While you're turning there, we're
going to observe the Lord's Table tonight. Matthew chapter 7, I'd like to
read verses 21 through 23. 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 then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. I've entitled this message Self
Deception. Self Deception. Now I want every believer to
have full assurance of faith. I want every believer to know
that Christ has put away their sins. that his hand is on him. And I want every believer to
have full assurance. I love that song, blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste
of glory divine. If I don't have assurance, it
has something to do with me not looking to Christ because isn't
Christ alone enough to give me full assurance? He's all I need. So I want every believer to have
full assurance. And I want anyone here who has
a false assurance to find out they have a false assurance.
Wouldn't that be a great blessing if you have a false assurance
and the Lord reveals to you that your assurance is indeed false
and not real, and it will cause you to look to Christ for the
first time. Oh, that God would be pleased
to meet with us. Now, the people that we just
read about, all of their lives, these people had deceived themselves.
It was an unconscious hypocrisy. And they found out to their own
dismay that they had deceived themselves when it was too late. And they heard those awful words
from the Lord. I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Now, which of us have not read
that passage of scripture and it scared us? I read that passage
of scripture and I think, oh, I do not want that happening
to me. Can you imagine the horror of
finding out on judgment day that you thought you were a believer
all these years? You thought you were a Christian.
You thought you were saved. And you hear those awful words.
I never knew you. Depart from me. Now I pray that
the Lord will enable us to examine ourselves. Don't worry about
anybody else right now. Don't need to examine anybody
else. But didn't Paul say, examine yourselves, whether you be in
the faith? May God cause me to put myself
on trial in light of his word, to examine myself. Now, some
are afraid to examine themselves. Some never think of examining
themselves. They merely presume all is well.
And some feel that it's not a good thing to examine yourself because
that'll put you under the law or that'll put you doubting.
And we don't want anything like that to happen. But Paul did
say, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. May God
give you and I grace to do just that. Now back to our text. The
Lord says in Matthew chapter seven, verse 21, Not everyone,
but saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Now, first saying, Lord, Lord is a good thing. The
Lord said, you call me master and Lord, you say, well, for
so I am. We ought to be saying, Lord,
Lord, and we ought to be addressing him with that kind of respect.
Let me just say this on the side. It always bothers me when people
refer to the Lord as Jesus, Jesus, this, Jesus, that. You know,
the disciples never came up to him and said, Jesus, we want
you to do this or no. They called him Lord. He said,
you call me Lord and master and you say, well, for so I am. It's a good thing to call him
Lord because that's who he is. But you know, you can have a
correct belief system and not enter the kingdom of heaven.
And you can say, Lord, Lord, you can say it with emotion and
fervency and feeling and zeal. You can say, Lord, Lord. And
still not enter the kingdom of heaven. Not everyone that sayeth
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven, there must
be a doing of his will. No matter what we say, we cannot
stand in his presence apart from an actual doing of his will. I must actually do his will,
not just admire it, not know what it is, but I must do it
or I will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now look what the
Lord says in verse 22. Many will say to me in that day,
that day of judgment. Now notice the word many. Whenever
we make, want to make a point, we exaggerate it, don't we? I
don't know how many times I'll pick on Lynn right now. Whenever
she's going to make a point to me, she always says, you always
do this or you never do that. Always and never. I say, sometimes
I do, sometimes I don't. When we want to make a point,
we exaggerate it, don't we? The Lord never exaggerates. When he says many, this is a word that carries with
it a very definite meaning. Not just a few. But many will
say to me in that day, look up in verse 13 of Matthew chapter
seven, the Lord said, enter ye in at the straight gate for wide
is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.
And many there be which go in there at because straight is
the gate. And narrow is the way which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it. Now those are the Lord's
words. Not just a man trying to make
a point, but these are the words of him who never exaggerates,
who never uses hyperbole. And he says, many will say to
me in that day, that day of judgment, what would they say? Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? Now, prophesying in his name
is a good thing, isn't it? Preaching in his name is a good
thing. These fellows weren't talking about preaching error.
We preached in your name. Now I can say everything that's
right. I can say things that are true.
Balaam did. I can be like the people who
speak with the tongues of men and angels. Men may be even be
moved by my performance. But here's the problem. It's
just that it's a performance. Many will say, we preached in
your name. We've said the truth, we've given
accurate doctrine. Then next he says, many will
say, have we not cast out devils in your name? Works of spiritual
power, casting out demons. You know, Judas did this. Judas
performed all the miracles. He cast out all the demons that
all the other disciples did. He was right there with the men
on that. Many. powerful works, spiritual works
of power. And then look at their estimation
of their works. In thy name, have we not done
many wonderful works? Their estimation of their works,
many and wonderful. Now these people thought they
were saved. These people were the victims
of their own self-deception. Obviously, they had failed to
examine themselves. I think of this thing as self-deception.
You know, we can deceive ourselves by relying on the correctness
of our doctrine. I believe the right things. Beloved,
that's not faith in Christ, that's faith in your faith. That's faith
in your understanding. It has something to do with faith
in self. Some live off their religious
activity. I must be saved. Look what all
I'm doing. You can do a whole lot with no
love for Christ, can't you? It could be that my social circle
is church people. This is the people I hang out
with. And these are the people I'm with. Surely I'm saved. I'm
with these people. Well, you can do all that and
still have no love for Christ. I may be strong in apologetics
and be able to give it a defense of the faith. That's a good thing.
But you can have all that without love to Christ. Turn with me
to first Corinthians chapter eight for once for a moment. Paul says, now as touching things
offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. We know
that the idols are nothing more than idols, that they're not
living God, they're not true, they're just idols. We all have
knowledge. And look what he says next. Knowledge
puffs up. And that's what it does. I know
something you don't know. I have an advantage over you.
I know something you know. You don't know. And you know
what that does? That puffs one up with pride. That's all it
does. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity
builds up. Charity edifies a true love to
God. And if any man thinks that he
knows anything, he knows nothing, yet as he ought to know. Anything
that you think spiritually, I've got a handle on that. You don't
even have a clue. I'm sure of that. If a man thinks
he knows anything, he knows nothing. Yet as he ought to know, but.
If any man love God, the same is known, the same is recognized
of him. This is what the Lord sees. He
sees whether someone truly loves his person. Now, it's so easy
to deceive yourself. You can become, get on a tangent,
ride a hobby horse and mistake that for a true relationship
with Christ. We can be taken up with a cause
and we can think that's faith in Christ. The Lord tells us
this is going to happen to many. Many will say to me in that day,
that day of judgment. And this is something that I,
I, I hope I can say this. If I don't do it with a tear
in my eye, I'm doing it with a tear in my heart. It's a solemn
thing to think that there are people in this room who will
do the same thing. They'll make this. Statement that Lord, we, we preached
in your name. We believe the right stuff. We,
we cast out demons in your name. We did many wonderful works.
We were always doing, and then they'll hear those awful words.
Depart from me. I never knew, you know, you think
of the Lord saying, I never knew you. We said, well, I know the
Lord. He says, well, I don't know you. You know, he knew who
they were. He knew exactly who they were.
He knew everything about them. But he says, I never knew you.
I never loved you. I never knew you to have a relationship
with me. I never knew you to feed upon
me. I never knew you in your own soul to stand in awe of me
and love me. I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Now, every one of us beginning
right here, the one talking to you. We're all so quick to justify
and vindicate ourselves. I'm quick at it. We all have
such a propensity to self-deception. I hope you believe that. The
Lord gives us this warning. Many will say unto me in that
day. Now these people, had deceived
themselves and discovered it when it was too late. Now, according to our Lord, there
must be not just saying correct things, but there must actually
be a doing, a doing of His will. Now, what is the will? We read
of the will of God, the will of man, What is the will? If I'm going to enter heaven,
I'm going to have to actually do God's will. Well, what is this thing
of will? Well, the will is the intent. It's the purpose. It's the desire. Our will directs
everything we do. We do what we want to do. When
I say we don't have a free will, it doesn't mean we don't do what
we want to do. We do exactly what we want to do. But the will
is controlled by the nature. God has a will. You have a will. Men have will. People talk about
free will. There's no such thing. It's really
an absurdity. Your will is controlled by your
nature. God doesn't have a free will. God's will is controlled
by his nature. God can't see him, can he? Can
he just up and decide to see him? No, because he's got a holy
nature. His will is controlled by his
nature. To say man has a free will is a declaration of the
sovereignty of man's will. His will trumps God's will. His
will has control over God's will if man has a free will. So when
we talk about the will, what that means is the intent. It's
the desire. It's the purpose. It's what you
want to do. It's what drives what you want
to do. Now, The will of God is God's
intent. It's God's purpose. It's God's
desire. But there's something different
between His will and our will. We have a will, but we don't
have the power to make anything we will come to pass, do we?
You might want to, but when it comes right down to it, you can't
make sure your will is done. God can, because He is all-powerful. He has omnipotence behind His
will. Now, when we talk about the will
of God, there is the secret will of God, and there is the revealed
will of God. And what the secret will of God
is, it's the stuff you don't know. Stuff I don't know. There's a
lot of things God wills that I don't have any idea about what
it is. It's secret. Remember the scripture that says
the secret things belong to the Lord, but the things which are
revealed belong to us and our children that we might do the
words of this law. There's the secret will, there's
the purpose, there's the decrees of God. For instance, God has
a will. He's got the names of everybody that's gonna be saved
written in the Lamb's book of life. We don't know who they
are. I've said this before, there is such a thing as the Lamb's
Book of Life. Scripture teaches that for sure. And the names of all of God's
elect are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. They'll all be saved. God chose
them to salvation. Christ died for them. They'll
all be saved. But you and I don't know whose name is in that book.
I know this. If I had access to that book,
I'd know whose name I'd be looking for. And it wouldn't be you. I'd look for you after I found
out. But first, I'd be looking for me. But that's the secret
will. We don't know that, do we? And
then there is the revealed will of God, His will of command. His secret will, His will of
decree and command, His will of purpose is always done. It's never thwarted. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He. In earth and sea and in all deep
places. You see, God can't will something
and then it not happen. His will is never thwarted. Then His will of command though,
is not always done. We talk about his will of command
or his will of precept. What do I mean by that? Well,
the thou shalts and the thou shalt nots. That's a will of
command. When I do a thou shalt not, I break his will of command,
don't I? If I do not do what he tells
me to do, I do not do his will of command. Now, God's will. God's will is essential. You
know what that means? That means nothing takes place
without it. God's will is eternal. It never
began to be. Whatever his will is now, it
always has been and it always will be. God's will is immutable. He never changes. God's will
is efficacious, and that means it cannot be thwarted. God's
will is causeless. There's no cause outside of himself
that makes him do what he wants to do. He never responds to anything.
Now, me and you, we're always responding, aren't we? Something
happens, we try to put out this fire, we try to get... God never
responds. God's will is sovereign. That
means his will is done. And God's will is supreme. God's
will, I love thinking about God's will. It's demonstrated in creation
when he just willed the universe into existence. Creation was
here because he willed it. His will is done in providence.
Everything that's happened to you today, everything that happened
yesterday and everything that will happen tomorrow, God purposed
it, willed it and decreed it. Now you did what you wanted to
do. No doubt about that. But you did what God purposed
for you to do. God's will is absolutely sovereign. And the sovereignty of his will
is most especially seen in salvation. If you're saved, it's because
he willed your salvation. Of his own will begat he us through
the word of truth. That we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creation. It's not of him that willeth,
the scripture says. It's not of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. Now that's the sovereign will
of God. That is his will of purpose. And we are saved that we might
know his will. Listen to the scripture. In Acts
chapter 22, verse 14, Ann and I said to Paul on the road to Damascus,
the God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou mightest know
his will. Now that does not simply mean
I know what God's will for my life is. You know, people are
always trying to figure out what God's will for my life is. What
would he have me do? Well, you're up to your neck in it. I'll assure
you of that. But knowing his will is not so
much knowing what he'd have you do or knowing what his will is.
Knowing his will is loving his will. You know, when the Lord said, depart
from me, I never knew you. He knew exactly who they were.
He knew exactly what they'd done. What he's saying is, I never
loved you. Adam knew his wife Eve. He loved her. That's what this
thing of knowing his will is. It's not just knowing what it
is. It's not just knowing the correct
things to say. It's a love for his will. Where you truly say from the
depths of your heart, not my will. but thine be done. And that's what we pray when
we pray. We're taught to pray, Our Father
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy
will be done. The essence of holiness is not
my will, but thine be done. Take my will and make it thine. It shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is thine own.
It shall be thy royal throne. A believer is saved to know,
to esteem, to love his will. Now I appeal to every believer.
Aren't you glad? Don't you love the fact that
the will of the Lord is done? Aren't you thankful His will
is always done and no one can thwart His will and that He is
in absolute sovereign control? You know, we read in Ephesians
6, 6 of doing the will of the Lord from the heart. Now, the
Lord does not speak merely of knowing His will. And that means
loving it more than just knowing what it is, but loving. But He
also speaks of doing His will. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that
doeth. I must myself personally do the
will of God or I will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now we
have all broken God's will of command. Guilty? Guilty. We have all broken God's
will of command. And our hope of salvation is
found somewhere in his will of decree. Let me show you what
I'm talking about. Turn with me, Hebrews chapter
10. Verse seven. Then said I, this
is a quotation from Psalm 40, these are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book
it is written of me to do thy will. Oh God, now there's somebody
who did his will. Above, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, the first covenant of works, that he may establish
the second. By the witch will, by God's will,
we are sanctified once full through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. Now, by God's will, we are sanctified. You know what that word means?
We are declared by God himself to be holy. Through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ, through what Christ did on the
cross, we are sanctified once for all. That means something
that's perfectly completed and it's never to be repeated. It's
a completely accomplished act. I find my salvation in the will
of God's decree. James 1.18, of his own will begat
he us through the word of truth. Now, this I know, a man may have
never heard of the distinctions between the will of command and
the will of decree, but any sinner, you listen to this very carefully,
any sinner who has ever asked for mercy knew as sure as he
was a foot and a half high that it was up to God to give it to
him or to withhold it. It was up to God's will. The
leper knew that. Lord, if you will, if you will,
You can make me clean. Anybody who's ever sought mercy
has known whether they, they might not have known the theological
distinctions and differences between will of decree and will
of command, will of purpose and will of precept and so on. But
they know that salvation is in God's hands. It's up to him as
to whether or not I'll have it or whether or not I won't. And
that's the way I come to it. And if I come any other way,
I'm coming on the basis of God owes me something. And I will,
by the grace of God, I won't come that way. Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. Now, I understand. Salvation
is up to his will. I understand that, but that still
doesn't get us away from this. He says, not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will. of my father, which is in heaven. Now, I love God's will. I understand
God's will. I understand salvation is utterly
in his will. It's not up to me. I understand
all that. But what is this thing of doing
his will? Now let's go to a familiar passage
of scripture in John chapter six. Verse 38. 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 had sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing. but should raise it up again
at the last day. Now here's the first thing I
know about God's will. It's God's will for all the elect. Everybody
Christ died for to be saved. See that, don't you? That's what
he says. I mean, what else? But let's go and read verse 40.
And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth
the son and believeth on him, may have everlasting life and
I will raise him up at the last day. Now, does that mean we got
to see him physically? Obviously not. I don't know what
the Lord looks like, but you see who he is. Whom do men say that I am? Well,
they say good things about you. Whom say ye that I am? Thou art
the Christ, the son of the living God. You see who he is. The Lord said, he that has seen
me has seen the father. You see that all that the father
is dwells in the son. Do you see that? All that God
is, is in the Son. Hold your finger there and turn
to John chapter 12, verse 20. And there were certain Greeks,
Gentiles among them that came up to worship at the feast. The
same came therefore to Philip, which was a best say it of Galilee,
desired him saying, sir, We would see Jesus. Would that be you
too? We would, this is our desire.
This is our will. We want to see Jesus. We want to see who he is, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's go and read the same. Verse 22, Philip cometh to tell
Andrew and again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus
answered them saying, the hour has come. that the son of man
should be glorified. Now listen to this. If you ever
see him, you will see him glorified. Now that's not just religious
mumbo jumbo. It means something. The Lord
said in John chapter 17, verse four, I have glorified thee on
the earth. I have finished the work that
thou gavest me to do. When you see him glorified, you
see him having finished whatever it was the Father gave him to
do. Do you believe when he said it
is finished, it really was finished? That salvation was accomplished
by what? I tell you, those are the sweetest words to me, I know.
It is finished. Finished! Nothing, he finished
it. Now that's what it is to seem
glorified. You see that when he bowed his
mighty head and said it is finished, salvation was accomplished. Now let's go on reading. He said,
this is what you seem and seem. The hours come that the Son of
Man may be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. You see that his death brought
forth much fruit, even the salvation of everybody he died for. Here's
what happens next when you see him. He that loveth his life
shall lose it, and he that hates his life in this world shall
keep it into life eternal. If you ever see Him, you'll hate
your life in this world. You're not going to seek to save
your life. You look to Him. Verse 26, If any man serve me,
let him follow me. You'll follow. You ever see Him,
you'll follow Him. If you're not following Him, it's because
you've never seen Him. Because all who see Him, follow Him. And where I am, there shall my
servant be. If any man serve me, him will my father honor.
Now go back to John 6. Verse 40. And this is the will
of Him that sent me, that everyone would seeth the Son. That means
you see who He is, and here's what happens next. You believe
on Him. Everyone that seeth the Son and
believeth on Him. You're trusting Him. You're relying
on Him. All of your hope of salvation
is in the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what it is to believe on Him. You are utterly relying on who
He is and what He did as all that is needed to save you. Now
if you see the Son and believe on Him, you're doing as well.
Look in verse 27 of the same chapter, John chapter six, the
Lord said, labor, not for the meat, which perishes, but for
that meat, which endures unto everlasting life, which the son
of man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed.
Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work
the works of God? They heard him say, labor not for the meat
that perishes. All they heard was work. What
kind of work do we need to do? What shall we do that we might
work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath
sinned. You know what comes after that? A period. A period. Not an and, but a period. Turn to 1 John chapter 3. Now, my salvation, if I'm saved,
if you're saved, Our salvation is found wholly in the will of
God, isn't it? Because God willed my salvation.
That's the only reason I can find for my salvation is because
God willed it. And all that Christ did is a
result of the will of God. Now the only way that can be
seen is me actually doing His will and doing His commandment. I look in first John chapter
three, verse 23. And this is his commandment that
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. and
love one another as he gave us commandment. Now this is a commandment
I must personally keep. Now I love the fact that the
Lord calls this a commandment. You don't come to Christ because
you're one of the elect. You come to Christ because he
commands you to. That's your reason for coming.
You don't come say, well, I'm one of the elect, so I'm coming.
No, you come because you'll find out you're one of the elect from
that. You will, but you don't come on the ground of your election.
You come on the ground that he commands you to. And listen to
me. He commands you to believe the gospel. He commands you. to believe on the name of His
Son. He commands you to believe that
all your salvation is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not in you, it's in His
name. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake. has forgiven you. He saved them for His name's
sake. He's commanding you to trust
the name of His Son as all, not the minimum, but the maximum
and everything else, as everything in your salvation. Aren't you
glad that's a command? Your right to do it is because
He commands you to. And beloved, this is a command
that I keep. This is a doing of the will of
God, believing on the name of His Son. If you believe on the
name of His Son, you're one of those people who does His will. Not just admires it, but you
do it. And he said, This is His commandment
that we believe on the name of His Son and love one another
as He gave us commandment. Now, this is the same thing as
faith without works is dead. If you really believe
on His name, you will love His people. You will be servant to
His people. That's what you want to do. And
that's the doing of His will. Now regarding that day that our
Lord is speaking of, John Newton said this, when I stand before
our Lord on that great day, there will be three facts in which
I will marvel. One, there will be believers
there that I did not expect to see there. Two, There will be people missing
that I surely expected to see them. And third, but the great
fact that I'm there will be to the praise of the glory of his
grace. You know that so don't you? When
I stand before thy throne, dressed in beauty, not my own. When I
see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord,
shall I fully know, but not till then, how much I owe. Let's pray together.