I don't know how I got in the habit but I did.....as I try to be around a television around 6:30 in the evening on every first Saturday in May....to watch the Kentucky Derby. It has nothing to do with records or betting or anything like that.....I'm just amazed to see these incredible animals in full stride. So two days ago.....it was close to 7:00 when I looked at my watch and thought that I missed the Derby. I hurried to the television and turned it on just in time to see the last horse put in the starting gate....."And they're off!" You probably know by now but one horse won...by a nose....a literal nose....and a third horse was only a big nose behind....nineteen horses....thoroughbreds....did not win. Oh some took home money but only one horse got those roses.
This is something that we don't want to hear....and if we do hear it we will likely take issue with it.....few are saved....few get a crown. We are oh so close to eight billion people in the world right now.....and few are saved. As I might walk around our town with people all around....I know that few are saved. Go to a movie....or the mall....few are saved. See a picture of a stadium crowd....157,000 were at Churchill downs Saturday.....Kentucky or no Kentucky....Bible Belt of no Bible Belt....few are saved. The reports today are that....1.6 million people were at Madonna's Copacabana Beach (Brazil) concert! I am as I type....watching an elderly loved one....in another room....with the television on for all the hours that I am here....shouts of laughter filling the room....how can any of these people.....even the Christians that come to sing their song or sell their book.....laughing hilariously during an interviews....how can any of these people be saved?
If you take umbrage with this....then I recommend that you take it up with God. Tell Him of the gospel that you think is more fair. While you are at it tell Him about how you are so thankful for your salvation. It probably won't take long....for it is hard to describe something that you do not fully understand. Look around at your own family. How many do you think have their names written in the Lambs Book of Life? But you protest...."Well that's kind of judging isn't?" That's the best you can do concerning your loved one's salvation....their eternal soul....just put it in a hope box. Wow....if that is what love is? As the old saying goes....'With friends like that....who needs enemies?
Listen at your leisure sometime to R. C. Sproul's....Final Sermon. In that sermon he comments on how many people in his own congregation were saved. He said...."I don't know....70%....80%....I may be seriously overestimating....or underestimating that?" One exception to this....'few are saved'....would be those Billy Graham crusades....for most of those people in attendance were Christians who went to pray for salvations of others....but in the early years the statistics showed from later follow-ups that 3% of those who went forward....went forward....still felt the same way. That figure improved to 12% or thereabouts later on. Folks....if few of those who go forward in a Billy Graham crusades turn out to be saved.....what is the rest of the world like?
So have I become an enemy because I bring this up? There is little time left folks. God is giving us a blessing in letting us know that there is little time left. I can't remember any of the horses names in that Kentucky Derby....but two of them came oh so close.....but did not win that perishable 'crown.' Can you hear that folks....off in the distance...."And they're Off!"....run the race to win that crown!
At your leisure.....if you choose.....J. C. Ryle wrote on this topic....and his words are on tape as someone else reads them.....just Google.....J. C. Ryle.....Few Are Saved.
And you can easily Google....R. C. Sproul's Final Sermon.
