Jesus’ Warning to Christians

[00:00:00] All right, let's go to Matthew, chapter seven. [00:00:04] Matthew, chapter number seven. [00:00:24] Matthew, chapter seven. [00:00:27] Verses we want to read this morning, in my opinion, are probably some of the most striking verses in the Bible, in my view, because these verses are quite spoken by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. These verses, these three little verses, are quite an indictment on Christianity. [00:00:59] And if I were to say them, you might have reason to be offended. [00:01:06] But Jesus said them, and there's a lot packed in here, and it gives us great cause to just pause and really think about what the Lord is saying. The verses I'm referring to are verses 21 to 23. [00:01:26] Verse 21 says this. Not everyone that saith unto me, lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Now, you might look at that and you might immediately, if you just stop there, you say, well, he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Well, that's simple enough. [00:01:51] Well, it gets a little more complex in verse number 22, which says, Jesus says, 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. [00:02:14] Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. [00:02:19] Let's pray. [00:02:22] Our Father, as we come to look at your word and study it this morning, so try to bring forth and focus on your message, your truth that you have given in your word. Lord, please let your spirit be among us and speaking to us, Lord, as we saw on Wednesday night. We ask you to be our teacher, Lord. To be honest, Lord, we don't know. I can't possibly know what lesson that you might have for each one of us as individuals, Lord, but you do. And, Lord, I just trust you with that to speak to each and every person here. [00:02:59] Help us, Lord, to take these three verses that you spoke in all seriousness, in the same seriousness with which you spoke them, and to examine ourselves. [00:03:11] Lord, I just pray that your guidance would be upon, of course, me as I try to explain the verses, but upon all of us as we listen to them and read them. Lord, guide our hearts and help our hearts to be tender and humble to receive them. [00:03:27] Lord, thank you for your people that have gathered here this morning and the work that you're doing in them. Lord, please continue to do your work in them. I pray that your word here this morning would help them to grow as well. [00:03:39] So, Lord, we look to you, we hope for you to do some great things in our hearts this morning in Jesus name. Amen. [00:03:50] The first thing I want to cover in these three verses is not verse 21, I want to look at the beginning of verse number 22 and I want you to, in just a minute, I want you to hold your place here and I want to look. Want to look at Luke chapter 10, Luke chapter 10. But let's read verse number 22 and I want to point out this one little phrase that we need to define and we need to make clear before we go any further. Luke chapter 10. [00:04:27] Alright, so if you got your place in Luke chapter 10, we'll look back. In Matthew 7:22, Jesus says, Many will say to me in that day. [00:04:42] Now the funny thing is, Jesus does not define this day. There are many times in Scripture, especially in the context of the coming of the Lord, the day of the Lord, that Jesus will refer to that day. But in that circumstance it's clear he's referring to the specific day of his coming. And so he'll say that day. But in this case there is no antecedent to refer to what day. There's nothing in the context to give an indication except what kind of the hints that we get from this passage. But there is another passage in Luke chapter 10 that is parallel to this I want you to to look at. I say parallel, it's similar, similar, at least in the way he used this term. So Luke chapter 10, verse number 12. The question we're trying to answer is this. [00:05:30] What day is the Lord referring to in this? Matthew 7. We have to establish that to begin, verse number 12 of Luke chapter 10 says this. [00:05:42] But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Speaking of the cities to which he went and preached, you know the word, and called them to repentance and such to believe in him, and they rejected him. And so he says, it'll be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Now again in this passage in Luke 10, he also does not define what day he's referring to. But read verse number 13 and you'll see. [00:06:12] Woe unto thee, Chorazin. Woe unto thee, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which had been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, but it shall be more tolerable. Notice the parallel language from verse 12 to verse 14. Everybody pick up on that but it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the what at the judgment than for you. So the Lord speaks two things in parallel. And in one case he says that day. In the second case, he kind of defines what that day he's referring to. And so he's referring to the judgment. And when we compare that To Matthew chapter 7, this day that Jesus refers to in 22 is also the day of judgment, is also the day of judgment. [00:07:05] We know that not only because of what I just showed you in Luke, but also because we see that Jesus himself is the judge, right? He's going to speak to people. He's going to speak to people regarding their condition at that day. And remember. And when the day of judgment comes, we call it the Day of judgment, you know, when the day in which every knee bows to the Lord and every tongue confesses and he. All of our works are tried by the, you know, the skeptical eye of the Lord Jesus. Not only our works, but also our motives, our words. Everything is brought before him and nothing is hidden and everything is announced upon the housetop. When that day comes, we're all dead, right? We're gone. This life is over. So at that point it is too late. [00:07:54] It is too late to mend our ways, to repent, to, to do whatever we needed to do to get right with God. It's too late. [00:08:03] It's over. [00:08:05] And you can see it in the way the Lord talks to these people. [00:08:09] So we see Jesus himself is the judge. But we also see that there's a certain in verse 23, there's a certain kind of final condemnation that's in view as well. He says, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. And of course this same language, depart from me in other parts of the ministry of Christ. He follows that up with and they cast him into outer darkness and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So we know this is final judgment, final condemnation. [00:08:37] This is how we know that this is the day of judgment. But there's one other thing I want you to mention. I want you to see, because it's so important to these three verses, is on the day of final judgment that those who are condemned, which is what we see here, will apparently have an opportunity to speak to Jesus and to plead their case to Him. [00:09:01] It will not be a one way conversation, it'll be a two way conversation, just as we see here. Now you say, well, how does Jesus know that? Well, because he's well, he's eternal to the Lord Jesus the judgment's already happened, right? He's outside of time, so he can say this. Listen, I've already. It's in essence the Lord is saying, I've already been to this judgment, right? I already know the outcome and I already know who's there and what they said and what happened to every person. [00:09:32] That's how he says this. [00:09:35] So that's what this day is. Now let's go back up to verse number 21. [00:09:40] Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. [00:09:47] Now pause there a second. Now, if you've been in our Sunday school, we've been in John chapter three, and we've been talking about the new birth. And Jesus said, except a man be born again, he cannot see. And then later he says he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So when we read verse number 21, just. I want to clarify. We're not speaking of going to heaven. The kingdom of heaven is not a place we go to. [00:10:10] When Jesus says, not everyone that saith me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. He's referring to being, if you will, being a child of God. It's another phraseology to describe someone who is saved. In other words, you might say it like this. Not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord is saved, is born again, has eternal life. These are all kind of synonymous, different aspects of the same kind of concept. Now, when we get to verse 22, he is speaking of going to heaven or hell, he is referring to the future state. But in verse number 21, he's talking about now. [00:10:48] He's talking about at this present moment. Because this kingdom of heaven is a spiritual kingdom. If you're. Listen, if you are a child of God, you're in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. And if you're not a child of God, you're out of it. [00:11:02] And nobody is going to go to heaven if they're not in God's kingdom, right? [00:11:08] It's just that everything we think about as far as being a believer is not about the future, it's about now. He is our king now, right? [00:11:19] We have to stop thinking about just the future in heaven. Really. Comparatively speaking, heaven as a place to which we go is a minor thing in scripture, right? Is it not? [00:11:29] What we are now is what is large in the scripture. [00:11:35] So let's move on. This is a present. This is rather a statement of the present, not of the future. And this verse is not saying, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall go to heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father. [00:11:53] He wants us to examine ourselves now because we can know that we are truly born again, that we have eternal life. From certain and for sure now we can know that we are in God's kingdom now. We don't have to wait till we die to find out. That's what a lot of people think. But it's too late then. You got to get this thing nailed down now. And that's what this passage is all about. [00:12:18] If there is a passage of scripture that is intended to cause a person to doubt where they stand with God, this is it. [00:12:29] I'll be honest with you. [00:12:31] Before I was. Before I was saved, this passage of scripture was a bother to me. It bothered me. [00:12:43] The other thing I want you to see from verse number 21 is this. [00:12:47] These people that speak to the Lord Jesus and say, lord, Lord, are they in the kingdom of heaven or are they outside of the kingdom of heaven? Heaven. These people in verse number 22, are they. Where are they at? What is their condition? [00:13:01] Jesus is speaking to them, and they are standing yet outside of the kingdom of heaven. [00:13:10] So what we're talking about is all right at this moment. Am I in God's kingdom or not? And it has nothing to do with whether you're sitting in this church or if your name is on the roll or if you've been baptized. None of that matters. But it's a question we all must ask, especially given what the Lord says. [00:13:32] Now look at verse 21 once again. It's actually mentioned in both 21 and 2. He says, not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord. And then in verse 22, many will say unto me in that day, lord, Lord. Now, not everyone that came to Jesus called him Lord. You know that. Sometimes they called him teacher or rabbi or other lesser terms. But usually in Scripture, usually when someone. In fact, I can't think of an exception, when someone approached the Lord Jesus and called him Lord. Now, you gotta think this is a. This is a big deal. It's not something they just throw it around. [00:14:05] It's not a term you just throw around. When someone approached Jesus, who was a man, I mean, he didn't have halos, notwithstanding all the medieval art, he didn't walk around with a halo or anything. He was a man, just like I'm a man, just like you're a man. He was just a man. He looked like a regular guy. [00:14:23] And so when they approached him and called him a name that was reserved for God, that was quite a statement of what they believed. Now, a teacher, well, everybody was called a teacher. The Pharisees were teachers. They were rabbi and things like that. And you do see people. In fact, even in John chapter three, for our Sunday school, what did Nicodemus call Jesus? He said, rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God. So even in that case, maybe it was a term of honor, but it was not Lord. [00:14:52] These people are calling him what though they're calling him Lord, which is a statement of their belief in what his true identity is. They know and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, yea, God in the flesh. He is the Lord of all. They recognize that. We might say it like this. They were doctrinally orthodox. What does that mean? That means they believed, right? [00:15:24] Because they're unlike the others. They're calling Jesus Lord Lord. They're calling him by his true name. And what's interesting is if you see this, he says, not everyone that saith unto me, lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven. So those that do enter, indeed call him Lord. Right. It's just that not everyone who calls him Lord enters, but everyone that does enter, for sure, recognizes who Jesus is. That's part of when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to recognize who he is. I mean, you can't. Some people, they quibble and argue about lordship, salvation, and that has three or four different meanings. And. And they argue about these things, but Jesus is nothing but Lord. He is Lord, like, period, period. [00:16:15] And so those that enter into his kingdom, enter into his kingdom, recognizing that he is Lord. Interestingly enough, Martyn Lloyd Jones says this. [00:16:27] So what we have here is not a criticism of orthodoxy. He's not saying, no, you shouldn't call me that. You shouldn't recognize who I am. These people were orthodox. They had the doctrine. Right? Right. [00:16:41] He says, it cannot possibly be, but it is a statement of the fact that if you rely only upon your orthodoxy, you may be damned. [00:16:54] I think he nailed it on the head. [00:16:57] Can a person perish in Hell believing. Right, believing, doctrinal, correct things? [00:17:09] Absolutely. [00:17:11] That's where these people are. [00:17:14] That's where these people are. [00:17:20] Now, notice in verse 21, he says, not everyone that saith in me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. [00:17:33] See, here's a. Here's a problem in religion. [00:17:37] These people call Jesus Lord. And we have a very big problem in Christianity, remember? And the reason I say Christianity is this. Look at who this audience is. [00:17:48] Look at what they're doing what activities they're engaged in. [00:17:53] You know who these are? These are churchgoing Christian types. [00:17:59] These people being described here that are calling Jesus Lord, prophesying in his name, casting out devils in his name, doing many wonderful works. No, no, no, no. Not just doing many wonderful works, but doing them in his name. Which means they weren't just benefactors or something, but they were doing it in the name of Christ under his banner. These are church going. Now, remember, this is the judgment. Think this through now. This is the judgment, the final judgment for these people and the Lord reviewing their lives. They say, we have done all. What kind. These are people that went to church, they served in the church, they called Jesus Lord. And we have a big problem because Jesus says they're going to hell. [00:18:48] Think about it. [00:18:53] But we have a big problem with thinking that if we know the right lingo and we can say the right words, we're good. If you have ever done evangelism in Greenville, South Carolina, of all places, you know that people use jargon that they learned in church to throw out to disarm any person who's attempting to press them on the question of whether they're saved. Oh, yeah, I'm saved. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I said the sinner's prayer. [00:19:20] They, you know, oh, yeah, I've been baptized. Oh, yeah. Lord Jesus Bible. Oh, yeah. Quote a few verses, you know, here and there, you know, the books of the Bible, whatever. It's just words. Just words. [00:19:32] Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord. They know the words. They know the terms. [00:19:36] It didn't matter. [00:19:39] Listen. [00:19:41] Knowing words and jargon and being familiar with religious and scriptural language does not make. [00:19:48] Does not make a Christian, does not make a man or woman right with God. [00:19:55] Beware. I'm not saying it. [00:19:58] I don't know that I would dare say something so judgmental, so skeptical and critical of other people's faith and where they stand with God. Except Jesus said it right. [00:20:16] Look at verse number 22. [00:20:23] Just. This strikes me. I hope it strikes you, too. Look at the first word. [00:20:28] What's it say? [00:20:30] Many. [00:20:32] This is not a minor occurrence. [00:20:36] Churchgoing people standing before the Lord Jesus Christ, people who name the name of Christ, who are. Believe doctrinally sound orthodoxy, who are serving in his name, who are doing good works, who are going to church and all of these things. And the Lord says many of those people will not end up in heaven with him. [00:21:03] Many. I didn't say Jesus said that. Many. This is a huge indictment on Christianity. [00:21:12] If the Lord was talking about. If the Lord Was speaking about, you know, the world, you know, the broader world, or people maybe of other faiths or religions or, you know, you know, maybe people part of a cult or what? No, no, no, he's not speaking of any of those. He's speaking of people who sit in churches just like you are this morning in America. And not only in America and other places, that's the people he's referring to and no one else. [00:21:38] In other words, Jesus is talking to us. [00:21:41] He's talking to me, he's talking to you. [00:21:49] These people are people within the church. [00:21:54] And this principle where Jesus says, many think they're right with God, but they're not. They think they have eternal life, but don't. They think they have God in them, but he's not there. They think they're going to heaven, but they're not. He says this is a mini problem. This is a big problem. [00:22:17] And this is not the only place in scripture this is mentioned. [00:22:21] Some of you know the parable of the tares and the wheat In Matthew, chapter 13, the same principle is applied there. In Matthew 25, there's a parable of the wise and foolish virgins. The foolish virgins show up expecting to enter in but cannot. [00:22:37] In Matthew 25, you see another parable. Jesus spoke of the goats and the sheep. And when he in the judgment, he separates the goats and the sheep. The principle, the timing might be a little bit different, but the principle is the same. [00:22:50] Which is there are people that show up. Look, the part of the Christian have lived the life of the Christian and are not the Christian. [00:23:00] They're not in God's kingdom. They're part of the church, but they're not in God's kingdom. [00:23:09] What can be done about this kind of self deception? And listen, I'm not saying anything. I have lived this. I have been this person. [00:23:18] I know what it's like to be 100% sure that I'm saved and not be. [00:23:26] That's where these people were. They arrive at the judgment and they speak to the Lord Jesus. And they are surprised. [00:23:35] They are stunned that the red carpet is not rolled out. [00:23:42] They are taken by complete surprise. But our Lord has told us this now while we're still alive, before we get to this final judgment of verse number 22, our Lord says it to us now to warn us to examine ourselves, lest we be of this number. And listen, if the thought goes through your mind or my mind, it says listen. Yeah, okay, that's fine. Yeah, but I'm not one of those. [00:24:12] I said that too. I thought that, too. And those of you that can relate to that know what that's like as well. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not one of those. I'm good. [00:24:24] You know, the Lord tells us not to just brush aside. This is a strict warning. [00:24:33] This is aimed directly at the Christian church. [00:24:38] The Lord's saying, do not brush this aside. [00:24:42] You need to intentionally and actively examine yourself, put yourself to the test, the scriptural test. [00:24:56] Brush it not aside. [00:25:01] Look at verse number 2. 22. Many will say to me in that day, lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? That's preaching. Have we not and in thy name have cast out devils? Is it possible that a person who's not truly a Christian, not truly a believer, casts out devils? Well, yes. It's in scripture a number of times, actually. Yeah. And in thy name have done many wonderful works. [00:25:32] Can a man preach unconverted? [00:25:36] Yes. [00:25:38] Can a man cast out devils unconverted? Yes. [00:25:43] Can a man come to church unconverted? [00:25:47] Absolutely. Can a man give tithes and offerings but be unconverted? Yeah. [00:25:55] Can a man sing in the choir or teach a Sunday school class unconverted? Yes. [00:26:02] Yeah. [00:26:04] Can a man pastor a church unconverted? [00:26:08] Yeah. [00:26:10] Can a man go to be a missionary in a foreign land unconverted? Yeah. [00:26:16] Can a person get baptized and not be converted? Mm. [00:26:22] Can a child graduate from a Christian school unconverted? [00:26:27] Yes. [00:26:29] Can a person pray unconverted? Yes. Can a person evangelize and be unconverted? Yeah. [00:26:38] And you could fill it with any number of other Christian works that fall into the category of many wonderful works in verse number 22. [00:26:47] Even though they were doing all of these things, those things that they were doing were not the sign that they were in God's kingdom. That's what deceived them when they started to have doubts. And I honestly believe that the Lord does cause people to question and doubt their condition before God when they're unconverted. I do believe that. So every doubt is not from the devil. [00:27:18] Now, of course, we know believers can doubt, too. That's a scriptural truth as well. But whenever. If we're standing outside of God's kingdom and we do not have eternal life, we ought to take seriously some doubts and question those with God's word, these people. [00:27:38] And that's the problem is when those doubts come, we think, oh, well, I mean, I go to church and I give, and I'm. You know, I. I do these things. And that thing, that is exactly what they did. [00:27:54] But they, notwithstanding all the good things, they did. They were among the wicked. Hear me, please. They were among the wicked. They were among the wicked. [00:28:05] They were on the broad road. [00:28:09] In just moments, maybe even seconds, if you can count time like that, at this point, in mere moments, they're going to be cast into the lake of fire. [00:28:25] This is frightful. [00:28:27] This is frightening to think about. [00:28:33] Look back up at verse number 21. [00:28:36] Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Now, notice this. [00:28:46] When you and I think of doing the will of God, what do we think of? [00:28:53] We think of going to church, giving tithes and offerings. Is that the will of God? Right. We think of helping those who are poor. We think of evangelizing. We think of praying, right? [00:29:08] That's what we think of, helping those in need. [00:29:14] These people did all that. [00:29:17] That wasn't the will of God. [00:29:19] Say, what does that mean we should not go to church? We should not read the Bible? [00:29:24] We shouldn't help those in need? [00:29:27] No, it's just that they missed the will of God. They were doing all those things. And yet Jesus said, not everyone that saith me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father. And they didn't do it, apparently, because they're not going. [00:29:46] Look at one place in John. [00:29:48] I want to show you this verse John, chapter 6, verse number 28. [00:30:19] Listen to what Jesus says in verse number 28. [00:30:23] This is actually what the Jews say to him. [00:30:26] Verse 28 says this. Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? [00:30:35] What did we see in Matthew 7? We saw a whole bunch of churchgoing people, not just religious people, but church going. They went to a Jesus church. They called him Lord, right? They cast out devils in Christ's name. So they knew who he was. And all of that. They went to church. [00:30:54] They were doing many wonderful works. They were preaching sermons, they were serving others. They were casting out devils. They were doing all of these things. [00:31:03] What shall we do that we might work the works of God? These people in Matthew 7 were doing the works of God. So they thought Jesus answered and said unto them. Notice what he says. He says nothing about the works of God. He says, this. This is the work singular of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. You see that these people had not done that in Matthew 7. What? They went to church. [00:31:40] They said Lord and they served and they were members. And all of that they had not believed in Christ because they're about to go to the lake of fire. [00:31:52] They did the works of God, but they didn't do the work of God. [00:31:56] You see that? [00:31:58] Because the one thing that was the will of God, they missed. [00:32:02] Yeah, yeah. And this is how. It's so deceptive, so self deceptive. They knew all the words. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe in Jesus. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done all that. But their faith and their trust was not resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:32:17] It wasn't one author. In fact, it was Martyn. Lloyd Jones actually pointed out. Something that I thought was interesting was he said that many people are not trusting in Christ, but they're trusting in their faith. [00:32:32] They're trusting in the fact of their faith. And usually all that, you chalk that up. You know what it is? It's just a mental ascent. It's just this. [00:32:42] It's like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, you know, War of 1812 or whatever other historical fact. Yeah, Jesus died for me. Yeah, but they've not done the work of God. They've done all these other things. Many wonderful works. But here he just. Jesus says, in answer to that question, he says, this is the work of God to put your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's not just a matter of the head. [00:33:07] That is one's very soul staked on the Lord Jesus Christ and his bloodshed for them. [00:33:15] That's not just nodding along with the preacher. That is not the same. [00:33:27] Back in Matthew, chapter seven, we're winding down here. [00:33:36] Verse number 23. [00:33:48] Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. [00:33:56] Galatians, chapter 4, verse 9 says this. [00:33:59] But now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God. How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage. The question is not do you know God? Because there's an easy answer to that. Oh yeah, I know who God is. Oh yeah, I know about Jesus. All that I talk, listen, almost everybody I talk to in Greenville says that. [00:34:22] But the question is, does God know you? Because this is what Jesus says in Matthew 7. Not do you know God, but does God know you? [00:34:32] Right. [00:34:34] Has the Lord Jesus Christ acknowledged you? Has he received you? [00:34:39] Not, do you know him? [00:34:45] Does God know you? [00:34:52] Then in verse 23, he says, depart from me. [00:35:00] They spent their life in church. [00:35:03] They spent their life serving in a Christian ministry. [00:35:07] They spent their life praying and reading the Bible. [00:35:11] They spent their life serving others in Christ's name giving their money, preaching sermons. [00:35:21] But now they are forever severed from the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:35:27] And as a result, they are severed from having a savior forever. They're severed from eternal life because Jesus is eternal life. They're severed from hope. They're severed from forgiveness because they never had it, no matter what they thought. They're severed from light and they're severed from love because Jesus is both of those as well. [00:35:49] Spending their whole life in a church and now severed from it, severed from Jesus himself. [00:35:59] And then he says, listen to this. You, ye, that work iniquity. [00:36:06] This is how Jesus describes this group of people that served and worked in the church. This is how he describes those that called him Lord. Jesus says to them, ye, that work iniquity. So what was happening in their life is even though they were doing wonderful works, yet they were still wicked in the sight of God. And they had no idea. [00:36:29] The problem is that their life was a life that was not characteristic of a born again person. Their life was still just head to toe involved in sin. [00:36:40] And they somehow excused that, well, I do all these other things, I do the good works and I serve in the church and I give money and all these other things. And yet their life is screaming, you're wicked. You're still in the bond of iniquity. You're not converted. Look at you. Look at your life. It's screaming, you're yet outside of God's kingdom. There is no power of God in your life at all. There's no spirit of God working in you. Look at your life. That's what the law is designed to do. Look at yourself compared to God's law. [00:37:17] Are you a wicked adulterer, slanderer, ungodly person, covetous person, loves money. Listen, the Lord wants all of these things to shout to you. You're still in iniquity. [00:37:32] That's what he says to them churchgoing people. [00:37:38] They should have known. [00:37:40] They should have known the whole time because their life testified to it. [00:37:50] But they didn't. [00:37:52] They excused it by saying, well, look at all the good things I do in Christ's name I call him Lord. [00:38:02] And in the end the Lord calls them ye workers of iniquity. [00:38:08] Titus says this. [00:38:11] Listen to this verse. [00:38:15] They profess. Titus 1:16. They profess that they know God. Is that not what we just read? [00:38:24] Jesus said, I never knew you. These people say, I know God. They profess that they know God, but in works that is their life. They deny him being abominable and disobedient. And unto every Good work, reprobate. [00:38:40] You see that their life does not match what they're saying. [00:38:47] And the sad thing is, in the end they have soothed their conscience and the wickedness of their life that testifies to their condition before God. They've soothed the troubled heart that should come from that by saying, but I do all the good things. I do everything I'm supposed to do. I'm good. [00:39:10] And God says, they're not good. [00:39:17] To close, I want you to if you would look at Second Corinthians, chapter 13, it why did the Lord say these troubling words? [00:40:01] Why did he direct it to church people? [00:40:05] Why did he tell us this? Why did he trouble our soul and our shake our confidence? So why did he do that? This is quite an indictment of every person in this room. You know that? [00:40:19] The challenge given to every person, myself included. No exceptions. [00:40:26] The purpose of the Lord's words as I understand them here. [00:40:30] First of all, to warn us of the reality of self deceived false professors of his name. [00:40:40] They exist and there's many of them. [00:40:44] Number two, the purpose of our Lord's words here is to challenge our assumptions about ourselves. [00:40:54] And number three, the purpose of our Lord's words here is to challenge those things which we use to assure ourselves that we're truly saved. [00:41:06] Here's the thing. [00:41:10] Here's the thing. [00:41:12] You can absolutely know you're saved for certain and not be in this number. [00:41:17] The Lord wants you to know it, but you have to challenge yourself with the scripture and find out if your assurance is in Scripture. [00:41:31] You have to examine yourself, because a lot we pat ourselves on the back and assure ourselves, I'm okay with God. Our heart is troubled. [00:41:42] Our heart is troubled. It's not tranquil. It's not at peace. Our heart is troubled and we know it. But we soothe ourselves with these nice words and we tell ourselves, I'm good. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Everything's good. Everything's good. And the Lord's saying, stop doing that. [00:41:59] Stop doing that. [00:42:02] 2nd Corinthians 13:5. Look what it says. [00:42:05] Examine yourselves. [00:42:08] Whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates. [00:42:19] This is what the Lord wants us to do, to read Matthew 7 and it disturbs and some of you might be in this room and might be disturbed. [00:42:28] Be not disturbed at what I say. Look at the words of the Lord. [00:42:33] Forget about what I say. Well, I don't really like the way you put things. [00:42:38] I admit that I am likely to put things in a way that is that doesn't suit everyone. In fact, it often doesn't suit me. [00:42:47] But look at the words of Christ. He said he used unambiguous language. [00:42:53] Take the warning. [00:42:55] Examine yourselves. [00:42:58] Are you scripturally saved, and is there evidence thereof in your life? [00:43:05] Or are you of this many that Jesus mentions? [00:43:12] Listen, there are answers to be had. [00:43:16] You don't have to live in doubt. [00:43:19] You don't have to live with the constant attempt of trying to pat yourself and soothe and console yourself that everything's okay. You're okay. You can have positive, active biblical assurance that you have, at this moment, eternal life, and you are at this moment in God's kingdom. You can know that. [00:43:41] You can know that that is a thing. You can know. [00:43:45] You don't have to live in doubt. But if our Lord's words troubled you, please do not brush it aside. [00:43:56] Please take it seriously. [00:44:01] Please take these, this warning to heart. [00:44:07] Would you pray with me.