All right. Thank you for being with us this morning for really kind of our last sermon on the Sermon on the Mount. We are going to have one more week next Sunday, which is kind of a postlude. It's going to be what happened next. So we're going to finish August with looking at the first few verses of Matthew 8. But for today, we're in Matthew 7. So if you would turn to Matthew 7 as we officially wrap up our study of the Sermon on the Mount this morning. It was all last summer, and it's been most of this summer, so it's good to finish this series, but I'm so thankful for what God has taught us along the way. A very convicting, encouraging sermon that Jesus taught and preached. Matthew 7, 21 through 27, you'll see in our bulletin, that's where we're gonna be today. And let me start off as you're turning there and finding your place, start off with a little story that kind of goes with where we're gonna go today. Years ago, and I mean a lot of years ago, I don't even know how many years, over 30 years ago, we had a young man in our youth group when I was a youth pastor. And he, He was a teller of tales, a spinner of yarns. He liked to make things up. I'm trying to be nice to this young guy. He was in junior high at the time when he first came into our youth group. And he liked to make things up. And he wasn't real smart because he would make stories up that were easily disprovable. And so he would say, hey, here's what he, he wanted people to think he was somebody who he wasn't. So he'd make up these stories about he could do this or he did that and I would say to him, I'd go, I would say, Bud, you didn't do that or you can't do that. Oh yeah, oh yeah, I can. And so when he got up into high school, we were at a gym one time, and this was kind of like him, this was the discipleship journey with this young man. So we were in a gym one time, we were all sitting around, we were kind of this gym night thing we had, and we're taking a break, we're all sitting around, and he was telling everybody how he could dunk a basketball. Well, he made the mistake of telling this while we were in a gym when there's basketballs everywhere. So I said, all right, you cannot dunk a basketball. I mean, this guy's vertical was probably a half an inch, if that. He just couldn't jump at all. Oh, yeah, yeah, I can dunk a basketball. I go, no, you cannot. He goes, yeah, OK. I said, OK. I got up, picked up a basketball. I said, come on. He goes, oh, yeah, I'll show you. He started walking. He goes, oh. No lie. But the point is, this young man wanted people to think that he was something that he wasn't. And this goes with our passage this morning, because this is how Jesus is going to land the plane, the Sermon on the Mount. Last week, if you remember, he had just explained that there's just one narrow road to heaven, and that's called Jesus Christ. And he said, there's a broad road that most people are on, and that's other ways that people will say you can get to heaven, other ways that up the mountain, that metaphor. There's only one road up the mountain to God, to heaven, and that's Jesus Christ. And he explained that there were false teachers who were gonna try to deceive and mislead people, that there are other ways to heaven, and those are lies. So Jesus lands the plane, this morning in our passage with a final sobering warning. He turns his attention from the false prophets to the false professors. And a professor, I don't mean a teacher, I mean somebody who's professing something that's true that's not true. And so this is a sobering warning because Jesus isn't, he's not, if they're, you know, you imagine this, they tell us the Sermon on the Mount was, maybe it was more like an amphitheater, kind of just this natural slope that people were sitting on and Jesus was teaching on the hillside here. As he's looking around the people on the hillside there, he's not looking at the pagan or the atheist or the obviously irreligious person that might have been sitting on the hillside that day. He's making eye contact with the religious people, with the devoutly religious people who have a facade of faith, and they seem to have faith, but it's a counterfeit faith. It's not real. And the reality is that not only can false teachers deceive about the way of salvation, people can also deceive themselves. This young man I was talking about, one of the dilemmas that we had in working with him is he would make things up so much. One of the discussions we had as youth leaders was, we think he really believes it. He had deceived himself on so many things so often that like, I don't think he knows he's lying. I think he really believes it. And that can happen with people. They can really, after they tell themselves so often that they're okay with God and they truly are Christians, maybe they can start to believe it. And even though they claim they're saved, they're really not. So this is a poignant and a sobering point in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is talking to the religious people, the good people. And he's saying, you're not okay. Let me give you some stats from our country. in 2024, according to a recent Gallup poll. So this is a poll of the population in general in America. 68% of Americans identify as Christians. And we all like go, okay, that's probably not accurate, but that's what the poll said. So 68% of people in America say they're Christians. But in that same poll, Only 45% of everybody surveyed said that their faith or religion was really not an important part of their life. Or 45% said religion is an important part of their life. So where over 2 thirds of the people say they're Christians, almost half say, but it's really not an important part of my life. And only 21% of those surveyed say they attend church every week. Another survey, Pew Research Survey, this one is from this year, 2024, in March, and this is just Christians. So this isn't the population, this is just a survey of people who say they're Christians. 33% say they seldom or never read the Bible. And of those 33% who seldom or never read their Bible, most of them, 70%, say that morality is relative, in that right or wrong depends on the situation. These are people who say they follow Christ. They claim to be on the narrow road. And so we have a dilemma, don't we? How can someone who professes to be a follower of Christ not want to be faithful in church? How can somebody who professes to be a follower of Christ not read their Bible, or even more, not believe their Bible, when it talks about right and wrong and morality? And so this is the dilemma, this is the situation that as Jesus is gonna wrap up the Sermon on the Mount, these are the people he's talking to. Not the pagan, not the heretic necessarily, but the person who claims that they're on the narrow road. But something's not lining up. Something is out of whack. And so in your bulletin there, There's a brief outline, two points that we're gonna look at and break down this passage. And first of all, we're gonna start with a warning against hollow words. Verses 21 through 23. Jesus teaches here, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one 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 in your name perform many miracles? And then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers. Jesus is warning people who talk about Jesus, who talk a good game, who sound spiritual, but their life doesn't back it up. their values, their priorities don't back it up. And they may do enough to convince others that they are truly born again, but they're not. They use words like Lord, Lord superficially, but he's not their Lord. They may have a religious air about them, but their allegiance isn't as Christ the King, it's to somebody else or something else. They may even claim moments of spectacular religious display. Didn't we do this? And so people like to trot out their resume. Yeah, but I did this, and I went on this trip, and I did that, and I did that, and I did that. But if you look at the passage, there's a key word there. People will say, didn't we? Not God, didn't you do this through us? But didn't we do these things? The pattern of their life, what's comfortable and what's normal for them is not doing the will of the Father in heaven. So there are these moments of like, okay, I clocked in here and I did this and I did this, but the pattern, the trajectory of their life isn't to do the will of the Father. And so this warning by Jesus applies to people who will say, Lord, Lord, but again, things aren't matching up. Their walk isn't matching their talk. And Jesus is making it clear here that it's not just enough to say the right words, if there's no evidence in the person's life that those words are true. Like my friend, he said, and if somebody didn't know him, they would've said, oh, that's cool, he can dunk. But there wasn't an evidence that would back that up. His walk didn't match his talk. And that's the way it is with many people who profess to be on the narrow road. How they're living isn't matching up to what they're saying. To confirm that there's been a change that's taken place in their life. And then one day, if that's the case, Jesus is gonna say to them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers. And so scripture teaches us that true conversion and obedience to the word are inseparable. You can't separate those out. You can't say I'm a true convert to Jesus Christ and not live an obedient life. The obedience doesn't save you, it's a confirmation that you've been saved. And scripture teaches us you can't separate those. And polling of our country and people who profess to be Christian shows that people think you can. I can say the right words, but I can live the way that I want. It could be about me. And the Bible says no. And Jesus warns here, no. And someday you're gonna cry out, Lord, Lord, and I'm gonna say, I don't know you. True conversion and obedience to the word of God are inseparable. Let me give you some passages that would show that. James 2, verse 17. Faith by itself, if it's not accompanied by action, is dead. And then verse 26, same chapter. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. 1 John 2, verses 3 and 4. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, oh, I know him, but doesn't do what he commands is a liar. And the truth is not in that person. You can't separate faith in Christ, true conversion, from obedience to Christ, to the Word of God. Now, time for a caveat here. Does that mean that if you're saved, you're gonna live a perfectly sinless life, that you're always gonna bat 1,000? No. No, but it means that your heart's desire will be to bat 1,000. Your heart's desire will to be holy, will be to be set apart, will be to live in obedience to the word of God. And so I wrote my notes here. If a person is truly saved, it doesn't mean that they're gonna get it right all the time, but there's this holy frustration with ourselves and with our sin. It's like, ah. Until we get to heaven, we're just on that journey of sanctification where we're growing, and we should grow. We should get better about our sin struggles and all that. But until we get to heaven, it's not gonna go away. But there should be this person who's truly born again isn't okay, isn't comfortable, that's not normal. There's this holy frustration like, ah, I want to get this right. I want to do what God wants me to do. 1 John 1, 8 and 9, the apostle John, who we learned about in Sunday school, talks about this. He says, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves. We're only kidding ourselves, we might say. and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. And so here's how we explain this paradox here at Grace Church. I've done this before. Even when a Christian doesn't obey the word of God, they want to obey the word of God. Even when a Christian who's truly born again falls and fails and sins, then doesn't obey the Word of God, then they want to obey the Word of God and confess their sins. That's an indication of somebody who's truly born again. So if you're wondering, I don't know if I'm saved, do you have conviction over sin? Does it bother you? Is there this holy frustration or are you just kind of comfortable? This is kind of like life and I'm okay in this place of not obeying what the scripture says. There ought to be sirens and lights going off, like something's wrong. And so somebody who's born again, our words aren't just hollow platitudes. They're backed up by this life trajectory of obedience to desire to do the will of the Father in heaven, Matthew 7, 21. There's more on this because of time, I'm not gonna go over everything here, but there are more evidences in scripture besides what we just talked about here. There's an article in Tomorrow's Grace Happenings. If you don't get that, go to gracechurchspringfield.org and sign up for Grace Happenings. And there's, I linked to an article, evidences from scripture that somebody is truly born again. I'd encourage you to read that. If this morning you're like, ah, I don't know. Maybe you're not. Don't kid yourself. Don't be my friend and start and deceive yourself. Look at the word. Like these things ought to be true of me if I'm truly on that narrow road. And don't lie to yourself, the stakes are high. The stakes are eternal. And if right now the Holy Spirit's like kind of doing that poke in the chest, don't ignore that. And again, if you need help with that, tomorrow there's a good article and kind of like a checklist. These things are true of somebody who's truly born again. Number two on your outline there, Jesus next is gonna give a warning against a shallow foundation. Verses 24 through 27. He says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew, and beat against the house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell with a great crash. So next, Jesus here is gonna be warned of those whose lives are not built on the foundation of Christ the rock, and not built on the foundation of the words of Christ, the word of God. And so, obviously, you can tell by this little parable here, the houses in this story are metaphors for two men's lives. And what's interesting about this, and I didn't really realize it until I was studying it this past week, On all outward appearances, they were identical. There's no indication here that one was shabby looking and one was, these men are building their lives on two different, drastically different foundations. And they look the same on the surface. Maybe they both went to the same church. Maybe they both sang the same songs. Maybe they both served on a ministry team, and maybe they both gave tithes and offerings, and maybe they both knew a lot about the Bible. And they both, according to this parable, they both heard the same gospel and teachings of Jesus. And then, therefore, they both built their lives after hearing what Jesus had to say. And both seemed to have confidence that what they were building was gonna be okay. There's no indication in the story that the man who didn't build on Jesus wasn't concerned about, he thought what he was doing was gonna be okay in the end. But Jesus says, one is wise and one is foolish. The word foolish there, the Greek word there is moro, M-O-R-O, from which we get our English word, moron. It's in the Bible. The foolish man, instead of being wise and digging down deep and establishing his life on Christ, the foolish man just wanted a life that appeared to be established on Christ. He wanted a life that looked like he was a true believer without the reality of being a true believer. His life wasn't based on Christ and His word. His faith was counterfeit and it was superficial. And in the end, his life was based on himself. Well, the great revealer in this story is the storm that will eventually come in into our lives. The great revealer is the storm. The rain came down and the streams rose and the winds blew. Jesus says, storms reveal whether our foundation is truly on Christ or not. Old Testament prophets, it's interesting, they would sometimes use a storm of God's justice or judgment as a metaphor. They would use a storm as a metaphor for how God was gonna work. in people's lives, especially calling them to judgment. Ezekiel did that, Ezekiel 13. Ezekiel in this passage that I'm gonna read here is specifically talking about the false teachers that were misleading and deceiving Israel. He says, because they lead people astray, saying peace when there is no peace. And so listen to the similar analogy here, metaphor here with construction. When a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash. Therefore, tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, God says, and I will send hailstones hurtling down and violent winds will burst forth. So this is the sober part here. Many commentators think that primarily the storm that Jesus is referring to in Matthew 7 is the storm of God's final judgment. It's the storm that every human being who's ever been born will eventually face. God's final judgment. And it will be the storm that will ultimately reveal if a person truly has trusted Christ as Savior, or if they've been just living a flimsy, counterfeit life. And so the question, and we'll revisit this question at the end, that I have to throw in here, will you be able to stand in that storm of God's judgment that you're gonna face someday? And the wrath of God towards your sin, will you be able to stand in that storm? This idea of storm that everybody has to face reminds me of the Passover. If you remember the story of Passover, the Israelite people are in bondage and slavery in Egypt, and God comes and he's gonna deliver his people and free them. And the night, really the night before they left, the final straw, the final plague was the death angel who was gonna go over the land. And the firstborn son, the firstborn animal, the firstborn everything, that night was gonna be slaughtered by God, killed by God, unless The only people who would be spared are those who had blood of a lamb applied to the doorpost of the house, which is the picture of the cross. Every home experienced that storm that night of the death angel, but only those who had blood of the lamb were spared the destruction and death. And those who refused the blood weren't spared. But I think also in the meantime, I think Jesus' words about this storm also refer to the storms that can hit us in this life, whether it be an illness or a job loss or job difficulty or marriage problems or kid problems or financial problems or whatever the problem. Storms are the great revealer. And I would suggest this morning that these storms are the gracious mercies of God. Because if you've built your life on anything but Jesus Christ, it's in these storms in this world that you find out that you don't have everything that you need, that you're lacking. And you realize that someday you're gonna come up short. And for the Christian, I think these storms are also gracious mercies, because they're what cause us to lean into the Father even more. and experience His love and peace and His companionship. And as the storms rage about us, we know in just a new way that we wouldn't know if we were never in a storm just what God can do for us, because when we're weak, He's strong, right? We get to know Him and His love in a deeper way in these storms. And so how tragic it would be to get to that final storm the final judgment of God, and you realize what's happening, and you cry out, Lord, Lord, and the only thing that you hear back is, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers. Because the truth is, it's easy to fool your friends, it's easy to fool your pastor, it's easy to fool yourself. All you have to do is learn the right lingo, a few catchphrases, show up once in a while, serve nominally, and just kind of fit in. And there's a lot of churches in America today that are full of folks who walked an aisle, who repeated a prayer, settled into a chair, but never really were truly born again. Maybe it was to please a parent. Maybe it was to please your family. Maybe it was for the kudos and attaboys Maybe it was just the path of least resistance as you were growing up. But you never truly trusted Christ as Savior. John MacArthur's got a, I keep using the word sobering this morning, that's the only word I, I can't think of another one that, because this all is. MacArthur has a great quote about this sobering truth. This is really good. The greatest problem in evangelism is not discipleship, he says, it's conversion. Discipleship is hardest when conversion is the easiest, because easy conversion is frequently no conversion. The unconverted are indeed hard to disciple, whereas those who have truly come to Christ are eager to learn from his word and associate with his people. The wise, in Jesus' story, the truly born again, want to be in the word. They want to be in church. They want to pray. They want to do the work and build their life on the thing that will last and will stand, not only the storms of this life, but the ultimate storm, God's final judgment. So again, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you this morning, will you be able to stand in that final judgment? And you can only answer a confident yes to that if you've received Christ as your Lord and Savior. You truly trust in Him alone to save you from your sins. The blood of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God has been applied to your life. That's your protection. And as you stand in that storm of God's final judgment, the reason that you can stand there not harmed by God's judgment, the wrath. Hebrews 12 says that our God is a consuming fire. And the only reason that we can stand there unharmed and free is because of the righteousness of Christ that's been imputed to us. Because we're standing there, the way I picture it, I don't know if this is gonna be happening or not, but I'm gonna be standing there holding Jesus' hand, probably shaking. Because I know what I deserve. And Jesus is gonna stand there. He's with me. And you can forgive him because of what I did for him. Can you stand that? Can you stand in that storm? Can you stand in that consuming fire? Because it's coming. And the only way that's gonna go over the top of your head is if you stand in the righteousness of Christ. Because of His blood that He shed for you. And a final word for those of us who are saved. It's possible for us who truly are saved, as we live in this fallen world, to begin building our lives, putting our stock into something other than the Lord and His word. our priorities kind of shift over time, away from things of the Lord, and pretty soon we're building a life on things instead of Christ, and ultimately on self instead of Christ. So I think this morning, we're gonna sing a song and we'll be done. I think this morning we all have an opportunity for commitment. Maybe for you it's for the first time. and maybe you need to pray, Jesus, I want you to save me. I am a lost sinner. Someday I'm gonna stand in that storm and I'm in trouble. I've never really, truly asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior, to forgive my sins. And when I stand before you someday, I wanna stand unharmed in the storm. Then maybe if you're a believer, and the foundation that you've been building on as of late in your life is shifting sand, and you need to pray, Father, I confess my sin, and this morning I'm recommitting my life to you. I wanna build my life on the thing when the storms come that's not gonna fall. It's not gonna fall with a crash. I wanna build my home and my marriage and my kids, I wanna build it on you. And so if you would, let's stand. We're gonna sing a song as we wrap it up. But let me pray for you. So if you would, bow your heads, close your eyes, and let's pray this together. Father, we thank you for your word, and these are heavy, heavy words from our Savior, Jesus Christ, and they're heavy because they're true. But the truth of the matter at the end of the day, Father, you tell us truth because you love us. And you tell us to build our lives on the rock of Christ Jesus because you love us. And that's the best possible life we can have in this world, is building our lives on Christ. So Father, help us to see this truth as not limiting us in any way, but just the freedom that we have in the forgiveness of our sins. And help us to see the love that you have for us in these words from our Savior, Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray for those folks who are in the room this morning, who this morning, they know for sure that they're in trouble. They're not gonna be able to stand in that storm. Father, may today be the day of their salvation. They confess their sin and they ask Jesus Christ to save them this morning. We ask that you would do that in them this morning. Save lost souls. And Father, I pray for those of us in the room who are your children, who do know Christ as Savior, in this life we shift and we veer all the time into places we shouldn't be. May today be a new start, recommitting ourselves. We wanna build our lives on Christ and the solid rock, the foundation of the Scriptures. Help us to do that by your grace and your mercy as well. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's sing this song together. ♪ Worthy of every song we could ever sing ♪