Welcome. I hope you can hear
me OK. It's good to see you, Paul. Don't be reluctant to tell me
your name when you come up and greet us. I'll feel more comfortable
so I don't call you by your wrong name. You can turn in your Bibles,
if you would please, to Matthew chapter seven. There is, as I was thinking about
coming here, I was delighted that Pastor Jesse invited me
and my wife to come out. And as I was thinking about.
The past of my life, and I can say this with sincerity. There
is no greater privilege. That the Lord has given me then
to allow me to to speak and preach the gospel here in this church.
Truly, that is, that is, I have to say, that's my greatest pleasure
and delight. And I think in large part is
because you all have been so loving and so kind over the years.
I know Pastor Jesse has put up with a lot from me. And so thank you for your gracious
This and your kindness over the years. I want to look at a few
verses here in Matthew, chapter seven with you. I really don't
have a lot of variety in what I preach. We were at the conference
and rescue. One of the pastors said he struggled
because he didn't know what to preach. He had so much to say.
I can. Envy that position. Because I
feel like I really don't have a lot of variety, so I'm only
going to preach what I know. And and that is the Lord Jesus
Christ and him crucified. And God, give us grace to hear
that. God, give me grace to preach it. Look here in Matthew chapter
seven. I don't know about you, but when
I read through the sermon that Jesus gave in Matthew five, six
and seven, I'm intimidated. I'm intimidated because I want
to be a disciple of Christ. I want to be saved by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And yet I find in myself more
of an opposition to what I read here than an alignment. And I
read these words with trembling and I pray that God would bless
them to us because there really is a message here. There's a
message for two kinds of people. There's a message. For sinners. And then there's a message for
the self-righteous. God help you to be found as a
sinner before him to die. In verse 13 of Matthew seven,
it says, Enter ye in at the straight gate. When I was a kid, I always
wondered what does that mean? Straight. Is that S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T
or is it something else? It's something else. It means
a very narrow passageway or a difficult circumstance, like you would
say the Straits of Magellan or we're in dire straits. And here,
Christ, I think, means both. It's narrow and it's difficult.
In fact, he says, enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide
is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many there be which go in
there at this is the Lord of glory. In our nature, on the
earth, speaking to us as a man, but speaking to us as God in
his mercy. Telling us about the way things
really are with us and with him. It's very straight, is very narrow,
very difficult to enter in. He says here, enter in at the
straight gate because straight is the gate and narrow is the
way which leads to life. And few there be that find it. In Luke's version of this, they
came to him and they asked him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said, Strive to enter
in at the straight gate. Same thing, only a little different.
He said for those who are to be saved and here he's speaking
about the way to life. So we know that this gate is
the gateway to heaven, the gateway to life, the gateway of salvation. And he's saying here that the
gate is so narrow that it's difficult to even find it. Imagine traveling
thousands of miles along the coastline looking for a narrow
passage in the sea. And as you're looking and trying
to find it as you pass by the coastline, it's almost like it
becomes a blur. You can't distinguish differences
and contrast because you've been looking at it for so long. That's
how narrow it is. You can't see it unless God opens
our eyes. We're entirely dependent here
upon the mercy of God. But that's not the attitude that
those who heard the Lord Jesus speaking here, they thought it
was easy. And so he warns us about such,
he says, in verse 15, beware of false prophets which come
to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
What does sheep look like? They actually look pretty good
to men on the outside. And they're weak on the inside.
And so the false prophets can look good on the outside. How
many times have you met someone who you knew didn't believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, who seemed a lot better than you did? It
seems like that's all the time for me. See, people seem a lot better
than I know myself to be, and I wonder How? I can even claim a difference
sometimes, but here the false prophets are good at looking
good. But they're bad at something. They're false. They have something
called false doctrine, they don't have the truth, they don't have
the gospel. And so Jesus goes on, he says, you shall know them
by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree brings
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
And how often have you read that and you wondered, well, how then
can I have be a good tree since it seems like so much out of
me comes that comes out of me seems evil? But the Lord is talking here
about a kind of fruit. That false prophets exhibit,
it's exactly what Moses warned Israel of in Deuteronomy 13,
and he said. How you know a true prophet who
brings the word of the Lord from a false prophet? If you want
to look there, Deuteronomy chapter 13. And the first couple of verses
in the chapter. I take you to this because it's
important we see the context for our sermon tonight. Deuteronomy
13, he says in verse one, if there arise among you a prophet
or a dreamer of dreams and gives you a sign or a wonder. And the
sign or the wonder comes to pass. Whereof, he speak unto thee saying,
let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let
us serve them. Now, shall not hearken unto the
words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord
your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul. What was the difference
between a false prophet here in Deuteronomy 13 and the true? He was able to do great things,
even miracles. But the difference was that he
didn't speak the truth. He didn't have God's word. He
did. He spoke about idols. And so
here in Matthew, chapter seven, that's the comparison he's making
between the good and the evil. Primarily, it's about those who
who speak corrupt truth. There is no such thing as corrupt
truth. They speak falsehood. And he's going to ferret them
out now, he's going to bring them to light here, he says in
verse Nineteen, every tree that brings not forth good fruit is
hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits you
shall know them. Just like Moses told Israel of
old, you'll know them because the false prophets, they speak
about idols. And what are idols but the works
of men's hands? Remember Gideon? God told him to tear down the
grove and the idol to Baal. And he was afraid to do that,
but he did it anyway. And then the men who loved worshiping
Baal, they came to him and came to his father and they said,
who did this? And he says they found out it
was Gideon. They wanted to kill him. And
Gideon's father, he said, he said something so wise, he says.
If Baal is a god. Then let Baal plead for himself. And then he added this, he says,
will you save your God? You see, idols. Exhibit the exact opposite of
the true and living God, God saves his people, God pleads
for his people, but idols need men to plead and save them. And here we see this because
he says they're going to be cast into the fire, the false prophets.
Verse 21. And here's the text for the sermon
tonight. These next three verses, 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. Now, as soon as I read that verse,
a couple of things come to my mind. First, this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's telling us about what will
take place. He's prophesying about the future. And when he prophesies about
the future, he's really telling us history before history unfolds,
because whenever God speaks about what will be, there's no possibility
that it cannot be. It will happen. God calls those
things which be not as though they were. And so The Lord Jesus
Christ is God speaks to us about the future. And here these men,
they say to him, Lord, Lord, they're pleading with him. Now,
I I'm. I'm a softie, sometimes I think
when you're really angry and then someone starts pleading
with you and you really ought to go ahead and let them have
it. Then you get softened up and you think, well, OK, maybe
I maybe I was too hard and too quick to judge, but Notice here,
Christ is in the in the seat of the judge in this verse. And here are some men coming
to him and pleading with him. But it's too late. It's too late. And not only that, but they plead
the wrong thing because he tells them it doesn't matter how much
pleading you make and call me Lord, Lord or Lord. Lord, or whatever you say. You won't enter the kingdom of
heaven unless you do the will of my father, which is in heaven.
In fact, he goes on in verse 22, he says, this is the way
it's going to work out. Because when we read these words,
not everyone, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?
There's a large crowd. In fact, there's a few of them
that don't quite make it. But this next verse, verse 22,
read it. Many will say to me in that day. Do you see that? Many. Now, I
don't know how many people have ever been born into the world
since creation, but you can bet it's a large number. I happen
to try to estimate it because I'm curious about those kinds
of things. And I got a large number. I'm embarrassed to say
how large it was. So, I went to the Google and
they gave me a much smaller number. So, I figured, okay, I'll go
the conservative number. It's over a hundred billion.
That's some secular person talking. I think it's probably closer
to hundreds of billions. How many people have been born?
How many people are in the world today? Six, seven, ten billion? I don't know. But over the course
of all of the history of years and time, all of those people,
Every one of them, it says in Romans 14, that we are all going
to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And then it says
also in 2 Corinthians 5.10, that every one of us shall appear
and shall give an account of himself to God. Now, I don't
know about you, but nothing gives me greater pause and solemnity
than those words. To have to stand before the Lord
and to give an account. To give an account to the one
who sees everything, all of the motives, all of the thoughts,
every word, every idle word and every deed and to give an account. And so the title of tonight's
message is this. The short title is this, the
answer. The long title. is the only correct
answer to the ultimate question. The only correct answer. I used
to go to college, and when I was in college, I had a professor
who liked to give pop quizzes. And before he gave a quiz, he
would say, I have a gift for you. Now, he gave quizzes so
that we would know if we knew how to do the work. He knew the
work. He could do it himself. He didn't
need to know. But he wanted us to know if we were ready for
what? For the test. And most courses
in college have a final exam. And if you don't pass the final,
if it's a decent course, usually you don't pass the test. You
don't pass the course at all. It doesn't matter how much homework
you did or how many other tests you take. If you don't pass the
final, you just don't pass. Judgment day is the final. This is just a pretest. It's
just a gift for you. And I say that with care, because
here I stand and I claim to have the answer from God for you and
for me, because the answer I have for you is the same answer that
I am depending on. And it's the same answer, thankfully,
that the scriptures give to us. So the question is this. Here's
the question. What is the we're going to get to the answer, but
what's the question? How are you going to give an account
of yourself to God? How are you going to answer the
Lord of glory? What are you going to say? What
defense can you give? Or I could ask it this way, what
right do you have to say I am a Christian? I met a young man,
we were traveling from Southern California back home. Just a
few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, and everyone in the car
except me needed to stop. So we just pulled over at the
nearest McDonald's and they got out. I got out to stretch my
legs. And right there outside the car, there's this young man.
He walks up to me and he says, I used to be a heroin addict.
I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you like to donate to our
church? And at first I thought, wow, here's somebody. I really
had some sympathy for this young man. And so, I didn't know what
to do like I normally don't when people ask me for a donation.
So, I gave him something. It was insignificant. But then
I was, you know, I'm slow. So, I thought, you know, I need
to ask him a question. He needs to have a gift, a little
pop quiz. So I asked him, what do you believe
about the Lord Jesus Christ? What do you believe? And he told
me and the Lord Jesus tells us what these men here said to that
question. Because they're standing before
him in verse 21, and he says, not everyone that says to 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, and listen to their response. Listen to what they say. First,
first thing, notice this. What did they say to the Lord?
They called Jesus Christ the Lord. They said effectively,
Jesus is Lord. And they actually spoke to him
directly. And they said, you're the Lord.
You're the Lord. Lord, Lord, you're the Lord.
You know what they did? The Lord Jesus ultimately sent
them away. He sent them to depart. They
didn't have the right answer. And that makes me tremble. And
so he says not he says many will say to me in that day, have we
not prophesied in thy name? Now, I'll read the other two,
he says, and in thy name have cast out devils. And in thy name
done many wonderful works. And the word, therefore, wonderful
works means wonders, miracles, things that cannot be done apart
from the help, the miracle of God. Now, I don't know about
you, but. Whenever I think about how to
answer and when I ask this young man, for example, what do you
believe? And I want you to think about
this yourself before we get to the answer. Look at the look
at the question on the quiz. How will you stand before the
Lord of Glory? What account will you give? What
will you say in defense of yourself? How can you answer and what answer
will you give? Notice what they said. They actually
were very wise in their strategy. They said. They asked Jesus a
question. He's the judge after all. He
has to come to the conclusion. He's the one that's going to
make the decision. So they actually put the question
back on him. And notice what they say. Have
we not? They ask him a question. They
didn't say, you know what we've done. They didn't say that. But
they say, Lord, would you search the books of evidences as it
were? Would you look into what has
actually occurred? And find out, haven't we actually
prophesied in your name? And it wasn't just we prophesied,
we said something like Balaam. No, we actually did it in the
name of Jesus Christ. We called Him Lord and we taught
and preached in His name. And I think about that. And one
thing that teaches you right away, If you preach and teach
in the name of Jesus Christ, it doesn't mean. That you're
going to make it into life, it doesn't mean that you're safe,
it does not mean that you're going to enter heaven. And you
know what, if the teacher and the preacher who preaches something
false as the basis of entering heaven, if they don't enter,
then how are those who are their congregation? going to enter
in who believe what they say. I imagine Judgment Day something
like this, because I've had to go to court as a jurist and and
I've seen the way that the courts work from the outside. Imagine
these hundreds of billions of people waiting to go into court. They're all outside the room.
And each person, each individual at one point is going to be called
in to stand before the judge to give an account. And each
one of these people outside the courtroom, I can imagine it's
just like it was in school before the final. We're out there wringing
our hands. What do you do about this? How do you give an answer
for that kind of a problem? What is the solution? And and
and outside the courtroom, I can see it in my mind's eye. People
are sharing their their their answers. And I hear some of them
and groups begin to form. And here's the Christian group.
And I hear these preachers and these teachers and they say,
I haven't got a problem, I prophesied in the name of Jesus Christ.
What I did, I did in the name of Jesus. And I also cast out
devils. Now, that isn't helping people.
Don't tell me about helping people. And I did wonders in his name
and I can hear their congregations. Oh, I wish I was in that position,
man, if I could trade places with that man right now, if I
could have just traded places with him. And so as you're listening
to these questions, you even begin to ask yourself this question. How am I going to answer? Turn with me to Matthew chapter
12. Because I'll tell you what you're going to say right now. You might not believe it, but
you're going to do this. He says in Matthew chapter 12. He says in verse 34, oh, generation of vipers, a viper
is a snake. The seed of the serpent, that's
what the Pharisees were, they were the seed of the serpent,
right? Their father, the devil. And he says, oh, generation of
vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? You see what
the issue was? It's what they said about the
truth. How can you? Because you know
why? Here's why. Because out of the abundance
of your heart, the mouth speaketh. Do you know what you say? It's
whatever you believe. Do you know what you'll say on
the day of judgment? It's what's in your heart. And
your conscience will force your mouth to speak only what you
know, only what you depend upon, only what you're relying on.
You can't help it. What else are you going to speak?
What somebody said in a book of theory somewhere you never
could remember. It's too late. That's what they speak. That's
what I'll speak. That's what you will speak. So
you know what you're going to say already on the day of judgment.
It's what you believe, it's what you are convinced in your heart
is the account that you can give to God that he will accept. And
that's why this is a pop quiz, a pretest, because we all need
to face this question. What would you say? Notice what
these men say. The first thing they say is,
Lord, Lord. But the next thing they say. Is I, I. This is what I did. And but they
didn't say it quite like they weren't that brash. They were
a little more. They were a little smarter, more strategizing than
that. They were they were pretty slick.
They said they're pleading for their lives. They're not playing
around here. It's not a game. It's not it's
not a. It's not a philosophy class.
This is real. This is going to happen. This
is history. In the future. This is what the
Lord Jesus Christ says is going to take place. And it's not just
a few, it's many. What kind of people were these?
These people were professing Christians. How do you know that?
Because they called Jesus Lord. And because they said they did
all these things in His name. You don't spend your life doing
things in the name of Jesus without professing to be a Christian.
Right? Not only were they professing
Christians, but they were the ones who were up front. They
were the ones at the head of the class opening whatever they
opened and preaching and teaching it. These were men. That went to
hell. These are men that the Lord Jesus
Christ said to them, I never, never knew you. And notice what
he says in verse 23, depart from me. You that work iniquity. You work iniquity. What are you
talking about? These things you've done. You
are workers of iniquity. How can he say that? Well, it's
true. The Lord cannot corrupt judgment. He's going to say things just
like they are. You can't change the books. You
can't change the way things are. He's going to judge right. What
then can you say? Job asked it this way. How can
a man be just with God? In fact, turn to Job chapter
nine, look at this together with me, because a similar thing took
place in Job chapter nine. Remember, Job had some friends.
You remember what happened to Job? He was afflicted by the
Lord. He lost all of his cattle, he
lost his house. He lost his children. He lost
his wealth. He lost everything. And then
his free. And not only that, but he was
afflicted in his body. He couldn't rest. Constant affliction. And he had these three men who
were called his friends. One of them's name was Bildad
in chapter eight of Job. Chapter eight of Job. And notice
what Bildad says to Job. In verse two. How long will you
speak these things and how long shall the words of thy mouth
be as like the strong wind? Does God pervert judgment? Or
does the almighty pervert justice? How can you argue with that?
Then he goes on and he this is cruel. Verse four, if your children
have sinned against him and he's cast them away for their transgression,
Well, if you would seek God be times and make your supplication
to the Almighty, if you were pure and upright, surely now
he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousness
prosperous. In other words, if you were pure,
Job. Even though your children were
destroyed for their wickedness, if you were pure, you were supplicating
God. Look what he says in verse 20,
Bill goes on, he says, Behold, God will not cast away a perfect
man. Neither will he help the evildoers.
What can you say to that? If you're Job, well, you might
rise, rise up in self-righteous indignation and say no worse
than you. But that's not what Job said.
Look what he says in Job nine. Verse two, I know it is so of
a truth. God cannot pervert justice. He
can't pervert judgment. But how shall a man be just with
God? He's thinking about himself.
He knows his own heart. If he will contend with him,
if God will contend with a man, he can't answer him. One of a
thousand. All these sins, if God were to bring them before
me, I can't answer for one of them. And then he says. A little further
down. In Job chapter, I mean, same
chapter, he says. Versa. Verse 13, if God will
not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him. In
other words, if kings of the earth have got to bow to the
Lord Jesus Christ, if even the angels who kept not their first
estate fell. And they had to stoop under him
and confess him as Lord. How much less shall I answer
him and choose out my words to reason with him? How in the world
can I possibly answer the justice of God who sits on the throne?
In fact, he says in verse 15, whom though I were righteous,
yet would I not know? Would I not answer? If I were
righteous before men, if you could find no fault in me, Bill,
dad. I still couldn't stand before
God and give an answer. And look at verse 20. Remember,
Bildad said in chapter 8, verse 20, that God will not cast away
a perfect man. Here, Job says, if I justify
myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. Why? Because his
heart would rise up, his conscience would rise up and condemn him.
And if I say I'm perfect, like you said, I need this be, it
shall also prove me perverse. You see what he's saying? He's
not saying What those in Matthew chapter 7 said, is he? He's saying, I cannot answer
the judge of all the earth when it comes to my own righteousness. I cannot answer. I can't take
what I have done in my life, even the things that I've done
by the help of God. I cannot bring them to God. I
cannot do it. Not one of them. Why not? We just sang it. Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God Almighty. We cannot answer God. And you know why else? Because
God Himself tells us already our condition and our state.
He says there's none righteous, not even one. There's none that
doeth good. These men claimed to be doing
good, didn't they? No, it wasn't good. He said you're workers
of iniquity. The law was given. To silence sinners, Romans 3,
19. Now, we know that what things
soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law
that every mouth may be stopped. And all the world become guilty
before God. That's why the law was given.
And why did Jesus say these men were workers of iniquity? Because
they took the law and they used it for an unlawful purpose. They tried to establish their
own righteousness. They tried to obtain salvation
by something they could do, even though what they did was supposedly
with the help and grace of God. The Catholic Church confesses
the way that we are justified before God is by doing good works
with grace. That is not true. That is not
true. It says by the deeds of the law,
whether you do them and you say you're doing them apart from
the grace of God or whether you say you're doing them with the
grace of God, by doing anything God requires you yourself, you
cannot be righteous before God. It doesn't matter how good it
is. Can you talk what these men did? Have you spent your life
prophesying and teaching in the name of Jesus Christ? Have you
cast devils out or work wonders and many, many wonders or even
one? Do you recognize that Job had
more wisdom than you had and that you cannot stand before
God in yourself? And do you accept the condemnation
of God's testimony himself against us, that there's an unrighteous,
not one? Is there no hope then? Can a
sinner do nothing to help himself? Actually, the answer is no, he
cannot do anything. A sinner is a sinner. Salvation
is a rescue mission. It's not a self-help. Salvation
is not an influencing kind of a situation where God influences
people to be good. And through a lot of influence,
they get better and better and finally become acceptable. God
is a salvation is not an offer where God has done something
for you and now you need to attach yourself to it by something that
you bring, like faith or a decision or sincerity or an experience
or any of those things. Salvation is not a mutual contract
between God and man. Salvation is the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ for His people, according to the eternal counsel
of God, to bring glory to God, so that you get no glory. If you're saved, you're saved
entirely by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what true
salvage. And these men took the law. They
took whatever law they thought they had, which was in there.
It was the Christian code or something. These things they
needed to do. And they tried to fulfill it. They tried to
dedicate their lives to to establish the lordship of Christ in their
life or whatever it was that seemed good to Christians and
use that as the basis for their defense before Christ. And it
failed. It absolutely failed. Isn't it
merciful that the Lord Jesus Christ pulls out the quiz that
the guys in the year before us took and failed? Sometimes they
would do that. A professor would post their
results from previous finals and you'd go there and hungrily
look at those answers and questions and try to figure it all out.
I think I hope he asked this question this year. The same
question is going to be asked of each one of us. How do you
stand? How can you give a defense? How
can you answer and give an account of yourself to the Lord Jesus
Christ? Now, if I had a friend who wanted
to climb. Half Dome in Yosemite, and they came to me and they
asked me for advice and said, I'm going to climb Half Dome,
and of course, I hate heights, I don't want to I don't even
like to I remember standing on the top of a dam one time and
looking over the edge and just pulling back. I just didn't like
that at all. And anytime my kids get close
to anything like that, I'm backing up as I'm trying to pull them.
It's just not something I like. But if someone, one of my friends,
dear to me, asked me, what kind of rope would you use if you
were to climb Half Dome? You know what I would do? I would
make a diligent search to make sure that I didn't suggest buying
the wrong kind of rope. Now, if I'm giving you the answer.
To eternal that that your soul depends upon to keep from falling
into eternal perdition, you can bet. That it's going to be the
same rope that I would buy for myself. And it's going to be
the same rope before when I stand before God and I see you there,
too. And I hear. If I were giving
the false teacher and false preacher hope, their answer didn't work.
And they heard the cries of those who believe their answer and
took their answer to the bank. And it didn't work. They went
into the courtroom. They saw them go in. They didn't
know what happened. Their answer. I don't know. Did
his answer work? I don't know what happened. We'll
find out when we get there. That didn't work. And they heard
the cries of them thinking, oh, that pastor, that teacher, whoever
it was that told me this, they were wrong. But you know what,
if you stand before the Lord and you can't give an account
because you don't know the answer, it's not going to be someone
else's fault. It's going to be all your fault. God's going to
hold you accountable, Jesus said. Sin doesn't come from the outside
and kind of ooze through you and make you sin. No, sin comes
from the heart, out of the heart of man become evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, wickedness and all these things, blasphemies.
It comes from your own heart. And what keeps you from going
through the narrow gate, the gate that's difficult to come
to? Is not just your sin, it's mostly it's mostly what kept
these men going through. It was mostly their righteousness. It says in Romans, chapter nine,
and you can turn there if you like in Romans, chapter nine,
in verse thirty one, I think it is, it says, but Israel, which
followed after the law of righteousness. Have not attained to the law
of righteousness, why? Because they sought it not by
faith. But as it were, by the works
of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. And
who is that? The Lord Jesus Christ. What answer can I give? What
can what answer can you give? What is the only answer that
God will accept? In fact, I believe this is the
answer to every question that's important. You know, sometimes I would have
a teacher who would give us 30 or 40 or 50 questions on a test,
and you go, man, how in the world are they expecting me to finish
this test? But I felt like I had a shot at it at least, you know.
If I get through, I don't know, 80% of them, I'm probably doing
okay. But here we got a test with only one question on it,
and if you missed this one, you flunked it. It just seems so
hard, but here's the good news. The answer is just one answer
that works here. There's only one answer. And this answer is found in one
of my favorite verses, this is why it's my favorite. I hope
they put this on my tombstone. Romans, chapter eight. And verse thirty four, this is
the answer. To every important question. What is your present confidence
before God to come to him? Is it anything but this? Look
at Romans 8, 34. Who is he that condemneth? And here's the answer. I told you we'd get to it. Aren't
you glad that God put this answer in the Bible? It took me a long
time to find it. It took me all my life. Well,
it seems like I find it every day. You ever found that to be
the case? You get up in the morning and
you think, man, I thought I was a Christian when I went to bed,
but this morning it doesn't feel like it. And any little perturbation in
your life, it just seems like it amplifies all that. But here
he says, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. It's Christ that died. Can you
imagine your tombstone here? Oh, it's Christ that died. I wonder who lies here. It doesn't
matter. It's Christ that died. That's
what matters. What is your present confidence
to come to God? The Lord Jesus Christ is able
to save them who come to God by him. How much? How much can
he save them? Barely, with your help, with
something that comes from you eventually? No. Salvation is
not a barely salvation. He says we're more than conquerors
through him that loved us, more than conquerors, not just little
conquerors. In Christ, we've triumphed over
sin and death and the devil and the flesh and the world and everything
that we think is The consequence of our sin, we deserve that what
God is. Yeah. And God in his grace has
seen that as your enemy. And in Christ, he's conquered
it. And so he says here. Our present
confidence, it's Christ that died. How do you know that salvation
cannot be gotten by anything from you? How do you know that
salvation is not because of some influencing process where God
can work through you and eventually make you like what you need to
be, whatever that is, and able to do what you're able to do.
Why didn't God save you that way? Because it required something
far greater. It's Christ that died. If God
could have saved you by influence, why did he kill his son? Why
did he lay iniquity on his son? I know that this is an easy answer
to remember. I hope I can remember it. But you know what? I like the
answer the thief on the cross gave. I don't trust my memory
through this process called death. Lord, would you remember me? You know why? Because not only
did the Lord Jesus Christ give an answer at the cross, not only
does He give that answer now in my conscience, But he has
to also be my answer at judgment day. And when we stand before
the judge of all the earth. You know what you can say, Lord? If you don't answer for me, I
don't have an answer. And if your answer is not the
perfect righteousness that you establish, that eternal, everlasting
righteousness that merits eternal life from God, and if your answer
What you gave with your own blood is not sufficient to cleanse
me from all my sin. And if your everlasting love
is not good enough to hold me in the bonds of that love, even
through death, as it says in Song of Solomon 8.6, I don't
have a hope. I can't do it. I am unrighteous. I am vile before you. If I said
I was perfect, my own mouth would prove me perverse. But this answer
gives the answer to so many questions. How do we know the love of God
to his people? It's Christ that died. How holy
is God? It's Christ that died. How bad
is your sin? It's Christ that died. Was the sacrifice Jesus made
of himself on the cross enough or is something more needed?
It's Christ that died. How do I know that what Jesus
did is enough for me? How do I know that what Jesus
did is mine? How do I know that Jesus died
for me? If because Christ died. All you have before God is answered,
then what he did is enough. If everything that matters to
God is what Jesus did on the cross, then if everything that
matters to you in the security and the keeping and the saving
of your soul, your entrance into glory and life itself is what
Jesus did on the cross and his answer that he gives for his
people. If that's enough. Then Christ died for you. Because you can only come to
that conviction in your conscience If the spirit of God causes you
to see the Lord Jesus Christ cursed for you, you cannot produce
it. You're helpless in this thing.
But wonderfully, through the preaching of God's word here,
these men are in Matthew seven. They failed the test because
they tried to bring they tried to obtain salvation by something
they did, even if it was done in the right name and with the
right power. They came depending on what they
did. They never came as sinners, helpless
and hopeless, except for the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
They never came the way, the only way that God saves sinners.
The gate is narrow. It's great. It's so tough and
hard to get through. The only way you can get through
it is if Christ died for you and He sends His Spirit to teach
you That it's Christ that died answers God for you. Amen.