Turn back to Matthew chapter
7. Matthew chapter 7. We will finish
looking at this Sermon on the Mount. The longest recorded sermon
our Lord preached. I'm sure He preached to others,
but this is the longest one recorded. This Sermon on the Mount. And He had given us warnings
in the latter part of his message here. And we're going to close
out with the last two warnings. Now, the title of the message
is, Not Everyone Is Saved. That claims to be saved. That's
the warning. That's what he gives us here
in the message. What is a message worth if we never give warnings? You know, we give the promises
of God, but we also have the warnings of God that we give. And we're gonna see here that
not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, who claims to know him,
know him. And that's what he's telling
us. And he ought to know. He's the God of heaven and earth.
He's the one who would know. We also see that everyone will
answer to him, for he's the judge of all. Now he says in verse
21, 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. Our Lord had been speaking of
wolves in sheep's clothing just before this, back over in verse
15. And now he's gonna speak of false
converts in sheep's clothing. They're converts. What he's gonna
speak of is, we live in a day of easy believism. Except Jesus
as your personal savior, everything's all right, and repeat a prayer
after me, everything's all right. I tell you what, our Lord does
not present This matter of salvation is such an easy way, does it?
Listen to this, I looked at this last week, we looked at this
last week. Verse 13, enter ye in, it's a straight gate, for
wide's the gate, broad's the way that leads to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat, because straight's the
gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there
be that find it. Few there be that find it. My
first thought when I read this, Lord, not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. I thought
of what our Lord said to his disciples one time. He said,
one of you will betray me. And one by one, they said, Lord,
is it I? Lord, is it I? And when I read
this, I said, Lord, I pray that this not be I. I
pray that I be not one of those that says, Lord, Lord, but not
know him. All I'm doing is making a confession
with my lips, but my heart, my heart be far from him. Because
he said that about some. He said, you honor me with your
lips, but your heart, your heart. You see, salvation is a heart
work. He said, you honor me with your
lips. You call me Lord, Lord, but your heart's far from me. Your heart's after something
else or someone else. The people he's speaking of here
are very orthodox. They are religious. They're religious. They call him Lord, Lord. They
have religious services. They go through the motions.
I don't want to go through the motions. I don't want you to
go through them. I don't want to go through them. When we say,
Lord, Lord, I want us to be genuine in the heart, be involved in
it and not lip service. They were religious, but they
were lost. Look over in Romans chapter 10. Over in Romans chapter 10. Brethren, in verse 1, Romans
10, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. There's never
been a people on this earth who believe that they are more saved
than the Israelites. And there's never been a people
more lost for the majority of them, majority of them more lost.
They said Lord, Lord all the time, but they never knew him
when he came, they rejected him. He said he came to his own and
his own received him not. The people he's speaking of here
are very religious, but they're very lost. They use His name,
they call Him Lord, but they do not know Him. Look over in
Luke chapter 6. Over in Luke chapter 6. In Luke
chapter 6, look in verse 46. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say? Why do you pretend that I'm your
Lord and you do not the things that I say? Those who do enter in are those
who not, they don't just call Him Lord, Lord, but they do the
Father's will. They do the Father's will. Now,
what is the Father's will? It's written in John 6, 40, and
this is the will of Him that sent me. I wanna know the Father's will.
You wanna know the Father's will? This is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him, The Father's will began with
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That which is not of faith, the
scripture says, is sin. It began with faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which believeth on him, everyone which
seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life,
and I'll raise him up at the last day. I'll raise him up. But it begins with faith, to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Now he says in verse 22, many
will say to men that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, preached in thy name, and in thy name have cast
out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? Many, he
said, many will say. Many will say. You know, where
God has one preacher, Satan has a thousand. Where God has one
true preacher of the gospel of his grace, Satan has a thousand. Preaching a perverted gospel.
And notice what he says, they say to him, Lord, Lord. They
call him Lord. I hear these TV preachers. There's
one particular that comes to mind. He's always saying, Jesus
is Lord. You know the devils call him
Lord too. They're calling him Lord too. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord. I tell you what, it's easy. It's
easy to say Lord, Lord. Everybody in this room can say
Lord, Lord. It's easy to say, but it's another thing to do
His will. It's another thing to do what I say. He said, it's
another thing to do what I say. And what we have here, what he's
speaking of here is works religion. Many was saying that day, Lord,
Lord, have we. You notice there in verse 22,
everything had to do with them. Just like the Bible lesson, let
us, build us a city, make us a tower. Everything here has
to do with them. We preached in thy name. They're
very orthodox. They used his name. We preached
in the name of Jesus Christ. We cast out devils in thy name.
They conducted religious services. We've done many mighty works
in thy name. They're very busy. They had all their programs. Yet they didn't know him. They
didn't know him. I thought of the church of Ephesus. That was a very busy church. But in their busyness, they left
their first love. They left their first love. Satan, and our Lord said to them,
he said, if you don't return, I'm gonna remove the candlestick.
I'm gonna remove the gospel, I'm gonna remove that pastor.
That's what I'm gonna do, if you don't return. But Satan is very subtle. Satan
will cast out his own to promote his agenda. He'll cast out his
own. Satan, if allowed, can work wonders. If God allows Satan, he can work
miracles and wonders that'll fool you. That's astounding now. He will. Miracles are not infallible
proofs of Christ's presence. You remember when Moses cast
that rod on the ground. You remember when he did that,
it became a serpent? Well, when those magicians, they
cast the earth on the ground, what happened? It became serpent too. God allowed Satan the power
to turn their staffs into serpents. Of course, you know the story
that the staff of Moses swallowed up them. But the point is, the
power that he's allowed to have can be astonishing. And he'll
cast out his own. If that's what it takes to promote
his agenda, he'll do it. The presence of Christ is evidenced
by the true preaching of the gospel. That's the evidence of
Christ's presence, is the gospel. The gospel of the glory of God,
the gospel of the sovereign grace of God in Christ. That's the
evidence of Christ's presence. And listen, they only mentioned
what they had done, not what he did. Not one of them said, when they started spouting off,
not one of them said, Lord, did you not die for me? They didn't
say it. Not one of them said, Lord, is
not your righteousness my righteousness? Did not your blood cleanse me
from, is it not the atonement for my sins? No, they said, Lord,
look at what we've done. And we did all this in your name. If they had, he would have never
said, depart from me. He would have said, enter in. Now, if He had been all their
hope and all their righteousness, He would have said, enter in,
not depart. He would have never said depart. Well, let me show you first.
Look over in Revelation chapter 5. Look here. Here's the language
of God's people, of the redeemed of God. Here's the language.
Look in verse 9. Revelation 5, verse 9. And they
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and
to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed
us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests,
and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast and
the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000
and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb. It's not worthy am I because
I preached in your name, I've cast out devil in your name,
done many mighty work, no. It's worthy is the lamb that
was slain to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, and honor,
and glory, and blessing, and every creature which is in heaven,
and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the
sea, and all that are in them, heard I say, blessing, and honor,
and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the lamb forever and ever. That's the language of
the redeemed. That's the language of God's
people. It's not, what have I done? Look what I've done. Why are
you telling me to part? Why can't I not enter in? Depends on whose merits you're
resting on. Yours or his. And then I'll profess
to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Christ will have the last word. And there's not going to be any
arguments. There's going to be no arguments. It's not going
to be back and forth here. He's standing there, the picture
I get here, he's standing there And they are presenting their
case and all he has to say is this, depart. Depart from me. I never knew you. No arguments. He's going to strip
them of all their falsehood and expose them for who they are
and just tell them depart. Depart. Now, what does our Lord
mean when he says, I never knew you? I never knew you. He knew their existence. No one
comes into this world or leaves this world apart from Him. Christ said, not even a sparrow
falls to the ground without your heavenly Father. He knew their
existence. He knew their lives. He knew
their thoughts. He knew their thoughts. But He
never knew them in covenant mercies. He never knew them by a new creation. He never knew them by an intimate
union. And they didn't know him either.
They didn't know him. How terrible. How terrible, he
says, depart from me. How terrible will be the day
of judgment. Spurgeon said in one place, judgment
will be a day of surprises. It'll be a day of surprises.
Look over in chapter 11 of Matthew. Look in verse 21. Matthew 11, 21. Woe unto thee,
Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth
and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for
Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. And thou,
Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought
down to hell. For if the mighty works which
have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have
remained until this day. But I say to you, it shall be
more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment
than for you, than for you. What a day of surprises. What a day of surprises. Those
outwardly moral or orthodox, very religious, He said the day of judgment's
gonna be worse for you than those homosexuals. That's what he said. The day of judgment's gonna be
worse for the self-righteous, those outwardly supposedly moral
people, than he said those homosexuals. What a day of surprises. Because
God judges a man and a woman by the heart. What we are in
our heart is who we are before God. Because he said to hate
your brother without a cause is murder. To look on a woman
to lust after her is adultery. And that's how God's gonna judge.
He's gonna judge in truth, not by appearance. He told those
Pharisees, he said, elderly, you're like white and sepulchers.
You're decorated, you're beautiful, you look good. But on the inside,
you're full of dead men's bones. And that's what God sees is what's
on the inside. He sees the hatred, the prejudice.
He sees the lying, the hypocrisy. That's what God sees. You know
what that makes me wanna run to Christ? I wanna run to Christ
because in Christ, you know what God sees? Righteousness, love. God sees everyone in Christ just
as he is, righteous and holy. Then he gives us two examples
here, a wise man and a foolish man. Verse 24, therefore, therefore,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, whoever hears the gospel,
these sayings of mine, what are the sayings of Christ? This whole
book, this whole book. Now, some of you, like the one I've
got in front of me, It has the words, they say, the reason they
did this, they say these are the words of Christ written in
red. This is the word of Christ from
Genesis to Revelation. That's the word of Christ. It's
the word of God. The word of God is the word of
Christ. Now these here, they hear these sayings of mine. That's
why he's saying, therefore, whosoever hear these sayings of mine, And
he does them. As James said, he's a doer of
the word, not just a hearer only. This person doesn't come and
just listen to the message and then go out and forget what he
heard. He or she forget what they heard. and go on about living. No, this one goes out and takes
what they heard, they meditate on it, they pray about it, and
they learn from it, and they follow on to know the Lord. It's
exactly what happens. Therefore, whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, teachings, and doeth them, I likened him
to a wise man which built his house upon a rock. He's giving
us an example here of two hearers. The first hearer is like a wise
man. Spoke a little bit about that
in the Bible class, the difference between wisdom and intelligence. He's a wise man. This man is
a saved man. He's saved by the grace of God.
He's one who has heard the gospel, believed the gospel, He eats
and lives the gospel. And the gospel is Christ. The
gospel is a person. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he's one who's been made wise by the grace and work of the
Spirit of God. He heard the gospel, he's believed
it, and he's followed on to know the Lord. He's grown in grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The foundation on which
he builds is Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's the foundation
on which his life is built. He built his house upon a rock,
a solid rock, an immovable rock. He's built his house upon the
tried stone, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's built his house upon him.
His confession was real. His faith is real. His repentance
is real. I often pray Lord, I pray that
the faith I have, the repentance I have is genuine, that you've
given it to me, that you have worked it into me. He has built his house, he says,
upon the rock. And then the trials, the trials
of life come. He says, and the rain descended.
Did you hear the thundering and lightning this morning and that
rain? It just coming down hard, wasn't it? You know, that can
represent, it does here, it represents the trials that come our way.
And sometimes trials come like rain. One after another, just
like it's not gonna stop. It's like it's not gonna stop.
The rain descended, it came down, the floods came, it came up. You know, trials come from all
different situations, and all different, they're coming from
areas you don't even, you don't even see it coming. There are
things in my life and our life I did not see coming. I did not
see it. He says here, and the floods
came and the winds blew. This is a mystery of trials.
The mystery of trials. Just like Job, one day everything
was fine, the next day he buries 10 children and loses everything. The winds blew the mystery. The
mystery of trials came and beat upon that house. And that's what
trials are like. They beat up on you. Trials will
beat up on you. It wouldn't be a trial if it
didn't. If it doesn't hurt, it's not a trial. A trial hurts. It's meant to teach. And it fell not. That house didn't,
when the wind had blown through, when the hurricane had blown
through, and the storm, and the lightning, and the clouds, when
the clouds were moved, there stood that house. It's still
standing. It's still standing. Not moved
off its foundation. It beat upon that house, and
it fell not, for it was founded, it was built. built upon a rock,
it has a sure foundation. Trials, sin of God, the flood
came, earthly trials, daily trials came upon him, the wind blew,
mysterious trials. I read this from someone, one
of the writers, I don't remember who it was, he was talking about
these mysterious trials that come upon us, depression, anxiety,
unfounded fears. Why do I feel like this? Why
do I feel like this? I can't explain it. These all came upon him. These all came upon this house
and it fell not. It fell not. No matter how difficult
it was, it fell not. A house that never fails. It
fell not. The foundation was stronger.
Now listen to this. The foundation was stronger than
any trial that came upon it. It was stronger. You know, the
Lord promised us that we would suffer no trial that He was not
able to bring us through, that we were not able to bear. There are some trials you think
of, you say, I can't bear that. By ourselves, we can't bear anything.
In Christ, we can bear all things. He can enable us to bear all
things. The reason this house did not fall is because the foundation
was laid by God. It was laid by God and it was
laid in God. God's the foundation of it. He's
the foundation. But, in verse 26, everyone that
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
likened to a foolish man who has built his house upon the
sand. This man heard the same, listen,
this man heard the same messenger, but he didn't hear the message. He heard the same messenger,
but not the message. It didn't penetrate. It didn't
penetrate. He heard the same doctrine. Because
our Lord said, everyone that hears these sayings of mine,
he hears the same messenger, but he didn't hear the message.
He heard the same doctrine, but he didn't hear the person. As
I said in my prayer, and I mean this, Lord, enable me, enable
us to hear your voice in the message today. Your voice. He built His house on shifting
sand. His faith was not real. He trusted
in His own righteousness instead of Christ. His repentance was not real.
It was not a sorrow caused by looking unto Him whom I have
pierced. No, it's just a sorrow. Well,
I shouldn't have done that, or I shouldn't have done this. Well,
you know what? You shouldn't have, but true repentance has
to do with God. It has to do with my relationship
to God. And therefore, his house fell
in the time of testing. Now I want you to notice something
here. And everyone that hears these
things of mine and does them not, is like unto a man who built
his house upon the sand. The rain descended, The floods
came and the winds blew, beat upon that house and it fell and
great was the fall of it. Did you notice something? The
same trials that came upon that believer came upon also that
unbeliever, that false, that one who made a false profession.
Same trials, same rain came down, same wind blew, same floods.
The believer's house stood because it was built on a rock. that
one whose house is built on the sand, when the same trials come
his way, he was offended, and it failed. And in the day of
judgment, when he stands before God, it fails. He says, depart
from me. I never knew you, you didn't
know me, you didn't believe. You didn't believe at all. And
great was the fall of it, total ruin. Total ruin. It's not like an insurance company
comes out and replaces the shingles. No, this house was totally gone. He built it up on the sand. You
know, we went down to the beach here, I don't know, two or three
weeks ago with the grandkids, and I was standing out there.
They got me to get into the water. And so I finally went out there
and got in the water with them, and we got into the waves, and I
got to a point, and I could feel the sand going out from under
my feet. Those waves come in, and then I could feel the sand
just pouring out from under my feet. And if I'd have been a house
standing there, sooner or later I'd have failed. I would have
failed. Been total ruin. Great was the fall of it. The
fall was great because he lost his soul. What will a man give
in exchange for his soul? What's your soul worth? You can't put a price on it,
can you? You can't put a price on it. I'll sell you my soul
for a million dollars. Really. You can't put a price on it.
And it was great because he was given the same life. Oh my, given
the same light and refused to walk in it. And then it was great because
he took many with him. Our Lord said over Matthew 23,
you compass sea and land to make one proselyte. And when you've
made that proselyte, you've made that proselyte twofold a child
of hell. And many were astonished. In
verse 28, and it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings. He that heareth these sayings,
and mindeth and does them, love your enemies. He said that, didn't
he? Pray for those who despitefully use you. He said that. You know, salvation is more than
just believing a set of doctrines. It's believing and loving a person
and following that person. And that person is God in Christ. It came to pass with Jesus in
the same, the people were astonished at his doctrine. They were astonished
at his teachings. Truth is astonishing to us when
we first hear it. I mean, it's astonishing. But I like how it ends here in
verse 29. For he taught them as one having
authority. Have you ever heard someone preach?
I have, and I know you have too. You've heard men preach with
authority. There have been times I've heard
preaching that just absolutely stunned me. I mean, it was authority. You know God spoke. You know
God spoke. And then as I've heard preaching,
it sounded like a scribe standing up here just reading an outline. And that's what those scribes
would do. They'd just say, well, we're gonna read out of Isaiah today,
and they'd just stand there and read. And then whatever interpretation
they did give of it, they messed it up. But they didn't speak
with any authority. But our Lord spoke with authority
because the words he spoke were his. And it's his truth. And I tell you, I believe, I
believe this is how you can tell a difference between a man of
God and a man that's not of God, is the authority which he speaks
with. If he's speaking like a scribe, I don't want to sit around and
listen to him. But he'll be a man that speaks with authority because
God's, God's his authority. God's given him his message.
And God will always back up his message and his messenger if
it's the truth. Okay, Billy.