BUT FEW FIND THE NARROW WAY

God did not choose angels for this wonderful High Calling; but all who have received this Call and the begetting of the Spirit, that they may become joint-heirs with Christ, must every one

receive chastening, disciplining, testing, because of the great and honorable and exalted position to which God has called them. It is such a wonderful thing that God wishes to test the loyalty and faithfulness unto death of every one who will be of that glorious company. So then, instead of thinking that you are having such great trials, that you are always in some kind of trouble, that you are peculiar in this respect, you will rather think, I wonder how it is that the Lord lets me have so few of these terrible trials; I should think He would want to prove me more.

Not many will prove themselves worthy. “Fear not, little flock for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom,” said the Master. It is only a “little flock” that the Father is calling out now. He is the Chief Shepherd of this “little flock,” who walk in the narrow way.

“Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto the life, and few there be that find it.”

The “life” here referred to is not the same “life” which he intends to grant to all the faithful of the world in the next age, but a special life unique only to Himself and our Lord at the present time, inherit life, life in oneself, immortality. Only those proven faithful unto death now during the Gospel age shall receive this special life, referred to as the “crown” of life.

The Heavenly Father is the One who has called us. We are following Jesus because God has appointed Him to be the captain of our salvation, our great Under-Shepherd, whom the Father made perfect through suffering. Everyone who follows Jesus (as one of his disciples) must first be called, then proven and found faithful through sufferings, EVEN UNTO DEATH. There is no getting passed this last and final requirement, as our Lord stated elsewhere, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, the heavenly phase of the kingdom. This last requirement voids the vein ideas of a “rapture” as some imagine. The Father is deeply interested in all this.

LO, I COME TO DO THY WILL, O GOD

I remind you, dear friends, you whom God has called, if indeed it be that you have heard His voice, that Jesus did nothing but what He heard from the Father. He said, “My word is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me.” So, the Message that Jesus gave us is the Message of the great Chief Shepherd, the Father. This Message coming to us from the Father has been for the purpose of calling us now to be His sheep. “Gather My saints together unto Me,” saith Jehovah, “those who have made a Covenant with Me by sacrifice.” So then, as the Apostle puts it, “You see your Calling, brethren.” (1 Cor. 1:26-29.) We are not called to be Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, etc., but called to be sons of God.

The Message is not, gather them together unto the Pope of Rome, or unto Luther, or Calvin, or Wesley, or any other human leader, but “Gather them unto Me” Jehovah. These are called to sacrifice. There are no exceptions. If you are not a sacrificer, then you are not of them.

These have heard the Father’s Call, and have presented their bodies to be living sacrifices acceptable unto God. (Rom 12:1) Jesus our great High Priest has made an atonement for our sins and made this possible. He has become our Surety, our Advocate with the Father, and makes us acceptable as sacrifices.

Jesus at the age of thirty came to John at Jordan. He came as soon as it was possible under the Law. He presented Himself to the Father. What He did on that occasion we all know. The Prophet, speaking for Jesus and telling what were His heart sentiments, says, “Lo, I come to do Thy Will, O God!” everything written in the Book.

What book?

The Book of the Law and the Prophets. Everything which God had caused to be written respecting the Messiah, Jesus was ready to do. There was a serpent lifted up in the wilderness by Moses. And it was written, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” There was the bullock slain by the high priest, Aaron, on the Day of Atonement, in connection with the Tabernacle service. And there was the lamb that was slain every spring at the Passover. All this was written in the Book concerning Him, the Lamb of God. Also, it was prophesied that He would be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He would open not His mouth.

And so, Jesus said, at the time of His consecration, “I come to do Thy will, O God, as in the volume of the Book it is written of Me!” He could not then understand all that was written, but He said, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God!” Whatever Thou hast written in the book, show it to Me, dear Father! I cannot see it clearly now, but whatever is there I will delight to do it, no matter how severe or how great the sacrifice. And then Jesus symbolized His consecration unto death by His baptism in the river Jordan, showing forth both His death and His resurrection.

Continued with next post.