Good morning. As Jack mentioned, Joel, Dinah had been gone to Israel, and they got back Friday evening, but we didn't expect you to whip up a sermon between then and now. So we'll expect you to be back in full force next week. So I was talking with Danny actually a couple of weeks ago, just trying to deconflict, potentially deconflict sermon topics. There were three of us preaching in a row, and I thought it would be bad if two of us were kind of leaning towards the same area. So I said, Danny, what are you going to be preaching on? And he said, well, it's going to be Mother's Day. I'm going to be preaching out of Proverbs 31 on the virtuous lady, virtuous woman. I said, oh, that's good. And then I think he said, what are you preaching? I said, well, I'm preaching on the scariest passage in the Bible. And Michael McEvoy immediately said, Matthew 7? I said, yes, Matthew 7. And then yesterday, or yesterday, last week, we were here, and I mentioned that, and Jack said, Matthew, and I'm guessing he meant seven as well. So many people recognize this as potentially the scariest passage. When I mentioned that to Jill, though, she said, you know, perhaps it was Ephesians 5.22, which is, wives submit to your husbands even as tend to the Lord. So, yeah, so we're gonna be talking about what I consider to be the scariest passage. And others also consider it to be the scariest passage. When I was looking actually for this background image, I just started out with a Google search on images for depart from me, I never knew you. And if you can see all the images there and the number of them that say something about the scariest words in existence, the saddest words you'll ever hear. So, why do folks consider this potentially a scary passage or a passage to be dealt with with fear and trembling? Well, imagine the atheist who dies, and I'm with seven plus billion people on earth, I'm sure one just did die, and is now in the presence of the Lord. While he may or she may be shocked that he's in the presence of the Lord, he's not gonna be shocked with what would come from that. That's a general message that's preached. Jesus is the only way and if you're not following Jesus, then you're gonna be in eternity in hell. Or imagine perhaps the Buddhist or the Hindu or the Muslim all come face to face with their creator and they come to find out that Christ is who he says he was. Christ is the Redeemer. He's the way, the truth, and the life. And they're told to go off into hell. Now imagine the so-called Christian who It meets Christ and believes everything is squared away and yet he or she is told, depart from me for I never knew you. That's what makes this a scary passage. So we're gonna unpack that and work our way through that. So if you have your Bible, go ahead and take it out. We're gonna be in Matthew 7. And the setting for this, the larger context, is that this is the Sermon on the Mount. And if you're familiar with the Sermon on the Mount, the overall key takeaway, while there are some others in there, Jesus is peeing away at the law. And more specifically, the current understanding of the law. The Pharisees had turned God's law, which was meant to humble folks, teach them that they cannot keep the law, and point them towards himself. They had turned it into a way of keeping the commoners down. They had taken God's laws and replaced them and wrapped them around a bunch of man's laws. And we call that legalism. And so his key message through the Sermon on the Mount is that? Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes of the Pharisees you will know why is entering the kingdom We see him talking about those who are poor in spirit those who are meek those who are humble those who are peacemakers He even goes against the Pharisees understanding of all he says you heard that it said that you shouldn't murder I want to say to you don't even be angry. You've heard that you said don't commit adultery. I'm gonna say don't even lust You've heard that if you're gonna divorce, you gotta give a certificate of divorce. And I wanna say, unless for cause of adultery, you are causing that woman to commit adultery. And so all through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is poking at the current understanding of the law and how the system of the laws has taken place. And right before our passage, you'll notice he says, wide is the path that leads to destruction and many will enter through it. But narrow is the gate that leads to life and few will find it. So that's the context into which our passage is found. And so we're gonna see towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is gonna talk about what it means to be a true follower of Christ. and how that is different from what we see. All right, so for our text, it's gonna start out into both faults leadership, this is gonna be our first little section, and then we're gonna talk about faults converts. So let's read our text, and then we'll talk about it. So Matthew 7 verse 15 says, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs, from thistles are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. All right, so if you look at your notes, you'll see how we're gonna be proceeding today. We're gonna talk about false prophets. We could say false leaders or false teachers. And then we're gonna continue on with false converts, and then we're going to apply those and conclude. All right, false leaders, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Now, most of the time I think we think of sheep's clothing, we have this idea in our mind of a wolf that's wrapped to make it look like a sheep. But according to John MacArthur, and I just had to take his word, this is not the idea that's being conveyed here. Because this would be a wolf in sheep's skin, and he says wolf in sheep's clothing. And apparently shepherds during this time would actually wear garments made from the wool from their own flock. That makes sense, right? Because one, it's an abundant resource. You're the shepherd, you have the wool there. But two, that wool smells like that flock, and that flock would smell the shepherd's clothing, and it would trust and accept it. So given that, Jesus is saying, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing or the clothing that would appear to you as though they are a shepherd, but, inwardly are ravenous wolves. So the truth is that they are ravenous wolves. And that word ravenous in the Greek is harpagus, which means ravenous. That's how it translates. That's the definition. It can also mean to swindle or to rob or to devour. And it speaks of this insatiable hunger that wants more, that will recklessly go after what it wants. And this is a good picture for those in Jerusalem because the wolves were the primary predators that they had to deal with for the flocks. If there was a lone sheep that had lost its way and there was a wolf around, you bet that that sheep would be dinner that night. And just curiously, I was watching some YouTube, and one of the suggested things that came up for me was an expose on Peter Popoff. Do y'all know this name? I had never heard of him, but he was a televangelist. And he was exposed on Johnny Carson back probably when I was either still in diapers or before, but he had this ministry where he would have a, apparently had a earpiece in his ear and he would have these people fill out prayer requests. And you know the game where he's acting like he's healing a bunch of people and all the time bringing in loads and loads and loads of money. And some folks figured this out. They did a recording of the transmission into his ear, synced it up with what he was doing on television, and exposed it on Johnny Carson. So it's out there. It's pretty interesting. He's back at it again today. And he will sell you some miracle water and give you instructions on how to apply it. But I think he is a perfect picture of what Jesus is talking about here. He has dressed himself up to look as though he is a shepherd of the flock, and yet his insatiable hunger, his desire for worldly gain is causing him to destroy this flock and to devour them. So how can we know who are the real leaders and who are the false leaders? What Jesus tells us. "'You will know them by their fruits. "'Grapes are not gathered from thornbushes, "'nor figs from thistles, are they? "'So every good tree bears good fruit, "'but the bad tree bears bad fruit. "'A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, "'nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.'" So Jesus says no one gathers fruit from a thornbush on the left, or a thistle tree on the right. Now, can you imagine trying to reach in there and get some fruit? You're going to get cut up. Something Jesus may have in mind, we don't necessarily know, is that you could potentially put a grape or a fig on one of these, pierce it through, right? And in a sense, that's what these false leaders do. They have, at least from a distance, some measure of the appearance of fruit. But when you get up close to them, what do you find out? That fruit is not real. It's not part of this tree. And what's actually there are these thorns and these thistles. Who loves pears? Who likes to eat pears? Who has ever planted a Bradford pear tree so you could eat pears from it? So even trees that aren't thorns and thistles, they don't produce necessarily good fruit to eat. This Bradford pear tree cannot produce a pear that you would want to eat because that's not the type of tree it is. And so Jesus's point is a good tree, a good pear tree is gonna produce a pear, that's its nature. And a bad tree is gonna produce bad fruit. And when we look at the fruit of these individuals, it will tell whether they are a good tree or a bad tree. All right, so what types of bad fruit can there be? And surprisingly, if you're a doctrine and theological kind of thinking guy like I am, a lot of ink in the Bible, is given over to false prophets and knowing them by not their doctrine, but by how they live their lives out. So one of the ways that we can know bad fruit is just the character of the person that we are around. These aren't in your notes, but I will just read them for you. Titus 1.16. says they profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. Jude three and four, Jude's whole book is about apostates. And it's a good short read, but it's very dense. And he talks about how these apostates promise, but they fail to deliver. And at the beginning of his book, he says, beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all handed down to the saints. Four, certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, and he's gonna give us three characteristics of these people, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. What's he saying? We're gonna know them by their, how they act, their character. Paul in 1 Corinthians says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? This is in 6, 9, and 10. Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor feminine, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And the word swindlers there is our word ravenous. It's the same Greek word, 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 10. James 2, 18, but someone may well say, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works. And so the repeated... admonition in Scripture is that if we see someone whose life trajectory does not reveal a life trajectory that's in accordance with the Word, they should be considered a false leader or a false convert. You'll hear Joel often say from this pulpit, salvation is by grace through faith alone, but a saving grace is never alone. A saving grace will always change that person from a, let's say a Bradford pear tree to a true tree. And now we're gonna have true pears being produced. And we're gonna see that fruit as God works more and more through their life. So, we can see bad fruit of a false leader in their character. Secondly, we can see their bad fruit in their creed. So, potentially in how they deal with the Word of God and their doctrine. Paul in the book of Galatians is repealing this idea that the Judaizers had given these new Christians that they must return to the law for true salvation. point with this was the dietary laws and circumcision. And Paul is so frustrated with these guys, he says, I wish they would mutilate themselves rather than distort the gospel. And in his opening paragraph, he says that if an angel or I or anyone else should come and give you a different gospel than what you have been told, let them be accursed. And so Paul is giving him a measure by which you can determine if they are false, leader if they have this false gospel or a false creed. Finally, the third way that we can know bad fruit from a false leader is their converts. If they fail to produce folks who are living in accordance with the word, that's another indication that they could be false converts. 2 Peter 2, 1-2 says, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies Even denying the master who brought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves, and here's our key verse, many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned. So these are three ways, and there may be more, that you can see the bad fruit of a false leader, their character, their creed, and their converts. So what's to be done with false leaders? Jesus says, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And if you think that sounds an awful lot ominous like hell, then I think it is too. I think Jesus is saying that the trees that don't produce are thrown away. And this sermon is not focused on hell in particular, but I believe that's what Jesus is saying. He's saying these false teachers, they will be done away with and they will go into everlasting punishment. And so here's the admonition. So then you will know them by their fruits. You will know them by your fruits. And I want to maybe step out of this sermon and just parenthetically say the beginning of this chapter in seven, you can look up there. What's the beginning of this chapter say? Do not judge. And do you know that that has become the most often quoted verse in our society, do not judge. Now look at our verse right here. So then you will know them by their fruits. Jesus is calling us to judge at some level, right? And there are at least three different ways the word or the idea of judging is used in the Bible. One of them is in verse one of chapter seven, which is this hypocritical judging, this judging where you're trying to puff yourself up. But there's also this discerning judgment that we see in verse 20. And then there's an eternal judgment that Jesus does, which we saw in verse 19. So in chapter seven, we have three different ways that the Bible talks about judging. So don't be taken aback by this, do not judge phrase. And if someone says it to you, you can just ask them, are you judging me for judging? And see how they respond. But Jesus tells us to judge, to be discerning, to look at the fruits of those who are leading us and to discern, are they true or false leaders? Alright, so those are our false leaders. Now we're moving on to our false converts. Jesus says, will enter. So Jesus moves on from false teachers to false converts. And while the false converts may not be described as being wolves in sheep's clothing and having this ravenous hunger, I think it's safe to say that they could also be described as being these bad trees, because they're also not gonna have this good fruit, because if they're false converts, they're still gonna be producing this bad fruit in their lives. About 50% of Americans today, by a recent poll, would say that they are born again evangelical Christians. 50%. And I would think, at least me, I'm thinking clearly this can't be the case. If half of us are following hard after God and are born again, I would think our country would be headed in a better direction. So, how do folks get deluded? How can we be deluded into thinking that we are the true ones? Because he says, not everyone who says to me will enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, I think there's four ways that we can be self-deluded into a false conversion. One, a false doctrine of assurance. I think many well-meaning leaders and pastors, when folks come to them with concerns or doubts, may question them about the time and place that they came to know Christ or profess to know Christ. And they give them this false assurance because they may say, well, you said the sinner's prayer. You asked Jesus in your heart. We baptized you. you are a believer. And so they count on these actions, which outwardly speak of an inward change, but don't necessarily provide proof of that inward change. So they may have a false assurance based on some outward action. Two, they may just fail to examine themselves. Second Corinthians 13, five, Paul says, test yourselves to see if you're in the faith, examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test. So Paul's leaving open the possibility that you examine yourself and you find I'm not a true believer. Third, an inordinate concentration on religious activity. You can think of folks who just go from one activity to another activity, their lives are filled with doing things, but they never stop for contemplation. It reminded me of Revelation when Jesus says about the church at Ephesus, you've done this thing good, you've done this thing good, you've done this thing good, you're doing all these things good, but I have this against you, you've left your first love. Instead of focusing on Christ and our relationship with Him, and out of that being active, they're focusing on the activities themselves. And fourth, which I think is a very common one in our society and across the world, it's this good works exchange, or a fair balance, this belief that if I do good things, if I give blood, I mention that because one time I saw this news clip of this guy who had given gallons and gallons and gallons of blood, and they were asking him about it, and he said, well, I just hope that all this good I've done, God's gonna notice it. And I'm like, what a empty hope on that day when he meets Christ. So the hope is that we'd do all these good works, God would offset or allow those to balance out our bad works. Oftentimes people who have this false idea will say, well, I'm no Hitler. And that may be true, but you also know Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the standard. And if we're honest with ourselves, we're much closer to Hitler than we are to Jesus Christ, right? Because we all have this evil in us. The Bible says that our heart is wicked beyond belief. Who can know it? So, four different ways that we can self-delude. A false doctrine of assurance, a failure to examine oneself, an inordinate concentration on activity, and this idea is false doctrine of a good works exchange. What's Jesus say is the true mark of evidence. The true mark is one who does the will of the Father. the one who does the will of the Father. This doesn't mean that we're talking about sinless perfection, but we're talking about a life that as a trajectory, the overall trajectory of that life is pointed at doing the will of the Father, being one with the Father, being in His word, pursuing Him. None of our leaders would say that we're sinless. I'm not sinless, but As I mature, I see that my sin is less and less pleasurable, and the consequences, the brokenness, are more and more heartbreaking. I'm broken over my sin, but not enough. I'm not broken enough. And so then as I mature, I hope to be more and more broken over the sin that's in my life. That would be a mark of someone who is pursuing God. All right, well, Jesus says, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name, listen to these, cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles. These folks have false assurance, because you can look at the things that they're listing. They're listing their deeds. Lord, Lord, Did we not do this thing? Lord, Lord, did we not do this thing? Lord, Lord, did we not do these things? As evidence or as proof that they should be... in the kingdom of God. Now, you may be saying, well, Michael, didn't you just say that the evidence of a good life is one that is doing the will of God? And yes, but doing those things does not assure you. It's when we do those things out of a changed life, when we have changed the tree, so to speak, from the bad tree to the good tree, and that good tree is making that good fruit, then that is the evidence that we are converted. John MacArthur has this to say, he says, and active and diligent in religious work, even in the Lord's own name, they are incredulous that they are standing before Christ to be judged. Even at that time, they'll address Christ as Lord and speak to him in desperation with the greatest respect and sincerity. Their words and their works will seem impressive to them, but their lives will not support the claim of their lips. In Luke 6 46, Jesus says, why do you call me Lord, Lord? And do not do what I say. It's not the one who simply claims the Lord, but the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven, who is saved. The assurance of obedience to the word of God. If you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. So these folks are trusting in false things. And there's, you know, each person's story is different. but you can be trusting in false hope and be told on that last day, depart from me. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So in contrast to their false assurance, their true condition is that Christ never knew them. They were never known by Christ. And obviously these folks know Christ at some level. They're calling him Lord, Lord. But they don't know him on the level that they need to know him. They don't know him as Savior. And Christ says that they are workers of lawlessness. And the consequence was for them to depart from Christ. All right, so how do we apply all this? So you know I, just got my degree in philosophy. So you knew there had to be some philosophy in here, right? So this is a picture of Socrates, and it's probably pretty accurate because it's based on a sculpture that was done during his lifetime. But Socrates is known as the father of philosophy. He's the first one to kind of start putting it all together. And during his time, There are a lot of wars in what is present-day Greece. A lot of city-states were going to war against each other. Athens versus Troas versus Spartan. If you're a student of that era, you know this. And so Socrates sees all these men coming up and going from one activity to another activity to another activity and going out to war and dying. And he makes this famous statement that is still with us today, that the unexamined life is not worth living. The unexamined life is not worth living. And his point is that if we go from activity to activity, activity, activity, activity, and we never pause to reflect on what does it mean to be human, where should we go, what should we do, what's the meaning of life? then that life is not worth living. And how does that apply to our message? Well, in Christianity, just like one of those false assurances is if we move from activity to activity within our Christian circles, and yet we never pause to examine ourselves and ask ourselves, am I the real thing? Do I really believe the things that I believe are really true? and we reflect on our salvation, and we go, when I meet Christ, am I gonna be told to depart? Am I gonna be in an eternity without him? If we don't pause every now and then and reflect, then I think we're not doing what scripture tells us to, to test ourselves. Since that statement, someone has come along and said, the unlived life is not worth examining. And that's the flip side of it, right? And I think we all have these two, you know, if you're just gonna sit cloistered up forever, and you're never going to go out and experience life, but you're just gonna stay scholarly and read and examine, examine, examine, that life is also not worth examining. So we have in Christianity, I think we have this obligation not to live in doubt, but to also not live in just pure activity. It's this balance. And I would say for the Christian church in America today, we're probably over on the activity side. We're probably not on the contemplation side. And so that's what I'm trying to do is to bring us back over to the, we would pause and consider, are we truly one of his? And I was thinking about this as I was preparing this message. This is probably the third message like this that I've brought with this kind of general. outlook or this general idea, this general message as a sermon. And someone may chop that up to my Baptist upbringing, because I was telling, I think, someone today that in my Baptist church growing up, every sermon ended with an altar call and every sermon ended with the gospel. But I don't think that's the real reason. I think it's my own testimony. my own story, because I know what happened to me. So let me share that with you, and you can kind of get an insight into why I'm so concerned. And my own testimony starts with communion, and I was probably four. And we were having communion, and the plate passed by, and of course, you know, as a four-year-old, what do you want? You want to know why you're not getting communion as well. And I was a very good child back then. But I was upset and was disciplined and brought home. And once everything got settled down, I was like, why could I not take this? And my parents were doing the best they could. So I'm going to give you the true story. But this is not to malign my parents, because they're doing what they were told. They're dealing with the tools that they had in the tool bag. But they said, well, because you're not a member of the church, because we were a closed communion church. I said, well, how do I become a member of the church? Y'all are members. Y'all are members. Let me become a member. They're like, well, you have to be saved. I want to do that. Sign me up for that. And so, well, you have to ask Jesus in your heart. Okay, so I say this prayer, I get baptized, and I'm a member of the church, and at this point in time, I'm taking communion. And probably most of you who are discerning would guess this is not a true conversion experience. And at about nine, I think something's not right. And I go back and I talk to my parents, and again, they're doing the best that they do what they had been taught. And I, you know, recite this prayer, and I really, really mean it this time, right? And so that I'm re-baptized. So from there, I live a normal life, a good life, from the outside, a perfect life, straight A's, you know, doing all these other activities. But deep behind the scenes, there's sin. deep sin that's creeping in, and sin that's starting to rock me to my core. Thankfully, it rocks me to the core, because at 17, I wake up and I say, something is wrong. Something's not right. I knew the gospel, and what was I trusting in? I was trusting in the fact that I had done these actions. I had said this prayer. In fact, at that time when I heard a sermon or a lesson on the gospel, I got angry. I'm like, we already know this stuff. Let's get on to the meat and potatoes. And so if you're angry at a sermon over the gospel, maybe that should be a warning sign to you. And I was trusting I would be in the back and I would think, yeah, I said this, I did this, I did this, I meant it, I should be good or I should be good. I was trusting in the wrong thing. And there came to a point where I was just broken and I was crying out for God to forgive me, for God to have grace on me, a sinner. And that point at 17 is when things changed. I believe I went from a bad Bradford pear tree to a good fruit tree, and God started changing my life and my trajectory. And so from that experience, I can see how, thankfully, God woke me up. But potentially, And given the numbers in our congregation, one of you may be trusting in the wrong thing and may not truly have Christ. And if that's you, I would ask you just to reconsider and to cry out to him. I'll tell you what I tell my children. If I could do it for you, I would, but I can't. This is a conversation between you and your Savior, and you need to cry out to Him for mercy and for grace for your sins. Well, in conclusion, Michael McAvoy and I, McAvoy, we're talking, and we're talking about potentially getting, we were talking about the idea, not that we're gonna go off and get verse tattoos, but just the idea of verse tattoos. And Michael had a problem. He said that his problem was that there wasn't one single verse that he liked enough, potentially, that he would get tattooed. But my problem, I said, well, my problem is my favorite verse is Galatians 5.6. And it says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. I was like, I don't know that I would want that ever tattooed on me. It's an awkward opening verse, but I think it captures the whole of the Christian life. It's not whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, a male or a female, a slave or a master. All of that doesn't matter. The Christian life is faith, a faith that works because of love. And if you can say you're living a life that is grounded in faith, a faith that's working motivated out of love. You're not working for salvation, but you're working because of your salvation. That's a life that's pleasing to God. So I want to ask you, how are you living? Are you living a life that's faith working through love? Or are you going from activity to activity, activity to activity, and you're counting on that one time you walked down the aisle. I think many of my family are counting on that one time they walked down the aisle. Yes, I have done that. I completed that. If you were to stand before the gates of heaven and the father would say, why should I let you in? And your response is, I did these things. It's probably a bad response. Even if that is, I said this prayer, I got baptized, I went to church. If on the other hand, your response is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, or rock of ages, clef for me, let me hide myself in thee. Those are the types of response that show a heart that is wholly dependent on Christ and his work. Let's stand. We're gonna be dismissed. I'll remind you about our, Potluck afterwards. But if you're concerned, please come talk to me, or Joel, or Jack, or any of us. We'd love to talk to you. At 17, I had to tell folks, yeah, this is the third time, but I think this one's real. There's no shame, even in an old person saying, you know what, I got it wrong. But this is right, I need that true repentance because it's not worth an eternity to live in pride, okay? Joel, will you dismiss this?