Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.14UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.11UNLIKELY
Fear
0.08UNLIKELY
Joy
0.6LIKELY
Sadness
0.21UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.84LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.68LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.87LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.69LIKELY
Extraversion
0.08UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.82LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.6LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction
Today I want to talk about The Few. I’m not talking about the United States Marine Corps here.
One of the mantras of the Marines is The few, the proud, the US Marines.
No, the few I am talking about today is the people who are destined to go to heaven.
When we say the few that are going to heaven, when we say that right out loud, it kind of has a certain shock factor to it.
When the Marines talk about being the few, they are talking about 170 thousand or so Marines in a population of 332 million in the US.
That roughly equates to one Marine for every 2000 citizens.
What if only 1 in 2000 people went to heaven, pretty shocking isn’t it?
in 2021 The Pew Research Center conducted a survey to determine just what Americans believed about heaven and who goes there.
The numbers are pretty interesting.
Nearly three quarters of US adults say they believe in heaven, 73%.
This is the overall number for all those polled.
92% of those who professed to be Christians believe there is a heaven.
I found that figure odd.
This would lead us to believe that 8% of Christians do not believe in heaven.
About 50%, or half, of the people who say they believe nothing in particular also believe in heaven.
It is interesting to note that those who believe in hell tend to lag about 10 percent behind belief in heaven.
In other words if 73% of people believe in heaven, only about 63% of those same people believe in hell.
Another question that the poll asked was, can a person who does not believe in God go to heaven.
Among all Americans, about four-in-ten, 39%, say that people who do not believe in God can go to heaven.
Let me tell you that one again four out of ten people say you can not even believe in God and still go to heaven.
Want to hear something ever more baffling, 45% of professed Christians say that believing in God is not necessary to go to heaven.
It seems to me that 45% of professed Christians are not very careful students of scripture.
To return to our theme of “The Few,” let’s look at an account where Jesus was asked a similar question that The Pew Research Center asked:
The first point for us to look at today is:
Few Will Be Saved
When we look at the poll numbers it is easy to see that many think that most will be saved, that is, most people will go to heaven.
Yet, Jesus taught just the opposite, that few would be saved:
It would be good for us to remember that God has a history of selecting small numbers at times.
Only eight souls were saved during the Great Flood.
You can read the account in Genesis, Chapter 7.
Only Noah, his wife, his three sons and their three wives escape the flood.
Only three people escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
That would be Lot and his two daughters.
Of course, there would have been one more if Lot’s wife had not looked back to the city.
You can find this account in Genesis, Chapter 19.
And another example we find is the account of the 600 thousand people who fled Egypt under the leadership of Moses.
In the end, only 2 men over the age of 20 where allowed enter the promised land.
God’s decision in that matter if found in Numbers, Chapter 14.
In scripture we not only find that few will be saved, we also find that:
Jesus is the Only Way
There is a common belief today that all religious people will be saved.
You will often hear it said that it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you are a good person and are faithful to your beliefs.
I think people like believe this because it caters to our sense of fairness.
It gives us a certain confidence when we are the ones responsible for our salvation.
Unfortunately, that’s not what scripture says:
Remember the example of Cornelius.
Here was a religious man who was in need of salvation:
Then we find the conclusion of the story in Chapter 11:
We find may more examples of religious people who were in need of salvation:
The devout Jews on the Day of Pentecost
The devout Ethiopian returning from worship at Jerusalem.
The devout Lydia, a worshiper of God who kept the Sabbath.
The devout Saul who was doing what he thought was the Lord’s will.
You see, being religious is not enough.
One cannot truly be a Christian if you believe salvation can be found anywhere outside of Christ.
So far we have seen; Few will be saved; Jesus is the only way; next we will see that salvation is:
For Those Who Obey
Many people will tell you that believing in Jesus is the only requirement for salvation, but scripture paints a different picture.
Jesus had a warning for those who expressed a belief in Him but were still lost.
They believed Him to be their Lord They spent their lives in service to the Lord But they had not done the Father's will!
Jesus is the author of salvation to all who obey Him.
And scripture also describes for us the end of those who do not obey His gospel.
So we see that not all believers will be saved.
James 2:19 tells us:
Those who believed, but would not confess Him:
Conclusion
Believing that many (if not all) will be saved is a comforting doctrine.
It fits in with the humanistic desire to be seen as tolerant and loving.
But if one really desires to follow Jesus, they must abide in His teaching:
Of course, God wants all men to be saved
He has provided His Son as the perfect Sacrifice and the perfect Mediator.
But will we believe and obey His Son...?
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9