If you would be turning in your
Bibles again to Matthew chapter 7, we're continuing the series
on the Sermon on the Mount. And while you're turning there,
as a way of introduction, let me just pose some questions here
to you, give you some thoughts. Have you ever attended or observed
an awards banquet or ceremony, whether it's sports related or
an athletic, sports, athletic or academic type ceremony, and
gone there and Prior to the event, someone fully expected to win
the award, or you and everyone else did, and only to find that
they didn't get the prize that they had worked so hard for.
And so they were shocked. And so there's great disappointment. You know, I think of those Olympic
athletes that train for the games that occur only once every four
years. You know, most Olympic athletes,
they only attend one set of games because Four years prior, they
weren't at the peak age of performance. And four years later, they aren't.
And so they sacrifice for years and years. And going into the
games, you'll have a favored athlete in different sports that
will be predicted to take the gold. And inevitably, during
the Olympics, there'll be a great disappointment where someone
who fully expected to win the gold medal is deprived of that. They found that all that they
had painstakingly worked for turned up not to be good enough.
They didn't quite gain the prize. And it seems that the more we
know someone sacrificed and worked, the greater that disappointment.
And that's sad. And we have empathy towards those
people. I do. And yet, we're thankful
that there's always tomorrow, at least as long as we're here
on this earth. We know we learn from our failures and our setbacks,
and they often lead to successes. And then those around those who
experience such disappointments, you know, they're often comforted
by family members and friends with cliches like, this too shall
pass. And in particular, there is always
tomorrow. But what if there were no second
chances? What if there was no tomorrow? What if the thing that
we had worked so hard for and expected to obtain but fell short
of had ramifications that lasted forever? And what if those disappointing
outcomes, those bad consequences, were such that they would never
go away, they were irreversible, and I'm speaking, as you might
have guessed, of eternity, and of the possibility of one being
totally shocked To discover that they were on the road that Christ
had turned back in verse 13 of Matthew 7, that broad road that
leads to destruction, all the while assuming that they were
heaven bound. Imagine that, having full confidence
now that you're going to heaven, only to discover too late that
in fact, your destination was hell. That is eternal banishment. from the presence and the preserving
grace and goodness of God. Now, that's more than sad. What
could be worse? And it should be a sobering thought.
So with all of our cares and worries and everything, let's
set all that aside this morning and take nothing for granted
as we see what God has to say on this very subject, because
in our passage this morning, this is precisely The solemn
picture that's being presented by our Lord as he asserts, not
just a few, he says, but many will die and face the judgment,
fully expecting to enter heaven's glory, only to discover how tragically
mistaken they are. So follow with me in your Bible.
Look at our text for today, which is Matthew 7, verses 21 through
23. There, Christ continues his sermon saying,
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works, and Christ says, And then while I profess unto them, I
never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity." Now, seeing that this is many here that's being described,
many will say to me in that day that they're going to receive
this dreadful sentence from the just judge of all. Then it's
incumbent upon us, see, to accurately grasp what Christ says here concerning
those who will enter the kingdom of heaven. He, he says, it's
he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven. And
accordingly, I titled this morning's message doing the will of the
father. You may recall from last week
that I made a connection with this, the text for today, with
those verses immediately preceding this, where Christ warns us to
beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing.
And then here in today's text, he describes these who say they
prophesied in his name. But in other words, they were
prophets of old. And as we saw, those can be likened
and applied in our day to preachers and teachers. And his words here
reveal that these of whom he speaks, those who say, have we
not prophesied in my name, they will be exposed at the judgment
to be false preachers as he declares, I never knew you. And I say this
just again to point out that these false prophets that he
had told us in the previous verses, the ones of whom we are to beware,
that they were sincerely deceived themselves. And we learn that
from today's passage at the shock of these who are facing Christ
at the judgment. They thought they were on the
narrow way that leads to heaven, to use Christ's description there
in verse 14. So while some deceivers, granted,
may be intentional con artists, I'll remind you again, that's
not the description being applied here. As I said previously, these
men, they were sincere. They were just sincerely wrong.
So let's look at our scripture text in more detail. And what
I want to do is begin by examining the description God gives of
those who shall not enter heaven. That is beginning in verse 22.
And then we'll come back to verse 21. To borrow borrow from what
we heard at the 10 o'clock hour We'll start with the bitter and
we'll come back to the sweet as we began realize and recognize
That unlike us here. We have a picture of Christ as
all-knowing deity That means he is not subject to being deceived
like we are He is depicted here in his future role as the one
who shall officiate see as the judge of all the earth and And
notice he begins verse 22 with, many will say to me in that day. And that's speaking of the day
of final judgment, when each person standing before God shall
be openly declared before men and angels. And it's going to
be a joyful day for some, but for the many, such as described
here, it will be a terrible day. And notice that their plea at
this judgment begins in verse 22 with the words, Lord, Lord. Now he had said there, see in
verse 21, that not everyone that calls him Lord shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And that would seem to be in
conflict with the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12. In verse
3, he says this, that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord,
but by the Holy Ghost. So how do we square that? It
says here, not everyone that says Lord, though, shall enter
in. Well, to understand it, we have to understand the identity
of the Jesus that they call Lord. Is it the Jesus of the gospel?
The one identified in God's word, identified even here as he talks
of himself and the work he came to do in the Sermon on the Mount.
The one who came to fulfill, he said, the law and the prophets.
Or is it a counterfeit? You know, when I first sat under
the gospel here, a man stood up here and talked about another
Jesus. And what he was saying, he was
suggesting that that which I believed was that I was trusting in a
counterfeit, another Jesus. And I'll admit that initially,
you know, I kind of dismissed that. I said, well, wait a minute,
you may be true. I don't agree with, I haven't
believed up to now the doctrine you're talking about, but there's
only one Jesus, you know. You believe in the Jesus that
came some 2,000 years ago that was born of the Virgin Mary,
and I do too. You believe that he's the one
that changed the water and the wine, grew up in Nazareth, born
in Bethlehem, died at Calvary, crucified on a cross. And I read
the stories of all the miracles that he performed. The same book
you did. So why are you calling it another
Jesus? And I thought it was kind of absurd until I saw that, no,
it's not absurd, it's scriptural. As many of you know, in Paul's
warning of false teachers and false preachers, as we looked
at in the previous message in 2 Corinthians 11, there in verse
4, he uses those very words. Another Jesus. He warns that
they'll come preaching another Jesus. Another gospel, he says. So the Holy Spirit here, he says,
Paul said that we can't call him Lord except by the Holy Ghost.
But the Holy Spirit, see, testifies of one, of this Christ as he
is sent by the Father. That is, both God and man who
came to do the Father's will, to all those that the Father
gave him, to bring them to salvation, to justify them. In other words,
he was talking about the one who came to establish righteousness
for his people. And he did just that in his life
and death here on the earth. And in time, as a fruit of what
he did, those same people for whom Christ died, the Holy Spirit
comes and gives them spiritual life to cause them to look there,
to look to Christ alone and see that it is his work of righteousness
Not one they procure by their efforts but one that is made
theirs by imputation and that that is the sole basis of acceptance
before him. So anyone see who calls Jesus
Lord apart from God's revelation of this in their heart so that
they value it at the exclusion of anything else. Anyone who
calls Jesus Lord apart from this revelation of his person and
work They're not doing so, see, by the Holy Ghost. And such is
the case of these that are pictured here today in our text. They,
the many here, shall call another Jesus, Lord. And it's in His
name, in the name of another Jesus, that they perform the
very works which they proceed here to plead before Him. We're
going to see in a moment that their plea for consideration,
see, based upon their own works, exposes that it was another Jesus. In whose name they performed
those works. In John 10, 24 and 25 we read,
then came the Jews round about him, that was speaking of Jesus,
and they said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. It's as if they're saying, look,
okay, if you, if, if, You're suggesting here, I don't know
you. Well, then you tell me, just tell me, are you the Christ?
Are you the Messiah? And I'll believe it. I'll get
that checked off. And Jesus answered them. He says, I told you and
you believe not. Listen to this. He said, the
works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me. So we say you cannot separate
what Christ accomplished. That is his work from his person. his work identifies his person. So many, see, imagine that all
who call themselves Christian, they're trusting in Christ, the
same Christ. And look, they do refer to the
same historical person who lived here on this earth some 2,000
years ago. But Christ says it's his works
that bear witness of him. So if you misapprehend what he
came to do and did accomplish at Calvary, His works, I'm not
talking now just about his activities and his actions, his works, what
those actions accomplish. Then it is unbelief in this Jesus
whose works bear witness of him. Some here believe, you know,
he starts off there. They say, Lord, Lord, that he
repeated that word, Lord, to reflect this sudden sense of
danger and the desperation that comes over them. And I tend to
agree with that. They're met, see, with an agonizing disappointment,
anguish. So they speak here in amazement
as preachers and laborers, see, who fully expected that if any
were to be admitted into heaven, they would have to be included
in that number. They knew of the exercise of their God-given
gifts here, and I'll show you that more in a moment, of their
sincere religious zeal and efforts. You know, many in our day, they
will concede that what they consider to be nominal Christians, that
is, those who kind of just play at church or make a show of religiosity,
in other words, aren't really serious, they'll reasonably question
whether or not they'll be admitted into heaven. But that's not the
profile here. He's speaking of preachers of
the word, active ministers doing things in the name of Jesus,
at least as they knew Jesus to be. And there's not just one
or two of them, but he's describing most. He says, many will say
to me in that day. And so they're please follow
them. They begin like this. Have we not prophesied in my
name? And of course, as I said, we
see there the connection back to the to the prior verses where
it was talking about be wearing a false prophet, say, speaking
of prophesying. So this would include, though,
the prophets of old who were gifted now with the ability a
miraculous ability to foretell things. If you have time later,
look up the stories of Balaam and Caiaphas, and there you will
see that even wicked men were given this gift of foretelling
as it suited God's purpose. But as we saw in the previous
message, this also can be applied to, in our day, to preachers
and teachers, those who tell forth, who speak or teach others
in the capacity, see, of preachers and teachers, pointing men to
a way of salvation and associating themselves with the name of Christ. And secondly, note they cite,
and in thy name hath cast out devils. Now, as the scriptures
indicate, demon possession was very common in the times of Christ,
and the power to cast out Devils it was given not only to the
12 apostles, but to many others as well Now consider for a moment
that Judas even as one of the 12 he was given this same power
It was also given to the 70 disciples and the power was was give was
given to some who did not even follow Jesus made no pretense
of it In Mark 9, 38, John told Christ, he said, Master, we saw
one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us.
And we now see here by the account of Judas alone that this God-given
gift now was exercised by men who were ultimately exposed as
unbelievers. Think of the strong delusion.
God says he gives them strong delusion that they might believe
a lie. Consider the tragic irony that a man who was able to cast
out devils by God ultimately would be cast to the devil himself
and exposed as one of his servants. And then thirdly, and lastly,
they plea, and in thy name done many wonderful works. Now this
is referring to miracles, not just one or two here, he said,
but many wonderful works. So these apparently were granted
extraordinary gifts just as Judas again had received. They possibly
could speak in various languages or tongues, heal all manner of
diseases and illnesses. They were gifts from God. And
we know Judas had the gift of preaching and he was called to
the ministry. He was called to be an apostle,
think of that, by Christ himself. And yet he was ultimately exposed
as not being one of God's elect, but like these, a worker of iniquity. These men who are exercising
gifts given by God call workers of iniquity. Judas had the power
to cast out devils. He could perform miracles. He
could do wonders in Christ's name. And yet at last, he was
the one who betrayed Christ. And we see here that men, see,
even sincere, well-intentioned men, They're going to find that
all such pleas and arguments as are made here, even if they're
impressive as these. And this is quite an impressive
list they're bringing before the Lord at the judgment. At
least in the minds of men, they're impressive. Even such pleas by
these will be worthless as we see Christ's pronouncement upon
them in the day of judgment. So I want to share two observations. They're really they're really
obvious, but they're important that we We bring them to the
forefront here pertaining to these arguments. These are telling,
telling observations. First notice that these men at
the judgment here they are with their eternal destiny now flashing
before their eyes and they lay their entire hope of salvation
upon what they have done in Christ's name. Like the Pharisee who said,
I thank God that I'm not like other men. They were giving credit
to God if you consider the fact they were citing the use of gifts
that only God could have given them. These things they cite,
they were considered most excellent gifts and they were extraordinary
in nature. Now think of that. They were
pleading works that God actually had enabled them to do. And they
did all of this in his name, not their own, at least in the
name of him as they knew him to be. So, what's their problem? Well, secondly, notice what they
do not say. There was not one word here indicating
their reliance on what Christ had done and suffered. Only what
they had done. And all of their zeal and their
humility and their religious activity. See, they fail to plead
the only thing, the one thing that makes all the difference. Christ himself. The mercy and
grace of God revealed in Christ, based upon the righteousness,
his righteousness being imputed or reckoned to them as objects
of his mercy. And as we're going to see in
the passage that follows this one, their entire claim to salvation
and heaven's glory then was built on the wrong ground, a faulty
foundation. Now consider this. If these who
were granted miraculous gifts of the ministry, gifts that are
no longer present today, they were preachers. studying and
presumably laboring in his name. If their arguments are declared
useless by the judge of all, how silly, how arrogant, how
desperately wicked we all were, listen, when we dared to imagine
that any requirement or any condition that we could meet would pass
muster or make the difference. No, he requires righteousness.
That is perfection. perfect obedience, the extraction,
see, of an infinitely valuable payment where the least sin is
found. And apart from that, a holy God
cannot and will not accept the sinner. And that righteousness
we need, it only resides in Christ and made the sinners by God's
merciful accounting of it to him. And that alone, I want to
see, imagine that God enabled me to believe on Christ. enabled me to put my trust in
Him, at least in Christ as I knew Him to be at that time. But this
passage, see, proves something that I had never seen before
in it, and that is the futility of imagining that anything that
God in reality enabled a sinner to do, to contribute toward their
acceptance before Him. These folks, see, did not imagine
that God had enabled them. They really were enabled by God
to do the works they cite, because those were miraculous God-given
gifts. So they plea. So here's where
we see the sinfulness. Those very things that God had
enabled them to do. They plea those works in a position
of rivalry, in opposition to, in rejection of, see, all that
Christ came to do. He said, I came to fulfill the
law every jot until even the least of these commandments.
He didn't leave anything left to be done. So don't dare approach
the judgment, imagining that anything other than the merit
of what Christ accomplished could commend you to a holy God. To do so is rebellion to the
doctrine of Christ, of salvation that's conditioned on him and
on him alone. And so that, their false doctrine,
that is basing it on something other than or in addition to
his one righteousness, that is the fruit, as we learned from
an earlier passage, that is brought forth by the corrupt tree that
was mentioned just a few verses back, typifying the false prophets
and those who are aligned with false prophets, the ones we're
to be aware of. Well, in verse 23, Christ pronounces
his verdict. As he says, And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Now, Christ is omniscient, all-knowing
God. He knew who they were. So what
does he mean there when he says, I never knew you? In fact, we
see from this verse, he knew them to be workers of iniquity,
bringing forth evil fruit out of the evil treasure of their
own heart. not see a new heart that had been brought into subjection
to this Lord. Proverbs 1.6 reads, For the Lord
knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall
perish. And I think that's the sense
conveyed here when Christ says, I never knew you. He's saying
he never knew them for their way was not the way of the righteous. See, what terrifying words to
the unsuspecting. It's as if Christ is saying,
I haven't known you, see, with the affection that's reserved
for my sheep from everlasting. I haven't known you as one whom
God chose before the world began and gave to me and who I in time
came and died and called by name. I never I never knew you to seek
after me as do my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me and I give unto them eternal life. I never knew you
see to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, not this
kingdom whose reign is one of righteousness, not the righteousness. Christ says that I came to establish. Don't you start with my work?
He said, I never knew you to love me, not not that one who
came and did the things I've been talking about in this sermon,
fulfilling the law perfectly. Now, I have seen you all about
preaching and laboring in my name. But you trust in that which
you have done and that I have enabled you to do. My father
has. And then he's saying as a corrupt
tree, see, I never knew you to do one good thing. Think of that. That's what he's saying when
he calls them workers of iniquity, he's saying they were gifted
by God. To do those very things they
cite, he says, I never knew you to do one good thing, not with
an eye to see to my glory. I won't hear you, Christ is saying,
I won't see, I won't have anything to do with you. Depart from me. He's declaring so he will not
admit them into his presence and glory, but he's he's commanding
them to depart. It's an eternal death sentence.
And here is judge, he's pronouncing their banishment from his presence.
And you know, without God's restraining hand and goodness, as we heard
at the 10 o'clock hour, I couldn't begin to describe hell. But we
know that's a beginning point right there, the absence of God. It's the place the Bible says
is prepared for the devil and his angels. And why were they
pronounced this death sentence? Why was it put upon them? Because
they were workers of iniquity. They may not be adulterers, murderers. There's nothing here to indicate
that these pleading these things before the judgment were of that
sort. Drug addicts, not sexual perverts,
not thieves. Or look, they may not have been
any other outwardly profane sinner, but in that they preached or
believed salvation to be based upon something in addition to
Christ and him crucified, they're justly declared to be workers
of iniquity. Well, there's some sweet news
too. As Christ has already said, though there are fewer in number,
there will be some who enter in the straight gate and the
narrow way that leads to eternal life. And in verse 21, he tells
us there, these are those that what do with the will of my father,
which is in heaven. What is it to do the will of
the father, which is in heaven? Notice that the verse following
our text for today, verse 24, begins with a similar description
when it says, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine
and doeth them. And he goes on and says he likens
them to a wise man who built his house on the right foundation. And I want to develop that subject
a good bit more in my next message, so I'll only touch on it today.
But we're considering now, what is it to do the will of the Father
in the context? And so we need to consider the
verses before and after our passage for today. You see, I believe
that one's understanding and teaching on just what is meant
here to do the will of the Father is an excellent indicator as
to whether or not he remains deceived by the subtle deception
of the wolves in sheep's clothing that were spoken of back in verse
15. Doing the will of the Father, see, is cited by Christ as an
identifying characteristic of those who will enter heaven.
So your understanding, then, of what this means will mirror
your understanding of all that Christ has been teaching, his
sayings or his doctrine, the doctrine of Christ, of how acceptance
before God and entrance into heaven itself is gained. So your
understanding of what is meant here by do with the will of my
father in this context will reflect your doctrine. And you'll recall
that is what the fruit is that he was speaking of when he was
given the metaphor of the tree to help us distinguish between
the true and the false. When he was talking about beware
of wolves and sheep's clothing. And so that free that fruit that
doctrine exposes whether it's from a good tree that is want
true doctrine held by one to whom God has graciously revealed
his truth are a corruptory, false doctrine, trusting in something
else. And really most believe that
doing the will of the Father refers to the outward efforts
by sinners to obey God or to keep God's commandments. And
they believe that. We all naturally believe that.
In spite of all that Christ has said earlier in this sermon,
exposing the utter impossibility that we as sinners could measure
up to the standard of perfection required for acceptance before
this holy God. Holiness knows of no degrees.
He requires perfection, and it's a perfection that Christ alone
is able to accomplish and did accomplish. It's a work He makes
clear, see, is one He exclusively would perform. In the next message
when we get to verse 24 and look at what is meant by here's the
sayings of mine and do with them, I want to really talk some more
about the subtle forms which that insistence to look within
can take. I've done some reading on some
various commentators in preparation for this and it's mind boggling
how subtle it can be but it's no less wicked But for today,
we'll stick with the passage for today. Simply put, what is
it to do the will of the Father? It's to believe on the Son. Now, this belief is evidenced
by having adopted his doctrine, a doctrine that sees all of salvation's
condition on him with no contribution whatsoever from you, the sinner. That would exclude your believing,
see, as having any causal role. And it's to abide in that doctrine,
the doctrine of Christ. In the immediate context, he
just wanted us to be aware of the false prophets whom we could
identify by their fruit, their doctrine. And if you glance,
I'm going to point you down again to verse 28, as we looked at
before, where it says, and it came to pass when Jesus had ended
what these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine. So you see the tie-in there,
which suggests that all that Christ had taught, these sayings,
to declare how salvation was based, see, upon that one righteousness
he came to produce, how this constituted his doctrine, the
doctrine of Christ. Now in the context, look how
verse 24 begins. It begins with the word, therefore,
therefore, whosoever heareth what, excuse me, I'm getting
tongue-tied, heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them. So it's
clear he's continuing the thoughts that were expressed up in verse
21, suggesting that doing his sayings is equivalent to doing
the will of the Father. So in essence, he's saying that
these who do enter heaven, doeth doctrine. Now, how do you do
doctrine? Well, you believe it. You know,
we know that's the case because it doesn't merely hinge on the
logical deduction that I just gave from the immediate context. Let's consider the best commentary
of all on the scripture, and that's other scriptures. Be turning
to John chapter 6. While you're turning to John
6, I want to mention that last week Mark Pannell brought an
outstanding message from Romans 6. And I encourage you to listen
to that if you haven't already heard it. It was excellent. And
part of the passage he covered was verses 17 and 18. And as
you turn into John six, let me just read that to you. It says,
but God, do you think that you were the servants of sin, but
you have what obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine,
which was delivered you being then made free from sin. You
became the servants of righteousness. See scripture speaks of obeying
doctrine as an act of doing. by those who have been made what?
Servants of righteousness. That righteousness that is part
and parcel, it is the very doctrine. It's revealed in the doctrine
that they obey from the heart. Now over in John 6, let's read
some more of the scriptures commentary there on itself. Look at verse
28. It reads, then said they unto
him, what shall we do? that we might work the works
of God. Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. Not believe on just anyone, but
this one son of the Father for a specific purpose, to accomplish
salvation, see, for his people, to be the end or the fulfillment
of all that God required to be reconciled to his people. Now
stay with me in John 6 and look down at verse 39. There Christ
says, and this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son. He says
that's what happens when God gives faith. He gives eyes, the
eye of the understanding. In other words, as he had said
earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, God has graciously removed
that metaphorical beam from their eye that would block the eye
of their understanding, giving them light so that they might
see. Everyone which seeth the sun and believeth on him, not
him who made salvation simply possible, but the one who accomplished
it now, he says, everyone which seeth the sun and believeth on
him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the
last day. So we see here again the Father's
will, vitally connected with believing on Christ, trusting
Him, see, for all of salvation based on His works. Notice he
said there, he said in verse 39, that of all which He hath
given me, I should lose nothing. He's not saying that those then
who will do their part and believe that I won't lose them. No, he's talking about His work,
not works done by us, not even works He enables us to perform.
He's going to get all the glory. And then look in the next chapter,
John 7, verse 16. There we read, says Jesus answered
them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will,
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself. And so, again, you see that doing
His will is connected with knowing the doctrine. It is to trust
solely in the doing and dying of this precious Savior that's
sent by the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Well, back
in Matthew 7, it's clear that many shall be surprised at the
judgment if they approach God based on something other than
or in addition to that which Christ came to accomplish. that
which he did accomplish at Calvary. It was all his doing and dying. Nothing that proceeds from us,
the sinner. We do the Father's will, see,
when we rest there in Christ. And I use that word rest intentionally. That's what it is. It's not based
on our doing. It's resting in what he has done.
Based upon his work, see, having been reckoned to our account.
having repented of ever imagining that something done by us, even
something God enabled us to do as he had these that we read
of in Matthew 7, that that might accomplish. Look, this is the
evil of it. It's imagining that that might
accomplish that which took nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
You know, in this life, to wrap up here, we all enjoy varying
degrees of some measure of success. But we also have disappointing
surprises along the way. And we're glad, as long as we
live here, that there's always been a tomorrow. But again, I'll
point you to the fact that that's not the case in this final declarative
judgment of which Christ speaks. I don't want to be surprised
there, and I know you don't either. So take heed of God's way of
salvation. Reject the way that naturally
seems right to us as fallen sinners. Popular way that broad road that
leads to destruction and that we all begin our religious journey
on That we imagine Where we imagine that salvation's condition at
least in some way to some degree on something that proceeds from
us You know to stay that course on that road, which we all start
out on is to be found here in the company of these who hear
those most dreaded words of Christ if we stay there and to say,
I never knew you depart from me, from his company. Well, Hebrews
9, 27 and 28 reads, and it is appointed unto men once to die,
but after this, the judgment. It's over then. Okay. And that judgment would be nothing
but God declaring how things are. But the next verse is interesting.
Verse 27 starts, and as it is a point in the mental quote,
wants to die. Verse 28 says, so Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many. It's a finished, done
thing. That's where we're to look. And
unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation. The host sin, see which Christ
had no part in producing, but which were imputed to his account.
He put them away completely. The debt's paid. And when he
returns again, those sins won't be present. They're gone. They're
non-existent before God's judicial bar of justice. My past sins,
my present sins, my future sins. Those for whom he died, their
iniquities, they're not going to be charged to them. He's not
going to say to them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity,
because they were charged to their substitute. So we are to
look to Him, see, whose one offering justified forever all those for
whom He lived and died. It's a done deal. So trust in
Him alone based upon that one offering, that one righteousness
that He established. That's doing the will of the
Father.