Time to Choose Pt 2

And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 7.

Matthew, chapter 7.

We're finishing up the Sermon on the Mount over these next couple of weeks. And we said that this last section that we moved into, was called a time to choose. And so, this is time to choose part two here in this next set of verses that we look at. We said that the Bible calls for us to make choices. We looked at several different places in Scripture where the children of Israel were called to choose who they were going to serve.

And Jesus is no different in the way that he presents the truth. He spent all this time presenting the truth of the kingdom to them in the Sermon on the Mount. And now he tells them to choose. Choose how their life is going to reflect the truth that he has presented to them. We said that there were four areas or four choices in which he calls us to choose, which I turned into four questions.

Number one, which path will you take? Number two, who will you listen to? Number three, what will your life say? And number four, how will you build your house? Last week, we looked at the first one. We looked at which path did you choose? Which path are you on? The wide path that leads to destruction or the narrow path that leads to life? And so today, the challenge gets just a little bit deeper.

As we look at these next two sections on not only who are you going to listen to, but what will your life say? And so we pick up in verse 15 of chapter seven, and this is what it says. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?

So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name cast out demons and in your name, perform many miracles. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And so he starts off by presenting to them this choice that they need to make. And the choice that they'll need to make is who are you going to listen to?

And so he gives them a warning. He says, beware of false prophets. Well, as we get into this, I think it's important for us to identify exactly what he means when he says false prophet. So I looked this up in the Vines Dictionary, and this is what it says. A false prophet is one who acts, like a divinely inspired prophet, but utters falsehood under the name of divine prophecies.

In other words, somebody who acts like they belong to Jesus, but says things that Jesus wouldn't say. That's what a false prophet is. Now, when we think about what false prophets are, I think that there are several ways that we can identify them. Number one, I can't remember if I had to put this up here. I highlighted all kinds of stuff, so I don't remember what I had to put up there, what I didn't.

Number one, they will point to themselves, and not to Jesus. One of the things that you'll take note of when somebody is a false prophet, a false teacher in some way, shape, or form, is that they begin to be the one that is the focal point of their preaching. They begin to be the one that they try to draw disciples to. As a matter of fact, I remember going to visit some friends when I was a teenager in Colorado, and my mom and dad went to a Bible study with this group of friends.

We stayed with the kids, and they went to some sort of a Bible study. When we got ready to leave these friends' house, my parents said, Whoa, that's scary. Do you know what everybody had to say in that Bible study that we went to? They all told us how great the preacher was. Nobody talked about Jesus. They all talked about what a dynamic person he was. And I thought,

Wow, that's a pretty good indication of what is going on in that particular ministry. It's only about that individual, and it's not pointing people to Jesus. Because we, in the ministry, are called to point people to the truth of Jesus Christ, and to a relationship with him. But when someone is a false prophet, they stop drawing disciples to Jesus, and they start drawing disciples unto themselves.

And so that's the first way that we can identify what it means to be a false prophet. Number two, they will not handle the word properly. They will not handle the word properly. In other words, when they give out the truth of what God's word has to say, there's always falsehood mixed into it. What you'll find is that they will blend a lot of verses together

that will make all of those verses, say something different than what the original context is. As a matter of fact, they won't want to use context at all. They'll give you portions of scripture with no context attached to it, because they don't handle the word of God properly. And as they handle the word of God improperly, they begin to come up with entirely new truths.

As a matter of fact, some of these false teachers will even tell you that they have a new revelation. Anytime somebody says that they've got a new revelation, I say, No. No, you don't. Or you do, but it's not from Jesus. Because, because, we know that God has sealed up this word and any revelation that someone receives had better line up with what scripture has to say.

Otherwise, we can look at you and say, uh-uh, because that's not true. And so they will not handle the word of God properly. I see this going on in a lot of places right now, and I see it happening in a lot of churches right now. As a matter of fact, this issue of not handling the word of God properly, do you realize that this has been an issue that began to rise in the United States in the very early 1900s?

There was a meeting, it took place, I believe it was in a loft in New York City in the early 1900s for a group of men to discuss how they were going to begin to spread the works of a very new author by the name of Karl Marx. And they wanted to figure out how they could infiltrate the nation with the teachings of Karl Marx. Do you know how they figured out that they could do it? They would begin to infiltrate not only educational institutions that were public in nature, but they would infiltrate educational institutes that were private in nature.

They started moving into, the seminaries of the nation. And it's been a slow process, but as that process has begun to take place, you start seeing places like Fuller Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, that not only aren't handling the word of God properly, don't even believe that the word of God is the inerrant scripture. And because of teaching like that, it's producing pastors in churches who don't believe that this is the word of God. They'll say things like, it contains the word of God.

No, it doesn't just contain the word of God. It is the word of God. Because when you start adding little words like, oh, it just, it contains the word of God, that would indicate to you that part of this isn't true and part of it is. Well, at that point in time, if I'm a skeptic, you know what I ask? So how do you decide which is true and which isn't? You see, it's either all the word of God

or it's not the word of God, but it can't be both. But false teachers will begin to handle the word of God in an inaccurate, improper sort of way. And that's how you can begin to identify them. So not only will they not point to Jesus and instead point to themselves, they will not handle the word of God properly. The third thing is that they will downplay the importance of sanctification.

They will downplay the importance of sanctification. What do I mean by that? Holy living is no longer important. As a matter of fact, you need to do what's right for you. You need to decide what truth is right for you. And if the truth that's right for you is that we need to change your pronouns, why, then that's what's right for you and we can be okay with that.

If what's right for you is a different kind of love than what we would describe as love, well, then we have to be okay with that. If what's right for you is to pursue whatever pleasure you have in your life, then we need to be okay with that. And it never starts off in a big way. It always starts off in a small way, but it always ends up with a downplaying of sanctification because after all, isn't God love?

And doesn't God love for us to be happy? And that's what begins to take place when you listen to false teaching. So if you hear someone teaching and they're not addressing the issues of sin, they're not pointing you to Jesus and they're not handling the word of God properly, you'd better watch out. We'll address that a little bit more as we move on. And so he says,

beware of these false prophets because why? They come to you in sheep's clothing. They will come to you in sheep's clothing. What we have to understand, what we've learned about false prophets and false teaching is that nobody gives you 100% false teaching. They will add falsehoods to truth because that's the easiest way to trick somebody. You see, if somebody showed up

on a Sunday morning at a church and began telling you that God isn't real, Jesus isn't real, and you should denounce your faith, most of the church would say, false teacher. That's pretty easy to identify. But if they show up and in little doses and in little bits and pieces, give you a little bit of falsehood mixed with a whole lot of truth and they look the part and they seem to appear to be the right kind of person, well, then that's how people can get fooled. Because a false teacher's never gonna show up and show you his fangs.

A false teacher's gonna show up wearing wool just like the rest of us, only it's not true wool because he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. He says, beware of these false teachers because they'll come to you in sheep's clothing, but notice who they are really. Inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. Inwardly, they are wolves that want to destroy you. Do you remember the warning that Paul gave

to the Ephesian elders there in the book of Acts, towards the end of the book of Acts? That last time that he met with the Ephesian elders, he said, this is what you need to know. After I leave, deceptive men will come in and they will be like ravenous wolves, not caring who they damage because that's what false teachers do. False teachers take true believers, who want to follow Jesus Christ, but are gullible because they don't know the word of God and they lead them down the wrong path.

They lead them away from the truth of the word of God. They lead them away from a life of sanctification and they lead them away from Jesus. He says, beware of these false teachers because though they show up in sheep's clothing, inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. Now, there was one word in here that I did not address and it's the very first word that he uses.

Notice what it says in verse 15. It says, beware. I love the way that we translate this. He says, be constantly guarding yourself against these false prophets. Why does he say to be constantly guarding yourself against them? Because we are gullible people. We are people that can give into what our flesh likes. And do you know what a false teacher is always going to appeal to?

What our flesh likes, which is why it's easy for us to fall into it. It's easy for us to fall into falsehood because it will usually appeal to our flesh. And we'll go, oh, boy, that sounds a lot better than a hard life. Boy, that sounds a whole lot better than sacrifice. Boy, it sounds a whole lot better than trying to be holy when I know that I struggle with that.

It sounds a whole lot better than telling myself no when I can indulge everything possible. He says, be on constant guard against them because it will appeal to your flesh. But not only that, be on constant guard against them because they are deceptive. What's the very nature of deceptive? The very nature of deceptive. Deceptive is that it's hard to identify

whether or not it's false. I give you the perfect example. The perfect example of the false teacher was Satan showing up to Eve, right? Do you remember what Satan did with Eve? He said, did God really say? You see, he didn't handle the word of God properly. He did not lead her towards sanctification. Instead, he led her into an area of sin. And it was very deceptive

because it was mixed with just a little bit of truth. You see, he says, beware. Be constantly on your guard against these false teachers. Be constantly on your guard against who you're listening to. Right now, if you go to the internet and you search for Bible teachers, especially on the YouTube machine, anytime somebody says, I watched this video on YouTube,

I go, okay, wait. Let's first of all identify who it is and whether or not everything else that they have to say is okay. Because I'm here to tell you right now, YouTube is a perfect place to come across a lot of false teachers. Because it is full of them. Matter of fact, a quick Google search of podcasts will reveal to you a great deal of false teachers. And there's all kinds of them

that probably sound really good to listen to. But just because you have a podcast and you call it Bible teaching doesn't mean that's what it is. And so we have to constantly be on guard against these things. Notice what he says here next in verse 16. He says, you will know them by their fruits. You will know them by their fruits. In other words, what their life produces

will be a really good tell of who they are. He gives us some examples from nature. Notice what he says. Grapes aren't gathered from thorn bushes, are they? Nor figs from thistles. Two different examples from nature. He says, nobody goes to a thorn bush to try to get grapes because that's not where you find them. Because a tree is known for its fruit. He says, nobody gets figs from the thistles, does he?

No, because that's not the kind of fruit that they bear. He says in verse 16, so every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Nature itself tells us that if we really want to know what something is like, we look at the fruit that it produces. I remember when I first started into groundskeeping,

I didn't know very much about plant identification. Still don't. But I definitely didn't know a lot at that point in time. And it was wintertime, and we were working in someone's yard, and there was a shrub. I said, hey, what kind of shrub is that? And a guy that I was working with that did know a lot about plant identification said, I'm not real sure. I have to wait till it flowers.

Now, what does that mean? It means he needs to see the fruit of that shrub in order to know what kind it is. You see, that's what Jesus is telling us right now is sometimes you have to sit back and look at the fruit. And I've had to do this with people that I've listened to is I've had to sit back and listen to the fruit of what they have to say. Sit back and see the fruit of their life

because sometimes you won't see it immediately. Have you ever been listening to someone and thought to yourself, what's off? What's off about what's being said right now? And you can't pick it up right away. You can't always identify it right away. There's a Bible teacher I heard a long time ago when I was first doing college ministry and everybody loved him,

and I was the odd man out. I was like, what's off? His name was Rob Bell. If you ever heard of Rob Bell. And I remember listening to him and listening to this video of his, and I remember thinking, what's off? I don't know what's off about what's being said, but something's off about what's being said. Well, within the last 10 years, he's come out with a book that says that hell doesn't exist.

God loves us out of hell. No, God's not gonna send anyone to hell. He just keeps loving us until we decide hell's not for us. You see, that's called false doctrine. And so as I sat back and listened, I went, huh. And I just sort of filed in the back of my mind, like, what's wrong with that guy? I don't fully know. I don't fully know what's wrong with him yet,

but something's off about what he's saying. I'm gonna look for the fruit in his life. I'm gonna see what ends up happening. Well, eventually a false teacher will out themselves because their false doctrine will not be able to be hidden for very long because eventually the way that they feel will come out of the things that they say. As a matter of fact, David Guzik in his commentary said this,

the fruit of false teachers can be seen in three ways. First of all, in the content of their teaching. And that's sometimes the easiest thing to do is just to listen to the things that they say and determine what kind of fruit is being produced in their life. Because if they're handling the word of God correctly, well, then they will always be in the word of God and the content of their teaching will always be pointing you to the word of God and always encouraging you to test what they say against the word of God.

Because the content of their teaching will be the fruit of their ministry. But not only the content of their teaching, but the effect. In other words, what is their teaching producing in the lives of others? Is it producing in the lives of others a desire to know their Savior more? Is it producing in the lives of others a desire to know the word of God more?

Is it producing in the lives of others a desire for holiness? Because that should be the effect of their teaching. But then the third thing he said was pretty interesting to me. And he said, and the third way that you can test the fruit of their life is by their ministry. By their manner of living. By their manner of living. Anybody read the article about Joel Osteen's church this last week?

Maybe it was two weeks ago. Oh, God bless him. I hope Joel Osteen repents one of these days. I really do. I hope he gets right with Jesus. They found thousands and thousands, I think hundreds of thousands, 600,000 if I remember correctly, but it's somewhere in that range, of dollars hidden in the walls of his church. You know, there was an accounting discrepancy

at some point in time that they explained away. And now hundreds of thousands of dollars have been found in the walls of the church during a construction project. Why is it there? Who put it there? But I'll tell you what, the manner of living can sure out you, can't it? Your manner of living can sure reveal to the rest of the world the fruit of your life. Again, I hope Rob Bell repents.

I hope Joel Osteen repents. And I know that if I stand up here today, I know that if I stand up here today, and say those names, I'd better be praying for them too. Because far be it from me to ever think that I'm above falling in any way possible. Any of us are not above falling in any way possible. I think I've shared with you, there was a pastor that I did ministry with.

We used to do youth camps together. And he was such a dynamic pastor. I won't give you his name because he's decently local, at least in the next couple of states. And he was a dynamic Bible teacher. And I thought the world of him. And then he began to fall into the emergent church movement. The emergent church movement which no longer honors the word of God.

Which no longer honors the truth of who Jesus is, but presents a bloodless gospel and a life without sacrifice. And I remember thinking, oh, that hurts so bad to see him fall into that. But you know what? It got worse. Because one day, he stood before his church and he said, all the things I've been teaching you are false. I don't believe in Jesus. I don't believe in the

Bible. I'm leaving my wife for another woman. You see, false teaching has detrimental effects because it can be seen in the fruit of our life. Notice what it says. Jesus says it right here. He says in verse 19, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. When he says cut down and thrown into the fire,

does that mean eternal damnation? I don't know if I can fully say confidently what he means by cut down and thrown into the fire. Other than this, there are consequences that go with false teachers, and there are consequences that go with falling into false teaching. Whether those consequences are false or false teaching, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter

whether those consequences be devastating consequences on this side of eternity or whether those consequences be devastating consequences on the other side of eternity. That's between you and Jesus to figure out. But what I can tell you confidently is there's consequences because a tree is known by its fruit. So what is there for us to figure out? What is there for us to learn? How can

we identify good fruit? And so again, there's three questions we should ask. And quite frankly, you should ask these of me too. I should not be somebody that thinks of myself as someone who is above giving into false teaching. So if you can't answer yes to any of these questions with me, you need to confront me about it. Okay? So how can we identify the fruit? Number one,

does it point me to Jesus? Does it point me to Jesus? Everything that you listen to, everything that you take in, all of the things that teachers give out should always be pointing us to the truth of Jesus. So if you can't answer yes to any of these questions with me, the truth of Jesus Christ. Because all of scripture points us to the truth of Jesus Christ.

Starting from the very beginning, it's always pointing us to the truth of who Jesus is. Because we know that ultimately who was the one that actually spoke the world into existence? Why that was Jesus. So when it says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, we see Jesus. We see that there. And it should always be pointing us to Jesus. And you should always be

looking for where is, where am I being pointed to? And it should always be pointing us to Jesus. Where am I being pointed to Jesus in the things that are being said? Where am I being pointed to Jesus in the things that I'm listening to? Because if it's not, you need to do away with it. And if I'm not, you need to do away with me. Because if I don't point you to Jesus, I shouldn't be up here.

I should go do something else. Because that's the point of the entire thing. And so we ask ourselves, first of all, are the things that I'm listening to pointing me to Jesus? Number two, is it encouraging holiness? That's the point of the entire thing. And we see that the main thing that is missing in most of the churches today, I pray it's not missing in our church today, is the pointing of people to a holy

life. I think in the cheap, great society that we live in right now, we have stopped telling people. But what God requires, not desires, requires of us is holiness, and we cannot produce that holiness in and of ourselves. That's why he sent Jesus, because Jesus death on the cross guaranteed holiness in my standing before God. His Resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit is what empowers me to live a holy life today,

but that doesn't mean God does not require holiness of us. And yet in the church today, the church in general, you find that nobody preaches on holiness anymore. Oh no, that's old time religion. We don't need to be holy. We're covered in grace. Exactly. We're covered in grace so that we can be holy. Because grace is not a license to sin. Grace is the strength to live holy.

And yet how many teachers are you listening to today that say nothing of holy living? Does it encourage holiness? And then the last question, number three, that we should ask ourselves is, is it based in God's word? Is it based in God's word? I got to be honest with you every now and then. I have to take points off of my, off of my outline because I cannot fully support them

with what God's word has to say. Are they true? Probably, but I can't back it up with scripture and it irritates me because I'm like, surely there's some kind of a scripture that says what I want to say right here. But if I can't find it, I have to say, better pray about that one. Can't find a scripture that backs it up. Every now and then I have to do that and it frustrates me.

But everything I say, if it's not based in God's word, man, am I in trouble? And the things that you hear, if they're not based in God's word, man, are you in trouble? You should be able to hold up everything against God's word and say, yeah, that lines up. Do you remember what Paul said on one of his missionary journeys? He said he went and saw the Bereans and the Bereans were more fair-minded than others

because they tested everything he had to say against God's word. You know, if Eve had tested what Satan had to say against God's word, she would have said, truly against God's word, we would not be dealing with the situations we're dealing with right now. Am I right? If she would have just said, yeah, but pretty much God was like, no, so I think I'm going to go ahead and go with what God says.

And yet, what is the battle that we fight every day of our lives? Is God's word okay with it? Because we can be as hard on Eve as we want to, but quite frankly, how many times last week did you say, I know God's word says. But I want to do it anyway, but I want to do it anyway. You see, it's got to line up with what God's word has to say, because that's the classic

battle that's always been fought. We have to rest our lives. And I love this. I believe it was from Chuck Smith. He said, we have to rest our lives on the twin sufficiencies, the inerrancy of God's word and the power of the Holy Spirit. If our lives rest on those twin sufficiencies, then we will always be in line with God's word. We will always be in line with what God wants for us.

And so, if it doesn't point me to Jesus, if it does not encourage holiness, if it is not based in God's word, then you got to drop it like it's hot. At least that's what the pimps in the crib say, right? We've got to do that. We got to get rid of that kind of thing. And if it's on the podcast that you're listening to, quit listening to that podcast. If it's one of the YouTube videos you're watching, stop watching that YouTube video.

If it's some teacher that you're following right now, stop following. Because listen, you don't know enough about God's word to not give in to false teaching. If you don't believe me, ask the pastor I just told you about. Because he went to the same Bible college that I did. He was a pastor at the same kind of church that I am. And yet, look at him now.

We have to get rid of the stuff that doesn't point us to Jesus and not mess around with it. He says, beware of false teachers. Why? Because we have to make a choice in our life. Who are you going to? Listen to. Well, he goes on from there to ask another what I consider probing question. And this is what he says. He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

I'm not sure that that's not one of the most sobering verses I've ever read. I'm not sure that that portion of Scripture is not one of the more soul-searching portions of Scripture that I've ever read. Because we have a problem in our culture. And we have a problem in church. And the problem that we have are two things. Number one, easy confessions. And number two, cheap grace.

Easy confessions are a real problem within the church today. I think a lot of this started during the time of Constantine. I try not to blame him for too many things. But hey, it's the Christmas season. It's time to start blaming Constantine. Under the reign of Constantine, you remember things. Things very drastically changed within the Roman Empire. You see, up to that point in time in the early church,

if you declared that you were a follower of Jesus Christ, you were persecuted, tortured, and sometimes even killed for the fact that you followed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Oh, but then Constantine came along and he founded what's known as the Holy Roman Empire. You see, Constantine saw that vision of the cross and he was determined to follow Jesus. And so he went the exact opposite direction.

You know what direction he went? He said, anybody that doesn't claim that they're a Christian is going to be persecuted. And so you know what? All of a sudden, everybody became in the Roman Empire a Christian. It was the easiest thing in the world to do because you could make your profession of faith, call yourself okay with the Roman Empire, and then live your life however you wanted to

because, hey, at least intellectually, you've assented to the fact that you're a believer in Jesus Christ. Therefore, as far as the Roman Empire is concerned, you're fine. Nothing's going to happen to you. Now, that sounds ridiculous. Ridiculous when we think about a government instituting it. But do you know what's even more ridiculous? When people tell themselves, hey, I believe in Jesus.

Therefore, I'm okay as far as God's concerned. And now I can live my life however I want to. Because after all, I've made my statement of faith. Yes, I believe in Jesus. You see, sometimes this can be the issue with crusades where they say, hey, if you just come down front, you just come down front and you give your life to Jesus and everybody has this emotional moment and they come down front and they say a prayer

and in their minds, they're like, I'm okay now because I said that little prayer. The only problem is their life doesn't reflect it because it wasn't a true conversion. It was an emotional moment. And so though they may say, I believe in Jesus, I've put my faith in him, but I live however I want to. We go, now, wait a second. What's really going on with you?

We call that an easy confession. And it happens every day in churches. And it happens every day with Christians, quote unquote. As they say, I belong to a church, I'm okay. I go to a Bible study, I'm okay. I own a Bible, I'm okay. But what does he say here? He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Because it's easy to say, I'm a Christian.

That brings us to the second issue. The second issue that we deal with is cheap grace. Boyce in his expositional commentary quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, The Cost of Discipleship. And this is what he writes. I had to put this up here. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, and repentance without church discipline.

Communion without confession. Absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate. I can't think of a better way to describe what most people call grace in the church today. They like to call grace preaching of forgiveness without repentance. Baptism without church discipline and communion without confession.

You see, we want everything. The world has taught us you can have everything that you want. You can have it your way. And we've done the exact same thing with the grace of God. We've said you can have all of the grace with none of the repentance. You can have all of the forgiveness without ever confessing your sin. You can do all of those things and that's okay.

And then grace becomes the license with which we sin. Grace becomes the license with which we call ourselves okay because hey, I at least believe that Jesus exists. Do you remember what Jesus said to that? Even the demons believe and they shudder. But that doesn't mean they're a part of the kingdom. See, I get concerned for the church today. My heart is heavy for the church today.

Because in the church today, I see people that attend churches every week, not necessarily here, although probably here too. But people that attend churches today that I look at and I go, you don't get it. You don't get what it really means to follow Jesus. Because all you've made is an easy confession and all you've done is tout cheap grace. Because you don't get what it really means to know and follow Jesus.

You don't get what it really means to be born again. Because we've made it too easy in the church today. We've sucked the teeth out of the gospel. Because of these two things. Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. So what does he say next? He says, but he who does the will of my father, who is in heaven, will enter.

He says, he who does the will of my father, that's the one that's going to get into heaven. Not the one who makes the intellectual assent to the fact that he believes in God. Not the one who speaks the fact that he believes in God. But the one who tries, truly has done the will of his father who is in heaven. And so I hope you ask yourself the same question right now

because I'm about to answer it. The same question I did. Well, what's the will of the father in heaven? Well, I'm glad you asked. I've got three things. Number one, believe in Jesus. Believe in Jesus. As a matter of fact, hey, let's do a little biblical Olympics, shall we? Go over to the book of John. John chapter six. Let's be true believers that really use our Bibles today, shall we?

John. John chapter six. And I want you to look at verse 29.

John chapter six, verse 29. Oh, and you know me. I want context. Verse 26 starts like this. Jesus answered and said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the son will give to you.

For on him, the father, God has set his seal. Therefore, they said to him, what shall we do so that we may work the works of God? Verse 29, here's the one you should pay attention. Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. This is the work is that you believe in him. But Ryan, you said you can't just say that you believe.

That's right. You can't just say you believe. It has to be what is truly in your heart. There has to be a complete reliance upon because that's what the word believe means. I've always used the exact same example because it's the best example I can come up with. If I were to fall off of a boat into an ocean where I could not swim and somebody threw me a life preserver,

I could look at that life preserver and I could think to myself, gosh, that's a Williams life preserver. I have no idea if that's a brand. I'm just using an example. You know, Williams is the best life preserver that they make. As a matter of fact, it won J.D. Powers award this year for the best life preserver ever. Matter of fact, Consumer Reports did a study.

And it saves 9.75 out of 10 lives every year. I don't know what happens to the other quarter of the lives. Yes, I do because I haven't grabbed onto the life preserver yet. I can know all about the stinking life preserver, but until I go, ah, and grab onto the life preserver, it doesn't do me any good. You see, that's what Jesus means when he says, this is the work that God wants you to do

that you would believe in him whom the father has sent. It can't just be an intellectual belief. It can't just be believing that Jesus exists. That just means that you have an IQ level higher than a trash can. It's easy to believe that God exists, but to put your faith in him means that you've wrapped your arms all the way around him and said, this is the only hope that I have

because this is the only place for salvation. You see, Peter put it best when Jesus was starting to teach some really hard things. And all of the disciples were wanting to leave, not the 12, but a lot of the people that called themselves disciples, the ones who would say, Lord, Lord, that aren't going to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus looked at his boys and he said, boys, what do you think?

Are you going to leave? And Peter goes, where are we going to go? No one else has eternal life. You see, that's faith. Faith says, I have nowhere else to go. You're the only thing I have to hold on to. And that is the will of God. You see, I've got to go. I've got to go. I've got to go. I've got to go. I've got to go. I've got to go. I've got to go. I've got to go.

You see, I've come to a place in my life of understanding one thing and one thing only. My only hope is in Jesus. Because apart from him, I got nothing.

So what does it mean to do the will of God? Number one, believe in Jesus. Number two, the will of God is sanctification. Go with me another place in scripture. Go over to the book of 1 Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians chapter four.

And I want you to look at verse three.

1 Thessalonians chapter four, verse three says this. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. I've worked with young people for a long time in my life. And all young people, especially once they get really close to graduating high school, all want to know the same thing. What's God's will for my life? And I always take them here first.

God's will for me. God's will for your life is sanctification. What does sanctification mean? It means being set apart unto God. You see, God's will, if I'm going to do God's will for my life, it means every part of my life needs to be set apart unto him. That means that God can't just own my Sunday morning. And as a matter of fact, for some people, it means God needs to own your Sunday morning first.

It doesn't just mean that God owns my Sunday morning. It doesn't just mean that God owns my Sunday morning and my Wednesday night. It doesn't just mean God owns my Sunday morning, my Wednesday night. In the first 20 minutes of my morning or the last 20 minutes of my day, it means that my entire life needs to be devoted to him because that's what God desires for me.

God desires wholehearted commitment to me. That's what I love about that burnt offering in the book of Leviticus. Because in the book of Leviticus, when they bring that burnt offering, they would come and they would bring that lamb or that ram and they would slay it before the Lord after laying their hands on it. And then they would put it up on the altar and the entire thing would be consumed.

What did that mean? Total commitment to God. You see, in the world we're living in right now, this is where we're struggling with following the will of God. Because right now we've been taught you can follow the will of God as long as it's convenient for you. But once it becomes inconvenient, once it cuts into your personal time, once it cuts into your personal life

and it begins to be a sacrifice, why then you need to just back off a little bit because you've become a little bit too radical. Meanwhile, God's saying, you don't even know what real life looks like until you've totally committed your life to it. Committed your life to me. I remember a guy coming and speaking at our school when I was in Bible college and he gave a quote to us and I thought it was kind of interesting and he said, the world has yet to see the effect of one man whose life is totally committed to God.

And I remember thinking, how can that even be? I know a lot of people whose lives are really committed to God. But are they? Because God desires, no, God requires, requires from us a wholehearted commitment unto Him. As a matter of fact, if you were to look at the book of Hosea, you would see there's a verse in the book of Hosea that says, the problem you have is that your heart is divided.

What does it mean? What does it mean to live in the will of God, to do the will of our Father in heaven? Well, it not only means total faith in Jesus, meaning He's our only hope, but it also means a total commitment of my life to Him. Through sanctification. A total commitment of every aspect of my life. And you know what I have come to understand in my own life?

That's hard. I struggle with that. There are parts of me that I want to hold back from God. There are parts of me that my flesh says, not that one. I like that. Can I just hold on to that? And God's like, I mean, you can, but you sacrifice me. You can do whatever you want to do. You just sacrifice your walk with Jesus in the process. To do the will of God, it first of all requires belief in Jesus.

Number two, it requires sanctification. And then number three, it means an active and living relationship with Jesus. Go over to John 15,

starting in verse one. It says this, I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the words which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine,

so neither can you unless you abide in me. What does it mean to abide? Well, the word literally means to remain in, to remain in. But I, in my reading of some different translations of this and in my understanding of the word, I've come to the understanding of what he really means here. It means to maintain an active and living relationship with. The vine. Why were we created?

We were created to know Jesus. What did sin do? Sin separated us from our relationship with Jesus. What did he do for us at the cross? He restored that which sin had destroyed. So what is my point now? My point now in life is the same as it was when I was created. To know him. One of my favorite portions in the book of Exodus is when the children of Israel,

are delivered from Egypt. It says, and the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt to the Lord. To the Lord. Isn't that great? That's a great statement. You know why? Because why did God deliver the nation of Israel from Egypt so that they could follow him? Why were you delivered from sin so that you could know God? Why do I live a life of sanctification now?

Because the one thing that will keep me from my purpose is when I fall back into sin because my relationship with God will be severed. So why do I live a life of sanctification now? live a life of sanctification? Because it's the only way I can maintain that active and living relationship. How can I live a life of holiness? Only by maintaining an active and living relationship

with the vine so that he can give me everything that I need. It's why I was created. That's why I love, my favorite thing to do is to hear what people are reading in scripture and what God is speaking to them in scripture. Why? Because I get let in on that little part of their active and living relationship with Jesus, and it encourages me and mine. Because I have the distinct

understanding that that is why we were created. Because that is God's will for me. Which is why when I see people show up to church on a Sunday morning that seem to have no care about the things of God, and then go and live their life as if God didn't exist, I look at them and I go, you don't get it, do you? Because God wants to encompass every aspect of my life. We should normalize talking about Jesus all the time. Make it weird, right? Make people

a little uncomfortable about how much you talk about your love for Jesus. Because that's what he wants from us. That's what he wants in our lives. That's what it means to do the will of him who sent me. So he says, back to the book of Matthew, 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. Notice what he says in verse 22.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name, cast out demons and in your name, perform many miracles. If the last verse that we read was the most sobering verse I can think of, this is the second. Because notice what he says. He says, many will say, and what will they say? They'll say three things. Number one, they'll say,

many will say, Lord, Lord, what is that? That's a profession of faith. Many will say, didn't I walk forward at a Billy Graham crusade? Didn't I walk forward at a Joe White conference? Didn't I say I believe in God? He says, many will make that profession of faith. Many will say, Lord, Lord, but their life didn't really line up with the will of God because it was a fleeting moment. It was an

emotional moment that didn't result in truly doing the will of the Father. And he says, Lord, Lord, the second thing he says is, many will say, didn't we prophesy in your name? In other words, didn't we do good works in your name? Didn't we speak of you and do good things? Wouldn't you say that our good kind of outweighed our bad? And then the last one's really hard. He says, didn't we

perform miracles in your name? From this, we're given the understanding that just because you perform miracles doesn't mean that you belong to Jesus. Just because you tell somebody else about Jesus doesn't mean that you belong to Jesus. Just because you tell somebody else about Jesus, doesn't mean that you belong to Jesus.

I've been around some interesting circles in my life of people that are interesting. I'll never forget listening to a guy who I know beyond a shadow of a doubt sells drugs, telling somebody else about Jesus. And I remember thinking, you should just stop now. It seems like a bad idea for you, who I know yesterday was selling drugs to someone, today to be telling them about Jesus.

Feels like the wrong thing to do. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to thing to do. And yet, I bet you that individual who is still living that lifestyle would call themselves okay in the sight of God. He says, didn't I prophesy in your name? Didn't I do many

miracles in your name? But notice how Jesus responds. He says, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Wait, that may take the first spot. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. That's a dangerous statement, is it not? That's a scary statement to think about hearing. That's another very sobering statement in our lives. It should cause all of us to step back

and think, where am I in my relationship with the Lord? You see, Paul in one of his epistles says, be diligent to make your calling and election sure. Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. So, what do we do? Well, we examine ourselves. We ask ourselves questions. I think it's the greatest thing you can do is learn to talk to yourself. Now, most of the people in the world

would say, once you start talking to yourself, something's gone wrong. I say, once you start talking to yourself, you're finally doing something right. Because notice, these three questions I think are important. You should ask yourself, first of all, is my faith in Christ alone? Is your faith, do you know that Jesus is the only hope that you have? Or are you like, well,

at least I made it to church this week. I'll be fine. Listen, if your faith is in the fact that you attend Calvary Chapel, your faith is in the wrong place because we can't save you. Calvary Chapel can't do anything for you other than point you to the only one who can. If your faith is in the fact that you read the Bible, then you don't have very good faith because the Bible should be

pointing you to the only one who you can actually put your faith in. Do you remember what Jesus told the Pharisees? He says, you study the scriptures because in them you think you have life. He says, but these are they which testify of me. You see, you can read the Bible as much as you want to, but until that Bible brings you into true faith in Jesus, it's done you no good.

Is your faith in Christ alone? Number two, is sanctification what I'm pursuing? We've talked about that word a lot today, haven't we? Is sanctification what I'm pursuing? In other words, am I pursuing a life that is completely and totally committed to God? Understand, we will always live with flesh on topside of planet earth. You will always struggle to fight

against a divided heart. But my question is, are you fighting against a divided heart? You see, there's a difference between having a struggle with sin and just sin. Because if you're struggling with sin, it means that you're pursuing sanctification. If you're struggling against the flesh, it means you're pursuing sanctification. If you're struggling, against a divided heart, it means you're pursuing sanctification. And God is so patient with us in

those ways. But it should be the pursuit of our life. The pursuit of our life should be wholehearted devotion to following him. And then number three, do I have an active and living relationship with Jesus? You see, there's only one place where we can really truly know whether or not we're secure in Christ, and that's if I maintain an abiding relationship with him.

You see, I abide in Christ, I am confident of the fact that I belong to Him. Are there going to be dry times in my life? Yep, there's going to be some dry times in your life. And that's okay, because sometimes there's outside circumstances. Sometimes God is growing us in Him in dry times. But it doesn't mean that that active and living relationship doesn't exist, because that's what

God requires of us, is an active and living relationship. And may I say on this one, it's what God desires from us, because He saved you so that you could know Him, and He created you so that you could know Him. And He loves you too much to allow you to get away from that purpose that He created you for. And so once we've asked ourselves these questions and allowed the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, that's kind of why I chose Psalm 139 this morning, because...

... , it's what we need to pray. Lord, search me and know me. See if there's anything wicked in me, and then lead me in your way everlasting. Once we've allowed the Holy Spirit to search us with questions like these, we then need to make the necessary changes. If you're here this morning and your faith has been in something besides Jesus, then today's got to be the day that you say, all the other stuff of the world

offers me nothing. The only place I can find hope is in Him. If you're here this morning and you've stopped pursuing sanctification and given yourself the license to live in an unholy life, then today's the day to decide, I'm going to be wholeheartedly devoted to Him. And if you've slipped away from that abiding relationship with Jesus, if you've fallen into the apathy of the flesh, then today is the day to get right with Him. Begin today that active and living relationship again,

because repentance is as easy as that step back to Jesus. Amen? Let's all stand.

We have a big week coming up where everybody in the world, whether they intend to or not, is going to say the name of Jesus Christ every day, because they'll end up saying Christmas, which of course involves the word Christ. And whether they want to admit it or not, they will be proclaiming when they get up on Saturday morning and open their presence or whatever, they will be proclaiming the fact that, Jesus was the ultimate gift because He was the one who brought us the greatest gift of all, which is salvation. They will be declaring that. And so let's take the opportunity of this big week that we've got, that when it comes up, we say, isn't Jesus great? Isn't the gift of Jesus

Christ the greatest one ever? Amen? Father, we come before you and I just thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. Lord, I thank you for the blessing of being able to study your word together. And Lord, I do just ask that you would give me the opportunity to do that. I ask that only the things of you would remain. Only the things that pointed us to you,

only the things that brought us closer in our knowledge and relationship of you would remain. All the things of me, let them go away, Lord. And Father, I just pray that you would be with us as we go out from here. Lord, as we take this week to remember who you are and what you did for us. Strengthen us in you, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Jesus, Lord of heaven, I do not deserve your gift and the promise of your word.

Lord, I stand and wonder at the sacrifice you make. Mercy beyond measure might dent you freely. This deep earthy ocean. Higher. The heavens reach it. The stars in the sky. Jesus, your love. Jesus, your love. Jesus, your love. Jesus, your love. The sacrifice you make. Mercy beyond measure might dent you freely. Stars in the sky. Jesus. Lord bless you all. Have a great week.