Matthew chapter 7, and I want
us to notice a few verses here, and I believe this morning that
I have the mind of the Spirit of God in the choosing of the
message for the morning. And sometimes it's difficult
to come to the place where you're assured in your heart that you
have the mind and the spirit about what to preach and what
to bring on a particular Sunday. But I do believe in this last
Sunday of 1998, this message is fitting for us and I trust
that God will use it in our hearts today and that we'll examine
ourselves. It's not my desire to make anybody
comfortable when they come here to this place. Pardon me. It's not my desire to make you
comfortable in your soul. I'm not here to make you happy
in and of yourself. I'm here this morning to preach
the truth of God to you, and I trust that God will use it
in the quickening of hearts and in the feeding of the sheep of
Christ. Now as we come here to the seventh
chapter of the book of Matthew, I believe that there is a great
warning that we have expressed throughout the verses that make
up this chapter. And these verses have to do with
the realness of our profession of religion. And I want to speak
this morning on reality, reality in religion. And I believe this
is very timely. Let me read two verses one out
of the book of Revelation, one out of the book of 1 John, before
I get into the 7th chapter here of Matthew. In Revelation 3,
verse 1, it says, And unto the angel of the church in Sardis
write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of
God, and the seven stars, I know thy works, that thou hast a name
that thou livest, and art dead." Get that! You have a name that
you live, but you are dead. 1 John 3 and 18, My little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, and in
truth. Now here in the seventh chapter
of the Gospel of Matthew, we read where our Lord, as he begins
here to talk to the disciples, he talks to them about judging.
in verse 1 and 2 and 3 and beholding in verse 3 thou the moat that
is in thy brother's eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine
own eye or how wilt thou say to thy brother let me pull out
the moat out of thine eye and behold the beam is in thine own
eye he's talking here to people in verse 5 he says thou hypocrite
so he talks about those who are not real, and have no realistic
outlook, and while they would try to pull a splinter out of
their brother's eye, while they have a two before in their own
eye. And he says, thou hypocrite,
first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt
thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's
eye. You see, the real children of
God have some discernment. The real children of God have
some light. They have some understanding.
They know themselves. They know something about their
situation. And they know that they're no
fit judges. They know they must wait until
the final judgment, until He comes who knows all things. Nothing
is hid from Him. All things are naked and open
unto His eye. And so we need to be very careful
because our Lord says those that go about judging, He calls them
here hypocrites. And then in verse 6 He says,
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your
pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet,
and turn again and rend you. Now, in this verse of Scripture,
I believe what our Lord is saying is that we, again, if we're truly
the Lord's people, and if we have that which is holy, and
if we have pearls, spiritually speaking, then we will have some
discernment and we will not give that which is holy unto the dogs. Now the dogs are those that are
outside the family of God, those that are the unregenerate. We'll
be very discerning about how we make compromises with the
ungodly, and we'll be very careful about that. This is one of the
tests of reality. Do we know when to give that
which is holy unto those around us and when we should cast our
pearls out before those that our Lord says are swine. He says,
lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and
rend you. And then he goes on in this chapter
to talk about other things and we get down here to verse 13.
He says, enter you in at the straight gate, for wide is the
gate, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there
be which go in thereat. Our Lord here is referring to
that broad way that leads to destruction, the way of the world,
the way of mankind, the natural way, that broad way, that way
of sin, and that way which is contrary to the mind of God,
contrary to the holiness of God, He says that way leads to hell,
the broad way. And many, he says here, there
be which go in there at. Because he says straight is the
gate, narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there
be that find it. So he's warning us further here.
That if we're on the Broadway, we're going the way that leads
to destruction. And the Bible says that there
is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death. And so that way that leads to
destruction, there are many which are going on that road. They're
on that road. But God's people enter in at
the straight gate, For wide is the gate, and broad is the way
that leads to destruction. But cause straight is the gate,
narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that
find it." Do you surmise that everybody here has found that
straight way, that narrow way, that straight gate, the Lord
Jesus Christ? Do you surmise that everybody
here is on that way? It says, well, there are few
there be that find it. Then he talks about the false
prophets in verse 15, and then he talks about the good tree
and how that even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. I'm trying to open
this up to us. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire. Picture of the last days at the
judgment when our Lord takes all of those trees that are not
of his planting and those trees that had not good fruit upon
them in this life and cast them into the fire, the fire of judgment. Wherefore by their fruits you
shall know them. You'll know them right here in
this life by the fruits that they bring forth in their life.
And then in verse 21 and 22, these are amazing 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. Salvation
is bowing one's knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. You cannot have
Christ as your Savior and Him not be your Lord. He must be
your Lord. We'll say a few words about that
later on in our message. Many, verse 22, will say unto
me in that day, many, get that, many will say unto 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 then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you, I never knew you. Now we know our Lord
did all of his knowing at one time before the foundation of
the world. God knew his people in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And so he says, I never
knew you. Now you were very active in religious
circles and you were doing, doing, doing, but I never, never knew
you. And so he says, here in this
verse of scripture, depart from me. ye that work iniquity even
though you did all you did in my name it was yet iniquity because
I did not know you my spirit was not in you and your motives
were all wrong and therefore I did not know you and then he
begins here to tell the story about that one who would hear
his sayings and do them He said, I liken him unto a wise man,
which buildeth his house upon the rock. The rain descended,
the floods came, the winds blew, beat upon that house, and it
fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. Now we all know
that the rock is Jesus Christ. And we all know that none will
stand in the judgment unless they're built on that rock. He
alone is the rock of our salvation. And everyone that heareth these
sayings of mine and doeth them not, I don't want anyone to think
that these sayings are unimportant. Listen to what the Word of God
says. You that have ears to hear, hear. what the Spirit of God
would say to you. Everyone that heareth these sayings
of mine, and doeth them not, he shall be like unto a foolish
man, which buildeth his house upon the sand. He had no foundation.
He had no foundation. There's only one foundation that
can be laid, and that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ the
righteous. The rain descended, the floods
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it
fell. And it fell. And it fell. And it always will
fall if it be not built upon the rock, the solid rock, the
rock our Lord Jesus. And great was the fall of it.
Great was the fall of this house because it was built by one who
did not keep the sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ. One who had
no respect for the word of God and the truth of the word of
God. Now then, I want this morning, as I said, to talk to you very
solemnly about reality in our profession. Now, if we profess
to have a relationship with God, let us take care that it's real. Let us take care that it's real. Now what do I mean when I use
the word real? I mean that which is genuine,
that which is sincere, that which is honest and thorough. Something
that's not hollow, something that's not just formal, false,
counterfeit, and sham. and nominal. A real relationship
with God is not mere show and it's not pretense. It is something
that's inward. It's something that's solid.
It is not mere show. It is something that's substantial.
It's something that's living. It's something that, of course,
is lasting. It'll last for all eternity.
Is our religious profession real? You say, I don't know, preacher,
whether my profession is real or not. You say, I'm weak, preacher,
and I do not know for sure whether my profession is real. Well,
you may be weak, and you may be feeble, and you may have many
infirmities, but if you're built on the rock, If you know Christ,
if you are saved, and if you're regenerate by the Holy Spirit
of God, then of course your religion and your profession is a real
one. We know that in Christ there
are babes, there are young men, there are old men, and there
are mature believers in Christ. But I'm not dealing with that.
Today, what must be determined here is, is our profession real? That's what I want to talk about.
I want a reality is a feature of a vast amount of professions
that's made in our churches in the present day. I say a want
of reality is a feature of a vast amount of professions that are
made in our churches in the present day. If we measure the religion
of our day by its quantity, there is much of it. But if we measure
it by its quality and by its realness, there is very little
of it indeed. Brother and sister, the need
and the want of the hour is for more reality in our religious
profession. Well, first of all, I want to
show the importance of reality in our profession. And in the
second place, I'll give you a test by which we may prove whether
our own profession is real. And then thirdly, we will make
some application. We'll try to be as brief as possible.
First of all, then, I want, if I can, to show the importance
of reality in our profession. Are we all convinced of the reality
in our own relationship with God? Are we convinced of it?
That our relationship is real and that we could stand this
morning if the rains came, I mean if the floods came, the winds
came upon our profession, would we stand or would we fall? And
would our fall be a great fall? So you say, Preacher, surely
you don't think any of us are false? You don't think any of
us are unreal? Surely you know that all of us
are very sincere and true? Sure we're all real. We think
we're real. but we need to examine this morning
the reality of our profession. And I don't want you to thank
me to be uncharitable. I love your soul. I must give
an account shortly for you that I preach to and what I have preached
to you. and I'm not being uncharitable.
I told you it's not my business to make you feel comfortable.
If I can, I'll challenge your profession, I'll challenge the
reality of your profession, and I'll make you examine yourself
to see whether or not things are right between you and the
Lord. I don't want to be harsh and unkind, but I doubt that
everyone's religion here is real. I doubt it. I feel it in my soul
that there's some of you whose religion is not real. Now this widespread delusion
that there's reality in all religion is why we preach on this subject
today and why we would preach it with zeal and enthusiasm. I want men and women to understand
that reality is a far more rare and uncommon thing than is commonly
supposed. You find very little of it. Few
there be that find it. Many are on the broad way, but
few find that straight way that leads to eternal life. Now listen
to me this morning. Now consider this. Many of the
parables, I believe, were written to expose the danger of not being
real. The parables of the sower, of
the wheat and the tares, the wedding garment, the ten virgins,
of the talents, the two builders that we read of here in Matthew
7, they all bring out the difference between reality and unreality
in our professed relationship to God. They all show the utter
uselessness and the danger of profession without reality. And then again, think with me
about the language of our Lord Jesus Christ. When he spoke of
the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23, eight times
in this one chapter, we hear him denouncing the scribes and
Pharisees as hypocrites. He said, ye serpents, he said,
you blind guides, you generation of vipers, how will you escape
the damnation of hell? Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees
and hypocrites. Now these were the religious
people of the day. These were the moral example
of the day. and our Lord eight times over
in the 23rd chapter of Matthew speaks of them as being hypocrites
and blind guides and vipers and tells them that they will not
escape the damnation of hell regardless of how outwardly they
profess to be religious. Why would he use such language
on these people who were more moral and decent than the publicans
and the harlots? Why? It is because to show us,
if you please, the abominableness of false profession and mere
outward religion in God's sight. There seems to be nothing which
is so displeasing to Christ as hypocrisy and unreality. Note again, look at this fact
with me if you will. There is hardly a grace in the
character of a true child of God of which you will not find
a counterfeit described in the Word of God. Let us look just
briefly at this. Is there not an unreal repentance
spoken of in the Bible? What about old Saul? What about
Ahab? What about Esau and Herod and
Judas Iscariot? They all had feelings of sorrow
about sin. every one of them, but they never
repented unto salvation. 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 10
says, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not
to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. And
so there is a false repentance. There's those that have a little
sorrow for sin. They got caught in something
and they're sorry about it, but it's not a godly sorrow. It's
not a sorrow that changes their disposition toward sin and toward
God and toward holiness. It is not a disposition that
would drive them to humility and to forsake their sin. It
is a repentance but it's not one God given and it's not real. And then also there's a faith
that is unreal, spoken of in the Bible. Now we say a lot about
faith around here. We believe that faith is important.
Without it, you can't please God. Without it, there's no salvation. Everybody that's saved believes
God. If you're born of God, you believe
God. You're not born again because
you believe, but you will believe if you've been born again. You
just will. All the children of God are believers, true believers. Is it not written of Simon Magus
of Samaria that he believed and yet his heart was not right in
the sight of God? Peter said to him, In verse 21,
I believe it is, of the 8th chapter of the book of Acts, thou hast
neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not
right in the sight of God. But yet the scripture says he
believed. Now in James 2 and 19, it says we're told here that
the devils believe and they tremble. But they're not saved, are they?
The devils believe and they tremble. Now you say, well, I believe.
Well, have you ever trembled? Have you ever trembled? Well,
my friend, I believe if we believe that we truly shall tremble inwardly
at the plain spoken truth of the word of God. Number three,
there's an unreal holiness. Judas Iscariot's outward life
was as correct, I believe, and straight as any of the apostles
up to the very time that he betrayed the Lord. There was nothing suspicious
about him. Nothing was suspicious about
him, yet in reality, In John 12 and verse 6, Jesus said, you're
a thief and a traitor. He was a thief. You remember
that this woman, Mary, she had this ointment, spikenard, and
it's very valuable. And she anointed our Lord's feet
with that ointment and wiped his hair. and wiped his feet
with the hair of her head. And you remember that Judas said,
wow, wait a minute here. This ought to have been sold
for 300 pence and the money be given to the poor. And the scripture
says not that he cared for the poor. No, he was a thief and
had the bag and bore what was put in that bag. He wanted it
for himself. He was a thief. Now, there was
nothing, as I said, suspicious about this man prior to his being
a traitor to our Lord. The person most likely to turn
out to be a hypocrite among us is the one who gives the least
reason for suspicion. Now, I want you to think about
that. I'm not afraid to say that. If we are afraid to say that,
we, my friend, are as bad as any hypocrite alive. I'm telling
you that the person that is most likely to turn out to be false
and to be a hypocrite among us is the one who gives the least
reason for suspicion, the one who seems the most unlikely ever
to turn out in the end to be a hypocrite and to be false. Now, I'm not afraid, as I said,
to say that, and I don't want to offend anybody, but I tell
you we better examine ourselves. Then there's the counterfeit
love and charity. There's a love which consists
in words only and no deeds. You remember we read the text
a few minutes ago, that we're to love both in word and in deed. Now love must express itself. Love must express itself toward
those that are the objects of that love. We must speak to those
that we love and we must convey to them the feelings of our heart.
We must do it. We can't be, there's no way we
can keep from doing it. And those who love Christ sincerely
must praise Him. They must heap upon Him their
devotion and their love toward Him. It must be given to Him.
And not only do we love in word only, but we love in deed. And
I'll tell you, when you will not lay yourself down to be used
by God on the behalf of your brothers and sisters in Christ,
on the behalf of those that are in need, when you will not bear
the message of God's saving grace to those around you and to anyone
you have opportunity to bear it to. Say, I love, I love. Oh, you love, do you? My friend,
if you love, you'll love not only in word, but you'll love
indeed. You'll be willing to sacrifice
yourself for the will and purpose of God. Tender expression, a
show of affection, while the heart does not love at all, my
friend, shows that we have a counterfeit love. Our text says, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but deed and in truth. Paul said
in Romans 12 and 19, let love be without dissimulation. That
word means hypocrisy. Let love be without hypocrisy.
Well, next I want to say, is there not some unreal praying
also? Cannot prayer be counterfeit?
Without doubt. Our Lord denounces it as one
of the special sins of the Pharisees, that for a pretense, he says,
they made long prayers. Matthew 23 and 14. Not that they
did not pray, no. Their sin lay in this, that their
prayers were not real. They were not from the heart. They were not from the heart.
And I'll tell you what. Old Ralph Barnard one time, he
was in a church holding a revival meeting, and they called on one
of the deacons to pray, and he got up and prayed. Old Brother
Barnard got up and said, that prayer sounded like a dog trotting
through dry leaves. And I'll tell you, there's a
lot of unreal praying. I mean where the prayer does
not get out of the building. It's evident that there is no
life when there's no real heart ability to express one's desire
and need to the Lord. Now let us remember, beloved,
that there's such a thing as empty vein prayer and may God
be pleased to give us the real, the real thing and that we'll
have a humble and submissive heart before God filled with
a desire to seek Him and to find Him. Number six, the sixth thing
here is talking about counterfeit Christianity Well, in Matthew
15, verse 8 and 9, it talks about how that they in vain, how they
worshiped me. Instead of true worship in spirit
and in truth, they were vainly worshiping the Lord. Jesus said
of the Jews, this people, draw an eye to me with their mouths
and honor me with their lips. But their heart is far from me,
but in vain they do worship me." All over this city this morning,
there are people gathered together to worship, supposedly. That
was what it was supposed to be. But they're like those Jews.
They draw an eye with their mouth, honor the Lord with their lips.
But their heart is not in it. Their heart, Jesus said, is far
from me. Why their heart? They left it
back home or they left it somewhere else. Their heart is far from
me. They're not in fellowship with
me. They don't walk with me. They're not consecrated to me
in my ways. In vain do they worship me. If your heart is not in it, then
you're worshiping in vain. They had solemn formal services
in their temples and synagogues, but the fatal defect about them
was want of reality and want of heart. What should we say
to these things? It ought to set us thinking,
I believe. It really ought to set us thinking. To my own mind,
they seem to lead to one conclusion. They show clearly the importance
which the Word of God attaches to reality in our religious profession. They show clearly that what we
need to do is take heed to ourselves, lest our Christianity turn out
to be merely a surface thing, counterfeit, formal, and unreal. There's never been a time since
the Lord's Church was founded in this world when such a vast
amount of unreality among professionals of religion exist as it exists
today. Most of religion today is as
fruitless as a dead tree. Most people sitting in church
pews this morning are dead. It's against the law to bury
them, but they're dead. They're dead. I heard a story
about a big church somewhere out east And this fellow was
telling this. There's no truth to it, I suppose.
But nevertheless, he was illustrating the truth. And he said that in
this particular church, said big church, but there were so
many dead people in it, that there was a person one time,
the fifth row up, third seat in, that actually did die during
the church service. And they called the medics and
the ambulance. and the ambulance came and they
had to remove everybody for the first four or five rows to be
able to find the person that was dead. And there is dead people
in the churches and that's my point, that's what I'm trying
to say. Most of religion today is as fruitless as a dead tree
and as dry and marrowless as an old bone, as an old bone the
dogs chewed on. It is not real, I tell you. Church
members, yes. Zealous, yes. Evangelical, yes. Fundamental, yes. Dead, yes. Dead. No real life. The religion of the day is like
Jonas Gord. It came up in a night and it
perished in a night. They started and that was it.
That was all over. They only injure God's cause,
give occasion to God's enemies to blaspheme professing to be
friends of the gospel while practically inflicting on it the greatest
of injury. So the importance of reality
in our profession. Well, the second thing I told
you I was going to do this morning was to give you a test. to see
whether or not your perfection was real. So listen to me and
give me your time here. We must demand that we be honest,
fair, reasonable with our own soul. We demand that. Dismiss from your mind the common
idea that of course Everything's alright with me because I go
to church one time a week. Everything's got to be alright
with me. I go once a week. You must look further, higher,
deeper than this if you'd find out the truth about your own
soul. You've got to go deeper than
that. Listen. You take the test, if
you will. Number one. If you would know
whether your relationship with the Lord is real or not, try
it by the place which it occupies in your inner man. Now get this
point. It's not enough that it's in
your head. It's not what you believe, it's
who you believe. Christ must be believed on in
the heart. It's not enough that you can
talk about it. It's not enough that you can
say amen when the preacher says something that you think is good.
It's not enough that you have some religious feelings, that
you've got a little good feeling once in a while. Your relationship,
if it's real, given by the Spirit of God, must and will be in your
heart. It'll be in your heart. It must
occupy the throne. Now get this, I'm talking about
inside of you. Your relationship with God must
occupy the throne. Only one can be Lord in your
life. Only one. Only one. Jesus said
you can't serve God and mammon. He said you cannot. You cannot
do it. You cannot do it. He must be
Lord of all. Oh, he's not Lord at all. That's
a trite statement, but it's true. It must hold the reins. your
relationship with God. It must call the shots. It must
sway the affections. It must lead the will. It must
direct the taste. It must influence the choices
and the decisions of your whole life. It must affect the decisions
of your whole life. You cannot dismiss your relationship
with God whenever you begin to try to make the decisions of
life. You cannot do it. My friend, if you're truly a
child of God, then that relationship you have, if it's real, will
affect everything you do, all of your days. It'll affect it. It must fill the deepest, the
inmost seat of your soul. It is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Is this true of your professional
relationship with God? If not, you may well doubt its
reality. Remember Simon Magus? Remember
Romans 10 and 10 says with the heart man with the heart man
believeth under righteousness Let me remind you there's no
way to get to righteousness and to a righteous state before God
without Believing unto it. It's only believing into it Believing
unto righteousness Believing unto it brother only believing
unto it you can't get it at any other way Righteousness come
to the Lord, Christ died in vain. Believing unto righteousness
in the heart. This is, I'm talking about heart,
inner. Inner, your inner being. Believing
with the heart. Now number two, in the next place,
if you would know whether your experience is true, real, try
it by the feelings that it produces towards sin in your life. In a true heart relationship
with God, there's a very deep view of the sinfulness of sin. It will not merely regard sin
as a blemish and misfortune, which makes men and women objects
of pity and compassion. That's not what it is. If that's
your view of sin, then my friend, you're not acquainted with yourself
and you're not acquainted with the Bible. It will, listen, a
true relationship with Jesus Christ will see in sin the abominable
thing which God hates. God hates sin. The thing which
makes man guilty and lost in God's sight. The thing which
shuts a man's mouth. makes him guilty before God,
and deserves God's righteous wrath and condemnation. Sin, my friend, is real, and
sin, we'll only understand it if we know God, and if we know
the Word of God. We'll look on sin as the cause
of man's woes. Say, people got lots of trouble,
preacher. I know they have. Why does people have woe? They have woe because of sin. That's why they have it. Somebody
said, there's lots of sorrow in this world, preacher. It is.
This is a world of sorrow. Why? Because of sin, that's why. Don't you ever speak lightly
of sin. Don't you ever just flit around
and talk about, oh, it's all right. Everybody's going to sin.
Just let them sin. Might as well just go ahead and
get it over with. You're going to die too, but
you want somebody to shoot you down. No, you don't. Absolutely
not. Let me tell you something. Sin,
you better hate it, you better run from it, you better be against
it, and if you got a right relationship with God, you will be against
it. Now, the black, this sin business
is causes all the strife, all the unhappiness in the world.
Do you believe that? All the unhappiness? Wouldn't
be any thorns on the rose bushes if it was not for sin. You, my
friend, would not be working, working, working, and sweating
and working to have a living if it wasn't for sin. You wouldn't
have had to do it. That's right. I just read it
this week in the book of Genesis. That's the reason why a fella's
gotta pull weeds out of the garden. That's why you gotta hoe the
garden. That's why you gotta work in this world and sweat
and labor to have anything. It's because of sin and the curse
of God upon the world because of sin. And sin is the cause
of wars. Sin is the mother of death. That's why you got funeral homes.
That's why you got cemeteries. It's because of sin. You don't
take this real. You don't think this is real.
You don't think that this is important. I'm telling you, sin
is the blight of God's creation. It's the curse which makes the
whole earth groan and prevail in pain. Sin above all we see
sin as the thing which will ruin us eternally Except we receive
forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ sin will hold us
captive Except the chains be broken by the stronger one Jesus
Christ We hate sin and are sworn to fight it a fight against it
until the day of our death we must be against it and fight
against it and to the day of our death. Sin crucified our
Lord Jesus Christ. Sin nailed him to the tree. Will we think rightly about it? Listen to me now. Children of
God, I said we must fight it until our death. There must be
a struggle in us. And if it was not, listen, if
it was not for the struggle within us, It would be because we are
dead as the world, and there's no struggle in them. They sin,
and they sin with both hands, and there's no question. But
in you, there's a struggle. And that proves that your relationship
with God is real. Because there's a struggle in
you. It's not that you don't sin, it's how you feel about
it when you do. That's important. And when you,
as a child of God, commit sin, You know you have an advocate
with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, and you know that
our sin is not imputed to us, but unto our substitute, and
we rejoice in that, but yet we know the truth about sin. We're
not blind to it, and we're not running around here like somebody
who don't know what it's all about. We do know what it's about.
And we cannot plead ignorance if we're a child of God. Isn't
that right? We know what sin is. Number three, we need to
try our profession by our feelings toward Christ. which are, if
we have a true profession, which it will produce. Nominal religion
may believe that there was such a person as Christ existed one
time and did something extraordinary for mankind. That's nominal religion. It'll not save your soul. It
may show him some external respect and even bow the head at his
name. But heart, faith, Holy Spirit,
regeneration will make a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, glory
in Christ. It'll make him glory. Paul said,
I got all kinds of things I can glory in, but I glory in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I glory in the cross. It'll make
a man glory in Christ as the Redeemer, the Deliverer, without
whom he would have no hope at all. without whom he would be
on his way to a devil's hell. It'll make him glory in Christ.
It'll produce confidence in Christ, love towards him, and delight
in him, comfort in him as the mediator, the food, the light,
the life, the peace of the soul. Christ is the all in all of the
believer. Do you know anything of feelings
like this toward Jesus Christ? I mean, is, listen to me, if
not, your religion is not of God. I'll tell you, everybody
that gets saved is taught to Christ by the Spirit of God,
drawn by the Father, and when they get to Him, He becomes the
altogether lovely one. There ain't anything about him
that's not lovely to the believer. Every believer rejoices in the
Lord Jesus Christ and his opinion of him, oh my friend, his opinion
of him is higher than their opinion of anyone else that lives now
or ever did live. Christ is the all in all of the
believer's hope. And that's, how about your feelings
toward him? I mean, let it all go, everything
else but him. Everything but Him. That's the
way a believer feels about it. Preacher, don't preach about
anything but Him. We want to hear about Him. We
want to hear about the Lord Jesus. Because we love Him. And our
right relationship with God will make you glory in Him. And rejoice
in Him. And you can't feed on a ministry
that's not preaching Him up. And preaching the truth about
Him. Now, fourthly, we are to try by the fruit it bears in
our hearts and life, life from above, true life in the spirit,
while producing the soul who has it. true repentance, true
faith, true hope, true love, true humility, spirituality,
self-denial, unselfishness, forgiveness, temperance, truthfulness, brotherly
kindness, patience, and forbearance. That's some of the fruit that
a true relationship with God will produce. Now the degree
in which these graces appear may vary in different believers,
but the germ and the seeds of them will be found in all who
are the children of God. Amen? That germ and the seed
of all of these fruits will be found in those that are the children
of God. By their fruits they may be known. Now is this your life? Is this
your life? Is it? Well, we must try our
perfection also by our feelings and habits about the means of
grace. What is your feelings about the
Lord's Day? You know, I've often told you
that we don't have a day to keep but a person to honor, and that
person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Is the Lord's Day a weariness
to you or is it a day of constraint? Do you look upon it as a delight
and refreshment, foretaste of the rest to come in heaven? You
know Christ is our rest and He is our Sabbath. That's what it
means. Christ is our Sabbath. What are
your feelings about the public means of grace? What is your
attitude about a prayer meeting? Would it bother you? Somebody
said, brother, would you come down with me to pray? I would
like for you to come and pray with me. What's your attitude
about a prayer meeting? What's your attitude about public
prayer? Do you think we should pray publicly? How about a praise
meeting? Would it be okay if we praised
the Lord? Would that bother you? Would
that disturb you? Make you uncomfortable? I mean, would you beg off? Would
you desire to leave the presence of people that were having a
praise meeting? Public preaching of the word?
The ordinances of baptism of the Lord's Supper? Do you like
that? Do you fit in with that? I mean,
is that part of you? Do you want that? What are your
feelings about public means of grace? Do you just tolerate these?
Or are they things in which you take pleasure, and listen to
this, and without which you could not live and be happy? What about
your feelings about private means of grace? Could you be happy
and not have any, not have any prayer, not have any praise,
not have any, not have any worship, not have any hearing preaching
of the word of God. Do you find it essential to your
comfort to read the Bible? Do you? Say, no, no, no, no,
preacher, you're getting personal here. Well, we mean to. That's
the examination. I mean, we're going to ask questions
here and interrogate. I mean, we're going to ask you
here, how about the Bible? How about prayer, secret prayer?
Are these practices irksome and do you neglect them altogether?
If the means of grace, both public and private, are not as necessary
to your soul as meat and drink is to your body, you have reason
to doubt whether you are in the true grace of God. Now, I mean
that. Now, I don't mean that all of
us don't have a little bit of something in us that maybe at
times we'd rather read the newspaper than read the Bible, because
all of us do have that in us, and don't lie. Ain't no need
to lie, and you might as well tell the truth. Or maybe you
would rather read some book other than the Bible. But my friend,
listen. When it comes down to it, I mean
run everything through the sieve. I mean we get down to the very
bottom of this thing. Is spiritual food as necessary
to you as your meat and your drink is to your body? Do you
feel it to me? Do you feel it to me? Now this
is an examination, as we said. Now you go over these five points
and see how you fare. See how you fare with these things. I mean, does this have, does
this thing got a hold of you? Does it have a grip on your heart?
Has it produced love toward Christ in your heart? Do you glory in
him? I mean, how is it with you? How do you feel about sin? Do you feel that sin is that
just like, do you agree with what God says about it? Do you
agree with what God says about it? I told you about that president
that went to church and he'd come home, his wife didn't go
with him. Wife asked him, said, what did the preacher preach
about? Well, he preached about sin. Well, what'd he say about
it? He was against it. And a true believer's against
sin. He's against it. Do you have that feeling in your
heart that you're in a war and that you're struggling? Do you
have that? These things are the test. And
then the means of grace. How do you feel about public
means, about attending church? How do you feel about these things?
And then private means of grace, as we've just talked. Well, let
me give you just a word of application and we're done here. I want to
use three words in our application. First of all, we're making an
inquiry. Is my profession real or unreal? That's the inquiry. I'm not asking
you about those around you. You say, preacher, listen to
me. I can spot a hypocrite a mile off. I'm not interested. I'm
not interested. My question is about you. That's
what I'm interested in. And me, I'm interested in me.
I'm interested in you. I'm not interested in us talking,
we're not dealing with people here. Nobody in here with a pitchfork
that I see throwing this thing over, you know, and throwing
it to somebody back the line. No, no, we're dealing with it
personally, individually, ourselves. What about you? That is the question. With the Bible in your hand,
with judgment, day, honesty in your heart. The truth may be
known. The truth may be known if you
listen to what we've said here this day. Resolve to find out
the truth. If you gotta get the tape and
listen to it again, resolve, I'm gonna find out the truth
about myself. Okay, the second word is advice.
First was inquiry, second is advice. If your conscience has
been pricked by what's been shared here today, quit trifling and
playing around with religion. Seek the Lord with all your heart. Seek the Lord with all your heart. Your repentance may be feeble,
but if it's real, that's what counts. Your faith may be weak,
but if it's from God, it will save your soul if it's from the
Lord. Do not pay any attention to the thoughts of your unworthiness.
I'm giving you some advice. Don't pay any attention to the
thoughts of your unworthiness. Don't let them keep you away
from worship, love toward Christ, praise toward Him, because all
the fitness He requires is that you feel your need of Him. Don't let your unworthy. If you
can come to Christ, your sin will never damn you. You believe
that? If you can get to Christ, your sin will never damn you. It never will. Say, I'm unworthy. Well, let's get to Christ. And
our sin will not damn us. Now that, my friend, we need
to take that advice. Don't you think that's good advice?
That's good advice. Come in your true character just
as you are. No acting. No acting is not the
time for that. Be real. Just let your profession
be real. Though you may err, be real.
Though you may stumble, be true. If you fall seven times, the
Lord will lift you up. He'll lift you up. Now the last
word is encouragement. To all who are following Christ
in reality, I exhort you to persevere, not to be moved by difficulties,
because there are many, many opposition, much opposition in
this world. Many, many are the difficulties.
Steep is the hills, steep. You may find few with you and
many against you in this world. That'll be your experience before
you get out of it. Say, I just started, preacher,
well, Be prepared, arm yourself. There may be a hard thing said
about you before this is over. Say, I don't know whether I can
be a Christian or not. Well, you won't but by the grace
of God. You'll never last except by the grace of God. I told you
about Jonas Gord, didn't I? Well, that's false religion.
Spring up and then it's gone. The heat of the sun upon it.
Keep up the struggle against sin in the flesh. As we said,
and I dare say it again, this does not mean you're lost because
you've got to struggle. It doesn't mean you're lost because
it rather means that divine life is in you because there would
be no struggle otherwise. There'd be no struggle. And never
be ashamed of your service and your devotion to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Never be ashamed of your service
and of your devotion to Christ. There's a song that says it real
well. Jesus, and shall it ever be a
mortal man ashamed of thee, ashamed of thee whom angels praise, whose
glory shine through endless days, ashamed of Jesus sooner far let
evening blush to own a star. He sheds the beams of light divine,
O'er this benighted soul of mine. Ashamed of Jesus, that dear friend,
On whom my hopes of heaven depend. No, when I bless be this my shame,
That I no more revere his name. Ashamed of Jesus, yes I may,
When I've no guilt to wash away. No tear to wipe, no good to crave,
No fears to quell, no soul to save. Till then, nor is my boasting
vain, Till then I boast a Savior's land, and oh may this my glory
be that Christ is not ashamed of me." And so I exhort you,
I encourage you not to be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
be ashamed of being wholehearted about your soul, about your worship. Don't be ashamed of it. I was
talking to the young people the other night about confession.
confession of Christ and I've told them that we ought to be
ashamed of being ashamed of confessing Christ before the world and that
we ought to tremble at not trembling at confessing Christ. Jesus said
if you're ashamed of me I'll be ashamed of you. If you're
ashamed of me and my words in the midst of this sinful and
adulterous generation I'll be ashamed of you. Well, the years
of our life are passing away. The clock of life is wound but
once. Who knows whether it will stop
at late or early hour. Let me give you this. This was
a blessing to me. This was found on an old clock
in Chester, England, in a cathedral. And on this clock it was written,
when as a child I laughed and wept Time crept. When as a youth I dreamed and
talked, time walked. When I became a full grown man,
time ran. And later as I older grew, time
flew. Soon I shall find while traveling
on, time gone. And the question will be, will
Christ have saved my soul by then? We may be called out of
this world at any time to meet God. You know, we think about,
and I used to think years ago, and it seemed like a long ways
off, if I could just make it to the year 2000, which is kind
of my goal, just make it to Y2K, if I could just make it to that,
then I would feel like I had had done the deed. But my friend,
that's on us. Very, very soon. We got one year
between here and there. And so we may be called out of
this world at any time to meet God and if you'd be found ready,
be true, be real, be a real true follower of the Lamb of God.
I hope today that the Lord will impress this message upon your
heart. I wouldn't expect that you would
remember it all. There's a lot in the message. But I would hope
that you could go out of here with this question. Lord, am
I real? Am I real? Is this thing real
with me? Is it real? Now, beloved, I just believe
if it's real with all of us, If it is real with all of us,
God blesses that it will be real with all of us. It has to make
a difference. It will make a difference. As
we leave this old year, as we go on into another, it will make
a difference. It'll make a tremendous difference
in this body, in this church, if it's real, if it's real. Father, in the name of Jesus,
bless this message and use it to thy glory, to your honor,
and to your praise. May Christ be glorified, Lord,
through our believing the word. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.