In this sermon, Khaleef Crumbley examines Matthew 7:13-23 and other scriptures to consider what does and what does not show that a person is saved in Jesus Christ. Khaleef first considers what does not necessarily indicate salvation and second what actually does.
Auto Transcript
Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.
well good morning again I have to say that standing over this is the first time that we sat over there probably in years um and hearing little Sebastian singing it’s like it’s so joyful and I love the people over here laughed about it because you can hear it too it’s it’s like just hearing the joy and excitement that comes from it even though he’s saying some words he doesn’t understand it’s just so it’s so beautiful to hear firstly he knows all the words anytime you ask me to do something like that I’m looking at the paper he knows all the words so you know it’s just it was just a great thing hearing him um we heard the uh scripture this morning it was part of the scripture reading Matthew chapter seven so I’m going to ask everybody to turn again to Matthew chapter seven and let’s go to the Lord in prayer our gracious God we just thank you for a chance to dive into your word to see what you have to say to us today we pray God that you would move me out of the way and you would speak to your church today Lord I pray that we would we would be moved by Your Word Lord that we will be instructed by it we will be convicted by it and you would change hearts and Minds Lord and I pray that you will be glorified that all that happens in this service Lord and has this in Christ’s name and for his sake amen so Matthew chapter 7 and we’re going to look at starting at verse 13.
um I just want us to look at a couple of the phrases that stand out here that we’re going to be focusing on today so verse 13 he starts this is a Jesus preaching in what’s been called The Sermon on the Mount and this is the last chapter and he’s kind of winding down and he gives These Warnings that I think are very important for us to to hear so he first says in verse 13 enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are a few who find it and I think that is so sobering as we walk through I want I want to think about that and let me just start out and saying we’re going to be all over the Bible today so if you miss a passage or something you can come and ask me uh what it is later don’t spend your time trying to find something and then you don’t hear what’s being said because you’re just trying to find some of these passages um so as we walk through this uh one passage just think about the language that he’s using he describes salvation he describes being right with God as being on a road and there are two roads that he describes here one he said is it it’s a broad Road and at the end of this Broad Road there is a wide gate and there are many people on this road and you just you just have the picture of of all of these people walking along a huge wide Road and there’s a second Road and I think it’s probably really close to it in looking that maybe there’s just a little median that separates it and this road is narrow and at the end of that is this narrow gate and there’s only a few people who ever find it and I think what’s really amazing about this passage is that in each case in each Road are people who are seeking God he’s not talking about the atheist here and the God fearing on this road everybody on both of these roads thinks that they are on the path to God they’re looking for God they’re trying to find him they’re trying to find Truth where they think they found it and then there was just a small narrow road that exists of people who God has actually saved and called and then he gives a a warning he says Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves so now he says there are going to be people who are going to be on this Broad Road who look just like they’re on the narrow road you won’t be able to tell the difference you won’t know all of these sheep on this this road and they’re going to be people who are actually wolves who are dressed up as the Sheep and why would they be doing that one thing is they’re false teachers they’re actually trying to call people over from the narrow road they’re trying to entice us to take our eyes off of this narrow gate then he says in verse 16 because you would wonder how are we going to know if they look just like people who are preaching the truth how would we know and he says you’ll know them by their fruits and then he gives this analogy now people know who know me know I grew up in the city and didn’t have a whole lot of trees definitely didn’t have fruit trees or anything like that so if I came across a tree I definitely would think it’s just a tree if you tell me that’s a fig tree okay it’s a victory it doesn’t matter I’m in Antarctica I believe it’s a victory you told me that I wouldn’t know any different but what would happen eventually there’s going to be time for Harvest and fruit is going to start to grow and I can tell that’s not a fig that’s the mango that’s not that’s a mango tree that’s not a fig tree so he then doesn’t he doesn’t just stop with saying the kind of tree as far as what fruit it Bears will be known once the fruit comes in but he actually goes further and talks about the nature of the tree itself the verse 17 says every good tree Bears good fruit but the bad tree Bears Bad fruit and a good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor can a bad tree produce gut fruit I think that would be pretty obvious we said of course of course it can but we’re going to see in a few minutes that we oftentimes mistake not just a tree but we mistake the fruit itself and then he tells us what’s going to happen why is this even important why are we talking about fruit verse 19 says every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire and that’s why it matters the fate of the trees so then you will know them by their fruits now again as I said everybody is on a Broadway thinks that they’re on the narrow way so you’re dealing with Millions possibly in the billions of people who are on this Broad Road who think there are part of the select few that are on the narrow and I would have to ask how many people are sitting here today on that Broad Road thinking that you’re part of the narrow way and thinking that at the end of your destination there’s going to be a narrow gate and Christ is going to be welcoming you probably many if not all of us would think that especially if we have certain things in our lives if we attend church and do other things and we’ll look at how those things don’t identify the follower of God but go down to verse 23.
21 excuse me he says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter again he’s not talking about the atheist who hates God and then a judgment day is going to say but I did work for you no it’s the religious it’s the one who thinks they are following God the ones who think they have have this life figured out and they’ve lived good enough lives to deserve heaven to have earned heaven says many will say to me when I date Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles they list all these things that we did can you imagine standing before Christ and trying to list off your accomplishments you’re standing before Christ in judgment and you’re going to tell him what you’ve done to earn entrance into his kingdom he says I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness that might be the most heartbreaking verse in all of scripture is to be standing before God thinking that you’ve lived a life that pleased him probably making many sacrifices in your life just to come and hear that he never knew you so in thinking about this the only question I think we can ask uh is does your fruit stink does your fruit stink does your fruit come from a bad tree is your fruit rotting is there a fruit offensive in the sight of God now I have to say this please don’t ignore anytime we hear messages about examining yourself messages about false conversion we always look around and be like who do I think needs to hear this the most who is this for or what person can I send a recording of this to it might be you God might be speaking to you today after 30 40 50 80 years after perfect Church attendance after teaching and preaching and possibly pastoring he may be talking to you so please don’t ignore this and look around and wonder who you’re going to send this to as soon as you leave or hope that the person next to you is listening please hear this because God may be speaking to you and even those of us who may not be completely lost many of us are very distracted as uh Dr Ho who you know stole pretty much half the sermon before he sang In Christ Alone now as he talked about we get so wrapped up in other things and we think that we’re glorifying God in them so we’re going to look and try to figure out how we can become nose blind to our own stinking fruit so uh as Pastor Dave actually was praying um and we didn’t talk about what you know like I was going to preach about or the amazing sermon you’re going to hear next week um you know we didn’t discuss that but you know it really gave me confirmation that God is really speaking uh to his people today as Pastor day was praying he was talking about the kind of unique situation we have being in America and in a nation that was not completely opposed to things in the Bible was not completely opposed to the church a nation that was not completely opposed to even having some of its laws uh determined by things that are in the Bible or close to it and so because of that a lot of the practices a lot of the Customs uh that have gone into the traditional American Life look sort of christianish they look sort of like they’re Christian to the point where you can just live as a good citizen in America especially going back to 20 30 50 100 years ago and your life looks pretty Christian even if you’ve never given your heart to Christ and so because of that many of us may have this model of what the Christian Life is Like and we base our actions and we base our Assurance on how closely we resemble this um this model of the American Christian rather than how much we look like Christ and so many of us maybe pillars of our community may be pillars of our churches maybe pillars of this church and if we were to die today Christ would say I never knew you so there’s different things we can look at through his word that are things that aren’t bad but they don’t equal uh Salvation so the first thing is belief in God so when James uh chapter 2 verses 19 and um and again I’m going to go through some of these quickly you may not have time to turn there but if you want to race me you can James chapter 2 verses 19 and 20 he says you believe that God is one you do well the demons also believe and shudder but are you willing to recognize you foolish fellow that faith without works is useless we always talks about faith without works is dead we quote that often but we don’t look at the first part of that that your belief in God a belief in a higher power belief in a man upstairs or now today belief in the universe guiding you none of that equals salvation none of that means your sins have been forgiven and you have a right relationship with God because you believe there is a higher power in this universe you even believe that it’s the god of the Bible and you believe or you agree with some of the things the Bible says the demons do that and we know their fate and so don’t rest on the fact that you’re not an atheist to prove that you’re a Christian don’t get your Assurance there Church attendance or Ministry participation now I’m not going to stand here as one of your elders one of your pastors and say don’t come to church because it’s meaningless but what I’m saying is your attendance here is meaningless if you’re not a True Believer if this is what you are using to determine your salvation and you’re saying I’m a good Christian I’ve been to church every week and I go to Sunday school and every time it’s open I go and I serve when they have the sweetheart social because I’m single or I’m married and I bring my spouse whether a Believer or not man we all just go every time the doors of the church are open I’m there every wedding at the funeral you could be doing that and don’t know Christ and he doesn’t know you in in Hebrews and don’t bother turning to these two the Hebrews chapter 6 uh Verses 4 and 6 if you’re taking notes in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 26 to 31 both of those passages describe uh what I believe to be a model Christian from the outside someone who came to church regularly someone who participated in Ministry someone who was impacted by the life of the church someone who served someone who you always saw and then something happens and they begin to question their faith and then they and we talked about this couple weeks ago in the Young Adult Ministry they begin to even question God and then they turn on God and then they become antagonistic and the writer of Hebrew says that there’s no way to bring them back there’s no way to restore them first John describes this person and he says if you catch someone in sin pray for them except the one who sins in that way that you can get to a point where you know the gospel so much where you have received the blessings of the Holy Spirit people have served you and ministered to you in your time of need where you know all the scripture you know everything that once you turn on God you just shut your mind off and your heart is completely hardened because what can you tell that person what can you tell the pastor who has turned from God that he hasn’t already heard or preached himself and unless God supernaturally opens their ears and their hearts and that’s true of every case of salvation but in this case it’s a special one because there’s extra layer to go through their proximity to the gospel and the ministry of the holy spirit makes them the toughest to reach and so he outlines this several times and so by coming to church and by serving and doing all these things and looking the part that doesn’t guarantee that you’re doing this out of a heart that God is is using out of a heart that God has transformed it could be just your thing instead of going to play golf Sunday morning you come to church Sunday morning and it’s just the thing that you do it has nothing to do with your relationship with God a family or religious tradition so Philippians chapter 3 and you can turn there Philippians chapter 3 verses four and five and actually we’re going to start kind of in the middle of four so I would say 4B um Paul is talking about all the things in his life all of the accolades the religious accolades that he has all of the religious experiences that he had before coming to Christ and this is what he says Philippians chapter 3 uh kind of in the middle of verse 4.
he says if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh I far more circumcised on the eighth day of the nation of Israel of The Tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee so he says I was born in the right Nation to hear and know the word of God I was born in the right tribe I was born to the right family who raised me on the things of God and raised me to know his word they did all the right things and I think first that’s even a warning to us parents is when you are trying to when you look at your child you’re trying to minister to them the effort comes from you pouring into them God’s word it’s not just well I’m going to avoid public school because I don’t want them to read these certain books so I don’t want them to have to have a rainbow flag hanging up in the classroom so I’m going to make sure they go to a good Christian School and that’s what I’m going to do Paul said look I was circumcised on the eighth day they followed the law to the letter and we’ll see later on he became a persecutor of the church doing that when the when the Messiah came and he was awaiting he didn’t recognize him he was blinded to the true Christ when he came even though all those things were done right and so don’t put your Assurance in the things that you do no matter what you do no matter how much you isolate someone from from the world well how much you expose your kids to the world so they’re used to hearing all the arguments and they build up kind of immunity against it neither of those things guarantee the salvation of your children it doesn’t mean don’t do them but make sure that you understand that your faith and your trust and your prayers are to God to change their hearts and he says to the law of Pharisee he even followed the law and the extras he’s going to say a little later that he was found blameless according to the law but he followed all the extras and anybody knows anything about the Pharisees you know that they built this tradition they kind of they took the law and they built like a fence around it and they built all these kind of extra laws to make sure that if they violated one of those that they still maybe didn’t violate the law that God wrote and it’s too much to go into all of that about them violating the conscience and all those things but we know the Pharisees were very wicked and evil so verses seven and eight we’re gonna skip six for for a minute Philippian street so he says but whatever things were gained to me those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ and then at the end of verse 8 he says and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ they’re garbage they’re worthless all of those things the way he followed the law the Zeal that he had all of it was worthless when he met Christ he realized all of those human human achievements all of those things that were even we would say were good they were worthless compared to Christ and don’t worry we’ll get to verse six uh in a minute but actually um we’re gonna move on and talk about political affiliation let’s make sure I didn’t have the duck somebody throwing a shoe at me or something with that one but political affiliation we many times think especially now with our country being so fractured that we feel that because I vote in a certain way that I’m a Believer oh we’ll hear how can you be a Christian and vote for those Democrats or how could you be a Christian and vote for those heartless Republicans and how could you be a Christian and and we begin to judge the the reality of someone’s faith based on what they do on the first week of November or even in their local elections and so being affiliated with some outside group that that has a shadow of morality that even has some things that you would agree with or that you can point to the Bible and says oh a couple of those things are in the Bible doesn’t make you a Christian Matthew 3 7-8 uh this is talking about John the Baptist here and it says but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the Wrath to come therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance it didn’t matter what knowledge of the law they had it didn’t matter what group they were a part of it didn’t matter what their status was in society it didn’t matter that they based many of the things they did on the Torah What mattered was their relationship with God What mattered was if they put Faith in at that point the coming Messiah and they didn’t and they were even leading people astray and so they came and tried to to jump ahead of the line so to speak and get baptized without true repentance without actually coming to Christ and he said to them therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance their fruit stunk the religious leaders at the time that Christ came their fruit stunk the party of the law of God their fruit stunk and John refuses to baptize them until they begin to bear fruit keeping with repentance and he says if you were really Believers we would know it your fruit would show it we would know that you are but instead you’re believing in these things for your salvation you’re believing in these things for your relationship with God for your standing before God instead of having those things be the outworking of God working in you another one that can really trip us up and I think Satan has done a masterful job at this knowledge of the Bible knowing the Bible and we think wow I can just quote scripture back and forth I’ve memorized total chapters of the Bible and you don’t know Christ and he doesn’t know you but you know that Bible and you can quote it and you can massively take it out and use it as a weapon against anyone anytime anywhere except your own heart your own sin so Matthew chapter 4. so just uh flip over one or maybe even on the same page depending on your Bible Matthew Chapter 4 verses five and six this is Jesus who uh just spent 40 days not eating and he he 40 days of fast and then he goes into the Wilderness and is tempted by Satan and Satan tries to tempt him Jesus of course repels him with the word it doesn’t work and then Satan comes back and he says it says in Matthew Chapter 4 verses 5 and 6. then the devil took him into the holy city and had him stand on the Pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you are the Son of God throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone that comes from uh Psalm 91 verses 11 and verse 11 and then verse 12 he quotes from now can you imagine knowing God’s word so well that you use it and trying to tempt God to sin trying to tempt Christ to test the father and jump jump his word said the Angels would catch you matter of fact they will protect you so much you won’t even hit your foot against the stone not even you won’t just plunge to your death you won’t hit your foot he’s gonna perfectly just hold you up because his word says that Satan knew God’s word so well he knows God’s word better than all of us better than all of us combined and he uses it to keep us trapped just just think about he uses God’s word to keep us enemies with God because we we begin to memorize it we’re getting to think about it and we say well this is I’m holy because I know God’s word this is the proof that I know God then of course we take things and we take him out of scripture we put an emphasis on one over the other and we have this unbalanced view of God unbalanced view of his word and of course his word hits hardest when it’s everybody else’s sin but when it’s ours his word is really quiet that God even address this I don’t think so and we’ll look a little later how we even become Masters at rewriting his word and and not just twisting but actually changing it and then believing that’s what God really said it’s another one adherence to societal or cultural morality you can turn back to uh Philippians if you want Philippians chapter three but I hear it’s a societal or cultural morality many of us have things that we do because we were taught to do them we were raised to do them and we think that just being a good fill in the blank is the same as being Godly and the same as being a follower of Christ and Philippians 3 6 continuing to describe himself Paul and his State before he came to Christ he says as to zil a persecutor of the church as to the righteousness which is in the law found blameless so Paul again he was raised on the word of God he was raised so much he was so sensitive to blasphemy he was trained to hate blasphemy what did not have a relationship with God keep that in mind he did not have a relationship with God growing up he did not believe in the the coming Christ in that way I saw when Christ came Christ had to do this miracle and say why are you persecuting me and had you actually appeared to him in this special way and called him out he didn’t hear Christ and hear his preaching and say I believe it matter of fact if you remember in the in the book of Acts he was one of the ones who was holding the coats of of those who came to Stone uh Stephen came out I’ll take your coat go ahead go ahead and kill God’s prophet he said I was so zealous that I persecuted Christ Church and in turn persecuted Christ but he was a good Jew for doing it he was lauded he began to get a reputation for his adherence to their law and the same things happen with us we we think that we have truth on our side and that’s enough we say well I’m on the right side of this issue that’s enough I hate these two sins and we’ll talk about that in a minute these two sins that are just been being paraded into the country I hate those two so I’m righteous and we can have this moral standard that’s been placed on us by our society um I was telling Cheyenne I looked at a argument that was happening on the internet never if you want peace in your life never look at the comments section of any blog post any podcast that allows comments or any social media posts if it involves anything having to do with the church anything having to do with Christ just the amount of comments about whether somebody should wear a hat a man should wear a hat inside the church building or not how it was disrespecting ladies or some people said it was a covering over the head in First Corinthians 11 said you’re not supposed to cover your head as a man and you’re praying and prophesy you know and they went back and forth arguing and you you know what it was it was a clip of a drummer in a practice doing a drum solo and everyone said oh that was a great solo people said yeah but he got a hat on though I don’t know God really heard that praise he wearing a baseball cap and they argued about that we can have this morality that’s put on us by our culture by our society by the country we think that following the letter of the the written law some of us know the Constitution and don’t know Christ and we think that means that we are right with God and this is something else that Satan uses you know he I I picture it you know this role I’m just picture things so much but I picture this road having these little guard rails on it and this is part of the guardrail it’s just morality that keeps us on the broad way it keeps us going to that gate thinking that we’re righteous because we’re following these laws we’re following the rules whether they come from scripture or not and even if they do you could follow something that comes from scripture and just still be Unholy your fruit can still stink while you’re doing something that the Bible says is pleasing to God and Isaiah you don’t have to tell me Isaiah 64 6 that’s the beginning of the verse says for all of us have become like one who was unclean all of us and all our righteous Deeds are like a filthy garment all of the things that you’ve done as an unbeliever and if there’s unbelievers here today hearing this everything that you do that is righteous every meal you give to the homeless is like a filthy rag and if you were here last week you heard Pastor Bobby and Colossians 3 talking about taking off and putting on in this imagery that as if you’re undressing and you’re taking off right unrighteousness and putting on the righteousness that is supplied by Christ but when we try to do it ourselves and just do all these good things and say I know I’m a Christian because I do these things or I believe these things or I say these things it’s like we we were clothing ourselves with these dirty filthy rags and then bringing that to God and that keeps us on that road where we think we’re righteous and Christ is going to say I never knew you now turn to James chapter 2.
because another thing that we do and I kind of alluded to it a few minutes ago is hating certain sins we think if we hate certain sins that that makes us righteous so James chapter 2 uh look at verse 8.
it says if however you are fulfilling the Royal law according to the scripture you shall love your neighbor as yourself you are doing well but if you show partiality you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors why verse 10 for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point he has become guilty of all and again this is something that we see prevalent much in this country because of the way it was established and and I can imagine that in countries where uh the Bible is outlawed or there’s only one state version of Christianity that is awarded down version of the truth I can imagine in those places they don’t have run into this problem nearly as much where we believe that as long as we do certain things as long as we fit into society I I just doubt that in Saudi Arabia they say as long as I’m a good citizen of the state and I’m a Christian because it doesn’t look like that being a good citizen of an Arab Nation looks very different than being considered a good citizen of the United States but all of those good citizens without Christ are going to hell it doesn’t matter what it looks like it doesn’t matter how much we agree with some of the things that they do or disagree with some of the things and we believe that as long as we uh hate these sins of terminating a pregnancy you know I don’t know if some of the kids you know can hear hear that the word but you know if we believe that that’s wrong and we hate that sin and we hate anything that falls under the lgbtq umbrella um and anything that’s that’s you know about gender or confusion about gender if we hate those things then we’re a good Christian we can live any way we want we can just look and we can see somebody blaspheming and now it’s not a big deal as long as they don’t have a rainbow flag in front of their house I’m good with it I’m good with what they do we we have become this nation we have become a people and we have become a church that believes that our morality that our relationship with God can be defined by how you feel about two or three issues where do you stand on these three issues I know about your relationship with God and the problem with that is that as James said if you keep the whole law you stumble one point you’re guilty of all and so we don’t condemn the Sinners that sin in a way that we don’t find as offensive if you’re going to condense sin condemn it all and start in your heart start in your home start by being a good employee that’s what you do about Sin we have so many bad marriages we have so many confused parents so just not attentive parents we have so many unforgiving people that have terrible relationships with each other so many people who have have ruined their relationships because they won’t forgive or they won’t see the wrong that they have done or they have caused and seek to get things right but as long as they haven’t terminated pregnancy or flying the rainbow flag I’m good and I don’t need to confront them I don’t need to go after them you can be married on paper living in a different state with the person that is on the piece of paper with you are supposed to be your spouse but that’s okay as long as you didn’t actually file for divorce we’re all good how hypocritical is that do you think God is pleased with that do you think God is pleased with all the snide remarks that you’re making on social media about certain sins while you’re ignoring others and you’re ignoring the own own hatred in your heart you’re ignoring the own sin that you commit you’re ignoring the the the the the the cries of your wife or your husband every day because you’re you’re chasing after these things because you think it makes you righteous God is not pleased with that look down to uh verse 11. James 2.
so for he who said do not commit adultery also said do not commit murder now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder you’ll become a transgressor of the law and this truth goes well beyond just those two sins because we judge each other harshly even in church we look at others and we judge judge them horsey not just for the sins that they commit that are open that are obvious but we judge them for things that are preferences we’re walking around we think that we’re better parents because our children go to a certain school they don’t go to one at all because we homeschooled because that’s the epitome of Christian parenting and please don’t come to me telling me what parenting style is better I don’t I don’t care don’t tell me you’re a Christian because you do this the point is that we look at things and say well my way my preference is the way is The Godly way anything different than this I’m going to judge and I’m going to maybe go as far as to say you’re you might not be a believer and that’s exactly where Satan wants you he wants you looking at each other judging for small sins and we don’t have time to go there but if in now texting Matthew 7 if you just look up to the beginning of the chapter he talks about that and Jesus talks about taking a little little splint a little speck out of someone’s eye why you have a big telephone poles sticking out of yours and you’re so worried about the little specters in their eye we even judge people for their entertainment choices now I mean a lot of y’all watch and listen to stuff that’s trash it’s just because it’s trash it’s not because I think it’s ungodly it’s just yeah I know and I’m gonna say it because she loves me that my wife has such terrible taste in Music Man I mean we do these musical quizzes and the stuff that like she the songs that she knows she’s like yup that’s this and this by Depeche Mode or by this about that just just trash but I still have to love her I can’t say you’re not a follower of Christ because he didn’t anoint your your musical taste buds but but we do that we look at the sins we look at just the choices we look at the cars people drive and we talk about how wasteful they are we we going we gossip about what people are doing or not doing we even hear somebody doesn’t have to date nights a month as a marriage and we think that their marriage is failing because they don’t do it the way we do it and what did James say about that man he just James James got a lot to say he says so speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of Liberty for judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown No Mercy Mercy triumphs over judgment now just as in Matthew 18 in the second half where it talks about forgiveness in a person who was forgiven much and was unwilling to forgive even a little and it talks about that one uh being thrown and cast into the Lake of Fire um it’s not saying that you are saved and if you are are merciless or if you are unforgiving you lose your salvation what we see is that your unforgiving heart and your merciless judgment is proof that you never knew Christ and that’s why the Declaration is such you will not receive Mercy because your merciless judgment is proof that you have never received the mercy of Christ yourself and so this leads to kind of this bigger idea of hypocrisy that happens and we’re getting to the good part of the sermon in a minute but God beat me up with all this so y’all got to get it too turn to the Book of Amos so and I know that’s that’s one that not everybody is familiar with do me a favor is anybody using the church Bible somebody’s using the church Bible yell out the page in the church Bible when you find Amos so it’s after Daniel and job and Joel and then you’ll you’ll find it around there Amos Amos chapter 5.
911 wow okay page 911 if you’re using the church Bible so he wrote to the nation of Israel who at the time was wicked they’re hypocritical and he wrote to them about their impending destruction and we’ll see that there were so many social injustices happening in the nation are particularly in dealing with the economy and also in the judicial system that it no longer looked like a nation that God established so Amos chapter 5 verses 21 to 23 God has something to say to them he says I hate I reject your festivals nor do I Delight in your solemn assemblies even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings I will not accept them and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fat Lanes take away from me the noise of your songs I will not even listen to the sound of your harps oh they thought they could still look like followers of God as long as they kept with the festivals and offerings and the services and the songs and they thought this was enough as long as I keep up this appearance this is what God wants he just wants me to go through the motions and go through these rituals but they put up with they allowed they benefited from and sometimes even celebrated Injustice and they thought in doing that they could still commune with God look at verse 11. look what he says there therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor and exactly a tribute of grain from them though you have built houses a well-huned stone yet you will not live in them you have planted Pleasant Vineyards yet you will not drink their wine listen your worship is meaningless to God if you aren’t living according to his commands you aren’t worshiping God you’re worshiping some Idol you made up you created in your mind a fake God that’s okay with all of your sin and God doesn’t want your your offerings God doesn’t want your songs if they’re done in that manner he wants your heart and Christ came to capture the hearts of men and women Christ came to redeem a people not to make sure we’re singing the right songs not to make sure we’re using the right instruments or that we make sure we do at least three hymns a month that’s not why Christ came Christ died he didn’t come and die for our liturgy he came for our souls and so going through the motions of these things is nothing but hypocrisy and he says again in verse 23 but take away from me the noise of your songs I don’t want to hear it he just shuts them down I will not even listen to the sound of your heart verse 24 but let Justice roll down like Waters and righteousness like an Ever flowing stream if you are true believers then there would be righteousness coming from you wherever you have the power to change a situation you would do it in the way of righteousness everybody is a Civic leader everybody then wasn’t a Civic leader not all of them had power to do that but every landlord had the power to not to rip off the poor every land owner had the ability to share with others and matter of fact according to the law they were commanded to by the way that they gleaned in their field so until sin is taken care of through Christ God doesn’t want your worship he doesn’t want your offerings he doesn’t want your false Allegiance it doesn’t even care about your vote so there are two more passages I want to look at quickly second Samuel chapter 12.
second Samuel 12. and I’m going to kind of just walk go through and paraphrase it chapter 12 verses one through seven uh David had just sinned against God against Iran against Bathsheba he saw a woman that he wanted her husband was off to war and so he took her she got pregnant and then in order to hide it he brought her husband back and said okay now you come back from the war you get a little break now you go be with your wife and then everybody would think it’s his baby he said no I’m not doing that my brothers are still out there fighting I’m not going to go and enjoy my wife while they’re out there in the battle and so David said okay what do I do what can I do got him drunk tried to do it again didn’t work and then finally he just killed him he just he killed him then just killed him he killed a bunch of other people as well in order to make his his death look like an accident um and after he did that then God sent the prophet Nathan to come and talk to David and he tells him this story um he says there were two men in the city there was a rich man and there was a poor man and this rich man had in verse two we can see that Richmond had great many flocks and herds the poor man had nothing except one one little lamb and this lamb was a pet to him says that he took care of it he fed him the same food that he would have you know kind of what you do with your dogs that’s that’s nasty but whatever um you know yeah giving them dog licking on your hand and all that stuff but I’m not trying not to look over there um but he treated him like a little pet he even said he slept with him and he slept and he had him on his bosom when he slept and he did all this with this with this lamb while this man lived close by who had great many herds and flocks and he had a visitor come the rich man he didn’t want to kill any of his own and so he went and he stole the pet of the poor man and slaughtered that and fed that to his visitor and David heard that look at verse five then David’s anger burned greatly against the man and he said to Nathan as the Lord lives surely the man who has done this deserves to die he must make restitution for the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and had no compassion and Nathan said to David you are the man you are the man and then goes on and talks about what God did to him what God gave him and picked him over Saul and and you know outlines his sin he was so outraged about this story this this about this fake person and his fake lamb he was so I was more outraged about that than he was about stealing a man’s wife and then killing him and a bunch of other soldiers he was more outraged about this story about that sin and how many times do we do that how many times do we outrage about the sins of others and we get outraged and we talk about what’s going on in this world what’s going on in the Oval Office what’s going on in this state in that state and what school system is doing what and what they’re teaching and this person is this and that and then we go home and we’re horrible spouses we’re horrible parents we provoke our children to anger even though the Bible says not to we go to work late and don’t make up the time and still hours for my employer and Grumble and complain about work all the time when the Bible tells us that we are to work as if we’re working unto God we violate scripture left and right but when someone else does it that person should die we have the same outrage as David man just killed a bunch of people after stealing his wife and getting getting them pregnant and you ready to kill somebody over a lamb and Nathan doesn’t say David you’re wrong to be angry about the story about the lamb he should have been because all sin shall be repulsive to us we should hate all sin the way that God does but you’re wrong to be outraged about this sin of someone else and be comfortable with your own sin and to David’s credit and to show the spirit of God in him he repented immediately and you can read Psalm 51 if you want to read what what how he felt about that or how he came to God and there’s one more pretty quickly I just want to take you through uh in Luke chapter 18 verses 9 through 14.
um I think this is important here Luke 18 9-14 and this is talking about Jesus telling the parable Luke 18 verse 9 says and he also told this Parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt two men went up to into a temple to pray one of Pharisee and the other attacks collector the Pharisees stood up and was praying this to himself God I thank you that I’m not like other people swindlers unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector I fast twice a week I pay tithes of all I get but the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breath saying God be merciful to me The Sinner tell you this man went to his house Justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted again and I believe it was just a couple weeks ago we heard about this um it might even been one but we see how important this this idea of hypocrisy is to God you see that that David’s hypocrisy could not stand these these Pharisees these religious people who trusted in themselves trusted in their works it could not stand and the hypocrisy of the whole nation could not stand he says stop singing to me stop bringing me offerings God does not stand for our hypocrisy are you outraged about Sin because the society tells you these are the sins you’re supposed to be outraged about so then when a society changes its mind about what sins outrage us and and make us feel disgusted the church then changes his stance is is that where we where we’re at are we angry about these things because the word of God is in us so much that we can’t stand this sin are we angry about those things because it’s a convenient way to make us feel and look better to make us feel like we’re close to God because I hate these sins while we go on sinning all the time with no hatred at all so I said there was some good news in this um well one is good news is that if you’ve been living in a way that doesn’t line up with what God has commanded if you because you couldn’t because you have not been transformed you are not born again God is still giving you time he’s still giving you time to come to him in faith and repentance and he grants those things to those with a humble and contrite heart the other good news is that he outlines what is what are the marks of of Salvation And I’m just going to list three things really quickly um and they’re all going to be found in first John I’ve had the the pleasure of going through first John with the young adults a young adult bible study this past year and it’s a very conflicting book and while we don’t have time to go through it all there are three main things you can break it up into more but there are three main things the point of First John was um the main reason for writing the book was that there were these false teachers who were who brought this false gospel they seem to have come from within the congregation or within either local congregations near them and they begin to bring this false gospel it seems like it was this kind of early form of narcissism you know they believed that Christ um didn’t die on the cross it seems like they believed that he um inhabited a human body just as kind of a costume and he did not take on um Humanity fully as as the Bible teaches firstly in Philippians 2 and they also taught uh this version of narcissisms that matter is is evil and wicked and that’s the reason why they had to to say that and they believed different things about Christ whether he died on the cross he didn’t or the spirit of God the spirit of Christ that was in him left right before the crucifixion and so it wasn’t God himself enduring that he told all these kind of things and so John wrote this letter to clarify some of that also some of the the the people in the congregation started believing they weren’t Believers because they believed this they started believing these other people and said well this isn’t the gospel we believed do we not know God at all now and so he wrote it to give them Assurance he wrote them he wrote what it looks like to be a believer and it was to detect false teaching detect the false teachers and to believe the truth and if you believe it have assurance so there were three main things understanding of and and belief in the Full Gospel and I say Full Gospel because of of what you know they taught that that Jesus didn’t come and take on uh flesh or take on the form of a servant um in that way so you believe that you believe that you needed you stand before God right now as a wicked unrighteous person and that there’s nothing you can do to save yourself and so God sent Christ into the world to live for us and to perfectly obey God’s law so that we can have his righteousness on our account and then he died on the cross for our sins as a sinless savior he died as a sacrifice for our sins so that we put our faith and trust in him then our sins will be put on his account and his righteousness will be given to us so that’s the first thing you have to believe and it’s all over first John first John uh 5 6-12 if you’re taking notes is I think the place that kind of uh spells that out the most and even says his testimony came came from the son the spirit and the father all testified to that fact then obedience to Christ’s commands or I am going to read this first John 2 3-6 says by this we know that we have come to him if we keep his Commandments the one who says I have come to know him and does not keep his Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him but whoever keeps his word in him the love of God has truly been perfected by this we know that we are in him the one who said who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the manner as he walked it’s not in the same manner as he walked so the fruit of obedience will be seen in the life of every believer and that’s why Jesus said good fruit comes from the good tree and it indicates a good tree and if you have bad fruit rotten stinking fruit no matter how good it looks on the outside it indicates that the whole tree itself is bad even in John 14 15 Jesus said if you love me you will keep my Commandments he didn’t say you will hate those two sins or any sins that are prominent in your country he didn’t say you will harshly judge others while ignoring your own sinfulness he didn’t even say you’ll vote a certain way he didn’t say yo use certain language he said you will keep my Commandments and keeping his Commandments May entail hating certain sins and speaking out more on more on some than others because they’re more prevalent things like that but that’s not the mark of salvation and you know fighting sin and I always talk about when people say I’m struggling with sin they say they’re struggling and there’s no struggle in sight there’s no wrestling there’s no fighting you’re walking arm and arm with sin you’re putting your arm around saying come on let’s go I need some of that pleasure today and we say I’m struggling because that’s just the language we use yeah I’m struggling with anger right now no you’re not you’re just letting it go every time you feel angry you somebody’s going to feel it and someone’s going to know it when you’re angry even if it’s not your words it’s your your attitude it’s your posture maybe you’re throwing things it’s it’s it’s the tone of your voice you’re gonna make sure someone knows you are displeased with them that’s not a struggle that’s not a fight that’s just you walking arm in arm with it embracing it loving it and you probably can’t tell now but I used to be heavy into weightlifting and one of the things that would happen is when you’re weightlifting you’re trying to get stronger is that you would hit this Plateau you would hit a place and you’re stuck and so with the time when you’re stuck you have to start focusing on other things you still do what you’re doing in the weight in the weight room but maybe you change your programming up so maybe instead of doing five uh sets of five reps you do three sets of ten reps or you increase the the sets and you you go even heavier and you do 10 sets of three reps or Without You the things that you change up you change up your programming you maybe start doing other accessory exercises you look at your eating you look at how much rest you’re getting you’re making sure that you’re feeding your body well and treating it well you’re making sure that you’re not overworking you maybe take a deload week it’s all these things you make sure that you’re stretching properly you do all of these things to to because you want to increase the lifts you want to do better with the lips but all these other things support it and it just reminds me of how when we’re stuck in sin and we really are trying to fight against it that you begin accessing all these these disciplines of grace these means of Grace that that God gives us you begin praying more you pray about that sin all the time that’s you fighting against it you’re reading you should be an expert on what the Bible says about the sins that plague you you should be an expert not an expert on the sins of the nation you should be an expert in everything the Bible says about anger if you deal with anger to be an ex if your marriage is faltering you should know everything the Bible says not about just about marriage but about relating with people because your spouse is a person so all those one and others we talk about and we can show all that Grace to everyone else then when we get home we lose it all because there’s only a couple passages we know about marriage you should be an expert on how to interact with people on what the Bible says about that confessing our sin talking to others about it praying about it in in corporate finding other people who have struggled with it and who have overcome it and put it to death those are the things that you do to struggle with it and that shows that the spirit of God is really in you and the last thing that we see again we can’t look at all of it but in first John chapter 3 um is our love for others Johnson has some very strong language to say about our obedience to Christ and our love for others so John chapter 3 I’m going to look at a couple of verses here verse 10 says by this the children of God and the children of the devil were obvious here goes both of them anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God nor the one who does not love his brother for this is the message you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another skip down to verse 14.
we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren that’s the assurance that’s the assurance when you love each other the way that Christ loved us then you know that you have passed from Death to life you know you’re on that narrow road and you’re going to see that narrow gate you know that when you meet Christ he is not going to be talking to you as judgment he’s not going to tell you I never knew you but he’s going to welcome you verse 15 says everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him and I wish we had time to look at The Sermon on the Mount but we don’t but then if you want to look there in Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 and 22 we’ll read what Jesus says about hate and murder and just one line from that anyone who says you fool to his brother or sister shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell he was correcting their belief that only murder was the sin that was talked about there but it was what’s truly in our hearts and he says if you say you fool or you use any other pejorative of the day you use any other insult or slur of the day you’re guilty enough to go into the fiery hell verse 16 we know love by this that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren and that’s pretty big and most of us say I’m willing to do that but everything’s short of that we should be willing to do as well verse 17. Whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in needs and closes his heart against him how does the love of God abide in him little children let us love not with word or with tongue but in deed and Truth and that is what a True Believer looks like it doesn’t matter what you post on social media it doesn’t matter how you respond when you drive by a rainbow flag or if you want to reclaim the rainbow and all it doesn’t matter all those things what matters is if you believe the full and true gospel not just know it and agree with it but if you believe it enough that it impacts your life that you follow the law of Christ that you obey Christ and his commands and that you love each other so if that has not been what describes your life if that has not been what describes your practice then I pray that you will go to the Lord today in Repentance and you will turn to him and you will cry out to him even if it’s the first time even if you’ve been a believer in your heart in your mind and in visual for 40 50 years but you don’t really know Christ and you weren’t a True Believer there is no shame in that it’s better to get it right now than to go into eternally and hear I never knew you depart for be you who practice lawlessness so pray to God and even if you have the Assurance pray that those things will be removed from your heart pray that the hypocrisy will be removed from your heart pray that you’ll grow in love and you’ll decrease in merciless judgment and let’s pray right now a great God we just come to you thanking you for an opportunity to ask for your grace to ask for your mercy we ask God that you would reveal the truth of our hearts that you will reveal if we belong to you you would reveal to us if we truly know you and Lord if we don’t you will grant us the faith and repentance to turn from our sins and turn to you we pray God that all of our Lives will be we’ll be seeking to honor you and that we would be able to love each other and that we would obey what you have commanded we pray Lord that even now as we examine ourselves um for the Lord’s table we just pray that you would minister to us Lord reveal to us your truth and I pray all of this in Christ’s name and for his sake amen David