Matthew chapter 7. As I said
earlier, I won't be here next Sunday. We will not be in Rocky
Mount, Virginia. And there will not be a Bible
class, just the 1045 service. Roland Browning will be here
from West Virginia, from Dingus, West Virginia, to preach to you. Now, the title of this message is I never knew you or not everyone
is saved who claims to be saved. This is one of the reasons it's
so important to go verse by verse because we would have a tendency
not to deal with these difficult verses. The Sermon on the Mount ends
with the greatest warning of all warnings, I believe. I believe
in all the Word of God. I believe it ends with the greatest
warning of all of them. I don't know about you, I suspect
this because you're like me, when I read this, it's like when
the Lord said to his disciples, one of you, one of you will betray
me. And you know what they said?
Lord, is it I? Is it I? And when I read this
and I listened to my pastor preach the outstanding message here
yesterday, I walked around the church and I listened to that
message. I never knew you back in the
80s, back in the 80s. Sobering, sobering. And my thought
was, Lord, don't let this be me. Don't let me be one of the
many. Don't ever assume when it comes
to your salvation, the eternal destiny of your soul, don't ever
assume. Follow on to know the Lord. Hunger
and thirst after the Lord. Ask Him, ask Him to make Himself
known to you. He that seeks me with all his
heart shall find me. That's a promise. And you know
what my prayer is? Lord, give me that heart. When
I read that, when I read it, I do pray, Lord, give me that
kind of heart. Give me a heart that seeks after
you. Give me a heart that hungers
and thirsts after you. Give me that heart. It doesn't
come from any place else. The heart we are born with is
hard. It's hard. It's like as hard
as the adamant stone. It's just like flint, it's just
like a diamond, it's so hard. Give me a heart of flesh, like
he said there, I believe it's in Ezekiel. That means a heart
that can feel, a heart that's alive, a heart that's real. Give
me that kind of heart to seek you. Don't let me be this way.
Do you think this is a good way to end a sermon? The way He ended
it, you think it's a good way? Well, consider who gave the sermon. Consider who's giving the sermon.
This sermon is being preached by Him this morning. He's using
me, my voice, but it's His message. It's His Word. Now, after He speaks of the straight
and narrow way, and few there be, He says that find it. That's
what He said. Let's consider who's giving this. Few there be that find it, and
he's the one who ought to know because he knows the heart. He
knows the heart. And after warning against these
false preachers, these wolves that come in sheep's clothing,
our Lord warns against a false profession. Not everyone who says that they
are saved are saved. You say, that's so... That's so sobering. It is. It
is. Now look in verse 21. Not everyone. I underlined that. Not everyone. And Lord don't
let me be one of those everyone's. But not everyone that saith to
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, he will enter
in, We live in a day of easy believism. We do. We live in a day where there's
no real conviction of sin, no real conversion. Just as a man
told me yesterday, I know I'm saved because I accepted Jesus
as my personal savior. What's wrong with that statement?
Besides everything. Here's what's wrong with it.
The basis of his salvation was this, I accepted Jesus. There's not a word said about
his substitutionary work, his righteousness, his person, his
suretyship, nothing. It was I accepted him. He said, now I know you believe
that he must accept us. You're right. God said He, in
Ephesians chapter 1, He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. He is not in my hands, I'm in
His hands. That's the truth. That's the
truth. We live in such a day of repeat
a prayer and just do this or just do that. Where's the Holy
Spirit conviction at? Where is a real conviction of
sin which leads me to a real need of Jesus Christ? That's
what leads me to a real need of Christ to save me from my
sin. You know, when I really understood
the gospel, Before I heard the gospel and
the power of God's Spirit, I wanted to be saved from hell. That was
the sole purpose of me being saved. Getting saved. Not to go to hell. But when I
heard the gospel, the sole purpose was for Christ to save me from
my sins. That's my problem. My problem
is not a place. My problem is a sin nature that
I was born with. That's against God. I was born,
the scripture says, with enmity. Our minds are at enmity with
God. Our minds, we are naturally,
you know what that means? We are naturally at war with
God. I need God to save me from my
natural self. That's what I realized I needed. And that's when I realized that
I needed Jesus Christ because He's able to do it. He's able
to save them to the uttermost or the guttermost that come to
Him, that come to God by Him. But we live in a day when it's
just repeat a prayer or come up front and everything's okay. You know, the scripture says
that you will with much tribulation enter the kingdom of heaven.
That doesn't, that means more than just, you know, you're going
to meet with trouble. That's a lot of inward trouble,
inward warfare. There's a real, there's a real
tribulation that goes on inside of me, a real warfare with sin
that goes on inside. Every child of God, it's a constant
struggle to the end. The people he's speaking of here
in this verse are very religious. They're very religious, very
orthodox, but they're very lost. Look what Paul wrote over in
Romans chapter 10. Turn over to Romans chapter 10. In Romans chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. See, this
is the heart of God's preacher right here. I bear them record. They have a zeal of God. They
would die over what they believed concerning God. They have a zeal
of God, but not according to the scriptures. That word, not
according to knowledge, is not according to the scriptures. They have a zeal of God, but
it's a wrong zeal. You know, a person, you say,
well, he's very serious in his religion. Well, he may be serious,
but he may be seriously wrong. I don't want to be seriously
wrong. Do you? No, you don't. Serious doesn't get it. Listen, they use His name, and
we'll see this here in a minute, they use His name over and over. They call Him Lord, but they
don't know Him. They don't know Him. This whole conversation I had
with this person, it was evident he didn't know. He didn't know
the Lord, the one of this Bible. The one of this Bible. Listen to Luke 6, 46. And why
call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Why
do you call me Lord and Master and you don't do a thing I tell
you to? But those who do enter in are
those who do the Father's will. They do the will, he said, of
my Father, which is in heaven. Well, what's the will of the
Father? Here's the will of the Father.
It's to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is written in John
chapter 6, Verses 39 and 40, and this is the will of Him that
sent me, here it is, that everyone which seeth the Son and believes
on Him may have everlasting life, and I'll raise Him up at the
last day. You see, they ask Him before this, what must we do
to do the works of God? What must we do in order to be
saved? We would be accepted of God,
and He said, here it is, that you believe on Him, you believe
Him, you trust Him, you follow Him, whom the Father has sent. You trust Him. He's your life. The people here whom the Lord
said He doesn't know them, they didn't know Him either. They
didn't know Him either. Christ was not their life. Paul
said, Christ is my life. For me to live is Christ, to
die is gain. But what is it for me and you
to live? It's Christ. There is not a believer
that Christ is not their life. He's your life. You know that.
You think of Him daily. I know you do. I know you do. You seek His will daily. I know
you do. Because you're sealed with the
Holy Spirit who leads you in that direction. You're not out
there walking on your own. You are sealed with God the Holy
Spirit who guides and directs you. Christ said, He will take
the things of mine and show them to you. Not just when you're
sitting here, but when you're at home, you're reading the scriptures,
or a scripture comes to your mind that you've heard, and He
gives you an understanding of it, He's guiding you, leading
you, and teaching you. He doesn't leave His children
alone. All thy children shall be taught of God. In verse 22, and many will say
to me in that day, what day is he talking about? Judgment day. This is not the day you want
to find this out. This is a bad day to find this
out. They will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, and see if you
pick up the problem here in this verse. Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name or preached in thy name? and in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works." First of all, he says many. In
the first question, and this question came up yesterday, how
can so many be so wrong? I don't know, but the Lord said
many. He said it, I didn't. Many will say to me in that day,
many were Many were confessing Him, using His name. Many used
His name. You see, where God has one preacher,
Satan has a thousand, as well as a thousand false converts.
It's what he's saying. This is what he's saying. Let's, you know, let's stay with
the Word of God. And here's what they say. They
say, Lord, Lord. They call Him Lord. How many
times you hear these TV preachers, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. Well, yes, he is. But not many
know him that way. Not many know him. They have a works religion here.
And this is what jumped out in that conversation. But listen,
they start out with we. We. Boy, they started out with
a problem already. We preached in thy name. You
know, there was many prophets that went out and preached using
his name that he didn't send. He said, I didn't send them. How shall they preach except
they be sent? We cast out devils in thy name. Well, they think
they did. They think they did. We've done many wonderful works,
many charitable works in thy name. You say, you can't condemn
that. They're busy, busy. Had their
programs, yet they didn't know Him. This is what He's saying. The church at Ephesus, over in
Revelation chapter 2, the church at Ephesus was very busy. But
you know what the Lord said? He said, you left your first
love. You have left your first love. Your heart is not in it
no more. Your heart is gone. That heart
love for Christ is gone. Satan is very subtle. He's very
subtle. He'll cast out his own to promote
his agenda. It doesn't matter to him. He's
a crook. And if allowed, he can do wonders.
They said, we've done many mighty works. He can do wonders. You
remember when Moses cast down his rod, and it turned into a
serpent? Those magicians cast down their
rod, and they turned into a serpent. Now Moses' rod ate up theirs,
but they did that. They was allowed to do it. You
know, God can allow Satan to do... He allows Satan to make
you rich. He can do a lot of things, if
He's allowed to. If He's allowed to. Miracles
are not infallible proofs of Christ's presence. Do you know
what the proof of His presence is? The preaching of the gospel
and the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the lifting up of Christ
and Him crucified. That's it. That's it. That's
how His presence is evidenced. If you'll notice, they only mentioned
what they had done. This is important. They're standing
there. This is judgment. Now listen,
this is judgment. And they're standing before the
judge of the earth. All judgment has been committed to the Son.
They're standing before Him. This is a real event. Our Lord
is speaking something that is very real. And when they're standing
before Him, they speak of what they have done, not what He has done. Wouldn't
it be very different, wouldn't it be very different if they
had said this, Lord, did you not die for me? Lord, are you not my righteousness? Wouldn't that have been a very
different answer? But it was the works that they held up.
And he says, depart from me. I never knew you. I cannot emphasize that strong
enough. I never knew you. And then will
I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you
that work iniquity. Your whole works has been full
of iniquity. You see, you and I cannot see
the motive behind the work. We see the outward, we see the
work. God sees the heart. God sees
the heart. And He judges accordingly. Our Lord, listen, our Lord will
have the last word with no arguments. You notice He doesn't argue with
them? You notice that? There's no argument going on
here. Ain't no back and forth going on here. No back and forth
going on here. He says, depart from me, I never
knew you. Just depart. He will strip them
of all their falsehood and expose them for who they are. As it's
written in Job, they were confounded because they had hoped. What the preacher said, if I
did this or that, You know, the Lord said about
these Pharisees, He said, you compass sea and land, and you
make them proselytes, and when you make them a proselyte, you
make them twofold a child of hell. Now what does our Lord mean by,
I never knew you? What does He mean? We know that He's God. We know
He knew their existence. He lighteth every man that cometh
into the world. You don't have life. You don't
even have physical life apart from Him. You don't have it.
In His hand is a breath that says of every living thing. Every
living thing. He knew their existence. He knew
their lives. He knew them. He had to know
them because they are judged out of the books. Look over in Revelation 20. In Revelation 20, verse 12, and
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books
were opened, which is the book of life. And
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works. You don't realize your
life written in a book, do you? I'll get over and let me see
if I can find this. I think I got it written down. I'll read it
to you out of Daniel because I already got it here. Daniel
7 verse 10. Daniel 7, verse 10. A fiery stream
issued and came forth from before him, thousands, thousands, thousands
ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood
before him. The judgment was sent, and the
books were opened. The books were opened. If you
go to court, in this land, if you go to court, If you committed
a crime, you know what, that crime's on the books. If it's
not on the books, you ain't going to court. You're not going to
court, it's not on the books. I told you this story, but I
know some of you haven't heard it, but I'm going to tell it
again. It's when Henry, when he was a young man, ran a stop
sign and hit, he hit this couple. And it did a lot of damage. Well,
he was given a court date by the police. You know, the police
came, wrote him up, wrote it up, and given a court date. And
so he asked his father to go with him. They went to court,
and then one after another went before the judge. And at the
end of it, the judge asked him why they were there. Henry told
him why they were there. And the judge said, well, I don't
have anything on the books. and there's no police officer
here, there was no officer there, the one that wrote it up, he
wasn't there, there was no law officer there, it was not on
the books, and he said, you can go, you can go. But I know this, I know this,
there's a book that you're going to be judged out of, the unbeliever.
And there's the book of life. And you know what? We are, every
one of God's children's in that book of life. And you know what?
Their life in that book of life is perfect. Because it's the
life of Christ. It's the righteousness of Christ.
It's the work of Christ. And all your sins are gone. They're
not even, they're not written on the book. You're justified. There's nothing here. And now
those who don't believe, every thought, I'm telling you the
truth, every thought, every word, this is how in depth God's justice
is. Every thought, every word, every
action is written in that book. And he said, you'll be judged
according to your words. I never knew you. So it doesn't
mean he didn't know they existed. He didn't mean that. He says,
Depart from me, how terrible will be the day of judgment for
all who do not believe in Christ. Depart! But wait a minute! Depart! But! Depart! I can't even begin to describe
the terribleness of that sound. Judgment, what our Lord is saying
here also to me, judgment is going to be a day of surprises.
But we preached in your name. And they did this all the way
to the end. We've cast out devils in your name. Those whom the world thought
the most of are cast out into darkness. Go back into that day
and time when our Lord was on the earth preaching, walking
in the flesh. Go back in that time. Ask any Jew who was going
to be in heaven. It was the Pharisee. And he said
to those Pharisees, you're of your father the devil. And boy, they got mad. They got
mad. The disciples said, don't you
know you offended them? Hey, they were born offended. They live offended. They're going
to die offended. They're going to stand before God offended. A gospel that doesn't offend
is not the gospel. It's not. And then will I profess
unto them, verse 23, then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. I'm gonna tell them to depart. And they're gonna depart because
I never knew you. I never knew you in a covenant
relationship. But now listen, let me wind this
down. Our Lord gives us an example
of two hearers. There's two types of hearers.
There's two types of hearers in this room. There's two types. And He gives us an example of
these two hearers, lest some think He's being unjust here.
They're thinking, that's unjust. They believed, no they didn't.
He knows the heart. He wouldn't tell a believer to
depart. But now listen to these two examples. In Matthew 24,
in verse 24, 724, Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,
the gospel message, and doeth them, I will like him unto a
wise man which built his house upon a rock. The first hearer is like a wise
man. This man is a saved man. He's
truly a saved man or a saved woman. For he has been made wise
by the grace of God and by the Spirit of God. He's been made
wise to the Gospel. He heard the Gospel. He believed
the Gospel. He's followed on to know the
Lord. Christ is his life. And he built
his house upon a rock. His confession is real. His faith
is real. His repentance is real. Christ
was his life. Christ was his life while he
was alive. Christ is his life afterwards.
Christ is our life. And that rock upon which he built
is Christ. Not his profession, but Christ
himself. And him crucified. I want you
to listen how Luke puts this. About this wise man. In Luke 6, 46 and 48. And why
call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever
comes to me and heareth my sayings and doeth them, I'll show you
to whom he's like. He's like a man which built a
house and dig deep. That's what Luke says, he dig
deep. What did he dig deep at? He dig deep in the word of God. He dig deep in his soul, searching
with all his heart the Lord Jesus Christ. in the Word of God. Lord, make yourself known to
me. I'm not going to read the Bible just so I can say I read
the Bible through. I'm looking for someone. I'm
looking for the Lord. He digged deep and laid the foundation
on a rock because the rock is deep in the Word of God. He's
in this Word. You search the Scriptures, he
says, and they would testify of me. And when he said, you
search the Scriptures, I know you search the Scriptures, but
they are the ones who testify, they speak of me. I don't read the Scriptures to
see how to live. I read the Scriptures that I might know Him who lives.
And He might live in me. And Him living in me ensures
that I'll live the way I ought to live. Not just opening a page
and say, well, I'm supposed to do this. No, no, no. That's just legalism. That's self-righteousness. But
I tell you what, I couldn't get over this. He digged deep. That's
sincerity, isn't it? That's diligence. That's diligence. He didn't take the Bible, close
it on Sunday after the service and then go put it in a corner
and then pick it back up next week. He digged deep. He heard something in the word,
he heard something in the message and he went home and he digged
deep, deep in the word of God. And laid the foundation of his
faith, the foundation of his hope upon that rock, Jesus Christ. And when the floods arose and
streamed vehemently upon that house and could not shake it,
for it was founded upon a rock. Listen to verse 25. Now listen
to me. God sends trials to prove profession or possession. Let's
not complain about trials. They really prove whether we
believe God or not. And those who do believe God,
it just strengthens your faith. Now listen, he's gonna send them,
listen. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and it beat upon that house, that house that was
founded upon that rock, and it fell not, for it was founded
upon a rock. Rain, trials sent from heaven. Where does rain come from? It
comes from heaven. Trials sent from heaven. The
floods came, earthly trials, daily trials came on this person. The winds blew, mysterious trials
came, trials from within, depression, anxiety, unfounded fears. Why do I feel like this? You
ever get up feeling the blues? Now they call it depression.
We call it the blues. You get up feeling just down? Mysterious trials, you know,
it's just... Peter called them fiery trials,
they just like going... Job, it just came out of nowhere.
Job's sitting there one day, you know, the sun's shining,
he's one of the richest men in the land, and he's blessed, and
his steps are buttered, and next thing you know, here comes a
servant saying, all your children are dead. Then right behind him,
all your sheep are gone. Then right behind him, all your
camels are gone. Then right behind him, all your servants are gone.
Just bam, bam, bam. The winds blew, mysterious trials. Things don't just happen. God
sends them. And they prove faith. They prove
our faith. These all came up on this house. Like it did Job. Satan said,
give me Job. I'm going to paraphrase. Give
me Job. I'll turn him just like I did Adam. He ain't no better
than Adam. I'll turn him. Let me add in, you got a hedge
about him, just like there's a hedge about every one of God's
children, every one of you who believe, there's a hedge about
you. And Satan can't, nothing, nothing, no one can break that
hedge. No arrow from Satan can penetrate that hedge. God has
to allow, he has to allow a trial to come in. He has to allow Satan
to touch you. He said you can't touch his life
because your life is hid with Christ and God. You can't touch
his life. But you can touch all that he
has." He says, alright, you let me touch him, I'll turn him.
And he didn't, did he? Job said, the Lord giveth and
the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The house didn't fall. Because
that house is built on the rock. And that rock is Jesus Christ.
My hope, my hope of glory is Jesus Christ, Him and Him crucified. Christ as the Son of God in the
flesh, living for me, dying for me, rising for me, seated for
me, interceding for me, and coming to get me. That's my hope. My
hope is not that I have straightened up, because ain't one of us has
straightened up enough. Not enough. We could straighten
up a whole lot more, couldn't we? That's right, we all ought to
be locked up. At one time or another, I bet you we could.
Unless you just live very self-righteously. You're one or the other. All my hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's it. That's it. If they had just said that, if
they had said, Lord, you're the only hope we got, they didn't,
Lord, we preached, we did this, we did that. Oh, this house fell not, it fell
not because it's founded upon the rock Christ Jesus. But now
listen, and everyone that heareth these things of mine and doeth
them not shall be likened to a foolish man which built his
house upon the sand. This man heard the same messenger,
but not the message. Same doctrine, but not the person
of Christ. Now listen, and let me say this,
and hear what I'm saying. Don't think all these people
standing here are Arminianism and Catholicism and all these
other isms. There's some standing here who
sat under the gospel. And they made a profession. And
that's all it was. And Christ was never more than
that. Never more than that. We are not saved by any ism.
Whether it's Armenianism, Catholicism, or Calvinism, we're not saved
by that. We're saved by Jesus Christ alone. He, this man who built his house
on the sand, he heard the gospel, he heard the same message. He
built his house on shifting sand. His faith was not real. He trusted
in his own righteousness instead of the righteousness of Christ.
And many of these that he's speaking of, and I'd say the vast majority
of them, are the false converts of the false preachers on the
broad way that was spoken of earlier. Most of them are. He'd ever trusted the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ was not his life. And when the day of testing came,
when the day of death came, this guy, he held to his profession
all the way to the end, till the day of death. He spent his
life in falsehood. But now listen, the rain descended,
the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house and
it fell and great was the fall of it. Great was the fall of
it because it was total ruin. It washed away. The fall was
great because he lost his soul. He lost his soul. Great because he was given light
but he refused to walk in it. And it's great because he took
many with him. He took many with him. And listen, many were astonished
at his teachings. You know, he gave the greatest
warning at the end of his message. And it came to pass, when Jesus
had ended these sayings, that people were astonished at his
doctrine. Many, they were astonished at his teaching. Never heard
such a message. You don't hear this message. Very seldom. Very seldom, really. Very seldom. Truth is astonishing when you
hear it. When you hear it, it's astonishing. He spoke to him
with authority because he's the one who has all authority. He's
the one who has the authority to give it. He's the king. And
where the word of the King is, there's power. And this is why
Peter said, make your calling and election sure. Give diligence
to do this. Make your calling sure. Have
you been called by grace? Has God called you? You know whether you've been
called or not. If I called you, you'd answer me, wouldn't you? If I
called your name, you'd know. You know if God's called you.
You know. It is serious. Our souls are at stake. Let us
always, always seek to know the Lord. Never assume anything. The Lord didn't give this, and
I'm not preaching this this morning to cast doubt. I'll tell you
why. If your faith can be shaken,
it needs to be. If it can be shaken, it needs to be. You take
that old oak tree. That oak tree has withstood many
storms, and it has been shaken in the wind. And you know what?
Every time it does, it loosens the dirt up a little bit, and
those roots go deeper. Those roots go deeper. Every
time your faith is shaken, I guarantee you, if it's true faith, it'll
go deeper, deeper into Christ. And one day the wind of death
will blow, and you'll find out that you're able to stand and
not fall. Our Lord doesn't give this to
cause us to doubt, but to warn us. Warn us. Don't assume anything
when it comes to your soul and salvation. Don't assume anything.