Beacon Sunday Service: November 17th, 2024

If you guys can uh if you've seated yourselves, if you guys can get back to standing, uh I'm gonna read our text, which we've been on for the last seven weeks. Titus chapter one, verses one through four. Um, it's up here for you. This is the reading of God's word. Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, and the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie, promised from all eternity, but at the proper time manifested his word in preaching, with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God, our Savior to Titus, my genuine child according to our common faith, the grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Join me in prayer. Lord, I pray that you would really guard our time and would you use it to feed your people, to encourage your people, to humble your people, and to equip your people just to be salt and light. We pray that your word would go forth in power, that it would bear fruit in our lives in such a way that it is noticeable to the world. Help us to become effective evangelists to our families, to our coworkers, to our neighborhoods and amongst our friends. And Lord, I pray that you would bless our time, guard it, keep us sober, and give us good ears to hear the message of the gospel. So we thank you, Lord, for our time together and pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take a seat.

So you ever wonder how Eskimos get their fur. They're not particularly big, nor they, nor are they very quick on their feet. Traditionally, Eskimos or the Inuit, they have hunted wolves using what they call a blood popsicle. In the freezing cold of winter, the Inuit would dip a sharp knife in the blood, they would slosh it around, and then once the whole thing is covered in blood, they would bury it with the blade part sticking up on the ground, and it freezes. And a wolf, attracted to the scent of blood, would come investigate, and it would look at the knife, it would cautiously take a lick. And the first several licks would be nothing but frozen blood. Delicious. And soon enough, the unsuspecting wolf would make itself comfortable and it would plop itself down, and then with each additional lick, the wolf's tongue would get closer and closer to the blade.

And the wolf is unaware that it's now both licking its own blood and continuing to make deeper and deeper cuts into its tongue. It would start to bleed out, and as it slowly bled out, it would be substantially weakened. And then the Eskimo would just wait patiently, and sometimes he would wait a few hours for his trophy. And after much patient waiting, the Eskimo would approach the weakened wolf and would apply the finishing blow, a jab from a sharp spear through its throat or heart. The wolf would be deceived. It would be baited and then killed. The kill would not be immediate but gradual. And then the wolf would be deceived and destroyed by what appealed to its nature, its senses, its logic, and its instincts.

And in its nature, senses, logic, and instinct, it would eventually find itself destroyed. It would be deceived and then killed. After all, that's how bait works, right? Baiting involves deception. Deception has to have enough truth to be believable. It has to have enough natural and instinctive appeal for it to work. A successful deception leads to a successful destruction. And that's how the Inuit get there first. Satan, the murderer of all murderers and a liar of all liars, he similarly baits and deceives, all in an obsession to steal, kill, and destroy. John 10 10. Man was created for worship, and man was created to worship, but at the fall, that purpose was corrupted, and man's instincts and man's logic became horribly impaired.

Man has since become extremely vulnerable to pride, to shame, and to guilt. And since the fall, Satan has used, we learned this last week, false religion to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan introduced false religion into the world in a passion to mar God's glory and to destroy God's work. False religion appeals to man's pride and it appeals to man's comforts. False religion appeals to man's corrupted flesh and to man's dull senses. False religion preys on a sinner's depraved instincts. And the devil, the father of all lies, has worked through all of human history to bait, to deceive, and then to kill all of God's image bearers, and to plunge them into ruin and destruction. And the details of this run through the entire length of the scriptures.

And you guys know that. What we see recorded in Scripture until the end of the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, is the narrative of the unfolding of this pathway to the entrance of the Son of God into the world. And that's what we covered last week. Today we're going to be looking at the priority of the preaching of the word. And there was too much content there, so I've decided that this will become a three-part sermon. Howard said, Go ahead and preach an hour and forty minutes, and I said, No. So there's gonna be a three-part sermon, and we're gonna be covering the parceling of the word on December 1st, next week's Thanksgiving. So I want to read verse three again for you, and that's gonna be our primary text for today.

But at the proper time, he manifested his word in preaching, with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior. So when the fullness of the time came, the word of God in the person of Jesus Christ made his entrance into the world. Emmanuel God came into the world to dwell among men. God sent forth his son, and at the proper time, the promises and the prophecies were fulfilled. The saving grace of God and the kindness and affection of the Savior God appeared in human form. And this is a turning point in all of human history. This is the most significant event in all of human history. And Apostle Paul references this turning point at each time at each point somewhere in each chapter of Titus.

Titus 1 to 3 verse 3, the word was manifested, and he was manifested in a proclamation in a preaching. Chapter 2, verse 11 hinges upon, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. Chapter 3, but when the kindness and affection of God our Savior appeared, so the entire letter to Titus is all in response to Jesus, the word of God, entered into the world, therefore. So this word was manifested in preaching. It says in chapter 1, verse 3. So here we begin our second point. The priority of the preaching of the word. Before the entrance of Christ into the world, God's word was primarily preached through the holy prophets. A prophet, the office of prophet, simply put, the person is a mouthpiece of God, or a mouthpiece of gods that are false, right?

A mouthpiece of God. And the content of the message of the prophets was not always predictive in nature. Okay, so a lot of times we think prophecy, we think future, but a prophet just declared what the word of God was spoken through them. So thus saith the Lord.

And then the prophets of old, they wrote down the spoken utterances of God. So Romans chapter 1, verse 1 to 2, Paul writes, Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, calls and called as an apostle, having been set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. The prophets of old spoke God's word, they wrote down God's word, and sometimes they became walking sermons, and they lived out God's word. God made an example of their lives. God's prophets became living and visible sermons for the people. So the prophets not only spoke and wrote, but their lives were also symbolic at times of God's judgment. So God made them an example. They were walking sermons.

I'll give you some examples. A prophet Isaiah preached naked for three years. Imagine that. Don't imagine that. As a visual sign of the shame that will come upon God's people, Isaiah 20. Hosea was commanded to marry an unfaithful harlot to represent the harlotry of Israel. And before Hosea takes Gomer as a wife, he is told that she's going to play the harlot on you and be unfaithful to you, but you have to love her anyway. Jonah was put to death and digested for three days in the belly of a fish and then raised to life. Jesus called this the sign of Jonah in Matthew 12. Jeremiah in Jeremiah 13, Jeremiah has to walk around in a rotten sash, an expensive, rotten but slimy sash full of river scum.

He has to walk around that to symbolize the rottenness of the nation of Judah. When God calls him to the ministry, he says, Nobody's going to listen to you. And he goes around as the, what do you know Jeremiah as? The weeping prophet. We see in Ezekiel chapter 4, Ezekiel had to lay on his left side for 390 days. That's a long time. And then God granted him mercy. Flip to your right side for 40 days. And then after that, he could sit upright and he was hungry. And then God said, Eat bread, baked on top of human dung. Yikes. And that represented the punishment that would come upon the house of Israel. So the prophets of old spoke God's word, they wrote God's word, and they sometimes visually lived out God's word.

So before the time of Jesus, God spoke to, God spoke in and through the prophets in many portions and in many ways. That says up there in Hebrews chapter 1. And you see that in the opening. Well, what happened to many of these prophets? They lived obedient lives, right? But many of them were killed by religious leaders of Israel. Remember, we learned last week the workers of false religion always seek to kill the workers of true religion. We started that with Cain and Abel. And God allowed these men to be martyred. But their work was never in vain. So the elect of God in the Old Testament, those of true religion who live by faith, always listened to and responded appropriately to the proclaimed word.

So every person who was elect of God, even in the Old Testament, when God's word was spoken, they submitted. Okay. So even in the Old Testament, the elect of God, followers of true religion, they always obeyed the voice of God given to them through the prophets, and they submitted themselves to what was spoken. Now, this is not an exhaustive list, but this is a list of the content of the preaching prior to Jesus' arrival, right? But at the proper time manifested his word in preaching. So what happened before that? What was the preaching? Much of the preaching of the Old Testament, first was primarily related to God's glory, his holy nature, and his hatred of sin. You guys picked up on this in your readings, right?

Secondly, the preaching also detailed God's compassionate nature and his mercy. The book of Jonah ends with the rhetorical question shall not I have compassion on these wicked Assyrians. The preaching of the Old Testament prophets would point to man's total depravity and his inability to save himself. And again and again, the preaching would remind the people of the promise of the Messiah of God who would take away the sins of the world. One day God would satisfy his own holy wrath. God would restore and reward those who patiently waited for him. And in the Old Testament, the people were always called to humble themselves. A preaching of humble repentance in faith would always come before the message of forgiveness.

So true prophets of God in the Old Testament, they always preached repentance. Why? All idolatry, all infractions against the law of God needed to be repented of. And that would continue all the way to the time of Jesus. Now, the gospel accounts begin with a baptizing prophet who prepared the Messiah's way with the message of repentance. You guys know who he is? John the Baptist, right? John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet. And he comes in the spirit of Elijah. Okay? And John the Baptist's message and his baptism of repentance would be a sign that the Messiah has arrived. 400 years there was not a prophet of God. But that prophet of the word that, or the famine of the word has ended with John the Baptist, and now the day of the Lord is at hand.

And all of this is prophesied in Isaiah and at the close of the last prophecy through Malachi, before 400 years of silence take place. Okay? Malachi 4, 4 to 5, this is toward the end. Remember the law of Moses, my servant, even the statutes and judgments which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh. Now, the gospel accounts, three of them at least, begin with a priority in the necessity of repentance because John the Baptist starts the Gospels, right? So that's common knowledge. And you guys know what John's message was. Repent for what? The kingdom of God is at hand. You guys know this.

That was John's message. John the Baptist appeared, Mark 1 4 in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Without repentance, all the way from the beginning, all the way to John the Baptist, in the old covenant, without repentance, there's no forgiveness of sins. Now it's very, very, very important to pause here and ask this question. After Jesus lived, died on the cross, and then resurrected from the dead, did the preaching about sin and repentance change? You don't need to answer that. Okay? But that's a super important question. After the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, did the necessity of repentance and the priority of the message to repent, did that change?

Did the necessity of repentance for the forgiveness of sin get abolished? Did Jesus and the apostles preach differently? What was the content of their messages? Was it different? At any point in the New Testament epistles, do any of the apostles instruct all future preachers to preach differently? Today in 2024, do we still need to preach the holiness of God, the depravity of man, and the necessity of repentance for the forgiveness of sins? Think hard on that. This is a very important question that we all need to ask because what we hear coming from many pulpits in today's church culture, we hear very different messages. Right? So is that something that was told to the apostles to instruct the future church?

The content of many sermons preached on Sunday mornings today feels very different. Is the gospel of Jesus Christ a turning point in the message? Did we change the contents of the gospel over time? What is the gospel? Where do we begin when we share the gospel? God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Is that where we begin? What kind of preaching do we build a church around? Where do we begin when we share the gospel? So here again, very, very, very important question. Did the preaching change with the arrival of Jesus Christ? I'd absolutely love for us to take a deep dive over the next few years into the New Testament to see what God's Word says about how we're supposed to preach.

Okay. We will discover that with the entrance of the Son of God into the world, most of the preaching remained unchanged. I'll treat that. Most of the preaching remained unchanged with Jesus' arrival into the world. The preaching of God's holy character, no change. The preaching of man's depravity and man's offense before holy, holy, holy God, no change. The preaching of man's need, his desperate need for God to satisfy his own wrath did not change. The preaching that God would restore and reward the faithfulness of the elect, did that change? Did not change. And here's a very important one. The preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins never changed. The preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins never changed.

The only change in the preaching was now that the word was made flesh, God's promises were fulfilled. That veil that separated man from God is torn. Now we have access to this holy, holy, holy God. That's the only thing that did not change. Before we had to go through a priest, now we have access to God. In fact, God lives in the believer. That's the only change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13 8. God is still holy, holy, holy. Amen. The preaching of repentance did not change. People who preach opposite of that is they're not preaching the Bible. They're preaching their opinion. Because if you look through the Bible, it didn't change. After the resurrection of Jesus, the gospel accounts would also close with the importance and the necessity of repentance.

Of the gospel. It's a little small, but just so the Mark 1.4 is the beginning. Okay, Luke, just before his ascension, he goes, then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Now they're illuminated. And Jesus said to them, it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day. And that repentance for forgiveness of sins would going forward be proclaimed to his name to all the nations, beginning from the Jews, the Jerusalem. You guys notice the priority, what's prioritized in the content of the gospel proclamation? To both Jews and Gentiles? What's the priority here still? Repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The message of repentance continues on from the gospels through the rest of the New Testament.

Okay? One of the main emphases of the Apostle Paul's preaching is repentance. Believe it or not, that's his obsession. Alright? In Acts chapter 26, the Apostle Paul, he's standing in front of King Agrippa for trial, and he describes and sums up his preaching ministry as the following. Okay, I want you guys to pay close attention. So King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring, this is a repeated ongoing thing. He kept declaring both to those of Damascus first and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea and even to the Gentiles? What? They should repent and turn to God. Practicing deeds appropriate to repentance. So how did Paul describe his ministry?

He described it as one where everywhere he went, everywhere he went, and he was a missionary to all the Gentile world, he kept declaring one, the need for people's repentance, and two, the need for them to prove it. Do you guys see that? To prove their repentance by how they live their lives. His preaching of repentance was a matter of disobedience, uh was a matter of disobedience, right? Verse 19. He did not prove disobedient to that. He obeyed it. So leaving out repentance in his preaching, Paul says, will be disobedience to God. Now, some people think that the apostle Paul is kind of uptight, he's a holy moly. Okay? So some people like Peter better. I like Peter better. Duh. Okay. I'm actually named after Peter Pan, by the way.

I'm not named after the apostle Peter. When I first found that out, I was like completely shocked. My dad named me after Peter Pan, because that was the first American movie he ever watched. Anyway, but I like Peter better than Paul. Okay. Now he's a little less uptight, more charismatic of all the apostles from our vantage point. Let's see what he has to say at the very end of his life. The apostle Peter, in his second epistle, written just before his execution, explains why Christ's delay, his return is being delayed. Okay, he says, but do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some consideress, but is patient towards you.

Why? Not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. So why does God delay? Why is God slow to bring a final judgment, a final fulfillment? Because he is giving people time to repent. The message of repentance has to be preached until the very end of the age. So I'm hoping you see this clearly in the scriptures, and I just gave you a few snapshots of it. Without the preaching of repentance of sin and the detailing of the bad news of sin, there is no good news of salvation. We cannot preach the good news of Jesus Christ without preaching about the bad news of sin. No matter who this news offends. About 15 years ago, the phrase, preach the gospel to yourself every day, became very popular.

And it was very frequently thrown around. Preach the gospel to yourself every day. And the heartbeat behind that was to reassure people about the love of God and to remind them to be joyful in their salvation. Okay? The reason Jesus came to die was because you couldn't save yourself. Amen. That's good stuff. Nothing wrong with that. We do need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. It's actually very beneficial to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to ourselves every day. But we can't preach the gospel to ourselves every day without preaching about the character of a holy, holy, holy God and the necessity of our repentance. Amen. The gospel starts with a holy, holy, holy God who hates sin.

Amen. The gospel doesn't start with Jesus died for your sins. It's a free ticket to heaven. That's not where the gospel starts. Jesus did not come simply to pardon, he came to transform, he came to restore, he came to undo the damage of sin. A person cannot be saved without repentance, a turning away from sins. The word conversion means old to new. There's a change. Right. Those who are saved by God, he sanctifies. And that sanctification always has an always will involve repentance. The gospel is not good news to the goats. Right. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not good news to those who do not believe.

The cross of Jesus Christ is not a symbol of hope to those on the path of false religion. Leaving out the necessity of repentance is of Satan, is a false religion. The reason we have a problem with this is the message of repentance is very jarring to our pride, to our nature, to our instincts, to our corrupted logic. And you leave the message of repentance out, you allow many people to go all ham on all the spiritual blood popsicles that are placed all over the place. You guys track tracking with that. Many people talk about their moment of conversion as a time when they felt empty before, and then they gave Jesus a chance, and then he fulfilled them with purpose and hope. Now, some of that, it does hit upon the byproducts of conversion.

That doesn't mean it's untrue when they say, I just felt very hopeless and lost, because a lot of times the breaking of our pride drives us to the cross of Christ. But without genuine repentance, I will say that that person has never been forgiven of their sins, and there was never any conversion. A person may become more religious, but he still remains condemned.

Genuine conversion always includes repentance, a taking off of the old self, and a putting on of the new.

This is an old self. Foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice, in envy, despicable, hating one another. That's the old self. But here's repentance. But when the kindness and affection of God, our Savior appeared, boom, he saved us. Verse 5 says, He saved us. And we no longer are able to remain foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved, because he washed us with regeneration. And that's verse 5. We no longer can spend our lives in malice and envy and spite and hate. We have repented of those things, and we continue to repent of those things. So there has been a change. Preaching repentance and telling people that they need to turn away from sin is not legalism.

Preaching repentance is not legalism. Legalism is this. Obey A, B and C, and then you can earn merit before God. That is that's wrong, right? Repentance, preaching repentance is this.

Because we did not obey, because we did not live according to God's purpose, we have to turn away from that and cling to Christ because there is no hope outside of Jesus Christ. So preaching repentance is not legalism. Preaching repentance is not promoting Judaism or Phaesarism. Preaching repentance is a requirement. Preaching repentance is a requirement. And I hope you saw that in the life of John the Baptist, in Jesus, in Paul, and in Peter. Preaching repentance is the door to the narrow gate and the entrance for true religion. Are you guys following that? There's a narrow gate.

But the gate of that is the repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So workers of false religion preach a gospel that does not include repentance. And that's a fruit of a false prophet. Okay. Walk with me here. Jeremiah 23, 21 and 22. God says, I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied. Had they stood in my counsel, then they would have caused my words to be heard by my people and would have turned them away from their sin and from the evil of their deeds. That's the mark of a true prophet. And I want to turn our attention to the preaching of Jesus Himself. Matthew chapter 5 through 7 are referred to as Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Okay? And in chapter 7, verse 13, we looked at this last week.

Jesus begins to describe false religion and true religion. And I want to uh spend the rest of our time in this passage. Matthew 7, 13 to 15, enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad. False religion that leads to destruction. And there are many who enter through it, for the gate is narrow, and the way is constricted that leads to life. And from our vantage point, it's not the majority. Few find it.

And there's a narrowly gated, constricted path. Verse 15, the juxtaposition is interesting, because then he says, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. So we learned last week, false religion is of the flesh. False religion is described by Jesus as a widely gated and broad road, and how many enter through it? Many. Why? Because it's a big fat spiritual blood popsicle that appeals to its nature, its senses, its pride, its logic. I can earn access to God because I am better than that guy. I am holier than that girl, so I can be pleasing to God. God exists to please me. If I love God, he will give me good health, a better house, a better car, a better pretty wife, not a better pretty wife, you only get one.

Like a nice wife. Wow. Pleasing God is legit. It's good. False religion. It strokes the sinner's ego. And it swages the guilty conscience. Remember, people who've been created in the image of God cannot tolerate guilt and shame. We can't bear it. It drives you nuts, guilt and shame, for God's image bearers are intolerable, torturous things. So the false religion says you don't have to deal with that. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. The men, majority of the many souls that enter through the wide gate to walk the broad path, they believe themselves to be on the correct one. They do not believe, they cannot believe that they are on the road to destruction. You guys tracking?

They are convinced that they're generally good, generally deserving of the grace and kindness of God. Then they are baited, deceived, lick, lick, lick, lick, bam. This is a very inclusive road. Many enter through it. Many sitting in the pews at churches occupying pulpits on it. And I'm not speaking my opinion. That's what the scriptures will say. Or that's what the scripture says will happen.

Then there is a narrowly gated, constricted road of true religion. Okay? And the true religion is the pathway that's traversed through faith. A faith that goes against the unregenerate man's nature, his senses, his logic, and his instinct. The elect and regenerated man walks by faith, and not by sight, not by instinct. This man's nature has changed. His senses, his logic, it's all been submitted to the Lordship and control of the Holy Spirit. He is led by the shepherd, not a wolf. This man has a new nature. His logic has now been redeemed, his heart has been regenerated, he has new spiritual DNA, and so he doesn't begrudgingly walk this path. He joyfully is able to traverse this narrowly gated, constricted way that is exclusive, but it leads to life.

Hopefully you're tracking. Verse 15. Jesus tells us that there are deceptive false prophets, workers of Satan who are prodding and luring and pointing souls, adding more blood, planting more, right? At the entrance of the broad and the wide. Remember, 2 Timothy 3.13, these men are being deceived, and they are deceiving. So many false prophets do not know that they are false prophets. They do not know that they themselves are on the wrong road. Then that's a sobering thought for every pastor. I wrestle with this. And then I have to actually walk myself through. Wait, what are the fruits of my life? The passage continues. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or fixed from thistles?

Even so, pay attention here, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown to the fire, so then you will know them by their fruits. There's no command in this passage. This is all description. It's not prescription. It's not telling you to do anything. It's telling you how things will be. Okay? So you can discern a worker of false religion, a worker of true religion by their what? Fruits. Okay. Great. Biblical truth. I will know them by their fruits. Now, you will never get a perfect worker. Right? You will never get a perfect pastor. No man will have perfect fruits.

But in the trajectory of their lives, in their message, is there an increasing alignment with the standard set in Scripture? Does a person bear fruits according to the Spirit of God? Do you see those fruits increasing with time? Does that person's teaching align with the scriptures more and more with the passage of time? Or is their teaching based more on their opinions, experiences, and their PhDs, and their articulation on the blogs, or their following on Instagram. See, a lot of times. Workers of false religion start doubting the sufficiency of the Bible. They start criticizing the Bible. They start poking holes in the scriptures. They try to come up with new creative ways. So here's another sobering question.

Are you in the Bible enough to discern truth from teaching that is almost truth? Remember, false teaching consists of a lot of true teaching. There has to be blood on the blade. A wolf will not go up to a blade by itself and lick. You guys tracking? There has to be something that looks like real food. After all, bait has to be presentable. False teaching involves oftentimes simply like a slight distortion, a little twist, or a little leaving out of the important details. Remember I showed you the baseball diamond thing that you guys didn't think of as a baseball diamond? Because I just left out a word. False teaching de-emphasizes the holiness of God in both life and doctrine. And that's very popular today.

False teaching de-emphasizes the holiness of God in both life and doctrine. False teaching centers on man's needs and not on God's attributes. False teaching moves people away from repentance and towards reassurance. How much of modern day Christian counseling moves a person away from repentance and moves them toward the blame of a circumstance, the blame of a trauma, the blame of a person. Do you guys see how subtle this is? Does God want us to be comforted and whole? Absolutely. But it starts with repentance. There's a widely gated broad road of false religion which leads to destruction. There's a narrowly constricted road of true religion that leads to eternal life. And there are voices on both.

And there always has been. And there will be continue to be voices on both until Jesus returns. You will know them by their fruit. A good tree can't bear bad fruit, a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Okay? So a true worker can make mistakes, can teach inaccurately at times. And let me illustrate. Okay. Anyone know what this is? It's my favorite fruit. It's an apple. It's an apple growing on an apple tree. But not one single person will eat. Well, you might, okay? But you will not eat that. Right? But that's an apple growing on an apple tree. Give it a few months, it'll be delicious. The image on the right is of my least favorite fruit. Anyone know what that is? It's a durian. It's a king of fruits.

I hate it. It smells like feet. Okay? I hate the smell of durian. Apple tree cannot bear durian. Durian tree cannot bear apples. In the beginning stages, they're both unready, they're both unripe. They may look similar, they may share features. But an apple tree cannot bear durians and a durian tree cannot bear apples because a DNA won't allow it. The worker of false religion with satanic DNA cannot bear good fruit. A worker of true religion with the DNA of the Holy Spirit cannot bear bad fruit. Early on, you may not be able to fully tell, okay, with like a superficial cursory look, but you take a closer look, the DNA will be unmistakable. Verse 19 read. Oh, I'm going too far back. Verse 19, what did it say?

Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire. So it's very important that you know how to discern the fruits of false religion and true religion. Amen. Because eternity depends on this. The eternity of your loved ones depends on this. So what are things that are not good fruit? Okay, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did in your name did we not prophesy? In your name, cast out demons. In your name do many miracles. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. The first thing that is not necessarily good fruit is acknowledging Jesus as the Lord of all the earth.

Do you guys see that in verse 21? I can acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, Lord. I can cry that out. Kingdom citizens will cry, Lord, Lord. But just because you cry that out, just because you address Jesus as Lord doesn't mean anything. Superficial allegiance and a correct identification of Jesus as Lord, is that enough? According to the scriptures? No. Just as it says in the book of James, do you believe that there is one true God? Good. Even the demons believe that and they shudder. The second thing that is not necessarily a true fruit is a prophesying in the name of Jesus. So can a person prophesy in the name of Jesus and still be told I never knew you? Yes. Now imagine with me if you will.

I, Peter Chung, can literally cast out demons. Imagine we bring someone off the streets, clearly demon possessed. And imagine I pray over that person, I cast the demon out, and the person is restored to his right mind. Would you be impressed? You would be impressed. And a little scared, right? Because I am showing some kind of spiritual power and authority. If you have a bad headache, I point to my wife because she has a bad headache. If she has a, and of course, I didn't heal her. Okay, so her headache's still there. So she has a headache. Or let's say you break your leg, and I pray over that. You would be a little bit intimidated by me. Right? But does that mean I stand on the right side of God?

Not necessarily. What if I perform not just one miracle? But what does it say here? How many miracles? Many. Miracles can be counterfeit, miracles can be satanic. I can still very well be rejected as one who practices lawlessness. So here are some other things that are not fruits. Okay. Being super sweet, being super nice. How about having a really warm just spiritual experience? God spoke to me. Not a good fruit. How about living as a missionary? Can someone sacrifice a lot, go to the mission field and still be a false prophet? Yes. How about at the harvest crusade, going down to the field or raising your hand at the altar? Does that save you? How about crying?

2 Corinthians 7.10 says, nope, worldly sorrow also leads to death. Shame and embarrassment. Nope. None of those things are fruits by which we can test the authenticity of someone's faith. So now you're like, then how do we test it? Good question, right? Very important one. So what then is true fruit? What does Jesus mean when he says, you will know them by their fruit when this powerful crazy stuff does not qualify? What is he talking about? Verse 25, it begins with an important word. Do you see the therefore there? Every therefore in the Bible is important. When you encounter a therefore, you always have to ask, what is that therefore, therefore? It's good Bible study tools. Alright? Every therefore bridges the stuff that has just been said with the expected response or application.

Okay? So what has just been said? There are two roads. One of false religion, one of true religion. There are false prophets who try to lure people into false religion. They are successful. Many people go that way. The acknowledgement of Jesus, correctly calling him Lord, Lord, doesn't get you in. Prophesying in the name of Jesus doesn't get you in. Casting out demons, performing many miracles doesn't get you in. All of those things still here, I never knew you. Those who are condemned by Jesus as practicers of lawlessness, there's many there. Therefore. You guys, you guys follow? So pay attention now to what you're supposed to do. Here's the fruit that you need to look for, and the fruit which you yourself need to pursue.

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, maybe compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain descended, the rivers came, the winds blew and fell against the house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Everyone hearing these words of mine and not doing them may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, the rivers came, and the winds blew and slammed against the house, and it fell, and great was its fall. Something that's common to both. The rains come, the rivers rise, the winds blow. And both people are building. Do you guys see the commonality there? False religion doesn't mean lazy. It could mean diligence.

The word is preached. You either hear and submit, or you do not, or you hear and you do not submit. True religion hears, repents, build on the rock of Christ upon salvation by grace through faith. False religion hears it and still goes after the blood popsicles that Satan lays out on the field. So I'm gonna add one last item to this running chart. Ooh, can you see the bottom part? Submits to the word. False religion does not submit to the word of God. True religion submits to the word of God. It's simple. But if you don't know the word of God, you can't tell. Right? The only way you can tell whether I'm a true preacher or a satanic worker is by testing everything I say.

Right? By testing how I live. And again, I'm not gonna have a perfect fruit. But with five years, ten years, 15 years as your pastor, you can be able to say, He loves God. He makes much of Christ and less of himself. He there's no bitterness in that man. There's no anger in that man. He is full of compassion. He is Christ like. Not in how many miracles I can perform. Not in how big I can get this church to grow. Not in how much I can cry with you. But do I live? Do I preach according to the word of God? Amen. So the main fruit of your life, of my life, is related to the appetite for the word. It's related to the appetite for God's word and your desire to grow in obedience to his word. And over time, more and more of your life is submitted to the word of God.

That's the fruit. Amen. Now, as soon as someone says something like, Well, I know that's what the Bible says, but immediately alarms go off in my head, concerns go off in my head, and I'm looking at that person like I don't know if I'm 100% sure you're a Christian. Okay, pay attention. I know that's what the Bible says, but I know that's what the Bible says, and I don't care because it's all about relationship, not religion. You will hear people talk like that. I know that that's what the Bible says, but there are many interpretations. Well, pick the one that you think is right and submit to it then. But they won't do that. It's easy for workers of false religion to hide behind pretenses of spirituality and hide behind, well, there's no way to know.

The Holy Spirit, Jesus says will guide you into all truth. So I'll put it into Jesus' own words. You do not believe because you're not of my sheep. One of the characteristics of the sheep is they hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.

Our application is super important. Because in our application, in our doing of the word is evidences of where our allegiance is truly lie and which road we're on. You guys went through the uh epistle to James with Pastor Madison, right? Do not merely be, or but become doers of the word, and not just hearer who delude themselves. Right? Because if you hear the word and you don't apply it, you're like a man who looks at his face in the mirror, sees the spots, and forgets. James 1, 22 and 23. Here's a good litmus test. If there's a part of your heart that's very offended by what I'm preaching, I just mostly just walked us through the scriptures. Right. Most of my sermons are going to be scripture based so that you don't get my opinion in the mix of that.

But if you are offended by the scriptures, that's symptomatic of false religion. But if in your heart there's a growing conviction, man, I need to repent. I need to go towards God. Praise God. Because that's evidence of his election of you. That's evidence of his love for you. Doctrine is super important. You can't be saved with bad doctrine. Because in doctrine, you hear the voice of the shepherd. Make sense.

So here are some very important questions I'd like to have you reflect on. And this isn't something that you can answer, like with the person next to you, but this is something to really reflect on. Have you repented of your false religion that seeks your pleasure, your glory, your way to heaven? And have you truly embraced salvation by grace through faith to submit to the Lordship of Christ? You can't accept Jesus as Savior alone and not accept him as Lord. Second question, are you living a life of daily repentance and abiding in Christ? Or is he your vending machine? You go to him when you have desire a snack. You put in the right capital and then out comes like a blessing. Third, do you have an appetite that is growing for God's word?

Now it's hard to understand. It's a thick book. 1129, 1189 chapters. It's a very thick book. But do you want to know it? Do you want to draw closer to the God who wrote it? This is also how you can gauge the faith of the people around you. We are called to judge. Are we not? 1 Corinthians 5, 12. Are we not supposed to judge those who are within the church? Yes. What business is mine to judge those outside the church? Expel the wicked man from among you. That's what Paul says. Because you're supposed to judge the doctrine and then the lifestyle of the person in the church with love. May our crying out of Lord, Lord, not just be lip service. That fools us into thinking that we're on the narrowly gated, constricted road.

Amen. May our crying out of Lord, Lord, be actually the proclamation of our hearts. Savior and Lord. Master, I am your slave. I'm your apostle. Use me as you see fit. Even if it means I am martyred. May the Lord find us as wise men who build on the rock. May we become doers of the word and not simply hearers who delude themselves. And my prayer is that the Lord guides us in this endeavor. It's going to take a long time to go through all the books of the Bible. It's taken me seven weeks to go through three verses. But I'm hoping that the more biblically literate we become, the more passionate we learn how to live. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the word today. And Lord, it is our confession that we are often sidetracked, distracted, we lose focus, and sometimes we're deceived into thinking that an unrepentant life is still okay.

So I pray that you would cause us to be victorious, to be passionate and zealous. Sin so easily entangles us, Lord Jesus. So we pray by the power of the Spirit that you would cause us not to long for the things of this world, but truly long for the things of Christ. And would you just build this church and grow an army of people who will properly and accurately profess and preach and proclaim your name? I pray all of these things in Jesus' name.