words of our Lord Jesus Christ's
Sermon on the Mount, and that in these closing words
he warned his hearers of four things. In verse 13, he warned
them against following the crowd. He said, Enter ye in at the straight
gate, For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth
to destruction, and many, many there be which go in thereat.
Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, confined
and restricted to one person, I am the way," he said. Other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. There's none
other name unto heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. He's the way. And he leads to
life. He's the way, he's the truth,
he's the life. But few there be that find it.
They find it when it's revealed to them by the Spirit of God.
And then he warned us in verse 15 of false teachers, false preachers. As Peter said, as there were
many false prophets among Israel, there'll be many false preachers
in the churches. And our Lord said that they'll
come to you disguised. He said they come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves. But you can
recognize them. There's a certain way to recognize
them, and that is by their which is their doctrine, their message,
their message. The Prophet or the Apostle John
told us to try the spirits, whether they be of God. If any man denies
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, he's not of God. So
we try the spirits, the preachers, Those who claim to be preaching
in the power of God's Spirit, we try them by the word. Their
doctrines, their word, the messages, they preach the message, and
then the effects of their message. The effects of the message. Now
here's what he says, do men gather grapes of thorn? Thorns don't
produce grapes, and a false gospel won't produce a true believer.
The men gather figs of thistles, even so every good tree, every
good preacher, good prophet, true preacher bringeth forth
good fruit. But a corrupt tree, a corrupt
preacher can't bringeth forth only evil fruit. A good tree
cannot. The gospel of God's grace cannot
bring forth evil fruit. It cannot. And neither can a
corrupt gospel bring forth good fruit." That's what he's saying.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is cut down
and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their doctrines,
by the results of their messages, by the effects of their preaching,
that's how you recognize them. Now then, he warns in these next
two or three verses, He warns all who entertain any notion
of being accepted by God, of God, on the basis of what we
do for God or in the name of God. We are not accepted by any
service or works that we do for God or even in the name of God. Listen. Not every one that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Not
everyone that calls Christ Lord. You see these meetings where
they have a big sign up behind the preacher, Jesus Christ is
Lord. Well, not everyone that says,
I'm Lord, or calls me Lord, or professes to believe I'm Lord.
Not everyone who's called by his name, or calls upon his name,
or does things in his name, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
There are two words, two key words here, and I'll see if you
pick them up. 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. What are the two words? Saith
and doeth. Not everyone that saith, but
everyone that doeth. It's not everyone that saith
Jesus is Lord, or calls him Lord. But it's the man, woman, young
person who bears the will of God. John, 1 John, if you'll
turn over to 1 John, chapter 1, John clarifies this point
so clearly. He says in 1 John, chapter 1,
verse 6, if we say, You know what the Lord said?
Not everyone that sayeth, Lord, Lord. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Verse 8, if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. Verse
10, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. His word
is not in us. Not everyone that saith. You
see, professing and possessing many times are different. Saying is not doing. But he says, he that doeth the
will of my Father which is in heaven. Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, or says that Jesus is Lord, or says he
believes in the name of the Lord, or says he's a believer, or says
he's converted, shall enter the kingdom of God, but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven. Can I offer some light
on this? What is it to do the will of
God? Well, there's some fellows that
ask him that, back here in John 6. John 6, turn back there. And while you're finding John
6, when our Lord said, he that did the will of my Father, he's
not referring to merely performing outward obedience to commandments
and laws and ordinances, because these very people here just said
that's what they did. They said, we preached in your
name, we prophesied in your name, we did many wonderful works in
your name. They kept telling him what they did. So when our
Lord says, he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven, he's not talking about something we do outwardly, like
keeping laws and commandments and duties and keeping a day
and doing these different things. That's not what he's talking
about. Because a lot of people, they claim to duties and deeds
and works to do not do the will of God. So he is doing the will
of God. They ask him in John 6, verse
28, Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works
of God? That's what we're talking about, isn't it? Do? What shall
we do? He's a doer, the will of my Father.
And they ask him, What shall we do? He answers in verse 29,
and Jesus answered and said, this is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. There's the start. Doing the will of God is first
and foremost and primarily believing God. That's where it starts. Abraham believed God, and everything
that followed was a result of believing God. Doing the will of God is, first
and foremost, loving God. Peter, do you love me? You know
everything. You know I love you. Feed my
sheep. Doing the will of God is, first
and foremost, trust in him only. for life and salvation. And that
faith and love and trust is the source and motive for all obedience. And without which, nothing that
you do is acceptable to God. Not everyone that says, Lord,
Lord, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father." And this is the will
of my Father. Look at the same chapter, John
6. Look at verse 36. I say unto you, I say unto you,
you've seen me, but you don't believe. You believe not. But all that my Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I'll in no
wise cast out. 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 sent me." Do you want to do the Father's
will? Listen, "'This is the Father's will which is sent me, that of
all which ye have given me I'll lose nothing, but raise it up
at the end of the last day. This is the will of him that
sent me, that every one that seeth the Son,' that's where
it starts, who he is, what he did. Why did he? Where he is now? I see the Son.
I see the Son. And believe it on him. I believe him for righteousness,
wisdom, sanctification, and redemption in life. May he have everlasting life.
And I'll raise him up at the last day. He sees the Son, he
believes the Son, he looks to the Son at all times, for all
things, all his life. And here it is, who works the will of God, who
does the will of God, and will enter the kingdom of God. Back
to John 6 again, verse 43, these Jews, they were busybodies. They
were keeping ordinances and holy days and sacrifices and tithing
and going to tabernacle and temple and sacrificing. Jesus said unto
them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except
my Father which sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. Written in the prophets, they
shall all be taught of God. And every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me. He that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven." Now back to Matthew chapter 7. And
doing the will of God is first and foremost believing God, loving
God, and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for life and salvation. And that's the source and motive
for all obedience, without which Nothing we do is acceptable to
God. Nothing. All right, verse 22. Many will say unto me in that
day, what day is that? That's the last day. That's the
day of judgment. That's the day fixed by God,
which shall be a joy to some and terrible to others. But many
will say to me in that day, say to me, Christ, that's who, they'll
say it to him because he's the judge. John 5, 22 says no, the
Father judges no man. He's committed all judgment to
the Son. God has appointed a day in which
he'll judge the world by that man, Jesus Christ, to whom he
has given witness. in that he raised him from the
dead. So they're going to say that to me. Many religionists will say to
me, me, and they'll say, Lord, Lord, not my Lord, like Thomas said,
my Lord and my God. That's different. This is different.
Not my Lord, my God, my Savior, my Master. Lord, Lord, this was repeated
to show their sense of danger. Lord, Lord! Danger is upon them. It's repeated to show their disappointment. It's repeated to show their confusion.
They thought they'd be the first ones to enter Heaven. All these
things they'd done, all these things that they had accomplished,
all these wonderful, marvelous works that they had done. Lord,
Lord, wait a minute here. They say that to me, he said. Have we not prophesied in your
name? What does the word prophesy mean in the Bible? Two things. It means foretelling. And boy,
how these false prophets love to show their religiosity by
predicting things. going to happen, but are they
left to tell you what God said to them, what's going to happen.
What's going to happen to Russia, and what's going to happen to
China, and what's going to happen to Israel, and what's going to
happen to you, and all these things that are going to take
place, but they don't take place. But they're keen on amazing their
heroes with their prophecy, prophetical. And then another thing prophecy
means is preaching, preaching. in your name, Jesus, using the
name Jesus, blessed Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. But
I notice this about the preachers today and all my lifetime, that's
all they ever call him is Jesus. They never call him Lord. You
listen now, you listen carefully to them. No man can call Jesus Lord but
by the Holy Spirit. The disciples never called him
Jesus. They called him Master. Now they
wrote about Jesus, and they had to. They said the angel said
to Joseph, you call his name Jesus, for he'll save his people
from their sins. I'm talking about that baby.
I'm talking about that boy. I'm not talking about that Lord
that came and lived in that body. I'm talking about you call his
name Jesus. And then when they write about him, they said Jesus
said this and Jesus said that. They had to distinguish it that
way in the writings, because if they said the Lord said it,
they'd say, well, the Lord said that from heaven, so he's not
Lord, he's Jesus. The Lord's somebody else. No.
Jesus said, I am that I am. Jesus said, I am the door. Jesus
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. But when they addressed
him, and when they talked about him, they always said, Master
and Lord. Always. You mark it down. The
preachers talk about Jesus. Don't... One thing when I was a kid growing
up, I never called my daddy John. If I had, I'd just start it from
the door just as soon as I said it. That's right. But I don't call
my Lord and Master Jesus Christ Jesus. I just don't do it. You
don't ever hear me call him that. You don't hear these elders,
they call him Lord, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the Lord
Jesus. There's a lot of Jesuses all
over Mexico. But they said, we prophesied,
we preached in your name, and in your name we cast out demons.
That's another one of their specialties, not only prophesying and predicting,
but another one of their specialties is demonstrating their power
over the devil. They left to demonstrate their
power over the devil. They left to lay hands on people
and cast out demons. Cast out devils and cast out
diseases and cast, put their hands on them and got the silliest
thing I've ever seen in my life. A preacher go lays hands on somebody
and they flop down, you know. And lay there and somebody's
ready to throw a blanket over you, you know. They're playing games at the
expense of men's souls. I'm making fun, that's right,
but I'm making fun of evil men who cast out demons. That's right,
in the name of their Jesus, they cast out demons. They lay hands
on people and cast out poverty and devils and demons and They
have to catch my sane people all the time, though. I notice
that crowd down front is always the same. And then they said, in thy name
we've done many wonderful works. Listen to this. Lord, Lord, in
thy name we have done many wonderful works. There's not much humility
there, is there? There's not a grain of humility
there. We have done many wonderful works. There's one prominent
thing that stands out in this verse 22 for all to see. These people, these preachers
and religious people, lay their entire hope and expectation of
entering heaven upon what they had done in the name of Jesus. Their whole hope and expectation,
their whole argument before Christ is the thing they have done.
Not one syllable, not one syllable of what he has suffered, not
one syllable of what he has given, he gave himself. Not one syllable
of what our Lord Jesus Christ endured on the cross, bearing
our sins under the wrath of God. Not one syllable about what he
accomplished for them in eternity, in life, in death, in glory. Lord, we prophesied in your name,
cast out devils in your name, and did many wonderful works.
You compare that with Revelation 5. I want you to turn to Revelation
5 and just compare these two things. Remembering all the while,
this is the Master talking now. This is the Lord Jesus speaking. And Matthew, he's talking about
these people, not I. Matthew 5, I mean Revelation
5, verse 9. And these people in heaven, here's
another group there, at the last day. They sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof,
for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, and thou
hast made us unto our God's kings and priests, and we shall reign
on the earth, not one syllable of what they did." And then back in my text, Matthew
7, Here is an awesome and terrible declaration, an awesome and terrible
declaration, verse 23. And then will I profess under
them. This is what they said to me,
and now I will profess under them. Under whom? Well, these people who made a
public confession of faith, these people that perform religious
services, They had preached, they had opposed devils. They
did it in his name, they said. They were successful, evidently. They kept up this religious tradition
for a long time, even to the judgment. They were never disowned
by God. God never did, during their lifetime,
say this. He didn't say it until they got
to the judgment. They were never disowned by God. They were never
rejected by the world. The world followed them on that
broad road. And they were at peace concerning
their works and their professions and their religion and their
duties and deeds. They were at peace about it. But he said to them, I never
knew you. I never knew you. He didn't say,
I once knew you and I don't know you now. I never knew you. I
never did. All during your church going,
I didn't know you. All during your pretense and
your preaching and your tithing and your Sunday school teaching
and your choir singing and your rituals and all your prayers,
I never knew you. You never knew me. Not the true Lord. You had an
idol named Jesus, and you had a figure named Jesus, and you
had somebody in whose name you carried on all this foolishness.
I never knew you. Never knew you. Never! Never. Now, contrast that with John
Tien. Let's turn to John Tien. I never, he said, knew you. But
he talks in John Tien about somebody always knew. In John 10, verse
14, he said, I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and they know
me. I know them, and they know me.
As the Father knoweth me, now listen how he knows them. Even
so know I the Father, and that's how I know my sheep. And I lay
down my life for the sheep and other sheep I have. I know them Almost 2,000 years from now.
There's a fella named Mike Bartram. I'm going to save him. I know
him right now. There's a fella named Rob. I'm
going to save him. I know him. He's always known
you. You haven't always known him. He's always known you. I
know my sheep. And them I must bring, and they'll
hear my voice. They'll know. They won't hear
another voice, another shepherd, they will not follow. You can't
fool them. You can't deceive the elect.
You can deceive all these many that travel the broad road, these
Lord and Lord people, but you can't deceive his elect. They
won't listen to a false preacher. That's the reason people tell
me, I believe what you preach, but I still go down to my church
and you don't believe what I preach. You couldn't listen to a false
shepherd. You couldn't listen to somebody lie on God, if you
believe God. You couldn't listen to somebody
lie on your mother, could you? I wouldn't listen to somebody
lie on my Lord. Not for a minute. A sheep can smell a false shepherd.
Yes, he can. And he won't listen to him. They'll
hear my voice, and there'll be one foal and one shepherd. Look
at verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them. I know them, and they follow
me, and I give them eternal life, and they'll never perish, and
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father gave
them to me." When? Before the foundation of the
world. He's greater than all. And no man can pluck them out
of my Father's hand. I had my Father once. I never knew you. You never knew
me. My sheep know me. I know them.
I've led them with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn them. But let me show you something
else he says about them in verse 23. Then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Back there in the last two words
of verse 22, they called them wonderful works. He calls them
works of iniquity. They call their casting out demons
and poverty and diseases and building churches and paying
their tithe and going to Sunday school and teaching and singing.
They call that wonderful works. He called it works of iniquity.
Why would he do that? Well, two reasons. Here's the
first one in Luke 16. Luke 16, verse 15. Luke 16, 15. Now look at it carefully. They call them wonderful works.
He called them works of iniquity. In Luke 16, 15, our Lord said
to them, you are they which justify yourselves before men. That's
what they've been doing, justifying their preaching and their works
and their casting out demons. But God knows your hearts. For
that which is highly esteemed among men, wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful among men, is an abomination in the sight of God. Don't look on his outward countenance,
God said. Man seeth not as God seeth. Man
looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the higher. And
that which is highly esteemed among men, so creditable and
magnificent, oftentimes an abomination to God, because there's no heart
in it, no sincerity in it. And here's the second reason
why he calls them works of iniquity. Now listen carefully to this. They're works of iniquity because
they were performed, not for the glory of God, but for their
own glory. That's why they were doing these
things, for gain. They were doing these things
expecting to be rewarded. I read that at the first of the
service. Don't do your odds before men
to be seen of them. If you do, that's all the reward
you're going to get. Don't pray to be seen and heard
of men. If you do that, that's all the
reward you're going to get. They did these things for reward.
And they were successful and praised, and men followed them
on earth, and that's it. That's it. I hear preachers say on the television,
do this now and God will bless you. Don't you do that for that
reason. Don't you, don't do that. God's
not driving bargains with us. He just, we do it because we
love him, whether he blesses us or not. He's already blessed me more
than I could possibly expect to be blessed at any time. So
they do these works to be seen of men, not for the glory of
God. Secondly, under this same heading, their works are evil. Christ said their works are of
iniquity because what they preach and what they promote deceives
people, deceives their hearers. And their hearers hear them and
believe what they're saying, works not grace, and they perish. These wonderful works that they
did for reward and gain, not for the glory of God, misleads
people. There's a fellow up in Columbus
there with that wild, crazy church. I don't know what, forget the
name of it. You've seen it on television. He's deceiving multitudes. They're following him. They're
believing him. They're hearing him. They're doing what he's
doing. And it's works of iniquity. It doesn't matter how many hungry
people he feeds. It doesn't matter how many drug
addicts he turns around, or drunks he takes off a liquor. He's deceiving
their souls, leading them to perish. It's only Christ that
can save. It's only the gospel of grace
that can deliver a sinner. Their religious works are evil
because, according to their own testimony, It's their works and
not His. According to their own testimony,
they said, Lord, we preached. The Lord Jesus Christ said, the
Spirit of God is upon me. He has sent me to preach the
gospel to the poor. God has spoken to us by His Son. This is my Son, hear ye Him. They said, we did it. Christ
said, I did it. Who's the prophet? I'm just talking
about him. They said, we cast out demons.
Christ said, Satan has come and I cast him out. Isn't that what
he said? He said, the prince of this world
has come and found nothing in me. Now is the prince of this
world judged and cast out. He did it. You didn't do it. You can't do it. Satan has never
minded a human being ever. These human beings have minded
him a whole lot. Brother Scott called me the other
day, yesterday, on the phone. We talked a long time. Then he
said, well, I'm going to do something for you the devil won't do. I
said, what's that? He said, I'm going to leave you. You never cast a demon out. You
can't do that. Don't get playing that game now. Don't ever. A preacher warned
me about that 50 years ago. Don't ever, ever look for Satan
or demons. You'll find them. They'll make
sure you find them. They said we preached. We cast out demons and we did
wonderful work. No, you didn't. I have come to do the work of
my Father, and he did it all." It's done, it's finished, he
said. You're not going to add anything to it. Oh, my. It's not for the works
which we have done or shall hereafter do, hath God decreed on sinful
worms salvation to bestow. The glory, Lord, from first to
last is due to thee alone. credit to ourselves we dare not
take, or rob thee of thy crown. Not unto us, to thee alone, blessed
Lamb, be the glory given. Here on earth thy praise begins,
and it will be carried on in heaven. All right, one more thing
I'm going to say and I'll let you go. 24, our Lord warns against a false
foundation and instructs us to lay a true foundation. Therefore,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will
liken him unto a wise man which built his house on a rock. Would
you turn to Luke 6 just a moment and see what the Lord said. Luke
reported this. You know, the disciples in their
reporting of different occurrences and events, sometimes one will
add something that the other did not add. But it says here
in Luke chapter 6, when our Lord was saying this, verse 47 of
Luke 6, Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth
them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man
which built a house, and digged deep. and dig deep and lay the
foundation on a rock. I tell you, it takes a little
longer to build this kind of house when you dig. You just don't lay it on the
sand. You dig, dig, dig deep. Search the scriptures. Seek the
Lord while he may be found. Hear his word. Wait upon him. You don't just go throw up a
house for eternity. It's a lot easier to walk an
hour than to seek the living God, a lot quicker too. It's a lot easier to tell a human
priest that you've sinned than to go before the throne of an
awesome holy God and plead for mercy in the name of his son. It's a lot easier to receive
water on the bow than to wash at the fountain and be purged
It's a lot easier to shake a preacher's hand and make a profession than
to reach out like the woman with the issue of blood. Touch the
Lord. If I can just get the hymn. If
I stand down here and bring you to me, you won't have to go to
him with you, huh? It's a substitute, vicar. Get the hymn. This is shorter. This is saying. This is sooner. That's greater. That's right. A lot easier to
be identified with a popular church, where there's a whole
lot going on, than to be identified with a crucified Christ and a
message of grace. That's a lot easier. Don't get
near as much persecution or flak when you belong to the popular
church. That's where everybody goes, that is anybody. But everybody
out here is a nobody. It's a lot easier to eat a wafer
than to feed on the living bread, isn't it? To examine myself, whether I
discern the Lord's body. I'll just take what I give you,
I'll fix you up. A lot easier to believe doctrine
than to be crucified with Christ, dead to the world, personal goals. Digging deep and laying foundations
on the rocks. is just not characteristic of
my generation. Therefore, here's what happens.
Matthew 7. The rain descended. This man
was wise. He digged deep. He laid a foundation. The floods came, the winds blew
and beat on the house, and it didn't fall. It founded on a
rock. But everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and does
not do them, shall be likened to a foolish man who has built
his house on a sand. And the rain fell. That's trials
from heaven. rain from heaven, trials from
heaven. And the floods came, that's discomforts
from the earth, conflicts and disappointments and all these
trials. Then the wind blew, that's mysterious
trials that you can't even account for, they're just bad. And that
rain and that flood and that wind blew and beat on that house,
but it fell. Why did it fall? He didn't dig
deep and find a rock. the living stone, the chief cornerstone,
a tribe stone, a precious cornerstone, a grave. Why was the fall of
it so great? Couldn't build it back. No hope of ever building it back
because it's the last day.