great I am, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the author and finisher of our faith. And we pray in your name. Amen. Be seated. Before I start, I should say a word about baptism because we have some candidates for baptism. And to be a candidate for baptism, you have to believe in Jesus Christ. You have to believe in the Christ of the scriptures that he died for our sins on the cross it was a finished work and uh... that he rose again from the dead and baptism is for all those who believe it's not a saving ordinance it is an obedience to God to show our repentance and that we have been washed clean of our sins by a physical act that was designed by God himself. John the Baptist, the great Baptist, said of himself, I indeed baptize you with water. But a greater than me is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And so John was the baptizer, and the water was the medium of the baptism. Baptizo means immerse, from bapto to dip in the Greek. But Jesus is the great baptizer. And the medium that the prophet spoke of is the Holy Spirit. So you're immersed in the Holy Spirit, who is God. The baptism doesn't cause that immersion. It's a symbol of that immersion. And so if you've come to believe in Jesus Christ and have repented of your sins, you will be baptized. And if you'd like to be baptized, I'm going to try to arrange it for this month. see what we can do. We didn't put the baptismal in the platform here for a number of physical reasons. The water's about 100 feet that way, and the pipe would show in the congregation going down to the thing. So we didn't do it. I found out later from my plumber, he said, no, no, you're a religious organization. You can do whatever you want. You can dump it out here in a dry well. And we now have a dry well. But we're not going to dig it up. Nice body of water to baptize in. So if you've come to faith in Jesus Christ, I want you to know it's not an option for the Christian. We tend to think, oh, I don't want to be baptized. Oh, I don't want to say anything publicly. You technically don't have to say anything publicly. But that's kind of what it is. It's a public ordinance. And the other ordinance we respect, as you just celebrated, is the Lord's Supper, which you shouldn't celebrate if you have not been baptized. And I don't know that we stress that enough, but there is an order to that. So let me know if you would like to be, and I will arrange for that to happen, and we will have a little celebration that day. And so for now, let's open our Bibles this morning to the Gospel of Matthew. And we're still in chapter 7, and there's so much here. I think you'll see as I go through it. I'm going to read from verses 13 to 47 this morning. What did I write? 27. Why did I write 47? I'm going to fix that later. I'm going to read to 47 anyway. When your wife corrects you publicly, that's all you can do. All right, so 13 to 27. I was going to say, that sounds like a lot of lines. I didn't know there was that many. And so Jesus said on the mount that day, as the multitudes came up on the mount. I don't think it was a mountain. I think it was sort of a hill. And he said, enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You'll know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I'll liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it fell. and great was its fall. Father, lead us into the deep truths of this, your holy word, even this morning through the words of your servant that we prepared together by the Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. And so I call the sermon Few Who Find It. And I'm gonna begin with verse 14 that reads, because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Narrow is the gate, difficult is the way, and there are few who find it. Narrow, difficult, and few. I think it was Queen Elizabeth I who said, I praise God for the word few. Because there were a few noble and a few mighty who are saved, she said. Well, no one said it would be easy, friends, or did they? I think people are saying it's easier than it is to be a Christian today. And if they did say it's easy, then they're false prophets. Hence, beware of them that Jesus talked about. Jesus is saying it's difficult. We have no right to say it's easy. It seems there are wolves, and wolves sometimes say nice things. I don't know, right away I think Red Riding Hood and the wolf. You have big eyes. Wolves sometimes say nice things, don't they? They say pleasant things, but wolves say false things. They say things contrary to the things that Jesus said. So I can't tell you it's easy. You know, I find it interesting. I read church marquees all the time. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. I would put that out there if I knew emphatically it's true. I don't know it for every person. I don't know what the plan is for every person's life, so I don't know that it's wonderful, so I don't put it out there. Maybe it is. Maybe it's just my cynicism that won't do it. I see people say, you're having trouble in life? Try Jesus. I told you of one local church that said, is your life a mess? Try the Messiah. This is how tacky it can get. I don't see any church marquees that say, narrow is the gate and difficult is the way, and there are few who find it. I don't see any church marquees that say that on it. But Jesus heralded it from the mountaintops, literally. Sadly, friends, the church at large is full of wolves. But you know, we mustn't be too concerned about that because it always was. And it's still here 2,000 years later, which is a massive miracle. Think about it. The multitudes followed Jesus. He finally went to the cross in ignominious shame. And a handful of followers followed him. And because of that sin, if you will, of following the criminal, they were all hunted down the rest of their lives and persecuted and put to death. It's amazing that Christianity even lasted. And yet it did, through all the dangers, toils, and snares. I don't know, somebody said that. So the church is full of the wolves, friends, and full of the false prophets. Apparently, that's nothing new. And so we have this set of hard truths to grapple with today. But Jesus is not remiss to tell us what needs to be said. If it needs to be said, he'll say it. There is a way to life. He makes that very plain. But make no mistake about it, the gateway is narrow, the road is difficult, and there are a few friends, perhaps a scant few, who actually arrive. I don't know how many a few is. When I find out, I will report it to you. The Savior does not salve our tender consciences in these verses any more than he's done in many of the verses of this great sermon. When I wrote those words, I thought of JFK many years ago, a little boy in Massachusetts growing up with the Kennedys. They were big in our sight. And JFK said at a famous speech in 1962 at a college, he talked about the space race. Anybody know the space race? We were at a technological race with our enemies, which was Russia, right? And he said it was worth the race. It was worth being first. And he said these words, and I thought of these words the minute I read the sermon again. He said, we ought to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Sometimes you do a thing not in spite of the fact that it's hard, but because it's hard. Because if it's hard, it might probably be worth it. Friends, life is hard. I have found that to be the case. That's why I rejoice when times are good, because life is hard and will be hard again tomorrow. Faith is even harder, friends. And I hope and I pray that good Christians everywhere will engage in the fight and not turn away from it when the way shows itself to be truly hard and truly difficult. You know, it's easy to stand here and say it, but when life gets hard, it's hard to live it. And I think of my brother Danny right now and the hardness of life and the inspiration he's given me by praising God in it. It seems to me, as I've said, that the churches are disappearing. And if they're not, then the raw gospel, the naked truth within them is being covered over. I'm not hearing it. I'm not seeing much of it. Even the great mega movements of the nominal church are lost to the hardness of the task of truly believing the hard sayings of Christ. We have lost the art of living through the hard tests of Christianity. We don't want it to be mystical. You know, we don't always get all the answers. I've stood here many times and said to you, I don't really know what that means. Some things are mystical, but we trust Christ anyway. Because where shall we go? It's you that have the words of eternal life, Peter said to him. We don't want faith to be complicated, but sometimes it is. And pastors and elders in churches have to make judgments. Well, why did you say that about his sin, and you only said this about his sin? There may be complicating factors here that a shepherd of the sheep is trying to respect. without all the answers. Life gets complicated. So the fact is, even though we don't like it mystical, even though we don't like it complicated, it's all these things. So we need to ask ourselves, are we up to the task of building for Christ in the earth in these latter years of human history? Friends, we've been a church for 30 years, and it took the first 12 to prepare to build this building. It took the next 12 to build it. I remember waking up in the middle of the night, and Karen would say, what's the matter? And I'm saying, I'm the guy in the scripture that didn't count the cost. He built the tower, and we had this big shell of a thing, right? And I spent the people's money on it, right? And I said, I didn't count the cost. It seemed like it would be a never ending task. And the church, let's remember the church is just a map. The building's a metaphor of the church. You're the church. We met here before there was a building. We met here on the dirt. Right. And she said, you know, someday, someday you'll have it built and it'll be 10 years later. And you'll say, I don't believe that it ever got done. We've been here 11 years now. So then you have to ask yourself, is the road, is the hard road, is the difficult way worth it? You're counting the cost, you're asking God ahead of time, is it worth it? Is the task a worthy task? Even if it, what if the task takes all of our strength? What if it takes all of our patience, all of our striving? Friends, what if it takes all of our money? Is it worth it? If we say no, then we have our answer. It's simply eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die, and you just hope the gospel's wrong. So many people are living hoping the gospel is wrong. I don't believe in hell. Good luck with that one. Friends, we're among the static majority when we believe those things. Those are the folks that are not willing to do what it takes, whatever it takes. But if the answer is yes, it's worth it, then we're among the resilient minority who can see beyond the present evil world into the unknown future because God has told us it's a glorious future. And the unknown is not frightening to us because our esteemed leader in the course knows all things and he's already shown that he can be trusted with our lives. We can trust him. I don't know what it holds. It's like Abraham. Go to a land that I'll show you. A land you do not know. Thousands of miles away. But just go because I told you. And Abraham what? Believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So if you're saved, you have to have the faith of Abraham. You just have to believe God. Right? He can be trusted with our lives. and with our souls, and with our sacred honor. He's given his life for ours, and we have his word on it. He said to his disciples, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth who the world cannot receive. tried to evangelize a friend, and he just can't see it. He can't see it. He cannot receive the Spirit of God. It has to be given to him. It was given to you. You did nothing to deserve it, nothing to receive it. Pastor Ken used to say, you're not better than him. You're better off, but you're not better. And I know you've heard me say that before. He says, I'll give you another helper that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him. You know him. You know the spirit of God. That's why sometimes I look at the faces when I preach and I know you're in joy that you're hearing the truth of God's word and your spirits rejoicing within you because of it. You know him for he dwells in you and will be with you. And then he says, I will not leave you fatherless. My version says, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. No, once he's there, he's not leaving. He's not abdicating. You can quench him. You can grieve him, but you can't evict him. And so in order to arrive on that peaceful shore of eternity with Christ, we have to do a lot of believing in the hard places of life. We have to do a lot of trusting. And if we're careful in our reading of the passage, I think we can see that faith in Christ does not melt away every problem. We can rise above it, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. But you trust in God, right? And as Brother John prayed this morning, we receive a peace that surpasses understanding. In other words, you can't figure out why to be peaceful in the rough places, but there's still a peace about us if we'll get to a quiet place and be still and know that he is God. So Faith doesn't melt away every problem. Truth has a broad spectrum of realities. Some of them are glorious and easy, and we love to grasp on them. And others are more difficult and confusing and even mystical. It has a broad spectrum of realities. But truth is piercing. And the Christian knows it when he hears it. Truth is eye-opening. I remember coming to Christ. and seeing that all my conclusions of life were wrong, and I had to revisit them. And I had to say, what does it mean to be a man, to be a person? What does it mean to be a son, a citizen, a friend, an enemy? What does it mean? Can the Bible tell me how to be a good father? Can it tell me how to be a faithful husband? Can it teach me? how to be a good person and not offend God. And it teaches me all these things. And so I remember systematically going through and figuring out how I had to be in every area of life and trusting in what we call the sufficiency of Scripture. It's all there. And here's a newsflash for you. Every problem is theological. Oh, pastor, that's ridiculous. Friends who had a power failure the other day, the big storm. Did you guys see that storm? I mean, my trees were going like this. And they had a power failure. I'm talking about your brother-in-law. Yeah, they had a power failure. And I'm standing here saying, that's a sad theological problem that you had there with that power failure. I'm really sorry. You had that theological upset in your life. What are you talking about? Friends, every problem is theological because your problem is not your problem. How you handled your problem is your problem. Did you just figure that out? No, all right. So I can tell you, he's talking about building the church here. He's talking about what will you commit to building the church. Friends, the New Testament is about building the church. There are three epistles we've been studying in the Thursday night session called the Pastoral Epistles because Paul the Apostle is telling men who he ordained to be pastors of great churches and church planters and evangelists And he's telling them how to build the church, how to appoint elders and deacons and organize it. The church is an organization. And Paul dedicated his life to building it and could say near the end of his life that he completed his task. And he planted the church all over the continents that they knew of in those days. I can tell you as a builder that building is hard work. Building is hard work. Is that a surprise to anybody? It takes heavy lifting. It takes heavy lifting to do some building, doesn't it? And everything we build in this life is subject to decay. That is, all things except those things that we build by the power of God the Holy Spirit within us. Those aren't subject to decay. The houses we build will fall into decay. I see them taking down buildings that are fairly new, built in my lifetime, and there they go. They decayed. They were of no use anymore. Something went wrong. And sadly, I think that happens with churches. I mean, we know it does. So the apostle writes about this. He writes about building the church. And so he said, according to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder. What do you think he's talking about when he says he's a wise builder? He's building God's church on a foundation called truth. And he said, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. Friends, the church is a generational building. We keep building throughout the generations. He said, but let each one take heed how he builds on it. Make sure your studs are 16 on center, made of native spruce. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, Each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is." Friends, if your work gets burned up, it wasn't good work. It was built with the wrong materials. He says further, do not lose heart. Friends, it's hard to not lose heart sometimes. Even though our outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day. We're a dichotomous being. There's two parts to us. There's the outward. That's the handsome part that you're looking at. And then there's the inward. It's even better looking. Our outward man is perishing, our inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction. How dare he say it's our light affliction? I'm going through some hard times, Mr. Apostle. It's a light affliction, because when you measure it in the breadth of eternity, eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. for our light affliction, which is but for a moment." Are you kidding me? This has been going on for years. We've been praying for years for this. But in the Spirit, he knows it's a moment. It's a light thing. "...is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. Friends, we're so dedicated to look at the things which are seen, you have to take a break from life sometimes, and take a look at the things that are promised that are yet unseen. You just have to take, give your spirit a break. And I see it in people's lives, and I know people are striving. But it is a light affliction, according to God's word, It is but for a moment, and there's a glorious outcome. It will be revealed by fire, and your inward man's being renewed. And it's working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, for the things which are seen are temporary. You know, I gave a sermon one time on dust. Dust thou art, and to dust thou will return. Thou shalt return. Everything is dust in this life. I can tell you for a fact. And I can prove it to you. I can demonstrate it, right? If you want to build a foundation and build a glorious building like this little chapel we built, you have to take some dust and stick it together with water. And a chemical thing happens that makes it hard, right? You know, maximum hardness of concrete is 100 years. When you first build something, when you first pour concrete, you can put a nail in it a week later. You can bang a nail in it. You can't do it a year later. You have to get a 22 charge and shoot it into the concrete. And many years later, you might as well forget about it. You've got to drill into it. And it takes a long time. Made of dust. It's not forever. You buy your framing lumber, and you cut it. And what does it make when you cut wood? Zoom. Sawdust. It's really compressed dust, right? And then you say, well, we've got to put some insulation in the wall. So you blow this dust in there. And you say, well, let's cover the walls. And so you take compressed dust. It's called sheetrock. And it's compressed into half-inch boards and covered with paper so the dust won't leak out. But when you cut it, it leaks out. And then you have to take some dust and pour it in a bucket and take a big drill and mix it up and smear the walls with the plaster and it gets hard. But it's really just dust. Life is dust, friends. It's temporary. Believe me, nothing is forever except the spirit of God and the spirit of God that dwells in man. for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, Paul and Peter called their bodies a tent. Paul was a tent maker. If this tent is destroyed, we have another building. It's from God, a house not made with hands. It's eternal in the heavens. That's why Jesus could say, we have mansions. of glory. In my father's house are many mansions, eternal mansions of glory. He said, for in this we groan. In this tent we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. Well, we won't groan. If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed. that mortality may be swallowed up by life. What's mortality? It's death. Death is swallowed up by life. We look at it the other way. Oh, death took his life away. Not if he's living in the right tent. It didn't take his life away. It freed him. So I plead with you today by the same pleading with which the Lord himself pleads, do not grow weary. in the task of building. Do not grow weary in doing well. And do not fear the narrowness of the gate. Do not become discomfited with the difficulty of the way. And do not despair of the improbability that you and I are numbered among the blessed few. Believe the Savior in the hard places of life. When prayers go unanswered, friends, and when help seems afar off, I've been there in prayer. So roll up the sleeves of your garment and charge up the power of your born-again spirit. Do the hard things of life. Do them because they're hard, and reap the rewards of your labor. These are the blessings of life, friends. The things we do in Christ are the true blessings of our life. And we can see, as Paul saw, that for now the blessings of God exist within the context of this sin-cursed world we live in. A world which is perishing all around us. And there's an adversary to complicate it more, stalking about, seeking whom he may devour. The devil goes about like a roaring lion, somebody said, seeking whom he may desire. And it's his purpose to oppose the people of God. It's his purpose to make the truth I'm preaching to you this morning sound like foolishness the first time you have trouble. Oh, some light affliction this is. It's his purpose to oppose the people of God. And it is his art. It is his art to plant feasible lies. You heard the political term, what do they call, plausible deniability? You've heard that term? Plausible deniability. You've done something wrong, you're planning the lie to explain how you didn't do it, and you gotta make it plausible. You gotta make it so your deniability is feasible. That's devilish thinking. Feasible lies, lies that seem true. Lies that seem like truth. Paul wrote of it. He said, the coming of the lawless one is according to the power of Satan, or as they would say, the Satan, the adversary, right? With all power, signs, and lying wonders. Don't be in awe of every wonder. There's two sources of wonders. Some are lying wonders, with all unrighteous deception among those who perish. They perish because they're deceived. Deception is a grave disease. It takes you to the grave. Unrighteous deception among those who perish. Why? Because they did not receive the love of the truth. The truth isn't just something, oh yeah, I believe it. No, we love the truth. We want more of it. We delight to stand before a preacher preaching it. The love of the truth that we might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion. This is like a Romans 1 verse. God will send them strong delusion. He has had enough of your hatred of truth. So he's going to secure you in it. And bar the way back like he did Eden. He'll send you strong delusion that you should believe the lie. that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. You know how many people have said to me in my life that I don't want to be a Christian, you have too many rules? I don't want to obey those rules. I told you this morning, it's those rules that are virtues that built this country. I've always said to you that next to salvation, which is the greatest blessing, assurance of salvation has to be the next best blessing, to really know that you're saved. Not go through your whole life doubting and wondering. And I hope we can all cling to the promises as for our very lives. The greatest stakes imaginable are at risk, friends. Life. This life and the life to come. The greatest stakes imaginable rest on who we love and what we believe. And so while the promises of great, the assurances of secure, there may yet be cracks in the armor of the churches. We're here to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God, wrong hand, sorry. You know what George Washington was saying this morning, if we don't have virtue, if we don't have belief in the truth, I still, I always think, I've thought of this my whole Christian life, why do they put a Bible in front of a witness as though he cares about the Bible, his hand being on God's word? It only matters if you respect the Bible. You know, they actually take the Koran now if the guy's Muslim and put his hand on it. We've lost something. If our word means nothing, if there's no fear of God, give me any oath and I'll take it if it makes you happy. Right? It's only the fear of God when you put your hand on that book that you're now afraid of lying and will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help me God. The whole system falls apart when nobody has that conviction. There's nothing left of civilization. Even the beloved seven churches of Asia, whom the Savior sends forth his messenger John to warn of growing weary, which is nothing less than growing evil. Growing weary is nothing less than growing evil. And so what did Christ say to John on the Isle of Patmos? You know what I'm talking about, right? Everyone from Revelation? Be faithful unto death, that's all, just until you die. How long do I have to strive like this? You're in luck only till you die. That's all. I've had people say that to me. They wanted me to say, oh, the time will be short. Don't worry about it. I don't know how long you'll strive. But in some way, in some fashion, that God will design for our lives, we will be tested right to the end. Ken used to say, God never lets me get to the place where it's just easy. You remember when he said that? And I thought, oh, I didn't need to hear that right now. I had an old friend who knew Ken for dinner the other night. We talked a lot about Ken. I disappointed him, I know, but I loved him. He told the truth, and he had a powerful way of doing it. So be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. I want that crown. I want that crown. Can you imagine us all walking around up there with our crowns on you? And you know, if you put it on now, it looks silly, but it'll look good then. The crown, it will fit, you know, he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death friends. You got to make it. You only have to make a hold on until you die though. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works. That's to the churches, friends. The churches have fallen. Even then, repent and do the first works. Remember from where you've fallen. Go back. Do the first things all over again if you must, right? Or else I'll come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place. In other words, what? I'll send you strong delusion that you should believe the lie. Because the lampstand is the light. You know, in the temple, in the court of the women, they called it. That's the part of the temple where all the people could gather. There were these four gigantic lampstands that went up, I don't know, 40, 50 feet tall with lamps on top in the court of Herod's temple in Jerusalem. I'll remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. To him who overcomes. I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Yeah, it's worth the struggle. If it costs you everything, it's worth that. So the promises are great. The promises are these. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. You can do this because you're not really doing it. Christ is doing it in you. All old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You could say, well, I'd have no righteousness of myself. It's only in Christ. And that's true. But when God sees you, he sees you as righteous because he's declared you to be righteous in the same way he declared, let there be light, and there was light. God said it. It is so. And so we have truly great and precious promises grounded on the faith we have in Christ and the finished work of Calvary. Calvary did its work well. It brought the Savior all the way to death and then made sure of it. Oh, he's dead, all right. Don't need to break the legs. According to prophecy, the bones would not be broken. The other two thieves had their bones broken. Christ did not. Amazing fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. And the Savior preached it that day on the Mount. He said, there are few who find it. And so don't be fearful to be among the blessed few. You know, there's been a really biblical teaching on few. You know, God created the world, we say in Latin, ex nihilo. You've heard that, right? Ex nihilo means out of nothing. You know, Donnie told me a joke one time. You remember the joke you told me about creation? The devil came up to God, and he said, I can create the same way you did. I could create man from the dust the same way you did. And God said, go ahead. And the devil started forming man out of the dirt. And Jesus said to him, get your own dirt. I made that dirt. Before you make the man, you've got to make the dirt. You didn't make the dirt. Sorry, probably a bad joke. Friends, the blessed few, don't worry about being part of the blessed few. You know, David counted his forces to see if he could go up against his enemy that God told him to conquer. And God cursed him for it. How dare you count your numbers, he said. And David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I've done very foolishly. And God said, well, I'm going to punish you, and I'm going to give you an option. There's three types of punishment. Which one do you want? Do you remember this? 2 Samuel, chapter 24. Remember Jonathan. Jonathan was a great and faithful man of God who loved David, and his father was Saul, who hated David. And what was his sin? It was envy. Always suspect envy at the core of sin, I'm telling you, among people. Envy is a heinous thing. It desires what someone else has been given. And so Jonathan said to his armor bearer, while the whole army was there, he said, let's go and take the garrison, just you and me. And the conversation went like this. Jonathan said, and I'm quoting from 1 Samuel 14, come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us. It may be. We're not sure. The Lord didn't tell me to go do it. He said, for nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few. The Lord that created the world out of nothing can win a war by few. Remember Gideon, Gideon's probably the most famous leader of a few, right? And he wanted to go, Gideon, always remember, Gideon went against Midian. Gideon and Midian, right? So the famous incident where the faithful few were more useful to God than the unfaithful multitude. Fine, let's just be part of the faithful few. It's a good starting point, right? And so the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many. Your army's too big. You can't win with an overburdened army like that. For me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me. In other words, if I let you do it with numbers, you'll think you did it. My own hand has saved me, God said, and wants to say, and is careful not to let us say. And so he whittled their forces down from thousands to a mere 300, if I'm correct. Another truth, not just there are a few who find it, difficult is the way. Why preach that? Imagine putting that, imagine that as the name of the church, the difficult is the way church. Nobody would do that. No wonder there are a few. Who wants to live a difficult life? That's your gospel? The apostle's not remiss to offer us another great truth and another great proof, he writes, and he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. I told you who Christ died for. Husbands, love your wives. As Christ loved the church, he gave his life for her. He died for the church. And it seems to me that America, and especially the churches of America, have become tribal and separatist, forsaking God's plan for the church and God's authority within the churches. Does anyone fear the word of a holy man anymore? I think not. I don't think so. There was a time when Queen Mary of Scots said, I fear the sermons of John Knox more than the armies of England. He was a fearful preacher. We've lost any semblance of that communal spirit that characterized the early church. No longer live for yourself. Friends, America is all about self these days. Self-reliance. We talk about independence, and I don't mean it on the national scale. I mean it personally. Well, you should be independent, independently wealthy, independently working towards your own improvement. Friends, we are, as Christians, we're not independent. We're the most dependent people on earth. We're totally and always dependent on God. Living for self, friends, is a great sin. And for the church, it's a great apostasy. It's the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, remember them? Remember Ananias and Sapphira? Go back to Acts chapter five. The early church, they came out from among the Jews and they formed these churches and these people were all cut off from their inheritances and their synagogues and everything because they followed the criminal who they crucified, right? And so the church had to take care of itself. People had to give what they had so that everybody could have something. And Peter said to Ananias, who came in and said, look, I sold a piece of land, and I'm going to give you the proceeds for it. But he didn't really do it. He only gave some of it. And so Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? He didn't say, you're lying to me. He said, you're lying to the Holy Spirit within me. And you kept back part of the price of the land for yourself. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things." Friends, the fear of God is out of style. Peter brought it back into style that day. But it seems to me a robust fear of God has gone almost totally out of style. What will bring it back? The wrath of God will bring it back into fashion. And I don't pray the wrath of God. But I see it in the world. It brings prayer right back into fashion. I've had people lately tell me, you know, I haven't believed much later in my life. But when tragedy came upon me, I prayed like I never prayed before. No, the wrath of God, the fear of God comes back into fashion. So the finished work of Christ has bought for us all the great and precious things promised to the faithful. And yet the Savior is not remiss. to offer warnings about attaining it. We could do nothing of ourselves to gain it, yet there are a great many things that must be done in order that we show our faithfulness in the process. For how shall we who died to sin live in it any longer, the apostle asked rhetorically to the Romans. It's difficult to hold to gospel truths in the midst of the majority path. the broad way that leads to death, friends. It's hard to hold the minority opinion your whole life. It's hard to do. I have a saying. I've said it to you many times. It goes like this. Salvation is free, but discipleship can cost you everything. The churches love the promises, so we have to love the promises. We love the warnings far less, though, it seems to me. You notice that? We love the warnings far less. I don't see the warnings out there on the marquees. We fear them less than we might if we truly believed them. If we truly believed in the curse of God upon the unfaithful, we would trust God more. The thing that comes right into my mind right now is global warming. It was supposed to kill us all. And that's why we raised up Tesla. Right? But as soon as we didn't like the guy who formed Tesla anymore, they started burning all the Teslas. And all the big spokesmen for global warming, all the rich movie stars, were getting rid of their Teslas. It was like a curse. I don't want it anymore. Then you didn't really believe in global warming. Or you didn't believe this was really the solution to global warming. Now, you can tell when someone really believes it and when they don't really You know what I'm talking about, right? You remember this. We believe the warnings far less than the promises. It's just that we like the promises better. And so Paul said to the Corinthians, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Yeah, let's not forget that little piece of scripture. that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. In fact, that motivates our evangelism. The terror of the Lord upon the unbeliever should motivate us in our evangelism. And evangelism is part of how we build the church. We build it by offering ourselves our spiritual gifts. offering our fellowship, offering what might be a shoulder to cry on, whatever it might be. But it's also our money that builds the church, and it's also our belief in the truth and our fear that the souls of our unsaved acquaintances are perishing. God is real, and he is terrible. He says, but we are well-known to God, and I also trust are well-known in your consciences. Friends, the power of the preacher is the power to invade the consciences of men with a penetrating weapon that slays the soul. That's what a preacher has to do. Take the Word of God and wield it like a weapon, for the Word of God is living. and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. While I'm preaching to you, the word is going into you. It's discerning what you really think about it. And there is no creature hidden from his sight. There's no creature hidden from his sight. But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. And though there are many who claim it, there are yet few who really have it, few who really know it, fewer who love and seek after it, it seems to me. You know, my spellcheck hates the word discerner. I think discerner is not a word. You know why it's not a word? Because it's our word. It's like agape. Right? That's our word. No one else uses that word. It belongs to the faithful. We're discerners. We discern stuff. We examine it. We investigate it. We say, is it right or wrong, whatever it be. Right? I discern that that chair is old and ragged and needs to be reupholstered. We discern everything. You got an old ragged soul that needs to be reupholstered, then reupholster it. Be a discerner. Right? The Cerner belongs to the lovers of truth. It belongs to those who fear God and heed the warnings of Christ and the Apostle, to examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith. We're urged to do that. Peter says that. Examine yourself and see if you're in the faith. You might be, you might not be. But only you can know, because who knows man but the spirit of man, right? And so he tells us there are few who find a life. Few is a relative term. How few is few, do you suppose? I don't know how few few is, but what I do know is what the scriptures themselves illustrate to us. I don't know how many people walked the earth in Noah's day, but the word few then meant eight. So if eight of you or seven of you can stay here with me, the rest of you can go off. That's what it means. Oh, man, I pray it means more than that today. But in Noah's day, it meant eight. People say, God loves the world. He loves every creature, every person in the world. I say, how do you know? And they say, because it says, God so loved the world. And then my question is, did he always love the world, or is this a new thing? And they say, no. Of course he always loved the world. All right. Then he loved the world in Noah's day, too. And so he saved it by getting rid of everybody but eight. That's part of his method, friends. That's part of his method. Oh, he loves the sinner, just not the sin. Fine, if you like cliches, but the sinner goes. The sin doesn't get punished. It's the sinner that goes to hell. You know, I'm here to tell you, I don't think there's any sin in hell. I think it's just full of sinners who have finally repented. I don't know. It's a theory of mine. Friends, Noah has become the symbol of wrath. God so loved the world that he saved Noah and seven other people. The ark is the emblem of the church. Ken always said that. The ark was the church. Right? Everything else around it's being destroyed. And there's one little window you can look out. Oh, yeah. Is the flood still there? You know? His wife and his son's wives were the poster children of election, right? Friends, run for the ark. Get in quick and do not be washed away with the multitudes who did not only not believe in God, but they didn't believe in rain. Noah stands alone as the greatest weather forecaster of all time. He didn't have Doppler. But he had doves. Verse 20, therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Friends, it seems trees, as well as prophets, have fruit, right? Trees have fruit. Prophets have fruit. You have fruit, or maybe not. Some fruit is edible. Some will kill you. And the test is sight. And you might say taste, right? Not just physical human sight, but piercing, probing, Holy Spirit sight. And so Jesus himself declared the power of discernment to come upon the faithful before he left this life. He's given you the power that the word demands you exercise. And so Jesus said, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will lead you into all truth. Well, the spirit of truth has come. He lives in you. He's in the church. We are discerners. We have the power. And it may not be immediate, but we have the Word. And the Word is sufficient. And all problems are theological. I don't mind cliches as long as I make them up. He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He'll tell you things to come. Jesus is telling us the end from the beginning. What a glorious privilege that is! He will glorify me. The Spirit will glorify Christ. That's one of the discerning elements. Is that person of the Holy Spirit causing this in me? And you look and say, is that glorifying Christ? And if it's not, it's not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not defame Christ. He glorifies Him. For he'll take what's mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said he will take of mine and declare it to you." Friends, Paul said it unabashedly. We have the mind of Christ. We have access to his mind. He took the time to have his mind written down. He gave us the notes. Not these notes. These notes. Hopefully both. Jesus and the apostles taught us a lot about fruit. Fruit is first personal. You have to have your own fruit inwardly, right? But there's an outward kind of fruit too, the fruit you produce in the lives of other people. Evangelism is reaping and sowing and planting in hopes of fruit. So the fruit that's first personal grows into a communal type of fruit. There's the fruit of the flesh. Paul calls the works. He'll tell you what the fruit is. The fruit of your flesh, of your desires, are evident, he writes, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry. Idolatry is rampant in the land. Love of self is the great American idol. Love of self. You know, this morning, I went out. I walked to pray on Sunday mornings. I went to my front yard. Now, you know I live on the main road. But on Sunday morning, there's no cars. People are doing other things. So I'm out there, and I'm leaning on the front fence. You know my front fence, they got the stone pillars. And I'm leaning on the pillar. And here come the bicyclists. They're on the bicycles. And they're working. And they're going hard. And they'll go, you know, and they look. And then, you know, and that's great. Not a Sunday morning. You gave Sunday morning to yourself. It doesn't belong to you. And then the other guy comes, he's running, he's running. You know, they have the Fitbits now. He's running, he's checking it out. And he waves to me, and I'm like, hey, you're running the wrong way. I can tell you that. You should be running the churches that way. If you're running to church, fine. Sit up the back. But, man. Idolatry, friends. Sorcery. Hatred. Have any of these? Contentions. Jealousies. Outbursts of wrath. Selfish ambition. We preach selfish ambition like it's the greatest virtue of all time. dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. In other words, just know this, Paul never gave a complete list of anything. You can always add to it. And he says, I'm telling you this beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, we all dabble in these things. It's so easy to be envious. But I'm gonna tell you, envy will lead to hatred every time. Envy will lead to hatred, and hatred is murder. How do we know? Sermon on the Mount. So don't play around with sin like that. So what's the fruit of the false teachers? Those who practice all these things. What's the fruit of the believer who bears the Spirit of God in his own body? Well, the fruit of the false teachers, all those things I just listed, But what's the fruit of the believer? The fruit of the spirit is first love. Do I have to teach about love this morning? You know, love is in your power. We like to talk about, oh, they fell in love. Who can blame them? They're in love. You know, she ran off with the preacher's son, but ah, they were in love. Love is in your control. That's lust. That's some kind of other thing than love. You know, when I was in college, I majored in English literature, British literature. And we had to read a British author named C.S. Lewis. Anyone hear of him? C.S. Lewis, yeah, no. Marge hasn't heard of him. And he wrote a book called The Four Loves. Of course, C.S. Lewis, I didn't know. I was a young pagan, you know. I didn't know what the Four Loves was about. It's about the four words for love used in the Bible. He was a Christian already. He was a World War I guy, right? And so he wrote about the four loves, and there's different kinds of love. One of the loves is eros, and it's, you know, it's erotic love. We get the word erotic from eros, right? One of the words is storge, and storge is like, I love ice cream. It's like an affectionate love. You can say, the English person says, I love ice cream, and I love you so much, honey. The same word for a cone and your beloved wife? And he's showing, we use different love. They have fileteo, which is the love of the brethren. That's what we have with each other. And guess what? We don't have that for the world. We have philateo between the members of God's people. This is our family. It's a familial love. And then we have agape. Agape is the love of God. He chooses to love some and not love others. And I'm sorry if that theology offends. I have a Bible. He loves some. And agape, you can choose to love. If you're not loving, choose it. If you're not forgiving, choose to forgive. And so the fruit of the Spirit is first love, and then it's joy. Friends, we have hard times, and we weep with those who weep, but we rejoice with those who rejoice. And I read this morning, we're struck down yet always rejoicing. There is a part of the Christian fabric of life that is in joy, because we look forward to better things, to perfect things. There's peace. There's a peace, as Brother John prayed, that surpasses understanding. You can't figure it out. There's no reason you should have peace right now. Life is in turmoil, but there's a peace about me. Long-suffering. Don't expect things to get over quickly. Long-suffering is an ancient word for patience, I think. It works. Kindness. goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Ultimately, we're in charge of ourselves, friends. It's a great fruit, self-control. Be stable in your life. Don't be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the cunning craftiness of men that lie in wait to deceive. Stay on the solid rock of the things we already believe. And then he goes on to say, and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires. We who are in Christ should no longer live in sin. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit, the apostle wrote to the Galatians. It's my opinion, however, with having said all this, that fruit can still be faked. It can be counterfeited. And so he writes, such are false apostles. So people, here's my theory, all right? Fruit of the Spirit can be faked, but not for long. Not for long. Someone said to me once, can a Catholic be a Christian, or can a Christian be a Catholic? And I said, sure, of course. There's a lot of Catholics that are Christians. But not for long. When you find out the truth, you realize you're just following an idolatrous set of pagan beliefs. Paul said to the Corinthians, deceitful workers transform themselves into apostles of Christ. See, it can be faked. It can be faked. And no wonder, he says, for Satan, who animates them, right? He transforms himself into an angel of light. When you see Satan, don't expect horns. I always wonder about the people that write the book when they, you know, when they flatlined, and they come back and write the book, I saw glorious things. I don't know what they saw. I know you die once and then the judgment, that much I know. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. There's fake righteousness. whose end will be according to their works. That is those who pretend authority but have none. Friends, it can be faked, but not for long. You just can't hold it up for long. You know why evil wants to come out? It wants you to know what it is. It wants to drag you in with it. That spirit of rebellion in a person longs to emerge and be seen for what it is. And so the risen Christ said to the churches of Ephesus, but this you have. that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Now, I don't know who the Nicolaitans are. For my money, nobody knows. But they weren't good people with sound doctrine. And Jesus said, you hate the deeds which I also hate. We have to hate what Christ hates and love what Christ loves. And Christ loves the church and gave himself for her. And Christ loves the truth. False teacher will always reveal himself. And so I want to end this morning. I'll close with the Savior himself, the way he ended his fearful warnings to the churches of Asia He said, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Oh, Father, we pray we do have ears. We pray they are ears to hear the sacred truths of the Word of God. We pray for this great, life-saving discernment. In Jesus' name, amen.