Are you in the few or among the many?

· Good morning, the text we will be in today is Matthew 7:21-23

‌

· This an excerpt of Jesus towards the final stages of the Sermon on the Mount.

‌

· A piece of scripture that many of you are probably familiar with.

‌

· To give a little background to this text Jesus is speaking to the disciples, the general crowd, and the religious leaders that were present.

‌

· In the conclusion of His sermon, Jesus gives two warnings.

‌

· He warns that there are two kinds of prophets, two kinds of disciples, and two kinds of foundations.

‌

· In each warning, there is a “many” who will not enter the kingdom of heaven, and a “few” that will.

‌

· This particular portion of the text focuses on the two kinds of disciples.

‌

· There is a false disciple, who is deceived, and has lived their life believing a lie.

‌

· The other is the true disciple, who has been justified by faith, through grace, in Christ alone.

‌

· If you have a copy of God’s word please open it and find Matthew chapter seven, verses twenty-one through twenty-three.

‌

· “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

‌

· On that day many will say me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out many 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.”

‌

· These are terrifyingly grave words that Jesus said.

‌

· Can you imagine how shocked everyone in attendance was when they heard this? PAUSE

‌

· Well hear me, church, Jesus is saying this very thing to us today as well.

‌

· Pay attention to the language he uses here, “many” will say to me, not a few, not some but many.

‌

· He is also showing that he will on day exercise the right of condemning the many.

‌

· Try to put yourself in the crowd’s shoes, in the pharisees shoes, can you imagine the shock they must have felt hearing these words?

‌

· These were very radical words, and they still are!

‌

· No one ever spoke like this, no one speaks like this now.

‌

· Religious people, and the pharisees put their hope in miracles, signs, their works, and their piety and not in Christ.

‌

· They loved their piety more than God, their piety was there god.

‌

· Don’t get me wrong here, piety is not a bad thing. It is a wonderful thing when it is done out a reverence for God.

‌

· The reformers and puritans perhaps knew this best.

‌

· But there was a stark contrast in their piety and that of the pharisees.

‌

· The reformers piety was derived from their theology, and a love and reverence of God.

‌

· One reformer defined piety this way, “I call piety, that reverence joined with love of god which the knowledge of his benefits induces”.

‌

· Their orthodoxy, or what they believed about God, informed their orthopraxy, how they conducted themselves day to day.

‌

· The pharisees loved their piety because it gave them status in the community.

‌

· It made them look as if they were closer to God.

‌

· They were not pious out of a love for God, but out of a lust to earn the approval of man.

‌

· The pharisees were more devoted to their religion than anyone in their time, probably more devoted perhaps than you and me.

‌

· They were devout, they knew the scriptures, all of them, they preached the scriptures, they waited for their messiah to come and liberate them.

‌

· Yet, they missed him when he did come.

‌

· They rejected and despised him and they crucified him on a cross.

‌

· How much more should people in a culture

‌

· not only in America but in this very town of casual Christianity be concerned for themselves? PAUSE

‌

· A culture of Christianity where piety and religiousness are only exercised one day out of the week? PAUSE

‌

· Where piety and religiousness are not something to be obtained and lived in at all times out of an overflow of our knowledge and love of God? PAUSE

‌

· How much more should we ourselves be concerned about this text and what it means for us? PAUSE

‌

· We, you and I, this church, should be concerned over this text

‌

· not only for the culture we live in but for ourselves.

‌

· Why should we be concerned? PAUSE We would be fools not too.

‌

· We live in a culture where there is a social pressure to identify as Christian,

‌

· and if you don’t identify as a Christian, you get looked down upon.

‌

· Where people often think something is wrong with the parents who have aging children

‌

· that have not yet professed faith and been baptized.

‌

· All this culture is concerned over is about a profession of faith,

‌

· not diligently discipling people, not relentlessly sharing the gospel,

‌

· not preaching Gods word and trusting him to do the work, no.

‌

· We want to thrust our own agenda on people,

‌

· because large numbers of professions must mean we are doing something right.

‌

· Church that is pragmatism and its not biblical!

‌

· Another major component in the culture we live in

‌

· is that there is predominantly no real discipleship and no accountability.

‌

· As long as you show up, say the right things,

‌

· smile on Sundays and Wednesday nights, you are good to live how you want the rest of the week.

‌

· Do you see the danger here? PAUSE

‌

· What we have created is a culture that not only pressures people to be Christian,

‌

· but we also don’t hold people accountable to the Christian faith they profess to possess.

‌

· The product of that is that there are many people who profess Christ with their mouth

‌

· but their hearts and lives outside of church profess a love for the lusts of the world.

‌

· Do you see the huge problem here? PAUSE

‌

· This type of faith wouldn’t work in other parts of the world.

‌

· Would you be here this morning if it meant you could be killed? If it meant you would lose everything and be thrown in jail? PAUSE

‌

· Ask yourself that honestly. If that is not proof enough let us look to a statistic.

‌

· It is said that 63% of Americans in the United States

‌

· identify as a Christian and have Christian morals.

‌

· In a country that predominantly rejects God with its laws,

‌

· celebrates, loves, plans, and glorifies sin,

‌

· how could that be possible? PAUSE

‌

· Do you not see that a great majority of professing Christians in our culture are deceived? PAUSE

‌

· The way to heaven is not broad, it is narrow! PAUSE

‌

· There are not many that will enter in, there are few! PAUSE

‌

· This culture of casual Christianity has leaked into and been adopted by many churches across the nation,

‌

· and sadly many in our local community.

‌

· They are perpetuating the idea of pragmatism

‌

· and the idea that you can be in the faith and a casual, one to two day week churchman.

‌

· The focus on many churches today is attracting a large crowd, counting attendance numbers,

‌

· always seeking what they can do to add another.

‌

· They use music, lights, and manipulative charismatic sermons to prey on emotions

‌

· So they can boast of large movements of alter calls and professions of faith.

‌

· But what they do not do, is teach the full counsel of God,

‌

· they do not exegete scripture verse by verse, they don’t hold to biblical confessions of faith,

‌

· some of them do not even have membership,

‌

· there is no true discipleship, no accountability,

‌

· church discipline is so unheard of it has become taboo to the local church.

‌

· For that doesn’t attract the many. True biblical preaching will never attract the many.

‌

· It will always draw in the few, because the sheep hear the father’s voice,

‌

· The sheep long to get off of shallow sermons of milk,

‌

· and feast upon the spiritual meat of sermons preached by faithful men.

‌

· The many who are on the path to destruction do not desire that.

‌

· They desire to hear sermons that make them feel good about themselves and promise prosperity,

‌

· sermons that allow them to remain comfortable, never having to stretch nor grow the muscle of their faith.

‌

· While there are many reasons this deception is happening and will continue to happen,

‌

· We can sum up this deception being perpetuated, in three falsehoods.

‌

· The first is a false understanding of the gospel.

‌

· People are being further deceived, and led astray in masse

‌

· by the preaching of false and watered down gospels.

‌

· There are some that preach that man is just sick, and in need of help from Jesus.

‌

· There are some who claim that just believing in Jesus is not enough,

‌

· That you also must do certain works and engage in certain extra biblical practices.

‌

· They do not preach salvation in Christ alone, through faith alone, and by grace alone.

‌

· There are alter calls where men and women are merely asked to “come and get right with the Lord”.

‌

· Or to come and recite a prayer, as if they prayer could save them alone

‌

· You do not hear sermons on repentance and belief on Christ alone,

‌

· you do not hear sermons on the depravity of man

‌

· and the righteous wrath of God and his hatred towards sinners.

‌

· Our society today has such a high view of man, and such a low view of God

‌

· So much so that when the true gospel is preached it is met with hostility, even inside of the church!

‌

· When man is shown to be desperately wicked and evil and not just morally poor,

‌

· or utterly dead spiritually and not just sick they are offended.

‌

· They hate for their sin to be exposed

‌

· and will find a “church” where it isn’t.

‌

· That is why so many “preachers” do not preach the true gospel!

‌

· Biblical Christianity, and biblical gospel, has never and will never attract the many.

‌

· Why? Because when Christ bids you to come to Him, he bids you come and die! PAUSE

‌

· You must have a clear and biblical understanding of the gospel, you must!

‌

· Without it your belief will not be in Christ,

‌

· it will be in a god you have made in your own image, and that god cannot save.

‌

· Belief in a false gospel will always lead to a false sense of assurance.

‌

· The society we live in is quick to affirm anyone’s beliefs, feelings and how they identify.

‌

· Whether it be a man feeling like a woman, or an adult feeling like they are still a child,

‌

· if you claim that is your identity, culture will affirm you,

‌

· and shame anyone that challenges you.

‌

· This same mindset is invading the church.

‌

· Most churches today are quick to affirm any ones profession of faith,

‌

· whatever it may be, and that it should never be brought into question.

‌

· When a church’s main goal is growing its attendance numbers, and counting professions of faith,

‌

· you foster a culture of affirming any and all professions, no matter what they are founded in or on.

‌

· Church, hear me, it is not a mere profession of faith,

‌

· it is not a mere prayer said at an altar, it is not the meek raising of a hand at a service,

‌

· or a time that you were emotional and overwhelmed with a feeling that saves you.

‌

· This problem of having a false sense of assurance has been going on since the fall of man.

‌

· The pharisees Jesus is speaking to had a false sense of assurance.

‌

· They truly thought themselves to be children of God, heirs of and to the promise.

‌

· They used the sign of the covenant, by being marked with circumcision.

‌

· They used the sacrificial system to purify the flesh,

‌

· but they knew not God.

‌

· In all of the things they looked to for assurance,

‌

· they never looked to Christ.

‌

· A false sense of assurance is the result of a failure to examine yourself against the Holy Scriptures.

‌

· Be honest with yourself,

‌

· how often do you examine your heart’s desires and motives? PAUSE

‌

· Do they bear witness to your love of Christ and devotion to him?

‌

· Do they affirm your profession of belief in Christ? PAUSE

‌

· What do you treasure most in life?

‌

· Is Christ your greatest treasure,

‌

· or are you and the pleasures of this world your greatest treasure? PAUSE

‌

· True disciples of Christ are always staying on guard for these things.

‌

· Always watchful for sinful desires and motives,

‌

· seeking to take every thought captive and force it to obedience to Christ.

‌

· Do you find yourself seeing

‌

· that as your understanding of Gods holiness increases

‌

· so does the awareness of your own sinfulness? PAUSE

‌

· True disciples seek to know more of Gods holiness,

‌

· true disciples are made aware of their own wretchedness

‌

· and utter dependence upon Christ alone.

‌

· The reason I am so burdened with this text

‌

· is because I was once one of these people.

‌

· I was deceived into thinking I was right before God,

‌

· that I knew Christ and that He knew me.

‌

· I probably share a similar background with many of you.

‌

· My father has been a pastor my entire life.

‌

· I never missed a church service or event growing up.

‌

· I knew all the right answers to the Sunday school questions.

‌

· I knew what to say, when to say it, and how to say it.

‌

· I was groomed to look like and be a Christian. Much like many of you.

‌

· I had all the makings and markings of a proper Christian down to a T.

‌

· I was baptized at a young age, professed a desire to be a missionary,

‌

· and even led bibles studies,

‌

· But the tragedy of it was that my heart was dead in sin, and desperately wicked.

‌

· I began smoking marijuana, popping pills, and drinking alcohol around the age of thirteen.

‌

· While outwardly I seemed to enjoy the pious life or righteous living,

‌

· inwardly I despised and hated it.

‌

· I always knew I was called to some form of ministry,

‌

· that conviction was always there,

‌

· but I was a rebel, unwilling to lay down my arms.

‌

· So I ran, as hard, and as fast away from that calling as I could, every change I got,

‌

· slowly spiraling farther and farther from Christ.

‌

· That was until a sermon was preached on this very text.

‌

· I didn’t even have to listen to the sermon,

‌

· I read the scripture, and my heart was instantly softened and pierced, by the word of God.

‌

· Let us look to this text now, that Gods word would accomplish its purpose in our hearts and minds.

· Beginning at verse twenty-one,

· “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

· A mere verbal profession of faith does not save a person from the wrath of God,

· it does not impute Christs righteousness to them.

· The people in discussion here think they have a close relationship with Christ.

· They think that they know him on a personal level.

· They believe, as the old hymn says, that they ‘walked with him and talked with him along the narrow way.”

· Yet they were gravely, and eternally mistaken,

· for it was not the Christ of the bible that they placed their faith in.

· It was not through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone that they believed.

· No, they believed in vain, they believed a lie.

· PAUSE

· [SLOW] There are no heavier words in the bible than these. These words church, should burden you.

· We will come back to the second part of this verse in a moment, but for now we will turn our attention to the twenty-second verse.

· “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?’

· Which day is Jesus speaking of here?

· It is the most dreadful, fearful, awful day for those apart from Christ.

· It is the day where those apart from Christ will be judge according to the law,

· where any and all of man’s works and righteous deeds will be consumed by fire.

· When those without Christs atoning work on the Cross and His righteousness credited to them

· will forever suffer His all-consuming wrath and hatred.

· Hear me, look at me, every person in this room, and every person before you and after you

· will face this day. PAUSE

· Everyone in this room will stand before God,

· and you will either do it in your own righteousness, or Christs.

· Here me church, you have no righteousness of your own.

· No one in this room apart from Christ has a chance at being counted righteous before God.

· These ‘many’, Christ refers to,

· are those that are on the broad path, that leads to destruction.

· But there is a significant difference about this group of many.

· They are not part of the many that openly rejected Christ or had nothing to do with the faith.

· No, these are the many who claimed to be in Christ, who claimed belief in the son of God.

· Charles Spurgeon said that these people went far in church, and that they kept it up for a long time, but tragically, not long enough.

· Some of these many will have been deacons, elders, pastors,

· some will have even had successful ministries and have been looked at as religious leaders in the community.

· Some will be pastors of mega churches, with thousands and thousands of followers.

· Other will have passively lived the Christian life,

· floating along in the church, content with a mere profession of faith and nothing more.

· Happily content to live a life of lukewarm comfort, never joining in on the fight.

· But all of this “many” thought they called upon Christ in saving faith at some point.

· Even miracles and mighty works are neither proof of Gods will nor saving faith.

· You must read this and ask, where is the hope and trust of your salvation founded? PAUSE

· To where do you look for assurance of your salvation?

· Is it inward, at what you have done and been a part of? PAUSE

· Surely that will not suffice. You must look outside of yourself,

· to Christ alone.

· Moving on to the most heart breaking,

· and agonizing statement any soul could ever hear.

· Verse twenty-three “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

· There are no words more profoundly gut wrenching and heart breaking than these.

· My hope and prayer for everyone here is that none of you hear these words.

· But the reality is that “many” will hear them.

· [SLOW] Christian, Church, does this burden you? PAUSE

· Does this set ablaze your heart with zeal for the truth and nothing but the truth of the gospel to be preached?

· Do you see the severity of this?

· Does this move you to share the gospel with others? PAUSE

· To hold others accountable to their profession? To make disciples?

· To exercise church discipline in hopes that one would repent?

· To examine your own heart and life? PAUSE

· [SLOW] Beloved, if not you may be among the many!

· What separates the few from the many? Lets look back at the second half of verse twenty one.

· “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

· The ‘many’ rebels against the will of the father,

· but the few are those who are obedient to the father, and they enter into heaven.

· The one who does the will of the father

· will walk along the hard narrow path and enter into the narrow gate.

· One commentator said, “the faith that says but does not do is really unbelief”.

· James echoes a very similar theme when he writes, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

· So then, is Jesus saying that works merit righteousness and earns an entrance into heaven?

· By no means!

· God commands all people to have perfect, total, absolute, unhindered, joyful obedience to the will of the Father.

· Jesus shatters any argument of faith plus works earlier in his sermon

· he said “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”.

· Anything less is short of His glory, its unrighteous.

· Do you know what the requirement for something to be righteous is?

· For something to be righteous:

· the right thing must be done, the right way, with the right intent.

· No one born of man can do this.

· No one born of man can be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.

· All are born dead in sin, none are righteous, all of man’s works are like filthy rags to the Lord.

· Paul made this abundantly clear in his epistles.

· This, my dear brothers, and sisters, is why we desperately need a savior.

· Jesus is not saying here that works merit salvation, that’s not the point he is making,

· that would defeat the purpose of why he came.

· There would be no need for an atonement of sins

· and an imputation of Christs righteousness to sinners

· if works could merit salvation.

· So what exactly is Jesus communicating?

· Lets look a little closer at the text.

· Specifically, the word “doeth” or ‘does’ when Jesus says but the one who “doeth” the will of my father.

· The Greek word here for does is ‘Poeio”.

· This verb is in the first-person singular tense,

· and is present, active, and indicative in its form.

· What that tells us about this verb

· And how it is being used

· The present form of the verb indicates an action that was started in the past.

· So the one that ‘does’ the Fathers will in this text

· Is actually someone who had a supernatural conversion from spiritual death to life

· And this conversion produced the desire and abilitiy to live an obedient life to God

· The active form of this verb tells us that the action that was started in the past will continue

· that the direction of this person’s life is and will continue to be Godward,

· that they are seeking to “continually” do the Fathers will

· Earlier in Matthew’s gospel

· he recorded Jesus saying something similar to the Pharisees as he does here in verses twenty-one through twenty-three,

· and it really helps us to understand what exactly is really being addressed here in the hearts of His audience.

· Jesus said “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”

PAUSE

· May we diligently strive as a church to never be a people like this.

· May our hearts never be so empty and void of a love for Christ that they merit such a harsh rebuke.

· John Piper wrote on this matter saying, “True, God-exalting obedience comes from faith. Any other kind of obedience is not true obedience at all.”

· What Jesus is communicating in verse twenty-one is that obedience is a fruit of our faith.

· It must be and can only be a product of our faith in Christ Jesus.

· Faith is the fountain from which genuine obedience flows.

· If you are truly born again, you are a new creature, you are given a new heart.

· Your desires change, what you treasure most changes, what you place your hope and trust in changes.

· It is only through regeneration that man is made willing to be obedient to the will of the Father.

· So what is the difference between the few and the many? PAUSE

· The many who will be rejected by Christ are workers of iniquity

· Their deeds are evil and unrighteous,

· having no one to stand in their place before God when they are judged

· They could not and cannot please God.

· All that they do, and all that they are promotes and exposes

· the lawlessness and hatred of God in their hearts.

· Though they hear Gods word,

· and though they confess Christ as Lord with their lips,

· their heart flees from Him PAUSE

· They hate the one true God so they worship a god made in their own image.

· The few who will enter the kingdom of heaven love God,

· and they love the will of God.

· They cherish and fervently search the Holy Scriptures

· because that is the only place where Gods revealed will is found.

· They love and cherish Christ as their greatest treasure.

· They are willfully and joyfully obedient to His commands.

PAUSE

· ‌Seven years ago,

· I heard this same text preached in a chapel service in college.

· I was rebelling against Christ’s call on my life to ministry

· Just as fast and as far as sin would take me.

· I was the prodigal son, feasting on the slop thrown to pigs,

· scorning the grace Gods saved me with earlier in my life.

· I was unrepentant and calloused to His grace.

· I had professed Christ, but my life did not bear good fruit,

· or give evidence to that profession.

· At that time, I didn’t know whether or not I was saved,

· I lived every sober moment in constant fear of eternal damnation.

· I lived tormented that I would hear the words “depart from me I never knew you”.

· Some of you may be in that same place this morning.

· Running from Christ

· living in habitual, unrepentant sin,

· enjoying and indulging in the lust of the flesh.

· If that is you this morning, you are in grave danger.

· There is a real possibility that you do not know Christ.

· Some of you this morning may find yourself like the pharisees,

· looking like a Christian, knowing what to say and how to say it.

· But your heart is far from the Lord.

· Knowing the scriptures,

· understanding who Christ is, and what he came to do,

· but not knowing him as savior and not submitting to him as Lord.

· Maybe you have been taught all your life that you must earn your way into heaven,

· that you have to add your own works to Christ’s in order to be saved.

· Or perhaps you are placing your faith solely in a prayer you recited,

· or because someone told you that you made a profession of faith,

· but your life does not reflect that you are truly in Christ.

· Maybe you don’t fervently desire to know God more,

· and you aren’t willingly and joyfully obedient to Gods commands

· nor do you cherish Christ as your absolute greatest treasure.

· The gospel is so simple, yet so intricate and profound.

· Simple enough for a child to understand,

· yet vast and complex enough for us to ponder on its glories for an eternity.

· God commands all people to be perfect as he is perfect.

· And because of the curse of sin,

· no one born of a man can live to this standard.

· In fact, mankind fell so far through sins curse

· that even at conception you are dead in your sin and trespasses.

· Brought into the world as children of wrath

· Blind to the light of the glory of the gospel

· Despising God and rejecting Christ as Lord and savior

· Deserving the just punishment of an eternity in hell,

· separated from God forever.

· It is impossible for man to have any righteousness before God,

· Man on his own doesn’t stand a chance.

· But God being rich in mercy, that even while we were still sinners

· sent his son to die on the cross

· and paid the punishment for the sins of those who would believe.

· So that those who repent of their sin and believe on Christ Jesus,

· through faith, by this wonderful grace of God, can have Christ’s perfect life credited to them.

· So that they no longer stand condemned before God

· but stand clothed in Jesus Christs righteousness.

· That is the gospel the bible communicates,

· that is the gospel that has the power to save.

· That is the gospel that raises the dead sinner to life.

· Are you among the few or the many?

PAUSE

· If you find yourself this morning among the many,

· only Christ has revealed this to you,

· repent and believe and so be saved.

Let us pray.