heart who love adventure and risk. It is for those who are forever getting up after being cast down. It is for those who never say die.

It God’s book, this is the definition of winning. With Him, despite pain and suffering and setbacks and reviling persecution, the one deserving of eternity is the one who never quits. Spiritual success is the mere process of rising again, and again and again and again. It is the defeat of the devil by outlasting him. It is the defeat of this world by getting the hell out of it and into the kingdom of God. It is about disciplining oneself not to stay a third-grader forever but continuing on to greater spiritual heights and adventures. It is about seeing the mountain top and vowing to get there regardless of any obstacles no matter how hellish. It is not about giving up and constructing a proxy golden calf, which is what most churches and Christian expressions have become, but continuing on, even though we may leave, like Abraham, almost everything we know on the other side of the needle.

The search for truth is the search for eternity. Nothing can replace it. Nothing else will be accepted by the real Christian.

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” [Matthew 6:33]

The secret is following the Lord. The next time you pause to reflect, don’t just gaze at eternity for a few seconds the way you often do, but get up and walk toward it. Take the Lord by the hand and let Him take you ever closer to the Promised Land. The kingdom of God is here, now. It is the city Abraham searched for his entire life. It is the place where faith activates all things possible according to the will of God. It is the place where dreams come true.

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN IN NUMBER, AND INNUMERABLE AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE.

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. [Hebrews 11:6-16]

Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” [Luke 17:20-21] [1]