I'm glad to be in front of this
stand, but I have a certification list this week. Also, Kerry Hodges
added him to the list. Rob James is doing okay. I don't
know how he'll leave. I don't know if he can change
that. He's gradually getting better. There's nothing they can do. Debbie's out today. She's got
some severe vertigo. It's not due to what vertigo
is usually due to, I don't think. Since she had that lens put in
the cataract eye, her vision in that eye is gaining more light. And she's able to see a little
bit better in that eye, but she's on her old prescription. And
that bad eye doesn't match up with the good eye, so she's having
issues with how she sees things. And so it's throwing her off
balance, and she's not breathing. for whatever reason, and we'll
bring them safely back home to us. Let's begin our worship service
this morning with hymn number 266, Fade, Fade, Each Earthly
Joy. is mine. is mine. Jesus is mine! Tear not my soul away, Jesus
is mine! Here would I ever stay, Jesus
is mine! Perishing pains away, Jesus is
mine. lost. Jesus is mine! Farewell mortality, Jesus is
mine! Welcome in eternity, Jesus is
mine! The Gospel according to Matthew
chapter 7. Beginning with verse 21. 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. 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 have
done many wonderful works. Then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you. Depart from me, and ye that work
iniquity. Therefore, whosoever hears these
sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise
man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descendeth,
and the flame of floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon
that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them
not, shall be likened to a foolish man, who has built his house
upon the sand. The rain descended, the floods
came, and the winds blew and beat upon the house, and it fell,
and great was the fall. He came to pass from Jesus, and
in these days, he said, the people were astonished at his doctrine,
for he taught them as one had thought, and not as the scribes. Our Father, we thank you for
your word, which sets things in their right order. We thank
you for a mind that has been renewed and a heart that has
been replaced, and God-given faith which enables us to understand
these words. Father, we thank you for grace
and mercy for ruined and wretched sinners. We ask, Lord, that you
might be pleased this hour to cause us to consider what our
Lord has done for us. What He continues to do for us
as He ever lives, to intercede for us. Help us, Lord, to be
thankful people, knowing full well that all we have, we have
because of Your goodness and Your mercy. Father, we pray for
those who are sick and those who have been added to the prayer
list. We ask, Lord, You to be with them, watch over them, help
them, Lord, and bring them back to a good measure of health.
Father, we pray for ourselves this hour. As we gather here,
you might be pleased to give us worship. Cause us to see Christ. Enable me by your grace to stand
and preach the gospel. I know, Father, that I am nothing,
and I can do nothing. You must hold me up. You must
lift me up in order for me to say right things concerning thee.
Help me, Lord, we pray. And help us all in Christ's name. Amen. In number 228. I need no Jesus. I need no other argument, I need
no other lead. It is enough that Jesus died
and that He died for me. My heart is beating on the Word,
the written Word of God! Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood! I need no other argument, I need
no authority... It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me... I break His will, struggle, use
my sin, but once He came to me... His precious blood He shed for
me His life He gave I need no other argument I need no other
plea It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me Father, again we come in the
name of Jesus Christ, our great Savior, our King and our Master,
the giver of all gifts and the supreme and unspeakable gift
that you've given to your people. where you have bid us to do so.
We ask, Lord, as we observe this matter of returning them to be
that which you've given us, let us do so with happiness and joy
in our hearts. We pray in Christ's name. you you you you I'd like to bring your attention
back to the seventh chapter of Matthew. This is a very familiar
passage in the Scripture. In fact, the whole chapter is
very familiar. It starts off with what people often use today to
keep people from saying anything particular verse of scripture
in verse 1 of chapter 7 as some kind of preventive measure from
you forever saying anything or correcting anyone or saying anything
about anybody. You're judging them. Our Lord
said, judge not that you be not judged. However, in this chapter,
he gives us several things to judge about in himself. Makes quite a judgment. in the
verses we read this morning, verses 7 or verses 21 through
29. Our Lord said this, concerning
this, he said in verse 6, give not that which is holy unto dogs. In order to do that, you're going
to have to judge who's a dog and who's a lion. Noah casts
out pearls before swine, so you're going to have to judge whether
someone is a swine or not before you cast your pearls before them,
and he's talking about preaching the gospel. In verse 13, he says,
Enter ye the straight gate, for wide is the way. For wide is
the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.
And many that go in then, you have to judge which is a straight
gate, which is a wide gate. In verse 15, he says, beware
of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. There's two or three judgments
involved in that one verse of scripture. John said, test the
spirits, try the spirits, whether they be of God, for there are
many evil teachers gone out into the world. In verse 17 he talks
about, verse 16 he says, you know them by their fruits. Do
men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? So you're going
to have to discern or judge between thorns and thistles. Even so,
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and a corrupt tree
bringeth forth evil fruit. There you're going to have to
judge between good and evil. And he says, every tree that
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the
fire. In that statement, after saying in verse 1, judge not
as you be not judged, he made us to come to several judgments
concerning what is evil and what is good, who is a wolf and who
is a sheep, what is a straight way and what is a dog way. All these things he set forth,
who's a dog and who's a pig. All these things are set forth
as judgments. The fact is we live our life
judging. who we want our children to hang
out with. We judge people, oftentimes,
by the color of their skin. We judge people by their actions. We make judgments all the time,
all the time. So what is our Lord talking about
when he says, there's not best ye be judged? He's talking about judging a
brother or a sister in Jesus Christ. Because you see, a brother
or sister in Jesus Christ has already been judged. They've
been judged in Jesus Christ. Their sins have been put away.
They have no fault before God. They stand perfect in His righteousness. And who are you? Who am I to
dare to bring up anything that Christ has forgiven? that Christ
has put away. That makes us greater than Christ,
and makes Christ a liar. But we're saying, well, I know
he paid for all my sin, but I have something to say about this one.
So he says this, for what judgments he judged, he shall be judged.
And with the measure he immediately measured, do you again. What
you bring to this, you're going to pay. You're going to pay with
it, is what he said. And why beholdest thou the mote, that
is the splinter, that is in thy brother's eye, but not considering
the beam that is on thy own eye? Here's the measure of measuring
whether or not a person is sinful. Start with yourself. Start with
your own dark and black heart and sinful mind. Before you ever
say anything about anybody else, start with you. There's a boulder
in your eye, a telephone pole in your eye, and you're talking
about a brother with a splinter in his eye. That's why the Lord
says to Judge Knott, he says, how wilt thou say to thy brother,
let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam
is there not on thine eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt clearly see
clearly to cast out the mote of thy brother's eye. And then
we come to the supreme judgment of this passage of scripture
is found in the latter part of it. When our Lord makes a true
and powerful judgment about who's a brother and who's not. He makes
that judgment. He makes that judgment. The title
of this message this morning is The Confidence of False Religion. For false religion is a very
confident thing. If you don't think so, tell somebody
the truth sometime and see how well they defend their position. I can tell you, I've had people
all over to hit me, fist fight me, because I told them the truth
about the gospel. They never consider that being
angry is just, it's not a good thing when it comes to discussing
the truth. But our Lord said this. He said,
makes the statement, many people call him Lord. Many people call
Him Lord. He said in verse 21, Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord. Lord, Lord. Adonai, Adonai. That's a phrase of affection. You see, I see it on TV. I used to be a signman when it
was going on I-40 near Knoxville. A great big sign right there
in the middle of town said, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. I heard Billy Graham's son the
other day said, won't you make Jesus your Lord? I said, that
on TV? Then pray this prayer, and after
you pray this prayer, call this phone, and we'll ask you for
some money. But other than that, people say Jesus is Lord. Everybody
says that. Many people do. Everybody in
religion says it. But the fact is, you can't make
him Lord, because he made you to start with. And God made him
Lord for the foundation of the world. And he got the title of
Lord as a human being when he died and rose and resurrected
on the cross. Jesus Christ. Not everyone that's
saying to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
So he's saying a lot of people, a lot of people who claim that
he is their Lord. And they're telling the truth
whether they realize it or not. They're thinking by claiming
that, that makes him something. But the fact is, that's the one
truth of the gospel that hits every human being that's upon
the face of the earth. Jesus Christ is your Lord. He's your
Lord. That means He has absolute rights
to you, to where you'll end up. absolute rights to where you
will end up. He is the Lord. A lot of people say God loves
you. That may be true, it may not
be, because He hates the wickers of Nicodemus. He hated Esau and
loved Jacob. He may not love you. He may not
love you. Some people say Jesus Christ
died for everyone. That may be true, it may not
be true. It may be true of you. He may have died for you, but
He may not have died for you. Those for whom he died are going
to heaven. Those for whom he died are saved.
Those for whom he died are redeemed. That's what he did when he died. Not everyone that cries Lord,
Lord shall enter into the kingdom, but he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven. Now, we can look at these previous
passages that we just looked at and discuss and discern that
this is the Father's will. We make judgments concerning
what's true and what's not. What's false and what's real?
Who's a pig and who's a swine? Who's a sheep and who's a wolf?
These are judgments. How do we make that? We make
it by actions. We make it by one thing, the gospel of Jesus
Christ. This is the thing that discerns
men. This is the offense of men. Men are offended at the gospel.
Paul said in Galatians 5 11, if I would just add one thing
for you to do, give you one little act, The offense of the gospel
is removed. He said, if I preach the law,
why am I yet under persecution? He said, I'm persecuted because
I say we're not under the law. I'm persecuted because I say
there's nothing you can do to be saved, that your salvation
is holding completely in the hands and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, completely from beginning to end, from Alpha
to Omega, from A to Z, it's the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.
Him alone. And for me to add one thing or
to say to you, exercise your will. Go to Paris. You believe that it's your decision. You're adding to what he's done. Not everyone that cries, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but they that do the
will of my Father. This is my Father's will which
has sent me of all he has given me. I shall lose nothing but
raise him up again to the last day." What was the will of the
Father? For every disciple of the Lord
Jesus Christ and every saint from then on to now to declare
the gospel of grace. to declare the gospel of God's
glory. And we know His glory is tied
up in His grace and His mercy. That's where His greatest work
was. It was great work for Him to
create the heavens and the earth, but it was merely a picture of
the new creation. It's great work for Him to control
this thing providentially, which we can't ever begin to start
to understand what's going on. It's a great thing. But his great
thing, that which glorifies him according to his own words, the
proclamation of Jesus Christ, the spreading of the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the showing forth of his goodness, showing
mercy on whom he will and showing grace on whom he will, that all
has to do with the salvation of the elect. So what glorifies
God? The death of Jesus Christ or
the salvation of his people. This is what it is to be in the
will of God. People talk about that a lot.
I want to be in the will of God. You are. Everybody is. Everything
that rise and wriggles on the face of this earth, every grain
of sand is in His will. This universe is in His will. All things are in God. All things
are before Him. He controls all things. He creates
darkness. He creates evil. He does all
this because He's the Lord. The absolute Lord. To do His
will is to declare His glory. To declare His glory. Now here's
what religion says is their salvation. This is what men say. They put
forth as evidence that they are children of God. What do you
have as a child of God? What do you really have? That's
an evidence of salvation. Any work you do is not perfect,
is it? So how can it have anything to
do with salvation? Any thought you have has no merit, does it?
Not, for it will stand alone before God without sin. For everything
we do is full of sin. What is it then? What is it then
that is your evidence? One thing in Scripture. One time,
well actually the word is used twice, but only one time in reference
to salvation. Hebrews chapter 11. What is the
evidence of salvation? Faith is the evidence of integrity,
the substance of things not seen. That's the evidence. Don't you
have something else? I go to church, they speak with
you. Well, I pray. These people did.
I attend. I give. These people did. I live a holy life. These people
did. Our Lord says they did. He does not discount the fact
that they've done everything they said they did. Everything. This is their evidence. The true
evidence is this, and it doesn't make any sense to the world.
Don't even think it ever will. But this is the evidence, I believe.
There's got to be more than that than none. Faith is the evidence
of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen. Nowhere in
Scripture does it say otherwise. People will go to James and say,
well, you're justified by your works. I mean, you're justified
by men, babe, before men, not before God. Because when that
was said, James uses two characters, Abraham and Rahab the harlot
is an example. And both of them were liars.
Abraham lied to Abimelech. Rahab lied about spies being
in her house. But their works were justified
before men. What is your hope? Faith is the
evidence of things hoped for, the substance, the evidence of
things hoped for. Why do you hope? Because I believe.
God's given me faith to believe so, that's why I have hope. It's
the substance, the tangible reality of eternity. Hope, substance
of things, not seen, not seen. But what is religion's evidence?
They have evidence. I mean, I've talked to folks. And I used to think I had evidence
when I was in false religion. I had all kinds of evidence.
I went down front 20, 30 times. I weeped over altars and cried
and carried on. I prayed. I tried to read the
Bible, but I got tired and never got through it. I've done all those things. I
went to church. I give 10% of my money. I was in Sunday school. I was
a Sunday school teacher for a while. Those were the evidences I had.
People said, you know, I said, well, I walked down an aisle
when I was 12 years old. Don't tell me I'm not saved. That was my evidence. And the
one thing that threw the evidence I didn't have. And that was God-given
faith. But these folks have evidence.
They said, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Aren't
we preachers? Haven't we preached? Haven't
we told? Haven't we been soul witnesses? Soul winners? Haven't
we went out on visitation night? Haven't we done all that? That's
an evidence. That's an evidence. They've done
something. They've not been idle. They're not like you folks, knocks
on the wall, sitting here, just coming here on Monday, Sunday
nights, Sunday afternoon, Wednesday nights. They're not like you
bunch. They're busy, bud. They're out
there doing business. They prophesied my name. And they did it. And in my name,
we cast out them. We changed people's lives. We
have ministries that have helped people get out of addictions,
get out of illnesses, adulterous relationships. We've got people jobs. We've
established houses for people to stay. We've done all this.
We've done that. We've done that. We've cast out
devils. We've made people better. And
they have. In the natural realm, they've
made people better. They've made people better. And in thy name, we've done many
wonderful works. Not just works. Wonderful works. Works full of wonder. We've done
many things. Many things. We're philanthropic. We give our time to give ourselves. And they do all these things,
and they say, Lord, look at this. Like those in Isaiah chapter
58, that fasted. You complain because you didn't
feel like the Lord was paying attention. And there's a whole
group of people that tell you if you do such and such, the
Lord has to pay attention to you. Like if you gather a prayer
circle or a prayer chain or some kind of silly thing like that,
you need to get people together that God has to do something.
He just can't. God does as He pleases in heaven and earth and
all the deep places. And you and I don't move Him
at all. If you pray a prayer as a child of God, know this,
that to say with David, God put it in my heart to pray, therefore
I pray. Therefore I pray. He knows what
you're going to pray before you pray. He knows. He knows the words that you're
going to speak before they ever sit on your tongue. Ever sit
on your tongue. The wonderful works that these
people do are real. They're real. But the judgment is this. The Lord says, I never knew you. Now we know that he foreknew
all of his elect, elect according to the foreknowledge of God.
Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of the Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many. Rather, moreover, whom he did predestinate, him he also
called, whom he called, him he also justified, whom he justified,
him he also glorified. Why should we say that these
things of God before us, who can be against us? We know that
God has done all of that, done all of that. He knew his people. Known unto the Lord are all his
wine. Known. If he knows you today,
it's because he's always known you. In the sense of salvation. And
he knows you otherwise too. He created you. But to foreknow
you. If he foreknew you, he could
not say, if he foreknew these people, he could not say to them,
I never knew you. He couldn't say it to her. I never knew you. You're not in the Lamb's Book
of Life written in the name before the foundation of the world.
You're not in the will of the new covenant. You're not in that. You're not included. When Jesus
Christ died and ratified that covenant by his blood, that last
will and testament of God, your name was not on that will and
testament. No matter what you've done, No matter what you've done,
to do the will of God. What might we do to do the works
of God, they asked Jesus Christ. In John chapter 6. He said, this
is the work of God. That you believe on him whom
you sin. That you believe on him whom you have sinned. Then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you. Depart from me. Get away from
me. Back off. Get out of my sight. This is the Lord of Glory sending
you. Could it be that such professions
of altruism and appreciation of
the things of God supposedly anger the Lord Jesus Christ? depart from me. Who did our Lord get angry with
when he was walking on this earth? Men who had all the evidence
that you could ever have that you was a godly person. That's
who he got mad at. To the Pharisees and the scribes
and the holy men and the priesthood. He called them snakes He called
them vipers. He called them whited sepulchers,
which is whited graves or whited coffins. He called them open
graves full of dead men's bones. He called them a clean cup on
the outside, but the inside is corrupt. This is what he said. Who got
him mad? Who got him angry? Who got him angry enough to call
the very high priest of Israel You, who I didn't want. You're
just a painting. You're just a cover-up. What
made him mad? People who professed to know
him, did not know him, but professed to. I never knew you. And notice the next. What are
all these good words you need to do? What is it to prophesy in his name? They didn't use Buddha or Muhammad. They prophesied in the name of
Jesus Christ. In his name. In his name. By the name and the power of
Jesus, they cast out devils. That's what this is. And in thy name. All the works
we do, we give you credit for it. In thy name, we give mighty
wonderful works. What does our Lord call those
works? Iniquity. Sin. Iniquity basically is inequity
or unrighteous. It means crooked. It means crooked. He said, all your wonderful work,
your wonderful work, that's iniquity. Casting out devils in my name,
that's iniquity. Prophesying in my name, that's
iniquity. He said, it's iniquity. They
did it all in Jesus' name. He said, it's iniquity. And he gives this last bit of
understanding. about believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ, walking that narrow road, not the wide and broad road,
entering in a straight gate. One more reason to come, he said,
that gate is so narrow, you can't carry no baggage with you. It's so narrow, you can't even
come in unless you're naked. You can't have nothing. You can't
have nothing. What is it? He said, Therefore
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
them, I will liken him to a wise man. Here he makes another judgment. A wise man. which built his house
upon a rock. We sing, my hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, on Christ
the solid rock I stand on. Mavis said he took me from the
miry clay and set my feet upon the rock, Christ Jesus. You who've
ever done any building or rock work or any of that, you know
the first thing you do is give a footer. four concrete, lay a foundation,
and you build that foundation up on that foundation. Why do
you do that? I remember many years ago I had
a rock job laying a rock job over in Culloween. This lady, an elderly lady had
been taken advantage of in several ways. They built her a rock,
built her a chimney for her. for a wood stove and they'd actually
put the tiles in caddy corners so the wood smoke was actually
coming up on the outside of the tiles, outside of the flue. They built a 100-foot rock wall.
It was pretty. But they hadn't dug a flue. And
they hadn't put in rebar, because this was a circular wall. Made
the wrong way to hold it back, by the way. If you're going to
hold back the land, you build it into the land. But this was a
beautiful wall. But it came tumbling down. It
came tumbling down. It didn't have the foundation.
So we had to take all that rock out. That's a 100 foot wall now,
about 8 foot, 10 foot tall. Need a foundation, four footing,
and build a new rock wall. And that one's still there, I
guarantee you. We had to redo our chimney, too. It's still
there, I guarantee you. Because we had a foundation.
We had a foundation. He said, it's like a wise man
who built his house on rock. He said, when the storms come,
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon the house, and it fell not, it stood, for it
was founded upon a rock. And it says something about these
people who prophesied, who done many wonders, who cast out devils.
Your foundation is not the rock. Their foundation is what they've
done. He says a wise man builds his
house upon the rock. He's heard the words of Christ
and does them. Every man that hears these sayings
of mine and doeth them not should be like a man who builds
his house upon the sand. The rains descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon the house, and
it fell. And great was the fall thereof. Great was the fall. It was total and complete destruction. Kind of like if the Lord said
to you, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. Again, the passing of the Lord
over these saints, the people were astonished at this doctrine.
Why? Because it's never been taught like this before. The
whole old covenant was built upon your doing. The entire old
covenant was commissioned upon your obedience. If you obeyed
God, then you'd get a blessing. If you disobeyed, you'd get a
cursing. This was the setup of the old covenant. This is all
they needed. They were the kind of folks who
went to temple. They were the kind of folks who prophesied. They were the kind of folks who
did wonderful works. When they passed by a beggar,
they always cast an alm in his basket. They fasted. They prayed three times a day
facing eastward. They fasted when they were supposed
to fast. They did all of these things.
This was their life. This was their foundation. This
was their covenant with God. And our Lord said, none of that
matters. None of that matters. That is
your foundation. It builds your house on the sand.
And when the trials and the tribulations and the winds and the torrents
of this world come, your foundation or your house will not stand.
They were astonished because he was saying things that nobody
had ever heard before. He taught them as one having
authority and not as the scribes. I'm told that the scribes would
sit in public places or sit in the temple and they would read
the scriptures. Just repeat them, just read them, and that was
it. And they'd close the scriptures and go home. Our Lord taught the Word because
He was the Word of God. And the question is, is your
house built on one? Or is it built on the same? What's your evidence? That you're
a child of God? What are you gonna say? If you stand before Christ as
a judgment in this, and you come forward with this answer, we
do great things for you. What's the gospel about? What
you do. what has been done, what Christ
has done for his people. Father bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.