Sermon on the Mount - Genuine Faith

Sermon on the Mount "Genuine Faith" Matthew 7:21-23 Sunday August 15th, 2021 Pastor Thomas Heotzler Introduction Last week, we discussed the dangers of false teachers and how, according to Jesus, we are able to recognize them. We are to be aware of their fruits, for we will be able to tell if they are teachers of truth or falsehood by both their doctrine and their lifestyles. Jesus considered this warning against false prophets to be crucial. He knew that after Him, the church would be faced with wolves in sheep clothing who will speak twisted things to draw disciples away from Jesus. We must be watchful for false prophets and guard our hearts in Christ Jesus lest we be drawn away. But there is something else we must do. Before we judge someone else to be a false teacher, we must first look inward and judge if we are that false teacher and imposter. As much as these words of Jesus apply to other people, they apply even more urgently to ourselves. It is to ourselves that we now look today. The false believer Every professing Christian should feel the weight of Jesus' statement in verses 21-23. Jesus said, "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.'" Everybody will stand before Jesus one day, but Jesus warns that not everyone who believes in Him will enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, it's true that even people who believe Jesus is who He says He is are not necessarily saved. Remember, even the demons believe - and they shudder in fear (James 2:19) and in Luke 4:41, demons cast out by Jesus announced that Jesus was the Son of God and yet we know that demons will spend eternity in hell. Many professing Christians will find out in the final judgement that they were deceived and deluded and lived as an imposter of truth and were never known by Jesus. But how can this be? Many verses in the Bible tell us that one must believe to be saved: 1. John 3:16, 18 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life...Whoever believes in Him (Jesus) is not condemned..." 2. John 5:24 - "24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but he has passed from death to life." 3. Acts 16:31 - "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." 4. Romans 10:9-10 - "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." How is it that those who believe are saved yet some of those who believe are not saved? The answer lies in the context of James 2. In James 2:14-26, James the brother of Jesus is addressing a serious issue: people professing faith and belief in Jesus yet not living like they do. He says that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). In his discussion about faith without works, James uses the example of demons believing yet obviously not being saved. In the same way, anyone who claims to have faith yet has faith that does not produce good works has a faith that is fake and useless. It's a problem of false belief. This person is either intentionally deceiving others with a fake faith or they are deceived themselves and truly think they believe in Jesus when they don't. According to James, only belief/faith in Jesus that produces good works can be considered genuine and true. And in his example of the demons, we find this to be true. Demons believe Jesus is who He says He is, but they are unchanged and certainly do not produce anything good. Therefore, their belief is useless and dead. But as the demons do this, so do people. There are those who profess faith in Jesus and might even do good things, but as we learned last week, if these "good things" come from a heart that has not been changed by genuine faith, then these "good works" are useless, filthy rags; they are not good at all. So, "How can I know that I am truly saved?" "How can I know that I am truly saved?" To begin, we must realize that we cannot judge our salvation on any supernatural works. No one can rightly say that because they healed someone, cast out a demon, spoke in tongues, or had a supernatural experience that they are saved. Jesus Himself dispels that myth by His words in Matthew 7:22-23. There are supernatural forces other than God who are at work in this world, namely the devil and his demons, but their work is to corrupt and deceive and destroy. God might even use someone for a time to supernaturally accomplish his work, but it does not mean that person is saved. (See example of Balaam in Number 22-23, 2 Peter 2:15, and Revelation 2:14). We must also understand that we cannot judge our salvation based on the message we proclaim (Matthew 7:22a). Someone can be far from God in their heart and yet preach a good gospel sermon or share the gospel with their friends. Paul mentioned in Philippians 1:15-17 that some people preach Christ from good will, but others preach it from envy and rivalry. And because people can still do seemingly good things from a heart that is evil, we cannot judge our salvation based solely on the good works we do. So, putting it all together, what we understand from Jesus is this: you or I may preach the gospel, perform healings and miraculous signs, demonstrate power over demons by casting them out, do seemingly good works, and still not be saved. How then can we know if we are saved???? I think Jesus gave us the answer in the very beginning of His sermon in the sign of the Beatitudes. Sign of the Beatitudes It's been a while since we've looked at the Beatitudes, but they formed the foundation for Jesus' entire sermon. The Beatitudes, if you remember, are a portrait of a true citizen of the kingdom of God; they describe what a Christian looks like because of the work of the Holy Spirit as He transforms us through faith in Jesus. To help us remember I will bring back an old friend...Beatitudes Man! Every true follower of Jesus will first recognize, through the work of the Holy Spirit, their complete sinfulness and poverty of spirit. The believer knows and believes that there is nothing good within them and that there is nothing they can do on their own to please God. This recognition of poorness in spirit leads into true grief and mourning which leads us to Jesus in repentance. In Christ we find our comfort. This mourning and confession and repentance brings us meekness and humility as we recognize there is nothing in us worth boasting in. Only when a believer is humble before God and submissive to Him as Lord can there be a hunger and thirst to become like Jesus who saved us from our sins. As we become like Jesus, we will become more merciful to others as Jesus is the vessel of God's mercy that gave us clean and pure hearts through Jesus' blood. As our desires are purified and aligned with Jesus' and as we submit to God with minds and hearts directed away from ourselves, we will experience inward peace with God and we will become peacemakers to those around us in the name of Jesus. And when we live in the peace of Jesus and seek to bring peace to a chaotic and sinful world in Jesus' name, we will be persecuted. This is what a genuine Christians looks like. No other person, fake or not, can look exactly like this, do you know why? Because of the good works done in the believer by the Holy Spirit. I would contend that the good works which are a product of genuine faith as James described begin first and foremost with the good works of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The good works of the Spirit Paul told Titus that God saves by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 5:5-7). It is the Holy Spirit who begins the good work of salvation in us by opening our eyes to our complete sinfulness and poverty of spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who causes us to mourn and grieve over our sin, it's the Holy Spirit who moves us to confession and repentance, it is the Holy Spirit who humbles us, and it's the Holy Spirit who gives us the longing to become more like Jesus. These good works are the first things genuine faith and belief in Jesus produces. Therefore, it is by our recognition of sin, mourning, confessing, and repenting of sin, humility, and pursuit of Jesus that we can be assured of our salvation. Jesus said you will know a tree by its fruit. A good person from the good in their heart will produce good fruit and the bad person from the evil in their heart will produce bad fruit. This fruit is also from the Holy Spirit and is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These things are not actions that we do or things that we say, but rather who we are as a person through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. We might struggle with some of these, but if they are present, even weakly, we again can know that we are saved. At the end of the end of the day, we can only know we are saved because of the evident good work of the Holy Spirit within our souls. As Paul said in Romans 8:16, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." Looking inward Where does this leave us? I would be surprised if there are any of you hearing this who are not right now looking at yourselves and judging yourselves according to the word of God to determine if your faith is genuine. This is a good thing. If this has not caused you to look inward, then you either don't care or you underestimate the incredible deception of which the devil is capable. When studying this week, I needed to examine my own heart because I do not want to be a false prophet or an imposter who thinks he is proclaiming the gospel in the name of Jesus but is really not even known by Jesus. I truly believe this to be one of the most sobering passages in the entire Bible for I am afraid that many of the confessing Christians today fall into this category of fake faith. As you look inward, some of you might be comforted by the Holy Spirit as you see the signs of genuine faith and belief. No, you will not find perfection and you will likely see areas in which growth is certainly needed, but your heart regularly breaks for your sin, you confess your sin and repent when it's revealed to you, and you desire to become more like Jesus no matter what it takes. While the fruit of the Spirit is imperfect, you are able to see the work of the Spirit within you, transforming you and growing these fruits within you. If this is you, praise and worship and give thanks to God because it's His good works through the death and resurrection of Jesus and through the washing and renewing of the Spirit that have given you this new life and transformed you into the man or woman of God you are today. But perhaps you might be feeling convicted or even feeling like you are condemned. If this is the case there is one thing you need to do: confess it to God. Ask God to open your eyes to your sinfulness and lead you to mourn for your sin so that you might be humbled and ask God to give you a hunger and thirst for righteousness at any cost. If you ask this with genuineness and persistence, it will be given to you. Once you have done that, go to a friend or a family member or to me as your pastor and talk about it; confess it before God and confess it before man so that you may be helped with your burden and held accountable to the Truth. Conclusion: As we close, I am going to read to you Colossians 1:15-23: "15 He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven." There is one thing every follower of Jesus is called to, and that is faithfulness. By the grace of God, may we be found to be faithful in all things to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who gave His life as a sacrifice so that we may be forgiven and receive eternal life. "19 But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: 'The Lord knows those who are his,' and, 'Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.' (2 Timothy 2:19) "Hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil. 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thess. 5:21-24)" Amen. 2