Diffusers 20

Intro

Over the past two weeks in Matthew 7 Jesus has shown us that there are two ways (narrow and wide) and two trees (good and bad). This week we will see that there are two types of builders, those who build their life upon Christ or those who build their life upon themselves.

We will see today that true Christianity is not about what you have done, or the God you claim to know, but about whether or not the true God knows you.

From last week...

English Standard Version Chapter 7

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

This week’s passage...

English Standard Version Chapter 7

21 “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. 22 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?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Coming right off of last week’s passage, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that not every leader, preacher, miracle worker, prophet, or whatever who claims to be Christian is what they claim to be. We have to be vigilant for multiple reasons.

We don’t want to be duped into following a leader who is not with Christ.

We do not want to find ourselves on the path those leaders are on.

In the context here, Jesus is certainly primarily referring to leaders and ministers who have false fruit. But, we must remember that if leaders can so easily go down this road so can any of us. Also, we must realize that we could easily be duped into following them down the wrong road in the name of religion, but away from Christ.

My strange dream about the Starship Enterprise.

Truth

I. Many leaders who claim to be with Christ are not with him at all.

There will always be trees masquerading as oaks when they are actually Bradford pears.

English Standard Version Chapter 16

5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

English Standard Version (2 Peter Chapter 2)

2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

The ultimate motivation for false leaders is self, not Christ. It is a temptation for all of us and that is why those leaders tend to gather large crowds and sell a lot of books. They tell us what our hearts want to hear, the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve that we are.

Remember what Jesus said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount...

English Standard Version Chapter 5

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Our righteousness can only exceed those of the scribes and Pharisees, if it is not our personal righteousness we are appealing to but to the righteousness of Christ on our behalf. We need his righteousness ascribed to us!

II. It is those who do God’s will who are truly with him.

What are the true marks of someone who does God’s will?

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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

-What does it mean to do the will of God?

1. A restored relationship with God.

"Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us." 1 John 3:23‭-24 CSB

"Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:37‭-‬40 CSB

2. A restored relationship with others which flows out of our restored relationship with God.

"For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit." 1 Thessalonians 4:3‭-‬8 CSB

True Christian leaders will be focused on helping you to repent from self and turn towards God

They will not be calling you to build your life upon worldly things, or upon their particular ministry or words, but upon Christ and Christ alone.

III. Watch out for those who appeal to their works for credibility rather than to Christ.

We want to be careful not to put the emphasis of our faith on our own works, but solely and squarely on the work of Christ on our behalf. Any leader who appeals to the fruit of his or her ministry for acceptance is potentially in a bad place.

Remember Paul’s word about the so called “super apostles” to the Corinthians. Those people appealed to their flashy ministry while Paul appealed to the power of Christ revealed through his weakness.

Christ was crucified. He was displayed by the world as a fool and a criminal. Watch out for polished leaders who the world can't get enough of.

Also watch out if you find yourself becoming generally agreeable with the cultural norms of our world. Christians have always been aliens in this world and that won’t change until Jesus returns and restores everything.

False prophets will never produce true righteousness in their followers because the appeal not to Christ, but to a certain teaching or man-oriented standard.

Do the teachers you listen to inspire you to be holier, more generous, less self-oriented, more Christ-centered, more faithful to the church, and to engage the word more faithfully?

Many have made the mistake of believing they could finish in the flesh a work that was begun by the Spirit. (Galatians 3).

The Galatians ran into trouble because they listed to the wrong leaders who were leading them to focus on works for justification rather than on Christ.

We see this all the time today. In fact, it is probably how most Americans think and this false teaching has made its way into the church. I have done enough funerals and end of life counseling to know that this is true.

"I am a good person so surely God will let me into heaven when I die." This mindset is deadly.

It desecrates the cross of Jesus by assuming we are righteous on our own. Anyone who lives this way is offensive to the Father, denying the necessity and power of the precious spilled blood of Christ.

People with this mindset are attempting to coerce God by holding their supposed good works over his head. In the end, there is no human righteousness apart from Christ so the appeal is mute. (Psalm 14:1-3)

Christians, we are not the sort of people who appeal to our goodness for acceptance but to the goodness of Christ in us! (John 3)

“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” -Galatians 4:8-11

IV. Who knows you is more important than what you know or what you do.

A person can be very religious, even appear to be a committed Christian, but not truly know Christ or be known by him.

Judas was a part of Jesus' inner circle, but still died far from Christ.

The Pharisees knew the scriptures back to front, but didn't know the God who inspired them.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter what I think, what your spouse thinks, or what the community thinks. We must all ask the question, does Christ know me? Am I in him? (2 Corinthians 13:5)

Jesus gave this warning because there are a bunch of lost religious people who are going around appealing to their works rather than to Christ and on that last day, they will have no legs to stand on. God does not want that for you or me. That's why, in his grace, he gave us this word.

So what are you appealing to for your righteousness today? Have you realized that you are utterly destitute spiritually before God if left to yourself, and that any good thing you might bring to the table is by God's grace alone?

The mistake Adam and Eve made was thinking they must justify themselves by their works. They were wrong. They were already justified by their right relationship with God. When they repented away from God and towards self, they lost their justification and became utterly lost. They chose to live based on what they could do rather than by faith in God.

Christ lived perfectly by faith, and knew he was justified because of his standing with the father. His good works were an outflow of his relationship with the father, not an attempt to gain anything from the father.

Whereas Adam and Eve repented away from God and towards self, we follow Jesus by repenting from self and towards the Father.

Application

Each day, be intentional about drawing your identity from Christ and what he has done for you rather than from what you think you have done for him.

Practice being as good to people as you possibly can, even and especially to those who are unkind to you.

Practice appealing to the righteousness of Christ rather than to your own works for acceptance before God and others.

Remember always that if you are known by Christ, you have all that you will ever need.

Closing

Last year many of our hearts were broken when Ravi Zacharias’ ministry was plunged into turmoil over the scandals which surfaced after he died. I won’t go into detail, but my heart was wounded because I looked up to Ravi. But I didn’t know him. I didn’t know the content of his character. I knew he had good doctrine, taught well, and did many good things. Many have fallen away from the faith because of the tidal wave of destruction he left behind.

But as for me, I was hurt but not destroyed when one of my favorite leaders went down. My faith was never in Ravi, but in the Christ he preached.

Church, this is why is is so critical to have our spiritual tethers attached to a local church and not to famous teachers and ministers. We must be able to test the character of those laboring with Christ to form us.

God’s plan to evangelize the world and restore all things is through his church, not through a famous preacher or popular ministry outside of the church.

Our focus must be God’s word, his Spirit, and his table and all that those things represent.

You cannot finish the race of life well apart from Christ but if you are truly walking with him in repentance and belief, walking by the Spirit, not only can you but you will finish strong in Christ.

True Christianity is not about what you have done, or the God you claim to know, but about whether or not the true God knows you.