Am I a False Convert?

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:01
I want to ask you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 7.
00:06
Hold your place at verse 21.
00:10
Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21.
00:30
We come this morning to a text that I have referenced hundreds of times, but have never preached.
00:46
This is a passage that many people have told me privately and in groups frightens them, and rightfully so.
00:58
It's frightening because it confronts not the unbeliever, but the person who professes Jesus Christ.
01:08
This passage does not look at the face of the atheist, or the agnostic, or the Muslim, or the Hindu.
01:20
This passage looks square in the face of the baptized.
01:25
It looks right into the eyes of the person who has taken of the bread and drank of the cup.
01:30
It stares intently at the person who has sang songs of praise to God, and heard His word preached, but is still unconverted.
01:42
And I am convinced that this passage is speaking to many of you today.
01:50
Years ago I saw a minister finish his sermon by looking out at the congregation and saying, there was some meeting afterwards, or dinner, or something afterwards, and he finished his sermon, and he looked out at the congregation, and he said, well, I can see that all of you here today are believers, so I don't need to extend a gospel call.
02:08
Let's go do what we got to do.
02:10
That's how he ended his sermon.
02:12
He said, I can see that you're all believers.
02:14
I can see that you're all converts, so we'll just stop the service here and move on.
02:20
Beloved, I will never, ever make that assumption.
02:27
This passage forbids me from assuming that based purely on your words that you're a Christian.
02:39
Originally, the title of this message was Words You Never Want to Hear.
02:42
That was the title.
02:44
And the words you never want to hear is depart from me, I never knew you.
02:47
That's what you don't want to hear.
02:49
However, I retitled the message halfway through the week as I was writing and praying and meditating on these words.
02:54
This is the title of the passage.
02:56
Am I a False Convert? I want you to have that diagnostic question sitting on your heart the whole time I preach.
03:10
I want you to feel the weight of that question.
03:13
I want it to sit upon your heart like a like a ton of bricks, because I want you to be honest with yourself.
03:22
I'm going to preach to you today as I believe Jesus was preaching to his hearers on that mountain.
03:27
I'm going to call you to search yourselves.
03:30
I'm going to call you to respond in repentance and faith because I am confident based on this text that this text speaks to many of you.
03:43
How arrogant and stupid would I be to stand before you and say, no, you're all converted.
03:48
Even if you claim to be, because this text says otherwise, let's stand and read it.
03:56
We're going to read verses 21 to 27, 21 to 27.
04:13
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
04:21
But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
04:47
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house.
04:59
But it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.
05:04
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them.
05:08
Will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.
05:30
Father, I need your Holy Spirit.
05:40
I am woefully, woefully lacking in what is needed to apply this message to the hearts of your people.
05:57
I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak through me, that you would keep me from error, that you would convert hearts through this message.
06:14
And father, that no one may be able to leave here saying that they've never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
06:24
Lord, use this for your glory in Jesus name.
06:31
Amen.
06:45
A repeated and sober warning throughout scripture is given to false converts.
06:57
A false convert is a person who has made a verbal profession of Christ, but remains unconverted.
07:05
This person comes to church.
07:07
This person reads his Bible.
07:09
This person prays.
07:10
This person does all the religious things.
07:14
Yet this person is still in love with the world.
07:17
This person is still in love with his sin and he has not departed from iniquity.
07:24
The most dangerous scheme of the devil is to make an unsaved person believe that they are saved.
07:37
And the devil is good at it.
07:40
Just look at the surveys.
07:42
50% of people claim Jesus in America.
07:45
60% of people claim Jesus in America.
07:47
That's foolishness to think that that could be anywhere near true.
07:54
A.W.
07:54
Tozer said this.
07:56
He said, it is my opinion that tens of thousands of people, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ.
08:03
And yet they have not been saved.
08:08
Dr.
08:08
D.
08:08
James Kennedy said the vast majority of people who are members in churches of America today are not Christians.
08:14
I say that without the slightest fear of contradiction.
08:16
I base it on empirical evidence of 24 years of examining thousands of people.
08:21
He said most of the people who call themselves Christians are not.
08:24
By the way, Billy Graham agrees with him.
08:26
In case that might encourage you to see just how powerful the thought that Billy Graham maybe impresses your heart more than D.
08:33
James Kennedy shouldn't, but might.
08:37
Billy Graham said the same thing.
08:38
Most of the people that come forward aren't really saved.
08:44
In 1970, November of 1970, a number of churches combined for a convention in Fort Worth, Texas, and secured 30,000 decisions.
08:54
Six months later, the follow up committee could only find 30 who were actively participating in any type of faith.
09:02
30 of 30,000.
09:05
And yet every one of those 30,000 would say, yes, I've received Jesus Christ.
09:11
To no effect, to no change, to no new life, to no repentance, but I have Jesus and it's a sham.
09:20
Charles Hackett, the division of Home Missions National Director for the Assemblies of God in the US, said this.
09:26
He said a soul at the altar does not generate much excitement in our circles because we realize approximately 95 out of every 100 will not become integrated into the church.
09:36
In fact, most of them will not return for a second visit.
09:40
And these are the people that are converted, so to speak, so to say the word converted, they're converted, but they're not ever coming back.
09:52
We've been convinced that we have a nation of backsliders.
09:56
We don't we don't have a nation of backsliders.
10:00
We have a nation of false converts.
10:04
To be a backslider indicates that you've at some point taken a step forward.
10:12
And the fearful reality is the church is filled with people who have never truly come to Christ.
10:19
They have said the words they've signed the card.
10:22
They may even pray and read their Bibles, but they don't know Jesus because they still love their sin.
10:27
And that's what Jesus is going to say.
10:29
Everything I'm going to say today is an absolute simple exposition of the text.
10:33
In fact, I put this in my notes.
10:35
I wrote this.
10:36
I said it's very tempting to say too much in this message.
10:39
So I'm going to speak as little as possible.
10:40
I'm going to let Christ do most of the talking.
10:44
It would be very easy for me to add all kinds of complicated illustrations.
10:47
But Jesus's words are so simple.
10:50
Why complicate them? I've given you an outline in the bulletin.
10:56
If you want to write in the outline, I'm going to give it to you now so that you don't have to worry about writing later because I want you to listen.
11:05
Here's the outline.
11:07
Verse 21 gives us a dreadful realization.
11:13
Verse 22 gives a prideful question.
11:18
Verse 23 gives an awful declaration.
11:23
And then we have finally a final illustration.
11:28
Verses 24 to 27.
11:30
And that ends the Sermon on the Mount.
11:31
We've been in this study for over a year.
11:34
And today we end the Sermon on the Mount.
11:36
We'll look at the last few passages of Matthew 7 next week.
11:39
But today is the last of the Sermon on the Mount.
11:41
This is the last thing Jesus says to his hearers.
11:48
And it comes to us in four parts.
11:49
The first thing we hear from Jesus is a dreadful realization.
11:53
Verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
12:00
But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven.
12:06
Beloved, just think about that, just put it in your mind, not everyone who says, Lord, Lord.
12:20
Now, what's the confession? What is Lord, Lord? Well, number one, it's an Orthodox confession.
12:29
Calling Jesus Lord is right theology.
12:33
So whoever this person is, they're theologically correct.
12:38
The title Lord, which is given to Christ in the Greek is Kourios in the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament.
12:46
That same title is given to Yahweh or God himself.
12:50
So the title Lord, when ascribed to Jesus, is Orthodox theological correct statement.
13:01
So what does that tell us? You can not all your theological eyes, you can cross all your theological keys and you can still be on the road to hell.
13:11
It's an Orthodox confession.
13:12
Number two, it's a zealous confession.
13:18
Lord, Lord.
13:21
In English, in 2014, when we want to emphasize something, what do we do? We underline it, we bold it, we italicize it.
13:30
We put punctuation around it.
13:33
We do something to let people know this is an emphasis of this statement.
13:38
But what did the Hebrews do to emphasize something? They repeated it.
13:45
What did the angels say around the throne of God in Isaiah six? Holy, holy, holy.
13:54
So the person who is saying, Lord, Lord, is not only saying an Orthodox statement.
14:00
They are zealously saying an Orthodox statement.
14:04
They're fervently saying, Lord, Lord.
14:14
But the third thing we need to see about this confession is that it's an empty confession.
14:20
Yes, it's Orthodox.
14:21
Yes, it's zealous, but it is empty.
14:24
It is an empty confession because it does not accompany a lifestyle.
14:34
That supports it.
14:37
Hear that again.
14:38
The reason why this confession is an empty confession is because it does not accompany a lifestyle that supports it.
14:51
Jesus is not saying that verbal confession is unnecessary.
14:55
It is necessary to confess Christ.
14:58
The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
15:06
Verbal confession is essential.
15:08
But verbal confession is inadequate if that's all you have.
15:14
If all you have is verbal confession, if all you have is what comes out of your mouth and it does not accompany a lifestyle of faith in Christ, a lifestyle of repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then your words are empty phrases.
15:30
They mean nothing.
15:35
John MacArthur said that.
15:37
He said, if he said, if all you have is a verbal profession, you have nothing, you have zero.
15:53
Jesus clearly says that there will be people who fervently call him Lord, Lord, who say so orthodoxly in orthodoxy.
15:59
They say, Lord, Lord, but they will not enter the kingdom of heaven, he says.
16:04
But the ones who will enter the kingdom of heaven are the ones who do the will of the Father.
16:09
Now, I have spent hours behind this pulpit preaching the doctrine of Sola Fide.
16:16
And I'm not coming to you today repudiating what I've already preached, because Sola Fide is true, that we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone.
16:24
That is true.
16:26
But I want you to understand this.
16:29
The doctrine of Sola Fide does not give you a license to live a life of sin.
16:36
And if you believe that it does, then you don't understand the doctrine of Sola Fide and you don't understand Scripture.
16:44
Justification is by faith alone, but faith will never be alone.
16:49
This was what the people who articulated the doctrine told us.
16:55
This is what Calvin and Zwingli and Luther all told us.
16:57
If you say you have faith, but your faith is just words, then it is not real faith.
17:04
And all they were doing was echoing James, who said, if we say we have faith and have not the accompanying works, our faith is dead.
17:12
Being alone, meaning it's alone without the works that accompany true faith.
17:16
And it's not real.
17:18
You cannot be saved by dead faith.
17:22
You can't and you will not be saved with dead faith.
17:32
James tells us in James 1.22, be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.
17:42
He says, be doers of the word and not hearers only, because if you're hearers only, you are deceiving yourselves if you think you're saved.
17:52
The person who only hears the word of God, but does not act on the word of God is not living by faith.
17:58
And those who believe that they are are deceiving themselves.
18:01
God will not be fooled.
18:03
You may fool yourselves.
18:04
You may fool others, but you will not fool the judge.
18:14
And for many, this would be a dreadful realization.
18:17
On that day, they'll come to Christ and they'll say, Lord, Lord, and they will have a dreadful realization.
18:28
Point two, the prideful question, because this is what always follows up when I preach the sermon or when I hear when I talk to people about this message.
18:37
And this is this is where it always goes on that day.
18:42
Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? Just stop right there.
18:54
Take note of the word many there, many.
18:58
When's the last time you saw that in this context? Go up to verse 13.
19:03
Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many.
19:11
It's the same group, it's the same many.
19:16
Jesus said many will enter through the broad gate, many will go to the way of destruction.
19:20
And on that day, that same group of many will look at me and say, but what about what all the stuff that I did? See, this tells us something about that broad road.
19:33
And a few weeks ago when I preached this, I don't know if I made this clear enough.
19:36
So I want to make it clear now that broad road which leads to destruction.
19:40
That broad road is a religious road.
19:46
It's not religion versus irreligion or or right living versus wrong living.
19:52
It's it's it's the narrow path, which is Christ and the broad way and the broad way has signs that say this way to heaven.
20:01
It's the religious road that so many people go down thinking they are on the way to heaven, but they are on the way to hell.
20:13
And I want you to think about how prideful this question is.
20:16
These people say to Jesus, Lord, Lord, did we not? Did we not do this? Did we not do that? I think about D.
20:25
James Kennedy.
20:26
I don't know if you I don't know how many of you know D.
20:28
James Kennedy.
20:28
He died a few years ago, but he was a wonderful pastor.
20:32
And he he taught something called evangelism explosion.
20:37
Evangelism explosion was just a method of faith sharing.
20:39
And one of the ways that you would share your faith was simply asking the diagnostic question.
20:43
If you were to die today and you were to face God and he said, why should I let you into heaven? What would be your answer? And the way people answered that question would often lead you into an evangelistic opportunity to talk to them, because you know how most people answer that question.
20:55
I've done good things.
20:57
I've been a good person.
20:58
And if God measured me on my good versus my bad, my good far outweighs my bad.
21:02
So that's why he should let me into heaven.
21:04
I'm a good person.
21:06
Well, here's the thing, that's what these people are saying to Jesus.
21:12
They're saying, Lord, Lord, did we not do this and did we not do that and did we not do the other? Shouldn't you let us in? Haven't we earned it? And what's interesting is they claim some powerful stuff here.
21:33
He says, have we not prophesied? That means to preach the word.
21:35
That means to go out and proclaim God's word to people.
21:37
Have we not been preachers in your name? By the way, if you look up a few verses between verses 15 and 20, you see all that about the false teachers.
21:45
This is the context of that.
21:48
These false teachers go before Jesus and they say, but Jesus, I had crusades in your name.
21:55
I went to all of these foreign countries in your name on my private jet.
21:59
I did all these things in your name.
22:06
I performed miracles in your name.
22:12
I cast out demons in your name.
22:18
You know, it's interesting about this.
22:19
If you really look close, this is what the charismatic claim.
22:22
I prophesy in your name.
22:24
I cast out demons in your name.
22:25
I do magic, mighty works in your name.
22:27
What is what is proclaimed by all the charismatic? Those three things.
22:31
I do all these magic tricks in your name.
22:42
There's a debate about this.
22:43
Among commentators as to whether or not they really did do them, as to whether or not they really did do mighty works, whether or not they really did prophesy, whether or not they really did do these things.
22:56
One thing is for sure, whatever they did, they didn't do it under the power of God.
23:02
Whatever they did, they did not do by the power of the Holy Spirit.
23:09
But I want to tell you this.
23:10
This can be applied to any person who tries to bring their religiosity to bear when they go before God at judgment.
23:16
I can imagine people saying, Lord, Lord, did we not attend Sovereign Grace Family Church faithfully? Lord, Lord, did we not give money to the offering every Sunday? Lord, Lord, did we not stand and sing in that church and hear that guy yell it up for 45 minutes every Sunday? And what is the implied statement? Don't we deserve to get in? Don't we deserve it for all we've done? For you, you see what this tells us? They don't understand the gospel.
24:01
The person who stands before God and proclaims their own goodness, their own righteousness and their own works as meritorious for getting into heaven don't understand the gospel.
24:12
And that's the problem.
24:15
So look at me, God, look at what I did.
24:17
How could you dare not say I'm going to heaven? Look at what I did.
24:23
And then we have the awful declaration, verse 23.
24:26
And then, well, I declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
24:45
The word new.
24:47
Is important because the word new does not simply mean a passive knowledge or understanding of something.
24:59
The word no, when it is applied from God to an individual or from God to a group is speaking of relationship.
25:07
Amos chapter three and verse two, God is speaking to Israel and he says of you only have I known of all the nations of the world doesn't mean that God didn't know all these other nations, didn't know Egypt or any of these other places.
25:21
What he's saying is only you have I entered into a relationship with.
25:27
And the New Testament, when Peter's talking about Jesus in first Peter chapter one, he says that Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world.
25:35
That means that he was in a relationship with God before the foundation of the world.
25:38
In the beginning was the word.
25:40
The word was with God and the word was God.
25:42
That relationship between God, the son and God, the father, is an eternal relationship that has always been.
25:47
They have known each other in relationship forever.
25:52
And when Jesus has someone come to him at the end of their life who has spent a religious life but has not truly come to him in faith and repentance and they say, Lord, Lord, haven't I done this? Haven't I done that? Haven't I done the other? He looks at them and he says, but we were never in a relationship.
26:08
I never knew you.
26:09
You never departed lawlessness.
26:13
By the way, what is lawlessness? It's sin.
26:16
James tells us that very clearly.
26:18
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.
26:22
Sin is lawlessness.
26:22
I said it was James.
26:23
I'm sorry.
26:24
It's first Peter three, four.
26:26
Everyone who makes a practice of sin practices lawlessness.
26:29
Sin is lawlessness.
26:30
That is John speaking.
26:32
And he's telling us a definition.
26:34
When Jesus says you have not departed lawlessness, what he's saying is you've not left your life of sin.
26:39
You might have Jesus in your mouth.
26:43
You might have Jesus in your Bible.
26:45
You might have Jesus in your prayers.
26:47
But if you still have sin in your life that you're living in, that you're loving in, that you are muck and mire swimming in, then you ain't saved.
27:00
You can be a church member, faithful tither, leader, teacher, seat warmer or devoted worker.
27:06
You can be part of the clique or not.
27:09
You can be part of those who are in the ins and those who are on the outs.
27:13
But it doesn't matter at the end of the day.
27:17
It doesn't matter at the end of the day, because if you live a life of consistent rebellion against God, if you live in sin, you're not a Christian.
27:34
I have to be clear for clarity's sake.
27:38
I'm not saying that Christians are perfect, and I'm certainly not claiming my own perfection.
27:44
I believe Wesley was wrong.
27:46
Wesley taught that you could live a perfectly sinless life.
27:49
I don't believe that that's consistent with the New Testament because we're told to always pray, Lord, forgive us of our sins.
27:55
A daily prayer is forgive us of our trespasses.
27:59
I mean, that's a daily prayer, obviously.
28:01
But a Christian is one who hates sin.
28:05
A Christian is one who does pray, Lord, forgive me, Lord, keep me from sin.
28:10
Lord, forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil.
28:17
That is the prayer of the Christian.
28:19
God, keep me from sin to lay down happily in the muck and mire of sin and be content and be happy as a pig in slop means you are not a believer.
28:38
It's impossible that you would be a believer.
28:41
It's impossible that Christ has changed your life.
28:43
If you are still in love with the sin of this world, you say this is harsh.
28:49
I've never heard this.
28:50
I grew up all my life in a church where the pastor told me as long as I signed that card, as long as I got in that water, as long as I raised my hand, I was saved.
28:56
He was a liar.
29:01
He is verse 15 to 20.
29:06
Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing.
29:09
He's the one Jeremiah prophesied about when he said there will be those who come to you and say, peace, peace, where there is no peace.
29:22
On Wednesday night, I told the small group that we had that comes on Wednesday night.
29:25
I said, I said, don't come to me looking for assurance of your salvation.
29:30
The Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation.
29:32
That's not my job.
29:34
My job is to call you to repentance and faith.
29:36
But you go to most modern preachers and you say, I want assurance of my salvation.
29:40
He'll say, well, pull out your Bible and see here where you wrote your name when you were 12 years old, see where you got your spiritual birth certificate.
29:45
That means you're saved.
29:46
Even if you're living in sin, even if you're living in deathly sin, he'll say, but you're saved because you said those words.
29:53
It's a lie.
29:54
It's a lie.
29:55
It's a lie.
29:55
The modern propaganda that is not evangelism, but calls itself that.
30:00
There is it there.
30:01
Oh, it's not the truth.
30:04
Hear me, it's not the truth.
30:07
It's a lie.
30:09
They are lying to you, they are giving you false hope, false assurance, and you're going to stand before God one day and you're going to say, Lord, Lord, that preacher told me that I was saved and Jesus is going to say, I don't care.
30:23
I didn't tell you that.
30:38
We have the illustration that ends the Sermon on the Mount, verse 24.
30:44
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rains fell.
30:53
By the way, the rains, the flood and the winds and all this is just God's judgment.
30:57
This is a picture of God bringing judgment.
31:00
There's not some secret mystical code, but the wind means this and rain means it's judgment.
31:05
When judgment comes, some will stand and some will fall.
31:12
It's very simple.
31:17
Jesus is the rock of our salvation.
31:21
Ephesians 220 tells us that he is the cornerstone upon which our salvation is built.
31:27
First Corinthians chapter three, the apostle Paul says, if you start a foundation, you build on Christ and he's the firm foundation.
31:34
He is it.
31:36
But how do you know? How do you know if you've built upon that rock? How do you know if you're on the solid rock of Christ or you're on the shifting sand? And Jesus tells us, I don't have to really add commentary.
31:48
He tells us here, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them, how do you know that you're on the rock? Obedience to the word of God.
32:05
Obedience to Christ.
32:10
I want to show you two things in the Bible as we start to draw to a close, as I hope that God is impressing some things on your heart, I want to show you two things that the apostle Paul wrote.
32:24
That when I read them, it forces me to repent, it forces me to search my heart, it forces me to think of the real reality of what Jesus is saying, turn to Galatians five first, Galatians chapter five, verse 19 to 21, verses 19, 20, Galatians 5, 19 to 21.
33:04
Now the works of the flesh are evident.
33:07
Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, that means having a hateful spirit, strife, that's what comes from a hateful spirit, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these.
33:41
I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
33:59
Now turn backward to first Corinthians six verses nine and ten, first Corinthians six, verse nine, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.
34:31
By the way, that's the same thing James said.
34:33
Don't be hearers only deceiving yourselves.
34:36
Do not be deceived.
34:38
Neither the sexually immoral, by the way, that's the first in both lists, sexual immorality, because it so destroys so many lives, nor idolaters, that made both lists, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality.
34:54
I'm going to spend a lot of time on that.
34:56
But these churches that call themselves homosexual churches are just off the reservation.
35:01
We wouldn't start the idolatrous church or the or the adulterous church.
35:05
Why would we start the homosexual church? Why would we start a church based on sin? It's a lie and it's false teaching.
35:11
Moving on, verse nine, verse 10, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
35:25
Now, listen, I want you to be honest with yourself.
35:29
You've heard two lists, both of those lists that said these people will not inherit the kingdom of God.
35:34
Do you see yourself in those lists? I'm not talking about before you were converted.
35:40
Are you still living in the midst of that list today? And if you are, beloved, I challenge you to question, am I a false convert? Jonathan Edwards.
35:54
The great pastor said men that live in ways of sin and yet flatter themselves that they shall go to heaven or expect to be received hereafter as holy persons without a holy life and practice, act as though they expect to make a fool of their judge.
36:21
I've heard a lot of men preach the Sermon on the Mount and a lot of men shy on this passage.
36:30
They shy away from dealing with the reality, especially with their own church.
36:35
Pastors fear for their job.
36:36
They fear for their popularity.
36:37
They fear for the comfort of their people.
36:39
And they won't preach the hard truth.
36:45
And one of the things that I've heard some ministers say is this.
36:49
They said that Jesus enters the ends, the Sermon on the Mount with a great invitation.
36:55
Beloved, he does not end the Sermon on the Mount with an invitation.
36:59
He ends the Sermon on the Mount with a warning.
37:04
It's not an invitation, it's a warning.
37:11
He says, you take the broad way and it will lead to destruction.
37:14
You follow the false teachers and they will lead to your fall.
37:18
You name my name and don't obey me and I will deny I ever knew you.
37:23
You build on any other foundation but me and obedience to me.
37:28
When judgment comes, great will be your fall.
37:34
It's not an invitation.
37:36
That's a warning.
37:39
It's over and over and over.
37:42
I warn you, I warn you, I warn you.
37:45
And in the name of Jesus Christ today, I warn you.
37:49
I ask you, is this you? Is it? There is no doubt that some who believe that they are Christians today in this place, in this house, are not.
38:08
They are self-deceived.
38:10
Is that you? The question is not whether you know Jesus.
38:20
Does Jesus know you? My job as your pastor is not to comfort you.
38:33
Well, let me back up.
38:34
I'll say it again.
38:35
My job is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.
38:37
And we have way too many comfortable people here.
38:42
If you're afflicted, I will comfort you with the gospel.
38:48
But so many of you come week in and week out and you are comfortable in your sin.
38:52
And it's OK with you because you don't really believe what Jesus has said in this passage.
38:57
And this morning, if you sit comfortable in your disobedience to Christ, I pray that you are afflicted.
39:03
I pray that you're cut to the heart.
39:04
I pray that your heart has been loaded with burden.
39:10
And I don't pray that God would give you peace.
39:13
I pray that he would break your heart over the anvil of your own sin, because that's what you need.
39:21
A hundred years from now, we are all going to be dead.
39:25
A hundred years from now, unless Jesus comes, every one of us will be dead.
39:33
And a hundred years from now, we will either be in the presence of God in his grace, or we'll be in the presence of his wrath, where there is no reprieve, where there is no second chance.
39:48
Where there is no pardon, where there is no parole.
39:53
And we will be there for ever.
40:04
I leave you with one verse of Scripture, 2 Corinthians 6 and 2.
40:12
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
40:18
Now is the acceptable time.
40:21
You need to repent.
40:22
Do it now.
40:23
You need to come to Christ.
40:25
Do it now.
40:26
You need to reject your old way of life.
40:29
Do it now.
40:29
I've been a church member here for a long time.
40:32
People think that I'm saved.
40:33
Who cares if Jesus doesn't believe that you're saved? Who cares if you're not saved? What other people have believed about you? Who cares about your pride? Get over yourselves and reject yourself and come to Christ.
40:47
I wouldn't preach like this if I didn't believe it were so, but I know it's the Bible says.
40:58
Many will come unto me on that day and say, Lord, Lord, and I will say, Depart from me, for I never knew you, Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
41:22
I know that this is not what people expect, especially during this time of year.
41:30
But woe to us who expect to be comforted in our sin.
41:38
God, use this moment of quiet introspection to cause us to think about our own hearts.
41:52
May it be that you save people today who have until now been lost.
42:01
Give them a hunger for the word.
42:04
Give them the fruit of the spirit by which they can be confident in their salvation.
42:09
Seeing a changed life which accompanies a profession of faith in Jesus name.
42:22
Amen.
42:23
I want to talk to you for a minute.
42:25
Keep your heads down.
42:26
Keep your eyes closed.
42:28
I'm not going to give you a long invitation.
42:31
I'm not going to give any invitation.
42:32
What I'm going to say is this.
42:35
For the next moment, we're going to sit in silence before we sing, and I want you to ask yourself the question, Am I a false convert? Don't ask if the person next to you is a false convert.
42:54
Ask about yourself.
43:18
Father, may it be that you use this moment to bring sinners to yourself.
43:28
That they might know the indescribable joy of giving themselves to Christ, having counted the cost and sought after him in his name, we pray.