Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: As you grab your seat today, we are closing out and finishing this series that we have been in the last three weeks called Erasing Hell.
Forrest: And next week we jump into a brand new series called Family Trip.
Forrest: All about family.
Forrest: And I'm excited for the series that's coming up.
Forrest: And if you missed last week's sermon, I want to encourage you to go online, multiplyky.com, to look at sermons, because last week I talked about what Jesus taught about hell and what his words specifically were about the afterlife and about eternity.
Forrest: And why in the world have we even done this series?
Forrest: Why in the world for the last three weeks have we even been doing this series called Erasing Hell?
Forrest: I was looking at Pew Research in 2021, did a study, and they looked at all of Americans and asking them about whether or not they believed in the realities of heaven and hell.
Forrest: And the next generation, those 18 to 29 in this country, uh only 55%, so about half of the next generation even believes that there's a reality of hell, but even worse than that, not even that much than 55%, 63% of them said that they believed in the reality of heaven, which is just crazy to think about.
Forrest: That the world is so desperate to convince us that there's not a spiritual reality, that there's not a spiritual battle that's being waged, that the devil sin and hell, it's not real, it's just this fairy tale that's been created to control the masses.
Forrest: And TikTok theology is filled with people who are just trying to convince us all just to believe in ourselves, and that will be enough.
Forrest: And they've got Jesus as a jersey to just talk about him and to use his name, whatever their ideology is or whatever their lifestyle is, that Jesus is just this nice guy, and that a nice guy would never allow anyone to go to hell.
Forrest: And this is an attempt to censor Christ and to erase eternity, to erase hell.
Forrest: I feel like so many of my conversations, especially with those in our church who are like 18 to 29 last six months, so many of our conversations, and I think about small group and stuff, so many of our conversations starts with they they say these words.
Forrest: Well, I saw on TikTok, and then fill in the blank.
Forrest: Whatever the story, whatever the analogy is.
Forrest: And uh we don't want to have a TikTok theology.
Forrest: We want to know the truth of God's word, and we want to know what the scriptures say, so then we're able to discern if what we're being taught, what we're listening to, what we're hearing, what somebody is saying, if it's actually true, or if there's someone that Jesus calls Sons of Satan.
Forrest: That's the title of my message today, Sons of Satan.
Forrest: Not too long ago, I saw this viral clip of this person who was talking about heaven and hell, and that it was just this projection and just this state of consciousness, completely disconnected from Jesus and his teaching.
Forrest: And what I'm uh what I wonder is we're constantly thinking about being on guard from wolves that are outside of the Christian faith.
Forrest: But what about the wolves that are in sheep's clothing that are trying to deceive us?
Forrest: What if one of the biggest threats to your soul isn't what non-Christians are saying, but those who falsely claim to represent Christ?
Forrest: See, not all who claim Christ are truly his.
Forrest: And not everybody who speaks in Jesus' name is actually telling you the truth.
Forrest: And we're gonna see today from what Jesus said that hell is filled with people who were religious but who actually never truly knew Jesus.
Forrest: And that not every voice that sounds spiritual actually leads to life.
Forrest: And so we're gonna look at the teachings of Jesus today from Matthew chapter 7.
Forrest: And just to let you know, as I as I go back to this passage in Matthew chapter 7, I think that these things that Jesus said, this is some of the most difficult preaching that Jesus has in my view.
Forrest: So I'm glad that you came today for that.
Forrest: Chose a great Sunday.
Forrest: I constantly go back to this Matthew chapter 7, and I look at it and I think this is difficult, this is a hard teaching from Jesus.
Forrest: But I want to give you actually what Jesus said, so then you will be equipped with Jesus' words, so then you'll know how to discern and understand the truth and not be tricked.
Forrest: So we're in Matthew chapter 7.
Forrest: If you have a Bible, turn to Matthew chapter 7.
Forrest: This is a part of the gospels that you want to highlight or want to make note of.
Forrest: If you've got your phone, pull it out, highlight these scriptures starting in verse 13.
Forrest: Jesus is preaching and he says this in verse 13 enter through the narrow gate.
Forrest: For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Forrest: But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to what?
Forrest: Life.
Forrest: And only a few find it.
Forrest: Verse 15.
Forrest: Watch out for false prophets.
Forrest: They have come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
Forrest: By their fruit you will recognize them.
Forrest: Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
Forrest: Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Forrest: A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad fruit can tree cannot bear good fruit.
Forrest: Verse 19 every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Forrest: Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Forrest: Verse 21.
Forrest: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Forrest: But only the ones, only the one who does the will of my father, of my father who is in heaven.
Forrest: Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?
Forrest: Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.
Forrest: Away from me, you evildoers.
Forrest: Oh, as I read this passage, I think about my own life and I think about how oftentimes when I come to church, like I just want to be encouraged.
Forrest: I just want, I just want to hear the good stuff.
Forrest: I just want to think about the good things.
Forrest: And so oftentimes we want to just focus on the things that are encouraging or the things that somebody will say that may be something that we want to hear, that our itching ears want to hear.
Forrest: And there's times where I just want to be encouraged and not be changed.
Forrest: But it's it's in the truth of God's word and in what Jesus taught us is that we're not just here just to just to hear and just to feel good, but also that we would follow Jesus and that our life would be changed because of the truth of the gospel.
Forrest: It is so easy just to justify, and and the world is just trying to justify, well, you know what?
Forrest: Like I just I'm a good person.
Forrest: Like it's all good.
Forrest: Just be a good person, and what can happen is that we can fall into and we don't want to fall into a false hope.
Forrest: The world telling us, like, well, you know, I I'm a good person, so I'm good with God, and Jesus is right here telling us that there are people that have even done good things, that even called on his name, but have never really given over and surrendered their whole life to him in order for them to be able to look and to say to them and not to say to them, I never knew you.
Forrest: You may know a lot about God, but does God know you?
Forrest: See, being spiritual doesn't make you saved.
Forrest: Understanding that Christ died on the cross for your sins and gave his life for you, and then you giving him your life in return in faith, that is what saves you, and that is what, as Jesus is called, not a false hope, but a living hope.
Forrest: A living hope.
Forrest: How many of y'all have yourself on this morning?
Forrest: I'm sure you do.
Forrest: Yeah?
Forrest: Everybody?
Forrest: Yeah.
Forrest: We are all just one swipe away from a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Forrest: You want to know why?
Forrest: Because algorithms don't care about truth.
Forrest: What's sent to you on your feed is just what is popular or just what everybody is listening to.
Forrest: And so oftentimes we can not realize that there's real deception out there, even if it's dressed up as a Christian and has sheep's clothing on that's trying to deceive us.
Forrest: That's why we need to know the real thing.
Forrest: When I was uh younger, uh for a short time, I dated this girl who uh her dad was a Secret Service agent.
Forrest: And he would uh quite frequently uh tell me that he had lots of guns.
Forrest: And the Secret Service, uh obviously we know like they they just honored the fact that they put their lives on the line for our leaders in our country, but that's not the only thing that they do, is they started out in the Treasury Department, and one of the functions of the Secret Service was also to investigate and to find counterfeit money.
Forrest: And when this began, and they began to to try to find counterfeit money and to do this function, what they did not do was just go and study all of the different counterfeit money that flow through the system.
Forrest: But instead, what their training was for them to look at the real actual currency and to know it so well that whenever they saw a currency or money that was a fake, they could immediately recognize it because they knew the real thing.
Forrest: And in the same way, we need to be a people who know the real thing and who the real Jesus is.
Forrest: So then as soon as we see a counterfeit or hear a counterfeit or hear a lie, we're able to immediately recognize and understand that that's not the truth, and you can spot a counterfeit.
Forrest: Are you hearing me?
Forrest: Now I don't want to spend a ton of time on this because I don't want us just out hunting for heretics, but I do want to show you a few marks of what uh uh a fake is or false teacher, false prophet.
Forrest: And this comes from this passage.
Forrest: This isn't on the screen, you can write it down.
Forrest: The first thing is that that false teaching can draw a crowd or views.
Forrest: In verse 13, Jesus says that broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Forrest: The second thing is that they look safe in verse 15.
Forrest: That they're in sheep's clothing.
Forrest: So it's wrapped up in Christian talk and the name of Christ, and it looks very safe, but actually they're ferocious wolves, is what Jesus said.
Forrest: The third thing is that they bear bad fruit, verse 16, that the consistent outcome of their life is a poor representation of Christ.
Forrest: Jesus uses this agricultural uh analogy of a tree that bears good fruit and a bad tree that bears bad fruit.
Forrest: You can't even mess it up.
Forrest: It's so simple as Jesus tells us.
Forrest: That these false teachers that we see the first fourth thing is that they talk, they can talk the spiritual talk in verse 22.
Forrest: They say, Lord, Lord, even prophesying, even even doing miracles.
Forrest: But the fifth thing is that they lack obedience in verse 22.
Forrest: The only the one who does the will of my father in heaven will be with him.
Forrest: In verse 23, Jesus tells us that these fakes that they don't actually know him.
Forrest: Jesus said, I never knew you.
Forrest: And that they use Jesus' name in vain, sometimes for personal gain, when they even said, Well, in your name, we prophesied, and in your name, Jesus, we did these miracles, but they cause people to miss the gate because there is deception, because there is a twisting of the scripture on who Jesus is and not fully trusting and knowing him.
Forrest: Jesus confronts the religious leaders and the Jewish people who are plotting to murder him, and he is calling them out in John chapter 8, and then later in the Gospel of Matthew.
Forrest: And in John chapter 8, he's calling out these Jews who are plotting his murder, and Jesus says in verse 42, Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love me, for I have come from God.
Forrest: I have not come on my own.
Forrest: God sent me.
Forrest: Why is my language not clear to you?
Forrest: Because you are unable to hear what I say.
Forrest: You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires.
Forrest: He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth.
Forrest: There's no truth in him.
Forrest: When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Forrest: Yet because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.
Forrest: Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?
Forrest: If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me?
Forrest: Whoever belongs to God hears what God says.
Forrest: The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.
Forrest: Jesus confronts these Jews who are plotting his death, and he tells them, basically, Jesus says, Who's your daddy?
Forrest: Who's your daddy?
Forrest: Because the way that you're acting right now, you're being like your father, Satan, a child of Satan, a son of Satan, because you're plotting to murder me, and you're lying about who I am, and you cannot understand, and you cannot accept what I'm saying, and you're denying the truth that Jesus is saying about himself.
Forrest: Jesus goes on to the religious leaders in Matthew, these religious leaders who also are plotting for his demise and trying to trick him and trying to falsely accuse him of being a sinner.
Forrest: And Jesus says to them in verse 13 of Matthew 23, Woe to you teachers of the law and prop and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.
Forrest: You yourself do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying.
Forrest: Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
Forrest: You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
Forrest: Isn't it interesting that in these passages, Jesus doesn't say that the children of Satan are atheists, but religious counterfeits.
Forrest: That their religion was fiction, that the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
Forrest: And that Jesus says that they are sons of Satan, children of hell, because they are denying the truth, leading others astray.
Forrest: Oh God, I don't want to lead anyone astray.
Forrest: I don't want to lead anybody astray.
Forrest: And it's so easy for us to follow people who just make us feel good and say the things that we want to hear said, but never call you to repentance or change.
Forrest: That's what we call false teachers.
Forrest: And we're not going to fall for false teachers.
Forrest: It goes like this a lot of times.
Forrest: Well, live your truth.
Forrest: Well, you just live your truth.
Forrest: And I live my truth.
Forrest: And you believe what you believe, I believe it, and you live your truth, I live your truth.
Forrest: Well, what if my truth says that your truth is a lie?
Forrest: Who's right?
Forrest: This whole notion that the world wants to tell us that we can just believe anything that we want.
Forrest: But what we have is the incredible Son of God who is faithful and true.
Forrest: Who, as we've talked through in this series, about how one day Jesus is returning and he's coming back.
Forrest: And when he returns, his name is literally faithful and true.
Forrest: And we talked about the fact that one day that the sky will split and Jesus will return.
Forrest: And John tells in Revelation 19, 11, he says, I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true.
Forrest: With justice, he judges and wages war.
Forrest: You know that rat poison is 99% cornmeal and 1% poison.
Forrest: It is so easy.
Forrest: It is so easy for deception to make its way into our life of hear something and it's dressed up in Jesus' talk and for us to believe it because we don't know what God's word truly says.
Forrest: That's why I want so badly for our church to know the Word of God.
Forrest: If you don't have a physical Bible, we would love to give you one at the next step station.
Forrest: I want you to have a physical Bible.
Forrest: I want you to have the Bible app on your phone.
Forrest: I want you to be reading the scriptures.
Forrest: If you're not reading the Word of God, start in Matthew so that you can know what Jesus said.
Forrest: Because there's not going to be any shortage of people trying to twist Jesus' words and make you believe that he said things that he didn't say.
Forrest: I saw a viral video the other day of this guy who was teaching about Christ consciousness, which is this new age idea.
Forrest: And in this video, he went on with the whiteboard to talk about having this Christ consciousness and went on to deny sin, the cross, and the resurrection, saying that Christ consciousness is just this state of mind.
Forrest: You know, just because Jesus' name is used doesn't mean that they're representing the true Son of God or that they know the truth.
Forrest: But in even in some situations, that they're literally denying the truth of Christ and what Jesus said of himself.
Forrest: And if you find yourself, if in the scriptures and you find something and you say to yourself, Well, you know, I can never believe in a God that would fill in the blank.
Forrest: You don't believe in God.
Forrest: You're trying to make God into your image, not you be made into his.
Forrest: Jesus warns us specifically about these kinds of people who are trying to deceive us and trying to trick us.
Forrest: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, 13 through 15.
Forrest: For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
Forrest: And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
Forrest: Is it not surprising then if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness?
Forrest: Their end will be what their actions deserve.
Forrest: This is why Jesus said that some of the most religious people were sons of hell.
Forrest: That Paul says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
Forrest: And it it's it's why some of the scariest lies that we hear will be wrapped up in spiritual Christian language.
Forrest: Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me.
Forrest: Because the devil doesn't mind if you go to church as long as you don't live a life for Christ.
Forrest: Oh.
Forrest: And maybe you've assumed that spiritual activity means.
Forrest: Spiritual maturity, but I don't want any of us to fall for a false faith.
Forrest: And oftentimes it sounds like this.
Forrest: Well, you know, it all just works out in the end.
Forrest: Well, you know, all roads lead to heaven, and all it's just a mountain, and everybody's getting their way up.
Forrest: And Jesus is the one who said of himself, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
Forrest: Nobody comes to the Father but by me.
Forrest: That's not Forrest Coleman's words.
Forrest: That's the words of Christ Himself.
Forrest: And that there are people who are even going to say, Lord, Lord.
Forrest: Did we not do a lot of religious activity in your name?
Forrest: But without truly surrendering and having a saving faith.
Forrest: Yesterday, a family, Emily's grandmother, who's an amazing woman, Miss Wanda Jane's, yesterday we had a celebration of her life, and she's passed on and is with Jesus now.
Forrest: And it's not uncommon to hear, you know, well, my grandma prayed for me, and my grandma helped me to go to church and took me to church when you're young, but this was like that on a whole nother level.
Forrest: As grandchild after grandchild after grandchild went up to the podium and talked about Wanda and how she had prayed for them, written them unending cards filled with the truth, all of them talking about seeing Wanda with her Bible over her lap, late into the night, reading God's word, and as they got her Bibles, they saw all through the margins the names of her family written in the margins and different scriptures and different prayers.
Forrest: And as scriptures would come that would be challenging, she would write, Let it be so of me.
Forrest: And as grandchild after grandchild after grandchild got up and shared testimony after testimony, and there's a number of people now in the second and third generation that are now in ministry because of the faith of Miss Wanda, that is genuine fruit.
Forrest: That is genuine fruit that has outlasted her life of faithfulness that now has gone to her children and her children's children who are believing the gospel and know who Jesus is because the faithfulness of this woman, a true life of faithfulness and fruitfulness.
Forrest: Listen to me.
Forrest: The gate may be narrow, but it's not closed.
Forrest: It's still open.
Forrest: The path may be narrow, but it's not cut off.
Forrest: It's open to you.
Forrest: And believers in the house, those who claim to be Christians, don't we know that love tells the truth in love?
Forrest: That we're in this balance of grace and truth, of knowing God's word and being willing to speak up for a world where literally every other person in our country who's between 18 and 29 don't even believe about believe the spiritual realities of what happens after this life.
Forrest: What if you knew God's word so well that you could spot the real from the fake immediately?
Forrest: Some of you in the room, you want to hear from God, and so you need to open up your Bible in order to hear from Him.
Forrest: Some of us in the room need to repent of a spiritual apathy.
Forrest: I'm just thinking, well, you know, everybody's good and it's all good while we know that there's a spiritual reality after this life.
Forrest: And some of you in the room, you need to ask God to reveal to you what it is that you're believing that is a lie or that is a counterfeit for Him to help you to see it, to discern it, and replace it with what is true.
Forrest: You know, every single person who gets into the baptism waters here in our church and confessing Christ is one that what we sang before, that the enemy thought that he had them, but then Jesus grabbed them from now into eternity.
Forrest: And I don't know about you, church, but I want to see that happen over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again in this place, so that there are people, our friends and our neighbors, people that you know who are moving from death to life, to be saved and sealed and their name written down in the Lamb's Book of Life in heaven?
Forrest: I'm believing it.
Forrest: We're seeing it.
Forrest: Don't we want to see so much more, church?
Forrest: Don't we want to see even more?
Forrest: Do we want to see more people go to heaven?
Forrest: Is there one witness in here that will say we want to see more people go to heaven?
Forrest: Is there anybody in this house that wants people in love to understand the truth of the gospel and go from death to life?
Forrest: For them to be saved and understand the gospel and be forgiven because Jesus wants to set us free.
Forrest: And it's for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Forrest: Jesus loves us so much that he died on the cross for our sins, for my sins, for your sins 2,000 years ago.
Forrest: So then we would be people of the light who take his gospel at home and beyond.
Forrest: Would you pray with me right now, Father, all across this room?
Forrest: Lord, I pray for every man, woman, and child who confesses you as Savior and as a believer in you, Jesus.
Forrest: That right now, Father, that you would help them, God, to have your truth and the knowledge of your truth and the majesty of your grace to help them, Lord, to not be deceived, but instead, God, to have a life that's fully surrendered, and that the people that they know that are around them that they would come to faith in Christ because we were loving enough to tell the truth and love.
Forrest: The grace that can only come from you, Jesus.
Forrest: And Father, right now I want to pray for anybody in this room who's not received you as Savior.
Forrest: There's anybody in this place who has not accepted Christ and received his free gift of salvation on the cross.
Forrest: Blood poured out for you to forgive you, to cleanse you, to set you free, that today would be the day of your salvation, that you would not wait another minute, that you would pray in your heart and mind, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sins.
Forrest: Forgive me.
Forrest: Cleanse me.
Forrest: I give you my life as you gave yours for mine.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: Heads bowed, you're in the room, and you pray for Jesus to set you free and to save you, for your eternity to go from hell to heaven, and that today is the day of your salvation.
Forrest: I want you to make a sign before heaven, before God, and so I can pray for you.
Forrest: At the count of three, I want you to raise your hand up so I can acknowledge you, and so you can acknowledge what Jesus has done in your life and in your heart.
Forrest: If that's you, at the count of three, ready.
Forrest: One, two, three.
Forrest: Anybody here?
Forrest: Raise it high.
Forrest: Right here.
Forrest: I see you right here, brother.
Forrest: Sister.
Forrest: Thank you.
Forrest: Right now, God, I thank you, Lord, for what you have done for each of us on the cross.
Forrest: And that salvation has come today to this house.
Forrest: Father, I pray right now, Lord, and I pray, God, that you would seal the decision made today.
Forrest: That we would see more and more come to know you as Savior.
Forrest: So, Father, I thank you, Lord, for the amazing work that you do in and through our lives and that you allow us to be a part of it.
Forrest: So, Father, we thank you, God, for your amazing grace.
Forrest: In the strong name of Jesus, everybody said, Amen.
Forrest: Church, will you put your hands together this morning and stand to your feet as we worship and as we sing to the Father?