Warning to Professing Christians

Introduction: The Signpost of Matthew 7:21

0:00 As I indicated this morning, we will be taking up again tonight one of those texts that I have gathered together under the title of Simple Signpost to the Celestial City, texts which highlight fundamental gospel truths, texts which point us to the way of life and salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. And I also indicated this morning that our signpost for tonight would be taken from a section of Matthew's gospel

0:42 somewhere between Matthew 7.13 and the end of the chapter. And were it appropriate, and did we have the time, it would be interesting, to see how many of you thought that the signpost would be verses 13 and 14, or perhaps verse 14, or perhaps others thought, well, the signpost may be verse 19, following on from the theme of last Lord's Day. Others perhaps may have thought that the signpost would be this analogy that Jesus gives between the wise and the foolish,

1:24 the foolish man, the one who hears and does the words of Christ, thereby builds upon a rock, and the foolish who merely hears but does not do them, and is like one who builds upon the sand. But if in your mind you thought that the signpost would be comprised of the words of verse 21, you made the right guess. For the simple signpost to the celestial, to the celestial city to which I direct your attention tonight is the word of our Lord Jesus in verse 21. Not everyone that says unto me,

2:08 Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Now this, this particular signpost has peculiar relevance in a place like this, where there are many of you who profess a saving attachment to Jesus Christ. For the words, Lord, Lord, are expressive of that reality. They are expressive of one claiming a saving attachment

2:53 to Jesus, to Jesus Christ in faith and in love. And as we draw near to consider what this signpost teaches us, I want us to note as we try to analyze its contents, first the sobering prophecy, and secondly the simple contrast. First of all on this signpost is, the sobering prophecy. Jesus, towards the end of that which we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount,

The Sobering Prophecy: Mere Profession is Insufficient

3:34 makes a very sobering prophetic utterance. It constitutes the first half of this signpost to the celestial city. And it says, everyone who passes by, not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter, the kingdom of heaven. And if we are to understand what Jesus is saying, we must understand that a profession of attachment to Jesus, a necessary,

4:14 let me say those words again, a profession of attachment to Jesus Christ, is a necessary part of true and saving religion. Let me say those words again. A profession of attachment to Jesus Christ is a necessary part of true and saving religion. A profession of attachment to Jesus Christ is a necessary part of true and saving religion.

4:36 The Bible teaches that the ground of ourselves is to be found in the work of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners, and that work alone.

5:10 It teaches clarity that when crucified in religion, will be the perfection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In such text as Romans chapter 10 verse 9 and 10, It says, Because if thou shalt,

5:48 thou shalt as Lord, even thy heart hath raised him from the dead, thou can believe with the mouth, confession is made unto a book where the work of faith found salvation,

6:30 where Paul goes to great pains to show that all men by nature are under the condemning power of the law, are sinfully and morally and legally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally and legally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally and legally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God.

6:43 are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God.

6:48 are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God.

7:04 are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God.

7:06 are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. are sinfully and morally dead in the name of God. undergone on behalf of sinners, there will not only be that faith in the heart unto righteousness, but there will be the confession of the mouth unto salvation. Likewise, in Matthew chapter 10, the words of our Lord Jesus in this context are equally clear that a profession of attachment to Jesus Christ is a necessary and saving religion.

7:41 Verse 32, Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father. If we would have the Lord Jesus openly confess us to be his own in the day of judgment,

8:14 we must be prepared to confess unto him in faithful environment where men may threaten us even with death itself. This is why on the day of Pentecost, when those who were stabbed in the heart cried out, men and brethren, What shall we do? said to the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? Peter, without in any way becoming a sacramentalist, inferring that there is some grace unto forgiveness to be found in the water of baptism,

8:59 nonetheless says, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins. And though baptism is baptized, baptism is not the meritorious ground of our forgiveness, it is an inevitable accompaniment, unless providentially hindered, it is an inevitable accompaniment of true repentance and faith, which are spiritual activities of the heart. Open confession of Christ is a vital and indispensable part of true and saving religion. I quote,

9:42 Without asking you to turn to it as a final witness, the words of Jesus from Mark 8, 38, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory. We will never understand the sobering prophecy based upon this symbol, unless we are in the kingdom of heaven,

10:28 and are a part of true and saving religion. Amen.

10:35 We have established what is implicit in this sobering prophecy of Jesus. When he said, Not every one is a saving religion,

The Many Who Profess and Perform but are Unknown by Christ

11:17 and they shall enter the kingdom of heaven in the last day. But his sobering prophecy is informing us that the mere profession of attachment to Christ, Attachment to Christ is no proof of true and saving religion for though some, though many, whose safe and sincere religious enthusiasm

11:46 Lord, Lord, enter the kingdom of heaven in the last days.

12:13 Many kingdom of heaven.

12:55 In fact, if we look at the very next two verses, He focuses upon a whole class who will say yet they will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Look at the verses. Many will say to me in that day what they were saying while they were on earth.

13:32 We believe in you. We are your disciples. They say it to Him. They say it to others.

13:38 They say it before a group of elders. They say it before the church by their associations, by their connections, by their coming to the Lord's table. Their language is the language in life of Lord. Lord, we are in attachment to you.

13:56 And even in the day of judgment, they don't change their tune. Many will say to me in that day.

14:05 That day that we contemplated last Lord's day. The great day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb. The day of judgment. The day when every, every secret thought shall be made known.

14:20 The day when all hypocrisy will be unveiled for what it is. Many, many, not just a few, not one here or there, but many in that day, Lord, are openly confessing before the assembled multitudes, before the great white throne of God. Lord, profession of attachment to Jesus Christ in faith, in love. And this is what they say.

14:53 Did we not prophesy? Did we not prophesy by thy name? You see their attachment to his name was such that they spoke in his name. Spoke on his behalf.

15:09 By thy name. By thy name. And by thy name do many mighty works. You see their profession of attachment to Jesus Christ is openly.

15:34 And even though Jesus has already said, not everyone who says, come to me, Lord, Lord shall enter. There will be many who ignore this signpost, who will treat it as the stuff of a preacher. Just trying to upset one's religious apple cart. And they will go riding straight on.

16:11 Attachment to Christ is real. And they'll even try to make it stick in the presence of Christ. The judge in the last day. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name?

16:23 And by thy name, cast out demons. And by thy name do many mighty works. Then will I profess unto them. I never knew you.

16:39 In life, you professed that you came to know me. You professed that by a hard experience of the work of God, you came to be attached to me in faith and love. In life, you professed that I was yours. And you were mine.

16:57 You said, Lord, Lord. And now in the day of judgment, you still hold to your claim. And you say, Lord, Lord, did we not do this in the promotion and in association with your name and that in association with your name? And he does not dispute their claims in life or there in the day of judgment.

17:18 He simply says, I never knew you. It was all one way. You professed to be joined to me. But I never professed to be joined to you.

The Relevance of This Warning to Trinity Baptist Church

17:27 I never knew you. Depart from me. You that work iniquity. I say on this signpost, there is a sobering prophecy that many who actually profess attachment to Jesus Christ, some of whom have been brought to you in the name of Jesus Christ, have been brought to you in the name of Jesus Christ.

17:35 I say, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord,

18:19 Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, fulfillment of this sobering prophecy than in this our own country, in this our own part of the country, in the context of Trinity Baptist Church. If to profess Christ meant for you and for me what it means for those who know about our brother in Iran, that the

19:00 moment we would say by open confession, we have believed upon Christ from the heart unto salvation, we are now confessing with the mouth, and we are going to embody that confession in the ordinance of His institution, baptism, if we knew that the moment we did, there'd be a price upon our head, that we could be thrown into prison, publicly flogged. Executed. There'd be far fewer people sitting in this building tonight saying, Lord, Lord,

19:45 far, far, in a place where there are families and associations in which it actually makes you more acceptable to claim attachment to Christ, where there is on the part of some such real and vital God. Godliness, that to openly declare oneself ungodly is to pronounce a sentence of social ostracization upon oneself. There is even so pressure in our setting to say, Lord, Lord.

20:28 Because we have grown up catechized and instructed and preached to and taught at home, Sunday school church, Christian school homes. We say, what more? What more is there to know without saying, Lord, Lord, what more is there to be? Family training and discipline have made you respectable and upright and decent, and there is nothing that would outwardly mark you as an Esau and a profane person, and so the most natural thing is to say, well, I believe everything I've been taught, and I've done everything you're supposed to do, so might as well say I'm His.

21:09 My friends. If any group of people needs this text, Trinity Baptist Church needs it. Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, not all who profess and profess with some degree of earnestness, true and saving religion, truly possess. And this will be revealed.

21:42 This will be revealed in the last day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

21:47 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

22:18 I will take you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Depart from Me. I never knew you. That's a sobering.

22:33 And the one most likely to be part of it is the one who treats it lightly. The person who is sobered by it is the one who most likely will not be part of its fulfillment. But thank God, the sobering prophecy is followed by a simple contrast.

The Simple Contrast: Doing the Will of the Father

23:00 You Greek students, we have an Allah.

23:04 That word that demonstrates a contrasting statement of significance is to follow. But He that is doing the will of My Father who is in heaven, the words understood, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. You see how those words are understood? Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, say, Lord, Lord, shall enter.

23:35 But not all who simply say, Lord, Lord, shall enter. Well, who shall enter the kingdom of heaven? Those who not only say, but who leave.

23:50 As though I truly were their Lord. They are doing the will of My Father who is in heaven. They shall enter the kingdom of heaven. In its.

24:05 Consummate glory. At the last day. There is the simple contrast. He that is doing, present tense, the will of My Father who is in heaven, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

24:22 Now what is Jesus saying? Is He asserting in this contrast that no one will enter the kingdom of heaven in the last day, but human beings, men and women? Boys and girls who from the moment of their conception, their development in their mother's womb, from the moment of their first breath to their last breath, perfectly did the will of God in thought and word, desire and motive and intent, action and reaction. No, there was only one ever conceived in a womb and brought forth on this earth who fits that description.

25:06 And that is our Lord Jesus Christ conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the mysterious power of the Holy Spirit. Conceived without sin, passing through all the normal stages of prenatal development without any stain of original sin brought forth by Mary in Bethlehem's manger. Bethlehem's stall and laid in the manger. And throughout the entirety of that life of 33 plus years, there never was from the deepest springs where thought first originates,

25:51 where motives are first formed, where attitudes are first conceived, there never was the slightest deviation from the perfect will of the Father in heaven. To every motion of His little feet, as a toddler in that home in Nazareth, to every articulation of His Aramaic as He began to speak as a little boy and say Abba to Joseph.

26:23 If He used that word to speak to His earthly Father in the sense that Joseph was appointed as the guardian of Christ in the role of a father. In all of the ways He addressed His parents. And interacted with His siblings. Think of it.

26:43 In a household full of liars. For He was part of a large family.

26:50 Was there even the first motion of jealousy shown to His siblings? Never once a motion of sinful anger when there was injustice shown by one of His siblings. Unfairness shown by Mary or Joseph in dealing with a family squabble. In all of His interaction through every stage.

27:13 In every stage of His life. And here I must restrain myself for the sheer fascination of gazing upon a developing Christ. Growing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man into full blown manhood. And when it says He was holy, harmless, undefiled.

27:44 The totality of His humanity. Where motives and emotions and attitudes and dispositions. And deeds and words. All form the complex of what we are and do.

27:57 He perfectly did the will of the Father in heaven. And the Lord here is not saying that the only one who is going to be in heaven is His Son. He is not saying that. What does He mean then when He says.

The Lifestyle of Serious Commitment to God's Will

28:12 Not everyone who says Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But He that is doing the will of my Father who is in heaven. Well. This is what He is saying.

28:26 Not that there is any one of us who can earn heaven. By a perfect performance of the will of God. For we would all be shut out. Rather.

28:39 He is saying this. The ones who will enter the kingdom of heaven. Are those. Whose professed saving attachment to Christ.

28:50 Has brought them. Into a lifestyle. Of serious commitment to doing the will of God. That is what He is saying.

29:04 Their professed attachment to Christ. Has brought them into the orbit of a lifestyle marked. Not by occasional serious.

29:19 And by fleeting serious intentions. But by a serious volitional commitment. To do. To do.

29:29 The will. Of the Father. Who is in heaven.

29:37 Now what is the will of the Father in heaven?

The Beginning of Doing God's Will: Repentance and Faith

29:41 Well in this very context. It begins with obeying the call to repentance and faith. This section of the Sermon on the Mount. Begins with the summons of chapter 7.

29:56 Verses 13 and 14. Where the Lord Jesus speaks in regal grace. But with the imperative of that regal grace. Enter in by the narrow gate.

30:12 He commands us to get through. That is a command to be converted. That is a command to repent of our sins. And to believe in the gospel.

30:28 What is here figuratively put under the language. Enter in by the narrow gate. Is put in plain blunt. Prose in Mark chapter 1.

30:40 When it says Jesus came preaching. Saying the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe in the gospel. You and I do not begin to do the will of the Father in heaven.

30:57 At any other place. Than at the narrow gate. Of true conversion. With the flesh withering acknowledgement of our utter sinfulness.

31:09 Our utter inability to do or be anything acceptable to God in ourselves. Our deservingness of hell and damnation. Turning from our sins. Unto God.

31:26 With full purpose of an endeavor after new obedience. Throwing the full weight of our sin. Stain souls upon Christ as he is offered in the gospel. This is why the scripture tells us.

31:44 This is his commandment. First John 3.22. That we believe in the name of his only begotten son.

31:52 And again God commands all men everywhere to repent. You see in our day. We see precious little true repentance and faith. Because this is the day of self-worth.

32:08 And self-esteem. And self-fulfillment. And self-stroking. And how can there ever be the dispositions described in the beginning of this sermon.

32:21 The character traits of all the sons and daughters of the kingdom. How can there be poverty of spirit. How can there be mourning. How can there be meekness.

32:33 How can there be hungering and thirsting for righteousness. When we've convinced ourselves I'm okay and you're okay. Recently. Someone handed me what people are told to enroll in a certain weight loss program and the use of the number 10 has reference to that vile movie I only know because I read the reviews I don't see the movies in which a man lusts after a woman other than his wife whom he numbers in her physical perfections and proportions as a 10 on a scale from 1 to 10.

33:14 You couldn't go. Higher. If she had a half inch more or less here or there anywhere from her ankles to the top of her head she'd be a 9.5.

33:24 Now listen what they are taught to say. I am a 10. I am a person of worth. A value of dignity.

33:35 I am special and I have a special destiny. I am important and interesting. I am precious. I am priceless.

33:49 I am the salt of the earth. I am the light of the world. I can do many things well. I'm a good person.

33:59 Nothing is wrong with me and nothing ever was wrong with me. I am a 10. I see myself a 10 and one of the great joys is to have to help the people around me see their own worth and value as a 10. My friends.

34:19 Jesus. No one gets in the kingdom till he's a zero. Looking in the temple would not so much as lift up his eyes, let alone his head, and he beat his breast. Merciful to me, the sinner, I'm a zero mind.

34:50 Jesus said this man went down to his. The Pharisee could take this language. I am this and I say with the religion of you that attacks the mind. I pay to hear the words of Christ.

35:17 Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, if your attachment to Christ has not begun on the base note, reverberating through your breast, that you are a vile, filthy, helpless, serving, wretched son or daughter of Adam, you know nothing of true repentance and therefore of true and saving faith. For true and saving faith is not tipping the hat to Jesus. It is not nodding the head that he did a few things that I couldn't do to help me get to heaven, but I was pretty much on my way, given what I am in myself.

36:01 Saving faith is the desperate thrust upon the arms of an almighty savior. It's clinging to Christ crucified in a death grip, saying, save me, Lord, or I perish. Who's going to heaven? Jesus said in this simple contrast.

36:28 No. Not those who simply say, Lord, Lord, who by one means or another have claimed an attachment to Jesus Christ in faith and love, but those whose claim is expressed in doing the will of the Father who is in heaven. And the beginning place of doing the will of the Father is coming as a helpless, hell-deserving, undone, needy sinner who owns his sin.

37:02 He turns from and throws himself into the arms of a compassionate and an almighty savior who alone can do sinners good. But my friends, hear me. As clearly as the Bible says, that's how you begin to do the will of the Father. If that professed casting of yourself upon Christ is real, it will never stop there.

The Expansion of God's Will: Universal Obedience and Following Christ

37:31 It will expand into a heart response to the will of the Father. It will expand into a heart response to the will of the Father. It will expand into a heart response to the will of the Father. response to the father's call given through the lord jesus to a life of universal obedience to the revealed will of god this is why jesus can go right on in this context after saying not everyone who says lord lord shall enter the kingdom but he that doeth the will of my father who is in heaven verse 24 everyone therefore that hears these words of mine and do with them for you see it is in the words of jesus that the will of the father in heaven is made known

38:16 unto us and jesus made it abundantly clear in every call to discipleship that if our attachment to him is real it will be expressed you these simple words, following Him. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross. He describes His sheep in John chapter 10, and here I would ask you

38:52 to turn to the text with me in these very clear words. John chapter 10. Who are those for whom the Savior shed His blood, whom He joyfully owns as His flock of sheep, with all of their ignorance and vulnerability and stupidity and periodic waywardness, with all of the nettles and the burrs of their remaining sins stuck to the wool of their existence, yet He owns them. How does He describe them? Look at John 10.27.

39:32 My. My sheep are hearing. Present tense verb. They are hearing my voice, and I know them, and they are following me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. Oh, what a place of safety is here described for His sheep.

40:03 No. Owned by Him. Preserved and protected by Him. But my friend, listen, there are two indispensable marks of all His sheep, from the weakest to the strongest, the youngest to the oldest, the most inexperienced to the most seasoned of them. These are the two marks of all of His sheep.

40:25 Look at them. My sheep are hearing my voice. That hearing does not mean that they simply allow my voice to be heard. It does not mean that they simply allow my voice to be heard. It does not mean

40:37 that they simply allow my voice to fall on the outer vestibule of the ear. It means they hear with a view to receiving all that I say, because, he then goes on to say, and they are following me. My voice that called them when they were still burdened and bowed down and bent over with the load of unforgiven sin, and my voice came to them in the gospel, come unto me, all you that labor in their heaven. Be laden, and I will give you rest. My spirit that enabled them to respond to that call has given

41:16 them a new heart. And my spirit now has put my fear in their hearts, so that the prevailing fundamental disposition of their hearts is to hear my voice, not only when it calls to rest and when it sets forth consolations and comforts. But when it calls to such things as if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. For it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell.

41:55 In this very sermon on the mount, when he is speaking of the commitment of all the sons and daughters of the kingdom to obedience to the law of God in all of its length and breadth and spirituality, touching attitudes and dispositions of the heart, if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you. If you say in the spirit of hatred, Thou fool, you shall be in danger of hellfire. Whoso looks with a view to lust hath committed adultery already. These are the words of Jesus.

42:34 And he says, My sheep, hear my voice. Not only when it calls to rest, but when it calls. Not only when it calls to mortification that has analogies in the brutal self-mutilation of cutting off one's own hand and with the other hand casting it far away with no thought of ever rejoining it by a kind of demonic spiritual neurosurgery.

43:03 And gouging out offending eyes and plucking them away. Are you hearing his voice calling you, young man? To cut off the right hand of lust?

43:21 Indulged in the chambers of your mind with magazines and books that you've hid from mom and dad and perhaps wife? You women, mental fantasies nurtured by your television set and your daytime soaps with their sordid, tawdry, vile and filthy, adulterous lace. Are you taking every story? Just stop it!

43:53 Or you just occasionally have a little whimper in the closet when your conscience gets so active you can't live with it. And you whimper and cry and ask God for a little help and then you go right back with your hand and your eyeball firmly attached. Oh yes, once in a while you take a dull paring knife and scratch your hand and occasionally you scratch around your eyeball but you haven't begun to cut off and pluck out.

44:22 You better listen to the words of Jesus. Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, shall enter, but he that does the will of my Father.

The Nature of True Obedience: Conscious, Purposeful, Evangelical

44:31 If ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. If you live after the flesh, you'll die. What about in this sermon, chapter 6, where he talks about the believer's prayers and his giving and his self-denial? Are you doing the will of the Father when Jesus talks about our relationship to food?

44:54 And to food and to drink and to things and to goals? Are you doing what Jesus, who is of the Father, are you doing what he's seeking? Big bucks? Big name?

45:14 Big house? Closet? Full of fancy clothes? I'm not asking, do you have these?

45:22 I'm saying, is that what your heart is set upon?

45:26 Jesus said, do not set your affection on these things.

45:33 Are you taking that seriously? Come on, get all this. In the language of contemporary teenagers, get real. Because if the day of judgment's anything, folks, it's getting real.

45:47 It's getting real. It won't do to say, well, God, you know, I tried.

45:53 Can you tell God you tried? How hard did you try?

45:59 When all your spare time is reading the literature that feeds avarice and greed and covetousness and ambition? You tried! You tried! When all your spare time is...

46:12 Spent reading pulp novels and watching game shows instead of praying and reading some of the good books that are in our own bookstore. And if you can't buy them in our library and listening to tapes, flooding your mind with the word of God. God will kill my friend.

46:31 You had an ecchi. It's fetched. That's all you had. But my Bible says those who are those who desire, they do.

47:04 The Father, my sheep. Hear my voice.

47:13 Follow me. If we say we know him and keep not his commandments, we lie. And we do not the truth. But you say, Pastor, surely you're not saying we obey the will of God perfectly?

47:29 No. No. Why would Jesus say? After this manner, pray ye.

47:35 Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. In earth as it is in heaven.

47:46 That's our goal. That as the angels and seraphim and cherubim and all the other creatures of heaven do the will of God with alacrity and joy and perfectly and perpetually. We pray, may your will be done in earth, starting with me, even as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

48:10 We're creatures of earth and of time. And we need sustenance if we're to do. Your will here on earth. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

48:23 Forgive us our trespasses. Jesus assumes there won't be a day when the true sons and daughters of the kingdom don't need to pray for forgiveness. He already covered that ground in chapter 6. So whatever he says in chapter 7, he's not contradicting that.

48:40 He's not saying we do the will of the Father in heaven perfectly. It is not. It is not perfect obedience, but it is conscious.

48:56 There's nowhere of life from the deepest reach to the most visible outward deeds observed by all in which our heart's desire is not to do the will of God. I read recently in Rabbi Duncan, I often hear people say, and this is why it struck me so well, you know, Pastor, nobody's perfect. You know what Rabbi Duncan did with that little statement, nobody's perfect? This is what he said about it.

49:29 Nobody's perfect.

49:33 This is the hypocrite's couch.

49:37 This is the believer's. He lies back, no serious determination to do the will of God, and says nobody's perfect.

49:55 The true child of God. No one is perfect. It's my metaphor. Wretched man that I am.

50:05 I find that when I would do good, evil is present with me. To will is present, but to perform I know not. It is the imperfection of your obedience, your couch, or your bed of thorns.

50:26 Now my friend, it can't be both. It's one or the other. And I'm asking you, not knowing if I'll ever stand in this pulpit again, you better answer with as much honesty sitting where you sit tonight as Christ will make you answer in the day of judgment.

50:45 Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord. Oh, I have an attachment to Christ. Oh yes, very good. But not everyone who professes that shall enter the kingdom.

50:52 Who will enter the kingdom? He that is doing the will of my Father. That will begins with obedience to the call to repent and to believe the gospel. But it expands into the call to universal obedience.

51:10 And though it is not a perfect obedience, it is conscious, purposeful, and universal. Furthermore, it is not a legal, but an evangelical obedience. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. If a man love me, he will keep my words.

51:32 What is the first requirement of the law? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul. It is not a perfect obedience, no. It is not a legal obedience, but it is evangelical.

51:49 It grows out of a disposition of gratitude to God. For his mercy to us in Christ. But my friend, listen. God never last sued the heart of any sinner and drew him to the foot of the cross.

52:06 But what the cross last sued the sinner and bound him to Christ. So that he is constrained to a life of obedience. When Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.14 For the love of Christ not restrains me, it constrains me.

52:25 It envelops me, it ensnares me, it holds me, it binds me. So much so, said that some people, they think I'm out of my tree. When in my devotion to Christ, I pour myself out in his service. He says, whether we are beside ourselves in the estimation of some, it is unto God.

52:49 If you regard us sober, it's for your sake. But this I know, the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge. If one died for others. For all, then therefore all died.

53:01 If what we were was so wretched and rotten that God couldn't patch it up. But had to send his son to representatively put it to death. His cross, then surely whatever comes off that cross and into a tomb. And out of that tomb into newness of life.

53:17 Better be radically different from what went to that cross. And that's exactly what he means when he says that they. They one died for all, therefore all died. That they who live should no longer.

53:28 Henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. The cross does not give us a minor shift or two with regard to a few of our ethical and moral and religious values. The cross radically disrupts the very center and citadel of your life from self to Christ.

53:50 And if the cross has not done, you're not the very center and citadel of your life and brought you from a life of. Commitment to serve self, whether it's religious self, moral self, proud self, covetous self, lustful self, prideful self, unforgiving self, lazy self. It doesn't matter what are the focal points of the reign of your self.

54:34 If you've gone to the cross in union with Christ, it's been shot. And you are now fundamentally purposefully, though not perfectly living unto him. Who died for you and rose again.

A Passionate Plea for Self-Examination and Radical Discipleship

54:53 Well, there's the signpost folks.

54:56 And there are few things that make me ever contemplate quitting the ministry.

55:02 But when I go home tonight, if God takes me safely home, I'll have those fleeting thoughts. That's all they are. Fleeting thoughts. You know why?

55:14 Because I'll lie upon my bed and say, Oh God, I sought to be true to the text. I sought to be simple and clear. I sought to open my whole mind and heart. And spirit and soul and body to the truth.

55:29 And threw myself upon the altar of your service to spend and be spent in declaring the truth. And the people go home. Talk about everything else you've talked about every other Lord's Day night for donkey's years. And you will not have been scratched one millionth of an inch.

55:50 Tell you, I think I understand what the prophet meant when he said, I've spent. They have come to the birth. And brought forth nothing but wind.

56:14 Dear young people, some of you who've begun to name the name of Christ, listen to me.

56:21 You better start doing the will of Christ where it hurts or give up that profession. You start being willing to be marked as a Christian in that school. Drive your stakes with regard to who your friends are going to be, male or female. And you've got no business establishing intimate friendships with ungodly people.

56:42 Much less romantic friendships with non-Christians. No business what? Soul! And you know it, that you're not willing to do the will of the Father.

57:03 And cut off that right hand of a relationship that's begun to feel so nice. The terms of discipleship are not watered down because you're a teenager. When I hear of Trinity Church members dropping their kids off to see PG-13 movies. The plot of which.

57:35 The plot of which is a humorous twist on a transvestite lifestyle. Don't you see, parents, when you turn your kids loose to see a movie that has Robin Williams in it. Who has to dress up like a woman to have visiting rights to his kids because there's been a divorce. You're laughing at divorce.

57:56 You're being softened to the horribleness of a transvestite appearance. God says it is an abomination for a man to wear. That! That pertains to a woman.

58:07 When it's in a comic plot in a PG-13 movie. What's wrong with you in this place? ... ministry and exposing your kids.

58:22 I wonder what in the world kind of movies you watch. When I hear the Trinity Church members got to have a good bit of booze flowing on a New Year's night like the world to have a good time. I say, Oh, God! What in the world am I doing in this place?

58:42 When you've got to suck at the world's fountains for a night. to suck at the world's fountains for fulfillment.

58:51 Where in the world are you?

58:57 People, I'm not angry.

59:01 I want you in that day, when you stand with me before the judge of the world, to have him say, Come, you blessed. Come, you blessed. I don't want to look at you standing there saying, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, I named you in earth. I named you before the elders.

59:21 I named you before the church. I named you in prayer meeting. I named you in witness. Lord, now, did I not this?

59:30 Did I not that? I don't want to hear him say, Depart from me. I never knew you. You worker of iniquity.

59:41 You never were made a doer of the will of God. You learned enough, and you learned what to say properly enough to be accepted for what you professed yourself to be on earth. But now the day of judgment has come, and the truth is now to be known.

60:03 I'm not laboring. I'm laboring to make respectable Reformed Baptist hypocrites who will be damned in the last day. That's not what I'm laboring for.

60:16 I'm laboring to see this man taken safely to heaven and all of you with me.

Final Exhortation and Prayer

60:25 Are you ready to look at that signpost and take its words at face value? Are you ready to look at it? Not try to rub out some of the letters, soften it up. Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that is doing the will of my Father who is in heaven.

60:52 If you go to hell having looked at that signpost,

60:57 these hands are clean of your blood.

61:13 Father, we are sobered by the words of our Lord Jesus.

61:21 They're so plain that we cannot get around them, underneath them, over them, and we don't want to. We want to be found out now. Rather than to stumble deceived into hell. God, take your word today.

61:39 And will you not make it effectual to bring some to the place whereby your grace, they begin to do the will of the Father in heaven. That this night they truly in spirit wrought self-loathing and conviction of sin, repent, turn from sin and self, and turn unto you, through the Lord Jesus, and trust only in his virtue and the merits of his life and death upon the cross. Oh Lord, may some begin to do the will of the Father as they repent and believe the Gospel.

62:19 For those are Father who have thought all was well, but whom you have found out and who even now feel great discomfort. Lord, help them not to try to pull out the arrows That you have sent into their hearts for their good. But may they find a place to get alone and seek you out. Until indeed they can say by the grace of my God.

62:46 I am a doer of the will of the Father. Oh Lord bless your word. Oh bless it we pray. And have mercy upon us as a church.

62:58 Have mercy upon me. Upon each one of us. That with renewed zeal and determination. We may set our faces like flint.

63:09 To do the will of our Father in heaven. No matter what the cost may be. Bless your word. Seal it to our hearts.

63:20 For Jesus sake. And for our good. Amen.