The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - “Depart From Me, I Never Knew You”

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00:00:26.820 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 amen please join me in standing for the reading of god's words we are continuing our series

00:00:37.220 through the gospel according to matthew our text for today is matthew chapter 7 verses 15 through

00:00:42.380 23 again that's matthew chapter 7 verses 15 through 23 i'll read our text in its entirety

00:00:47.840 when i finish reading the text i'm going to say this is the word of the lord at which point i

00:00:51.680 would appreciate very much if you'd respond by saying thanks be to god one final time our text

00:00:57.120 for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 7 verses 15 through 23. The Bible says

00:01:03.460 this, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

00:01:10.760 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

00:01:18.260 So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree

00:01:25.780 cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear

00:01:33.020 good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits.

00:01:41.200 Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does

00:01:47.760 the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not

00:01:55.080 prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name

00:02:02.480 and then will I declare to them I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness

00:02:10.480 this is the word of the Lord all right please be seated by way of introduction I've written

00:02:16.840 the following it's in your notes feel free to follow along this passage warns against false

00:02:21.960 prophets and advises us to be careful not to be misled by them. Prophets are typically people who

00:02:29.620 predict future events. And in the Old Testament, some falsely claimed to be prophets without any

00:02:36.740 real authority, without having been commissioned by God. And their predictions were ultimately

00:02:43.480 proven wrong however prophets in addition to making a foretelling predictive statement

00:02:51.800 prophets also taught people how to live righteously not just foretelling or foretelling

00:02:59.400 but forth telling instruction instructing the people and how to live righteously so

00:03:05.020 in our context today primarily false prophets is referring actually to false teachers since

00:03:12.760 Christ is both a prophet and a teacher who was sent by God, and he intended to send out other

00:03:19.980 teachers as well in his name. Jesus warns us to beware of imposters who, instead of guiding souls

00:03:28.680 with true teachings, would ultimately lead them astray. That's the big idea of our text today.

00:03:36.120 Now, what Jesus says right off the bat in our text is that the determining factor for discerning whether or not somebody is in fact a false prophet or a false teacher is their fruit.

00:03:50.460 You will know them or recognize them by their fruit.

00:03:54.540 Verse 15, he gives the warning, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

00:04:01.560 So right off of the very beginning of our text, there's the warning, beware, there are such a thing as false prophets or false teachers, and they're dangerous.

00:04:10.980 They're ravenous wolves. Secondly, be extra cautious because they're not just dangerous, but they're deceptive.

00:04:18.980 They're deceitful. So it's not just that they're ravenous wolves, but it's two things, two descriptions that are listed here.

00:04:24.320 The ravenous wolves, inwardly, that's who they truly are, and that is ultimately their purpose, is to devour you.

00:04:32.020 Now, notice real quick, ravenous wolves, it's not just that they want to kill and destroy, but they want to eat.

00:04:38.800 They want to devour you.

00:04:41.120 The false teacher doesn't just want to destroy the body of Christ.

00:04:44.260 He wants to use, ultimately, the body of Christ.

00:04:47.420 So he doesn't just want to hurt Christians. 0.56

00:04:49.580 He ultimately wants to benefit from Christians at their expense, but to his own gain.

00:04:56.600 The ravenous wolf is not just going around killing sheep.

00:04:59.840 He's eating and devouring sheep.

00:05:02.920 That's the image here.

00:05:04.800 So a ravenous wolf, so one, they're dangerous. 0.74

00:05:07.340 They have teeth and they're also, they're selfish.

00:05:10.860 It's not just that they have a blood lust without, you know, it's arbitrary.

00:05:14.680 It's capricious.

00:05:15.580 It's without any design.

00:05:17.080 Now they do, they are bloodthirsty.

00:05:18.940 There is a bloodlust. They do wish to do harm, but not arbitrarily.

00:05:24.780 They wish to do harm with the purpose. What they have in mind is their own gain.

00:05:30.220 But secondly, that's one description. They want to harm the flock by using the flock.

00:05:35.260 But secondly, they look outwardly like sheep. They wear sheep's clothing.

00:05:41.180 So two descriptors right off the bat. We get the warning. Beware of false prophets.

00:05:45.300 In that, I'm including also false teachers.

00:05:48.160 So beware of false prophets, false teachers.

00:05:51.280 And what should you look for?

00:05:53.060 What are some descriptions of them?

00:05:55.520 Well, they're wolves that seek to do harm for self-gain.

00:06:00.560 Also, outwardly, they dress as sheep.

00:06:04.780 And so they are deceptive.

00:06:06.480 They are harmful, but they appear innocent.

00:06:09.720 Okay, that's verse 15.

00:06:10.680 Verse 16. This is where we get the deciphering code, if you will, the way of discerning and distinguishing who, in fact, is a false prophet or a false teacher.

00:06:22.760 Verse 16 says you will recognize them by their fruits, their fruits.

00:06:29.220 Now, that's important. And then Jesus goes on to describe this in more detail.

00:06:33.200 Grapes. Are they gathered from thorn bushes? No, they're gathered from grape vines.

00:06:38.000 And he goes and says, figs, are they gathered from thistles? No. So every healthy tree, if it's a good tree, it has good fruit. If it's a bad tree, it has bad fruit.

00:06:48.340 And so how do you know, how can you distinguish and label properly, accurately the tree? How can you say this is definitively, it actually is a good tree?

00:06:58.580 Well, it's not just looking to the stem and the bark and the leaf,

00:07:02.000 but it's ultimately looking at the fruit.

00:07:05.700 If the tree is producing good fruit, then it is, in fact, a healthy tree.

00:07:09.840 If it's producing bad fruit, then it is, in fact, an unhealthy, rotten tree.

00:07:15.400 So Jesus gives us the warning.

00:07:16.880 Watch out for false prophets, false teachers.

00:07:19.980 Why? Why should we watch out?

00:07:21.960 What's so bad about them?

00:07:23.660 They're wolves. 0.66

00:07:25.000 They seek to harm for their own benefit.

00:07:27.380 and they're not just wolves,

00:07:29.820 they're not just dangerous,

00:07:30.940 but they're also crafty.

00:07:32.420 They're shrewd.

00:07:33.620 They're disguised.

00:07:34.840 They're deceptive.

00:07:35.660 So they're wolves inwardly

00:07:37.480 that seek to do harm for their own benefit.

00:07:39.660 They're also sheep outwardly.

00:07:42.400 They look like sheep.

00:07:43.900 They dress up as sheep.

00:07:45.720 They appear innocent,

00:07:47.320 but inwardly are ravenous wolves

00:07:49.620 seeking harm to the people of God

00:07:51.740 for their own gain. 0.83

00:07:53.780 Okay, so if they're dressed as sheep

00:07:55.580 and they're hard to spot,

00:07:57.380 then what can we look for?

00:07:59.020 Number one thing that Jesus gives,

00:08:00.660 now verse 16 again,

00:08:01.720 to look for their fruit.

00:08:04.260 So he's saying look past the tree itself.

00:08:07.800 Don't just look at the trunk of the tree,

00:08:10.000 the branches of the tree,

00:08:11.340 the leaves of the tree,

00:08:13.060 the bark and these kinds of things.

00:08:14.720 But ultimately you need to look at the fruit.

00:08:17.800 If the fruit is good,

00:08:19.100 then the tree is good.

00:08:21.420 If the fruit is bad,

00:08:22.820 then the tree is ultimately bad.

00:08:26.120 Now I want to use a quote here

00:08:27.360 from matthew henry he's one of the primary commentators that we've been using throughout

00:08:31.400 this series through the gospel according to matthew matthew henry for you know the apostle

00:08:35.980 matthew and his gospel um it seems fitting two names uh matthew henry for those who don't know

00:08:41.240 he's uh a late great puritan okay matthew henry and commentating on trying to identify a false

00:08:48.820 prophet or false teacher by looking at their fruit he says the following quote the illustration

00:08:55.420 of this comparison of the fruits being the discovery of the tree you cannot always distinguish

00:09:01.820 them by their bark and leaves that's what i was saying earlier nor by the spreading of their boughs

00:09:07.240 but by their fruits ye shall know them the fruit according to the tree men may this is key men may

00:09:15.580 in their professions put a force upon their nature and contradict their inward principles

00:09:22.900 but the stream and bent of their practices

00:09:27.180 will ultimately agree with them.

00:09:30.400 I'll go back and kind of break that down.

00:09:32.980 Going on, he says,

00:09:34.380 Christ insists upon this,

00:09:36.440 the agreeableness between the fruit and the tree.

00:09:40.460 Fruit and root.

00:09:41.720 Ultimately, there will be an agreeableness.

00:09:44.380 Good fruit, good root.

00:09:45.920 Bad fruit, bad root.

00:09:48.000 An apple, Matthew Henry continues,

00:09:49.720 an apple may be stuck

00:09:51.700 or a bunch of grapes may hang upon a thorn.

00:09:56.640 So may a good truth, a good word,

00:09:59.840 or a good deed, an action,

00:10:02.320 be found in a bad man, a bad tree.

00:10:05.940 But you may be sure that it never grew there.

00:10:10.060 So it is possible to take a dead tree, a bad tree,

00:10:13.340 and hang good fruit upon it.

00:10:17.920 So you can find, there are times,

00:10:19.880 I would say that it's somewhat frequent and common that you will find good fruit on a bad tree.

00:10:26.120 There are times that you can find, I'll say again, good fruit on a bad tree.

00:10:30.660 The difference, though, is that only a good tree can actually grow and produce good fruit.

00:10:39.020 Good fruit can hang on a bad tree, but it can't grow it.

00:10:43.160 Good fruit can be found on a bad tree occasionally, but a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.

00:10:50.020 It can hold that good fruit temporarily on one particular branch and one particular arena, but it can't ultimately produce and grow good fruit.

00:11:00.260 That's what Matthew Henry is saying. Now, I wanted to back up, as I said a moment ago, right there in the middle of this quote, he says,

00:11:06.980 men may in their professions, that is in their words, verbally, and what they say, what they

00:11:12.740 communicate, what they profess to believe, in their professions, in their word, they may put a force

00:11:21.140 upon their nature and contradict their inward principles. Let me stop there for a moment.

00:11:27.520 Put a force upon their nature. What he's saying is this, that there's such a thing as a person

00:11:32.840 simply being a bad person, that their their root, the root of that person, their core is bad.

00:11:42.120 It is unhealthy. It's poison. And what he's saying is that they may be able to put a force upon their 0.92

00:11:49.360 nature and contradict their inward principles. What he's saying is that there are false teachers,

00:11:54.400 there are false prophets, that their inward principles accord with their true inward nature,

00:12:01.400 meaning they have bad principles under the surface they may not always admit it it might not always

00:12:08.080 be apparent might always not always be conspicuous right elsewhere in the scripture says some sins

00:12:13.860 are conspicuous going ahead before judgment other sins are inconspicuous right they're less

00:12:21.000 visible they're less noticeable and they ultimately don't get revealed until the final judgment day

00:12:27.540 when God Himself reveals the thought and intent of every heart, of every man.

00:12:32.840 So there's a principle here in Scripture that some sins are more conspicuous.

00:12:40.020 That is obvious. They're easy to spot.

00:12:42.900 And some sins are more inconspicuous.

00:12:46.220 They're more hidden. They're more veiled.

00:12:49.400 And so what Matthew Henry is saying is that some men may, in their professions, with their words,

00:12:54.560 They put a force upon their nature and contradict their inward principles, meaning that their nature is actually rotten.

00:13:03.220 It's bad. And therefore, because their nature is bad, their inward true principles of their heart, what they truly believe in, their actual convictions, their actual goals are bad.

00:13:14.600 Bad nature, bad aim, bad aims, bad principles, bad virtues.

00:13:20.040 What they really consider, they don't always say it, but what they really consider to be a virtue is something that, according to the word of God, would actually be a vice.

00:13:29.480 It's not really virtue.

00:13:31.060 And so there are men like this, but even these men, although by nature, at their core, they're bad, and therefore what they deem as virtuous is actually a vice, it's actually bad.

00:13:41.980 even these men in terms of their words that is their professions they can put a force upon their

00:13:48.660 nature at least in some degree in some area and in at some times in some moments or seasons they

00:13:57.980 can by their words professions force their nature their true nature which is evil they can suppress

00:14:04.220 it, hide it, veil it, at least in part, or at least in an area, or at least for a time,

00:14:11.380 and therefore contradict their true principles, which are bad and wicked and evil, in order

00:14:19.960 to appear positive, in order to appear virtuous.

00:14:25.440 And then he continues, second half of that sentence, but the stream and bent, that's

00:14:29.720 key the stream and bent of their practices notice he's changing words here at first it was

00:14:35.840 professions so the professions they can say the right thing but the stream and bent of their

00:14:42.460 actions now it's their practices their actions their behaviors will agree with them meaning

00:14:49.620 agree with who they really are which in this case would be negative wicked sinful right so he's

00:14:56.360 saying their practices, the stream, that is the pattern, the pattern. It's funny, but it's

00:15:05.560 biblical and it's good and it's right. And if anybody has a problem with it, then you've got

00:15:09.500 to play the Donald Trump card. It says, who cares? Who cares? The Bible tells us that we should be

00:15:16.680 noticers, that we should notice patterns. It's a biblical principle. That's what discernment is,

00:15:24.800 guys and the reason why i say this this is why it matters um you should notice but here's here's

00:15:32.400 the key you should notice patterns going back to matthew henry's words here look at the two words

00:15:38.320 he uses and this is intentional but the stream and bent what he means by that is not just noticing

00:15:46.220 an isolated failure.

00:15:50.560 No, he's saying stream and bent,

00:15:52.380 meaning, no, you're noticing

00:15:53.780 a continual failure, a pattern.

00:15:58.060 So everybody, because here's the deal.

00:16:01.420 Everybody's a sinner, right? 0.65

00:16:02.640 We know this.

00:16:04.120 Everyone's a sinner.

00:16:05.940 So the same thing that Matthew Henry said 1.00

00:16:08.180 a moment ago about how good fruit, right?

00:16:10.360 You can take a bunch of grapes.

00:16:12.360 I want to say a bushel of grapes,

00:16:13.520 but that's not a thing, right?

00:16:14.900 That's not a thing.

00:16:16.020 Mike, is that a thing, a bushel of grapes?

00:16:17.740 No.

00:16:18.160 A bunch, what do you call it, a bunch?

00:16:19.520 Yeah, there we go.

00:16:20.760 A bunch of grapes.

00:16:23.100 Mike and Kez, they know.

00:16:25.220 A bunch of grapes, you could take that, right?

00:16:27.500 And you could go and find a dead tree

00:16:29.040 and hang it on a limb, right?

00:16:31.420 I mean, theoretically, I'm pretty sure

00:16:33.860 that that's possible.

00:16:34.620 It's within the realm of physics

00:16:36.100 to hang fruit on a dead tree.

00:16:39.340 But hanging good fruit on a dead tree

00:16:42.840 is not the same.

00:16:44.100 In fact, it's it's quite different than than that fruit being produced by a dead tree, being grown by a dead tree.

00:16:52.640 It wasn't produced. It's just hanging there.

00:16:55.180 Well, we already covered that, but it's important that we recognize that the inverse of that principle is also true.

00:17:02.880 What do I mean by that? You can have a living tree, a good tree that's overall healthy.

00:17:07.760 And that good tree can also have rotten fruit.

00:17:10.500 and we've seen this right this literally occurs in nature right that you can go and if if the

00:17:17.580 fruit isn't harvested at the proper time then eventually some of it falls off the vine but

00:17:24.380 but so the branches whatever trees i guess don't really have vines but branches let's say we're

00:17:29.500 using grapes let's use let's use an orange tree apple tree apple tree right it's very american

00:17:33.580 it seems right apple tree um you can have a a true apple tree it really is an apple tree and

00:17:39.460 it's actually it's not dead it's a living tree it's a living good tree and yet it's filled with

00:17:45.340 apples and it's stream and bent meaning its pattern its overall mark is good apples but

00:17:53.860 there's still some bad ones right there's still some apples hanging there that ultimately aren't

00:17:59.560 healthy they're not good whether they're infected with i don't know like maybe it's got worms or

00:18:06.320 or something like that, whatever. I don't know. I'm not a farmer. That's becoming painfully obvious

00:18:11.080 throughout the course of this sermon. But I'm pretty sure, I think this is basic science.

00:18:16.880 Trust the science, guys. But I'm pretty sure that you can have a good tree that mostly has good

00:18:22.160 fruit, but some of the fruit is still bad. In other words, you can have a Christian who genuinely is, 1.00

00:18:27.980 by the grace of God, a born-again, regenerate Christian. They're a good tree. They have a good

00:18:33.100 root. Why? What is the good root? Ultimately, it's Christ, right? He's the vine. We're the branches.

00:18:38.720 You're rooted in Christ. He's the root. And you're you're stemming ultimately from him. You're growing

00:18:44.100 out of him. You have union with Christ. He's the substance. He's the root. And therefore, the root

00:18:49.660 is good because Christ is good. If you're a Christian, you have union with Christ. You have

00:18:55.260 union with Christ. He becomes the root. And Christ is always a good root. However, Christians sin.

00:19:03.100 All of them. All of them. 1.00

00:19:07.900 And so because Christians sin, then what you have is you have good root, who is Christ. 0.89

00:19:14.540 The Christian has union with him. 0.95

00:19:16.340 And then the Christian producing, on the one hand, fruit of the spirit. 0.75

00:19:20.420 Because if you're in Christ and Christ is your root, then also per 1 Corinthians 6, 0.86

00:19:25.340 your body now is a temple of the Holy Spirit who has been given to you by God who dwells in you.

00:19:30.600 And therefore the fruit of the spirit, that is the manifestations and outward characteristics, visible signs of the spirit are apparent in your life.

00:19:40.120 So you're going to have love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control.

00:19:46.480 These things will be apparent in your life, but they're not the only things that will be apparent in your life. 0.91

00:19:52.420 Because for the Christian, the penalty of sin has been paid in full. It's done. 0.98

00:19:58.140 The power of sin, being a slave to sin,

00:20:01.420 the power of sin has been broken.

00:20:03.100 Penalty paid, power broken.

00:20:05.260 You're no longer a slave to sin,

00:20:07.060 but rather now you've been freed from sin.

00:20:09.300 You're a slave to Christ.

00:20:10.660 But the presence of sin,

00:20:13.020 the presence of sin in this life still remains.

00:20:17.060 This is what 1 John speaks of when it says,

00:20:19.240 when we see him, we'll be like him,

00:20:21.240 for we shall see him as he is.

00:20:23.380 As he is in what context, in what regard?

00:20:25.720 Sinless.

00:20:26.960 It's not as when we see him, we'll be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

00:20:30.860 And the is, what is he?

00:20:32.700 He's divine, deity.

00:20:34.300 And so when we see Jesus, when we're in heaven, we'll become gods.

00:20:37.580 No, we'll always eternally be creatures.

00:20:41.000 Glorified creatures, albeit, but still creaturely.

00:20:44.180 Never omniscient, never omnipotent.

00:20:46.300 We'll never have the marks and characteristics of the divine because we will never be divine.

00:20:50.620 So when we see him, we're not going to be like him as he is.

00:20:53.560 and speaking of every aspect of what He is,

00:20:56.400 His omniscience, His omnipotence, His divinity,

00:20:59.020 but we will be like Him in context,

00:21:01.760 reading Scripture in context.

00:21:03.200 1 John is speaking of one particular trait,

00:21:05.780 one particular characteristic of Christ,

00:21:07.660 which is His sinlessness.

00:21:09.160 So when we see Him,

00:21:10.500 that is when this life ends

00:21:12.500 and we enter into the life to come

00:21:15.460 and we see Jesus now face to face,

00:21:20.120 we will be like Him in what regard?

00:21:22.640 in regard to his sinlessness,

00:21:24.760 which means at that moment

00:21:26.560 and not a moment before,

00:21:28.580 but at that moment,

00:21:30.300 the mere presence of sin

00:21:32.500 will be no more.

00:21:34.500 That even the presence of sin

00:21:36.380 will be done and gone away with.

00:21:39.560 But until that moment,

00:21:40.820 so long as we are in this life,

00:21:42.840 even with regeneration,

00:21:44.520 even with the fruit of the Spirit,

00:21:46.900 even with the Holy Spirit,

00:21:48.380 the third member of the Godhead himself

00:21:50.520 dwelling within us,

00:21:52.000 even with new hearts, hearts of flesh

00:21:55.080 that have replaced the heart of stone

00:21:57.060 that are softened and malleable

00:21:58.440 and receptive to the things of God

00:22:00.400 even with the law of God being written on our hearts

00:22:03.000 with God sovereignly in His providence

00:22:05.320 and by the Spirit causing us to walk in His ways

00:22:08.340 and be careful to obey His statutes

00:22:10.280 with all these benefits that come by the new birth

00:22:13.880 with all these promises that come by virtue

00:22:16.820 of being a child of God post-conversion

00:22:19.900 with all these things

00:22:21.600 the presence of sin will remain in this life.

00:22:27.020 That won't end, not entirely,

00:22:29.860 until the life to come.

00:22:31.060 When we see him, we'll be like him,

00:22:33.680 for we shall see him as he is,

00:22:35.480 speaking of what?

00:22:36.360 His sinlessness.

00:22:37.440 So long as we're in this life,

00:22:39.400 even though we're born again

00:22:41.320 by grace through faith in Christ alone,

00:22:43.140 we are new creatures in Christ Jesus

00:22:44.820 with new hearts and with the Spirit of God

00:22:46.920 dwelling within us,

00:22:48.000 the presence of sin will still remain.

00:22:50.440 penalty paid power broken presence remaining which means if that's true and i believe that

00:22:58.960 that's biblically true or i wouldn't say it if that's true and the presence of sin remains even

00:23:04.960 for the christian in this life even for a mature and sanctified christian in this life then what

00:23:10.080 that means is that you can have a good tree because it has a good root the root is christ

00:23:16.200 union with him, that still has some, not all, but some bad fruit, namely sin. Plenty of good fruit,

00:23:27.460 namely the works of the Spirit, and obedience to the law of God. It comes by faith, but also

00:23:35.940 bad fruit, namely sin. So a false teacher is a bad tree that has a bad root, right? He doesn't

00:23:47.840 have Christ as the root. Ultimately, the root is his true father, which is the devil. This is

00:23:55.760 what Jesus teaches. You're not trying to be hyperbolic or bombastic, you know, just to get

00:24:01.780 arise out of it, but this is Christian doctrine. Jesus says in John chapter 8, the Pharisees

00:24:07.600 and the Sadducees, they're all trying to trap him ultimately so they can arrest him, do

00:24:11.540 a kangaroo court, a mock trial in the middle of the night so that they can wrongly crucify 0.67

00:24:15.600 an innocent man, not just an innocent man, but the very son of God. And Jesus says of

00:24:21.900 these people, he says, you know, because they claim, well, we're children of Abraham. He

00:24:27.160 says no not really not really why why why are you not children of abraham the argument that he makes

00:24:34.580 is not uh some pure genetic argument the argument that he makes is you're not children of abraham

00:24:40.580 not in the true sense the ultimate sense the the spiritual sense because abraham was a prophet who

00:24:46.320 saw my day he looked down the quarters of time in the prophetic messianic sense he saw the promise

00:24:53.180 of my arrival, and he received me with gladness. And you now, here I actually am. Abraham only had

00:25:01.360 the prophecy of my coming, and he rejoiced. You have the fulfillment of that prophecy. I'm standing 0.84

00:25:07.700 in your midst, and you hate me. In other words, true children of their genuine, authentic father

00:25:14.640 are going to bear a likeness, a resemblance to their father. But you who are claiming Abraham

00:25:21.340 as your father, have no resemblance

00:25:23.760 because the key characteristic

00:25:25.720 of Abraham is not his

00:25:27.720 DNA. And the key characteristic 0.86

00:25:29.740 of Abraham is not that he teamed up

00:25:31.680 with giants to fight people

00:25:33.100 in the middle of the desert. I think

00:25:35.360 it's a really cool characteristic and I believe

00:25:37.720 it in my bones. But that's not the

00:25:39.660 key characteristic. The key characteristic of Abraham

00:25:41.840 is that he loved Jesus.

00:25:44.600 He loved Jesus.

00:25:46.080 He had faith in Jesus

00:25:47.480 and you don't. And therefore

00:25:49.480 because you don't, you're not his children.

00:25:51.820 So then, of course, they appealed to a higher authority.

00:25:53.780 Okay, well, maybe we're not children of Abraham,

00:25:55.380 but we can appeal even higher.

00:25:58.620 We're children of God.

00:26:00.220 Our true father is God.

00:26:01.480 And Jesus says,

00:26:02.120 Sure about that?

00:26:06.340 No, no, no.

00:26:08.060 The principle remains the same. 0.71

00:26:09.580 You're not children of Abraham 0.98

00:26:10.580 because you don't look like it. 0.99

00:26:11.840 Children look like their father.

00:26:13.160 You don't look like Abraham. 0.58

00:26:14.800 Well, what did Abraham look like?

00:26:15.960 He looked like someone who loves Jesus.

00:26:18.560 You don't look like that.

00:26:19.980 Well, we're children of God.

00:26:21.720 No, no, no, no.

00:26:22.640 He's not your father either.

00:26:24.000 Why? 0.90

00:26:24.540 Because you don't look like him.

00:26:26.780 Because God, like Abraham, also is a big fan of Jesus.

00:26:31.380 God the Father loves me.

00:26:32.780 I am his beloved son.

00:26:34.300 This is my only begotten son in whom I am well pleased.

00:26:36.540 And you hate me.

00:26:37.280 So you don't have any marking characteristic of God as your father either.

00:26:41.980 But there is a father who exists in the created world.

00:26:45.600 who you bear a stark resemblance to. 0.99

00:26:48.980 He's a liar from the very beginning. 1.00

00:26:51.120 He's a murderer from the very beginning. 1.00

00:26:53.120 You guys lie constantly. 0.99

00:26:55.320 You slander.

00:26:56.240 You produce false witness. 0.99

00:26:57.680 And you're seeking to murder me 0.99

00:26:59.320 just like your true father. 1.00

00:27:00.960 You look just like him.

00:27:02.320 Who is it? 0.96

00:27:03.040 The devil. 0.98

00:27:04.540 That's your daddy. 1.00

00:27:06.500 The devil is your daddy. 1.00

00:27:10.580 That's your father.

00:27:11.580 and yet with all that being true these people still were able to do some things that accorded

00:27:20.560 with the word of god they were to the point where jesus actually says in one of his sermons he says

00:27:27.340 do not do as the pharisees do and the sadducees and the lawyers and religious leaders of this day

00:27:35.100 But, even Jesus says, but do as they say. 0.84

00:27:42.020 He says, do as they say, but do not do as they practice. 0.91

00:27:45.720 So even Jesus acknowledges a lot of their teaching, 0.63

00:27:49.700 a lot of their doctrine, a lot of their profession,

00:27:54.000 back to the Matthew Henry quote,

00:27:55.740 a lot of their profession, they actually, by sheer grit, right?

00:28:01.320 Sola bootstrapia, right?

00:28:02.760 You're just pulling yourself up by your bootstraps with enough effort, with enough intentionality, with enough deliberation by their mere force.

00:28:13.360 They have forced upon their nature, not in deed, not in practice, but in profession, in word.

00:28:20.480 They have spoken, verbally spoken, things that are true, that accord with godliness, that accord with the law of God.

00:28:28.920 to such a degree that Jesus actually feels comfortable,

00:28:33.240 the sinless son of God who would never lead anyone astray,

00:28:36.360 he, Jesus Christ, even feels comfortable saying,

00:28:39.540 you can listen to their teachings.

00:28:41.560 And he doesn't just say it's permissible.

00:28:43.460 He actually puts in a commandment, an obligatory statement,

00:28:47.680 do and obey what they teach.

00:28:51.520 They say the right thing, but do not follow their example.

00:28:56.380 Do not follow them in deed, in practice, because their words conflict with their nature.

00:29:06.860 By deliberation, they have in words, in profession, they have bent their profession in accordance,

00:29:16.340 at least to some degree, relatively a high degree, in accordance with what is true.

00:29:23.180 but their life, their actions betray them.

00:29:29.040 And so what Jesus is saying is these people,

00:29:32.520 number one, children of the devil, right?

00:29:34.820 I'm building a theological argument here.

00:29:36.460 Work with me.

00:29:36.940 It's a big, let me cook.

00:29:37.940 It's a big thing, all right?

00:29:39.160 Number one, number one, their root is not Christ.

00:29:42.560 They don't have union with Christ. 0.98

00:29:43.740 Their daddy is the devil, okay? 0.98

00:29:45.180 So the root is satanic. 0.99

00:29:47.120 It really is satanic.

00:29:49.260 That's their root.

00:29:50.240 So bad root, therefore bad tree. 0.98

00:29:52.380 Bad root, the devil, their daddy.

00:29:54.620 Bad tree, the person, their actions, their practices.

00:29:58.900 But still, some good fruit, not all, but some good fruit in terms of word, professions,

00:30:05.700 do as they say, but not as they do.

00:30:09.620 That reality, that set of circumstances is a legitimate biblical category.

00:30:17.200 If someone, the root's bad, it's the devil, not Christ.

00:30:20.240 The tree, therefore, is bad.

00:30:22.740 And the tree being bad, ultimately it produces bad fruit

00:30:25.900 because fruit and root go hand in hand.

00:30:28.760 Ultimately bad fruit, but still,

00:30:30.880 even though the overall bent and stream,

00:30:33.980 meaning the pattern, noticing patterns here,

00:30:37.000 the overall pattern is bad.

00:30:39.420 Bad fruit that accords with the bad tree.

00:30:42.300 And it's a bad tree because it has a bad root,

00:30:44.160 satanic root, not Christ.

00:30:46.160 And yet still, the pattern,

00:30:48.020 the overall bent of the fruit is bad,

00:30:49.740 predominantly in practices, actions,

00:30:52.720 but some of the fruit might be still good,

00:30:55.280 even on a bad tree,

00:30:57.360 in terms of not so much actions or practices,

00:30:59.480 but their speech, their professions.

00:31:04.340 That exists.

00:31:05.880 Likewise, the opposite also exists.

00:31:09.200 That's the framework and big theological argument

00:31:11.940 I was making previously,

00:31:13.200 where I was going to 1 John and saying

00:31:14.540 the presence of sin, until the life to come,

00:31:17.540 until we see Him as He is,

00:31:19.100 We will not be ultimately and perfectly like him in regards to his sinlessness, which means for the Christian here and now from the moment of your conversion, the penalty of your sin has been paid in full. 0.91

00:31:31.040 The power of sin has been broken. 0.76

00:31:32.940 You're no longer a slave to it, but rather a slave to Christ, a slave to righteousness.

00:31:37.160 You are actually freed to obey.

00:31:39.880 You don't have to sin.

00:31:41.240 And yet you will still sin.

00:31:43.420 The presence still remains.

00:31:45.360 Penalty paid.

00:31:46.420 Power of sin broken.

00:31:47.780 Presence of sin still remaining

00:31:50.060 so long as we're in this life

00:31:51.520 until we reach the life to come

00:31:53.040 and we see Christ face to face.

00:31:55.280 Which means in the inverse,

00:31:57.460 you can have a good tree.

00:31:58.920 Why is it good?

00:31:59.980 Good root, union with Christ.

00:32:01.780 Christ is the root.

00:32:02.900 And because it's a good tree,

00:32:04.180 it therefore has as its pattern,

00:32:06.940 its overall stream and bent,

00:32:10.140 its general characteristic is good fruit.

00:32:12.920 Good fruit.

00:32:14.780 But still, because sin remains,

00:32:17.100 not perfect exclusive good fruit.

00:32:21.620 There will still be some bad fruit,

00:32:23.860 namely sin, namely sin.

00:32:27.740 This is how we should understand this text.

00:32:31.860 So you will know them by their fruit.

00:32:34.100 False teachers, so what is some of the bad fruit?

00:32:37.320 I'll give a couple examples, a couple examples.

00:32:40.140 False teachers claim false authority.

00:32:43.460 Pretty much always, pretty much always.

00:32:46.040 They claim false authority.

00:32:48.620 See, these individuals who claim to have direct instructions from God to be prophets and to teach authoritatively,

00:32:56.300 but they have not received divine revelation.

00:33:01.020 Even if their teachings may seem true, we should still be wary of anyone who claims to speak directly for God.

00:33:09.500 That's one example of a false teacher.

00:33:11.960 So there is, we could call it, I don't know, for lack of a better word,

00:33:14.620 we could call it the word of faith type of false teacher.

00:33:19.420 The charismatic type of false teacher.

00:33:22.120 Not that all charismatics would fall into this category because they don't.

00:33:25.380 But some, especially in the word of faith kind of wing of the charismatic larger umbrella, they do.

00:33:32.500 Not all charismatics are claiming apostolic divine revelation and authority.

00:33:40.620 That would be an unfair generalization.

00:33:43.000 But some literally do.

00:33:45.340 And that's on the charismatic side of the equation.

00:33:48.360 But let's be fair here to our charismatic,

00:33:51.000 especially those who are Christians,

00:33:52.420 our charismatic brothers and sisters,

00:33:53.740 they don't have a monopoly on this problem.

00:33:57.220 Catholics, my goodness, 1.00

00:34:00.120 don't get me started on the Catholics.

00:34:01.700 You want to talk about a false claim 0.99

00:34:05.840 to some kind of divine authority?

00:34:07.720 The charismatic does it through, you know, divine, spontaneous revelation.

00:34:13.680 Well, I had a dream, I had a vision, I heard the audible voice of God,

00:34:17.380 and therefore you have to do whatever I say, right?

00:34:19.160 That's how the charismatic does it.

00:34:20.500 Not all charismatics, but some, especially in the word of faith, we.

00:34:24.700 The Catholics, they do it through apostolic succession.

00:34:28.860 So they seem a little bit less mystical, right?

00:34:32.140 The charismatic, it's easy to make fun of him, right?

00:34:35.020 Because his, you know, intellectual, you know, theological study is Jesus calling, you know, like it's like like books that are like, you know, the kind of book that I would write, like a 90 page book, you know, and it's written by, I don't know, some some woman, you know, a couple of years ago who has terrible theology.

00:34:54.960 and that's like you know so so it's easy it's like you know your your theological camp within

00:35:02.940 the larger body of christ is not serious and we you know so we're going to poke fun at you

00:35:07.720 and then we sometimes kind of give the catholic a break because it's like well but he has you know

00:35:16.300 study and study study and you know all all these dissertations and all these volumes and books and

00:35:21.500 he's quoting the church fathers and he has this and he has that and so it must be legit ah it's

00:35:27.420 kind of like one of those scenarios was like corporate needs you to to tell the difference

00:35:30.880 between these two pictures charismatic catholic it's the same picture both both are making a

00:35:38.180 human claim to divine authority that's not legitimate the charismatic says well i have

00:35:47.680 authority you have to do what i said why because i had a dream last night and the catholic says

00:35:53.300 well you have to do what i said because there's a perfect unbroken line of apostolic succession

00:35:57.980 all the way from jesus to peter and i know what about the time when there was three popes

00:36:02.260 simultaneously well we don't talk about that

00:36:06.100 what about your current pope who's literally contradicting the word of god

00:36:11.220 like with every public statement he makes

00:36:13.800 and that ultimately it's pretty easy to see what his reigning authority is it's not the word of

00:36:19.600 god it's just the post-liberal order he doesn't look and say well what does the scripture say he 0.90

00:36:24.240 just puts his finger in the wind and says hating immigrants is bad why because liberal white women

00:36:32.120 don't like it and i want them to like me and that's my theological basis it's the same thing

00:36:39.900 It's the same picture, all right?

00:36:42.100 Lighten up on the charismatics.

00:36:43.280 I had a dream. 1.00

00:36:44.340 Yeah, the other group has a pope and he's gay. 0.99

00:36:48.040 He's a very effeminate, liberal pope. 1.00

00:36:52.540 He's not a great guy. 0.76

00:36:54.700 Even Catholics, to be fair, even Catholics are like,

00:36:57.480 yeah, it's kind of an embarrassing time right now for us.

00:37:01.340 It's a hard time to be a Catholic.

00:37:03.260 We do not have a great pope.

00:37:05.700 But here's the point.

00:37:06.940 That's just two examples.

00:37:07.740 we could go to other wings of Christianity

00:37:11.000 and we could even broaden to things

00:37:12.800 that are clearly not Christian at all

00:37:14.580 like Jehovah's Witness, Mormons,

00:37:18.180 you know, Christian science, right?

00:37:20.540 All of them, what do they have in common?

00:37:22.160 This is what they all have in common.

00:37:23.460 They all have some kind of claim.

00:37:27.040 And it's always a claim of authority.

00:37:29.520 It's some kind of divine authority.

00:37:32.560 You have to listen to us.

00:37:34.840 We have the infallible truth.

00:37:36.900 How come?

00:37:37.520 Well, because once upon a time, a guy put his head in a hat, you know, in a sack and he saw two golden plates and they were illuminated and angels spoke to him about.

00:37:45.700 OK. And why do you have authority? 0.96

00:37:49.140 Well, because, you know, that's ridiculous. 0.77

00:37:52.380 You know, Joseph Smith and blah, blah, blah.

00:37:54.640 My claim for authority is that it wasn't, you know, 150, 200 years ago.

00:37:59.600 My claim for authority is it happened two weeks ago.

00:38:01.800 actually there was gold dust that came out of the air ducts and our worship gathering and uh you

00:38:06.220 know and our female pastor got on stage and and said that she had a word from god all right okay

00:38:11.360 that's all right that's better you're telling me that's better than okay um and then why do you

00:38:16.740 have authority well because there's a broken line of you know perfect apostolic succession that gave 0.70

00:38:21.500 us this gay pope okay what all right example after example after example after example but that is 0.83

00:38:30.080 one of the marks right if you're looking for how do i discern that's the whole point of our passage 0.95

00:38:34.680 today is discernment how do i discern somebody is a false teacher one of the things the false

00:38:39.380 teacher does is he claims a high degree of authority where no one's allowed to disagree

00:38:44.680 with him no one's allowed to think that he's wrong and he does it with with some kind of divine

00:38:49.500 mechanism he pulls on some kind of divine lever whether it's you know sign gifts of the holy

00:38:56.240 spirit revelatory gifts like prophecy functioning today in an infallible way or whether it's

00:39:01.160 apostolic succession or whether it's joseph smith or whether it's this or whether it's that it's

00:39:05.460 always some kind of claim to divine authority some kind of claim to divine authority and that

00:39:12.660 is one of the one of the telltale signs that this person is in fact a false teacher or a false

00:39:21.180 prophet here's a second indicator false teachers spread false doctrines so not just that they

00:39:27.120 claim false authority for themselves but they also spread false teachings false doctrines i've

00:39:34.540 written this these people teach ideas that go against the core truths of the christian faith

00:39:39.500 that's important they teach ideas that go against the core truths of the christian faith

00:39:45.160 so it's not just well this guy he teaches that uh you should baptize babies

00:39:54.600 and therefore he's a false teacher he's a child of satan he's going to hell and so are all his

00:40:02.900 babies uh no i i don't think i don't think what jesus has in mind here when he's talking about 0.97

00:40:10.620 bad fruit is mode of baptism. I get in trouble with this all the time because I'm supposed to

00:40:17.520 care. And people are like, Joel, you should care. You should care. It's like nothing is more

00:40:23.020 important, right? When the orcs are on your doorstep and they're murdering babies and

00:40:28.700 transing kids, there's nothing more vital and urgent than for Christians to have debates about

00:40:32.880 baptism, right? That's what I'm told. But I haven't been able to bring myself to care, frankly.

00:40:40.620 I'm not a relativist.

00:40:42.360 Somebody's right.

00:40:42.980 Somebody's wrong.

00:40:43.920 Of course.

00:40:44.820 And I could be wrong.

00:40:47.040 Right?

00:40:47.340 On my epitaph, right?

00:40:48.740 That'd be a good thing.

00:40:49.960 Here lies Joel Webin.

00:40:51.740 Quote, I could be wrong.

00:40:54.320 I've been wrong about plenty of things.

00:40:56.160 So certainly, that's a possibility.

00:40:58.780 But in terms of importance,

00:41:01.400 there is such a thing.

00:41:02.460 You've heard me say it before,

00:41:03.520 but I'll say it again

00:41:04.360 because I think that it's relevant

00:41:05.780 with this particular sermon and this text.

00:41:08.300 There is something to be said for theological triage and mode of baptism.

00:41:12.980 And notice I'm saying that intentionally mode because it's not even an argument of whether or not we should baptize.

00:41:18.040 It's not even an argument in terms of the nature of baptism.

00:41:22.960 It's not an argument about the nature of baptism and why it's significant, whether or not it should be done, what it means, what it entails.

00:41:30.780 You're literally talking about the mode of baptism.

00:41:33.140 Is it immersion or is it sprinkling?

00:41:35.480 Is it immersion?

00:41:36.180 Yeah, of course it is.

00:41:37.040 It's baptismal.

00:41:37.800 The word literally means immersion.

00:41:38.800 So yeah, I have a position.

00:41:41.380 I'm not saying I don't have a position.

00:41:43.700 But I'm having a hard time in this current juncture

00:41:46.820 when the West, all of Western civilization

00:41:49.400 is apostatizing and crumbling before our very eyes

00:41:52.460 in the year of our Lord, 2025,

00:41:54.060 to make this a big mark of my public ministry.

00:41:58.460 So mode of baptism, not baptism itself,

00:42:01.020 but mode of baptism.

00:42:01.880 Sprinkling versus immersion.

00:42:04.020 Infant versus profession.

00:42:07.040 somebody's right again we're not relativists hear me i'm not saying tomato tomato i'm not saying

00:42:13.100 that somebody's right somebody's wrong but whoever's wrong on that issue that does not qualify

00:42:20.080 them for being the false prophet or the false teacher that jesus is speaking of in our text

00:42:25.780 today does that make sense that's not what jesus is talking about he's not saying in the last days

00:42:32.400 be careful. Be very careful. Because one of the most pernicious and dangerous things that you

00:42:38.180 will find is there will be some people, some people, and they'll probably be wearing robes.

00:42:45.200 That's how you know. They'll be wearing robes and a weird white collar, and they will sprinkle

00:42:52.860 a baby on stage at the end of their Sunday worship gathering. I don't think that's what

00:42:58.600 he's talking about i don't think he's saying that's his big concern is it is it wrong yeah

00:43:04.000 i think it's wrong i have a i'm a baptist you know but there are degrees of things that are wrong

00:43:10.060 right baptizing the children of believers baptizing the children of believers is not

00:43:17.860 the biggest problem in the body of christ right now it's not there's a there's a a difference of

00:43:24.700 of that problem,

00:43:28.040 of that position,

00:43:29.640 which again,

00:43:30.140 I'm a credo-baptist, right?

00:43:31.360 So just humor me.

00:43:32.480 So I'm going to say it's wrong.

00:43:33.660 So there's a difference

00:43:34.360 with that falsehood.

00:43:36.160 If it's not true, it's false.

00:43:37.400 That falsehood

00:43:38.180 versus of the mode of baptism

00:43:40.520 versus Jesus is 1.00

00:43:43.360 the bastard son 1.00

00:43:46.100 of a adulterous woman. 1.00

00:43:50.000 Okay, well, 1.00

00:43:52.400 can we all agree

00:43:53.160 that's another level?

00:43:54.500 That's another level.

00:43:56.000 That guy is a ravenous wolf. 0.99

00:43:59.220 That guy is a false teacher 0.89

00:44:01.500 that meets the standards of our text today.

00:44:05.420 That's a really, really, really big deal

00:44:08.300 because that guy, if you believe what he says, 0.98

00:44:11.180 he's going to hell and he'll drag you there with him. 0.61

00:44:14.780 If you get baptism wrong, 0.77

00:44:17.540 mode of baptism to be more particular,

00:44:20.880 no, this is not a heaven or hell issue.

00:44:23.880 But the scripture speaks to it.

00:44:25.940 It matters.

00:44:26.760 There is a right position, a wrong position.

00:44:28.840 We shouldn't be relativists.

00:44:31.060 And yet, it is not a heaven versus hell issue.

00:44:35.380 There is such a thing as theological triage.

00:44:37.660 There are primary issues, secondary issues, tertiary issues.

00:44:41.280 So that's what I'm covering here.

00:44:42.520 So false teachers, they claim false authority.

00:44:45.020 That's one mark.

00:44:45.800 False teachers spread false doctrines.

00:44:47.640 And here is how I got on this topic.

00:44:49.260 These people teach ideas that go against core truths of the Christian faith.

00:44:53.580 Continuing now, in your notes, we should be cautious, question their teachings, and once we identify their falsehood, times of spiritual, once we identify their falsehood, we should avoid them completely. 0.59

00:45:08.120 And then I like this.

00:45:09.240 This is actually paraphrasing Matthew Henry here.

00:45:11.680 He says, we must be on guard against these types of temptations, especially during times of spiritual revival.

00:45:18.800 I think this is insightful.

00:45:20.100 especially during times of spiritual revival or reform reformation when god's work seems to be

00:45:27.840 being renewed in our time in our generation it's during these times that satan and his followers

00:45:34.540 are most active trying to deceive people as many people as possible i think that that's a good word

00:45:41.840 i think that's generally true that's a good instinct to think that there are always false

00:45:46.960 teachers at any moment throughout all of church history the last 2 000 years there's always been

00:45:51.860 in some place in some number right whether it be greater or lesser there's always been

00:45:58.580 some presence of false teachers throughout all of christendom but to to think say i i think

00:46:06.960 that there may be a pattern here formula of sorts that in moments throughout church history where

00:46:14.220 you're on the cusp of something.

00:46:17.540 Like God is really doing something marvelous and unique.

00:46:22.880 Moments like the Reformation with Luther

00:46:25.380 or these kinds of moments where there's massive,

00:46:28.500 miraculous reform and renewal and revival

00:46:31.640 that's taking place by God's providence and His sovereignty

00:46:35.100 in a particular culture at a particular time.

00:46:38.920 That in that context, that there would actually be a rise.

00:46:44.220 There'd be a spike on your false teacher readings.

00:46:48.400 False teacher readings are off the chart.

00:46:51.280 There's a little spike of false teachers. 0.65

00:46:54.660 I think that's probably, I think that's generally true.

00:46:58.520 And that being said,

00:47:00.220 I do think that we're in one of those times.

00:47:02.680 I do.

00:47:03.740 Now, I don't think all those times are the same.

00:47:06.540 So I'm not saying that our time is equivalent

00:47:08.740 to the Reformation 500 years ago.

00:47:12.060 I'm not saying that.

00:47:12.860 but i do think that god is doing something in our generation in our time in our place

00:47:19.620 that is unique and i think there's a pattern here as well we're noticing patterns here's another one

00:47:25.560 i that historians have argued that there's typically history works in kind of 80 year

00:47:30.840 cycles have you ever heard that it's kind of like 80 year cycles from you know the war for

00:47:36.840 independence if we're looking at american history war from independent uh for independence and then

00:47:40.700 civil war and then you have world war one and world war two and now we're right at that 80 year

00:47:46.900 mark again which is a little frightening

00:47:50.560 it could be great it could be like something awesome is about to happen you know or it could

00:47:57.100 be something really bad is about to happen and we don't know god's in charge we trust in him we

00:48:03.900 should sleep like the children of god you know with security and safety and ease peace and joy

00:48:12.180 but we should also be vigilant and be awake be spiritually awake war for independence civil war

00:48:19.540 world war ii and here we are today about 80 years after that but the point is that that history

00:48:26.980 tends to follow cycles because in some sense it follows generations right you have a generation

00:48:32.320 they learned a lesson.

00:48:34.580 And then a couple of generations,

00:48:35.800 you find the same thing

00:48:36.640 in biblical history with Israel, right?

00:48:38.720 God would do something good.

00:48:40.540 And then a couple of generations

00:48:41.960 would go by.

00:48:43.760 And, you know,

00:48:45.140 then the present generation

00:48:46.680 at that time would not really care

00:48:49.520 about what God had done in the past,

00:48:51.200 the memorials that their father,

00:48:53.880 his ancestors had built to the Lord

00:48:55.320 and his faithfulness

00:48:56.160 and this truth that they recognize

00:48:57.600 and realize that God had taught them.

00:48:59.360 And then, you know,

00:49:00.060 the grandkids or great grandkids

00:49:02.040 they're kind of like, eh, I don't know, but have we ever, like, you know, has communism really

00:49:08.260 been tried, though? Has it ever really been tried? You know, like that. And we kind of got that. I

00:49:13.060 feel like that's kind of what we got. You know, it's about 80 years, and then you got all the

00:49:18.300 liberal young people in their Marxist colleges saying, eh, yeah, but has communism ever really

00:49:23.900 been tried? And then the thing that's kind of unique, though, is that a bunch of, you know,

00:49:28.540 sane normal people in america said you know they're kind of all at the same time said shut up

00:49:34.140 no and also uh your school's defunded and also the school in pakistan

00:49:42.000 that's teaching you know alphabet soup and also this over here and also that over here and also

00:49:49.640 russell moore you know you're you're done with christianity today you lose your you know you're

00:49:53.200 1.8 million dollars. Like, it's all done. All at the same time, which is really amazing. Really

00:49:58.540 amazing. But the point is, there are times where God is always faithful. He's always moving. But

00:50:04.380 there are times where it seems as though the Holy Spirit sprints, right? There's a marathon. He's

00:50:09.240 always faithful. He's always doing something. But every now and then, it's like, and it seems like

00:50:13.100 every 80 years, he sprints. It feels as though we're in a sprinting moment. And if we are, the

00:50:19.180 point is this if we're in a sprinting moment if the spirit of god is sprinting then you are a fool 0.97

00:50:24.920 if you think that the devil won't sprint with him if the spirit is moving quicker then the devil's

00:50:32.220 going to try to match it if the holy spirit is doing something unique and stirring reformation

00:50:38.400 renewal then satan will not say oh well i guess i'll just have to sit this out you know for the

00:50:43.520 next, you know, 10, 20 years and let God, you know, just send revival and reformation in a wonderful

00:50:48.800 way that's unencumbered by me, you know, and then I'll get back to work, you know, a little later.

00:50:54.020 No, if God is doing something good, Satan's going to work overtime to try to ruin it.

00:51:01.160 I think that's what Matthew Henry is getting at. All right. Lastly, kids are telling me that we're

00:51:04.920 done lastly appreciate it um last couple verses starting in verse 21 not everyone who says to me

00:51:14.080 lord lord right you're all familiar with this not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the

00:51:18.420 kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven not just anybody who

00:51:24.760 says hey jesus is my homeboy i'm a christian no lord lord he's my father this makes me this is

00:51:33.020 the best thing I can say about this. Lord, Lord, the doubling of a name was a claim to intimacy

00:51:37.880 in biblical times. So think of what Jesus says to Martha, right? So she's mad, you know, Mary,

00:51:43.320 my sister, she's being a deadbeat. She's just sitting at your feet, you know, and having a 1.00

00:51:47.060 good time. Meanwhile, I'm, you know, playing the host. I'm the hostess of the mostest. I'm doing

00:51:51.040 everything, you know, and cooking the meal and doing all these different things. And she's being

00:51:54.380 lazy. You should rebuke my sister. And Jesus instead, he says, Martha, Martha, you are busy 1.00

00:52:00.760 about many things but one thing matters mary has chosen the better portion and it will not be taken

00:52:06.800 from her but but notice right there at the beginning martha martha it that's it's it's

00:52:12.220 jesus is rebuking her she tried to you know rebuke jesus or get jesus to rebuke her sister

00:52:17.260 and jesus instead is rebuking her saying your sister actually made the better choice here

00:52:21.820 But even in his rebuke of Martha, he does it with a claim, a title of affection.

00:52:32.220 Martha, Martha.

00:52:33.860 The doubling of a name in that culture was a sign of intimacy, a sign of love.

00:52:38.220 So he's saying, Martha, Martha.

00:52:39.540 It would be the equivalent of us saying, you know, so-and-so, you know that I love you.

00:52:45.500 But you're being a little crazy right now.

00:52:48.880 You need to chill out.

00:52:49.560 right it would be like whenever we're about to give some kind of critique to someone that we

00:52:54.860 love and we remind them ahead of time you know you know that i love you you know that i'm not

00:52:58.940 trying to you know we make those kind of qualifications which are good and right to

00:53:01.800 remind the person to reaffirm our affection for that person our devotion to that person

00:53:06.100 i'm not against you i'm for you however in this case i actually do think that x y and z you could

00:53:13.860 work on this, maybe improve in that. That's what Jesus is doing. Martha, I've got a rebuke for you,

00:53:20.280 but first, Martha, Martha, Martha, you know, I'm your guy. I'm for you. I love you. However,

00:53:28.440 the casserole can wait. I'm Jesus. I'm teaching. Take a seat. Take off your coat. Take off your

00:53:37.880 oven mitts stay a while listen up so all that being said now we see this kind of language a

00:53:46.440 title a claim of intimacy a claim it's an intimacy thing close it's a claim of i'm close to him i

00:53:54.080 i'm he's my guy i'm his guy i i i have i have union with him i definitely do why because i i

00:54:01.840 called him lord twice the doubling of a name martha martha meaning i love you you know me i

00:54:08.260 know you lord lord you love me i love you you know me lord lord it's the equipment the best

00:54:14.600 equipment i could think of and i'm not trying to feel bad because it's another charismatic example

00:54:18.760 but um the best the best example i could think of in modern times would be a uh daddy god

00:54:25.980 like like he is god and he is your father and i get it but like i don't know it was cool for a

00:54:33.220 little bit i don't know if you guys were i don't know maybe it was just me but there were some

00:54:36.920 circles for a little bit where for a hot minute where it was uh pretty popular for people and

00:54:42.640 every time the guys did it it's just like whoa like it's cringe when the girl's doing it but

00:54:47.000 it's really cringe when the guys but like like every public prayer meeting it's like and daddy

00:54:51.320 God, we just love you. And Daddy

00:54:53.200 God, we just... And it's like,

00:54:55.180 ugh. And I remember thinking, even all the

00:54:57.300 way back then, I was thinking,

00:54:58.560 many will say to me on that day, Lord,

00:55:01.200 Lord. Lord, Lord, it's not just a claim

00:55:03.380 of I'm submitted to your authority. It's a claim

00:55:05.180 of intimate closeness and love.

00:55:08.900 He's not

00:55:09.380 just God for me. He's Daddy God. He's not

00:55:11.280 just Lord for me. He's Lord, Lord.

00:55:13.180 Lord, Lord. Daddy God.

00:55:16.820 And yet,

00:55:17.920 I will say to

00:55:19.300 them, even

00:55:21.280 those who called me daddy god depart from me before i never knew you now here's the last thing

00:55:28.420 i want to do so there's a claim to intimacy that doesn't infallibly mean that jesus actually knows

00:55:35.160 you you can claim to intimately know him lord lord daddy god but he may not know you also what's the

00:55:40.520 other marker here we did mighty works in your names we cast out devils in your names we did

00:55:44.380 this we did that so claims to miraculous power do not guarantee that you're a christian and claims

00:55:50.860 to intimate affection and love

00:55:52.440 and relationship with Jesus,

00:55:54.120 do not guarantee that you are a Christian.

00:55:57.060 But the last thing is this.

00:55:58.640 Jesus will say on that day

00:56:00.200 to these individuals who were not really His, 0.85

00:56:02.980 who were ultimately goats,

00:56:05.140 regardless of their claims,

00:56:07.120 they may have had works of the Spirit,

00:56:08.900 but they did not have the fruit of the Spirit.

00:56:10.740 They may have claimed intimacy with Christ,

00:56:12.520 but Christ had no real intimacy with them.

00:56:15.100 And of these people, Jesus does not say,

00:56:17.100 depart from me.

00:56:17.980 I knew you for a time,

00:56:19.560 but I know you no longer.

00:56:21.340 No church.

00:56:22.780 Covenant Bible church.

00:56:23.520 What does he say?

00:56:24.060 I used to know you, but I don't anymore.

00:56:25.760 No, he says, depart from me.

00:56:27.200 I never knew you.

00:56:31.020 These are not people who were saved

00:56:32.660 and then somehow lost it.

00:56:34.500 These are people who thought they were saved,

00:56:36.620 but never had it.

00:56:38.600 So we'll end with this.

00:56:39.600 1 John 2, verse 19.

00:56:41.860 They went out from us

00:56:42.960 because they used to be with us,

00:56:44.960 but aren't any longer.

00:56:45.980 No, they went out from us,

00:56:47.600 but they were never of us.

00:56:49.780 If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.

00:56:55.020 But they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

00:57:02.700 A person does not lose salvation, but ultimately a bad tree eventually will produce enough bad fruit to prove not that they lost salvation, but that they never had salvation.

00:57:13.600 Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.

00:57:15.920 Lo, I will be with you always, even to the ends of the age.

00:57:18.900 If you belong to Christ, you will always belong to Christ.

00:57:22.460 And you will never lose Christ, not because you and your ability to follow Him,

00:57:27.800 but because of Him and His perfect faithfulness to never let go of you.

00:57:32.740 It's not because you're a good follower of Jesus that salvation will not ultimately be lost.

00:57:37.500 It's because Jesus is a good leader.

00:57:39.860 And He's such a perfectly good leader that He has promised not to lose one of those whom the Father has given to Him.

00:57:47.100 John chapter 6, of all that the Father has given to me, I will raise them up on the last day.

00:57:53.060 Whoever God elects unto salvation and gives to His Son Jesus, they will not be lost.

00:57:59.200 Not because of their faithfulness, but because of Christ's faithfulness.

00:58:02.680 You are not just Christ's follower, you're His possession.

00:58:05.840 He owns you. You're His slave.

00:58:08.040 Well, that sounds demeaning.

00:58:09.420 Yeah, it is. Yeah, He's the master, you're the slave.

00:58:11.740 But also it's encouraging.

00:58:12.940 And what's encouraging about it?

00:58:14.260 By being his possession, it means that ultimately the responsibility of stewardship falls upon the one who owns the possession and not the possession itself to be able to keep itself.

00:58:28.060 It is Jesus who takes the responsibility to steward and keep all that he possesses.

00:58:35.840 And if you are a possession of Christ, then you will never be lost.

00:58:39.840 Never, ever, ever be lost.

00:58:42.720 But you can claim to be intimate with Christ

00:58:45.600 and He have no intimacy with you.

00:58:47.820 You can do works of the Spirit

00:58:49.440 and yet not bear fruit of the Spirit.

00:58:52.100 You can, in the end, ultimately prove

00:58:55.380 to have never belonged to Christ,

00:58:57.380 but you will never lose Christ

00:59:00.640 if Christ has ever possessed you.

00:59:04.720 And like Hebrews would say in Hebrews chapter 6,

00:59:07.420 you know, there's a point in which repentance

00:59:09.160 becomes impossible for those

00:59:11.300 who have once tasted of the heavenly gift,

00:59:13.360 once been enlightened, once this, once that.

00:59:15.140 Hebrews 6 is a scary text.

00:59:17.820 But remember that it's followed up

00:59:19.680 by the apostles saying,

00:59:21.640 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

00:59:23.320 but of you, we are hopeful of better things.

00:59:27.820 And so, likewise, there are many that Jesus will say,

00:59:31.360 depart from me on that final day.

00:59:32.840 But of you, Covenant Bible Church,

00:59:34.360 but of you, brothers and sisters,

00:59:36.460 we are hopeful of better things.

00:59:38.860 Things belonging to salvation.

00:59:41.300 That your claims of intimacy with Christ are not mere platitudes,

00:59:45.620 but rather substantive.

00:59:48.960 And that you, as you bear fruit in keeping with repentance,

00:59:53.060 that it's not just taping the apple onto the dead tree

00:59:57.600 or hanging the bunch of grapes on the thorn or the thistle,

01:00:01.240 but it's actually your bent.

01:00:03.160 It is your stream.

01:00:04.420 There's bad fruit too because sin still remains,

01:00:06.940 but your overall bent, your overall trajectory, your stream,

01:00:10.380 The mark of you as a man, as a woman is that you belong to Christ.

01:00:15.960 And because you belong to him, he will never leave you or forsake you.

01:00:20.020 He will be with you always to the ends of the age.

01:00:21.920 Let's pray.

01:00:22.380 Father, thank you for your word.

01:00:23.640 Bless it to your people and bring yourself glory.

01:00:25.680 We pray this in the name of your son, Jesus.

01:00:28.220 Amen.

The NXR Podcast - February 17, 2025

THE SERMON - “Depart From Me, I Never Knew You”

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