Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6. I'll begin reading
in verse 46. That'll be our text this morning. Luke chapter 6 and verse 46.
Our Lord Jesus Christ asks a question. Very important question. Everything
our Lord says is important. But this is a real good question. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say? The message is simply, is Christ
your Lord? Is Christ your Lord? It's a very simple question,
isn't it? It's not a very complex question. If a man calls Christ Lord, if
he confesses Christ to be his Lord, but refuses to obey, then
that man is a liar. That's simple, isn't it? That's
not complex. How can he say, I am the servant
of Christ, and yet refuse to obey Christ? That doesn't make
any sense at all. The Lord said of his generation,
concerning this, the prophet Isaiah had said this before,
but in Mark chapter 7, the Lord said, this people honoreth me
with their lips. But their hearts are far from
me. He also declared in Matthew's
Gospel, Matthew chapter 7, Not everyone that saith to me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father. Many shall say to me in that
day, in that day of judgment, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and done many
wonderful works? And he will say, he will profess. They made a profession, but their
profession was not true. And in that day, he will make
a profession. He said, I will profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me. And you know
what he called all their good works, all their things they
were holding to? He said, Depart from me, you
that work iniquity. Iniquity. Everything they thought
to be service was nothing but sin and rebellion. These people confessed Christ
to be Lord and they went about preaching in His name and did
wonderful works and even miracles, cast out devils. Yet why were
they not accepted? Good question. I don't desire
to be in that group. Do you? Why were they not accepted? What
was their profession of Christ? Lordship. Why were they cast
out? They professed Him to be Lord,
but why? Even because they did not hear
His Word. They did not hear His Word. Look in verse 47 of our text,
He said, Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not what I
say? Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth My sayings, and doeth
them. And then he tells them he's like
a man that built his house on a rock. These men, they did not hear
the Word. They did not believe on Christ
alone. This is the Word of Christ. Listen.
That you should believe on Him whom God sent. That's the Word
of Christ. That you should believe on Him. These men did not believe on
Christ alone, but by some unholy mixture of Christ plus their
works, Christ plus their preaching, Christ plus their casting out
devils, Christ plus their miracles, Christ plus their decision and
profession, amounted to nothing. Nothing. Christ's words are very
clear. In Matthew, he tells us, this
is pretty much the same message in Matthew, but in Matthew he
said, I've come not to destroy the law or the prophets, but
I've come to fulfill the law and the prophets. Whosoever there
shall shall break the least of these commandments, and shall
teach men to do so, shall be called the least in the kingdom
of heaven. But whosoever shall teach and do the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case, no way, enter into the
kingdom of heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ declares
the law to be holy and good, and except a man be absolutely
perfect, he cannot enter in. He cannot enter in. Perfect in
every word, in every deed, in every thought, only they then
shall be accepted of God. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things. in all things,
in all things written in the book of the law to do them. You see, it's not enough for
a man to confess the law to be good. Who doesn't confess the
law is good? The law is good. There's nobody that doesn't confess
the law is good. Some people are even sincere
in trying to obey it. They're very sincere. These Pharisees
were very sincere in obeying the law. They were very sincere. But if you ever seek to be accepted
by God according to your works, listen, you're cursed. You're
cursed and there's nothing you can do about it. You shall in
no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. You can call Jesus Lord,
Lord, but if you are trusting in anything you have ever done
or ever going to do, You have polluted the sacrifice of Christ. You have defiled it and you have
made it of none effect. See then by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. Much less this perverted thing
that is going around. You know people have taken the
law of God and what they try to do is transpose it into the
New Testament. They call it covenant theology.
That is nothing but works religion. It's a lie. It's taking the law
and putting new names to the ordinances of the law and calling
it New Testament. No, it's not. It's an old covenant.
These two covenants cannot meet together. They're not the same.
They're opposed to one another. The Lord Jesus Christ He tells us that no man can enter
in except he be perfect. But Jesus in this text, when
He says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not what I say?
He's not talking about the law. He's not talking about the law. He is not speaking about the
law. For we have already sinned against
the law. We've already broken the law. Previous passages said, you know,
you don't take a new piece of garment and put it on an old
cloth. Why? It just makes it worse.
And so he's saying, most people say, well, when you save, then
you start trying to obey. No, you've already broken the
law. You can't ever mix the law with grace. They don't work.
So he's not speaking about the law. We've already fallen short
of the glory of God. And by the deeds of the law,
the scriptures are plain. No flesh shall be justified.
The law of God was never meant to save one sinner. It was never
meant for that purpose. It was only meant to expose sin. That's it. It's only meant to show you your
need of a Savior. The law was never meant for you
to obey it. You know, you failed that even before you took your
first breath. You had already failed. You already
died in your father Adam. There was no hope for that. Yet
the law, Paul says, was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law
is holy and just and must be honored. It must be fulfilled. Therefore, Jesus said, listen
to his words, I came to fulfill the law. I came to fulfill the
law. He came to honor the law and
to magnify it. That's what it says in Isaiah
42. It says of His servant, I came to bring judgment to the Gentiles. What does that mean? I came to
bring the gospel to the Gentiles. I came to declare the gospel
to the Gentiles, to preach the gospel, to open the blind eyes,
to deliver the prisoners. How? Verse 21 of chapter 42 of
Isaiah said, The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness. That's
how. By His righteousness. That's how He should save sinners. Behold how the Lord Jesus Christ,
you see Him, who is both God and man, He is who Himself, eternal
holiness, was for the salvation of His elect people, made a man
in order to represent us. In order to be a representative
man. Adam was a representative man.
And when Adam sinned, we all died. Wherefore, as by one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed. It passed to my children, it
passed to your children, it passed from your parents to you, death
passed to all men. Why? All have sinned. You sinned when He did. You died
when He did. And so then the only hope for
us is another representative man, Jesus Christ. Hear His words. He's come to be a representative. He came to restore the law, to
honor the law, to magnify the law that you and I could never
do. And it was for His people He
represented that He was made a servant, made under the law. For what purpose? To redeem them
from the curse of the law. To redeem us from the curse of
the law. How? By being made a curse. By bearing our sins in His own
body on the tree. You see the sinless Son of God?
He has come to honor the Law and magnify the Law by His obedience
and by His death. He came to honor the Law, magnify
it. You know, men take the law and
they hold it so far away that they can only see just the parts
they want. He magnified it. He brought it
up so close. Every jot and every tittle was
obeyed by the Son of God to perfection. He fulfilled it. And not by some cooperation. He's not Lord by cooperation. We saw that this morning, didn't
we? He was Lord by decree. He's not Lord by cooperation
of men. And if you're trusting in Christ's
righteousness plus your own, your faith is vain, and you are
yet in your sins, and Christ shall profit you nothing. That's
just His plain word. If we put the tool of our works
or our wisdom or our obedience to the altar and the sacrifice,
we have polluted it. Galatians 5, Paul says, if you
be circumcised. That's one thing Paul said. If
you just take one thing. If you tithe. You can do any
part of the law if you want. If you tithe, Christ shall profit
you nothing. You got that? You start adding
law in, Christ is of none effect to you. And you are not His servant
and He is not your Lord. Now He will be your judge. He
will be your God. There is no doubt about that. Behold, Jesus has fulfilled the
righteousness of the law in every part, especially in His death. especially in His perfect death.
There the sinless Son of God hung upon the tree, and God imputed
the sins of His people to His charge, and I tell you, God poured
out all the vengeance of hell ten billion fold over on Christ. You see, Jesus came fully expecting
this to happen. This was no surprise to Him,
was it? He said, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. He knew this
all along. He kept saying, my hour has not
yet come. My hour has not yet come. Why? He knew there was
an hour coming in which God would impute the sins of His people
to Him and He would pay and suffer the debt that they owed to God
in His own body. And the full weight of justice
would fall on Him as our substitute. And therefore, he who knew no
sin was made sin for us. And by this one offering, we
are made the righteousness of God in him. That's it. And there upon that tree hung
the only Savior, the only one who can touch both God and man. Do you get that? There's only
one mediator between God and men. There's only one who could
stand in the gap between you and us and God. Who can touch
God and touch us. And that's the God-man Christ.
He's it. There is no other Savior. There
is no other Lord. It's Christ. And when He cried,
it is finished. You know what? It was finished.
I like his words, they're very plain, aren't they? No comment
needed. It's finished. It's done. Done! You know that old track? One man said, what's the difference
between your religion and ours? And one man said, your religion
don't have enough words. Don't have enough letters. Yours
is D-O. Do. Ours is D-O-N-E. Done. That's true religion. You want to know the difference
between true and false religion? That's it. It is finished. It
is finished. Salvation done. Done. And on the third day, God proved
the words of Christ. He testified before the whole
world that Jesus Christ is Lord when He raised Him from the dead. Peter said this, He hath made
Him both Lord and Christ. He who was Lord is now made Lord
and Christ. Because He has accomplished redemption. He has accomplished the salvation
of His people. He has raised Him to the right
hand. of God. And now there he sits, he is
Lord. So what then is the word of the
Lord? Moses said of this man Jesus,
he said there shall be a prophet like unto me that the Lord will
raise up. You should hear him. You should
hear him. You should obey his word. So
what then is it to obey the word of the Lord? He said, Why call
you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say? What is he
saying? What has he said? What is obedience to the Lord?
Do you call him Lord? Do you confess him to be Lord?
Then surely you will hear his word and obey it. What is his
word? Verse 47, Whosoever cometh to
me. I like his words again, they're
so plain. Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not come to me?
Why will you not come to me? If I am your Lord, then most
surely you will come to me. All that the Father giveth me
shall, what? Come to me. Have you come to Christ? This is talking about faith.
This is talking about believing and resting and trusting only
in the Son of God as all your hope and standing before God.
It is casting out every work, every deed, every thought of
your own and believing only on the perfect work of God's Son. That's it. That's obeying His
Word. Believing on Him. To believe
on Him is to obey. Peter says of the elect, he says
that you, that here you obey the gospel. You are sanctified
by the Spirit unto obedience. Obedience. What is that? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Saved. Forever saved. Now then, have you come to Christ?
Well, the Lord before this, in this chapter, gives us a description.
And I'm just going to go through this. This is not something that
takes great commentaries or anything. The Lord's words are very plain.
And He's going to describe for us those who come to Him. Those
who obey Him, those who are His servants, are completely described
in His message from the beginning. Look back, if you would, at verse
20. At verse 20. And He, Christ, lifted up His
eyes on His disciples and said, Now in verses 20 down through
verse 23, you're going to be given the description of those
who have come to Christ, those who are His servants. And then you're going to be given
after that, you'll give a description of those who are not His servants,
those who have not come to Christ. Let's see which you are. Blessed are you poor. For yours is the kingdom of God. Are you poor? Don't think about your bank account.
It has nothing to do with that whatsoever. Not a thing to do
with what you own. Are you poor? Spiritually bankrupt? Do you have anything to offer
God? As I look within, I cannot find
one. We're bankrupt. Matter of fact, we're not even
in the even. We're so far in the red we can't
ever get out. Only these come to Christ. Only these are blessed with the
power of the Holy Spirit to give them sight to see. They're bankrupt
souls. You know, it takes the Holy Spirit
to make a man lost, doesn't it? Nothing else will do it. You
can guilt men, you can do anything, you can manipulate words, but
you can't ever make them know the bankruptness of their own
soul except the Spirit of God give it to you. And when you
know it, you know it. I know it. I do. Blessed are you bankrupt for
yours is the kingdom of heaven. Doesn't say it shall be yours. It is yours. Why? Because he who was rich for our
sakes became poor. That through his poverty you
might be made rich. And you that are bankrupt, you
are rich! You are rich in righteousness,
rich in holiness, rich in acceptance. You have all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places stored up for you. They're yours. And you'll never stop seeing
your bankrupt soul. But praise God, there is another
nature that is full of righteousness. Praise God, I can come to Christ
and see what I am. Second, blessed are you that
hunger. Don't think about your belly. Think about your soul. Do you
hunger for righteousness? Spurgeon was asked if he could
be granted a wish of the Father, what would it be? That I be without
sin. Oh God, that I should be without
sin. That I should be like Christ.
That's my desire. One have I desired. Not one thing. One have I desired. And that
will I seek after. Do you hunger for righteousness? Listen. You shall be filled. You shall be filled. Matter of fact, you are. If you've
come to Christ, you are. He has filled you with His own
righteousness. It's yours. It's yours. You shall be filled. Blessed
are they that weep now. I like that. He said hunger now
and weep now. Now. And that's an ever-present
now, isn't it? We're always hungry and we're
always weeping. because of our sin. We lament
our sin. Our Lord promised that. In Ezekiel
36, which is the blessed covenant of grace, He said, You shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight. Yeah. That's me. That's me. There is no man I loathe more
than me. And we weep. Now, and listen
believer, you weep because there are two natures struggling within
you. There are two armies opposed to one another that will never
stop fighting. And so this weeping and this
hungering will always be in this world. You'll never escape it.
Solomon said there is no discharge from this war. None. You won't be discharged. If we
have any peace at all, it's a false peace. We've conceded to the flesh,
probably, if there's any peace at all. And this causes us great pain
and sorrow and suffering. And I'll tell you, God's people
suffer in this life. I've told men many times, that's
my sales pitch. If you come to Christ, you will
suffer in this life. Most likely you'll lose everything. Good. J.C. Philpott called it a painted
bubble anyway. Painted bubble. Looks pretty. It just pops. Nothing. It's lighter than air. It's vanity.
What did you lose? When you lost something, what
did you lose anyway? You lost nothing. You lost nothing. Why? Because you shall laugh. You shall laugh. Not now, but
soon. Soon you shall rejoice forever
and there will not be one tear in your eye. There will not be
one pain in your body. There will not be one sin in
your thoughts. You shall laugh. And listen to this. Blessed are
you when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate
you from their company. Praise God when they do. When
you're separated from sinners, it's not usually your choice.
You'd rather be with them. But when God separates us, that's
good news. That's good. We should be separated,
and He does. They shall hate you and separate
you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your
names as evil. Them, Calvinists. Oh, those mean Calvinists. Cast
us out. That's all right. Good. They shall hate you. So blessed
are you when you're hated. Well, that sounds opposite. That's
just true. You shall be hated for his name's
sake. Now if you go out and make somebody
mad, that's your own fault. But I'm talking about for the
gospel's sake. Rejoice you in that day and leap
for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the
like manner did the fathers unto the prophets. And then he begins
to describe those who are not His. You're rich. You can call Jesus Lord all you
want to. If you're rich in your own self-righteousness, you're
not His. Not His. One day you will come to poverty and be too late. Woe unto you that are full You don't need anything. Remember
those Jews that Jesus said this. He said, if the Son of Man shall
set you free, you shall be free indeed. And they said, we're
not in bondage. Not talking to you. Not talking to you. Only
talking to slaves. Sinners. See, if you don't have
a need, you're a fool. That's why the gospel doesn't
interest you. Woe unto you that laugh now.
Boy, there's a lot of laughter going on. They laugh and mock
at this gospel. They hate this gospel. They despise
it. They mock us. One day, their laughter will
be turned into terror. Eternal terror. Woe unto you when men shall speak
well of you. Do men speak well of you? Obviously,
if they speak well of us, they've not heard our gospel. Most likely, they've kept it
secret. Now, when they ask, you tell
them. When you tell them, be ready. You're not greater than
your Lord. They hated Him. They will hate
you. And you will lose much by preaching
this gospel. That's all right. Because great
is your reward. Why? Because Christ is your Lord. And he says, I liken you who
come to me, I liken you unto a man that has digged down his
house. built into the very foundation
and rock of the eternal Lord Jesus Christ, the foundation
that God has laid. We are digged down by election,
digged down by redemption, digged down by the Spirit of God that
holds us and keeps us into this faith. And you know when the
storms of life come, all those things I just told you, your
weeping, your poverty, the hatred of men, All of those storms beat
against you every single day of your life. You know what's
going to happen to your house? Not a thing. Why? Christ said, I go to prepare
a place for you. If I go, I will no doubt come
again and receive you unto myself. Where I am, there will you be
also. Wherever the Lord is, His servant
is. Is Christ your Lord? Do you fit the framework? Do
you qualify? Oh yeah. Yeah, blessed are you,
His servants. You know what? We do the things
He says. What is that? Come to me. When have you stopped
coming? Will a believer ever stop coming
to Christ? You bet we won't. Why? He is all my salvation, all my
righteousness, all my sanctification, all my redemption, all my wisdom. Christ is all to every one of
His servants. I pray that God would even reveal
that to you. Is He your Lord? He's mine. You know what? I'm His. And He
is mine. I pray God bless this to you.