Where Division Really Matters

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Well, I invite you, I've already asked that you turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 25.
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And if you have the handout that I gave you, you'll also have the translation that I'll be teaching out of, because I printed it on the handout.
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I know that sometimes we have different translations, and it's sometimes easier if I just print out the handout, exactly what I'm going to be reading so that you can read along.
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Sorry about that.
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And you'll notice there's some big blanks on the sheet, and we are going to fill those blanks in later.
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But to begin with, I just want to start with the lesson itself.
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And that is, the title of the lesson tonight is Where Division Really Matters.
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Where Division Really Matters.
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And this lesson was sort of birthed out of a couple of different things.
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One, of course, the text itself and what it says, but also over the last several months, probably I would have to say since the inauguration of our new president, I've been bearing witness to more division than I've seen in a long time.
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And I'm not saying that to necessarily put all of the responsibility at the feet of the presidency.
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I think that that's just brought to light a lot of division that may have already been there.
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And, of course, the preceding administration didn't do anything to help that division at all.
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In fact, it probably did more to cause some of it than a lot of people realized.
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But if we look around us, especially if you're on social media, which I know some of you are and some of you aren't, but if you look around us, you see that it seems as if every issue now is a hill to die on.
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And everything is a divisive thing and everything is just so polarizing.
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Everything is just so, whether it's racial issues, it's polarizing.
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Whether it's political questions of where you stand, whether it's on the right or on the left, it's polarizing.
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And harsh language, religious expression, very polarizing, very harsh.
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And the language is just so ugly.
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And even, you know, simple things.
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You go online and you talk about something as simple as you don't post pictures of your children anymore in their car seats because you're bound to have somebody tell you that you're doing it wrong and then blast you as a terrible parent because you didn't put the car seat in correctly.
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I mean, it really is no matter what you do.
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And I'm not saying car seats aren't important.
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I'm just saying it doesn't matter.
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It's everything.
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The most innocuous statements are taken so harshly and there's so much division.
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And I have said many times in the past that division is sometimes necessary because division separates truth from error and we can't be united in that which is false.
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So sometimes division is necessary.
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But it seems as if, as I said, everything is divisive now.
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And whether it's kneeling at the flag or it's having a bump stock on a rifle, it's something that's going to cause people to lose their minds, you know.
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And it really is everything so divisive.
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And so I got to thinking about that because I've been alive now for almost 40 years.
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I know for some of you that's not too impressive.
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But I've been alive for almost 40 years.
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And I don't remember a time where I felt so divided racially, so divided politically, and so divided socially as I do right now.
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Now, I could be totally ignorant because I know there was a time before me when there were things that happened, the Civil Rights Movement, and then prior to that there were other things that happened that I wasn't alive for.
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But in my lifetime, this has just been really weighing on my soul.
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And the latest thing, like I said, to spur, and I know I wasn't here Sunday, and I know Andy mentioned it when he was preaching, was the Las Vegas shooting.
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You know, that's brought up the issue of gun control and gun rights and things like that.
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And again, division is necessary because you don't want to be united in error.
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But oftentimes we get so caught up in the divisions that don't matter.
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We get so caught up in the divisions that are temporary and meaningless.
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And we end up missing the place where division does matter.
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And so tonight's lesson is about what I've dubbed the only division that matters.
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Where division really matters is the title of the lesson.
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This is the only place where division really matters.
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And we're going to read the text, and I hope you'll see what I'm talking about.
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So if you want to look with me.
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It says in Matthew 25, now by the way, just for the context, this is part of Jesus' Olivet Discourse.
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This is the very long lesson that he gave on the Mount of Olives.
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This is very close to the time of the crucifixion.
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This is one of the last things he says to his apostles.
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He's giving them a lesson about the end of the age.
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So this is specifically talking about the end times.
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And he's talking here about judgment.
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And he says in verse 31, When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
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Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.
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And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.
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Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
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For I was hungry, and you gave Me food.
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I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink.
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I was a stranger, and you welcomed Me.
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I was naked, and you clothed Me.
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I was sick, and you visited Me.
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I was a prisoner, and you came to Me.
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Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.
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Then He will say to those on His left, Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
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For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food.
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And I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink.
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And I was a stranger, and you did not welcome Me.
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Naked, and you did not clothe Me.
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Sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me.
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And they also will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you? Then He will answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.
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And these will go away into eternal punishment.
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But the righteous into eternal life.
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And that is the end of the chapter, and so ends the reading of God's holy and inspired Word.
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This passage is very powerful, and in a sense, somewhat very daunting on the soul.
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Because it pictures a moment in time that we all know is coming.
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And it's something that a lot of people don't want to hear about anymore.
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Because this passage talks about the subject of judgment.
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And if there's anything that's really fallen on very bad times, it's the subject of judgment.
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In fact, what is the most popular phrase that you hear from people if you try to talk to them about something that they have done that is sinful or wrong? Don't judge me.
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In fact, they'll throw it back at you.
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They'll say, who are you to judge? Or they'll say this, Judge not lest ye be judged.
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They'll throw out Matthew 7.1, even though Matthew 7.1 is followed by an entire chapter that they don't know.
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But they'll use the one verse very much out of context.
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But one of the things that has become very popular probably in the last few years, maybe you've seen it, became popular, I think there was a rap artist who either got a tattoo or put it on his album or something.
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And it was the thing, Only God can judge me.
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That was the...
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I don't remember if it was on his arm or if it was just on the album, but I remember seeing it very specifically.
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Only God can judge me.
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And so a lot of young people especially who see that kind of catch on to that.
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So you start talking to them about sin and they'll say, oh no, only God can judge me.
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Do you understand how frightening that is? That is true.
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But that should scare you to death.
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Because if what you're saying is only God can judge me and He won't, then you're wrong.
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But that's what they mean.
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They're saying don't judge me, only God can judge me and I'm good in His eyes.
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Or don't judge me, only God can judge me and He won't.
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Or He is going to give me a free pass.
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Only God can judge me is true, but it's also the most frightening thing in the world.
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And when we come to this passage, that's what we're seeing.
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We're seeing the judgment of God on the whole world.
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Jesus is picturing for us what will be.
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On your seat I gave you two big blanks.
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And I said the Bible divides the whole world into two groups.
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Now, if you're reading along, you probably know what those groups are.
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But just in case, I want to make sure we all know what the blanks are supposed to be filled with.
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Because the Bible does divide the world into two groups.
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In the text, we could say it is divided between the sheep and the goats.
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Notice there are no cows.
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There are no pigs.
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There are no German shepherds.
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There's only two groups.
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It's interesting to note that because I think, honestly, people really do classify most people into a third category.
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Because if I say to you, you know, we're talking about someone, and you'll say, yeah, I've got a cousin Bob.
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If you've got a cousin Bob, I'm not talking about you.
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This is a generic Bob.
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But let's say you come up to me, and I say, I've got a cousin Bob.
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Well, that's nice, and you're telling me about cousin Bob.
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And I say, well, is cousin Bob a believer? No, but he's a good guy.
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Okay.
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And that's normally how it goes, right? Cousin Bob's not a believer, but he's not a goat either.
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Right? So we sort of put this middle thing, and we say, he's a good guy.
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He's not a sheep.
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He's not one of Christ's sheep.
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But I wouldn't put him in the category of a goat.
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Now, I'm not saying that, you know, our whole mindset should just be goat, sheep, goat, sheep, goat, sheep, and go trying to divide people out by that.
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But what I'm saying is on Judgment Day, that will be the division.
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So in reality, that's the division that matters.
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Right? For instance, I want to just share something with you tonight, and I'm not saying this should be politically motivated or any way politically driven, because I don't really care about a lot of those things that happen.
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But I want to tell you what.
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There's people here that believe in gun control, and there's people who don't.
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There's people here who believe in capitalism, and people who don't.
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There's people here who believe in standing when the flag's raised, and people who don't.
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Now, you may disagree with them about those three things, and I probably would too.
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But the thing that divides us most and should be the thing that matters most is this.
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You see what I'm saying? Because the reality is we'll get tied up with people that we're politically the same with but who hate Jesus.
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And we'll love them more than we love the body of Christ because they agree with us politically or they agree with us socially or they agree with us economically.
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So what's most important? Now, I hear the arguments coming and I hear what people are saying.
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Well, if they were really the sheep then they would agree with me on those things.
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Really? Are those the things that matter? You say, well, it does matter.
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Okay.
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When you are facing the Lord on Judgment Day, is He going to ask you where you stood on the Second Amendment? Now, I didn't say the Second Amendment ain't important.
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If there's anybody here who believes in this...
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I teach for the NRA.
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I literally have a certification with their name on it.
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Which for a lot of people would mean I'm going to hell.
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Because a lot of people would send me to hell just for that.
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But you understand what I'm saying? The one division that matters and the division that we should seek to overcome before these others is where they are in Christ.
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I have relatives, man.
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I have relatives that I've been married into and I have relatives that I've been born into.
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And I've got relatives that hate the Lord.
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But they agree with me on almost every political issue.
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And on the other hand, I've got relatives that hate the Lord and they hate everything I stand for politically.
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Both of them need Jesus.
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Just because they agree with me on whether or not you should stand for the flag doesn't mean they have Jesus.
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Yeah.
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Whether we agree on that is secondary to whether or not they know Christ.
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And I think sometimes what happens is we get satisfied when we agree with people politically.
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We get satisfied when we agree with people economically or socially or morally.
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You know, not everybody who disagrees with abortion is a Christian.
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You know who some of the most ardent anti-abortion people are? No, they want abortion.
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Most gay people are for abortion.
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No, I'm saying who is opposed to abortion.
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You're saying for abortion.
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Who's some of the most strongest anti-abortion people in the world? Roman Catholics.
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People that I would say miss the boat a lot theologically.
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But they're right there socially.
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I mean, most of the people standing at the abortion clinics trying to keep people from having abortions are Roman Catholics.
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Right? So we agree with them socially.
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Again, my whole purpose for this lesson is to simply point out the fact that there's one division that really matters and it's the division of Christ.
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I'm not saying these other things don't matter and please don't go home tonight mad at me because you think I told you that those things don't matter.
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What I'm saying is there's something that matters more.
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And it's just on my heart because when I stand at judgment and I come before the Lord, I'm going to be standing with people of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
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The Bible says the elect are taken from every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation.
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And so when I see this promise of the sheep and the goats, that's my biggest concern when I meet somebody.
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Are you Christ's sheep? Now, I don't necessarily ask it that way.
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But I do want to know.
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And if they're not His sheep by faith, I want to share with them that faith that they might become His sheep, that they might become His follower, that they might become His disciple.
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So I've said all that.
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And I know you'll notice on the sheet there's four other subdivisions there.
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And I don't want you to think I'm taking a hard right now because I don't want to take a hard right, but I do want to share something with you because out of this, there's another issue that arises.
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Because while I said there's two groups, there's the sheep and the goats.
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And by the way, who are the sheep? They're the believers.
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Who are the goats? They're the unbelievers.
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These are the ones.
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The sheep are in Christ.
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The goats are outside of Christ.
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That's the only divide.
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That's the only one that matters.
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It's sort of like Noah when Noah's flood happened.
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The Bible talks about Noah's ark as being a type of Christ.
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How is Noah's ark a type of Christ? Those who were in the ark were saved from the wrath of God.
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Those who were outside of the ark were recipients of the wrath of God.
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The ones outside of the ark were crushed from below and from above with water.
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They were the very immediate recipients of the wrath of God.
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At judgment, there are going to be those who are in Christ.
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They will be the sheep.
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There will be those who are outside of Christ.
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They will be the goats.
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And they will receive the immediate wrath of God.
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And the sheep will receive His protection.
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And as the text says, that which has been prepared for them since the foundation of the world, their reward, their place in heaven.
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But down at the bottom, the groups can be divided further into two subgroups on either side.
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Under the sheep who are in Christ, you have the saved who know it.
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The saved who know it.
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Now if that's that one, what do you think is this one? The saved who don't know or we could say are uncertain.
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We say the saved and uncertain.
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And I'm going to talk about what these mean in a minute, but I'm just outlining everything now.
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Under the sheep, you have those who are saved and have a confidence in their salvation and those who are saved and have an uncertainty for some reason.
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Now on the other side, there are the goats.
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These are the unsaved.
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And guess how this works out.
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It's very simple.
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You've got the saved and know it and the unsaved and know it.
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You say, are there people out there who are unsaved and know it? Well, think about it.
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Last year at the fair when that lady walked by and she yelled at us, I'm going to hell and I don't care.
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I think she's unsaved.
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I think she knows it.
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I really do.
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I don't think she's making any bones about it.
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But for instance, I'll give you somebody else, maybe somebody a little more specific.
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Richard Dawkins.
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Richard Dawkins is an unbeliever.
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It's not Richard Dawson.
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It's not the guy who used to kiss people on the TV show.
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Richard Dawkins is a scientist.
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He's an atheist and he tries to promote atheism and he knows he's not saved because he doesn't believe there is such a thing.
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He believes salvation is a myth.
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It's a mental disorder.
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It's a problem.
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It's something that needs to be eradicated.
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He knows he's not saved.
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He doesn't care.
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So he's unsaved and he knows it.
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But then you have the fourth category, the unsaved and ignorant.
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The unsaved who don't know it.
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Now very briefly, I just want to kind of go through these categories and we're going to look at the text and how this relates as time allows.
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But as we go just down this first category here, the sheep, these are those who are in Christ.
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Someone who's saved and knows it.
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I would never ask people to raise a hand at a thing like this, but you'll see guys at the end of a lot of camp meetings, they'll say something like, do you want to be saved? And they'll say come down forward and say this prayer.
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Repeat after me.
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I believe, I believe Jesus is the Christ.
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Jesus is the Christ.
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I'm sorry for my sin.
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I'm sorry for my sin.
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You hear them repeat.
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And then what does he say to you? He says, okay, now open your eyes and look at me.
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If you said that prayer, I want you to know that you're saved and never question it.
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I've heard that before.
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I've heard people say, take out your Bible and write down at the front.
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My spiritual birthday is October 11th.
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And anytime you question your salvation, you go back and you look at that.
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First of all, that's not biblical.
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It's not biblical one to say a sinner's prayer.
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It's nowhere in the Bible that anyone ever led anyone in prayer as that mode of getting someone saved.
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And also that's not how you know that you're saying you don't know that you're saved because 20 years ago you repeated a prayer that somebody prayed.
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You don't know that you're saved because 20 years ago you walked forward at the beckoning of a pastor and you allowed him to dunk you in some water.
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What does Jesus say? I love this passage because it doesn't mention faith.
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You say now, wait, why would you love it? Because it doesn't mention faith.
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Because I think that this passage answers the question, what does faith look like? Faith looks like something.
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In James 2, James says, you say you believe.
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I tell you this, the devil believes and trembles.
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You show me your faith or you tell me your faith, I'll show you my faith by my what? By my life, by my works.
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My life will show my faith.
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So when Jesus is explaining this, beginning at verse 35, He says, I was hungry, you gave me food.
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I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
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I was a stranger, you welcomed me.
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I was naked, you clothed me.
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I was sick, you visited me.
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I was in prison, you came to me.
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And the righteous will say to Him, Lord, when did we do these things? I love that question.
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You know why I like that question? Because the things that they were doing, they were doing out of a sincere love for Christ without ever keeping record of their right.
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You know, not only are people good at keeping record of other people's wrongs, they're also pretty good at keeping record of their own rights.
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Not only are people good at telling people what they do wrong, they're good at being proud of what they do right.
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And these believers, what do they say? When did we do these things to you? And I love at this passage here when he says in verse 40, Truly I say to you, as you did this to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.
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Now, who are Christ's brothers? At this particular time in history, Christ's brethren would have been the Jewish people who were longing for Messiah.
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After that, after Christ went to the cross, died, and now is risen to heaven, His brethren is who? His church.
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Those who believe in Him.
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In fact, when Jesus...
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I was talking to Mike Carger about this earlier.
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I called him.
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We were talking about this passage.
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And he pointed out something to me that I hadn't thought about and I thought it was great.
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He said, you know, when Paul was thrown down at the feet of Christ on the road to Damascus, Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? But you know, Saul never persecuted Jesus personally.
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He was persecuting his church.
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And what did Jesus do? He identified Himself with His people, His brethren, His church.
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I will say this, and I think that I can bear this out from this text.
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I think that the one mark of someone who is truly a believer is there is a love for God's people.
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A love for God's people is a product of faith in Christ.
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I've said this before.
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Jesus said the church is His bride.
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And if I don't love the bride, I don't love the groom.
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If a man told me, I love you, but I hate your wife, I say, you don't love me.
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Because my wife is part of me.
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And we are part of Christ.
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So I would say the first thing that is a mark of someone who is a believer is that he loves the brethren.
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Isn't that what Jesus said? By this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.
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Love for the brethren outweighs so much other things.
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The Bible says love covers a multitude of sins.
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And so if somebody came to me and they said, you know what, Keith? I love Jesus, but I hate the church.
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That's a red flag.
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I say, what do you mean? Now if you mean I hate corruption in the church, I say, I hate corruption in the church.
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If you mean that I hate all the false teachers in the church, I would say I hate false teaching in the church.
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But we are called to love the church.
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And loving God's people is a byproduct of faith.
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And he gives the example of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and visiting the imprisoned and visiting the sick.
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These are things that we do in the body.
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In fact, these are things that should happen in the body.
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And if they're not, there's something wrong with the body.
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If there's a part of the body that's naked and the other parts of the church aren't coming to clothe it, that's a problem.
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You know, in the early church, there was division economically within the church.
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And Paul called it out hard.
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1 Corinthians 11.
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He said, some of you guys come together to eat and you hold your food off and you won't share it.
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Shame on you.
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Read it.
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Go and read 1 Corinthians 11.
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He talks about the fact that they would come together with meals and those who had a lot would hold back and not share.
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And he said, shame on you.
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You're the body of Christ.
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If you had a part of your body, if your leg, if the pant leg was ripped off your leg, would you just let your leg hang out there? No, you'd cover it up because it's part of your body.
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So we are called to love one another.
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And loving one another is a byproduct of real life-changing salvation.
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And the opposite is true.
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The opposite is true.
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He says to them on the other side, he says, you didn't do these things to my brethren.
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And now I want to point this out.
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And again, I was having this conversation earlier.
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There are people out there who do really good works, but they don't do it motivated by love for Christ.
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And I'm going to tell you, you can do great works and they are not going to earn your way to heaven.
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No one who is going to heaven in this passage earned it.
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Everything they did in this passage, loving their neighbor, clothing their neighbor, feeding their neighbor, visiting their neighbor while sick and in prison, those things were byproducts of their salvation, not the cause.
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You cannot earn.
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You go back up to the beginning.
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What does it say? These things were prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
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This is not something you earned.
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And likewise, if somebody were to come up to Jesus at the end of the world and say, you know what, Jesus, I didn't believe in You, but I did all these good things.
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Not one good thing will ever cover sin.
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The only thing that covers sin is Christ.
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And outside of Christ, what do you have? Judgment.
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In Christ there are those who are saved and know it.
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There are also those who are saved and uncertain.
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And I've had this conversation with several people.
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People will come in, I believe in Jesus Christ, but I'm struggling with doubt about my salvation.
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And I say, you know what, that is difficult.
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And it's not unique.
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It's something that a lot of people deal with.
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I don't tell you to write your spiritual birthday down and go look at that.
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But I do ask you, do you know that Christ has changed your life? Do you know that you're a different person than you were before you met Him? Do you know that if you saw Him right now, you would have nothing to cling to except Him? No righteousness, no goodness, no self-dependence, but Him and only Him.
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That's it.
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I love the story, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who both went to the temple to pray.
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The Pharisee went into the temple and he says, God, thank you that I'm such a good man and that I do good things and that I give a tithe of all my income and that I worship in the temple all the time.
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And I thank you, God, that I'm not like that tax collector over there.
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And the tax collector stood back and he beat his breast and he would not even look to heaven and he said, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
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And Jesus said, that man went home justified and not the other.
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If certainty is something you battle with, then I would say find it in Christ.
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Know that it will not be in what you do, but it will be in Him having changed your life.
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You'll never have enough good works to earn your way there.
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But if you trust in Him, He will change your life.
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Now on the other side, and I'm going to draw to a close with these two.
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On the other side, you have the unsaved who know it.
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I've already talked about your Richard Dawkinses, your Christopher Hitchens, your Dan Barkers, guys who have denied the Lord verbally, publicly, and do not care.
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And I really don't want to spend a lot of time with those other than to say that we pray for them.
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We pray because God can change a heart, even a stony heart, because He changed mine.
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But here's where the real rubber meets the road.
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Because there are those who are unsaved and don't know it.
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And I would say the people most dangerously, people who are unsaved and don't know it are in church on Sundays.
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The Bible says in Matthew 7, on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not cast out demons in Your name and done mighty works in Your name and done many miracles in Your name? And I will say to them, I never knew you.
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You know what's different about them than the people in Matthew 25? When the people in Matthew 7 meet Jesus, they expect a reward.
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They say, Lord, didn't we do this? And didn't we do that? And didn't we do the other? But the people in Matthew 25, what do they say? Lord, when did we clothe? When did we feed? When did we visit? You see, the people in Matthew 25 trusted in nothing but Jesus.
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And the people in 7 trusted in themselves.
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And the people who come to church on Sunday who are not looking to Christ, but are looking to themselves, whether it's what they give or it's what they do or what have you, are the people who will on judgment day be surprised.
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John MacArthur said this.
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He said, There will be many people in hell who are surprised that they ended up there.
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And that's what Jesus said.
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Beloved, I don't want anyone to be in any category but this one.
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But I've got to say, if there's one you definitely don't want to be in, it's this one.
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And that's why at the bottom of the page I said this.
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Do you see yourself in one of these groups? I would pray that we would all be saved and know it.
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And that's the one I truly hope to be in.
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But beloved, this is the one I would say is the most frightening of all because this is where so much of American evangelicalism is today.
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Evangelicalism is today.
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They're unsaved and ignorant.
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They're pleased with their own works and not pleased to trust in the works of Christ.
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So let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for the truth.
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I thank You for the opportunity to study it.
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And I pray this has been a fruitful study.
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I pray that this would cause us all to wonder and all to think and all to look to You and know that there is salvation in none other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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In the name of Jesus Christ, and it's in His name we pray, Amen.