1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,240 So my name's Eric, one of the pastors here. 2 00:00:03,280 --> 00:00:07,120 If I haven't got to meet you yet, I would love to and, and 3 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:09,120 have you come to that that class afterwards? 4 00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:14,000 I'll be there in that class. But we are approaching the end 5 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,720 of what we call the Sermon on the Mount in the book of 6 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:18,760 Matthew. We like to walk through the 7 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:23,800 Bible, you know, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and we've 8 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:27,280 approached the end of Jesus's famous sermon. 9 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:30,480 Now we won't really get to the very end of it until next week, 10 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:35,960 but that passage that that John, Pastor John just read for us is, 11 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:41,480 is kind of the closing remarks. And if you were here last week, 12 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:46,520 they're pretty intense words. It's a pretty intense challenge. 13 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:49,600 It's a, it's a warning, it's a, a test. 14 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:54,640 This is Jesus in, in all of his seriousness, trying to remind us 15 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:58,760 who are the true believers and what will their lives look like? 16 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:01,320 What does it look like to live in the Kingdom of God while 17 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:04,680 you're still on this earth? It's very serious. 18 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:09,840 It's very important. We are going to be looking at 19 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:12,720 then as last week we talked about who are the true and false 20 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:15,400 teachers. This week we're talking about 21 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:18,120 who are the true and false believers. 22 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:23,160 And we're just going to take verses 21 through 23 to look at 23 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,600 this today. Now, before we get into this, I 24 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:30,680 do want to share with you a little bit about my life story 25 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:34,880 and testimony and you and I'm not sharing it to put attention 26 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:41,480 on me, but but really this set of verses changed my life. 27 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:48,600 This set of verses came into my heart and and caused me to 28 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,480 wonder if I really knew the Lord or not. 29 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:58,480 You see, I grew up in Utah, but I was always going. 30 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,760 I can always remember going to a Christian Church and I had a 31 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:07,520 zeal for the Lord. I had an understanding of Jesus, 32 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:10,320 just the basic understanding of Jesus from going to kids 33 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:15,000 ministry and, and I got baptized at 10 years old and I knew what 34 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,120 I was doing when I got baptized. I, I made a profession of faith 35 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:25,920 and, and I truly believe that I understood the gospel. 36 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:33,480 But the problem was that I never really grew beyond that part. 37 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:37,760 I feel like I stayed in my infancy and in my faith in the 38 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:44,880 and, and, and allowed pressures from the outside, not fitting 39 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:46,840 in. Being a Christian in Utah was 40 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:51,160 difficult, especially when I grew up where I grew up in Utah. 41 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:56,880 And so I tried to find the crowd that would accept me. 42 00:02:56,880 --> 00:02:59,240 That was the crowd that was all the rejects. 43 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:01,000 And I fit in very well with them. 44 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:07,240 And I, I got caught in addiction, partying, drugs and 45 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:09,200 alcohol. And I was doing that a lot 46 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:11,760 through my teenage years, even into my early 20s. 47 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:19,000 And when I hit the lowest point of, of that time of sin, that 48 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:25,880 prodigal time in my life, the Lord sent a, a preacher, a 49 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:29,400 messenger into my life. And I'll tell you, I found 50 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:33,680 myself. I was arrested and I was in in 51 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:40,920 Weber County Jail and one of those times on a Wednesday 52 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,000 night, they would allow Christian churches to go in 53 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,800 there and, you know, do a little Bible studies and stuff. 54 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:49,720 And one guy came in and they asked does anybody want to go to 55 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:51,600 a Bible study? And I was like, yeah, I'm not 56 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:54,520 doing anything else. You know, might as well, might 57 00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:56,720 as well use my time properly, right? 58 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:00,920 And so I went in there and and they played this sermon. 59 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:05,160 It was a 50 minute sermon by from a guy named Paul Washer and 60 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:07,160 it was the shocking youth message. 61 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:10,880 Now if you're on the e-mail list, I am going to e-mail you 62 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,640 everybody this coming week. I want you to watch this sermon 63 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:19,760 because this sermon, it wasn't necessarily just the sermon and 64 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:24,120 the guy, but it was the words that God spoke through this man, 65 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:26,760 but more importantly, the meaning of Scripture. 66 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:30,520 Not just this guy's opinion, but the meaning of Scripture. 67 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:37,840 God used this time to challenge me because I, I, I, you know, 68 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:41,960 all throughout, even my sin and my addiction, I still claimed to 69 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:45,040 be a Christian and a believer. And in the back of my mind, I 70 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:53,240 was like, I still said that I loved the Lord Jesus Christ, but 71 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:56,400 I was not living like it at all. You would never be able to tell 72 00:04:56,760 --> 00:04:59,400 that I was a Christian. You would never, you would never 73 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:02,480 know by looking at me. Maybe I said some things every 74 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:06,600 once in a while to friends around me, but you wouldn't know 75 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:10,520 by my way of life. And after hearing this sermon, 76 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:16,640 I, I went to the, the place where you know, you're, you're 77 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:19,480 back, where you're staying with all the other guys and, and 78 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,240 they, there was like free time. And I, I got on the phone to my 79 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,480 mom, you know, 'cause I'm a mama's boy, right? 80 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:31,280 And, and I said mom, and she's a strong Christian. 81 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:33,040 She's been a strong Christian my whole life. 82 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,800 And I said, mom, I don't, I don't know if I'm really a true 83 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:41,840 believer. I don't know if I die, am I 84 00:05:41,840 --> 00:05:48,920 going to go to heaven or hell? Because the, the words of Jesus 85 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:53,440 seem to contradict my, my confession of faith that I had. 86 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:57,800 And she was trying to console me. 87 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:01,880 And she probably got excited by those words and, and in fact, 88 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:07,720 from that moment on, there was a change in the trajectory of my 89 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:09,000 life. Now, I'll tell you, I didn't 90 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,160 quit sinning. I actually struggled some more 91 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:15,960 times with addiction. But it was then on that it was 92 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:19,920 like I, I need to know if I'm saved. 93 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:23,560 I need to know if I truly know Jesus. 94 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:29,240 And so I started obsessively trying to get to know him 95 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:33,480 through reading scripture and hearing sermons and, and in all 96 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:36,920 of that, the Lord was changing me. 97 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,560 See, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that I really read the Bible 98 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:44,800 much early on in my Christian life, but this pressed me into 99 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:46,840 wanting to know everything that he ever said. 100 00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:49,480 And what does he want me to do? And I've been living so 101 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:54,280 selfishly, all about my own pleasure, my desires, my 102 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:59,680 comfort, hiding my emotion from the things that I had been 103 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,520 through in life. I wanted to medicate it. 104 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:06,320 And I just wasn't turning to Jesus. 105 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:11,160 And then, and then when I started, you know, following 106 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:13,720 him, I got involved with the local church and more and more 107 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:15,440 people were able to speak into my life. 108 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:22,560 And today, you know, I can say that I'm in when we get to May 109 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:24,600 and hopefully I make it. I believe I will. 110 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:29,880 But 16 years clean and sober from every kind of substance, 111 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:38,240 alcohol, drugs and all the glory goes to the Lord Jesus in that. 112 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,760 And I'm sharing that story with you today because I know last 113 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:45,960 week was a pretty hard to hear sermon. 114 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:49,040 Probably it's harsh. These words from Jesus are, are 115 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:50,760 challenging. And we're going to get into some 116 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:55,080 more challenge because I believe that there are some of you out 117 00:07:55,080 --> 00:08:00,640 there, maybe maybe your story isn't the same as mine, but 118 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:03,680 there are some of you out there that are sitting and listening 119 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:07,080 to this, that need to hear this. In fact, every Christian needs 120 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:13,000 to hear this because we all to some degree need to grow up. 121 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:18,000 We need to live our life as if we're following Christ and and 122 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,440 prove it to ourselves that we're in the faith. 123 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:22,920 The Bible says examine ourselves. 124 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:27,920 We need to sin less and grow in holiness. 125 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:30,880 And I think there's many of us here that are stuck in some kind 126 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:37,840 of sin and not growing at all, not moving forward any further 127 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,600 than where they're at right now. And they can't understand why, 128 00:08:40,799 --> 00:08:42,679 why God doesn't listen to their prayers. 129 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:45,280 You know, why is things not changing in my life? 130 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:50,840 And so I want to get into this. That was a long introduction to 131 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:55,000 get to this, but I want to pull apart these verses. 132 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:57,440 We've just got three. I'm going to go through these 133 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:02,120 verses just kind of walking through them with a little bit 134 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:06,120 of background context explanation in my first point. 135 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:08,880 But then in the second point is when I'm really going to dig 136 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:15,480 into what does it look like to be a true believer? 137 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:20,520 So here's my first point. Lip service is not enough. 138 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:24,800 You've heard probably it said you can, can you, you can talk 139 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,080 the talk, but can you walk the walk? 140 00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:32,720 I think that's what Jesus is saying here in verse 21. 141 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:37,680 He says not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the 142 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:41,400 Kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father 143 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:45,720 who is in heaven. This is pretty direct here. 144 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:51,800 He's saying not everyone who thinks that they are a Christian 145 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,640 is really a Christian. Everyone, not everyone who 146 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:57,720 thinks they're saved and is going to heaven. 147 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:03,800 That is not actually the truth. In fact, the verses a few weeks 148 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:08,200 ago as a part of this as it begins, it says it says narrow 149 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,040 is the path and few there be that find it. 150 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:15,680 The crazy thing is, though, is if we look out at our community, 151 00:10:15,680 --> 00:10:20,160 if we look out at our country, more than half of the population 152 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:22,120 of America says they're Christian. 153 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:27,080 More than 85 to 90% of the population of Utah says that 154 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:30,720 they're a Christian. They call on the name of the 155 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:32,920 Lord. In fact, it even says Lord, 156 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:34,960 Lord. And if you understand anything 157 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:40,360 about when the Bible says something two times in a row, a 158 00:10:40,360 --> 00:10:43,160 lot of that is in the Old Testament in Hebrew. 159 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:47,760 And Jesus is Jewish as he's speaking, and he's speaking to 160 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:50,160 Jewish people. So they would understand the 161 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:54,200 mode in which he's speaking when he says, Lord. 162 00:10:54,200 --> 00:11:00,000 Lord, these aren't just people who who claim to be Christians, 163 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:02,520 but these are people who really believe they're Christians. 164 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:05,880 They're fervent in their prayer. This is emphatic. 165 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:13,720 This is persistent. That's the problem is that kind 166 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:17,040 of going back to last week, nobody really wants to talk 167 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:21,520 about the things in Scripture in between the fluffy stuff. 168 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:26,560 Nobody wants to hear the challenges from Jesus. 169 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:31,280 I tell you, we've been walking through this Gospel of Matthew 170 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:37,280 and I am surprised at how direct Jesus is like the entire time. 171 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:43,640 He's an intense guy, but American Christianity would 172 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:49,120 probably sell him to you and to us as oh, he's good with 173 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:52,080 everything that you do. He's he's your friend. 174 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:56,160 He's nice. He doesn't want to challenge you 175 00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:01,160 at all, doesn't want you to grow at all, accepts you as you are. 176 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,480 And it may be true that he accepts you as you are, or at 177 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:08,400 least comes to you as you are. But if he comes to you as he 178 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:11,040 are, he, he won't leave you the way that you are. 179 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:19,600 He will change you. In fact, one of the analogies 180 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:23,960 Paul Washer uses in his sermon is about a logging truck. 181 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:32,120 And he says, he says, I would be a a liar here today if if I 182 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:36,240 came, if I came here late and, and, and I showed up late to 183 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:39,000 preach and, and it was just silence for a while. 184 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:42,840 And I show up and, and, and the guys are like, why were you 185 00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:45,600 late? And I'm like, well, because got 186 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:49,760 a flat tire on the freeway and, and I got out and I was changing 187 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:52,640 the tire and I kind of didn't notice that there's more 188 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:55,440 vehicles coming. And this 30 ton logging truck 189 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:59,040 was coming and I kind of fell into the road and this 30 ton 190 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:02,920 logging truck ran me over. And so that's why I'm late 191 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:06,200 today. And and you would say, well, 192 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:11,800 you're either crazy or you're lying because something is 193 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:17,760 powerful as a 30 ton logging truck cannot come into contact 194 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:22,680 with you and you not be forever changed for the rest of your 195 00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:26,520 life. That's the same thing when we 196 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:32,520 come in to the presence of the Lord and say Lord, Lord, or we 197 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:34,600 tell other people, oh, I'm a Christian. 198 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,960 But nothing has changed from the day that you said you put your 199 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:42,920 faith in him. In fact, you become more 200 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:45,640 worldly. Your heroes are of the world. 201 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:49,240 You look out at every other person rather than the godly 202 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:52,680 people or the people mentioned in scripture or or people at 203 00:13:52,680 --> 00:13:55,080 your church. But everybody else is your hero 204 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:56,800 and your idol. And you want to follow them. 205 00:13:56,920 --> 00:14:04,400 You want to be just like them. There might be a chance that 206 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:09,440 you're giving just lip service as I had to challenge myself in 207 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:14,280 this. This can be your, your favorite 208 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:16,600 athletes, your actors, your musicians. 209 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:20,320 How many of them do we see when we're watching football or when 210 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:24,440 we're watching some actor, you know, give their opinion about 211 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:29,320 something or, or even musicians, even Christian musicians. 212 00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:32,840 And we're like, yes, I love it when they they say the name of 213 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:37,960 Jesus. But if we really looked at their 214 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:41,000 lives, would we be able to see Jesus Christ? 215 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:45,080 Or is he just some kind of accessory added kind of like me 216 00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:49,120 putting on a cross necklace. Put on a cross necklace. 217 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:52,960 I must be a Christian, right? Or this or it's just cool 218 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:55,200 looking at least. And yeah, I believe in Jesus. 219 00:14:55,200 --> 00:15:00,760 Like it's an accessory, but it's not really who I am. 220 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:04,640 It doesn't mark out all of my being. 221 00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:08,920 That's what he's saying here. Not everyone who thinks they're 222 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:12,800 a Christian is a Christian, and there's a lot of people who do. 223 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:19,920 Do you do the will of God? Are you adding Him to your life 224 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:26,400 like a genie instead of wanting to do His will as the Lord 225 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:30,160 prayed earlier on, He taught us how to pray in the Sermon on the 226 00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:32,720 Mount and it said your will be done. 227 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:35,480 He said pray then like this, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be 228 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:39,920 thy name, let your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth 229 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:43,480 as it is in heaven. How often are we praying? 230 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:45,680 Lord, I want your will to be done. 231 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:51,120 Or instead are we saying, Lord, why aren't you doing my will? 232 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:54,280 I asked you to do this thing and you wonder why isn't he 233 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:58,440 answering your prayers? God wants us to be conformed to 234 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:02,920 him in his will. And notice here how it says my 235 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,320 father all throughout the Sermon on the Mount. 236 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:09,680 Actually, he says our father or even your father to the 237 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:13,080 disciples. But here, as we know in the 238 00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:16,520 context of this, the setting is he's preaching to his disciples, 239 00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:19,360 but there are a bunch of other people standing around him, 240 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:21,920 Jewish people, some of the religious leaders. 241 00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:26,240 And this is where in a sense he's separating the true 242 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:31,320 believers from the false ones and saying my father, he ain't 243 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:40,760 your father. This can also explain people who 244 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:45,680 say the name of Jesus but yet hold to other religious beliefs, 245 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:49,400 like they're all as some kind of jumbled mess of all this 246 00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:53,280 different, you know, religious beliefs like karma and 247 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:55,800 astrology. And I love some of the sayings 248 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:58,960 of Buddha and I like some of the teachings over here. 249 00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:00,360 And this guy said some good stuff. 250 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:03,840 And I just lump it all together. And as long as I have Jesus 251 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:06,880 mixed in there, I can tell the Christians I have fire 252 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:12,760 insurance. I'm going to move on because I'm 253 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,200 going to come back to this. I want to talk in the second 254 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:16,720 point about what does it mean then? 255 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:20,160 What does it look like to do the will of our Father? 256 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:25,599 But moving on to the second verse, on that day, many will 257 00:17:25,599 --> 00:17:29,480 say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophecy in your name, cast out 258 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:34,440 demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name on 259 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:36,480 that day. What's he saying? 260 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:39,760 That's the day of judgment. That's the end when we all come 261 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:43,760 to meet our Maker and he walks through all the things that we 262 00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:46,760 have ever done that was sinful. And you know what? 263 00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:49,560 It's probably going to be just about everything we did because 264 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:55,560 everything we do is tainted with the sin nature that we possess. 265 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:02,120 Even even our good deeds, the Bible says they're like filthy 266 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:07,280 brag. They're tainted on that day when 267 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:10,200 God judges the works of all mankind. 268 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:17,280 People are going to say, but I professed you, but I I fervently 269 00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:21,600 prayed to you. I talked about other, talked 270 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:27,040 about you to other people. I was the fierce fieriest one in 271 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:31,040 my Bible study. I told my neighbors about you. 272 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:38,720 I even served your church. I served, I fought against evil. 273 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:42,920 And here's the thing I would say about this. 274 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:48,120 This is where these people are probably confused in that 275 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,680 religious works aren't going to get anybody to heaven. 276 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:59,160 You see the people who think that it's it's working to get 277 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,680 there thinking again that Jesus is a part of the equation, but I 278 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:07,360 play a part. That's a lot of the religion 279 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:09,920 that exists in the world. Did you know that Christianity 280 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:14,920 is the only religion on earth, true Christianity that says God 281 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:17,200 does all the work. You do nothing. 282 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:22,720 Every other religion adds some kind of works based formula to 283 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:26,480 the whole thing. And they're going to be sadly, 284 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:32,640 sadly mistaken when they get to heaven. 285 00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:38,960 And think when I when I say, hey, Lord, like we made churches 286 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,560 and your name was on the side of the building and we were the 287 00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:46,960 most moral people in our state, in our country, in our 288 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:52,560 neighborhood. We fought against evil. 289 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:59,040 We got involved with politics. We did things in your name. 290 00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:03,560 Even preached in your name. Going back to the false 291 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:06,720 teachers, this applies to them as well from last week. 292 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:11,120 The false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing 293 00:20:11,120 --> 00:20:14,720 pretending that they're one of us but inwardly are just wolves. 294 00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:19,480 They're faking it. A person can seem righteous and 295 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,960 have powerful words and even works and yet still be unsaved. 296 00:20:24,760 --> 00:20:28,480 And I think we, we have a hard time grasping that, right. 297 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:35,240 There's this false spiritual warfare. 298 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:40,160 Some people are so obsessed with miracles and fighting against 299 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:43,520 the enemy and thinking that that's ultimately going to earn 300 00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:46,480 them some kind of favor. And there's a story, there's a, 301 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:51,400 there's, there's an example of this in the Bible in Acts 302 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:57,120 chapter 19, verse 11, The sons of Sceva is what they're called, 303 00:20:57,120 --> 00:21:01,800 these Jewish exorcist, it says. And God was doing extraordinary 304 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:05,120 miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or 305 00:21:05,120 --> 00:21:07,960 aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick 306 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:11,240 and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of 307 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:14,320 them. So you've got the true apostle 308 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:22,040 Paul who nobody has that type of power since because it was given 309 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:26,040 to him directly by Jesus Christ to confirm the message. 310 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:29,200 But then you have all this counterfeit stuff it says. 311 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:35,000 Then some itinerant Jews saw this and they undertook to 312 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,680 invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil 313 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,120 spirits saying, I adjure you by the Jesus who Paul proclaims. 314 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:45,720 Seven sons of Jewish, the Jewish high priest named Skiva were 315 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,680 doing this. But here's what so this guy's 316 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:53,440 literally possessed and he comes and they say, I adjure you by 317 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:57,520 the Jesus who Paul proclaims because they're thinking that 318 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:02,640 there's just power in the name. And I know, I know somehow in 319 00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:08,360 our Christian culture and music, sadly we get all of our thought 320 00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:13,240 theology from from music and not necessarily from Scripture. 321 00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:17,960 People kind of say, yes, there's power in Jesus name. 322 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:19,440 There's power in Jesus name. Yeah. 323 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,720 What does that mean though? Does it mean that anybody can 324 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:27,680 just go running around, say Jesus, Jesus be healed, Jesus, 325 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:31,400 the demons come out. Is that, is that what it means? 326 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:36,400 Well, here's what the here's what the demon says to this guy 327 00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:39,840 says the evil spirit answered them. 328 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:43,120 Jesus, I know and Paul I recognize. 329 00:22:43,120 --> 00:22:46,720 But who are you? And the man in whom was the evil 330 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:50,360 spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them, overpowered them so 331 00:22:50,360 --> 00:22:52,800 that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 332 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:58,840 They were embarrassed. This was one instance where they 333 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:02,920 thought they were invoking the name of Jesus as this. 334 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:08,640 Fees like this lucky rabbit's foot or some powerful force that 335 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,840 I don't actually have to be close to, but I can use for my 336 00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:17,600 own gain. Here's the crazy thing about 337 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:21,360 that passage. First, it says Jesus. 338 00:23:21,360 --> 00:23:29,120 I know the demons know Jesus. So that means that we can even 339 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:32,720 think we know Jesus, or in a sense know a lot of information 340 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:35,480 about Jesus and still not be headed to heaven. 341 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:37,480 The demons will never get to heaven. 342 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:41,480 They are fallen angels. So the demons know Jesus. 343 00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:46,400 The demons know Paul, but they said who are you? 344 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:53,400 Who are you? I think we think about that 345 00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,520 like, yeah, I'd rather not have demons know me. 346 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:03,440 But the reality is that means that you haven't revealed 347 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,640 yourself as the follower of Christ actually doing anything 348 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:11,080 to take the war to the gates of hell that are here on earth, 349 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:14,520 putting a target on your back. Because that is what Christians 350 00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:20,200 are called to do. If they don't know you, then 351 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:29,920 there's no reason to fear you. Moving on to the next next verse 352 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,400 it says, Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. 353 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,720 Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. 354 00:24:40,120 --> 00:24:43,800 I never knew you. So the demons didn't know him 355 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:50,320 and neither do I. Now that word new in the 356 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:56,560 original language, Genoskos means not just know or know some 357 00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:00,880 information about it is it is an intimate knowledge. 358 00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:08,880 It is a a relationship. I've used this illustration 359 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,560 before, but this sounds like a good time for for some brevity 360 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:17,560 here for a second. But you can say that, you know, 361 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:22,680 Pastor Eric, you know, and you can be like, you can get some 362 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:27,120 information right about me, like, you know, he's tall, dark 363 00:25:27,120 --> 00:25:31,440 and handsome. But the reality is, is a lot of 364 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:33,120 those two of those things are wrong. 365 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:35,400 And you're going to have to decide which two of those are. 366 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:40,800 But you can you, you can know a little bit about a person, but 367 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,360 do you have a relationship? Because if we were friends, you 368 00:25:43,360 --> 00:25:45,840 would, you would know. If you spend time with me, you 369 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:50,880 would know I'm not tall and I'm not dark. 370 00:25:52,280 --> 00:26:00,840 OK. So does Jesus know you? 371 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:03,840 That's the, the, the, the more important question. 372 00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:05,360 You can say I know Jesus. Lord. 373 00:26:05,360 --> 00:26:06,560 Lord. Yeah. 374 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:12,280 I've got AI got a necklace, you know, representing who he is. 375 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:16,360 I wear some Christian T-shirts. Sometimes I listen to some 376 00:26:16,360 --> 00:26:24,800 music, but tell me about him. Tell me about why he came. 377 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:30,560 Tell me about who he is. Tell me that he's God, second 378 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:35,120 member of the Trinity, who came, lived a perfect life, and died 379 00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:37,320 for your sins. Tell me. 380 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,000 Tell me about what Jesus teaches you. 381 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,400 Then if you know him and you have a relationship with him, 382 00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:49,280 where is He forgiving you? Where is he challenging you? 383 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:53,600 OK, he says, depart from me. I never knew you. 384 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:55,440 We were never close. Basically. 385 00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,720 That's what he's saying when your name comes up. 386 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:03,760 I didn't know we weren't close. Of course, God knows all of us 387 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:06,360 because he's omniscient. He knows everything. 388 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:13,000 But does he know you in that intimate relationship sort of 389 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,360 way, like an adopted son or daughter? 390 00:27:16,120 --> 00:27:22,440 That is the challenge here. There will be many whom will 391 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:24,640 hear those words and it is very sad. 392 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:28,080 I do not want that to happen. And I may seem passionate when 393 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,160 I'm preaching through these passages, but again, it's 394 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,280 because the Lord changed my life through the challenge that I've 395 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:35,240 seen in here. I don't like that there are 396 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:40,160 false teachers. I don't like that that we live 397 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:44,160 worldly sometimes in Christian as Christians and have to wake 398 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,640 up. I've been in in ministry for 399 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:53,880 over a decade and I see people all the time come and go and 400 00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:59,800 come and go and come and go. And I will tell you that more 401 00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,880 people come and go than the ones that stay committed to the Lord 402 00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:06,480 Jesus. And I hate seeing that. 403 00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:14,440 I hate it. But maybe in teaching the things 404 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:18,600 that he said, people might stop and think and be challenged. 405 00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:23,720 Gosh, maybe I don't want that to be me. 406 00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,440 And I want to do everything I can to make sure that Jesus 407 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:33,560 knows me and I know Jesus. The last part of that verse, it 408 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:38,040 says workers of lawlessness. We've talked about this word 409 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:45,160 before. Antinomian means against any law 410 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:50,480 or commands in scripture. Anti means against or no and 411 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:58,880 nami or namas means law and so antinomian means I don't want to 412 00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:01,280 hear anything that Jesus tells me what to do. 413 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,200 I don't want to hear. I don't care about the the moral 414 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:09,080 commands and laws of God. I all I want is fire insurance. 415 00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:12,240 All I want is Jesus to save me and I don't want my life to 416 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:14,360 change. I like my pleasure. 417 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:17,840 I like these desires. I like this greed I have. 418 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:23,480 In fact, there are sin lists in the Bible. 419 00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:26,360 Now. It's not exhaustive, but man, I 420 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:30,680 mean, how often do you hear people read these lists of sin 421 00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,760 in in Scripture to try to get you to say, am I living like 422 00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:35,480 that? Is that me? 423 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:40,960 Lawlessness is just another word for sin going against God's 424 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:44,680 moral law. Second Timothy 31 But understand 425 00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:47,680 this, that in the last days there will come times of 426 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,200 difficulty. For people will be lovers of 427 00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:56,760 self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient 428 00:29:56,760 --> 00:30:03,760 to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, 429 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:07,120 slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not 430 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:10,480 loving, good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, 431 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:14,520 lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the 432 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:19,200 appearance of godliness, but denying its power. 433 00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:22,720 Avoid such people. That's what Paul says to Timothy 434 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,720 in his last letter. You're going to see people come 435 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,520 into your church because Timothy is the pastor that he trained up 436 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:31,560 and he says here's what you're going to see. 437 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:33,120 There will be times of difficulty. 438 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:35,760 You're going to have to deal with people who proclaim to be 439 00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:42,240 Christians, but outwardly they they're living just like the 440 00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:48,120 rest of the world in sin, as if God never gave positive commands 441 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:57,120 to follow. Here's another one, Galatians 442 00:30:57,120 --> 00:30:59,520 519 through 20. Now the works of the flesh are 443 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:01,440 evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, 444 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,440 sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife. 445 00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:07,960 There's a lot of words in there, jealousy, fits of anger, 446 00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:10,480 rivalries, dissentless divisions, envy, drunkenness, 447 00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:13,840 orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you 448 00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:16,120 before, that those who do such things will not inherit the 449 00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:21,080 Kingdom of God. So if we say we're a Christian, 450 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:26,440 but we're we're living out some one all of these things on these 451 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:32,080 lists, we we can't say we're headed to heaven because we are 452 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:35,040 workers of lawlessness. We don't care about what God has 453 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:36,960 said. All we want is what he can do 454 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:41,520 for us, not not anything that we can do for him or submit to him. 455 00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:46,880 An example of this recently, by the way. 456 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:52,160 So I think it in, in, in that there was a Baptist Church in 457 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:59,600 Minnesota where those protesters went in in the middle of church 458 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:02,480 and protested. They're worshipping God. 459 00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:05,480 They're not doing anything. It says this church isn't even 460 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:09,200 really a political church, but they go in and protest. 461 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:11,920 But this, that's not why I'm telling you the story. 462 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,040 I'm telling you the story because a famous anchor named 463 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:17,920 Don Lemon goes up to this pastor and he's like, Hey, what do you 464 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:20,200 think about this protested in your church? 465 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:23,600 You know, and that pastor held it together very well. 466 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:29,560 By the way, I was very surprised and by that like, but he's like, 467 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:32,000 we're just here to worship, worship Jesus and Don Lemon 468 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:34,840 goes, I worship Jesus all the time. 469 00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:39,640 I'm a Christian and I was like, Oh my gosh, you know, that is 470 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,880 the that is the exactly what I'm talking about here. 471 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:45,840 Why do I say that? Let me be a little bit more 472 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:51,320 clear because he's an open practicing homosexual. 473 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:56,160 And in First Corinthians 69, we just read the sexual immorality. 474 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:59,360 But then in First Corinthians 69, it says, don't you know that 475 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:01,600 the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? 476 00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,160 Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral 477 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,680 idolatries adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality. 478 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:12,160 It goes on and on. But again, he's just the extreme 479 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:18,160 example of how Can you believe in the Jesus that I believe in, 480 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:25,960 but yet justify your way of life because it makes you happy? 481 00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:29,680 Do you think that that's that's that's God's will for our lives 482 00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:31,800 as he just wants to make us happy. 483 00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:36,160 He wants our joy, but he wants us to be holy. 484 00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,080 He wants us to be like his Son. He wants us to follow his words. 485 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:42,800 He wants us to go against our nature and our desires. 486 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:50,880 Even the sins that feel good, make us happy, or seem fun says 487 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:56,480 depart from me. That's talking about hell. 488 00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:58,360 That's talking about the judgement. 489 00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:09,080 And again, this quote by Chapter Spurgeon really challenged me, 490 00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:10,320 so I thought I would share it with you. 491 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:14,679 It says the unsaved Sinner loves the salvation from hell. 492 00:34:15,639 --> 00:34:18,000 The true Christian loves the salvation from sin. 493 00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:22,639 Everyone desires to be saved from the pit, but it is only a 494 00:34:22,639 --> 00:34:26,639 child of God who pants to be saved from every false way. 495 00:34:26,639 --> 00:34:29,639 You remember that prayer that Jesus said again, the Lord's 496 00:34:29,639 --> 00:34:32,560 prayer at the end he says deliver us, lead us not into 497 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,080 temptation and deliver us from evil. 498 00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:39,239 That means the evil inside of us, the temptations inside of 499 00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:43,120 us. Do you ever look at God and as 500 00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:46,600 you, as you look at yourself and you're like, oh, I sinned again. 501 00:34:48,159 --> 00:34:52,760 I hate this, Lord, help me. Help me, please. 502 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,880 Like you want to be. That's why sometimes we say like 503 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:59,240 Lord Jesus, come soon, not just because the outward world is 504 00:34:59,240 --> 00:35:06,160 sinful, but even us as Christians still sin, but we 505 00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:07,600 hate it. That is the difference. 506 00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:09,280 We don't justify it. We hate it. 507 00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:16,640 We don't, we don't minimize it, rationalize it away. 508 00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:22,920 And here's the good news about that. 509 00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:26,040 We need to hear as we transition, even though there 510 00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:31,280 will be some who it says will be separated from God, says away 511 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:37,200 from me, depart from me. We need to believe that Jesus 512 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:41,080 took that punishment so that we can escape that punishment. 513 00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:46,920 So I'm not against the idea of telling people, yes, hell is in 514 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:50,160 your destiny if you don't repent and believe in Jesus. 515 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:57,480 But a true believer in Jesus will look at how he hung on the 516 00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:06,000 cross bleeding and tortured, and we say my sin put him there and 517 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:11,960 far be it from me to keep on doing the thing and justify it. 518 00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,400 That put him there and made him suffer. 519 00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:19,960 That was the thought in my own heart and my own life because I 520 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:24,720 can't keep living this way. I want to honor the Lord with my 521 00:36:24,720 --> 00:36:26,800 life. Now I'm telling you, I am not 522 00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:30,400 sinless at all. We're all going to struggle 523 00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:35,080 because we're in the flesh to. We're going to struggle against 524 00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:37,600 the temptations of sin and sin for the rest of our lives. 525 00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:40,800 There's a difference. I'll get to that. 526 00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:43,400 It's it's, it's called repentance. 527 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,640 But let me get to the next part of this. 528 00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:54,360 If Jesus is your Lord, you will obey him as that verse says. 529 00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,440 Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the 530 00:36:56,440 --> 00:37:00,760 Kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father, 531 00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:11,280 you will obey him willingly because you want to do his will. 532 00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:20,000 That word Lord means curious. It means master. 533 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:24,280 He's your master. He's the good master. 534 00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:27,120 But you're supposed to obey, right? 535 00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:30,400 There's there's an obedience to like, yes, you have all 536 00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:35,000 authority over me and have your way with me. 537 00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:39,920 Let me do your will and your bidding because you are worthy. 538 00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:43,800 You deserve it. This life is not my own. 539 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,280 You bought it with a price on the cross. 540 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:48,920 You bought my life with your blood. 541 00:37:49,240 --> 00:37:55,920 I need to quit living as if somehow I am the king of my own 542 00:37:55,920 --> 00:38:01,840 life. It's humbling because we all 543 00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:04,160 want to be that we all want to be in control. 544 00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:11,920 We all want to make our own choices, but God is saying make 545 00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,120 choices that honor me and follow me. 546 00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:26,800 Now this idea that you can pray a prayer and confess Lord and 547 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:30,920 that's it and you never have to live for Jesus your life doesn't 548 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:35,320 change I think is because of a misunderstanding of this verse 549 00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:37,560 that gets talked about a lot. It's in Romans 10/9. 550 00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:40,880 It says because if you confess it with your mouth that Jesus is 551 00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,760 Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, 552 00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,040 you'll be saved. People been using it like it's a 553 00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:48,640 formula. Why do we do formulas? 554 00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:50,800 Because that's how we are humanly. 555 00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:58,160 We we want to know, give me the step by step process so that I 556 00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:02,200 can benefit. Basically all I got to do is say 557 00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:05,840 a word and believe. Who knows what that word means, 558 00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:10,040 right? So oftentimes people have said 559 00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:13,240 so pray this prayer after me. Now I'm not against in the sense 560 00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:19,280 of look, the sinner's prayer is, is teaching you to be humble 561 00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:22,640 and, and to pray yourself to the Lord and to say certain things 562 00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:25,320 and confess certain things and it's good. 563 00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:30,120 But if no fruit ever comes after that, then you might question, 564 00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:33,080 just because you said this thing, did you really even 565 00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:41,200 understand what you were doing? If Jesus is Lord, just saying it 566 00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:45,000 again, going back to lip service isn't the formula that saves 567 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,200 you. It's actually submitting to him 568 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:50,920 as Lord. It's it's that your life follows 569 00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:54,120 your mouth. If he's your Lord, then you 570 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:58,240 surrender and you obey him. You follow him above all your 571 00:39:58,240 --> 00:40:00,640 desires, your opinion and your feelings. 572 00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:04,880 You follow him as Lord and you believe in your heart. 573 00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:12,520 You believe in your heart that Jesus is God who really died and 574 00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:15,840 rose again. And let me tell you something, 575 00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:20,000 the 1st century Christians who confessed this. 576 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:24,000 They literally saw that Jesus died and rose again. 577 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:27,000 And the Bible says that those guys turned the world upside 578 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,960 down. When's the last time our 579 00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:34,120 generation has turned anything upside down other than the 580 00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,840 economy and and the whole world? You know, in a bad way. 581 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:42,360 But we're not turning the world upside down for Jesus anymore. 582 00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:48,320 The evidence of truly confessing Jesus as Lord and believing He 583 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:52,560 rose from the dead foot should cause you to have so much faith 584 00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:57,760 that you're willing to take risks to go against the grain as 585 00:40:57,760 --> 00:40:59,960 they did in the 1st century church. 586 00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:04,760 Not just fit in and go along to get along and worship and and 587 00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:10,440 lip service. Isaiah 13 says this. 588 00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:15,760 People draw near with me, near with their mouth and honor me 589 00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:18,000 with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 590 00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:23,760 So our heart is where we is, the seed of our mind, our will and 591 00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:25,560 our emotions. We make decisions from our 592 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:27,360 heart. Yes, we feel things from our 593 00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:32,240 heart and we have action that comes from our heart. 594 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:38,640 So what is God's will then? How do I align my heart in my 595 00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:41,040 life with with God's will to follow? 596 00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:46,360 Let my heart be in line with his heart, because his heart is his 597 00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:49,760 will. Well, we got to get a new heart. 598 00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:57,960 Ezekiel 3626 says I will give you a new heart and a new spirit 599 00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:00,360 I will put within you, and I will move the heart of stone 600 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:02,040 from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 601 00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:07,320 And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my 602 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:09,560 statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 603 00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:13,200 Here's where I want you to have it clear. 604 00:42:14,240 --> 00:42:17,840 It is by faith alone that we trust in Jesus Christ and we 605 00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:22,920 have salvation. It is not by work, but faith 606 00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:27,640 never stays alone. It is faith alone, but faith is 607 00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:33,480 never alone. True faith has works after it as 608 00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:35,920 a fruit as we've heard in this passage. 609 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:38,080 You will know them by their fruit. 610 00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:42,120 You will want to do things. In fact, he says I will cause 611 00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:46,840 you to do things. And so in in doctrine and 612 00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:49,840 theology, there are some things that we don't quite understand 613 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:51,400 about. Well, God's got to do this heart 614 00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:54,920 change in me. But, but if I'm not feeling this 615 00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:57,400 heart change, has he done the heart change? 616 00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:04,560 Well, if you long to want to follow the Lord, that's even a 617 00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:07,240 good sign. If you long, if you know that 618 00:43:07,240 --> 00:43:11,360 you're a Sinner and you you feel terrible about your sins and you 619 00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:15,000 want to follow the Lord, that's a good sign. 620 00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:18,400 Because normally sinners are so prideful that when you bring up 621 00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:20,720 sin, they've got every excuse under the sun. 622 00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:27,440 It's beautiful. We don't take any credit for the 623 00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:29,360 things that are happening in our lives. 624 00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:35,160 What the Lord has done in my life, I get no glory from and He 625 00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:40,720 gets it all. There's nothing special about me 626 00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:47,280 that makes me right with God and able to follow Him. 627 00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:51,640 Now I do have a will and I have choices, but I have failed so 628 00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,000 many times in those choices, even as a Christian. 629 00:43:54,560 --> 00:44:04,400 But praise God, He is causing me to grow holier and holier again. 630 00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:06,960 And we think about the 10 commandments as like, oh, this 631 00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:09,400 is just some burden. I got to follow this law now. 632 00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:11,360 And it's like, these are things that are good for you. 633 00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,920 The things in the Sermon on the Mount that he's covered are good 634 00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:18,320 for you. Like not being angry with your 635 00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:22,560 brother, not being anxious about money and all the things that 636 00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:26,560 you're worried about, not being a hypocrite he's talked about. 637 00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,560 Fight against lust, fight against adultery, fight against 638 00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:41,160 retaliation, love your enemies. It's all summed up and love God 639 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:43,880 and love others. That's the whole law summed up. 640 00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:46,440 It is. It's all about love. 641 00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:48,840 Even following the law, it's about love. 642 00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:52,320 Why do you? Why do you want to do what he 643 00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:53,920 said? It's because you love him. 644 00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:58,480 Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments. 645 00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:06,240 So first to do the will of God is to repent and believe. 646 00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:10,840 Then secondly in the right information. 647 00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:16,680 Then secondly we want to renew our minds. 648 00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:20,600 Romans 12/2 How do I do the will of God? 649 00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:23,200 It says don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed 650 00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:26,840 by the renewal of your mind by testing that you may discern 651 00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:29,920 what is the will of God. Keep learning the will of God. 652 00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:36,160 It's all in the scripture. Pray for that desire that He 653 00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:39,480 would put in your heart to want to just seek out what is your 654 00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:41,120 will, Lord? What is your will? 655 00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:44,520 Oftentimes people think that that's all about prayer. 656 00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:48,080 Lord, tell me your will in this decision I've got to make. 657 00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:50,800 And they're waiting to hear some kind of audible response or 658 00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:55,600 something or they're when God has already spoken and there's 659 00:45:55,600 --> 00:46:00,240 so much in here. Keep renewing your mind with 660 00:46:00,240 --> 00:46:03,160 this to find out the will of God. 661 00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:06,680 Third. Then as we do will we do do his 662 00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:11,600 will we fight sin first John three it says no one born of God 663 00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:14,960 makes the practice of sinning for God seed abides in him and 664 00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:17,280 he cannot keep on sinning because he's been born of God. 665 00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:19,640 By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are 666 00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:22,080 the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice 667 00:46:22,080 --> 00:46:25,680 righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his 668 00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:28,280 brother. These scriptures are in in the 669 00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:30,480 Bible. These verses are in Scripture. 670 00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:34,320 I don't know if people have showed them to you or not, but 671 00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:38,720 this is a challenge. Again, nobody's going to live a 672 00:46:38,720 --> 00:46:44,880 perfect life, but we need to ask ourselves, are we fighting sin 673 00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:51,200 and trying to follow the Lord? Are we looking at when we do 674 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:52,880 sin? I shouldn't do this. 675 00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:55,480 This is how unbelievers live, not me. 676 00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:57,320 I'm a believer. I'm going to do something about 677 00:46:57,320 --> 00:46:58,360 this. I'm going to get help. 678 00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:01,600 I'm going to talk to someone. I am going to confess my sins to 679 00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:05,280 someone. John Owen says if you are 680 00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:07,840 fighting sin, you're alive, take heart. 681 00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:11,040 But if sin sway unopposed, you are dead. 682 00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:13,440 No matter how lively this sin makes you feel. 683 00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:18,440 Take heart in battled Saints. So I want to answer the major 684 00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:24,000 question then how do we know if we're saved if everybody in the 685 00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:27,960 rooms now I don't know if I'm that's a good place to be, but 686 00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:32,440 don't stay there, OK? It's simple. 687 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:35,280 It is the gospel. It's repentance and faith. 688 00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:40,160 It's faith alone, but repentance is the other side of the coin of 689 00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:42,280 faith. Repentance means change your 690 00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,320 mind, change what you believe, change what you think is right, 691 00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:51,200 align it with what God says is right, believe the right 692 00:47:51,200 --> 00:47:54,120 information about who Jesus is, the right doctrine, and right 693 00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:57,360 living. If that is the trajectory you're 694 00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:00,720 on, you can know that you're saved. 695 00:48:04,720 --> 00:48:08,200 It's not just a one time thing that we do, as many people say, 696 00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:09,880 all we got to do is get you to this point. 697 00:48:10,240 --> 00:48:15,720 No, it's an ongoing everyday battle for the Christian to 698 00:48:15,720 --> 00:48:17,840 fight his flesh, his or her flesh. 699 00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:25,480 Ask yourself, how much have I grown in the last couple weeks 700 00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:29,200 or months or years? Quit looking for the one moment 701 00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:33,440 and trying to remember that one time when you prayed the prayer 702 00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:38,000 and instead try to look at how God has been working in you over 703 00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:40,600 the past days, weeks, months, and years. 704 00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:42,520 And you can know that you're a Christian. 705 00:48:42,680 --> 00:48:46,960 And here's the good news is that He does the work in us as well. 706 00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:50,960 As I've already said, He's predestined to us to be 707 00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:52,600 conformed to the image of His Son. 708 00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:57,840 That's what Romans 829 says. He's going to do it. 709 00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:00,360 But there's a dual accountability. 710 00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:03,640 Even though God is sovereign and He's working in US, these 711 00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:08,160 commands still stand. And it says, Therefore, my 712 00:49:08,160 --> 00:49:11,640 beloved is you've always obeyed. So now not only as in my 713 00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:15,080 presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own 714 00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:16,760 salvation with fear and trembling. 715 00:49:17,680 --> 00:49:21,160 For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his 716 00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:27,520 good pleasure. Make sure that you know Him, but 717 00:49:27,520 --> 00:49:29,800 more importantly, make sure he knows you. 718 00:49:30,280 --> 00:49:33,360 And be encouraged that God, If you're stuck in sin, if you're 719 00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:38,080 struggling with sin, if you seem to be stagnant and not growing, 720 00:49:38,240 --> 00:49:41,440 or you're even a Sinner here who's never professed Jesus as 721 00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:46,000 Lord in your life, you can do so. 722 00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:49,040 You can submit to Him. If you feel that call, if you 723 00:49:49,040 --> 00:49:53,280 have the ability to even repent, then it must be God working in 724 00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:55,440 you. He has the power to change even 725 00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:58,520 the worst of sinners into obedient Christ followers. 726 00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:00,880 And I can tell you that from experience. 727 00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:07,160 So I'll end with this main idea. There are many people who say or 728 00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:10,040 think that they are Christian but are not truly Christian. 729 00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:14,000 Mental assent and saying the words aren't a formula for 730 00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:18,600 salvation. True faith works its way out 731 00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:22,240 into living for Jesus because he died for us. 732 00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:26,000 A real profession and evidence of a changed life is our 733 00:50:26,240 --> 00:50:34,440 assurance of true faith. Let's pray Father, I pray that 734 00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:37,000 these words wouldn't fall on deaf ears today. 735 00:50:40,200 --> 00:50:43,280 Lord, help us to be changed by Your word, because it's through 736 00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:49,280 your spirit and Your word that we take the correction and you 737 00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:51,720 give us the power to do something about it. 738 00:50:51,720 --> 00:50:56,000 And we always rely on Jesus knowing that he did die for our 739 00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:59,040 sins, all the ones that we're even going to commit, but we 740 00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:02,320 just don't use it as a a license to keep doing it. 741 00:51:03,720 --> 00:51:10,320 Help us to hate our sin and to love your truth, but we need you 742 00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:13,120 Lord in Jesus name, Amen.