3. Why Billions Could Be Lost.

Many people are called; few will choose.

But out of 117 billion, how many is “few”?

God’s patience is long-lasting. As Paul said in 1 Timothy, God desires all [that is, all human beings] to be saved and to know the  truth. God has called all people to be saved, to be with Him in heaven for all eternity, but because God is a loving (1 John 4:8 “God is love”) and just (Psalm 25:8 “God is fair and just”) God, He has given us all the choice—free will—so that we may choose for ourselves if we will love Him back, accept His Son Jesus as our Savior and Lord of our lives, obey His commands and will for our lives, and be saved and spend eternity with Him, or if we will choose to hate, ignore, or reject Him, deny Jesus and choose to attempt to save ourselves through our own works, disobey and live and act opposite of His will, and be lost and spend eternity apart from Him.

He gives us all a choice because you cannot choose love if you do not also have the option to hate.

You cannot love if you are not willing to allow them to choose for themselves, and you cannot be fair and just if you do not abide by their choice.

God will honor your choice.

Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

God is giving us the answer: to enter through the narrow gate—believe in Him and follow Him. However, most people will take the wide road, or as they like to sing, their on a “highway to Hell.” 

I've often wondered why someone would willingly reject God and choose to spend eternity apart from Him, then I look at this verse in the Bible: Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”

People want power and control, often so much that they reject God to keep this so-called power and control of their own lives, foolishly thinking they can override God and enter His kingdom through a loophole, pay-offs, a weighted scale of good deeds, or by climbing the pearly gates. Some have even claimed to follow an “angel of light” and therefore, creating an alternative doctrine, have found the way to enter Heaven through a wide road.

Just kidding, I like the hairless little rats. Seriously though, I’m a cat person.

Anyway.

Interestingly, not everyone who takes the narrow road will enter through the small gate either. There will be those who walked the narrow road, who did their best to follow God’s commands and speak the Word, but who rejected Jesus as their Savior and Lord. These people will not enter but instead will be sent with those who lived on the wide road to an eternity separated from God—exactly what they wanted and chose when they rejected Jesus.

John 3:5, “Jesus replied, ‘I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.’”

John 10:9 Jesus said, “I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved.”

Jesus is the narrow gate; He is the way; only through Him can we be saved. 

But how many people will reject Jesus? How many people will ultimately deny Jesus as their Savior? How many people will choose the broad road and enter through the wide gates forever apart from God?

How many of those 117 billion people have chosen or will choose to live an eternity apart from God?

And do you know what apart from God means? 

Well, if God is love (1 John 4:16), holy (1 Peter 1:15), just (Deutoronomy 32:4), righteous (Psalm 145:17), light (1 John 1:5), peace (Romans 16:20), health (Jeremiah 30:17), joy (Romans 15:13), truth (John 14:6), rest, lovely, pure, right (Philippians 4:8-9), and all things good (Romans 8:28), then that means that if you spend eternity apart from God, you will spend it apart, that is separated, from all these things. 

You would spend eternity separated from God, the opposite of all things good. 

It means that where you would be spending eternity, there will be no light, no love, no peace, no health, no joy, no truth, no rest; it will be a place so impure, unholy, evil, and all things bad.

I’ve even heard it preached and backed up Scripturally that it would be apart from God’s laws, such that this eternal place apart from God would be a place of isolation, floating unable to feel the ground or any walls or object to stabilize your senses, and absolute pitch black darkness.

That doesn’t sound very pleasant.