Well, good morning again. I have to say that standing over this, the first time that we sat over there, probably in years, and hearing little Sebastian singing, It's like, it's so joyful. And I love that people over here are laughing about it because you can hear it too. It's like just hearing the joy and excitement that come from it. Even though he's saying some words he doesn't understand, it's just so beautiful to hear. First thing, he knows all the words. Anytime you ask me to do something like that, I'm looking at the paper. He knows all the words. So it was just a great thing hearing him. We heard the scripture this morning. It was part of the scripture reading, Matthew chapter 7. So I'm going to ask everybody to turn again to Matthew chapter 7 and let's go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious God, we just thank you for a chance to dive into your word to see what you have to say to us today. We pray God that you would move me out of the way and you would speak to your church today. Lord, I pray that we would be moved by your word, Lord, that we would be instructed by it, we would be convicted by it, and you would change hearts and minds, Lord. And I pray that you will be glorified that all that happens in this service, Lord. And I ask this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. So Matthew chapter 7. And we're going to look at starting at verse 13. I just want us to look at a couple of the phrases that stand out here that we're going to be focusing on today. Verse 13, he starts, this is Jesus preaching in what's been called the Sermon on the Mount. And this is the last chapter, and he's kind of winding down. And he gives these warnings that I think are very important for us to hear. So he first says in verse 13, enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. And there are a few who find it." And I think that is so sobering. As we walk through, I want to think about that. And let me just start out in saying, we're going to be all over the Bible today. So if you miss a passage or something, you can come and ask me what it is later. don't spend your time trying to find something, and then you don't hear what's being said because you're just trying to find some of these passages. So as we walk through this one passage, just think about the language that he's using. He describes salvation. He describes being right with God as being on a road. And there are two roads that he describes here. One, he said, it's a broad road. And at the end of this broad road, there was a wide gate. And there are many people on this road. And you just have the picture of all of these people walking along a huge, wide road. And there's a second road. And I think it's probably really close to it, in looking, that maybe there's just a little median that separates it. And this road is narrow. And at the end of that is this narrow gate. And there's only a few people who ever find it. And I think what's really amazing about this passage is that in each case, in each road, are people who are seeking God. He's not talking about the atheist here and the God-fearing on this road. Everybody on both of these roads thinks that they are on the path to God. They're looking for God. They're trying to find him. They're trying to find truth where they think they found it. And then there's just this small narrow road that exists of people who God has actually saved and called. And then he gives a warning. He says, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. So now, he says, there are going to be people who are going to be on this broad road, who look just like they're on the narrow road. You won't be able to tell the difference. You won't know. All of these sheep on this road, and they're going to be people who are actually wolves, who are dressed up as the sheep. And why would they be doing that? One thing is they're false teachers. They're actually trying to call people over from the narrow road. They're trying to entice us to take our eyes off of this narrow gate. Then he says in verse 16, because you would wonder, well, how are we going to know? If they look just like people who are preaching the truth, how would we know? And he says, you'll know them by their fruits. And then he gives this analogy. Now, people who know me know I grew up in the city and didn't have a whole lot of trees. Definitely didn't have fruit trees or anything like that. So if I came across a tree, I definitely would think it's just a tree. If you tell me that's a fig tree, OK, it's a fig tree. It doesn't matter. I'm in Antarctica. I believe it's a fig tree. You told me that. I wouldn't know any different. But what would happen? Eventually, there's going to be time for a harvest and fruit is going to start to grow. And I can tell, that's not a fig, that's a mango, that's not, that's a mango tree, that's not a fig tree. So, he then doesn't, he doesn't just stop with saying the kind of tree as far as what fruit it bears will be known once the fruit comes in, but he actually goes further and talks about the nature of the tree itself. And the verse 17 says, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. And a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. I think that would be pretty obvious. And we say, of course. Of course it can. We're going to see in a few minutes that we oftentimes mistake not just the tree, but we mistake the fruit itself. And then he tells us what's going to happen. Why is this even important? Why are we talking about fruit? Verse 19 says, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And that's why it matters. The fate of the trees. So then you will know them by their fruits. Now, again, as I said, everybody who's on a Broadway thinks that they're on the narrow way. So you're dealing with millions, possibly in the billions, of people who are on this broad road who think they are part of the select few that are on the narrow. And I would have to ask how many people are sitting here today on that broad road thinking that you're part of the narrow way and thinking that at the end of your destination there's going to be a narrow gate and Christ is going to be welcoming you. Probably many, if not all of us, would think that, especially if we have certain things in our lives, if we attend church and do other things. And we'll look at how those things don't identify the follower of God. But go down to verse 23, 21, excuse me. He says, 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. Again, he's not talking about the atheist who hates God and then at judgment day is going to say, but I did work for you. No, it's the religious. It's the one who thinks they are following God. The ones who think they have had this life figured out and they've lived good enough lives to deserve heaven, to have earned heaven. Many would 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? He'd list all these things that we did. Can you imagine standing before Christ and trying to list off your accomplishments? You're standing before Christ in judgment, and you're going to tell Him what you've done to earn entrance into His kingdom. And He says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. That might be the most heartbreaking verse in all of scripture, is to be standing before God, thinking that you've lived a life that pleased Him, probably making many sacrifices in your life just to come and hear that He never knew you. So, in thinking about this, the only question I think we can ask is does your fruit stink? Does your fruit stink? Does your fruit come from a bad tree? Is your fruit rotting? Is your fruit offensive in the sight of God? Now, I have to say this. Please don't ignore. Anytime we hear messages about examining yourself, messages about false conversion, we always look around and be like, who do I think needs to hear this the most? Who is this for? Or what person can I send a recording of this to? It might be you. God might be speaking to you today after 30, 40, 50, 80 years, after perfect church attendance, after teaching and preaching and possibly pastoring. He may be talking to you. So please don't ignore this and look around and wonder who you're going to send this to as soon as you leave or hope that the person next to you is listening. Please hear this because God may be speaking to you. And even those of us who may not be completely lost, many of us are very distracted, as Dr. Ho, who stole pretty much half the sermon before he sang In Christ Alone. As he talked about, we get so wrapped up in other things, and we think that we're glorifying God in them. So we're going to look and try to figure out how we can become nose blind to our own stinking fruit. As Pastor Dave actually was praying, and we didn't talk about what, you know, like I was going to preach about or the amazing sermon you're going to hear next week. You know, we didn't discuss that. But, you know, it really gave me confirmation that God is really speaking to his people today. And as Pastor Dave was praying, he was talking about the kind of unique situation we have being in America and in a nation that was not completely opposed to things in the Bible, was not completely opposed to the church, a nation that was not completely opposed to even having some of its laws determined by things that are in the Bible or close to it. And so because of that, a lot of the practices, a lot of the customs that have gone into the traditional American life look sort of Christian-ish. They look sort of like they're Christian, to the point where you could just live as a good citizen in America, especially going back to 20, 30, 50, 100 years ago, and your life looks pretty Christian, even if you've never given your heart to Christ. And so because of that, many of us may have this model of what the Christian life is like, and we base our actions and we base our assurance on how closely we resemble this model of the American Christian rather than how much we look like Christ. And so many of us may be pillars of our community, may be pillars of our churches, may be pillars of this church. And if we were to die today, Christ would say, I never knew you. So there's different things we can look at through his word that are things that aren't bad, but they don't equal salvation. So the first thing is belief in God. So in James chapter 2 verses 19 and 20, and again I'm going to go through some of these quickly, you may not have time to turn there, but if you want to race me you can. James chapter 2 verses 19 and 20, he says, you believe that God is one, you do well. The demons also believe and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? We always talk about faith without works is dead. We quote that often. But we don't look at the first part of that. That your belief in God, or belief in a higher power, or belief in a man upstairs, or now today, belief in the universe guiding you, none of that equals salvation. None of that means your sins have been forgiven and you have a right relationship with God because you believe there is a higher power in this universe. You even believe that it's the God of the Bible and you believe or you agree with some of the things the Bible says. The demons do that and we know their fate. And so don't rest on the fact that you're not an atheist to prove that you're a Christian. Don't get your assurance there. church attendance or ministry participation. Now I'm not going to stand here as one of your elders, one of your pastors and say don't come to church because it's meaningless. But what I'm saying is your attendance here is meaningless if you're not a true believer. If this is what you are using to determine your salvation, and you're saying, I'm a good Christian, I've been to church every week, and I go to Sunday school, and every time it's open, I go, and I serve when they have the sweetheart social, because I'm single, or I'm married, and I bring my spouse, whether they're a believer or not, and we all just go. Every time the doors of the church are open, I'm there. Every wedding, every funeral, you could be doing that and don't know Christ, and He doesn't know you. in Hebrews, and don't bother turning to these two, Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 and 6 if you're taking notes, Hebrews chapter 10 verses 26 to 31, both of those passages describe what I believe to be a model Christian from the outside, someone who came to church regularly, someone who participated in ministry, someone who was impacted by the life of the church, Someone who served someone who you always saw and then something happens and they begin to question their faith and Then they and we talked about this a couple weeks ago in the young adult ministry. They begin to even question God and then they turn on God and they become antagonistic and the writer of Hebrew says that there's no way to bring them back and There's no way to restore them. First John describes this person and he says, if you catch someone and sin, pray for them, except the one who sins in that way. That you can get to a point where you know the gospel so much, where you have received the blessings of the Holy Spirit, people have served you and ministered to you in your time of need, where you know all the scripture, you know everything, that once you turn on God, you just shut your mind off and your heart is completely hardened. Because what can you tell that person? What can you tell the pastor who has turned from God that he hasn't already heard or preached himself? And unless God supernaturally opens their ears and their hearts, and that's true of every case of salvation, but in this case, it's a special one because there's an extra layer to go through. Their proximity to the gospel and the ministry of the Holy Spirit makes them the toughest to reach. And so he outlines this several times. And so by coming to church, And by serving and doing all these things and looking the part, that doesn't guarantee that you're doing this out of a heart that God is using, out of a heart that God has transformed. It could be just your thing. Instead of going to play golf Sunday morning, you come to church Sunday morning. And it's just a thing that you do. It has nothing to do with your relationship with God. A family or religious tradition. So Philippians chapter 3, and you can turn there, Philippians chapter 3 verses 4 and 5, and actually we're going to start kind of in the middle of 4, so I would say 4B. Paul is talking about all the things in his life, all of the accolades, the religious accolades that he has, all of the religious experiences that he had before coming to Christ. And this is what he says, Philippians chapter 3, kind of in the middle of verse 4. He says, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more circumcise on the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee. So he says, I was born in the right nation to hear and know the word of God. I was born in the right tribe. I was born to the right family who raised me on the things of God and raised me to know his word. They did all the right things. And I think, first, that's even a warning to us parents. When you look at your child and you're trying to minister to them, Effort comes from you pouring into them God's Word It's not just well I'm gonna avoid public school because I don't want them to read these certain books So I don't want them to have to have a rainbow flag hanging up in the classroom so I'm gonna make sure they go to a good Christian school and That's what I'm gonna do Paul said look I was circumcised on the eighth day They followed the law to the letter and we'll see later on he became a persecutor of the church doing that when the when the Messiah came that he was awaiting he didn't recognize him and He was blinded to the true Christ when he came, even though all those things were done right. And so don't put your assurance in the things that you do, no matter what you do, no matter how much you isolate someone from the world, or how much you expose your kids to the world so they're used to hearing all the arguments and they build up kind of immunity against it. Neither of those things guarantee the salvation of your children. It doesn't mean don't do them, but Make sure that you understand that your faith and your trust and your prayers are to God to change their hearts. And he says to the law, a Pharisee, he even followed the law and the extras. He's going to say a little later that he was found blameless according to the law. But he followed all the extras. If anybody knows anything about the Pharisees, you know that they built this tradition. They kind of, they took the law and they built like a fence around it. And they built all these kind of extra laws to make sure that if they violated one of those, that they still maybe didn't violate the law that God wrote. And it's too much to go into all of that about them violating their conscience and all those things, but we know that the Pharisees were very wicked and evil. So verses 7 and 8, skip 6 for a minute, Philippians 3 still. He says, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ. And then at the end of verse 8 he says, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. They're garbage, they're worthless, all of those things, the way he followed the law, the zeal that he had, all of it was worthless. when he met Christ, he realized all of those human achievements, all of those things that were even we would say were good, they were worthless compared to Christ. And don't worry, we'll get to verse 6 in a minute, but actually we're going to move on and talk about political affiliation. Let's make sure I didn't have to duck. Somebody throwing a shoe at me or something with that one. But political affiliation, We many times think, especially now with our country being so fractured, that we feel that because I vote in a certain way that I'm a believer. Or we'll hear, how can you be a Christian and vote for those Democrats? Or how can you be a Christian and vote for those heartless Republicans? And how could you be a Christian and we begin to judge the reality of someone's faith based on what they do on the first week of November, or even in their local elections. And so being affiliated with some outside group that has a shadow of morality, that even has some things that you would agree with, or that you can point to the Bible and say, oh, a couple of those things are in the Bible, doesn't make you a Christian. Matthew 3, 7 and 8, this is talking about John the Baptist here. And it says, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. It didn't matter what knowledge of the law they had. It didn't matter what group they were a part of. It didn't matter what their status was in society. It didn't matter that they based many of the things they did on the Torah. What mattered was their relationship with God. What mattered was if they put faith in, at that point, the coming Messiah. And they didn't. And they were even leading people astray. And so they came and tried to jump ahead of the line, so to speak, and get baptized without true repentance, without actually coming to Christ. And he said to them, therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Their fruit stunk. The religious leaders at the time that Christ came, their fruit stunk. The party of the law of God, their fruit stunk. And John refuses to baptize them until they begin to bear fruit, keeping with repentance. And he says, if you were really believers, we would know it. Your fruit would show it. We would know that you are. But instead, you're believing in these things for your salvation. You're believing in these things for your relationship with God, for your standing before God, instead of having those things be the outworking of God working in you. Another one that can really trip us up, and I think Satan has done a masterful job at this, knowledge of the Bible. Knowing the Bible and we think wow I can just quote scripture back and forth. I've memorized total chapters of the Bible And you don't know Christ and he doesn't know you But you know that Bible and you can quote it and you can masterfully Take it out and use it as a weapon against anyone anytime anywhere except your own heart and your own sin So Matthew chapter 4 So just flip over one or maybe even on the same page depending on your Bible. Matthew chapter 4 verses 5 and 6, this is Jesus who just spent 40 days not eating and 40 days of fast and then he goes into the wilderness and is tempted by Satan. Satan tries to tempt him, Jesus of course repels him with the word, it doesn't work. And then Satan comes back and he says, it says in Matthew chapter 4 verses 5, and six then the devil took him into the holy city and had him stand on a pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you are the son of God throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone that comes from Psalm 91 verses 11 and verse 11 and then verse 12 he quotes from Now can you imagine knowing God's Word so well that you use it in trying to tempt God to sin, trying to tempt Christ to test the Father and jump, jump. His Word said the angels would catch you. Matter of fact, they will protect you so much, you won't even hit your foot against the stone. Not even you won't just plunge to your death, you won't even hit your foot. He's gonna perfectly just hold you up. Because His Word says that. Satan knew God's Word so well. He knows God's Word better than all of us. Better than all of us combined. And he uses it to keep us trapped. Just think about that. He uses God's Word to keep us enemies with God. Because we begin to memorize and we begin to think about it and we say, well, this is, I'm holy because I know God's word. This is the proof that I know God. Then, of course, we take things and we take them out of scripture. We put an emphasis on one over the other. And we have this unbalanced view of God, unbalanced view of his word. And, of course, his word hits hardest when it's everybody else's sin. But when it's ours, his word is really quiet. Did God even address this? I don't think so. We'll look a little later how we even become masters at rewriting his word, and not just twisting, but actually changing it, and then believing that's what God really said. It's another one. Adherence to societal or cultural morality. You can turn back to Philippians, if you want, Philippians chapter 3. But adherence to societal or cultural morality. Many of us have things that we do because we were taught to do them. We were raised to do them. And we think that just being a good fill-in-the-blank is the same as being godly and the same as being a follower of Christ. And Philippians 3, 6, continuing to describe himself, Paul, and his state before he came to Christ, he says, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law found blameless. So Paul, again, he was raised on the Word of God. He was raised so much, he was so sensitive to blasphemy. He was trained to hate blasphemy. What did not have a relationship with God, keep that in mind, he did not have a relationship with God growing up. He did not believe in the coming Christ in that way. That's why when Christ came, Christ had to do this miracle and say, why are you persecuting me? and had to actually appear to him in this special way and called him out. He didn't hear Christ and hear his preaching and say, I believe it. Matter of fact, if you remember in the book of Acts, he was one of the ones who was holding the coats of those who came to stone Stephen. Came to stone, I'll take your coat, go ahead, go ahead and kill God's prophet. He said, I was so zealous that I persecuted Christ's church and in turn persecuted Christ. But he was a good Jew for doing it. He was lauded. He began to get a reputation for his adherence to their law. And the same things happen with us. We think that we have truth on our side. And that's enough. We say, well, I'm on the right side of this issue. That's enough. I hate these two sins, and we'll talk about that in a minute. These two sins that are just being paraded in the country. I hate those two, so I'm righteous. And we can have this moral standard that's been placed on us by our society. I was telling Cheyenne, I looked at an argument that was happening on the internet. Never, if you want peace in your life, never look at the comments section of any blog post, any podcast that allows comments, or any social media post, if it involves anything having to do with the church, anything having to do with Christ. Just the amount of comments about whether somebody should wear a hat. a man should wear a hat inside the church building or not. How it was disrespecting ladies, or some people said it was a covering over the head in First Corinthians 11, said you're not supposed to cover your head as a man, and you're praying and prophesying and all. And they went back and forth arguing. And you know what it was? It was a clip of a drummer in a practice doing a drum solo, and everyone said, oh, that was a great solo. People said, yeah, but he got a hat on, though. I don't know if God really heard that praise. He's wearing a baseball cap. And they argued about that. We can have this morality that's put on us by our culture, by our society, by the country. We think that following the letter of the written law, some of us know the Constitution and don't know Christ. And we think that means that we are right with God. And this is something else that Satan uses. you know, he, I picture it, you know, this road, I just picture things so much, but I picture this road having these little guardrails on it, and this is part of the guardrail. It's this morality that keeps us on the broad way. It keeps us going to that gate, thinking that we're righteous, because we're following these laws. We're following the rules, whether they come from scripture or not. And even if they do, you could follow something that comes from scripture and just still be unholy. Your fruit can still stink while you're doing something that the Bible says is pleasing to God. And Isaiah, you don't have to turn here, Isaiah 64, 6, that's the beginning of the verse, says, for all of us have become like one who is unclean, all of us. And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment. All of the things that you've done as an unbeliever, and if there's unbelievers here today hearing this, everything that you do that is righteous, every meal you give to the homeless is like a filthy rag. And if you were here last week, you heard Pastor Bobby in Colossians 3 talking about taking off and putting on, and this imagery that as if you're undressing and you're taking off unrighteousness and putting on the righteousness that is supplied by Christ. But when we try to do it ourselves and just do all these good things and say, well, I know I'm a Christian because I do these things, or I believe these things, or I say these things, it's like we are clothing ourselves with these dirty, filthy rags and then bringing that to God. And that keeps us on that road where we think we're righteous and Christ is going to say, I never knew you. Now, turn to James chapter 2, because another thing that we do, and I kind of alluded to it a few minutes ago, is hating certain sins. We think if we hate certain sins that that makes us righteous. So James chapter 2, look at verse 8. It says, However, you are fulfilling the royal law. According to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Why? Verse 10, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. And again, this is something that we see prevalent much in this country because of the way it was established. And I can imagine that in countries where the Bible was outlawed, where there's only one state version of Christianity that is a worded down version of the truth, I can imagine in those places, they don't have run into this problem nearly as much, where We believe that as long as we do certain things, as long as we fit into society, I just doubt that in Saudi Arabia, they say as long as I'm a good citizen of the state, I'm a Christian. Because it doesn't look like that. Being a good citizen of an Arab nation looks very different than being considered a good citizen of the United States. But all of those good citizens without Christ are going to hell. It doesn't matter what it looks like. It doesn't matter how much we agree with some of the things that they do or disagree with some of the things. And we believe that as long as we hate these sins of terminating a pregnancy, you know, I don't know if some of the kids, you know, can hear that, the word, but, you know, if we believe that that's wrong, and we hate that sin, and we hate anything that falls under the LGBTQ umbrella, and anything that's, you know, about gender or confusion about gender, if we hate those things, then we're a good Christian. We can live any way we want. We can just look and we can see somebody, Blaspheming. And no, it's not a big deal. As long as they don't have a rainbow flag in front of their house, I'm good with it. I'm good with what they do. We have become this nation, we have become a people, and we have become a church that believes that our morality, that our relationship with God can be defined by how you feel about two or three issues. Where do you stand on these three issues? I know about your relationship with God. And the problem with that is that, as James said, if you keep the whole law, you stumble on one point, you're guilty of all. And so we don't condemn the sinners that sin in a way that we don't find as offensive. If you're going to condemn sin, condemn it all. And start in your heart. Start in your home. Start by being a good employee. That's what you do about sin. We have so many bad marriages. We have so many confused parents or just not attentive parents. We have so many unforgiving people that have terrible relationships with each other. So many people who have ruined their relationships because they won't forgive or they won't see the wrong that they have done or they have caused and seek to get things right. But as long as they haven't terminated the pregnancy or flying the rainbow flag, I'm good. And I don't need to confront them. I don't need to go after them. You can be married on paper, living in a different state with the person that is on a piece of paper with you that's supposed to be your spouse, but that's okay. As long as you didn't actually file for divorce, we're all good. How hypocritical is that? Do you think God is pleased with that? Do you think God is pleased with all the snide remarks that you're making on social media about certain sins while you're ignoring others and you're ignoring the own hatred in your heart? You're ignoring the own sin that you commit? You're ignoring the cries of your wife or your husband every day? Because you're chasing after these things because you think it makes you righteous? God is not pleased with that. Look down to verse 11, James 2. It said, for he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not commit murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you'll become a transgressor of the law. And this truth goes well beyond just those two sins, because we judge each other harshly, even in church. We look at others, and we judge them harshly, not just for the sins that they commit that are open, that are obvious, but we judge them for things that are preferences. We're walking around, we think that we're better parents because our children go to a certain school. They don't go to one at all, because we homeschool. Because that's the epitome of Christian parenting. And please don't come to me telling me what parenting style is better. I don't care. Don't tell me you're a Christian because you do this. The point is that we look at things and say, well, my way, my preference is the way. It's the godly way. Anything different than this, I'm going to judge. And I'm going to maybe go as far as to say you might not be a believer. And that's exactly where Satan wants you. He wants you looking at each other, judging for small sins. And we don't have time to go there, but in our text in Matthew 7, if you just look up to the beginning of the chapter, He talks about that. And Jesus talks about taking a little, little splinter, little speck out of someone's eye while you have the big telephone pole sticking out of yours. And you're so worried about the little speck that's in their eye. We even judge people for their entertainment choices. Now, I mean, a lot of y'all watch and listen to stuff that's trash. It's just because it's trash. It's not because I think it's ungodly. It's just y'all know, and I'm going to say it because she loves me, that my wife has such terrible taste in music. Man. I mean, we do these musical quizzes and the stuff that, like the songs that she knows, she'll be like, yup, that's this and this by Depeche Mode or by this and by that. Just trash. But I still have to love her. I can't say you're not a follower of Christ because he didn't anoint your musical taste buds. But we do that. We look at the sins. We look at just the choices. We look at the cars people drive. And we talk about how wasteful they are. We go and we gossip about what people are doing or not doing. We even hear somebody doesn't have two date nights a month as a marriage. And we think that their marriage is failing because they don't do it the way we do it. And what did James say about that? James got a lot to say. He says, So speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty, for judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. just as in Matthew 18 in the second half where it talks about forgiveness and a person who was forgiven much and was unwilling to forgive even a little and it talks about that one being thrown and cast into the lake of fire. It's not saying that you are saved and if you are merciless or if you are unforgiving, you lose your salvation. What we see is that your unforgiving heart and your merciless judgment is proof that you never knew Christ. And that's why the declaration is such. You will not receive mercy because your merciless judgment is proof that you have never received the mercy of Christ yourself. And so this leads to kind of this bigger idea of hypocrisy that happens. And we're getting to the good part of the sermon in a minute, but God beat me up with all this, so y'all gotta get it too. Turn to the Book of Amos. And I know that's one that not everybody is familiar with. Is anybody using the Church Bible? If somebody's using the Church Bible, yell out the page in the Church Bible when you find Amos. So it's after Daniel and Joel, and then you'll find it around there. A-M-O-S, Amos chapter 5. 9-11? Wow. Okay, page 9-11 if you're using the church Bible. So he wrote to the nation of Israel, who at the time was wicked, they're hypocritical, and he wrote to them about their impending destruction. And we'll see that there were so many social injustices happening in the nation, particularly in dealing with the economy and also in the judicial system. that it no longer looked like a nation that God established. So Amos chapter 5 verses 21 to 23, God has something to say to them. He says, I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not even listen to the sound of your harps." They thought they could still look like followers of God as long as they kept the festivals and offerings and the services and the songs. And they thought this was enough as long as I keep up this appearance. This is what God wants. He just wants me to go through the motions and go through these rituals. But they put up with, they allowed, they benefited from, and sometimes even celebrated injustice. And they thought in doing that they could still commune with God. Look at verse 11, look what he says there. Therefore, because you impose heavy rent on the poor, and exact a tribute of grain from them, though you have built houses of well-hewn stone, yet you will not live in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine." Listen, your worship is meaningless to God if you aren't living according to His commands. You aren't worshiping God. You're worshiping some idol you made up. You created in your mind a fake God that's okay with all of your sin. God doesn't want your offerings. God doesn't want your songs if they're done in that manner. He wants your heart. And Christ came to capture the hearts of men and women. Christ came to redeem a people, not to make sure we're singing the right songs, not to make sure we're using the right instruments, or that we make sure we do at least three hymns a month. That's not why Christ came or Christ died. He didn't come and die for our liturgy. He came for our souls. And so going through the motions of these things is nothing but hypocrisy. He says again in verse 23, but take away from me the noise of your songs. I don't want to hear it. He just shuts them down. I will not even listen to the sound of your heart. Verse 24, but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. If you are true believers, then there would be righteousness coming from you. Wherever you have the power to change a situation, you would do it in the way of righteousness. Everybody is a civic leader. Everybody then wasn't a civic leader. Not all of them had power to do that, but every landlord had the power to not rip off the poor. Every landowner had the ability to share with others. And matter of fact, according to the law, they were commanded to by the way that they gleaned in their field. So until sin is taken care of through Christ, God doesn't want your worship. He doesn't want your offerings. He doesn't want your false allegiance. He doesn't even care about your vote. So there are two more passages I want to look at quickly. 2nd Samuel chapter 12 2nd Samuel 12 and I'm going to kind of just walk go through and paraphrase it chapter 12 verses 1 through 7 David had just sinned against God against Uriah and against Bathsheba he saw a woman that he wanted her husband was off to war and so he took her she got pregnant and And then in order to hide it, he brought her husband back and said, okay, now you come back from the war, you get a little break, now you go be with your wife. And then everybody would think it's his baby. He said, no, I'm not doing that. My brothers are still out there fighting. I'm not gonna go and enjoy my wife while they're out there in the battle. And so David said, okay, what do I do? What can I do? Got him drunk, tried to do it again, didn't work. And then finally he just killed him. He just killed him. He didn't just kill him. He killed a bunch of other people as well in order to make his death look like an accident. And after he did that, then God sent the prophet Nathan to come and talk to David. And he tells him this story. He says, there were two men in the city. There was a rich man and there was a poor man. And this rich man had, in verse 2, we can see that this rich man had great many flocks and herds. The poor man had nothing except one little lamb. And this lamb was a pet to him. So he took care of it. He fed him the same food that he would have, you know, kind of what you do with your dogs. That's just nasty, but whatever. You know, like giving them dog licking on your hand and all that stuff. But I'm trying not to look over there. He treated him like a little pet. He even said he slept with him. And he slept and he had him on his bosom when he slept. That's nasty. And he did all this with this lamb while this man lived close by who had great many herds and flocks. And he had a visitor come, the rich man. He didn't want to kill any of his own. And so he went and he stole the pet of the poor man and slaughtered that and fed that to his visitor. And David heard that, look at verse 5. Then David's anger burned greatly against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion. And Nathan said to David, you are the man! You are the man. And then goes on and talks about what God did to him, what God gave him and picked him over Saul and outlines his sin. He was so outraged about this story, about this fake person and this fake lamb. He was so, I was more outraged about that than he was about stealing a man's wife and then killing him and a bunch of other soldiers. He was more outraged about this story, about that sin. How many times do we do that? How many times do we outrage about the sins of others? And we get outraged and we talk about what's going on in this world, what's going on in the Oval Office, what's going on in this state, in that state, what school system is doing what, and what they're teaching, and this person is this and that, and then we go home and we're horrible spouses, we're horrible parents, we provoke our children to anger even though the Bible says not to. We go to work late and don't make up the time and steal hours from our employer. and grumble and complain about work all the time. When the Bible tells us that we are to work as if we're working unto God. We violate scripture left and right. But when someone else does it, that person should die. We have the same outrage as David. Man just killed a bunch of people after stealing his wife and getting her pregnant. And you're ready to kill somebody over a lamb? And Nathan doesn't say, David, you're wrong to be angry about the story, about the lamb. He should have been. Because all sin should be repulsive to us. We should hate all sin the way that God does. But you're wrong to be outraged about the sin of someone else and be comfortable with your own sin. And to David's credit, and to show the Spirit of God in him, he repented immediately. And you can read Psalm 51 if you want to read how he felt about that, how he came to God. And there's one more, pretty quickly, I just want to take you through, in Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14. I think this is important here. Luke 18, 9 through 14. This is talking about Jesus telling the parable. Luke 18 verse 9 says, and he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Two men went up into a temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and was praying this to himself, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all I get. But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, this man went to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Again, and that plea was just a couple weeks ago. We heard about this. might have even been one, but we see how important this idea of hypocrisy is to God. You see that David's hypocrisy could not stand. These Pharisees, these religious people who trusted in themselves, trusted in their works, it could not stand. and the hypocrisy of the whole nation could not stand. He says, stop singing to me. Stop bringing me offerings. God does not stand for our hypocrisy. Are you outraged about sin because the society tells you these are the sins you're supposed to be outraged about? So then when a society changes its mind about what sins outrage us and make us feel disgusted, the church then changes its stance? Is that where we're at? Are we angry about these things because the Word of God is in us so much that we can't stand this sin? Are we angry about those things because it's a convenient way to make us feel and look better? To make us feel like we're close to God because I hate these sins while we go on sinning all the time with no hatred at all. So, I said there was some good news in this. Well, one is the good news is that if you've been living in a way that doesn't line up with what God has commanded, because you couldn't, because you have not been transformed, you are not born again, God is still giving you time. He's still giving you time to come to Him in faith and repentance. And He grants those things to those with a humble and contrite heart. The other good news is that he outlines what is, what are, the marks of salvation. And I'm just going to list three things really quickly. And they're all going to be found in 1 John. I've had the pleasure of going through 1 John with the young adults on Young Adult Bible Study this past year. And it's a very convicting book. And while we don't have time to go through it all, there are three main things. You can break it up into more, but there are three main things. The point of 1 John was, the main reason for writing the book was that there were these false teachers who brought this false gospel. They seemed to have come from within the congregation or within either local congregations near them. And they begin to bring this false gospel. It seems like it was this kind of early form of Gnosticism. You know, they believed that Christ, didn't die on the cross. It seems like they believe that he inhabited a human body just as kind of a costume and he did not take on humanity fully as the Bible teaches first in Philippians 2. And they also taught this version of Gnosticism that matter is evil and wicked and that's the reason why they had to say that. and they believe different things about Christ, whether he died on the cross, he didn't, or the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ that was in him left right before the crucifixion. And so it wasn't God himself enduring that. He told all these kind of things. And so John wrote this letter to clarify some of that. Also, some of the people in the congregation started believing they weren't believers because they believed this. They started believing these other people and said, well, this isn't the gospel we believed. Do we not know God at all now? And so he wrote it to give them assurance. He wrote what it looks like to be a believer. And it was to detect false teaching, detect the false teachers, and to believe the truth. And if you believe it, have assurance. so they were three main things understanding of in and belief in the full gospel and i say full gospel because of of what you know they talk that that jesus didn't come to take on uh... flesh to take on the form of a servant uh... in that way so you believe that you believe that you needed you stand before god right now as a wicked unrighteous person there's nothing you can do to save yourself and so God sent Christ into the world to live for us and to perfectly obey God's law so that we can have His righteousness on our account. And then He died on the cross for our sins as a sinless Savior. He died as a sacrifice for our sins so that we put our faith and trust in Him. Then our sins will be put on His account and His righteousness will be given to us. So that's the first thing you have to believe and it's all over 1st John, 1st John 5, 6 through 12, if you're taking notes, is I think the place that kind of spells that out the most. It even says, this testimony came from the Son, the Spirit, and the Father, all testify to that fact. Then, obedience to Christ's commands. I am going to read this, 1st John 2, 3 through 6, says, by this we know that we have come to him. If we keep his commandments, The one who says, I have come to know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the manner as he walked. It's not in the same manner as he walked. So the fruit of obedience will be seen in the life of every believer. And that's why Jesus said, good fruit comes from the good tree and it indicates a good tree. And if you have bad fruit, rotten, stinking fruit, no matter how good it looks on the outside, it indicates that the whole tree itself is bad. Even in John 14, 15, Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. He didn't say you will hate those two sins or any sins that are prominent in your country. He didn't say you will harshly judge others while ignoring your own sinfulness. He didn't even say you'll vote a certain way. He didn't say you'll use certain language. He said you will keep my commandments. And keeping his commandments may entail hating certain sins and speaking out more on some than others because they're more prevalent, things like that. But that's not the mark of salvation. And you know, fighting sin, and I always talk about when people say I'm struggling with sin. They say they're struggling and there's no struggle in sight. There's no wrestling. There's no fighting. You're walking arm in arm with sin. You're putting your arm around sin. Come on, let's go. I need some of that pleasure today. And we say, I'm struggling. Because that's just the language we use. Yeah, I'm struggling with anger right now. No, you're not. You're just letting it go every time you feel angry. Somebody's going to feel it. And somebody's going to know it when you're angry. Even if it's not your words, it's your attitude, it's your posture, maybe you're throwing things, it's the tone of your voice. You're going to make sure someone knows you are displeased with them. That's not a struggle. That's not a fight. That's just you walking arm in arm with it, embracing it, loving it. And you probably can't tell now, but I used to be heavy into weightlifting. And one of the things that would happen is when you're weightlifting, you're trying to get stronger, is that you would hit this plateau. You would hit a place and you're stuck. And so at the time when you're stuck, you have to start focusing on other things. You still do what you're doing in the weight room, but maybe you change your programming up. So maybe instead of doing 5 sets of 5 reps, you do 3 sets of 10 reps or you increase the sets and you go even heavier and you do 10 sets of 3 reps or without, you know, the things that you change up. You change up your programming. You maybe start doing other accessory exercises. You look at your eating. You look at how much rest you're getting. You're making sure that you're feeding your body well and treating it well. You're making sure that you're not overworking. You maybe take a deload week. It's all these things. You make sure that you're stretching properly. You do all of these things because you want to increase the lifts. You want to do better with the list. But all these other things support it. And it just reminds me of how when we're stuck in sin and we really are trying to fight against it, that you begin accessing all these disciplines of grace, these means of grace that God gives us. You begin praying more. You pray about that sin all the time. That's you fighting against it. You're reading. You should be an expert on what the Bible says about the sins that plague you. You should be an expert, not an expert on the sins of the nation. You should be an expert on everything the Bible says about anger, if you deal with anger. You should be an expert on that. If your marriage is faltering, you should know everything the Bible says, not just about marriage, but about relating with people, because your spouse is a person. So all those one another's we talk about, and we can show all that grace to everyone else, then when we get home, we lose it all, because there's only a couple passages we know about marriage. You should be an expert on how to interact with people. on what the Bible says about that. Confessing our sin, talking to others about it, praying about it in corporate, finding other people who have struggled with it and who have overcome it and put it to death. Those are the things that you do to struggle with it. And that shows that the Spirit of God is really in you. And the last thing that we see, again we can't look at all of it, but in 1st John chapter 3, is our love for others. John has some very strong language to say about our obedience to Christ and our love for others. John chapter 3, let's look at a couple of verses here. Verse 10 says, By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Here goes both of them. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Skip down to verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. That's the assurance. That's the assurance. When you love each other the way that Christ loved us, then you know that you have passed from death to life. You know you're on that narrow road and you're going to see that narrow gate. You know that when you meet Christ, He is not going to be talking to you as judgment. He's not going to tell you, I never knew you. But He's going to welcome you. Verse 15 says, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. And I wish we had time to look at the Sermon on the Mount, but we don't. But if you want to look there, Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 and 22, we'll read what Jesus says about hate and murder. And just one line from that, anyone who says you fool to his brother or sister shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. He was correct in their belief that only murder was the sin that was talked about there. But it was what's truly in our hearts. And he says, if you say you fool, or you use any other pejorative of the day, you use any other insult or slur of the day, you're guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Verse 16, we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. And that's pretty big. And most of us say, yeah, I'm willing to do that. But everything short of that, we should be willing to do as well. Verse 17, whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in needs and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us love not with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. And that is what a true believer looks like. It doesn't matter what you post on social media. It doesn't matter how you respond when you drive by a rainbow flag, or if you want to reclaim the rainbow. It doesn't matter all those things. What matters is if you believe the full and true gospel, not just know it and agree with it, but if you believe it enough that it impacts your life, that you follow the law of Christ, that you obey Christ and his commands, and that you love each other. So if that has not been what describes your life, if that has not been what describes your practice, then I pray that you will go to the Lord today in repentance and you will turn to Him and you will cry out to Him, even if it's the first time, even if you've been a believer in your heart and your mind and in visual for 40, 50 years, but you don't really know Christ and you weren't a true believer. There is no shame in that. It's better to get it right now than to go into eternity and hear, I never knew you. Depart for be you who practice lawlessness. So pray to God. And even if you have the assurance, pray that those things will be removed from your heart. Pray that the hypocrisy will be removed from your heart. Pray that you'll grow in love and you'll decrease in merciless judgment. And let's pray right now. Oh, great God, we just come to you, thanking you for an opportunity to ask for your grace, to ask for your mercy. We ask God that you would reveal the truth of our hearts, that you would reveal if we belong to you. You would reveal to us if we truly know you. And Lord, if we don't, you will grant us the faith and repentance to turn from our sins and turn to you. We pray God that All of our lives we'll be seeking to honor you and that we would be able to love each other and that we would obey what you have commanded. We pray, Lord, that even now as we examine ourselves for the Lord's table, we just pray that you would minister to us, Lord, reveal to us your truth. And I pray all of this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.