And I would like for you, if
you would, to turn with me in the Scriptures this morning to
Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. We will start
our reading in verse 21. Matthew 7, 21. The Lord Jesus is speaking here
and he says, 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 this is a religious world
in which we live, dear friends. And some might say, well isn't
that a good thing? No, no it's not. Religion has nothing, absolutely
nothing to do with knowing and loving Christ. You see, it was
religious men and women who crucified the Lord of Glory, was it not?
It was the head, the high priest, and the Jewish well-knowns that
led the crowd to holler crucify him and that hard false witness
people who would bring lies against him in order to bring him before
Palin and accuse him of doing things he didn't do. And it's very unfortunate, but
mainstream religion is a lie. It preaches a false gospel. It
preaches a false God. And it preaches a false Savior.
It doesn't tell sinners the truth about themselves. It doesn't
tell sinners the truth about God. And it definitely doesn't
tell sinners the truth about our Lord and Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. One popular fable that I've heard
most all my life. Heard it in church the whole
time that I grew up. And it's a fable. And it's that
God loves everyone. Christ died for everybody. Men say that salvation has been,
quote, made available. It's there for the taking if
you want it. And it's made available to anybody and to everybody. You just have to choose it. You
just have to make a decision to say, I think I'll try that. Christ is not like a jacket that
you put on and try to see if it fits well or not. Either you
love Him or you hate Him. No in between. Well, brother,
you have to exercise your free will and accept what God has
provided for you. That's not what our Lord said
right here, is it? He said, Not everyone, not everyone
that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, to say you have a free will and
have to accept what God has provided. What does the Bible teach? It's
definitely not what our Lord says here, is it? He says, not
everyone. Well, didn't He die for everyone?
What does He say? Not everyone that shall call
Me, Lord, Lord. Well, preacher, I've been taught all my life
that Christ died for everyone, for everybody. You've been taught
wrong. It comes from the words of our Savior Himself, not everyone. We know that our Lord is speaking
here to religious folks in this passage, because He's speaking
to those that call Him Lord. He's not talking to the pimps
and the prostitutes. He's not talking to murderers,
thieves, and child molesters. He's talking about people that
call Him Lord. He's talking to a church-going,
Bible-thumping, Scripture-quoting, Lord-calling people. Lord, Lord. Well, these were professing believers. He's talking about those who
are trying to work their way to heaven, as we'll see in the
verses to follow. Well, now, Brother David, it
does also say in this verse that those that will enter, who doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven. Well, let me ask you,
what does it mean to do the will of God? That would be a good
place to start, wouldn't it? Who shall inherit the kingdom
of God? Well, Christ says, he that doeth the will of God. Well,
then it would be a probable thing for us to see what the will of
God is, wouldn't it? Now hold your place here and
turn over to John chapter six. And I'm gonna endeavor through
the scriptures to answer that question for you. What is it
to do the will of God? John 6, beginning in verse 37. Again, our Lord is speaking here.
And He said, "...all that the Father giveth Me, what shall
come to Me? And him that cometh to Me, I
will in no wise cast out." That should right there put Proof
to the pudding on these people that ask, do you believe once
saved, always saved? If God saves you, I do. If Christ
died for you, I believe you saved, always saved. That's what he
said. I'll know why as I cast him out.
In verse 38, he says, For I came down from heaven, not to do mine
own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the
Father's will. which hath sent Me, that of all
which He hath given Me, I should lose what? Nothing, but should
raise it up again the last day." And he continues in verse 40,
and he says, This is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone..."
Now this applies to us. "...everyone that seeth the Son,
and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life." and I'll raise
him up at the last day." You see friends, salvation is not
in doing, it's in seeing. Salvation is not in working,
it's in believing. Men are blind beggars and cannot
see till God opens their eyes. Now that's right. Men by nature
trust in nobody but themselves, and they believe in no one but
themselves. Well, how do you know that? I'm
a man. I'm a fallen creature of Adam.
I know what my own heart has taught me. There was a time where
I didn't trust nobody but me. And there was a time that I didn't
believe in anyone but me. But God gave me eyes to see. God Almighty opened my eyes and
He gave me understanding to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
1.18 says, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may
know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of
the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Oh, I'm telling
you, friends, salvation is of the Lord. Only God can open your
eyes. And only God can cause your heart
to understand what is the hope of His calling. Notice that says
His calling too, not our calling. Salvation is because He descended. Who did? God did. God became
a man, took flesh upon Him. It has to do with His calling,
His descending, His calling, His living, His dying, His resurrection,
and His ascending. And where does He sit? At the
right hand of God. Doing what? Making intercession
for His people. Salvation. is of the Lord. Don't ever forget that. Now if
you would turn with me to Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42 verse 6. Talking about the will of God.
What is the will of God? Verse 6 of Isaiah chapter 42
says, I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and look
at these amazing words, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give
thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles,
to open the blind eye, And to what? Bring out. Who? The prisoners from the prison
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Who's
this speaking? I am the Lord. That is my name
and my glory will I not give to another? Neither my praise
to graven images. Behold, the former things are
come to pass, and new things what do I declare? before they
spring forth, I tell you of them." Now let me tell you just as plain
and simple as I can. Any message that does not give
all the glory to God is not a gospel message. It's not. I don't care if he's talking
about moral things, good things, how you ought to live. It's not
the Gospel. Any man who stands to preach
and does not preach clearly that salvation is the work of God
does not preach the Gospel. He just doesn't. Well, are you accusing these
men? No, God is. That's what God said. I'm just a wretched, no good
sinner that found grace in the eyes of the Lord. I'm not here
to straighten anybody out. I'm here to proclaim His truth. And the truth is the only thing
that will save you, dear friends. The truth shall set you free
and it shall make you free. Free from what? Condemnation. Eternal death. not by works of righteousness,
which we have done." This is what Paul wrote to Titus. He says, but what? But according
to His mercy, He saved us. What? According to His mercy,
He saved us. What was that again? According
to His mercy, He saved us. Why do men fight against that?
It's all through Scripture. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. We have no works
that are righteous. Therefore, we can't be saved
that way. But, there's them buts of Scripture
again. I love those buts. But God, who's
rich in mercy, but according to His mercy, He saved us. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for the ungodly. Now please turn back with me
to Matthew 7 and look at verse 22. Who was the Lord talking to?
Who did the Lord say? Not everyone. He was talking
to religious folks. He was talking to people that
called Him Lord. He said, many, verse 22, will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Thy name? And in Thy name have we not cast
out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful
works. There's one little word in here
that just stands out to me. We, we, we, we. Sound French, don't they? We. And it says many, we'll say.
First scripture that comes to my mind is found back in verse
13. Look at that with me, from the
same chapter. The Lord says, enter ye in at
the straight. gate. For wide is the gate, and
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction." And there's
that word, many. There be which go in therein. Fourteen, because straight is
the gate, narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there
be that find it. Oh, there are many, many people,
even today, who say, Lord, Lord. But in that great day of judgment, when we stand naked and open
before God Almighty, whenever man and woman gives an account
and stands before Christ, there will be many who say, Lord, hadn't
we prophesied in Your name? Now that word prophesied has
two basic meanings. First, it's an idea of foretelling
future events pertaining especially to the kingdom of God. The prophets
of old prophesied. They told things that were going
to come to pass that hadn't come to pass yet. And it was a divine
revelation from God to them. And the second meaning for that
word prophesy is to utter forth, declare a thing which can only
be known by divine revelation. It also means preaching. That's
what preaching is. It's to utter forth, it's to
declare a thing which only God can reveal. In Old Testament times, God spoke
through His prophets. And even when John the Baptist
came on the scene, he said, there's one coming. There's one coming. But this also means the preaching
of the gospel. So what are these people saying?
They're saying, hadn't we Whichever one they mean by what they say
here, what they mean is, we have done it. We've done it. Hadn't we? Hadn't we prophesied
in your name? It's pleaded as a way of works. Lord, look what we've done. We've preached in your name.
We've cast out devils in your name. And we've done many, many
wonderful works. Well, let me tell you something,
friends. The Gospel is not us doing for God. It's God doing
for us. They don't stop in verse 22.
They go on and on and on. Works, works, works. We, we, we. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans
4, let me read this to you. It said, Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. That's pretty plain, isn't it?
In Romans 11 and 16, He says, And if by grace, then it's no
more works. You ever take a bucket of water
and pour oil in it? They don't mix. Grace and works
don't mix. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But it be if works, then it's
no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
That's a long way of saying they don't mix. They don't go together. And the sad part about it is,
friends, is that we cannot do anything that's pleasing to God. We cannot do anything that merits
salvation of our own right, of our own doing. It's impossible. In Galatians 2.16 it says, "...knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ." Even we have believed in Jesus that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the
works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh, none, be justified. Paul asked a question one day,
he said, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law? or by the hearing of faith. He went on to say, as many that
are of the works of the law, they are under the curse. No
blessing there for you. You're under a curse. For it's
written, Cursed it is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. Well,
what does that mean? That means if you're going to endeavor to
appease God by your own works of righteousness, you've got
to keep God's law perfectly. And if you mess up one little
thing, you're guilty of the whole thing. It's all or nothing. All or nothing. But the Apostle Paul says, not
by the works of the law, for by grace are you saved through
faith. And then he reiterates, and he
said, that's not of yourselves. It seemed like just by saying
you're saved by grace through faith would be enough. But no,
he said, I want to make sure you understand this. It's not
of yourselves. It's a gift of God. And then
he says it again, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
that's the problem. And that's what these folks in
Matthew 7 were doing. They were bragging on themselves.
Lord, Lord, look at me. Verse 23, And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity." Friends, let me tell you as plain as I can that the
gospel is Christ's profession. It's the preaching of His Word. You see, the problem with religion
today is that sinners want to profess what they've done for
God, what they've done for the Lord. And they never tell the
good news of what Christ has done for us in His sovereign
mercy and grace. Well, I, a believer, don't want
to hear anything about that. I tell you this week after week,
and I pray that I'll never forget to tell you over and over. I
need to hear it myself. This Bible, these scriptures,
are about Him. History is His story. This is a hymn book. H-I-M. The only reason that this earth
still exists, now I'm telling you the truth, is because God
is still saving His people. When He saves His last lost sheep,
He's going to wrap this thing up. Well, that ought to be encouraging
to you that are without Christ. God's still saving sinners. God's still got an elect, some
elect. There's still a remnant. according
to the election of grace. Because if God had saved the
last elect sinner, it would be over with. It would be done. At this point in time, right
now, this moment, the earth is still rotating. Because Christ has it in His
hands. And the sun still came up this morning. And the sun
may still go down tonight. And if that's the case, God is
still saving His people, His elect, His chosen. That's what true preachers profess.
They profess the truth of the Gospel. They receive it from
God. They were taught it the same
way you were, by the grace and mercy of God. They're all taught
of God. And the message of true ministers
of the gospel is not that you've done something for God, but what Christ has done for
you. That's the message in which God
gets all the glory. It's good news to sinners. What's
good news to sinners? That He knows you. That He knows
you. Now what a beautiful picture
that is of election. Why men hate that doctrine, I'll
never understand. That's the most wonderful thing
I ever heard in my life. Do you know why? Because it strips
me of all the responsibility of being saved. Not of the things
that I should do for Christ out of love. I'm responsible and
man is responsible before God who doesn't trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But it ain't me trying to conjure
up or work up something that would cause me to know Him. It's the fact that He knows me. That's election. That's what
the teaching of election is. Does God know you? Are you one
of His? If you are, I'm going to tell
you something, He'll reveal Himself to you. Well, Pastor, how do
I know that He knows me? Well, the best way I know to
answer that question is to ask you some questions. What think
ye of Christ? Am I one of His? What do you
think of His Son? Whose Son is He? Do you love His Son? Have you seen your desperate
need of God's Son? Do you see that your only hope
is in the Son of God and that He died for you? If you have, now listen, if you
have, then there's good reason to believe that Christ knows
you. I want to briefly show you from
the scriptures this beautiful message of divine election. And
because of time, I won't be able to have you turn to these passages,
so write them down if you can. If you can't, I'll give them
to you later. But I'm going to go through them
hurriedly, but I want you to listen. This is what God's Word
says about this wonderful, wonderful doctrine of election. God choosing
man. I know Him, Father. He's mine. Blessed, Psalm 65,
verse 4. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. God chooses and God
causes. Matthew 24 24 for there shall
arise false Christ and false prophets and shall show great
signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible They
shall deceive the very elect, but it's not possible because
they are the elect of God Matthew 24, 31. And He, God, shall send
His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall
gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end
of heaven to the other. Mark 13, 20. And except that
the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved,
but for the elect's sake, whom He hath chosen, He has shortened
the days. John 6.65, And He said, Therefore
said I unto you, That no man can come unto Me, except it were
given unto him of My Father. John 13.18, I speak not of you
all, I know whom I have chosen, Christ said, but that the Scripture
may be fulfilled, he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up
his heel against me, speaking of Judas." I speak not of you
all. In John 15, 16, he says these
words, you have not chosen me. But I have chosen you, and ordained
you, that you should go forth and bring forth fruit, and that
your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you ask the Father
in My name, He may give it you." What about Christ in the garden?
John 17, 9. He said, everybody always talks
about John 3, 16. For God so loved the world. See?
That means everyone know it don't. He wouldn't have prayed in the
garden in John 17, 9. I prayed for them. I prayed not for the
world. If God so loved the world, then
why isn't He praying for the whole world? I pray not for the
world, but for them which Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine. That's election. That's God choosing
us. That's God knowing us. Acts 13.48,
and when the Gentiles heard this, that is the Gospel, they were
glad and glorified the Word of the Lord, and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. How many? All that were ordained
to eternal life. I did the sin and God does the
saving. I'm not going to read some of these, but write down
Romans 8, 29, 30. Whom he foreknew, he also predestinated. What? To be conformed to the
image of his son. That sounds like God's doing
to me. You know the rest of that verse.
What about speaking of Jacob and Esau? Man, that's just an
unarguable account. Romans 9, 11, and 13. Speaking of two twin boys. He
said, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil. We can't say then that God looked
ahead in time and saw Jacob was going to be a good boy, and saw
Esau was going to be a bad boy, and He chose them. No! Before
they had done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand. not of works, but of him that
calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Who said that? God said it. I don't see how he could hate
Esau. I don't see how he could love
Jacob. I don't see how he could love any of us. That's why it's
called sovereign grace. It pleased him to do so. Romans 9.23, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had aforeprepared unto glory. They go on and on. Ephesians
1.11, write it down. 1 Thessalonians 1.4, 1 Thessalonians
5.9, 2 Timothy 1.9-10, who has saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began." 1 Peter 2.9, you're a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should
show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light. And men are going to stand and
say, Lord, Lord, hadn't we prophesied in Your name? Hadn't we cast
out devils? Hadn't we done all these marvelous works? And He
says, I never knew you! That's seven words that no one
wants to hear. never knew you. Depart from Me." Depart from
Me. I'm going to tell you something
and I'll be brief. Any effort to achieve righteousness, even
if it's done in the name of the Lord, did you hear me? Lord, Lord, haven't we, haven't
we, haven't we? It's nothing but iniquity. No one could work or merit for
a free gift, can they? That just doesn't make sense.
You try to give me a free gift, and I'll say, well, let me come
over and mow your yard. That isn't a free gift then. It's
something that I did to merit your gift. There's nothing a
sinner can do to earn God's favor. It's a gift of God. I know a
man that recently died. He had just turned 93. And on
his deathbed, I was told that he talked about how many years
he had attended church faithfully. Never once spoke of his Savior.
Never once gave God the honor and glory for saving him by His
grace. You know why? Because where he
went for all those years, they didn't preach the Gospel. They
told man what man had to do. You've got to give him your blessings
for Him to save you. You've got to make some kind
of a decision. Basically, what he said was,
I've done many wonderful works. Notice the words our Lord uses.
They're the words of one who is salvation. He said, I never
knew you. Depart from Me, ye that work. Either do what? Work iniquity. But these folks preached and
they ministered and they did many wonderful works, but these
were wonderful works in their own eyes. These were wonderful
works by their own actions. We did this, we did that. You
know, that'd be just a good word for us to take out of our vocabulary
when it comes to the things of God, we. Just ought to strike
it right out. We didn't do nothing. We didn't do nothing. John 17.3
says, and this is life eternal. Are you interested in life eternal?
Are you interested in everlasting life? Then here it is. This is
from the words of our Lord Himself, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. And I'll
leave you with these words, dear friends. You can never know God
and you can never know the Lord Jesus Christ by any works that
you've done, and you can't know God and you can't know Christ
if they don't know you. Do you know Christ? That's a good question to ask
yourself. Do you know Him?