The Few, the Brave, the Church

I know we've all heard these military slogans from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. The Army, be all you can be, and also get an edge on life. From the Navy, it's not just a job, it's an adventure. And also, you and the Navy, full speed ahead. And the Air Force, aim high.

These military slogans have been carefully created and chosen in order to attract and appeal to young people for an all-volunteer military. One of the most catching and successful recruiting and advertising slogans comes from the U.S. Marines. Well, they've got a couple of them. We're looking for a few good men. And I take off from that the few, the proud, the Marines. Yes, you know, think about that last one. The few, the proud, the Marines. It speaks of those who are special, of those who have what it takes, of those who measure up. Not just anyone can be a Marine. Takes intelligence, takes physical ability and moral character. I wonder, in the words of the previous recruiting campaign, the Marines are looking for a few good men. We know certainly something we learned from this as far as what God is doing, the way God is working. Down through history, He has been working with only a few. And God is looking for a few good men and women and children. And the rest of the world, He has allowed to be deceived. I'd like to then give the sermon this afternoon with the title, The Few, The Brave, The Church. The Few, The Brave, The Church. I want to quickly survey human history. Before the flood, we know that there was only a handful that we know of that God was working with. Abel, we know that God was working with Abel. With Enoch, and then, of course, with Noah and his family who came on through the flood. After the flood, there was Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob. There was also Joseph, and then later, a little later, Moses and Joshua. A few of the judges like Gideon and Samuel. And a few of the kings like David and Hezekiah. We read of righteous prophets like Elijah and Elisha. Later on, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah, and Daniel. When the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity, we read about Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah. And finally, Malachi. For about 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament, we have no biblical record of anyone. We do read about the Maccabees and how they tried to preserve the sacrifices and the laws of God given to Old Testament Israel and Judah. But you know in the Old Testament, then 4,000 years, two-thirds of the way from creation till now, 4,000 years, it truly was only a few.

The few, and they were the brave. We can read about all the deeds, what they did, these men and women of God. One very good example of how brave they were is Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. It's also about the courage and the bravery of these few that God has worked with down through history the first 4,000 years. We come to the ministry of Jesus Christ. I want us to focus on that for a few minutes because we also find it was the few, not the many.

You can read verses that show that great multitudes of people begin to be attracted to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Great multitudes! Well, why shouldn't they be? People were healed, signs and wonders were done, and plus Jesus Christ made sense. What he taught made sense. He expanded and amplified the laws and the commandments of Almighty God. The Sermon on the Mount is a good example. He talked about forgiveness. He talked about even loving your enemies, Will. When you think about it, that makes sense also. So great multitudes of people came to hear Jesus Christ. You know, on one occasion that we read about, there were 5,000 men besides women and children. So you throw the women and children in, how many do you have? You could have 7,000, 8,000, 9,000, maybe 10,000 people that Jesus was talking to.

Sometimes they would even get on water in order for his voice to be amplified so people could hear him. Sometimes he was up on a hillside and his voice would reach them. But here we have, let's say, 6,000 or 8,000 people. He said, well these people, we can't send them away hungry. We've got to feed them. The disciples laughed and said, well how can we feed them? We have 5 loaves and we have 2 fish. How can we feed all these people? Jesus said, have them sit down orderly. He had his disciples then to serve as waiters and they served out food miraculously from Jesus Christ as this food was served on to, they must have had some kind of paper plates of that day and time. Then they didn't run out. They even took up remnants. Another occasion, there were 4,000 people besides men and women. How many would that be? Maybe 6,000, 7,000, 8,000, multitudes of people that followed after Jesus Christ. And he fed them on that occasion. They had been there 3 days with them, listening to them. That's a pretty long time, but they ran out of any food they brought with them. And Jesus said they're hungry. We need to give them some food. And the disciples said, we can't do it. We only have 7 loaves and a few fish. That's all we have. 7 loaves of bread and a few fish. Jesus had them sit down and again miraculously fed them. Think of all these... That would be quite a fantastic thing. Imagine yourself having been in the multitude, listening to Jesus Christ. Then to have you sit down and to have word that all you have is 7 loaves and a few fish or 5 loaves and 2 fish on the other occasion. Then to sit down and everybody to be fed. What a witness that would be. You would think, boy, that would always stick with you. You would follow Jesus Christ to the death. Someone that is able to do something of this type and plus one that is teaching God's laws and makes good sense.

But you know, in spite of all these multitudes that followed after Jesus Christ, only a few really believed deep in their heart and were absolutely committed and dedicated to what they heard, to the message. Let's turn to John 6. We see that some people follow Jesus Christ up to a point. One of the sermonettes I remember at Ambassador College when I was in college there was, do you have a sticking point? Would you go along to a certain point and then you have your sticking point? And that's what throws you. And you no longer go along. You no longer can be there. Well, that's what happened here in verse 60. John 6 and verse 60. Therefore, many of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it? Brethren, what was the hard saying that they were talking about? Well, you can read the 10 verses or so before and find out that Jesus had said, for example, in verse 53, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. And what if you had been in one of those in the multitude? Maybe you were one of those even fed miraculously by Jesus Christ. You saw all the other miracles done. And then you're sitting there listening to him. You're just drinking in every word. And then suddenly he says, I say to you, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. Brethren, you have no background for that. You have no setting to put it in. And so you sit there and you say, boy, this man is saying, except I eat his flesh and drink his blood, I have no life in me. Verse 54, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. Not only did Jesus say it one time, he keeps rubbing it in. You've got to eat his flesh. You've got to drink his blood. He says it several times.

Many of those disciples who had followed Jesus, who had drank in every word, they had drunk in every word that he said. They said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it? What Jesus knew they murmured. And he said, does this offend you? Verse 61. What if you see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? It's a spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words I speak are spirit in their life. There's a spiritual meaning and understanding behind what I just said. And there are some of you that do not believe. Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, who did not believe and who would betray him. He said, therefore I said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. Verse 66. There were many people that had come to their sticking point. They couldn't no longer follow and walk with Jesus. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. What about you? What if you had been there and you heard that and you had no context to put it in? Eat the flesh of Christ, drink his blood. Would that have been your sticking point? Something you just didn't understand. Or would you have been able to put it aside and say, well, Jesus has done all these miracles. I can't deny all that I've seen. He has taught all these things that are true. He's expounded the Scriptures. Everything fits in place. I'm just going to put this on the side. It's going to fit in too. We know that's what happened with the 12 disciples.

And in verse 67, Jesus said to the 12, do you also want to go away? Are you going to leave? Would you notice that Jesus did not try to beg or plead with the ones who left? He didn't say, please don't leave me. Please believe on me. He did not. Brethren, when you come right down to it, a person has to have a calling from God and have the Spirit of God guiding and directing him and have that commitment to what God has called him to in his heart and mind. He's not going to be shaken away from it. We are immovable because we know where the truth is. But Jesus said, are you going to leave too? Peter said to him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe. And know that is that we have come to believe. We've seen all these miracles you've done.

We were there when we handed out food to people, six or eight thousand people from five loaves and two fish and from a few fish and seven loaves in another instance. We were there. We've seen all the miracles you've done, the ones that you've healed. So, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We've come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. We know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. So, you know, brethren, when you have that kind of belief deep in your heart and mind, that kind of conviction, nothing is going to move you. Nothing is going to shake you because you know where the truth is and you believe.

Jesus said, Did I not choose you, the twelve? And one of you is the devil. And he spoke of Judas Iscariot who would betray him. So, you know, the numbers who followed Jesus Christ were now diminished after this incident. People reached their sticking point. They said, Boy, I can't any longer follow Christ. So, you know, it's something to think about. Could there be a sticking point in your life where you could no longer follow? You hear something that doesn't fit in place? Many disciples left here. You know, we think about the ministry of Christ. Three and a half years, all those miracles, some of them we've just talked about, the feeding of multitudes, all the things he did, all the truth he taught. And after his three and one half year ministry, what did he have? Well, you would think, well, maybe half of them. Maybe five thousand. No. Let's go to Acts 1. It didn't have that many who believed that before the day of Pentecost, they were gathered after Jesus had ascended to heaven.

Just days before Pentecost, Acts 1, verse 12, then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, near Jerusalem. When they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, the other names of the disciples. Verse 14, these all continue with one accord and prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. Okay, so what do we have here? We have 12 disciples. We have certain women. We have Mary, Jesus' mother, and we have Jesus' brothers. How many were there? Verse 15, in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples. All together, the number of the names was about 120. Here was the results of the ministry of Jesus Christ. 120. About, it says, doesn't say exactly, does it? About 120. That's not very many, is it? Jesus himself then obviously was not on a soul-saving campaign. He wasn't trying to save all the world.

After his powerful three and one-half year ministry, backed up by miracles because God wanted the Son of Man, the Son of God, to be able to catch the eye, you might say, of people in Judea and in Jerusalem. But after all of his work, 120, that's not very many.

Brethren, the few. And these were also the brave.

They would be the ones who was spearhead, the starting of the New Testament Church.

True, the New Testament Church grew to be of a little bit of size. As we read in Acts 2 that 3,000 people were added to these 120 the very first day of the church.

A little bit later in Acts 4 and verse 4, we read that 5,000 people were added to the church.

That gives over 8,000 right there. And that God added daily to the church. And the church increased and multiplied. So, you know, what do you think? The early church.

The twelve apostles preaching, then Paul joins in after a while and goes to the gentile world. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't 15,000, 20,000, 25,000, maybe more, who became members of the church. You know, even so, you say, well, that's quite a number. 20,000, there were 25,000 in the early church. But you know, that's not very many compared to the population of the earth. It is estimated that the population of the earth at that time, all over the earth, was about 250 million people, one quarter of a billion. Today, you know, we have around six or seven billion. I've not even kept up with the latest figure somewhere up there in that neighborhood. But only a quarter of a billion people, but only maybe around, we surmise, 20,000, 25,000, maybe in the early church. So, you know, the church was still the few, not the many. It was still just the few. Paul did go to the Gentiles. He went to Asia, Greece, and Rome. But you know, many of these congregations were small. We read about a church in their home and another man who was the host to the church. Think about that. A church in the home you would not expect to be very big, would you? Maybe there was a dozen. Maybe there'd be room for two dozen, but probably not as large as our congregation here this afternoon.

But, you know, guess what? As the years went by, a decade or two and three, by the time we come about three decades into the history of the church, the writer of Hebrews had to write that some were neglecting their salvation and some were not even attending services. They were neglecting assembling together. So the church began an attrition. It began a loss of membership, every indication is. And by the time you come to the latter New Testament era with John the only one left alive, even in the days of Peter, there was attrition. There were false prophets and false teachers drawing people, attracting people. But by the time you come to Jude later and John, you see more people separating from the church. And John wrote in John 2.19, they went out from us, but they were not of us. So there was an attrition in the church. And how many people do you think may have been in the church by the time John died around 100 AD? The church was 70 years old. We believe that the numbers were diminished over what it was at the beginning. May the church of that time have been, or might the church of that time have been just a few thousands of people? It is possible. It certainly is possible. We cannot know. But as we come on into the second century after John died, we read about ones that continued to teach and to proclaim the message. And we're members of God's church, like Polycarp and the disciple of John, and Polycrates, the disciple of Polycarp. We read about them. They continued to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days, the Passover instead of Easter.

But the church was not big enough to really any more than just find traces of it down through the hundreds of years in Asia and then over into Europe. And then later into England, of the 1600s, we find Sabbath-keeping groups. The church of God, Sabbath-keeping groups, we find some Sabbath-keeping groups in Germany, in Central Europe. And then in the 1600s, church of God groups developed in the United States. But, you know, again, not huge numbers. How big was God's church then during all those hundreds of years? Could it have been, there may have been times, you know, that was very, very small, maybe a thousand or two or three. There may have been times it seems to have waxed and waned, you know, between the larger work and smaller work. There were times it waxed a bit larger. Well, come on forward to today.

We know that Mr. Armstrong began to preach the message on radio in the 1930s and published the Plain Truth magazine and booklets and articles. But to know the work of Mr. Armstrong remained very small, very small for many years. If you had gone to the Feast of Tabernacles in the early 1950s, almost 20 years after he started his radio broadcasting, you would have found around 100 people or so, maybe 100, 150 in Oregon, in Northern California. When I went to Ambassador College in 1958, there was one festival site in North America, and that was in Big Sandy, Texas. And there were people there from all over the United States and Canada, and there were 4,000 people. That was beginning to go up from what it had been for many, many years. It was still small. We probably have three or four times that many in the United Church of God, and we don't feel that we are the only church group. We're scattered around in different church organizations right now, we believe. So, you know, 4,000 represented most of the membership in the church in 1958. During the 1960s, some of us may have our roots going back to the 1960s. Anybody here have roots going back to the... Yeah, we do. I know we do. Anybody going back to the 1950s?

Okay, so we have a few old timers here. And so, the church began, though, to increase and to grow. There were many congregations developed in the 1960s and 70s, and the Feast of Tabernacles' attendance went up, up, up, up. Over 100 eventually. And I don't know, what was it? 125? Or was it more than that? Somewhere up around that neighborhood, attendance of the Feast of Tabernacles around the world. You know, even then, by that time, the population of the earth had reached up to, what was it, around 2 or 3 million or billion? The first billion, or time the earth had a billion, was around 1800. And I think it was about 100 years later before the next billion. So, that'd be the early 1900s. And then, you know, just kept the population of the earth has kept increasing. So, probably in the 60s and 70s, it was around the 3 or 4 billion mark, somewhere in there. So, the 125,000 was still the few.

But even there, Mr. Armstrong often said that many of them were not converted, maybe only half of them. So, you know, even during those years, the church got larger in the 60s and the 70s and the 80s. It was still the little flock. It was still the few. And we know that in around 1990 to 1995, there began to be an attrition. And we know that in early 1995, the United Church of God formed to preserve knowledge and being able to keep the Sabbath and Holy Days and other teachings of the Scriptures. And our highest feast attendance has been somewhere around 20,000 or in the low 20s, 2021, or maybe 22,000, somewhere in that range. We've had attrition in our brief history. We have our current situation. You know, one reason I'm giving this today is to help us to have a perspective on where we are, maybe in church history and God's plan, 6,000 year plan, our history and our time, beginning with Mr. Armstrong and how the work was real small for many years. And then it began to go up, especially in the latter 50s and the 60s and 70s and 80s. And then it came down. Many people went back to Protestantism in the early 1990s and mid-1990s.

So, you know, the church has had its struggles down through the years. We've always actually been the few, and we've had to be brave to be steadfast to what God has shown to us. We've had to be able to be strong in our faith and courageous. Actually, God, through the ages, has done His work with a few brave and courageous people. You know, one of the examples in the Bible that shows that God doesn't need big numbers. You know, He does not need what we have today.

He can do His work with just a very small number. He could do it Himself, of course. He could do it through angels, but He chooses to do it through the church, through humans. So, you know, God is going to accomplish His purpose, and He is doing it with small numbers. One of the best examples of how God can operate is Gideon's army. I want to briefly have us turn over to Judges 6, 7, and 8, and read just a few of the verses about Gideon's army. We've all heard of it.

We know that the Midianites were oppressing Israel, and we know that God then chose Gideon. But Gideon was kind of skittish. He had to have all these signs. We know one of them was to have the dew on the fleece and not on the ground, and then on the ground and not on the fleece. All these signs that Gideon had to have, and God provided that. And finally, Gideon went and gathered together an army. And that is in chapter 7 and verse 2. Let's just pick up a few verses here.

This is one of the prime examples in the Bible that God doesn't need big numbers to get His work done. As I mentioned in the announcements, God can do just as big a work with smaller numbers as He can do with bigger numbers. He can do a bigger work with smaller numbers if He chooses to do so. He might very well choose to do so. Well, Judges 7 and verse 2, the Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim for itself against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. God doesn't want us to pat ourselves on the back or glory in what we have done, but to glory in what He has done. Now therefore proclaim in the hearing of the people, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let in turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead. Anybody afraid? Go home. Get away. 22,000, it says, of the people returned. 22,000 and 10,000 remained. Well, simple math. There was an army of 32,000 people there. And Gideon said, Anybody afraid? Go back home. 22,000 people left. How would you feel if you were in the remaining 10,000? And let me mention, the army that they were facing was 135,000, even with 32,000.

That's over four to one odds against you. I'll tell you what, you know, if there's reason to just look at numbers and, you know, lose your courage and faith, they had it. So here they are. You look around, 22,000 have just walked away, and you're one of 10,000 remaining.

Well, God's not done narrowing it down. He said to Gideon, The people are still too many. Verse 4, Bring them down to the water, I'll test them for you there. It will be that of whom I say to you, This one shall go with you, the same shall go with you. And of whomever I say to you, this one shall not go, the same will not go. So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set aside by himself. Likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink. There's a separation going on here. Well, the number of those who lapped, you know, they didn't lose their footing. They reached down and they, you know how a dog lapsed?

Well, that's what they did. They lapped without getting down. The others, though, got on their knees, and they probably cupped some water into their hand, or maybe got their face down in the water. They were on their knees. The number that lapped, verse 6, was 300 men. All the rest got down upon their knees. The Lord said to Gideon, By the 300 men who lapped, I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand.

And you can go ahead and read the rest of the story. But, you know, the truth is God did not even need the 300. He let them participate in this military venture. He didn't need them. He could do it, you know, just without anybody. But He let them participate. How would you have felt, though, as you saw the army whittled down? First of all, you have 32,000. You see this huge army, 135,000. Then you have 10,000. Boy, can we do it? Odds more than 1 to 13 and a half against you.

And then you're whittled down to 300. Odds of 450 to 1. Wow! How would you have felt to be among the 300? You know, there's no indication that they were afraid. They had to have faith, didn't it, that God was with them. They had to have faith. They had to be courageous and brave. And not trust in numbers, but trust in God. That'd be the only way that you could approach a battle like this. Well, they did play their role. Faith without works is dead.

They had their part to play. So Gideon had them divided into three separate armies. 100 each. 100 here on this side of the Midianites. 100 on another side. 100 on another side. They were all on higher ground. They had these lamps in one hand. They had these trumpets in the other hand. And you know, they had no military weapons at all.

Just a lamp and the trumpets. And at a certain time in the wee hour of the night, they were to show their lamps and they were to blow their trumpets and say, was it Gideon's army or the army of the Lord? Shout out. And they did that and the Midianites were confused. They turned on each other. And they destroyed each other. I think it was 120,000 that were destroyed immediately. And the other 15,000 were put to chase. And some of the other Israelites came into the battle at that point and they helped to kind of clean up the Midianites.

So God accomplished a mighty victory that day. And it wasn't by human power or might. Well, you know, we're like Gideon's army in many ways. Our numbers have been reduced dramatically from the over 100,000 we had back in the, say, 70s and 80s. We've been reduced dramatically.

We've been united. We've been further reduced. But yet, interestingly, the power and the scope of the work have increased. Because I believe that today we are reaching more people because we have the Internet than Mr. Armstrong was able to reach. He never had the Internet. I think he would have been amazed at that, Mr. Armstrong. He was amazed at radio and he used it. He was amazed at television and he used it. He realized the power of the printed page and he used it in printing magazines and booklets and literature. So Mr.

Armstrong walked through every door that opened up for him. The Internet just wasn't here yet. And yet we can reach billions of people. And we are in preaching the Gospel. So the power and the scope is not diminishing. Brethren, I think that God is looking upon us then and He wants us to learn lessons about the things that we are going through. And I look back, I have lived in the church over 50 years, us. I see those the church small back in 1958, maybe 4,000 people or so.

Pretty small. I saw that grow and grow during the 60s and the 70s. Many of you saw it too. And the 80s. And then began to wonder after the death of Mr. Armstrong, what's going on here? I don't seem to be believing like I believe. And sure enough, it turned out that way. And we were diminished down. And we only had about, well, we probably, I don't even know if we had 20,000 at the beginning of United, but worldwide we came to have anyway around 20 or 21 or 2000.

But you know, I've looked at all this and I've realized that even at the largest we have been, there's still the few when you consider the whole world. And there's still the few when you consider that many did not really believe, were not really dedicated to the truth, had not really yielded themselves.

You know, brethren, God has been testing us. He's been learning some things about us. I do believe in the trying and testing that we have gone through.

And I think certainly God wants us to be humble, continue to be humble and broken the way we were in 1995 and trusting Him. We've seen our numbers diminished, and yet our work and the scope of the work have not diminished. We want to always remember that we must not despise the day of small things. Zechariah 4 and verse 10. Let us not despise the day of small things.

And let us remember too that Jesus in Luke 12 and verse 32 spoke about the little flock.

And think about that. A little flock that is to preach the gospel to the world. How can we do it? Only by the power of God. Zechariah says, not by human might or power, but by God's Spirit. It's a little flock that God commissions to do a big work.

Guess what? The early church turned the world upside down. Acts 17 and verse 6. The early church turned the world upside down.

That's what it was said of them. I believe that today we have a work also that's going to turn the world upside down by the time it's done, including the work of the two witnesses. We've got a big work to do. We want to be excited about it, and we want to go on forward to do it.

This sermon today is kind of like a pep rally. It's to encourage us, don't be discouraged about what might happen. If some people, you know, do you think that Jesus, He saw all these people leaving Him, and He said, Well, they don't believe on Me anymore. They're leaving Me. You think He was demoralized? You think He was discouraged? Did He feel like giving up? Was He down? No.

Should we be discouraged? No. Not at all. We should not be discouraged or lose morale if our numbers become smaller. Jesus didn't. Gideon's army didn't. Those 300 remaining had a high morale. They knew that God would give them the victory. They were not discouraged. They did not turn and run.

They were those few brave men that God used.

Those remaining with Jesus Christ, 120, were those few brave men and women that God used to start and found the church that Jesus said He would build.

Today, we continue to see that same story of a few ones that God is using to do His work. And we need to be strong and brave and courageous and optimistic and full of faith. And if we are ever discouraged or lose morale, lift up feeble hands and trust God. God has always used small numbers. He gets the glory, not us. It's not by might or power, human might or power, but by God's Spirit that we move forward.

We are confident, absolutely confident, that God will see Matthew 24.14 fulfilled. The gospel will be preached in all the world as a witness. And we also know that God will use the church to do it, including the two witnesses.

And then we'll do it through the few.

Let's remember the marine slogan, the few, the proud, the marines. We don't want the proud part in there or the marines, but the few, the brave, people of God that God has been using, the little flock. We do want that to be there.

Let's not be daunted by adversity or reduction in numbers. God reduces our forces like He did Gideon's army. Let's not be daunted by that or discouraged. Let's be strong and brave and courageous. Let's be full of faith in God and in Christ, the head of the church. Go on forward through the open doors, for then that is the spirit and the attitude of our Council of Elders and our President, our leadership in Cincinnati.

Let's always remember who we are, the few, the brave, the little flock, the Church of God.