Will Jesus be Satisfied with the Number of People in Heaven?

Ever thought about that?  Will Jesus look down from Heaven when it is all said and done and say I am satisfied with the amount of people that are here…or will he walk the streets of Heaven gazing into Hell, heartbroken over the ‘near misses’ and ‘could of beens’?

In order to come to the correct conclusion we have to consider what it means to be satisfied.  To be satisfied means ‘to have enough’.  We may say after a big meal that we are full and have had enough.  That means we are satisfied…no more is required.

For this question, we are not trying to determine if Jesus had enough to eat, but rather was he satisfied with his work of salvation.  Think about your work.  In order to be truly satisfied we must have fully and completely accomplished what we set out to accomplish.  Imagine a football team whose goal is to score more points than their opponent on Friday night.  They practice hard all week in order to accomplish just that.  When the game is over the only way they can say they are satisfied with the result is if they accomplished their goal.  If they lost…none of them would say they were satisfied.

Consider this scenario.  I have four children.  Suppose I came outside one day and saw all four of them struggling to swim in our pond.  It appears that drowning is rapidly closing in on them.  I jump in the water and swim out to the first one.  I bring them to shore and return for another and another.  Suppose after I safely deliver the third one to the shore I turn around only to find the last one has slipped under.  I frantically search for them to no avail.  Is it reasonable for me to return to shore and say, “Well I got three out of four and I’m satisfied with that”?  God forbid!  I would mourn the loss of that child every day I live.  The only way I could ever say I was satisfied with my efforts and the outcome is to have safely delivered all my children from drowning.

So is Jesus satisfied with his saving efforts?

Isaiah 53:10, 11 “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”

This tells us that our Savior, as he hung on the cross at Calvary, could see all his seed.  In the omniscient mind of Christ he could see the faces of all those that he was dying for.  It says he could see what the travail of his soul…the suffering of his labor…was purchasing…and he was satisfied.  That day on the cross Jesus Christ knew exactly who would be the recipients of his atonement and he said ‘it is enough’. 

If I, a fallen human being, cannot be satisfied unless I have saved all of my own children from drowning…how much more should the one who has a perfect love be dissatisfied with the loss of one of his?

The only conclusion we can come to is that the reason Jesus Christ is satisfied with his work on the cross is because he saved every one that he set out to save.  The eternal salvation he brought about on the cross was not something that was going to be left up to chance.  That should be no surprise to us when we consider the scriptures.

Mt. 1:21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”

John 6:39 “And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”

The scripture tells us that Jesus was going to save his people…not make them savable…but save them.  It also tells us that it was a certainty that none of them would be lost.

Jesus Christ was given a people by his father and it was his purpose to come to earth and die for the sins of those the Father had given him…and he did just that.

Jesus set out to save his people and he did.  That is why Jesus is satisfied with those that are in Heaven.  Everyone that he intended to be there…will be there…not one will be lost.

Where Does Your Confidence in the Scriptures Come From?

Many people in life are exposed to the gospel at a very young age in an elementary, easy to understand way.  Possibly at an age where they are still unable to read, they form their first beliefs of who God is and how a person gets to Heaven.  The majority of the time this might come with a little scripture but mostly someone just telling them the basics.  Maybe they first hear it at age 4…then every Sunday for the next 3 years.  Now they are seven and have been told well over a hundred times the same thing.  They’ve heard it from their parents, their teachers, and their preacher.  Maybe they are too young to understand a verse that supports the teaching they are receiving…so they are just “told” what it means. Oftentimes the person’s understanding that is explaining it comes from they themselves being “told” what it means…so on and so forth.  As the child grows these beliefs are reinforced over and over through Sunday school teachers, youth pastors, and their preacher.  The more they grow, the more scriptures are introduced to them to support their previous exposure to it.  These scriptures are far from exhaustive and usually consists of a small handful that are cycled through the lessons over and over.  

Eventually the child sits down to read the bible for themselves.  They have so many preconceived notions from the “teachings” they were exposed too that it is next to impossible for them to not read those beliefs into every verse they see, no matter how few those may be.  That is why a person can be so adamant their beliefs are correct, yet can only paraphrase a few verses in the bible.  It is because their belief is based more on what they have been told their whole life rather than what the bible actually says.  I have even had preachers tell me the only explanation they have for the verse they preached on is that is how they were taught it.  Our confidence in our beliefs should not come from having confidence in the people that taught us, but rather in the scriptures themselves.  It is mind boggling how many strong doctrinal statements are made today that have no scriptural reference.

People are rarely able to leave those first ideas of how a person gets to Heaven no matter how much scripture seems to contradict what they have been taught.  They can’t fathom how all those people that taught me can be wrong…when the truth is many learned it just like you did…someone gave them a few scriptures and a whole lot of interpretation.  It was burned into their brain and even though there are tens of thousands of scriptures in the bible…they are convinced that they only need a few to be the foundation of their belief and it is impossible that there might be scriptures out there the totally contradict what they believe those few verses mean.  We are masters are making the bible say what we want it to say and turning a blind eye to those areas that seem to tear down the beliefs we have had from a young age.  Most of God’s people don’t love His Word…they only love parts of it.

Are we willing to labor in God’s word to harmonize the scriptures?  Are we humble enough to let the bible say what it says…not what we want it to say?  Do we love the Lord enough to take our doctrine from the bible rather than take our doctrine to the bible?

May we labor in the scriptures so we can rightly divide and properly apply the word of God.

How Does the Bible Describe Those That are not Born Again?

Being “born again” is the process in which God places his Spirit inside a person making them a new spiritual creature.  So what are some of the characteristics of someone that is unregenerate or not born again?

Isaiah 26:10

• ·         No amount of favor will persuade him to learn righteousness
• ·         He will do unjustly
• ·         Will not behold the majesty of the Lord

·         Psalms 10

• ·         Persecutes the poor
• ·         Brags about his desires
• ·         Does not seek after God
• ·         God is not in his thoughts
• ·         His ways are grievous
• ·         God’s judgments are beyond his sight
• ·         He is full of cursing, deceit, fraud, mischief, and vanity

Psalms 14 & 53

• ·         They say there is no God
• ·         Corrupt – Ruined, cast off
• ·         Do abominable (detestable, abhorred) works
• ·         Do no good
• ·         Don’t understand or seek God
• ·         Gone aside
• ·         Filthy
• ·         Do not call upon the Lord

Psalms 55:19

• ·         Because they have no changes they don’t fear God

1 Corinthians 1:18

• ·         Preaching of the cross is foolishness to them

1 Corinthians 2:14

• ·         Do not accept/take things from the Spirit of God
• ·         Things of God are foolishness to him
• ·         Cannot know or discern spiritual things

John 8:43, 47

• ·         Cannot understand Christ's speech
• ·         Do not hear God’s words

John 10:26

• ·         Do not believe

So how does a person that is described as not fearing God, not understanding or seeking him, not able to be persuaded to do right, does not think about God, doesn’t call on God, thinks the preaching of the cross is foolishness, doesn’t accept things from God, doesn’t hear God’s words and doesn’t believe...how does that person ever change?  What instrument does man have that can make that person see the importance of surrendering to God?  What can we do to change him?  What can he do to change himself?  Is there something that can break through to him and get him to accept Christ, to embrace the gospel, or to believe?

Some would say he just has to get willing to believe…but the bible says those that aren't born again won’t believe.

Some would say share the gospel with him.  But the bible tells us that he will think it’s foolish and not receive it.

Is there any tactic or level of persuasion that can open his eyes to the glorious Lord?

Based on what the bible says about him, there is no instrument or method of man that can reach this person, not even the gospel itself will prick his heart in the condition that he is in.  So then according to the bible, it is impossible for man to not only persuade him to change his heart, but it is also impossible for this man to change his own heart.  “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jer. 13:23.

You may ask the question the disciples asked in Mathew 19:25, “Who then can be saved?”  Praise the Lord that he answered them with this glorious truth, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

The things that limit man in this life are not binding to the Lord.  Neither death, disease, weather, nor man himself can prevent the Lord from doing his will (Isa. 46:10).  Jesus commanded death to loose Lazarus…and death obeyed.  Jesus commanded the paralytic man’s legs to work again…and they obeyed.  Jesus told the winds and waves to be still…and they obeyed.  All these things were beyond the limits of man’s abilities, but the Lord is not limited by anything, including man’s wicked, unregenerate heart.  If the Lord himself knocked on the door of this man’s wicked heart he would reject the Lord every time. So the Lord doesn’t knock, he simply busts the door down and comes on in, as he does with all his people at some point in their life.  The Lord can send his Spirit inside of this man (Gal. 4:6), making him a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17).  Making him one that, while once alienated from God and pursued only the pleasures of this life, is now filled with the Spirit of God and desires to follow him.  We call this being born again, and that is the sole work of the Lord. Consider Saul of Tarsus and the thief on the cross, spewing out hatred and slaughter towards the Lord and his people one minute, and humbly surrendering to him the next.  What happened?  The door had been knocked down!  They didn't surrender in order to get his Spirit, they surrendered because they already had it.

What about your own experience?  Do you remember a time that you started having thoughts of the Lord?  Maybe you heard a sermon preached and you felt a shamefulness inside you.  Maybe you felt a desire to hang your head and cling to the cross.  Maybe you have always loved the Lord for as long as you can remember.  What a vastly different picture than the man listed above.  What you need to know is you were showing the evidence that the Lord had already placed his Spirit inside of you, overcoming the natural man in its sin corrupted state.  You were showing evidences of already being born again.  It was not because the preacher was good or because you had your head screwed on right that day.  It was because the Lord saw fit to do a work in your life.  You have no cause to boast (Eph. 2:8, 9).  Praise the Lord that with him all things are possible.