SPEAKER_00: You can open your Bibles, as I mentioned earlier, to Matthew chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: We are continuing our study in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we will look at verses 21 through 23.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 7, verse 21: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?
SPEAKER_00: And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
SPEAKER_00: Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
SPEAKER_00: When I was junior in college, I was taking a Gen Ed educational class, kind of class with 200 students in it, and most of them, I would say 100 plus of them were athletes.
SPEAKER_00: This was the class that the athletes were drawn to to help our GPAs and whatnot.
SPEAKER_00: It was one of those kind of classes.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the professor of this class did not like that one bit and did not make herself very accessible.
SPEAKER_00: She also didn't trust athletes, and so she had as the final exam different versions of the final exam assigned randomly by your student ID number.
SPEAKER_00: And so at the final, you had to go and check your student ID number and then find a letter next to it, and that was the version of the exam you had to take.
SPEAKER_00: That was to keep the athletes from conspiring.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm taking the exam in the second or third row of the class, and a student has a conversation with the professor loud enough for all us all to hear.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't find his student ID number on the roster.
SPEAKER_00: This is finals week, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: The student was the punter for the football team and uh was not there.
SPEAKER_00: And the professor explains to this guy that he's not enrolled in the class.
SPEAKER_00: And the student didn't, I think, realize this because I think actually this student was surprised that he was eligible all season long and had assumed he was getting good grades because of his eligibility without, I think, a full awareness that he wasn't even enrolled in this class.
SPEAKER_00: So I guess it wasn't hurting his GPA.
SPEAKER_00: And the professor just ended the conversation by saying, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'll see you next semester.
SPEAKER_00: You know, she was not gonna bend an inch.
SPEAKER_00: There's a similar kind of conversation here in Matthew chapter 7, uh, where people will open their eyes when they die, and they'll be before the Lord, and they will expect to be invited into heaven, and the Lord will tell them, you're not enrolled in the class.
SPEAKER_00: Only, unlike my experience at the University of New Mexico, there is no next semester in this.
SPEAKER_00: There's no try next time, this time fill out the paperwork.
SPEAKER_00: There's no second chances.
SPEAKER_00: This passage reveals a hard truth, arguably the hardest truth in the Bible, that most of the people who have attached themselves in some form to Christianity are not going to heaven when they die.
SPEAKER_00: That's the reality of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: This is a passage about the many people.
SPEAKER_00: Many will say to me, Jesus says, the many people we saw earlier in Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_00: These are the people on the wide path.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the many are.
SPEAKER_00: They don't need instruction to get on the wide path, they gravitate towards the wide path.
SPEAKER_00: We were introduced to them earlier.
SPEAKER_00: This is all the religions of the world.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that earlier in Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_00: But here at this part of Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23, Jesus is not talking about Islam.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about Buddhism, he's not talking about atheists or agnostics on the wide road, although they are all on the wide road.
SPEAKER_00: Here, the many here refers to specifically people who are identifying Jesus as the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is a church-based conversation here.
SPEAKER_00: The church didn't exist in Matthew 7, of course, in the Sermon on the Mount, it was still future.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is casting his eyes to the future.
SPEAKER_00: He's casting his eyes to the time where the church will exist, and he is stating a very hard truth that many people, the wide path people, many people will open their eyes when they die, be face to face with the Lord, and then sent away to hell, and this will be surprising to them.
SPEAKER_00: I say it's an astonishing passage because we are used to Jesus confronting the religions of the world.
SPEAKER_00: We are used to him confronting the sinners of the world.
SPEAKER_00: We have categories for the sinners of the world, the bad people in the world, for the harlots and the drug users and the criminals.
SPEAKER_00: We have categories for them.
SPEAKER_00: We have categories for the false religions of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what Jesus is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: He is not talking about the false religions of the world.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about those sinners out there outside of the church in the world.
SPEAKER_00: This passage has his rebuke targeted specifically at people who are, let's say it this way, they're false followers of the true religion.
SPEAKER_00: They have the language.
SPEAKER_00: They identify Jesus as Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Not once, not twice, not thrice, four times in this passage, they call Jesus Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We would expect his rebuke to be targeting the agnostics and the atheists, the Romans I kind of homosexuals, the sexually immoral, the idolaters, the coveters, those people.
SPEAKER_00: This rebuke has its laser sighting set on people who have attached themselves to the church.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is that the majority of people who affiliate themselves with Christianity are on their way to hell.
SPEAKER_00: That's the teaching of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: And it is a jarring teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And what is so jarring about it is they're not on their way to hell for lack of knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_00: They know who the Lord is, they're not lacking knowledge of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're not here for lack of recognition in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're not here because they don't believe Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If there's one thing that's evident about this passage, four times it's stated, they do believe Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They do know that he's Lord, they do recognize him as Lord, and they do call him Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And one more point about that.
SPEAKER_00: They are not on their way to hell because they identify him as Lord without sincerity.
SPEAKER_00: They are very sincere.
SPEAKER_00: If there ever was a time to be sincere, a time to discard hypocrisy, discard pretenses, discard the outer shell or whatever people develop, it would be this time.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in death, eyes open before Jesus Christ, who knows the secrets of the heart, heaven and hell in the balance, this is the moment where hypocrisy doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's appropriate to take these people, this majority, this many, this wide-road class of people.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's appropriate to take them at their word when they say that Jesus is Lord here.
SPEAKER_00: They sincerely believe that.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a pretty poignant point here that salvation is not contingent upon sincerity.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not contingent upon right thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ or recognition of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the Lord, whether or not you recognize him, whether or not you believe in him, whether or not you acknowledge him as Lord, he is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not contingent upon that acknowledgement.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of people acknowledge him as Lord who are on their way to hell.
SPEAKER_00: Or to use the language of James chapter 2, even the demons know he's the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The demons know who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, they at least tremble.
SPEAKER_00: They have fear before him, which is another category.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not determined by your knowledge of the Lord or your belief in that sense of the Lord, or of your identifying him with your words as Lord once, twice, three times, four times.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not contingent upon the sincerity in which you believe he's the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not contingent upon the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: These people sincerely believe that Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They fear hell, as evidenced by their pleas to the Lord, and yet they're on their way there.
SPEAKER_00: How could this be?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's most obvious is that this passage describes an empty profession.
SPEAKER_00: They profess that Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Four times in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Beyond that, the most common word other than Lord in this passage is the word for says.
SPEAKER_00: You see this in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone who says to me Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 22, on that day many will say to me, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They are prophesying, they're using speech gifts.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, saying, saying.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word for for saying is Lego here.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come back to that later.
SPEAKER_00: It just means to say.
SPEAKER_00: That's the warning in here that Jesus is hearing their words.
SPEAKER_00: They are saying Lord, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying Lord, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They're professing with their lips that Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what's missing here.
SPEAKER_00: Their profession is indeed empty.
SPEAKER_00: Why are they so confused and surprised?
SPEAKER_00: Because they were led to believe at some point, I'm imagining, that their profession was sufficient for their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps some well-meaning person told them, if you repeat these words after me and you believe it, and you really, really believe it, then you're saved.
SPEAKER_00: And you can bank on that.
SPEAKER_00: You can have assurance in the fact that you repeated these words.
SPEAKER_00: You can have assurance in the fact that you confessed Jesus as Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You take your assurance on the words that you said.
SPEAKER_00: If you had a profession of faith, hold on to it and believe that they were told.
SPEAKER_00: They made a profession and now they're drawing assurance from their profession.
SPEAKER_00: They were led in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they were probably told, if you ever question the sincerity of your salvation now that you have said this prayer and said these words, you are questioning God's grace, so don't you dare do it.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on to this profession.
SPEAKER_00: That's one way these people find themselves here, is they were taught to draw assurance from their profession.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that's not the only way.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they were taught that some external repetition of a phrase or some identity of Jesus as Lord was sufficient to connect them to the church.
SPEAKER_00: The church is the gateway to heaven, the church is the narrow gates, they were probably told.
SPEAKER_00: And so they, through their confession, their membership interview, or what have you, their recitation of a creed or whatever, they have used words to attach themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ through the church, which is visible embassy on the earth, and their profession has kept them in the church their whole life, and they are surprised when they open their eyes in the next life, and their profession is not sufficient to keep their connection to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is an empty profession.
SPEAKER_00: It is not wrong to call Jesus Lord, of course not.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a bad thing to confess him as Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's simply not a sufficient thing.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why I beg you, do not draw assurance of your salvation from some past profession of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that is so common.
SPEAKER_00: Many people, and by many, I'm using the word the way Jesus uses here, many people draw their assurance from some previous profession.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know you're saved?
SPEAKER_00: One might ask, and their answer might be, because two years or 20 years or 40 years ago, I said this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I know I'm saved.
SPEAKER_00: I said the words, I made the profession, so I know that I am saved.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that through their own language, they are confessing that their assurance is based upon their own professions.
SPEAKER_00: So their assurance, their salvation, is as confident as their profession.
SPEAKER_00: Which is to say, not very confident at all.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know you're saved?
SPEAKER_00: Well, don't go looking for assurance from some profession that you made some period of time ago.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation does not come from repeating a prayer that is never prescribed in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation does not come from responding to an altar call that is never prescribed in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation does not come from mouthing words, repeating words, even if you really, really, really, really, really, extra-ruly mean those words.
SPEAKER_00: Not all who sing, Lord, I lift your name on high, will be lifted on high by the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That is an empty profession.
SPEAKER_00: What does an empty profession produce?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the first thing it produces is empty words.
SPEAKER_00: An empty profession leads to empty words.
SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned, these people are growing in desperation in this conversation.
SPEAKER_00: They identify Jesus as Lord at the beginning, verse 21, not everyone who says to me Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They repeat it, Lord, a second time.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Lord can be a generic title for leadership in the world, like we use Sir in repetition like this.
SPEAKER_00: It's more in line with the title of deity.
SPEAKER_00: Like Sir, Lord, Sir, God, you see increased desperation.
SPEAKER_00: By the third time they're saying it, they're reaching out to the one they recognize as the Lord of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: The fourth time they say it, they're really pleading with Jesus here.
SPEAKER_00: But their words are empty.
SPEAKER_00: They don't stop with the saying.
SPEAKER_00: They go on.
SPEAKER_00: Do we not prophesy in your name?
SPEAKER_00: Prophecy is to speak words about God.
SPEAKER_00: That's prop bottom line of prophecy, that's what that is.
SPEAKER_00: We sometimes import like a future-telling kind of prophecy, and that could be evident here too.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's the kind of person that says, This is gonna happen in the future.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't do this in our country, then it'll be like this.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't do that, it'll be like this.
SPEAKER_00: I have a prophetic word, this is what's gonna happen in the future.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of that's a prophecy, but that's not the essential part of prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: Mostly when the New Testament uses prophecy, it means talking about the Lord, telling people what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Preaching is one way to say it, teaching is another way to say it.
SPEAKER_00: It's bringing the word of God to bear in life.
SPEAKER_00: That's the word for prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone who prophesies is a true follower of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's evident from this, of course.
SPEAKER_00: But beyond that, notice it's more words.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Also, God, let me start to validate myself here.
SPEAKER_00: I talk about you.
SPEAKER_00: I've told people about you.
SPEAKER_00: I've prophesied.
SPEAKER_00: Not for my own glory, but for your for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: I prophesied in your name, they say.
SPEAKER_00: This is a massive group of people.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly there's differences in this massive group of people.
SPEAKER_00: Why would somebody call Jesus Lord if they don't truly follow Christ?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's a hundred reasons, a thousand reasons, a million reasons.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably some big picture ones.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody started coming to church at some period of time and developed friends.
SPEAKER_00: After all, church is a place of blessing.
SPEAKER_00: There's, you know, lives are changed here, there's new life here, there's friendships here, there's service here, there's virtue taught here.
SPEAKER_00: And so you came to church at some point in time and you were attracted to that, and you developed friendships through that.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you grew up in the church and you your friends are all here, and you know, that's that's where your life is.
SPEAKER_00: You can spend your life like that, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You can spend your life being drawn to the church for those reasons and be here.
SPEAKER_00: Those are fine reasons to be drawn to a church, but after a while you you forget that you never actually went through the narrow gate.
SPEAKER_00: Never given your life to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You just have your life here.
SPEAKER_00: That's one way.
SPEAKER_00: Another way might be to keep the peace in the home.
SPEAKER_00: You know, your your wife or your husband is sold out for the Lord, and the church is important to them, and so you come along.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe earlier on there was arguing about it, but now, you know, honestly, it's just easier to go.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you'd rather be home on Sunday, but you know, it's a small sacrifice, and your family is is happy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, your family's reached an okay place with this kind of compromise.
SPEAKER_00: You're there, your kids grow up in the church, and it's just your life.
SPEAKER_00: So you sing the songs, you go on the mission trips, you do your stuff, help out in Iwana, serve in the parking lot, whatever, sing in the choir and orchestra, all that.
SPEAKER_00: You never actually came to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the that's the hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: They'll say the things at church, they say it all, but it's not true.
SPEAKER_00: I don't really believe it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's some that are confused, just genuinely confused.
SPEAKER_00: They're confused about the chaos in the world and they see stability in the church and they're drawn to it.
SPEAKER_00: They're confused about what's required for their salvation, they hear conflicting messages, they're confused about the false teachers that we looked at last week.
SPEAKER_00: They're confused by all the people that say, you know, you don't need to come through the narrow gate, you just be a good person, try hard, do good.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many different reasons people will find themselves in the situation, but what they all have in common is their words don't mean anything.
SPEAKER_00: They're just words.
SPEAKER_00: And you even see their desperation with telling Jesus, Lord, we prophesied in your name.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like they're pleading with Jesus, like, certainly you remember.
SPEAKER_00: We were saying this for you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly you remember.
SPEAKER_00: You know who knows the truth?
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So he's not impressed.
SPEAKER_00: The more they talk, by the way, the further you see they are apart from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing this for you.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you thankful, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: This, by the way, is the third commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Of the Ten Commandments, this is the third one.
SPEAKER_00: Do not take the Lord's name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: It's very common for people to say the third commandment means to use the Lord's name as a curse word if you hit your thumb with a hammer or something.
SPEAKER_00: That's the violating the third commandment.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's bad, don't do that, but that's not the third commandment.
SPEAKER_00: The third commandment says, do not lift up the Lord's name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: The word Hebrew word for lift up Nassah, and I remember that from Nasser, lifting up.
SPEAKER_00: Do not lift up the Lord's name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Don't wave the Lord's name over your head like a banner if you don't have the army behind it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't identify yourself as a follower of Christ if you're not a follower of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's these people.
SPEAKER_00: They say Lord, Lord, they say Lord, Lord again, they say they prophesy in the very name of Jesus Christ, but they are not a true follower of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It is taking the Lord's name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the only time we have warnings about this in the New Testament either.
SPEAKER_00: I think of 1 John, where John says, if you say you're walking in the light, but you are walking in the darkness, you are a liar.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is not in you, John says.
SPEAKER_00: So why would somebody say they are in the light when they are walking in the darkness?
SPEAKER_00: There's a million reasons.
SPEAKER_00: But the common thread is that their words do not correspond to the truth of their own heart.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Jesus is Lord, and they call him Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Some of their prophecy may even be true.
SPEAKER_00: Balaam's donkey can preach truth about the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: These people can say true things about the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They can call him Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't have a saving relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: And they fill the pews.
SPEAKER_00: But it is the religion itself.
SPEAKER_00: You can listen to what they talk about.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they'll say.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, yes, I'll prophesy.
SPEAKER_00: What else do they talk about?
SPEAKER_00: What drives their speech?
SPEAKER_00: What do they love in their heart?
SPEAKER_00: Church for them is often a means to an end.
SPEAKER_00: It's a vehicle for politics, it's a vehicle for cultural change, it's a vehicle for other things.
SPEAKER_00: Social events.
SPEAKER_00: A kind of singing or a kind of preaching or a kind of service.
SPEAKER_00: It's a kind of this or a kind of that.
SPEAKER_00: They care about those things, they talk about those things more than they care about Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's empty words.
SPEAKER_00: The empty words give way to empty works.
SPEAKER_00: Empty works.
SPEAKER_00: That's next in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't we cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?
SPEAKER_00: These are people who die and obviously think they're on their way to heaven because of all that they have done in their life for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And they've done these things in their minds.
SPEAKER_00: They have preached the sermons, they have prophesied, they have cast out demons in their minds.
SPEAKER_00: They have done mighty works.
SPEAKER_00: The phrase mighty works is just a junk drawer term.
SPEAKER_00: All the other stuff people have done for Jesus, from mission trips to small group leaders to youth groups to ABFs to 10,000 things.
SPEAKER_00: They've done stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what they tell the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We did stuff, and we didn't do it for us.
SPEAKER_00: We did it for you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We did things for you.
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with this?
SPEAKER_00: Like it's good to do things for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: All the things I just listed, from ABFs to small groups to singing in the choir to 10,000 things, they're all good stuff to serve in the church.
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Why is their conduct so empty?
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with it?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is really gets to the heart of the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're doing here in Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_00: We're going through the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: This is the conclusion of the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: So to understand what Jesus is talking about, the conclusion, you have to take a step back and ask yourself, how did we get to this verse?
SPEAKER_00: What's Jesus actually preaching about?
SPEAKER_00: What's the point of the sermon?
SPEAKER_00: The point of the sermon, and I mentioned this several months ago when we were there, is Matthew 5, verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will not go to heaven when you die.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's driving at here.
SPEAKER_00: If you have confidence in your own self, then your own self had best be better than the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees have all kinds of works.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees didn't trust their words, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: My goodness.
SPEAKER_00: They knew their words were fickle and frail, so they trusted their works.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, if you want to trust your works, you had better do more works than the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Your righteousness had better eclipse that of the most religious people who had ever lived.
SPEAKER_00: If you're going to trust your own works.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the point of that, you would listen to that and say, if I'm going to trust my own works, okay, what's that gonna take?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you lust with your eye, gouge it out, or with your hand, cut it off.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there are drastic measures here.
SPEAKER_00: Things that threaten your works should be dealt with severely because it's better to go to heaven than to go to hell with two hands and two eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the point.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do this, is the point.
SPEAKER_00: He's making that point in a hundred different ways.
SPEAKER_00: You want to try to be more righteous than the Pharisees, you're gonna be missing eyes and hands, and you still will fail.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: And so, how does one get to heaven?
SPEAKER_00: This is the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: You recognize your own desperation.
SPEAKER_00: You recognize you don't have that righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: You mourn over your sin, you mourn over your righteousness, you hunger for righteousness that's outside of you, you cling to the Lord and ask for his righteousness based upon your faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: He fills you with righteousness, he gives you an alien righteousness, a righteousness that's outside of you, he gives it to you as a gift, you hold on to that, and that it becomes your righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It's not yours, it's given to you.
SPEAKER_00: So you can trust the Lord and have confidence in his gift to you, or you can trust your own words and your own works.
SPEAKER_00: What are these people in Matthew 7 now doing at the end of the Sermon on the Mount?
SPEAKER_00: They are trusting their own words, and then they are trusting their own works.
SPEAKER_00: None of these people would say, if you were to ask them, none of them would say, I am trying to be more righteous than a Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: They've heard 20 sermons on the Sermon on the Mount in their life.
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: But they would say and do say, when asked, why do you think you're a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think you're going to heaven when you die?
SPEAKER_00: They would say, and they do say, because of these things that I have done.
SPEAKER_00: I said this, I did that.
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
SPEAKER_00: One more window into this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not sincerity, it's not knowledge, it's not belief, it's not recognition, it's not works that save you.
SPEAKER_00: These people had done everything except the one thing the Lord wanted them to do.
SPEAKER_00: That's they trusted in their own works.
SPEAKER_00: So easy for that to come in.
SPEAKER_00: People want to trust their own works, they want to so badly.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians, which is probably the first New Testament book to be written, either Galatians or Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: The point is Galatians is early.
SPEAKER_00: And when Galatians chapter 1, Paul is already warning about another gospel creeping into the church.
SPEAKER_00: Another gospel that you would get you to trust your works.
SPEAKER_00: People want to trust themselves.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus in the Beatitudes calls you to repent of trusting yourself.
SPEAKER_00: They want to trust their family.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are church because their family has brought them and they've grown up here and they want to trust their family.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't save you, and you need to repent of that.
SPEAKER_00: They want to trust their culture.
SPEAKER_00: But the culture doesn't save you, and you need to repent of that.
SPEAKER_00: If you repent of your culture and you repent of your family, and you repent of trusting your own works, what's left for you to trust?
SPEAKER_00: Where can you have confidence if not your family, if not your culture, and if not yourself, where can you find confidence?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is obviously in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Your confidence comes from him.
SPEAKER_00: That's why, right after the Sermon on the Mount, the very next verse after the Sermon on the Mount, is the leper comes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And says, I want to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: The leper has nothing, nothing to offer, doesn't have to do anything except come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the leper is healed.
SPEAKER_00: How does the leper know he's healed?
SPEAKER_00: It's not because he does works, but because he's healed.
SPEAKER_00: One more word before we move on from this.
SPEAKER_00: People will ask, did they really cast out demons?
SPEAKER_00: Did they really do mighty works?
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of an American question, as we want to want to know the truth about this.
SPEAKER_00: Did they really do those things?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what do you think?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think a person who is a hypocrite and lying about their relationship with the Lord, who Jesus doesn't know?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that person is going to prophesy the true words of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: It might get some things right.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that person is going to cast out demons?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, some demons might play along with it for a while, after all, it just authenticates false converts.
SPEAKER_00: Demons are happy with that.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually you're going to run into this kind of a sons of Steva situation from the book of Acts where these people didn't know the Lord and the Lord didn't know them, and they're casting out demons left and right.
SPEAKER_00: And they run into one particular demon who's like, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I know, Paul I know.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: Can they really do mighty works?
SPEAKER_00: Do you ask a more basic question?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think the Lord hears their prayers?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Their works are empty.
SPEAKER_00: They're busy, but their works are empty.
SPEAKER_00: They're in church every Sunday, they're doing stuff, but their works are empty.
SPEAKER_00: There's empty words, empty works.
SPEAKER_00: This all leads to empty hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Empty hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, what's missing with them?
SPEAKER_00: Their heart is not right.
SPEAKER_00: They don't love the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have a saving knowledge of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They know who He is, but not in a saving way.
SPEAKER_00: And you see this in a couple different ways.
SPEAKER_00: The first is verse 23, I will declare to them, I never knew you.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the word declare.
SPEAKER_00: It's a different Greek word than the one that went before, Lego.
SPEAKER_00: I say, I say.
SPEAKER_00: These people say that Jesus is Lord, they say He's Lord, they say they did this, they say they prophesied with their words, their sayance, Lego, Lego, Lego.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a different word, homilego, which means to say the same as.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the word corresponds to reality.
SPEAKER_00: Not everything you say corresponds to reality.
SPEAKER_00: Their words are just words.
SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus speaks for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't lego, he homologo.
SPEAKER_00: He says something that corresponds with the truth.
SPEAKER_00: What is the truth?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who you are, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know you.
SPEAKER_00: You're using my name, but now I have a confession to make.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that word homologo is translated confession.
SPEAKER_00: It means to confess something is true.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying something that is true.
SPEAKER_00: It's a confession.
SPEAKER_00: It could be translated that way.
SPEAKER_00: Here, declare is fine.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's rendered as a verdict to give the verdict of what's true.
SPEAKER_00: It can be rendered different ways.
SPEAKER_00: I'm happy with the SV's declare.
SPEAKER_00: The point is that Jesus is now confessing or declaring or ruling.
SPEAKER_00: I actually don't, in point of fact, I have no idea who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Their hearts are empty.
SPEAKER_00: The other hint about this is in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: The people that say, Lord, Lord, will go to the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The one who does the will of my Father.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is the will of God?
SPEAKER_00: What is the will of the Father?
SPEAKER_00: When you see that kind of verse, what is it?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible has lots to say about that.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's will that you turn from your sin and put your faith in Christ, not in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: This is John 6.40.
SPEAKER_00: This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And I will raise him up on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: God's will is that you believe in Jesus Christ and not in your own works.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 5, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is the source of salvation to all who obey him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some come across a verse like that and say, in order to be saved, then you have to do these works of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they that's how they take a verse like Hebrews 5.9, that Jesus saves those who obey him.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, they reason, I must obey in all of these works in order to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what it says.
SPEAKER_00: That is disobeying him.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say, so lead a life of virtue and good works in order to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: No, it says, believe in the one whom the Father sent, namely Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You don't trust yourself, you trust Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Others will come across a verse like that and say, so it doesn't matter how you live your life, it doesn't matter how sincere your belief is.
SPEAKER_00: Also wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Those are two equal and opposite errors.
SPEAKER_00: This is the will of God, that you believe in the one whom he sends, that you trust him for salvation, that you go through the narrow gates.
SPEAKER_00: This is John 8, verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: You are my disciples if you abide in my word.
SPEAKER_00: You hold on to the word of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The word of Christ is that the one who does the will of my Father will enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The one who mourns over his own sin, repents of his sin, surrenders his life to Christ, puts his faith in Christ for salvation, that is what it takes to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You don't go to heaven based on professions.
SPEAKER_00: You don't go to heaven based on confessions.
SPEAKER_00: You don't go to heaven based on words, and you absolutely, categorically, certainly don't go to heaven based on works.
SPEAKER_00: Confessions, professions, word, and works out.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the Mary and Martha encounter with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: This is later on in his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Home Bible study in the house, 100 people in the house.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of work to have 100 people in your house.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know.
SPEAKER_00: Mary's sitting and listening and taking notes, and Martha's running around trying to give people food.
SPEAKER_00: They got 100 people in their house.
SPEAKER_00: Martha reaches her boiling point and tells Jesus, tell Mary to come help me.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, there's only one thing that is necessary, and it is not serving people tea.
SPEAKER_00: It is not being hospitable in your house, although those are good things.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that is necessary is to love the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To sit at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: Love him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's missing from this passage in Matthew 7, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That's what's missing here.
SPEAKER_00: They call him Lord, they talk about him, they do all kinds of things, and that becomes what they're hoping authenticates their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I was always at church.
SPEAKER_00: I did so much.
SPEAKER_00: I did so much, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Which is not how the true Christian would respond.
SPEAKER_00: The true Christian would respond with, I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Which is missing from here.
SPEAKER_00: Missing.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't have the roots of love for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the sun comes, it withers.
SPEAKER_00: There's a seed that falls and grows and is choked out by the love of the world.
SPEAKER_00: It loves the world more than loves Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how can you tell if you're the almost Christian?
SPEAKER_00: How can you tell if you're truly saved?
SPEAKER_00: How can you tell?
SPEAKER_00: It's not based on going to church.
SPEAKER_00: It's not based on doing things.
SPEAKER_00: It's based on love for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of warning signs for false believers.
SPEAKER_00: You know, false believers are doing great when things are well in life.
SPEAKER_00: They love Jesus when things are lovely in life.
SPEAKER_00: And when trials come, then they don't love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's choked out by the loves of the world, choked out by the sun.
SPEAKER_00: Some people love church because they love what they get out of church.
SPEAKER_00: They love the end of church.
SPEAKER_00: They love I think politics brings these people out so often every four years where church becomes a means to an electoral outcome and they love the outcome of the election more than they love Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They love the kind of songs or the kind of preaching more than they love Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They love the kind of events more than they love Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Some of these people are in seminaries.
SPEAKER_00: They love theology.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so much they love theology.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Theology is an academic exercise for them.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be so many of those kind of seminary professors in this scene here.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they know that Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they can outline the four gospels and tell you the comparison and contrast.
SPEAKER_00: They have PhD before their name and demon after the name.
SPEAKER_00: They got all kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have love for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Some of these people are identifiable just because they just don't love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Everything else doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: It's only a love for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to church and be only but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can sing songs at church and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can raise your hands while you sing songs and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can give in the offering box in the hallway every Sunday and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can set up automatic withdrawals from your checking account and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can go on a short-term mission trip and run VBS and paint a church and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can be an awana leader.
SPEAKER_00: You can design the car that wins the derby and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can listen to preaching week in and week out and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can fill up your notebook with sermon outlines.
SPEAKER_00: You can become a sermon connoisseur.
SPEAKER_00: Paul Washer, I like, got passion, John Piper, no, too whiny.
SPEAKER_00: And be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to seminary and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can get paid by a church for ministry and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can have Bible studies week in and week out and be but almost a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: What is the only thing that you can do and not be but almost a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: That is the only unfakeable sign.
SPEAKER_00: Everything else the Lord sees right through it.
SPEAKER_00: He's not impressed with it.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you've made the way of salvation so clear.
SPEAKER_00: To turn from self and to trust in you.
SPEAKER_00: God, my heart breaks for those that are here week in and week out, but have never come through the narrow gate, have never counted the cost, have never turned from their sins, have never given their life to you.
SPEAKER_00: The leper went away knowing he was healed because he was healed.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that today people would leave with assurance of their salvation because of their love for you.
SPEAKER_00: Drown out the noise of works and the noise of deeds, the noise of words.
SPEAKER_00: And help us just turn up the volume on the love for Christ in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus we love.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for people here today.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that people would turn from trusting themselves and love you and trust you for their salvation, some for the first time today.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that that would happen in their hearts even now.
SPEAKER_00: Mass is in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you, and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.