Saved? Playing Church?

Matthew 7:21-23

We come to these verses tonight in our study and I have to tell you it is a sobering passage.

One of the benefits of expository preaching and study is that you can’t skip over difficult or weighty topics that would be easier for the teacher to avoid.

I must confess these verses would be tempting for me to skip over, but if we are good students of the Word, we must study the “whole counsel of God”. Many times the hard or difficult verses are the ones that do the difficult plowing in our souls because our sin nature would rather not deal with it. And I know in my own life, the things that I would rather not deal with - are the things I NEED to deal with!

I want to read Matthew 7:15-27 tonight to set the context for the verses we will study. Mainly tonight we will be looking at verses 21-23, but I want you to understand the entire context that surrounds them.

Matthew 7:15–27 ESV

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. “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 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.’ “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, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them 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.”

True Salvation

One of the main themes of the Sermon on the Mount is the true character of the Christian. We have seen who the Christian is, and what the Christian does. We have seen the internal aspects of the Christian and then the external ways the Christian interacts with the world around us.

But as Jesus is wrapping up this Sermon, he does a “final call” or an “all aboard” so that we don’t miss the point entirely.

His final call is this - Are you saved, or are you playing church? Are you saved, or are you self-deceived? Do you know Jesus intimately, or do you just know ABOUT Him? This is the examination that we get in these 3 verses.

Friend, the condition of your soul is the most important question of your life. You cannot afford to get it wrong. We know that the Bible says that we are eternal beings, we will live eternally in one of two destinations - so we have to get this right.

Summary First

I want to sum up these three verses first so that you’ll know where we are going. Jesus says here that there will be people who have professed to believe, have done works in Jesus’ name, even done miracles in Jesus’ name that assume they are saved - But when the day of judgement comes - they won’t be allowed an entrance into Heaven.

You say - is that really in the Bible? That doesn’t sound right?!?!

Well, we have to follow the progression from the false teachers in verses 15-20 right? And we know that false teachers obviously don’t have genuine faith or they would repent of their false teaching and allow the Spirit to change their hearts.

So, it would only make sense that Jesus would explain the destiny of someone who has a false faith or a superficial faith if you want to call it that.

That’s where we are - there will be some people on judgement day who think they are saved, that in fact, have been self-deceived.

I would also like to say up front that only God knows the true nature of a person’s heart. It is not up to me to judge whether or not someone is a true believer. I can make some determinations based on a pattern of someone’s life, but only God knows the real condition of the heart.

Ok, I think that’s fair enough for an introduction.

Saying isn’t Enough

Look at verse 21 here. It says that “not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven”

So, the first thing that Jesus tells us is that lip service to Jesus doesn’t necessarily guarantee salvation.

Now, we know that every true profession of faith includes words right? Romans 10:9-10 says very clearly that we confess with our mouth. But if it is just words, and not a change of heart in the person - then we have cause for concern right?

The Bible says that if we have a true profession of faith that works will follow and our faith will be a faith that is ACTIVE, not just a faith that TALKS.

I hope that makes sense. Let me elaborate a little more on this with a few verses.

James 1:22 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Romans 2:13 ESV

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Being orthodox in our words is important, but if all we have are words, it is all very superficial. I have said this before, but if you were to walk around today on the street and ask random people if they believe in God - the majority of them are going to say “YES!” But - the sad reality is that very few of those people who proclaim to believe, actually are believers.

Hard truths here right?

Doing isn’t Enough (if motivations are wrong)

Let’s take it one step further to verse 22.

Matthew 7:22 ESV

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?’

Wow. Now we not only see that these people said some of the right things, but they are actually doing some things in the name of Jesus.

What are they doing?

Prophesying, casting out demons, and “many mighty works”

Now - on the surface - you would think that these guys were good guys right? They were the type of guys in the movies who you thought were good guys, but in the end they showed that they had sinister motivations. They were good only so they could get what they wanted.

And I want to propose to you today that there are many “ministers” out there today who fit that same description. They are saying some of the right things and they may be doing some of the right things, but inside their motivation is completely selfish and they don’t pass the tests that we just spoke about. They are dressed up like sheep, but inside they are ferocious wolves.

There are SO many of these types out there.

But what about these people that are “doing” these things in Jesus name but have the wrong motives. Listen to these verses.

As to prophesying - Philippians 1:15 is a prime example.

Also - we must consider Judas in this category. Don’t we assume that Judas went around saying and doing the right things while he was a disciple of Jesus? On the outside he seemed like he was a believer, but we know that inside - he was anything but a faithful follower of Christ.

Also the Pharisee’s were the prime example of this right?

Jesus says earlier in this sermon that they were PRAYING with wrong motives, GIVING with wrong motives, and FASTING with wrong motives - so it’s safe to say that they were in this category. They were spiritual pretenders.

They were as Paul says in 2 Timothy “having the appearance of godliness without the reality of it”

What about the miracles and casting out of demons?

Surely this can’t be faked by a pretender right?

Mark 9:38 ESV

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”

Acts 19:13 ESV

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.”

What about the Egyptian bozos who could emulate the signs that Moses did in Exodus?

What about the palm readers and the “mediums” and all of those who can communicate with spirits these days? Think all that stuff is made up?

No, it’s not made up, not all of it anyway. But listen, if there is power there and someone is doing things in Jesus name, but they aren’t a follower of Jesus - GUESS WHERE THEIR POWER COMES FROM? Satan himself. The powers of darkness.

This is serious stuff and we need to be aware of it.

Conclusion

This is the scary part that I was referring to earlier - these people will be saying some right things about Jesus and doing some right things in Jesus’ name - But they don’t KNOW Jesus personally.

So - how do we know? How do we know if we are deceived or if we have true believing faith that will save us on the last day?

I say that here are some tests. Go back to the beginning of this Sermon on the Mount and look at it with me and we will see the true tests of salvation that Jesus gives us. And it’s interesting that we can come in a circular fashion with this sermon and use the beginning of the sermon to apply the end of the sermon. That’s why Jesus was such an amazing teacher.

Here are the tests: Matthew 5:1-9

Do you feel yourself to be spiritually bankrupt without the Grace of God applied to your life? Do you see yourself to be utterly hopeless if Jesus wouldn’t have paid the ultimate price for your sins?

Do you mourn over your remaining sin that’s in your life? Does your sin bother you or are you OK with just sweeping it under the rug?

Are you humble and meek? Do you see yourself as higher than you ought? What is the opinion you have of yourself?

Are you hungering for the things of God? This might be the most evident. Do you have a thirst and a hunger for spiritual things? Now, we all know that this ebbs and flows in our lives - but, as a general rule - do you want more of God than you have now?

Are you merciful towards others? Do you show compassion to those who Jesus showed compassion towards?

Are you pure in heart? I mentioned earlier that these things are only visible to someone who can see the soul of a person. There are very few people who see this deep into our lives. Is your heart pure? Do you long for the day when you won’t have to deal with the impurity that remains in your heart?

Are you a peacemaker? And I don’t mean a six-gun here LOL. Do you make peace more often than you cause division? Do things become more complicated when you get involved or do they get simplified?

Are you being persecuted in your life at all? Do you see yourself as swimming upstream against the culture constantly fighting off the lies that an evil society is trying to feed you?

Well - there they are. Those are the tests. And if you can say without question that you are passing these tests more often than not - then I can say quite clearly that you ARE a Christian.

My aim here in this sermon was not to cause you to unnecessarily doubt your salvation, but if there is someone here who “walked an aisle” or “prayed a prayer” or “lifted their hand” in a service when they were young but since then have had no fruit of that decision bear out in their life - then I would say that you have cause for concern.

If you have a concern about your salvation, reach out to one of the elders or staff here at Crossway. We would love to visit with you so that you can be sure of your salvation.