Few Be That Find Life — Zac Poonen

Unity Through Genuine Discipleship

Why is it that so many who claim to be born again, who claim to have received the Holy Spirit and talk such high spiritual language, are very often not able to work together, not able to become one with each other?

I mean, leave alone a church, my experience in many, many places has been that it's difficult to find even a husband and wife who can testify that the Lord has made us one. And that's the reason why so many children go astray.

And yet, you know that Jesus' prayer, the last prayer that he prayed after the Lord's Supper, he prayed that those who believe through his disciples, and that includes us, should become one. Not one at the cost of truth, you know, which is what the ecumenical movement tries to do.

Gather all people who just say they are Christians by name because they were born in a Christian family and try to make them one. Jesus didn't pray for them. He's not trying to make all religions one.

He's not even trying to make all those who call themselves Christians one. That is impossible because 90 of people who call themselves Christians are not children of God, according to scripture. But he prayed for those whom the Father had given him.

Those Who Keep God's Word

I want you to turn to John 17, verse 6. I manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. There's a category of people, men and women, whom God has taken out of the world and given to Jesus.

I want to be in that number. I hope you do. Think of that. Read that slowly. Let's read it as the people whom you, Father, gave me out of the world. They were yours because all of God's creation is his.

You gave them to me and the identifying mark of these people is they have kept thy word. That's how I know. For myself, that's how I know that the Father has given me to Jesus. Because when I read God's word, I tremble.

If there's a word there I have not obeyed, I try to find out what it means and I try to obey it. I want to be in that number whom the Father has given to Jesus. I hope you want to be in that number. All the opinions that other people have about your spirituality is fit for the trash can.

All the opinion that your Christian leaders have, who think you're very spiritual or even born again, throw it in the trash can. Worth nothing. All the opinions you have about me, trash can. 10 ,000 people calling you a prophet will not make you a prophet.

10 ,000 people calling you a devil won't make you a devil. You decide your own destiny. Do you keep God's word? Only you know it. Not only God's word that he gives us in the scriptures, but through your conscience.

You know the times, all of you know the times when God has spoken something clearly to your heart. And you have made a decision at such times whether you would keep what God spoke to you. Or you begin to think, if I do this, what price will I have to pay?

If I do this, what will so-and-so think or what will so-and-so say? If I do this, what will my wife say? I couldn't care less what my wife says. I'm more interested to know what God says. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus.

If you love your husband or wife or father or mother or wife or children or brothers or sisters, anyone more than him. You cannot be a disciple. The prayer in John 17 is for disciples. Those whom the father took out of the billions of people in the world and said, Here my son, this is your bride.

I want to be in that number. I don't want to just go to heaven when I die. I want to be part of the bride of Christ. And it says here, I ask, verse 9, on their behalf. Do you know that Jesus isn't praying for everybody?

He ever lives to make intercession for certain people. I want him to be praying for me. I don't want to imagine that he's praying for me. A lot of Christians live in imagination. Listen to this. I ask on their behalf.

I do not ask on behalf of the world. Do you know that Jesus is not praying for the world? There are some Christians who try to be super spiritual. We're going to pray for America. We're praying for India.

Go ahead, brother, sister. Jesus is not praying. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but Jesus is not praying for America. Is America a part of the world, by the way? It's here. I don't ask on behalf of America.

I don't ask on behalf of India. All this business of America repent. What about Afghanistan repent? Nobody's interested in Afghanistan repenting? Iraq repenting? Indonesia repenting? Why only America?

Oh, the amount of deception there is among Christians. They deserve to be deceived because they don't read the scriptures. They deserve to go astray because they don't read the scriptures. They live in sin and imagine that they're going to the kingdom of God.

Not in a hundred million years. Heaven is not a place for people who fool around with sin. Heaven is a place for the worst. I mean, can you think of a worse sinner than the murderer on the cross? He was worse than all of us sitting here.

But he went into paradise because he repented. He'd never have got there if he hadn't repented. But when Christians who have never committed sins as serious as him fool around and think that they can, Oh, I believe in Jesus.

He loves sinners. And I love him. It doesn't matter if I slip and fall into sin. That's another gospel. That's not the gospel that thief on the cross believed. I mean, if he was released from the cross and come down, he was not going to go and murder people again.

The woman caught in adultery was forgiven immediately. But do you know what the Lord told her? Don't ever sin again. Don't sin again. Don't go and commit adultery again. I don't condemn you. Don't do it again.

That's the full gospel. The full gospel is I don't condemn you, but don't do it again. So he doesn't ask for the world because the world's not interested in giving up sin. And I'll tell you a lot of Christians sitting in many churches are part of the world.

If you look into their hearts, their spirit is 100 with the world. Their whole mind is set on the things of the world. Reluctantly, they have some interest in reading the Bible and spiritual things.

You know, it's like forcing children to eat broccoli or something like that. You're forced to eat. Come on, come to the meeting and read the Bible and they do it. Their interest is in the world. You think such people are born again?

A lot of preachers would welcome such people and say, Yeah, yeah, you're born again. You're not. When a person is born again, there's a fundamental change in his heart. You need to distinguish. There's the world and there's the church.

But I'm only praying, verse 9, for those whom you have given me. I say, Lord, I want to be in that number. I don't know whether all of you take that seriously. There's certain people in this earth. There are very, very few whom God has taken out of the world and given to Jesus.

And the mark of them is they keep God's word. You can know whether you're in that number. Your attitude to God's commands. That shows whether God has given you to Jesus or not. And I believe a lot of people, when Christ comes again, are going to get a big surprise.

The Great Multitude and the Narrow Way

I want to turn to Revelation chapter 7. A lot of people find comfort in this verse. Verse 9. I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could count. From every nation, all tribes, people's tongues, standing before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches in their hands.

They cry out with a loud voice saying salvation. That means our salvation is due to our God and who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Now obviously these are people who are God's children in heaven for eternity.

And it's a great multitude. A great multitude which no man can number. I believe that. How in the world does this reconcile with what Jesus said in Matthew 7? The way to life is narrow and few there be that find it.

There's no contradiction in scripture. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, my words will not pass away. There are very few, he said, who find the way to life. But here it says it's a great multitude which you can't even count.

I mean that's a huge number. And it says here from every single tribe. I know lots of tribes in India in whose midst nobody's converted. They don't have a Bible in their language. Lots of them, not one or two.

Millions of people in India who have never heard the gospel in any time for 2 ,000 years. I mean we ourselves in the last 30 years we've found, we've got churches in two villages where there were no churches for 2 ,000 years.

And that's just a small fellowship like ours. We've got two churches with no church for 2 ,000 years. And there are many, many, many, many villages like that. And nobody's heard the gospel. They've never, never, there's nobody in 2 ,000 years who's ever come to Christ in those villages.

They don't even know who Jesus Christ is. How is this going to be if Christ were to come today? How is it there's going to be people from every tribe, people, tongue? We've got so many languages in India.

There's no Bible. At least 300 languages. No Bible. And most of these people I believe are babies died before they came to childbirth. The millions of abortions that have been committed, that have been done throughout the world.

Millions and millions and millions and millions which no man can number. The number of abortions that have taken place and the number of babies that have died. In every tribe, infant mortality rate is very high in the backward tribes.

There are going to be huge numbers from those tribes. Every tribe, tongue, and nation. There are people going to be. Because those babies, the righteousness of Christ is put to their account. Just like it's put to our account.

And they go right into God's presence. They could be from Muslim families, Atheist families, Idol worshipping families, any family in the world. The child does not suffer for the sins of the parents. Millions and millions and millions of people.

And I believe I will see. And since the infant mortality rate is much more in third world countries, there will be more third world country people here than the first world. Millions of abortions. I mean the first world is sort of catching up now with all the abortions being committed here.

There are millions over there. But then, I want you to see chapter 14. Where you see a much smaller number. The testimony of the people in chapter 7 is, Our salvation is due to our God. We didn't do anything.

We didn't do anything. That's exactly what those babies are going to say. Our salvation is due to our God. 100%. We don't deserve it. He forgave us by His grace and brought us here. Chapter 14. You know, in that day I'll tell you, you will see how God turned the tables on the devil.

The devil has done a tremendous work throughout the world in legalizing abortion, killing babies and murdering them. God has turned the tables on the devil by populating heaven with millions and millions of babies from every tribe, tongue and nation before they grew up and went to hell.

God's turned the tables on the devil. It never sanctions abortion. But now what I'm saying is, there are a lot of things God doesn't sanction. God didn't sanction the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. That was a worse evil than abortion.

Killing the son of God. But God used it to turn the tables on the devil and that was the place where he was defeated. The greatest evil that was ever done on this earth was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

And that became the greatest source of blessing to the whole world. A permanent testimony that God has given to us that God can turn anything that the devil does into something for his glory. But in chapter 14 we read of a small number that can be counted.

I mean, you and I can count to 144 ,000. Now the book of Revelation is full of symbols, so it's not a literal figure. It's full of symbols right from chapter 1 to chapter 22. So it's not a literal number, but what it means is compared to the number in chapter 7, it's a very small number.

There's a number that cannot be counted. Here's a number that can be counted. And these are the few about whom Jesus spoke in Matthew chapter 7. A small number, few there be that find it. I mean, think of it.

In the history of humanity from the time of Adam, till the day Christ comes back. How many billions and billions and billions of people there have been on this earth? Among all those billions, 144 ,000.

Isn't that a pretty small number? Very small. That's the point. Few who have found that narrow way. I don't think many Christians believe me when I say that few will find the way to life. And that's because they don't believe Jesus.

Yet that word is very clear. The gate is small. The way is narrow that leads to life. It's a very clear word in Matthew 7, 14. Few there be that find it. Many will understand it, but few find it. I found in myself in preaching in India about the new and living way and the way of the cross.

Many understand it, but very few find it. And you know where you can find it? You find it in the moment of temptation. In the moment of temptation, you discover whether you have found that narrow way or not.

It's a way of total death to self. Very few find it. If you preach to a crowd, come to heaven, all raise their hands. Jesus says, come and die, if you are interested in that. Have you responded to the invitation which says, come to heaven?

Or have you responded to the invitation of Jesus which says, come and die? Which invitation have you responded to? My dear brothers and sisters, I want to tell you the truth because I don't want the blood of anyone on my hands on the day of judgment.

The Way of the Cross and the True Church

The way of the cross is the way of life. The way that Jesus went, he walked the way of the cross, not just for 24 hours, he walked it for 33 and a half years. And he said, take up your cross daily and follow me.

That way is a very narrow way. Do you think all the Christians who sing God's praises on Sunday and who come for conferences and all that, do you think they are walking the narrow way? Far from it. Look at the amount of sin there is among so-called Christians, fooling around, sinning, sinning in their lives, sinning in their marriages, sinning in their business, all types of things.

They all think they are on their way to heaven. They are in for a tremendous surprise when Christ comes again. And there are very, very few preachers on the face of the earth who are telling it like it is.

You got a bunch of legalists who make all types of rules and say if you don't keep these rules, you won't go to heaven. That's a lot of rubbish. And then on the other side, you got a lot of other people who say, well, it doesn't matter how you live, you know.

Just say those magic words, Jesus come into my heart, and then you are all set for eternity. Boy, what a lot of people's blood is going to be on these hands, people's hands. And the people who tell them, once you've accepted Christ, you're okay.

Nothing will happen to you. Imagine the millions of people whose blood is going to be in the hands of these preachers. I don't want a single person's blood on my hand. So we want to preach the truth. The truth is here.

I looked and I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion. To me, Mount Zion is a picture of the true Church of Christ, the Bride of Christ, standing with Him with 144 ,000. They have His name and the name of His Father on their foreheads.

See, this is in contrast to the followers of the Antichrist who give His followers the option in just two verses earlier, chapter 13, verse 16. The Antichrist gives people the option, you can have my name either on your forehead or on your right hand, inside your right palm.

Now this is all symbolic language. I'm not talking about credit cards and all that type of things which Christian fanatics talk about as the mark of the Antichrist. This is spiritual language and you've got to understand it.

The mark of the Antichrist is on your forehead and the palm of your right hand. It can mean many things. I mean, there may be a time coming, I don't know, when there could be a literal mark. I've got no idea, but I'm not interested in that.

The Bible says that, you know, in the beginning of Revelation, it says, blessed is the man who keeps the things written in this book, Revelation 1 .3. The book of Revelation is not something which is just to say, ah, in the future, when Antichrist is going to come and he's going to put some electronic thing inside your skin or something.

Don't worry about all that. Just see, first of all, like John the Apostle said in 1 John 2, you know that the Antichrist is coming. There are already many Antichrists in the church, he said. Let me show you that for a moment when we come back here.

The Spirit of Antichrist and Perseverance

1 John 2. He said in verse 18, children, it is the last hour. And just as you heard that that big Antichrist is coming one day, 1 John 2 .18, even now, even now, first century, there are many Antichrists have arisen.

Those who, what is an Antichrist? What does it mean to be anti-war or anti-this or anti-that? It means you're against it. Anyone who's against Christ and against the spirit of Christ has got the spirit of the Antichrist.

If you understand the spirit of Christ, what that stands for, and you're against that spirit, that's the spirit of the Antichrist. Because you're anti-Christ. From this we know that it is the last hour.

I mean, if it was the last hour in 95 AD, we are probably in the last minute. And now listen to this. This is the most interesting part of it. These Antichrists, verse 19, went out from our midst. They were sitting in our churches, some of these Antichrists.

John was saying, who were these people? They said they were born again. They said that they were baptized in water. And they sat here. Not one or two, many. And they went out. Why did they go out? That's the question.

And when they went out, it was manifested that they were not really of us. For if they had been part of the body of Christ, they would not have gone out. They would have remained with us so that it can be manifested.

They went out so that it could be manifested that they are not all of us. You think that's happening today? I really believe that. People who don't like the strong preaching of Christ. If you lust with your eye, plug it out.

Better to be blind than to lust after a woman. How many people do you think take that seriously? Better to cut off your right hand than commit sexual sin with your right hand. Multitudes of men commit sexual sin with their right hand.

Jesus said, cut it off. Where are the people who take it seriously? Oh, we are forgiven. We confess our sins, the blood of Jesus cleanses us. They don't have the spirit of Christ. If you get angry and you go and speak to your brother in anger, you're in danger of hell fire.

Your yes must be yes and your no must be no. Where do you hear these things? They went out from us. I'll tell you why they went out in those days. Because that's what the Apostle John got up and preached.

And they couldn't stand the fiery preaching of the Apostle John. They said, hey, this guy's a fanatic. And they left. And they joined the church of a fellow called Diatrophes. You read about him in 3 John verse 9.

Who wouldn't accept what John says. Hey, say, you fellows who are disturbed by John's preaching, come here. We got a church. Our church is growing. We were 50 a few months ago. We are about 5 ,000 now.

A lot of John's followers have come here. You're welcome. That's why they went out. They couldn't stand the preaching of the Christ that John stood for. So this Antichrist, come back to Revelation 13.

The spirit of the Antichrist was in operation in so-called believers sitting in many churches in those days. I believe it's very much there today. And John said at that time, you got an anointing that will tell you.

That's the next thing he said to them in the same passage, 1 John chapter 2 verse 20. You have an anointing, chapter 2 verse 20, from the Holy One, and you'll know. That anointing will tell you whether what you're hearing is of the spirit of Christ or the spirit of the Antichrist.

I never want to sit in a church which has got the spirit of the Antichrist. I don't want to sit under preaching that is preaching the spirit of the opposite of what Jesus taught. And all I have to do is when I go to a church, check up whether they emphasize the Sermon on the Mount.

You know the story that Jesus said in the end of the Sermon on the Mount, a parable? At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, he said, I'll tell you something, fellas. If you listen to everything that I say and don't do it, you're going to build on the sand and the flood will come and the rain will come.

And Jesus said, great was the fall of it. Have you read that in Matthew 7? Great was the fall. Do you hear those words again somewhere in Scripture? Great was the fall of something? Where is that? Babylon, right.

Jesus was speaking about Babylon and Jerusalem at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Great was its fall. There you understand what Babylon is. They listen to the Sermon on the Mount. They don't obey it.

That's all. Then he said, here's the wise man who built his house on the rock and it stood. That's Jerusalem. He was speaking about the true church and the false church. And he said, you can identify the true church and the false church by those who keep the Sermon on the Mount and those who don't keep it.

I remember when we started 35 years ago. There were two sections of Scripture that we preached on for years and we still preach on it. One was Luke 14, 25 to 33 where all the three conditions of discipleship are laid down.

And the other was Matthew 5, 6, and 7. We went little by little by little by through every verse in that and said, if you want to be part of Jerusalem, this is it. That's not popular. It's not popular nowadays to speak on those chapters.

If you preach on those chapters, the spirit of the Antichrist will be manifested quickly. You get me a church that never speaks on those things, the Antichrist will sit comfortably there forever. But it says here in Revelation 13, the Antichrist gives you an option.

The Mark of the Beast and the Choice Between Christ and Money

You can have the mark on the forehead or in the hand. And I want to look at the spiritual meaning of it. The forehead speaks of your mind. What is it that is frequently on your mind or in your right hand?

Money. It's frequently on your mind and in your right hand. Be careful with it. A lot of people drift into the world of the Antichrist because of a wrong attitude to money and material things. There are only two gods in the world.

Way back in the Old Testament times, it was Jehovah and Baal. And Elijah stood up and said, make your choice. You can't serve both. Today it is Christ and money. You can't serve both. You've got to make a choice sometime in your life.

You can use money. Like in heaven, they've got gold under their feet. That's the place to put gold even today, under your feet. Heaven is made for those who've learned to put money under their feet now.

But in the world, they put it on their heads. Be careful. That's one spiritual application of that, whatever it actually means finally. But when it comes to the Lamb, He doesn't give you the option. There's another meaning we could get from this.

The devil tells you, you can have my mark on your forehead for everybody to see, or you can have it secretly in your hand where nobody can see. I mean, for example, if you want to be an open follower of the devil, on the forehead, no hypocrisy.

I watch pornography. I commit sin. I fool around with a lot of women. I'm interested in money. I'm interested in the world. None of all this God stuff for me. I believe in listening to rock music all the time, and they're open followers of the devil.

But the devil says, supposing you're a church member and you want to have a good testimony in your church, maybe to be an elder in your church or a board member or something like that, you have the option of having this mark in your right hand where nobody will see it.

You know, you can use your right hand to use the computer mouse to click on certain places and go different places where the Antichrist would like to take you with your right hand, and you come to the church on Sunday morning and nobody knows the mark of the Antichrist on your hand.

You're a good brother. You're singing hallelujah and praise the Lord and all that, and there are other sins. You're signing things and telling lies and fooling around with your hand in many other ways, and you come to church on Sunday morning, the mark of the beast in your hand, nobody can see it.

And you're considered a good member of the church. The devil says, sure. In fact, that's a better option for me if you will take it. Sin in secret and all types of things. Don't let anybody know. You don't have it on your forehead.

But when it comes to Jesus, it says in chapter 14, verse 1, there is no such option. The mark of the lamb is only on the forehead. You see the contrast there? You don't have an option to be a secret, you know, I'm a follower of Jesus type of thing and hide it.

If you are my disciple and you are ashamed of me and my words in this sinful and adulterous generation, the Lord says I will be ashamed of you when I come in the glory of my father with the angels. You can be absolutely sure that that word will be fulfilled.

Heaven and earth will pass away before that word passes away. That word will be fulfilled. You will discover in one day that all those people who call themselves Christians, who sat in churches and were ashamed wherever they lived and in the midst of others, they were ashamed to be known as Christians, wanted to have the mark of the lamb in their hands.

There is no option to have the mark of the lamb in your hands. Wanted to be secret disciples because people would make fun of them at their place of work or in some cases they wouldn't get a promotion.

You know, in India that can happen. If you're known as a Christian, I discovered that in the Navy, that you couldn't advance in your profession if you're openly a Christian. No. They rejected Jesus then, they reject Jesus today.

You'll be rejected. But you want to hide the fact that you're a wholehearted disciple of Jesus because you don't want to lose respect. You don't want your unconverted relatives to know that you're a radical disciple of Jesus.

Ashamed of him. And you want him to publicly confess you when he comes again. And he will not. I tell you, I don't care who you are, my brother, sister, let me tell you to your face. If you are ashamed to confess Jesus before your friends and relatives and in your place of work, I tell you without a shadow of doubt in my mind, Jesus will not acknowledge you when he comes again.

There's no doubt in my mind about it. And I'm not preaching what I have not practiced. And you suffer for it. And I've suffered for it too. Not in terms of imprisonment or anything, but in little ways it may become imprisonment one day.

For any of us. Don't ever be ashamed. The Lamb does not give you the option of having his mark on your palm and secretly hiding it like the Antichrist does. It has to be on your forehead. Everybody can see it.

You know, in our country, in Hinduism, there are many, many people who have lines on their forehead. They've got a trinity in Hinduism called Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. And they put these lines on their forehead and they are not ashamed of it.

They come like that to their place of work. I've seen Muslims in India in a train, a crowded train. We are traveling together in a train. Hundreds of people. This man, when it comes to sunset or whenever is the time of their prayer, he will take a little mat and go and put it on the floor somewhere near the door and kneel down towards Mecca and pray.

I remember once one of them was sitting opposite me. He got his children to sit this side on the crowded chair and there was a three-seater cushioned seat there and he knelt down over there. He was not ashamed of anybody watching him.

He was a Muslim. He was proud of Allah. Who are the people who are ashamed? Christians. I tell you, these people have put me to shame. I said, Lord, I'm worshipping the true God and these people are not ashamed.

They are not bothered whether people make fun of them or not. And we have a bunch of Christians who are ashamed to make it clear that I follow Jesus. The mark must be on your forehead. And there's a very small number that have that.

And in every area of their life, it's not just acknowledging I'm a Christian. It's that in every bit of my conduct, people see I'm a Christian. I'm sorry, I don't laugh at that dirty joke. You look odd.

Of course you will look odd. Don't you think Jesus looked odd on the cross? There's a song I remember in my younger days we used to sing, I'm not ashamed to own my Lord or to defend His cause. And I used to sing it often.

I'd say, Lord, you are not... When I was 23 years old and I accepted Christ, I used to say often, I said, Lord, you are not ashamed to hang in an underwear up there on the cross, mocked at by people, scorned by demons and made the joke of society for me.

I never want to be ashamed of you in my life, anywhere, in any society. I want it to be known I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. If I lose something, I lose. It's okay. Let people know that. I want the mark of the lamb on my forehead.

I don't want it anywhere else. And it says here in verse 3 about this group of people, they sang a new song before the throne. And it says in verse 3, Revelation 14, 3, no one could learn the song except the 144 ,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

You know what that means? Have you been redeemed from the earth? That means my mind, where I've got this mark, has been redeemed from the earth. And I learn a song, a heavenly song. And that's the song.

You can't learn it unless you're redeemed from the earth. It's easy to sing these songs which are on the screen up there and sing it. But this is another song. It's the song of those whose mind, that's where the mark of the lamb is, the mind is set on the things above and not on the things of earth.

That's their song. They're occupied with Jesus. Their song is, there's nothing on earth I desire beside Thee, Lord Jesus. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? Many years ago, I wanted to understand the meaning of the words of Jesus to the woman of Samaria.

Worship, Honesty, and the New Birth

John chapter 3 and John chapter 4 are very interesting for me on how to witness to people. To worship God is the highest activity that any human being can do. We're going to do it for all eternity. It's the highest form of spirituality to be a worshiper of God, better than a preacher, apostle, evangelist, and to be a worshiper.

To be born again is the most elementary thing in the Christian life. In John chapter 3, Jesus talks to a bishop about being born again. And he talks to a sinful woman who's divorced five times about worship.