It's good to see you all again.
If you will turn with me for our message tonight to Matthew
chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. Our text will be verses 21 through
23. I believe this morning I partially quoted one of these verses. This is a very serious, very
sobering portion of scripture. What we saw this morning was
sobering also, seeing what we are by nature and in this flesh.
It's something we need to know, something we need to be confronted
with. What we're going to look at tonight
is just the same. It's something we need to be
confronted with. Very serious. The title of my message is a
question. It's a question that I believe would capture the interest
of just about everybody on this earth. And that question is,
who goes to heaven? I mentioned a song earlier. There's
a song by my favorite country artist called Everybody Wants
to Go to Heaven. He said, but nobody wants to
go now. That's pretty true, isn't it? Everybody wants to go, but
nobody wants to go now. Who goes to heaven? I hope I
have your attention. Look here with me, Matthew 7,
verse 21. This is our Lord speaking. He said, Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils? And in thy name done many wonderful
works? And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. What He's talking about here
is in the Day of Judgment, when our time has come to stand before
God Almighty and give account of our hope, why we should be
accepted before Him into Heaven's glory. Our Lord tells us what
a lot of people's hope is going to be. Notice He kept saying,
many, many. Who goes to Heaven? He just told
us, not everyone. Not even everyone that comes,
you know, with seemingly a decent hope, right, to the flesh. It
seems proper to religion. But I want to show you this a
few verses up. At verse 13, look at it with me. It goes well with our text. He
said, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there
be which go in there at. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that
find it." The sad reality that we must face is that many, many
are going to meet God. They're going on the broad, popular,
widely accepted, commonly believed way, hope, belief, that leadeth
to not life, but eternal destruction." That's what God said. He said
concerning the way of life, that straight, narrow way, He said,
few there be that find it. So, who goes to heaven? Not everybody. Not everyone. Many go in the
broad way to destruction. Few go in the way of life. Few
there be that find the way of life. And it's sobering to me
what we read in verse 21. Not only is it not everyone.
Look at it again. He said, Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, that I hope that really sinks into us, because
what that's what that is telling us is not everyone that is coming
in the name of religion. They went on to say, we're doing
this in your name, not everyone that's coming with their profession,
with their supposed claim on God, not every professing Christian. Who comes saying, Lord, Lord,
they're going to say it to me. I said, not everyone, they're
not all going to be accepted. They're not all going to enter
into the kingdom of heaven. And I feel the need to say this
concerning Christianity. You know, the term Christian,
it's a scriptural term. I believe it says they were first
called Christians at Antioch, if I remember right. It's a scriptural
term, but growing up under the gospel, it didn't take long for
the term Christian to kind of rub me the wrong way just because
of how much it's misused. You know what I'm talking about.
People use that term so loosely. Majority of this world probably
claims to be a Christian. But Christianity is not what
this world thinks it is. Here's what Christianity is.
Here's what it is to be a Christian. It's to be in Christ. Christian Christ. I'm in Christ. I'm a Christian. That's what
it is to be a Christian. It's to be in Christ. It's not
enough merely to say, Lord, Lord. It's not enough. It's not enough. Men say a lot of things. We can
say anything. We must know Him as Lord. We must bow to Him as Lord. We must believe on Him. as Lord,
not we must accept Him as our Lord and personal Savior. That's
the common message. That's the broad way that leads
to destruction. Well, you need to accept Him.
The whole problem with this approach that these people take is it's
about what they did. We this, we that. That's the issue. Salvation is
not me doing anything. It's not me making Him Lord.
Me making Him King. Me accepting Him into my life.
Me following Him. That's not it. That's where people
go wrong. And you know this. And I pray
we can see it clearly. Our Lord clearly taught this
here. In verse 22, the Lord said, Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? Prophesied. Preached. You know, people think they prophesy.
A lot of people think they're preaching. We saw this morning,
we gotta be sent. We gotta be sent. God must do
the sending. We don't send ourselves. We don't
put ourselves in the ministry. We don't walk up to the pulpit
and just start speaking. We must be sent. We must be called. This text is telling us that
not only is not everybody going to heaven, not only are a lot
of religious people not going to heaven, a lot of people who
profess to be Christians, they profess to know Christ, A lot
of preachers, who prophesize? Preachers. A lot of preachers
are not going to enter you. Doesn't that just give you pause? Seriously, people trust somebody
because they say, I'm a preacher. I don't even like to say that
phrase. I don't say that phrase, to be honest with you. I don't
say it. It makes me tremble. Look at it again, verse 22. Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And notice they
said in his name. And in thy name have cast out
devils. And I'll go ahead and tell you this. Our Lord didn't
turn around and say that they didn't do these things. You know
that? He didn't refute what they're
saying. He just said they're not all going to enter in. They
may have done these things. See why it's a serious text. Have we not prophesied in thy
name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done
many wonderful works? Many who do seemingly wonderful
works. You know, I've known this for
years, that people go on mission trips. And when I hear about
that, every time, you know, it kind of turns me off. I'm thinking,
well, I know where this is going. But you know what, what they're
actually doing physically is admirable. It is. Feeding the
poor, teaching kids that don't have a teacher in a school and
establishing these things, those are admirable things. But here's
where they go wrong. They do it thinking they're doing
God's work. They do it seemingly in the name
of Jesus, in the name of God, saying we're sent of God to do
these things. We're sent of God to preach Christ. That's it. Declare Christ and Him crucified. I don't do wonderful works. Again,
we looked at this this morning. We don't do wonderful works. We just don't. We don't. It's not in us to do. These men
and women are going to stand before God pleading their wonderful
works and they're going to be shocked to be rejected because
all their life they were told these are wonderful works. They
were convinced of it. They were commended for it. ignorantly. We saw this morning why our works
are not wonderful. The reason is because we're corrupt. If I were good, then perhaps
I could do good works, but I'm not good. I am corrupt. That's
why it went on to say our works are abominable. Abomination.
No matter how highly esteemed in the eyes of men. Abomination
in God's sight. That's it. That's it. all we
do. And I don't want to sound harsh. I just want to declare the truth
plainly and honestly. And that's why I'm commending
these people that do these things. Religion does a lot of good things. But these good things that they
do are not good works that are going to make them accepted before
God. We should do good things seeking to honor Christ. not
to seek to be accepted by those things that we do. There's a
big difference. Big difference. Because we're not going to be
accepted by these things that we do. I pray that the Holy Spirit
would convince us of what we are and what we do. Now, if these
highly esteemed, respectable, honorable religious people and
preachers are not going to be accepted before God, then who
is? You would think, if anyone's
going in, that's who, right? Isn't that what common sense
tells us? Who's going in? Look at verse 21 again. Who here's done that? Anybody? How many sons and daughters of
Adam are doing the will of the Father right now? I think we can sum it up by a
verse in that Psalm 14, nine, nine. Turn to Hebrews chapter
10. This is who's gonna enter in.
He who does the will of God the Father, that's who's going in.
Well, who's done that? Hebrews chapter 10, verse 7. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will Oh God. Who's that? That's none other than our Lord
Jesus Christ. It was written of Him. I come
to do Thy will. Oh God. Who goes to heaven? Christ. Simple as that. He's already
there. Heaven's His throne. This earth
is just His footstool. He inhabits heaven this very
moment. He's on the throne. arrayed in
His glory. What hope is there for you and
me? What hope is there for us? How can you and I be accepted
into the kingdom of heaven? I'll tell you how. In Christ. Our hope is in Him who came to
do the will of the Father, which is in heaven. Our hope is in
Him. I can't do it. We can look at
a lot of scriptures to see what the will of the Father is, but
the only ones we're gonna look at are the ones that show us
Christ is the only one who can and did do it, all right? You
can keep your finger in our text, Matthew 7, but we're gonna look
at, in the book of John, for this, for a little portion here,
John chapter 6. John chapter 6, what is the will
of God the Father? What is the will of God the Father?
John 6 verse 38. This is Christ speaking. He said,
For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the
will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
The father gave his son a people. He chose a bride for his son,
the elect. The father's will was to send
him into this world to redeem those people, to redeem his bride,
like Boaz did for Ruth, redeem his bride to himself. There's
a verse in Hosea that says, I betrothed thee unto myself forever. Thy
maker is thine husband. He came to get his bride. That's
a beautiful thing when a man gets his bride, isn't it? I've
been honored to have that privilege. Oh, how beautiful it is for the
Son of God. God's only begotten, beloved
Son, whom He's well pleased. God chose a bride for His Son.
Now turn over a few pages to John chapter 10. These whom the father chose and
gave to his son, they referred to in the scriptures as the sheep. You have sheep and goats. The
sheep are the elect of God, the bride of Christ. Look here, John
10 verse 11. He said, I am the good shepherd,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Verse 14,
I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. As the father knoweth me, even
so know I the father, and I lay down my life. for the sheep. Christ came into this world for
a reason, and that reason was to lay down His life for the
sheep. Right here in verse 18, He said,
No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of My Father. This was the will
of the Father. for him to come into this world
and get his people and bring them home, make them acceptable,
make them spotless like himself, one with him. He said down a
few verses, he said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall
never perish. Oh, praise his holy name. Went
back to John 6, 39 again. Said, this is the Father's will
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
The Father's will was for Christ to lay down his life, not to
make it possible for whoever will to be saved. He laid down
his life for the sheep. Did you read anything about goats
right there? There's lots of scriptures talk about hirelings
and goats and wolves. He came for the sheep. He said,
I'm not sent but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Israel, God's elect, God's people. Didn't come to make it possible,
He came to save us. You reckon He saved us? You better believe
it. Saved us with an everlasting
salvation. I love how it said right there, he ain't gonna lose
a single one, nothing. But he's gonna raise it up again
at the last day. He's going to, he shall. And he shall not fail. In John 17, in his prayer, he
prayed that all whom the Father hath given him be with him where
he is. You know, that's our end. A lot
of times I wonder how I'm gonna leave this place. It don't matter
how I leave here. It matters where I'm going. They said that
they'll be with me where I am. Even so, He shall raise us up
again at the last day. He will. That's the Father's
will. That's rejoicing this breath. That's His will. And understand
this, there's a lot of things that I will that I don't get. I would fill in the blank. We all have lots we could put
there, don't we? What God wills comes to pass. This is His will
for us. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. I better rejoice evermore, pray
without ceasing, give thanks, and everything. Here in John
6, look at verse 40. He said, and this is the will
of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth
on Him may have everlasting life, and here it is again, and I will
raise Him up at the last day. The Father's will is that all
of His chosen people We'll see the Son. Have you seen the Son?
His will is that we see the Son, believe on Him, and have everlasting
life. What a blessed will. What a will. We couldn't have drawn it up
any more perfect, could we? Oh no. Turn back a few pages
to John 3. Everybody loves John 3, 16. Let's
look at the two preceding verses. John 3 verse 14 says, and as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, you know, Moses
lifted up that brazen serpent on a pole and everyone who'd
been bitten by that fatal sting, if they looked at that serpent,
they lived. Picture Christ. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life. We must see Him lifted up. Specifically,
it's talking about Christ being lifted up on a cross. That thief
on one of his sides, I don't know if it's the left side or
the right side, but one of those thieves saw his Savior lifted up. He
didn't at first. But then He did by God's grace,
by a miracle of God. He saw the Son of Man lifted
up. And He had assurance from the Savior Himself that He had
eternal life today. You're going to be with me. That's
the end for the believer. Be with Him. But know this. Not only must we see Christ lifted
up on the cross, there were people who saw that who didn't believe
on Him. I'm thankful to know that some of those that crucified
him, the Lord ended up saving anyway. He said, I pray for them. They don't know what they do.
Father, forgive them. And then when Peter went and
preached at Pentecost, we know they believed. A lot of people may
have seen him lifted up physically who haven't seen him lifted up
in his glory. We must see him lifted up in
glory, exalted as the successful Savior that he is. Back to John
6. We must see Him lifted up, but we won't. You know that? And we can't. It's not in us,
too. We can't and we won't see Him
lifted up. Look here, John 6, verse 44.
The Lord is still speaking. He said, No man can come to Me,
except the Father which hath sent Me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. We can't come except God the
Father draw us. Praise God, it was His will to
draw us. I love what he told Jeremiah
in Jeremiah 31 verse 3. He said, yea, I've loved thee
with an everlasting love. Therefore, because of my love
for you that changes not. He said, with loving kindness
I have drawn thee. You know, we read verses like,
thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto
thee. You know why we come to Christ. You know when we'll look
and see Him. You know when we'll believe on
Him, come to Him by faith. When God enables us to see Him,
no sooner. When God speaks to us, when we
which are dead hear the voice of the Son of God and live, that's
when. And that's the Father's will for us. Rejoice, brethren. Rejoice. And I love this. Here's the last one I'll show
you on the Father's will. John 6, 35. And let me say this, our Lord
was speaking to some men who were following Him physically
because He had filled their bellies with a miracle, you know, when
He fed the multitude. They're following Him. We read
they wanted to make Him king, like we said is the false message,
false hope. They were just following Him
for carnal reasons. And right here is when things
got a little interesting, if you will. Verse 35, Jesus said
unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall
never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. But I said unto you that you
also have seen me, and believe not. Now look at verse 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Are you hungry? You know, I said
the Lord filled their belly, but they didn't have a hunger
in their soul. They weren't thirsty from the depths of their soul. I pray we find ourselves hungering
and thirsting after Him who is righteousness. I pray that we might, perhaps
for the first time, but I pray right now, that we might find
in ourselves a void in our soul that we just can't fill. You know that, I forget the name
of the song, but you know it. The only fitness he requires
is to fill your need of him. Ain't that the truth? Fill our
need of him. I pray God would enable us to.
I pray God would cause us to come to Christ. Because He said,
Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. He's not
going to cast out a hungry sinner coming to Him. He's not going
to turn away a thirsty sinner begging for a drink of that everlasting
life that He and He only can give. That water that is He Himself. The Father's will is that all
who come to Christ, all who come to Christ, Could that include
me? All who come to Christ. Whosoever
will let Him come, He will in no wise cast out. Praise His
holy name. I look back in our text, Matthew
7. You see, the Father's will is what must be done for a person
to enter into the kingdom of heaven. I pray we've just seen
the Father's will is not something we do. And based on what our
Lord said here about these people coming, claiming, you know, a
hope of salvation based on their merits, their works, what they've
done. And He said, you've got to do the Father's will and you
can't do it. And by the time we're standing before Him at
Heaven's gate, it's going to be too late. I pray that we can
truly see and believe that Christ our Lord and Savior has successfully
fulfilled the Father's will. He came to do it and He came
and fulfilled it. Is that your hope? Is that your
hope? What Christ did? Who He is? His
accomplishments, not ours? Or is it this? Matthew 7, 22.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. It's one
or the other. We're either going to be accepted on Christ's merits
alone, Or our successful merits alone, and I'm telling you, brother
and sister, we don't have any successful merits. And there
can be no mixture of the two. It's Christ or nothing. Christ will either be all to
us or He will be nothing at all to us. Praise all to us. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. There's no other way. You know, people think there's
lots of ways. I heard it said once. All these different religions,
all these different denominations are just a bunch of different
spokes on the same wheel. It's just not so. There's one
way. It's Christ. There's one truth. There's not
a lot of acceptable, true ways of salvation. It's Christ or
nothing. And there's no other life. He is the way, the truth,
and the life. There's no life outside of Him.
Our life, if God has saved us, here's what the scriptures say,
Colossians 3, our life is hid with Christ in God. You know
the verse where our Lord said, I thank Thee, O Father, You have
hid these things from the wise and prudent, revealed them unto
babes. These things. You know, those things that He
said have been hidden, God hid them in Christ. Look to Christ. You want these things? Look to
Him. Whatever these things are. These things are salvation. These
things are life, joy, peace, eternal bliss. It's all in Christ. Everything
is in Christ. I pray we need Him and Him alone. And the reason
this is so important is because of what our Lord said emphatically
in verse 23. He said, Then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. I never knew you. If you haven't
heard it, I encourage you, look up on Sermon Audio. Henry Mahan
brought a message called I Never Knew You. I believe it's his
most downloaded message. Listen, I've listened to it many
times, and it makes me tremble where I'm at every time. Because
God is going to utter those words, and I pray we're not on the receiving
end of it. I never knew you. It doesn't
matter if I know you. It wouldn't have done you any
good to know Henry Mahan. We need to know Christ. It's the
only one we need to know. Life eternal is what? Knowing
Him. It's what He said, John 17. We must know Him. God is rejecting
religious people at the gate of heaven right now. This could
not be more serious. It could not be more urgent.
You know, a verse that often gets misquoted is, today is the
day of salvation. You know what it actually says?
Now is the day of salvation. Right now. Right now. If we die without Christ, We
will die in our sin, and I can't think of anything more terrible.
We will die in our sin, separated from God. We'll spend eternity
apart from God, out of His presence, cast out into everlasting chains
of darkness, torment." And you know, if you had the
chance to meet Brother Cody Groover, dear brother, one thing he told
me once, he said, you know, a message like this, I'm not going to scare
you into believing on Christ. You believing on Christ, it ain't
going to have nothing to do with me. Because God's work in His
alone. He's pleased to speak through the fullest sense of
the preaching of His gospel, His word. But we're not going to be scared
into believing on Him. Here's what Cody said. He said,
it's the beauty of Christ that draws us to Him. I love that.
You know, we preach the word as it is. We either believe ourselves to
be beautiful, And by nature we do, no matter how ugly we might
be. We all think we're pretty. We either believe ourselves to
be beautiful or we believe Christ to be beautiful. I pray he'd show us his beauty.
That's what Moses prayed, Lord show me your glory, show me your
beauty, your excellence, your majesty. Pray God won't let us
be so foolish to approach Him in that day trusting our works.
That's what this message is all about. Trusting Him and Him alone. Christ alone. I believe we looked
at this last time I was here, the time before, how the Father
is well pleased in Christ and only in Christ. The disciples, they fell down,
and the Lord came, touched them, said, Arise, be not afraid. And
they saw no man save Jesus only. The only one in whom the Father's
will pleased, they saw their Savior, their Lord and their
God. You know, many will die claiming
to know God. They'll die trusting their claim
on God. And then they're going to find out God didn't claim
them. Never knew you. I never knew you. If we're going
to be accepted, it's going to be in the Beloved. Ephesians
1.6, He hath made us. He did it by Himself. He made
us. It's the Father's will that He made us accepted in the Beloved. Praise His holy name. I want
to show you this verse in Psalm 40, if you turn with me. Psalm
40, verse 5. This right here, this sums up
my hope. Psalm 40, verse 5. I find it interesting, the psalm
our brother just read out here, and the psalm our brother read
in the study a minute ago, they both mention God's wonderful
works. Read this verse with me, Psalm
40, verse 5. It says, many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works. which thou hast done, and thy
thoughts which are to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. I pray, if nothing else today,
we've seen a little bit of our Lord's wonderful works, because
that's going to be our only hope of salvation. His wonderful works. That's the only wonderful works
there are. You remember what our works are, filth, abomination. His works, every single one of
them is wonderful. God didn't owe it to any man
to do anything for him. You know, we're walking this
earth and by nature all of us are saying no God every day.
Even now when we complain every day, we're saying no God. I think
I know what's better for me. Oh my God, forgive us. All his
works are wonderful. Pray he teach us that. If our hope is in our works,
we'll hear, depart from me, I never knew you. But if our hope is
in Christ and his successful works, here's what we're going
to hear. This is scripture. Come ye blessed of my father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. When I think about what God has
prepared for me, for all his people, it just It's just overwhelming. It's
like David said, my cup runs over. Nothing but surely goodness and
mercy. We can't begin to enter into the things God's prepared
for us, but I love what he told his disciples in John 14. He
said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again." And we feel like He ain't
coming sometimes, don't we? He said, I will come again. You
can mark it down. And I will receive you unto myself, that
where I am, where's He at? On His throne. There you may
be also. Oh my. The Lord Jesus Christ, He's not
just our hope. He sure ain't just a fire escape
from hell. He's our beautiful Savior. He's our heaven. That's one of my favorite sentences
I've ever heard. Christ is heaven. I love that. You know, while
this whole world's looking forward to pearly gates and streets of
gold and mansion after mansion after mansion and all the things
that this flesh desires, For one, they're going to be sorely
disappointed lest God save them, and I pray He will. But for the
believer, for the child of God, for the fool, for Christ's sake,
we're waiting for Him, aren't we? I've found Him whom my soul loveth.
Waiting for Him. I've been hoping in Him. We long
to be with Him. Who's going to enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven? All who are in Christ. all ruined,
corrupt, condemned, guilty sinners who are trusting in and resting
in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone for all our hope of
salvation. May God cause us to see Him,
how beautiful He is. Beautiful feet, they belong to
Him, only Him. May He enable us to trust in
Him alone, amen.