I turn in your Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and we will start reading in verse 14. The title of the message is Changed Gospel, Changed Plea. Changed Gospel, Changed Plea. There were about 34 other titles I wanted to give this but you only do so much. I'm not going to give a double quadruple title like James Guyot does, but I had a lot of other thoughts for this. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14, For the love of Christ constrains us, judging this, that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all that the living ones may live no more to themselves, but to him who died for them. and having been raised. So as we now know, no one according to the flesh, but even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him so. So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Whereas God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and putting the word of reconciliation in us. Then we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ as God exhorting through us, we beseech you on the behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For he has made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Stop the reading there. Changed gospel changed plea. I want us to keep that in mind as we go through here, and I've got it positioned in my notes to remind us of that and to talk about what that means, what I want to emphasize in the message concerning what that, what I want to come across with. Over the years as we, or months, or however long people's been in or decades been in this thing, every now and then you'll learn some things and you think, I have to put this down, I have to make a mark and so I can refer back to it and or refer people back to it and I'm always trying to do that instead of being scatterbrained and say, you know, I can't. Somebody asked me a question and then I have to take three days of my time to try to find it where if I put it together in a message, it's there. And this is one of those messages that I want to lay out some things. And they're going to be stark. They're going to be... Some people aren't going to like them. And they kind of sum up the things that maybe we've been saying for maybe the past year or two about sanctification. So right out of the gate, I just want to say for a while now, I don't know how long, but for a while now, I have been convinced that most people that believe the doctrines of grace, they give lip service to the five points, sovereign grace reform, Calvinist theology. I'm convinced and have been for a while that most of those people and I was one when I accused this and I know other people and I keep meeting them. But I believe that most are not believers. You all have heard me say before that I believe all Armenians are lost. And that's because they don't believe the gospel. But most Calvinistic sovereign grace reformed people are lost. And today I want to say why. More specifically, it's because they have a synergistic sanctification. In other words, a sanctification that is built on conditioning salvation by works, which is, we know, sinking sand. Now, I want to get a little bit more detail there and bring something up because many people might applaud you, me and you, they might applaud you if you expose a works righteousness for justification as a false gospel. They'll say it all day. Amen. Amen. Yeah, nobody's justified by a works righteousness. But many of those same people, they'll accuse you of all kinds of things. They'll label you all kinds of things, especially an antinomian, which means being against the law for exposing a works righteousness in sanctification. And this is kind of the nitty-gritty one I want to get into today. And I think it's important because of the subtlety. Now every week I think it's less subtle to us here. But in the mainstream I think it's subtle. And this is to like drive a hammer down on this thing and spread it around. So having said that, you know, why would people react that way? They would act weird and accuse you if you would expose a synergistic sanctification as a false gospel or a works righteousness sanctification as a false gospel. You know, they're really, again, they're really careful to say, I'm talking about sanctification. I'm not talking about justification when I'm adding these conditions. So then the question seems kind of fuzzy in their minds, or maybe they just avoid it altogether. The question that I want to put forth right away in the beginning of this message is, is sanctification actually a part of God's salvation? I mean, that question has to be asked and answered. And the answer is yes. And we know that their sanctification model These are people that claim to believe the doctrines of grace. Their sanctification model is based off one that's very similar to the Church of Rome. When I say that, I mean the Roman Catholic Church. And so here's the wrong view of that. The other day, James Tippins was doing a video and he was talking about a wrong view and he said, I want to make sure you understand this is the wrong view. And he put it up on the screen and said, this is the wrong view. And it went, woom, woom, woom, woom. And that's what I want to do here. I want to make sure you realize what I'm saying here. The next thing I'm going to say is the wrong view. And I believe this is what some of them are saying. I use the word some. In sanctification, your journey starts with the righteousness imparted in a lifelong increased cooperation with the Spirit to grow less sinful through the means of the obedience to the law being their rule of life to assure them that they're actually children of God. Have you ever seen anything like that? I see it every day, all the time. If you want to hear that again, rewind the tape, because I'm not going to do it again. I've got a lot of stuff to cover here. Their focus, and this is part more of the wrong stuff, we're still in the wrong view here. Their focus is not on the faithfulness and the glory of Christ being crucified. Their focus is, how are you doing with the law's rule of your life? Since now you've got the ability to keep the law for your assurance, how are you doing with that? If they're not doing too well on that, they can always fall back on a secondary focus. What's your repentance looking like? How's that looking? And if that doesn't work, they can slide down the flexible scale and resort to the third focus that says, are your desires in line with the demands for God's obedience? Which kind of like trickles down to sincerity and you're not going to beat anybody up for sincerity, right? So many of these people are foolish enough as all people are by nature foolish enough to think that sanctification And these, again, are the ones that believe in the doctrines of grace, supposedly. That sanctification is conditioned on works. You know, they might not be that blatant about it. They might not be that forthcoming with their language. Because maybe they don't even really understand specifically their stance. And that's because of the false prophets that shove this stuff down their throats. But out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. It'll eventually come out. That's how it comes out, through their mouth. What comes from their mouth? The doctrine they've been taught and that they practice. And today is what we want to flush some of this stuff out and see what it looks like. This is rampant. This is a crisis that's going on amongst Sovereign Grace Calvinistic Reformed people, those that claim to believe the doctrines of grace. And these are the only people I deal with, basically. I mean, I evangelize Armenians all the time. But as far as engaging in some kind of meaningful, possible, potential fellowship with, this is what I keep running into amongst those that claim to believe what we believe. More fails than successes in uniting with people and saying, yep, we've got the same gospel. And some of you in this room understand and know better than the people that are hearing that I'm pretty patient and I'm pretty long suffering, passionate and in depth with people. When I talk to them, I just don't say, you know, get a sword out, cut their head off. I don't deal with people that way. Here's a question, another question to consider. Has any religion or cult been allowed by Calvinists to escape being exposed and called out for salvation by works? Has there been any cult? Calvinists will call out all the cults and say, salvation by works. But when it comes to holding those that claim to hold the doctrines of grace, who hold to a sanctification, that is by works, that's synergistic. They somehow are allowed, I don't know how, they're allowed to fly under the radar. It's widespread. Not just fly under the radar, but lifted up as the main dudes that are the bastions and the supporters and the guarders of the gates. These same people, they're clueless about sanctification by sovereign grace. I mean, that idea is just like, what's that mean? If you believe in sanctification by works, how can you hear that phrase sanctification by sovereign grace and give it a thumbs up? You can't. It doesn't jive. It doesn't match. It doesn't harmonize. It's scary to people. Changed gospel, changed plea. That's what we're talking about. Look at verse 14 again. For the love of Christ constrains us, judging this that if one died for all, then all died. Here's a question. Is grace alone sufficient? What constrains us? The love of Christ. It doesn't say anything about any type of a bondage of something that is on our backs, making us do things out of fear, right? The love of Christ constrains us. Is that enough? You know, I asked the question with a foundational truth and authority of God's Word concerning what sovereign grace actually is and does. It's not just a philosophical question. I'm asking on the authority of the Word of God concerning sovereign grace. And just a reminder, it's the only kind of grace there is, right? We don't do the common grace thing. What it is and what it does is God's free and sovereign grace sufficient and effectual Keep your place there and go to 1st John 4 and verse 10 and then we're going to jump down to verse 17. I just want to get a seal the deal here on something real quick. 1st John 4.10. Herein is love. This is love. Not that we love God. Let me start over again. Here is love. This is love. Herein is love. Not that we love God. But that he loved us and he sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. What he's saying is, he's saying this is the emphasis, this is the real emphasis. Not that we loved him, but that he loved us. He's pretty much saying also in the same deal, it's cause and effect people. You know about cause and effect and here it is. We're caused to love him because we're affected by his love toward us. We've worn that out here. Go to verse 17. Herein is love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is we are in the world. Now most people because I don't stop and talk about for five minutes that last part are not going to understand it. But I have time to deal with it. We've dealt with it before. But look. Notice the part in the middle, that's what I want to emphasize, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment. Now here in a little bit, we're going to go to Matthew 7. Talk about that guy we always talk about, which is very important. I'm not going to stop talking about that guy in Matthew 7 that said, Lord, Lord, because you know what? It's the Day of Judgment. This is talking about the Day of Judgment. We have to have boldness in the Day of Judgment. We have to. I might as well talk about it. Here it is. I mean, it's the gospel. Because as he is, that's why we have boldness. Because as he is Christ, so are we in the world. We've got boldness now, not just in the day of judgment, but right now. And our boldness is going to be the same. Whatever, in false religion, whatever baloney people are holding to, they're going to bring that baloney with them, those lies, to judgment. So if we hold to that as Christ is, so are we in the world. We're accepted in him. When the father looks at me, he sees Christ. That's what I'm pleading at judgment. I mean, do you think I'm going to plead that now and then all of a sudden get stupid at judgment and start pleading something I got? No, no. Yeah, I'm in a lot. What is it? I don't know what it looks like. You know, you read the Chick publications and you see the cartoons where there's a big long line, people are waiting, right? And so am I going to change, am I thinking, should I change my mind when I get up there? You know, these are goofy thoughts and I don't know what that's going to look like, but you've all thought the same thing in your mind about what it looks like. And we've got such garbage that's been superimposed in our minds, we can't peel it off sometimes, but think about that. You know, you've been in other situations where you've been in line for something. Maybe it's something to do with the government or maybe something to do with court. There's one. You're going to court, right? This is a court setting. You're thinking, Maybe I should change what I'm supposed to say. I've got these scribbled up notes. This is crazy. This is not good. I don't have a lawyer. Should I say something different? How should I act? It's a mess. And this is not an earthly court thing. This is God. The final judge of all. This has to do with eternity. This is not temporary. Verse 18, there is no fear in love. but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. Lookie here, we love Him because He first loved us. Love of Christ constrains us. Here's a fact or truth. Get this and don't forget it. You cannot love God enough to make God love you or keep loving you. You can't do it. You can't love him enough to make God's love toward you conditional. You're not qualified. I think we talked about this the last couple weeks about being not qualified to get something from him. You're not. You're not. When you're in that mode, he disdains. He hates it. It's blasphemy. God's people don't think that way. They've been changed gospel, changed plea. They've been changed by the power of God. I could go into some examples of stuff I've heard recently, which would be, I heard some of these Gospel Coalition goofballs at the end of a conference Q&A talking about whether or not God's love was unconditional. And one of them had the audacity to say, God doesn't love people that don't repent. making it conditional on repentance. He just didn't say that. He went on to expound. And it was conditioning love on repentance. Heard another guy talking about God loves you if you love Him. We can't do that. It's not tit for tat. It's not you do this, He'll do you. You come part way, He'll finish. Christ has done all He can do, now the rest is up to you. We're not the catalyst to finish stuff or make stuff happen. Look at the second half of verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 5. Judging this, what he's saying is, discerning or understanding this, if one died for all, then all died. He's talking about all God's sheep are crucified with Christ. The old man was slain in the process. and the old man is dead and gone and God's sheep are dead to the law. Righteousness has been imputed for their justification. Sin can never be imputed. This is the death of our old identity in Adam. There has been a change of state. Position and identity changed gospel. Changed God too. Some people like to just like pick up doctrine and roll with it. But when this happens, you change gods. Verse 15, and he died for all that or so that the living ones may live no more to themselves. but to him who died for them and having been raised." Now, having read this here, notice, and he died for all that the living ones may live no more to themselves. Now the natural man that's connected up with false religion with a little dab of doctrines of grace will say, they'll crank up the legalism. They'll say, this is what this is talking about. Get busy. They'll put fire under you. They'll put stuff on your back. The natural man will respond with a conditional life response rather than the spirit of worship for the finished work of Christ. And he's given us his people rest in him for our completeness. So those are the two contrasts and that's how you can read the two different groups. You've got one that will just like have you in a mess all the time and make you fear and be guilty. and be down all the time and looking inside, and you'll have, you know, those that have actually heard the gospel and believe it, where they're resting in the finished work of Christ. And the love of Christ constrains them to do what God says because of that previous activity. They live no more to themselves. Think about it this way. We always talk about the, you know, The practical application of the second half of all the letters in the New Testament church, we talk about that all the time. And we're to pay attention to those, take heed to those things, those commands and those exhortations and stuff. This is being discipled. But think about this part of that verse that says that they live no more to themselves. Believers will be caused to change boasts or brags. They're not bragging on themselves, they're bragging on Him. They make that switch. They change Gospels, they change Gods, they change pleas, they change boasts. But to Him, remember they live to Him, who died for them, having been raised." They don't live unto themselves, but they live to Him who died for them, having been raised. Now we know that God's sheep live by faith, and they walk in the Spirit with no condemnation, with the mind of Christ. That's what they do. It's gonna happen. God foreordained it. He provides the power. He provides the means. It's gonna happen. No questions. And God does it. This is what we're talking about when we say sanctification by sovereign grace. Change gospel, change plea. You mean to tell me that you can just go out and do whatever you want? Look at verse 16. So as we now know one according to the flesh, so as we now know one according to the flesh, but even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet Now we no longer know him so or that way. So the new creature knows and looks at himself and his brothers and sisters in the Christ. They don't look at them in any other way besides in the new state, the new position, and their identity in Christ. I look at my, I judge myself by the gospel. I start with myself. I judge myself and look at myself, not according to the flesh anymore. I don't walk in the flesh anymore. I walk in the spirit. I have a new identity by faith. I live by faith and I see myself, like it said in 1 John 4, as Christ is, so am I in the world. That's the way I see myself. If you don't see yourself that way, you're done. You're just going to be, in a strategic failure state. Strategically failed, if that makes sense. It does to me when I say it. This can only be done by faith and not by sight, right? I mean, when the rubber meets the road, you go through all this stuff, and you're experiencing life, and you're reading the scripture, and it tells you all these things of what Christ has done for you, what you should be doing, what the religious world's coming at you against. If you don't have faith in this mindset of what we're talking about with the changed gospel and changed plea, if you're looking back at the old way and then you're immersed in living by sight, it's not going to work. That's flesh. That's earthy. You're going to fail. And then here's our big verse here, verse 17. So that if anybody's in Christ, That person or that one is a new creature. All kind of weird ideas out there about who the new creature is. And you're talking about some conditional ideas. It's ridiculous right here. But look here. Notice this. I've got this in bold print, underlined, and it's highlighted in like a green for me to stress it. I know you can't see that. You would expect I would do that in this section of the verse, I would hope, knowing what I always talk about. Look, the old things have passed away. That's an emphatic statement. They have passed away. Now, let's just stop a second. Some people would say, well, you don't practice sin anymore, referring to referring to all kinds of sin. You know, all kinds. You don't practice sin anymore. Well, do you sin anymore? Do you? Here it says, old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. It can't mean what they're saying. It is a lie. Our old state in Adam has passed away. We are no longer condemned. Our old way of thinking, of trying to establish a righteousness of our own. That's the sin and the death. That's the willful sin. That's the way that seems right into a man. That's the way of conditions. That's the way of a works righteousness. We just barely said a few things there. We know what it is. It's a heap of actually dung that Paul was an example of that repented of. And Isaiah said the same thing and agree with him. All things have become new. We got a new state, new position, new identity. We got a new righteousness. We traded that in for one of our own. Remember when we had that? Well that was killed, that was crucified. The old self-righteous guy, the old man, God hated him, God killed him. He's dead. God loves the new man, the new creation, the new creature. It's his sheep that are justified. So the old cursed way of conditional salvation What does that equal? What does that make itself manifest out in time by? It is a plea that matches. Conditional salvation of an old curse of conditions and works righteousness will result in a plea that matches it. Assurance that's connected with it And what else? An object of faith that's connected to it. And what is that object of faith? Inside. It's all inside. And it's exposed by their fruits, which is their doctrine. And there's methods and practice that come out of their doctrine for sure, but We've got a changed gospel and a changed plea. Some people might say, well, you guys, you're so pathetic. I mean, the demons even believe in tremble. Right? I mean, have you heard it? Notice this, take note of this, that false prophets take advantage of people hearing. conversations like this, and they will manipulate their hearers with some questions, distracting questions, and then the rest of the questions they sweep under the rug, the ones we would ask, they sweep them under the rug, or using questions that actually really don't bring conclusions. They're shallow questions that don't, they're non-root questions, that's what I want to call them. They don't get to the root of the matter, the heart of the matter. They'll ask shallow questions that match their shallow doctrine and they won't get anywhere when the subject comes up. They'll say the demons believe. Believe what? That's my question back. Believe what? Are you telling me that the Bible, the word of God says the demons believe the gospel? That's a lie. It doesn't say that. The Bible says the demons are monotheistic. They believe in one God. Bible also says the demons obey. When God says they do. but they don't believe the gospel. Faith alone, sola fide, right? I can't speak Latin. I spelled it wrong. I put an A instead of an E. Faith alone, But they say, faith alone that is never alone. Remember this? So the gospel question is, never alone for what? Why don't people get that far? That's not that far. I can still reach it staying right here. Faith alone that's not alone for what? When they say that's never alone, they're talking about works are accompanied. So I ask for salvation. I'm at nobody, I don't know anybody else asking that question. I know a few guys, a few pastors that are asking that, that we fellowship with and some of their church members are asking that question. But yeah, you know how small that group, that group is. Faith alone that is never alone for what? Salvation. What's the answer going to be? It usually starts out that way. Here's a key point I want us to retain. Now or at judgment, if you have any plea that is something other than the merit of Christ's blood and righteousness imputed for your salvation. This means that whatever that plea is, you're qualifying it as the object of your faith and assurance. Therefore, it becomes your doctrine and your gospel. I will repeat that for people that are listening right now. Now or at judgment, if you have any plea that is something other than the merit of Christ's blood and righteousness imputed for your salvation, this means that whatever that plea is, you are qualifying it as the object of your faith and assurance, therefore it becomes your doctrine or your gospel. That little paragraph right there, it's actually a long run sentence, People don't think about that. They haven't thought about it. I wish they would. I beg that they would. Before they go to bed tonight, anybody that is halfway interested in what God has to say that makes claims of that, that's listening. It's life or death right there. If you're wrong on that, you're wrong on the whole shooting match. You're wrong. That means you're wrong on the whole thing. That's what we say. Southwestern Ohio. Shooting match. That means everything, right? The whole shooting match. People from Africa and New Zealand listening. I don't know if they put that together. Go to Matthew 7 real quick. We're going to go through this. Some things I want to point out. I might not have pointed these things out before as often as we visited Matthew 7. starting in verse 13. I copied and pasted this from the modern King James belief for the most part. Verse 13, go in through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there are who go in through it because narrow is the gate and constricted is the way that leads to life. and there are few who find it. Notice these first four words. It brings into play what the context is talking about. Beware of false prophets. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Notice this. You shall know them, we just read the sentence now, let's don't forget what our context is talking about, false prophets. You shall know them, the false prophets, by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? No, they don't. We know they don't. Even so, just like this example he gave in the selfsame way, even so, every good tree brings forth good fruit. Every good tree, all without exception, that's a good tree, brings forth good fruit. But, contrary idea, corrupt tree, what does it do? Brings forth evil fruit. Now keep your place there and let's go to, you don't have to turn up if you don't want to, two verses. I'll read them real quick. Hebrews 5, 13 and 14. We looked at this not too long ago, talking about being skillful in the use of the word of righteousness. Hebrews 5, 13, for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belong to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use, notice, have their senses, and this is talking about spiritual senses, exercised to, what, discern or understand, what, both good and evil. When you are exercised spiritually and your spiritual senses are exercised and you grow and mature in handling the word of righteousness, this is nothing short of the gospel, of the merit of Christ and his imputed righteousness as the only ground of acceptance before God as applied throughout your whole life and how that works as it works itself out. As that happens, you're able to better understand Two contrasting things, two separate things, and two things that you can deal with at the same time. Good and evil. What is it? I'm not talking about what the natural man calls good and evil. I'm talking about across the board, whatever the scripture calls good and evil. All right, so let's go back to Matthew 7 verse 18. We did a whole message on what that meant in the last couple verses. I don't have time to cover it again, but we're blending it in here because it's talking about some good and evil things. Matthew 7, 18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits. It's impossible. Nor can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. God's people do not and cannot preach a false gospel. A good tree is a gospel preacher. And those hearers, we could say those hearers that hear that doctrine and embrace that doctrine also. A corrupt tree are those holding to a false gospel and propagate that false gospel. And by extension, each one of the gospel and the false gospel and the methods and everything that flows out from those two contrasting Gospels. Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire therefore by their fruits. We're really still in the context of talking about false prophets. Beware of false prophets up there. Therefore by their fruits you shall know them. And again, let me just say this and ask this question. Does false doctrine lead to false methods and practice? Yes. but identity that depends on discernment by faith and not by sight. That's what identity depends on, that we discern it by faith and not by sight. All right, so let's say we get a new church member in here and we go out to eat and he trips and stumbles and he twists his leg and he says something kind of out of the ordinary, kind of rough. And you think, huh, that's a red flag. And then after he eats, he swings around the back, he lights him up a marble, smokes. Oh, second red flag, right? And then, I don't know, add to the list, keep going. Judging by outward appearance, judging by sight, judging by the law, not the gospel. So this is directly tied to doctrine or truth or words spoken is what we're getting at, what we're talking about. Discerning by sight or by flesh will direct you in the wrong criteria because you know what you're gonna start judging yourself You walk right into your slip on your own dumb Verse 21 not everyone that says unto me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven But he that does will my father which is in heaven We spent plenty of time on plenty of messages on this wearing this out We're gonna look at what the will the father is in heaven here in a second But those that here in this context, this is a prophecy by the way, this is prophecy recorded. Christ said this is what's going to happen. Notice that these people are zealous, striving to obey, bragging about the Lordship of Christ, fervent to do a lot of stuff in the name of Christ. These are not people that are, you know, pew sitters that aren't doing anything. These people are on it. These things, these people are getting stuff done. And Christ says concerning this prophecy, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, and here it is. Here's their plea. This is their plea. This is what we've kind of waiting for. Now, contrast this idea with the counter idea of what the new creature doesn't do anymore. He stops doing this. This is his old way that's passed away. Not just the state, but his methods and crap that goes with it. Here's the plea. Did we not prophesy in your name and through your name cast out demons? You know the demons that said they believed in you and didn't do you well? Those guys. And through your name, we've done many wonderful works. Didn't we do that? And this is their plea. They're exposing themselves by their plea. And I, Christ says, and I will say to them, notice, notice this. And I noticed this yesterday for the first time. Many will say to me, Christ says, I will say to them, You see that direct counter? And what does he say? He says, I never knew you. And we've studied what this means. I never loved you. Depart from me, you who work lawlessness. The King James says iniquity. This means they use the law illegally to try to establish a righteousness of their own. This is what's going on. So we see these false prophets in their lifetime, and we could recognize them as false prophets, not because of what they do, but because of what they say. Because if we judge what people do, then everybody's condemned. But if we judge what they say, then we can discern by which gospel, which Christ. They teach salvation by faith plus works. They teach salvation by faith plus obedience. Is there anything wrong with works? Is there anything wrong with obedience? No, not by themselves after salvation, but not for salvation, not conditioned eventually on salvation, whether it be beginning, middle, or final, or collective. They teach in their lifetime the very same thing that they will tell Christ at judgment. Everything, their legacy of you sum it up what they teach, and then they'll present that same thing at judgment. Same plea. It never changed. And they might not even know it. And that's what deception is. Ignorance is no excuse. We've studied this before. We know we were ignorant until God defeated us by giving us life and waking us up, right? Irresistible grace. By then it's too late. It's over with. He won and you're submissive. You've changed states. He has changed your state, not that you change states. I was talking the other day on the phone, and we keep getting hung up on this phraseology that people use in evangelism, that if you would put your faith and trust in, first of all, you don't have any faith. You can't just, okay, it's in my back pocket. I'm going to take it out. You don't have it to put in anything. Irresistible grace works this way. You're dead. He gives you life. It's over. He's already worked faith in you. You don't have faith and trust. Your faith's garbage. He gives you repentance of your faith. That's the old man that's passed away. Some of these things are just getting clearer and clearer, and it's helpful to tell people about these things. And they say, you know what? I've used that phrase before. I'm going to stop using it. Praise God. So they saved this plea up at judgment, and it's actually what they believe. It's what they believe at judgment. It's what they believed all their life. Because why? They're false prophets. Again, the principle of judging by the gospel, not by the law. Go to Matthew 12. We've got to speed it up a little bit. Some similar language here. I don't know if I've ever brought us here. Maybe ever. Matthew 12 and verse 33. Either make the tree good and its fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt for or because the tree is known by its fruit. Then Christ calls these self-righteous people in verse 34 offspring of vipers. How can you being evil speak good things You know what? They can't. Can't do it. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the abundance of the heart, a bunch of stuff in the heart, the mouth speaks. Well, how can you judge somebody's heart? Christ says it right here. Out of the abundance of the mouth. Their gospel comes out their mouth. Their doctrine comes out their mouth. And if you're not sure, ask them about it. They'll clarify it for you pretty quick. So, okay, I asked the question, we kind of rehearsed this question going back to Hebrews 5 and in our minds here what the verse we read. Are we mature enough to discern both good and evil? Are we mature enough to discern both good and evil? Verse 35, Matthew 12, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings out evil things. So here's talking about, again, a good tree. One in a new state, a new position, and a new identity will bring out a glorious gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ, which has nothing to do with him. It's not of himself. We preach not ourselves. We preach Christ and ourselves servants for your sakes. And they'll expose the evil of the false gospel of works righteousness verse 36 but I say unto you that every idle word whatever men may speak they shall give an account when in the day of judgment that's that day when many shall say unto me Lord Lord they'll save all those idle words up for that all those pleas that they have you know all the brownie points and Stuff that they're counting on for assurance. They'll save it up, present it up to the nostrils of God to see if he's going to count it as a stench or, you know, a savory, satisfying, sweet smelling savor. Is Christ going to say, come in to my kingdom, good and faithful servant, or is he going to say, I never loved you ever? Do you think it's connected to anything we're talking about? It sure is. Notice this last verse here in this section, 37, Matthew 12, 37, for by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned. This is talking about your gospel, your doctrine. The truth of the words that match your gospel. It's referring to your plea. It's referring to, what's the object of your faith? That's what it's getting down to. What's the object of your faith? Go to John 6. We're getting close here. I'm not going to do a part two of this, so take a deep breath. Verse 27, John 6, 27. Speed through some verses, I'll emphasize other verses. Do not labor, verse 27, for food that perishes. And if you think about food here, you spiritualize it like what's going to happen here in a second. Food that perishes would be this garbage that we've been talking about that you shouldn't be handling or eating. For food, and I know they're talking about actual bread at a certain point in manna and stuff, but this is teaching something here. So keep that in your mindset. But the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, For God has, the Father has sealed him. Speaking of Christ, verse 28. Then they said to him, a curious religious question, right? What shall we do that we might work the works of God? I want to do something. I'm craving to do something. Right? What can we do? Jesus answered and said, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. Therefore, they said unto him. Well, they didn't hear him. All right. What sign? You know, they're asking for signs next, which makes me go back in verse 28. And I mean, it's 2020 and I don't have to use 2020 for Christ because he's He decreed this. He knew ahead of time what they were going to say. And we know when we say stuff like this, we say, OK, I'm going to tell you the answer. Make sure you listen to what I'm saying. Don't get this wrong. This is the work of God, right? Can you repeat that back to me so you understood what I said? So I know you didn't get it wrong. I mean, that's the way we deal with people nowadays, because we want to make sure if we care for them. But Christ didn't do that. I mean, and he didn't do it for a reason. He's in charge and we know he hides things anyway. This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Therefore, they said to him, what sign do you show them so that we can believe you, may see and believe you? What do you work? Our father ate manna in the desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. And Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, and notice this, Moses did not give you bread from heaven. I mean, we could kind of get nuts here and connect a few things we've already talked about when we're talking about this food. There's nothing that Moses could give these people that compared to Christ, right? The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And he's talking about some spiritual food here. So God was the giver, not Moses, right? But my father gives you true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. We know who the world is, and it's qualified. It's believers. It's God's sheep. Then they said unto him, Lord, give us this bread. It reminds me of, like, give me this water. Same thing. It's missing the point all the way through. And Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me, now notice this, he who comes to me shall, look at the word, never hunger. And he who believes on me shall never thirst. I don't hunger and thirst for some kind of different righteousness. I've got, I've said this one time and some fool took my quote and put it in a meme thinking that he was countering what I was saying according to the scripture. Kind of backfired on him. A lot of people started sharing it because they liked it. He was making fun of me. I said that, I'm trying not to misquote myself now. I said, I don't, I said, I don't need a personal righteousness. I've got Christ's imputed. And this guy was for a personal righteousness. And he created a meme for me. I didn't have to do it. He did it for me. And people started liking it and sharing it. I thought, that's nice. So I don't, I don't, I don't thirst for, I've already been offended and I'm beyond that. My old man was offended in my old state and right, pretty quick, right away, I warmed up to a perfect righteousness. I'm not looking for anything else anymore. Anywhere from here is done. I'd have to just quit everything. I'm satisfied. In other words, I'm satisfied. I found rest. The Lord is my shepherd. I don't want anything else. Verse 36. But I said unto you that you also have seen me and don't believe. Well, that's obvious from the conversation so far, right? All that the Father gives me, these are the elect people, they shall come to me by faith. And those that come to me, that's the elect, I will no wise cast out. There's no possible way they'll be cast out. For I came down to heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. Now notice contextually, let's keep this together. He just said something. He said, these people, the Father gave me, they're going to come to me and he comes to me. I'm not going to cast them out. And I've come down from heaven to do my Father's will, the one that gave me these people, right? And this is the will of the Father that sent me, verse 39, that all of which He has given me, I shall lose nothing and raise them up at the last day. See how that sticks together? And here is the will of the Father in connecting up with Matthew 7. These are the ones that will enter in the narrow gate, the ones that have rejected the words of the false prophets and that are doing the will of the father and they have built their house on the rock and not sinking sand. Verse 40. And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the son, not by sight. Right. We don't know him by the flesh anymore. We never did anyway here in this lifetime. But It's talking about by faith. Isn't that what the context of all this is talking about? All the Father gives me shall come to me. How? By faith. That everyone that sees the Son. Remember, these are the ones. And to whom the Son shall reveal them. Matthew 11. Those are the same people. And he who sees the Son and believes on him. This is by faith, God given faith. should have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up the last day. So I want us to see in conclusion, I've been like way too far, but I want to get this out. There's not much left here. When some people, when some people, not all, when some talk about progressive sanctification, they mean progressive righteousness. They mandate an increasing measure gaining some standard of righteousness by continued obedience to the law of God and a decreasing measure of sin to better their personal righteousness. All this contributing to the criteria on that final day to see their personal holiness was enough without which they say none shall see the Lord. Their plea is going to match that idea. In conclusion, What we need to do in now and in the future, and I don't have them listed for you. Maybe that's a separate message. We need to ask some serious questions that require honest answers about some of these things. Some absolute stuff, not relative questions. Like, does God actually require perfection? These are the things we've got to get out there and answer. Because as you go along, all this garbage we've been exposing starts falling off. And people say, it can't mean that. I understand now. It can't mean that. And we'll get to the bottom of something. We'll get to the last root questions that'll get to the bottom of something. These questions need to be answered with certainty. Not some subjective opinion or general relativity that leaves still someone kind of uncertain. You know, we've got to answer these things. And these questions have to, as they relate to who God is and what he demands, who man is and how man can't fulfill those demands, and who Christ is and how that Christ fulfilled all those demands. That's gonna be the gospel, by the way. Who God is, what he demands, who man is, he can't meet those demands, and who Christ is, how he meets those demands. These questions are related to all that, and they settle the issues so that you can make your calling and election sure. There's no guesswork. What turned me around to do this message instead of part 34 of the Chosen in Christ series was re-watching a video by John MacArthur in a Q&A after a conference, I believe it was, concerning assurance when this young girl named Joy asked, crying, about how can she be assured of her salvation? And in over seven minutes, he didn't talk about the cross. He pointed her inside to her desires. over seven minutes. It got me fired up to do this message. There's a lot of other stuff connected with it too, but that was the main thing. But those are my thoughts this week connected. I hope I didn't wear you out with repetitiveness. I hope I brought some new, fresh things to think about. There are so many warnings in scripture of this stuff starting and festering. You know, there's been a history even here of things, of people that rolled through here doing different things and having different ideas and they're not here, right? There's one in particular that's not here for a different reason. He talked about maybe coming back, it's a transportation issue, but he rolled in here a few years back. He had a beanie on, whatever that Jewish thing is. And I said, what are you doing with that on? And, you know, I cared for him. I knew how to handle him. I wasn't going to hurt him. But I had to just right off the bat, the first second, I had to say, what are you doing with that on? What is that doing for you? He was trying to compel Gentiles to live like the Jews. It didn't last long. And he admitted that it was stupid, you know. But it was a growth thing for him. And we've seen things like that. Maybe not that blatant, you know. Oh, it might be more subtle. It might be, you know, as I look around, I'm looking for crosses real quick before I make this statement. You see a lot of religious people wear these, this big bling, you know. I saw James White wearing one recently, big old cross. I never did understand the cross thing, but the idea is things come out in different subtleties. People do things for different reasons, and we don't know until it comes out of their mouth. We don't know why. We ought not judge by appearance, because if we just see something appearance-wise, we don't judge unless we ask what's coming out of their heart, out of their mouth, and they say why. And we help them. We don't, you know, clobber them. Anything else?