FEW WILL ENTER
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV)
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
The Bible declares that there are many people who “believe they are saved, but who will find out in the judgment that they are lost” (Matt 7:21-23; 13-14; 8:11-12; Luke 13:23-27). “Perhaps the greatest tragedy is ministers who tell people not what they need to hear, but what they want to hear” [2 Tim 4:3-4], and thus cause them to believe they are saved when in actual fact they are lost. In view of this real danger, Paul exhorted the Corinthians: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith” (2 Cor 13:5).
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Ellen White echoes the same warning:
“Deal truly with your own soul. Be as earnest, as persistent, as you would be if your mortal life were at stake. This is a matter to be settled between God and your own soul, settled for eternity. A supposed hope, and nothing more, will prove your ruin” (SC 35.1). “Desires for goodness and holiness are right as far as they go; but if you stop here, they will avail nothing. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians. They do not come to the point of yielding the will to God.” (SC 47-48).
“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). We need not have a supposed hope, but an assurance. To make our calling and election sure is to follow the Bible plan to closely examine ourselves, to make strict inquiry whether we are indeed converted, whether our minds are drawn out after God and heavenly things, our wills renewed, our whole souls changed. To make our calling and election sure requires far greater diligence than many are giving to this important matter. ‘For if ye do these things’—live on the plan of addition, growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ—ye shall mount up, step by step, the ladder Jacob saw, and ‘ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ ” (19MR 351).
https://www.andrews.edu/~jmoon/Documents/GSEM_534/Class_outline/08a.pdf