Well, hello everyone and welcome back. This is our daily devotional for Wednesday, October 29th, 2025. Can you believe it? Y'all, October is almost over. It's hard to believe, but it's been a wonderful October. Had a great fall. I hope that you have had one too. And I think the time changes this weekend, doesn't it? This coming Saturday night, maybe something like that. You know, it's great. We humans get to do that sort of thing. But when you have a 13 week old puppy, I'm guessing he's probably not going to know about the time change, you know, but nevertheless, anyway, I'm not complaining. He's a very good puppy. It's good to be with y'all this morning. Thank you for your prayer. Some of y'all know that I'm under the weather. Perhaps you can hear it a little bit and the voice there. But I saw Dr. Marsh and got some good medication and a couple of shots and all that jazz. So anyway, hopefully I will be on the mend very soon, especially, hopefully I will be on the mend before I get on that plane to Israel. in under a week's time, but prayers would very much be appreciated for that. Now, where are we? We're Matthew chapter seven. We are making our way through. I'm telling you guys, we are gonna be done with the Sermon on the Mount very, very soon here. In fact, we may be done with the Sermon on the Mount tomorrow. We're just gonna have to see how much we can cover. We come to a really important section today. And y'all, it's one that points us to another thing that Jesus is gonna do. If you fast forward to Matthew chapter 25, you're gonna see him saying much more on these ideas that he is presenting here in Matthew chapter seven. But what he's doing here is he's giving us a hint of more, deeper, deeper, more teaching to come. And y'all, What we find here is devastating. People talk all the time about different passages that are this way or that way and that sort of stuff. People talk about, well, what's the scariest passage in all of God's Word? Well, I think it's here. in Matthew chapter seven, but I also think it's in Matthew chapter 25, when Jesus is talking about the sheep and the goats. Now, I don't wanna get too far ahead, but I'm gonna reference that as well, because what we come to today, y'all, it is a warning. And I remember my systematics theology professor, when I was in seminary, every once in a while you come upon something and we have systems of theology and that's a very good thing because our system helps us think, it gives us a framework for understanding all sorts of content in God's word and putting it Into practice and so there's nothing wrong. Everybody has a systematic theology whether they realizes it's systematic or not I would encourage you to be proactive about your theology and knowing why you know what you know about God but he said every once in a while you come to a passage that is really kind of pushes the boundaries on our systematic theology. Things like the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, that God's people will endure because he who began a good work in you will be faithful to bring it to completion. He's a good shepherd. No one can snatch a sheep out of his hands. If you could lose your salvation, you would. It's called once saved, always saved. I don't really like that terminology, but We hold on to that doctrine, but every once in a while, we come to passages kind of sort of like today. The passages that are troubling, where very clearly there's a warning here. And as my systematic professor very wisely said, men, when you get to the warnings of scripture, you preach the warning. Don't concern yourself so much with how this fits into your system or doesn't fit into your system. That being said, theology very much matters what you believe about God, but when you come to a warning, preach the warning. And that's what I'm here to do today, though it's a devotional, not a sermon. Y'all, what we come to is the perfect follow-up to where we ended yesterday. Remember, we received that warning about false prophets, and I told you to stay away from modern prophecy as a general rule, but definitely be wary of these that come and claim to be prophets. Jesus tells you what they are. Verse 15, watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. They want to consume you. It's just as simple as that. And where we come to today is a perfect follow-up for that. So let's pray, and then we'll dig in and see what Jesus has to say next. What do you even follow that up with? Let's pray. Our God and our Father, would you be with us now and guide us as we come to your word? We need wisdom and we need conviction. So please, convict us, show us what you would have us do, who you would have us be. Not that we work our way to you, but how we live is very important. And Father, it usually is indicative of a faith that either exists or doesn't exist. So please give us wisdom as we come to your word. Convict us where we need to be convicted. And we pray it all in Jesus name. Amen. All right, y'all. There's lots of ways to talk about salvation. We use these theological terms, once saved, always saved. Use the biblical terms. We're saved by grace through faith. Romans 1, the righteous shall live by faith. We are saved by faith alone, but that faith is not alone. I'll say that again. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Salvation is Jesus equals salvation, not Jesus plus fill in the blank. Whatever you put in that blank is wrong. We are saved by the blood of the lamb alone, period, end of story, and we're saved by faith. The righteous shall live by faith. And so we are saved by faith alone, but That saving faith is not alone. Another way to say this is good works do not save men. Martin Luther said this. Good works don't save men, but saved men, they do good works. Why do I even bring that up? Well, this is the follow-up to Jesus telling us to judge others by their fruit. And yes, I know this stands in the face of Matthew chapter 7 verse 1, but again, judging others is about determining motives and also pronouncing sentences. This is not about determining right or wrong. We are told to determine right or wrong, especially as it relates to those that come to you as preachers, as teachers, as prophets. And we got all that business about Good trees can't bear bad fruit, and bad trees can't bear good fruit. And the capstone is verse 20 that we've ended with yesterday. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. And then Jesus follows up with that. And it's like a logical conclusion to those who appear to be sheep, who are dressed in sheep's clothing, but are actually wolves. And he says this, and it's particularly related to those who come in the name of Jesus to be preachers and teachers, so watch out. It says, verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers. Now y'all, we get a lot of hints as to what Jesus is really talking about here, but I want to talk about something first, before we get to the practical application. There are those out there, maybe you've seen some of the billboards, like Jesus is not God and all that. I actually saw one, there's one on the way back, outside of Roanoke around Boone's Mill. But nevertheless, I don't know if somebody bought it, I don't know if they didn't pay the bill, but somebody Painted over the knot and it says Jesus is God Underneath the head Jesus was not pre-existent in heaven I don't know where you get that from when in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was with God in the beginning that Jesus saying I and the Father are one look there's a reason why when Jesus is throwing out these I am's and The Pharisees are tearing up their clothes and ripping out their beards. They know that Jesus is claiming to be God. But for some reason, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, heretics and false teachers that apparently have money to spend on billboards. There's one outside of Stanton. Lots of people like that. They deny the testimony of the Holy Spirit for thousands of years. They deny the clear teaching of God's Word. And they want to assert that Jesus is not God. Jesus never puts himself there. Well, let me just address that. As I've said, in so many ways, and we'll see these as we go along in Matthew, Jesus very much claims to be God. He is God the Son, but he is God in perfect unity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But for those that say, oh, no, no, no, Jesus never claimed to be any of that. Well, how do you explain what we just read? Because Jesus talks at the beginning of the chapter about not judging, okay? And in fact, we know from scripture's testimony that only God is the judge. We know from the book of Hebrews that Jesus is seated at God's right hand, waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool, waiting to judge. We know that we are judged by the living word of God. And y'all, the business of judging and pronouncing sentence, admitting into heaven or casting into hell, that is only God's business. And so for those that say, well, Jesus never claims to be God, then why does he claim to take up God's business? Because look, he's saying it very clearly. He's presenting this hypothetical scenario of when you stand before the Lord. And that's gonna happen in one of two ways. Either Jesus is gonna come back and you'll stand before the Lord at the day of judgment, or when you die, you will stand before the Lord in your own personal day of judgment. And Jesus, the paradigm, it doesn't matter which one he's talking about. I think what he's really pointing to is the day of the Lord, that ultimate time when he's coming back. But he presents this hypothetical scenario and he says, not everybody who says to me, Lord, Lord, is gonna enter the kingdom of heaven. And then he talks about how many are gonna say to him on that day, that's why I think this is judgment day, when his second coming, when he comes back to judge the world. But many will say to me on that day, verse 22, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy, drive out demons, perform many miracles? Then I will tell them. Plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers. Combine this with John 14 6. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Jesus is taking upon himself the responsibility ultimately of judge and also the gatekeeper of heaven. The idea that Peter is at the pearly gates, that's a quasi-Roman Catholic-y kind of thing. We don't believe that. You don't have to give Peter any justification as to why you should get into heaven or anything like that. Jesus is the ultimate judge. Period. The end. And so, if you're in one of those camps, Y'all realize, I know the Trinity is difficult. As one commentator said, the man who seeks to understand the Trinity will lose his mind. The man who denies it will lose his soul. I get it. I know it's hard, the concept of Jesus being God the Son from all to eternity. But very clearly here, he has taken upon himself because he himself has the authority to do it. He's saying, I'm gonna be the one that determines whether or not you get into heaven or whether or not you're cast away from me. Only God can do that. In a very practical way, Jesus is claiming to be God. But y'all, let's get to the practical application of this. There are those that take this and turn this into some theological quandary and they turn it into this thing about election where it's like, well, what if you're not predestined to go to heaven and you really love Jesus and you really wanna go, but then you get to heaven and Jesus says, oh, I'm sorry, your name's not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, you're not gonna get in. Y'all, that's a straw man argument. It's a fallacy. It's a hypothetical scenario that does not stand up under scripture. Nobody seeks God, number one. Number two, nobody's gonna exhibit faith in Christ in and of themselves, because we know from Ephesians 2 that faith is a gift from God. And we know from Romans 10 and so many other places, if you cry out to the name of Jesus, you will be saved. So the idea of somebody showing up at heaven and thinking they've done everything right, like these people, and oh, we put our faith in Jesus, all these good, but oh well, you're not predestined, you're not getting heaven. That's a false scenario, completely and totally. What this is talking about is specifically, like I always say, read the Bible in its context. What this is talking about is the false teachers. What this is talking about is false prophets, those who claim to be Jesus's representatives, those who have claimed to receive special prophecy from God, those who have taken upon themselves the mantle of leader within the church, preacher, teacher, all of these things, and yet they don't know Jesus. And remember, the context of this is those who look like they're producing good fruit, but everything they produce is rot. They're false teachers. They are false prophets. That's why he goes on to talk about, specifically, how they'll cry out to him, Lord, Lord, look at all of this stuff that we did. But the first clue we get is in verse 21. He who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. That's the person that's gonna get in. You cannot make a mockery of Christ. You cannot misuse God's word. You cannot take upon yourself this mantle, especially a false prophet, because remember what the prophet does. The prophet is God's representative. You know why Moses didn't get into the promised land? It wasn't just because he struck the rock. It was because God said, hey, I want you to deal with my people this way as my representative, as my prophet. And Moses misrepresented God when he struck the rock. God told him to be gracious and merciful. He was not. And as God's representative, God could not allow that. So, fast forward to Matthew chapter seven. Jesus is talking about false prophets. You cannot be a false prophet and get into heaven. Another way to say it is like this. You can't live like hell and expect to get into heaven. He talks about this, and it's not just willy nilly people. Look at what he says. He says, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out many demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell you then plainly, I never knew you away from me, you evil doers." Y'all, this is not about working your way to heaven. This is about those who have claimed the name of Christ and in reality have zero relationship with him, have never known him. have never turned their lives over to the Lord, and this sheds a light on what salvation is. It's very simple. It's that Jesus is either Lord of your life or he's not. Either you recognize that he has given his life for you, and so in turn, you want to give your life to him, or you don't. And the reason this is so scary is not just because of Matthew 7, it's really because of Matthew chapter 25 that this is really linked to here. Jesus is using all these different metaphors for the kingdom of heaven. Remember, number one thing Jesus is talking about is the kingdom of heaven. In Matthew chapter 25, beginning in verse 31, he's talking about how when he returns, Verse 31, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. Again, don't give me any of this garbage that Jesus doesn't claim to be God. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. And then he goes on to talk about those sorts of things. And then what I think is one of the scariest verses in all of God's word. Verse 41, he's talking about those that claim to know him but don't live like it. whose faith has no manifestation. Y'all, you can say that you know Jesus all you want to, but if that is not backed up in your life, you don't know him. As James said, faith without works is dead, it's non-existent. We're saved by faith alone, but that faith is not alone. Verse 41 of Matthew 25. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And then fast forward, verse 44. They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick and in prison? He will reply, verse 45, I tell you the truth, whenever you did not do one of these for the least of my brothers, you did not do it for me. and they will go away to eternal punishment. But it's the same paradigm as Matthew 7. Depart from me, I never knew you. And so y'all, the application for today is very, very simple. Again, it's twofold. Stay away from those that claim to be prophets. That's garbage. Seriously, that's garbage. Do not get away from the whole concept of modern prophecy. You want to hear prophecy? Read the Word of God. It is the entirety, it is the corpus, it is the body of God's prophecy for us, and prophecy has ceased of that variety. So stay away from it altogether. But the really practical application, too, is examine whether or not you know the Lord. Are you trusting in Jesus alone for your salvation? Have you asked him to be Lord of your life? To use the terminology of John 3, are you born again? If you're not, and you know you're not, then we need to talk. Or don't talk to me, talk to God. But if you need help with that, reach out. Because it's the most important thing you'll ever do. You can know all about God and not know him. Knowing him comes from trusting him alone. through Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we thank you so much that you have given us the invitation to come into your fold. And Father, we want to know you. We don't want to just know about you. We want to know you. We want our faith to be living and active, not dead, not empty. We can't do this on our own. We need your Holy Spirit to guide us. So for those here that do not know you, break their hearts now and draw them to yourself. For those of us that believe we do, help us to examine ourselves to see if our faith actually backs up our claim. Because Father, what we've just read about, though scary, is a prompting, it's a warning. Let us heed your warning. And I pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time. Lord willing, we'll be back together tomorrow morning at six o'clock. Until then, I hope you have a very pleasant Wednesday. Oh, Wednesday night, six o'clock tonight, be here. We would love to have you. I think it's soup night, something like that. It's gonna be fabulous. Maybe potato, I don't know. But anyway, we would absolutely love to have you. Six o'clock, we're eating from six to seven. Yeah, six, seven. Anyway, we're eating from six to seven tonight, and then we'll break out and we'll have our own thing, talking about the Apostles' Creed. But would love to see you. Until then, take care.