Zack’s Sermon - Saved to the Uttermost
Saved to the Uttermost
Matthew 7:19-27
17. Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21. Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father in heaven. 22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? 23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:17-23)
This is perhaps the most terrifying passage in Holy Scripture. To think that some will stand before the Eternal Judge of the Universe, thinking that they were going to be justified in His sight, but told to depart from Him into everlasting damnation is a tragedy unparalleled in human existence. We must soberly let this passage pierce our heart. The human heart is indeed wicked above all things. Let us examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith that we proclaim.
I. some professing christians will hear depart from me on the day of judgement
I have wrestled with this particular passage of Scripture for many years. It states plainly that many who claim to know Christ will be turned away by Him on the Day of Judgment. Recently I was involved in an evangelistic outreach. I was confronted with the reality of this passage. It was very troubling to say the least. I was quite surprised by the number of people who claimed to believe in Jesus. Many believed the Bible; they knew that they had sinned before God, and that Jesus had come to die for their sin. However, they believed that they were a good person and that their good works would be enough to merit their entrance into heaven. When confronted with the Biblical plan of salvation, it was as if a fog came over their reasoning. I must admit that I am not an anointed evangelist; however, it was evident that these people were under the influence of a strong delusion.
8. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
A. What is salvation?
The Bible clearly states that salvation is by grace and faith alone. We in the American church have mastered this truth. I believe that this is at the core of the problem we face in our nation. Many think that this is where Christian growth stops, we pray a simple prayer, and we think that we are eternally secure no matter how we live from this day forward. This thinking is not Biblical. We must believe in Christ, repent of sin, live a holy life, and love one another.
1. We are joined to Christ, and born with an incorruptible seed.
(1 Corinthians 6:17, and 1 Peter 1:23) Salvation is a person. When we become born again we become joined with Christ and become one spirit with Him. We will never die because He will never die. When we have the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of us, we are no longer the sinner that we used to be. We have the spirit of conviction letting us know when we are doing something that is grieving Him. The Bible tells us that we have been pre-ordained for good works. As we walk in fellowship with God we begin to walk in the works that He has called us to do. We allow Him to live His life through us. That is not to say that we will never stumble, but it is a decision in our heart to try and walk in obedience to Jesus all the days of our lives.
2. We must give up everything.
Jesus tells us emphatically that we are to take up our cross daily and follow Him. He tells a rich young ruler to sell everything and follow Him. The idea of costly discipleship is a concept that is foreign to many in the Body of Christ. In the name of being “relevant” we have watered down the Gospel to a short little sermon on Sunday that is applicable to our busy lives. Jesus alone will satisfy our hungry hearts. We have been so accustomed to fast food Christianity that we have no appetite for the meat of the Word of God.
3. We must repent.
True repentance is a genuine intent to turn from sin. We must not only put our faith in Christ for His imputed righteousness through faith we must turn from sin. With so many ministries preaching an unbalanced view of the love of God, it is no wonder why many do not see their need for a Savior. We are under the delusion that sin is not that big of a deal. We can flirt with darkness because Jesus’ grace covers a multitude of sins. This is an absolute lie, which is contributing to the building of so many spiritual houses on the shifting sand that Jesus warns against at the end of this chapter. God took sin serious enough that He sent His Son to die because of it.
B. What is not salvation?
1. Mental ascent.
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 1:19)
a. It is not enough to mentally agree with certain teachings about Jesus. Even demons believe the truth about Jesus and tremble.
b. “We must call Christ, Lord, Lord; we say well, for so He is; but can we imagine that this is enough to bring us to heaven, that such a piece of formality as this should be so recompensed, or that He who knows and requires the heart should be so put off with shows for substance?” Matthew Henry[1]
Much of Christendom has boiled the salvation experience down to a simple prayer. However is that really what Jesus died for, a 5 second prayer? Perhaps He was looking for a little more than that. Perhaps He was looking for an equally yoked Bride to rule and reign with Him for all eternity.
c. Adam Clark paraphrases Jesus’ words in his commentary:
“No person by merely acknowledging My authority believing in My nature, professing faith in the protection of My righteousness, and infinite merit of My atonement shall enter into My kingdom.” Adam Clarke[2]
2. Fire insurance.
Some have prayed the sinners’ prayer because they were afraid of going to hell. They think that they might as well pray the prayer just in case hell is a reality. They look at it as fire insurance.
3. Church tradition
Many believe that because they were raised in church, that this equates to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A decision to follow the Risen Christ is a personal decision that can not be made for you by parents, or any one else for that matter.
C. Can we lose our salvation?
I believe that a believer can not lose their salvation by perpetually sinning. Even if we fall into habitual sin, God remains faithful to His covenant toward us. With that being said, I believe that we can so sear our conscience by continually resisting the Holy Spirit and His leadership that over a period of time we can eventually deny Christ. When we willingly sin, we open ourselves up to demonic deception. There are many accounts of people who were once born again that later converted to another religion or became atheists. There are too many testimonies of this happening for there not to be some merit.
1. Sear our conscience.
1. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2. Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; (1Timothy 4:1&2)
2. Losing our salvation can only happen once..
4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5. And have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6. If they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)
D. False Conversion, what does it look like?
1. Self delusion.
Most of what falls under the guise of self delusion was covered earlier under the topic of “what salvation is not.” Self delusion is giving a false hope for eternal life, but not really doing what Christ said to do in order to obtain eternal life.
2. Outward display of religion, similar to the Pharisees.
7. Ye, hypocrites, well did Esias prophesy of you, saying, 8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:7-9)
a. Jesus continually rebuked the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day for having an outward display of religion yet their hearts were far from Him. How many activities are done in church today have no spiritual meaning? We give ourselves a false sense of accomplishment concerning the building of God’s Kingdom, when most activities in church have nothing to do with Biblical Christianity.
II. Wise and foolish builders
24. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded on a rock. 26. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:24-27)
A. There is a storm on the horizon. It is called Judgment Day. Unless we live to see the Lord’s return every one of us is going to die someday. It is a thought that most of us do not like to think about, but it is a fact that no one can change.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)
13. Every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 14. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (1 Corinthians 3:13-15)
B. Wise building.
1. Doing true religion.
The Sermon on the Mount has been called the Constitution of the Kingdom. Jesus will judge us according to how we lived out His commandments. It is our duty to search out the Scriptures to understand His will for our life.
2. Doing the will of God.
It is our duty to diligently study the Scriptures to discover the will of God for our lives. We must understand that His desire is for close fellowship with us, that He wants to bless us, and that He has our ultimate good in mind.
3. Living without regret.
We must live our lives, with our ultimate goal being to hear the Lord Jesus say to us, well done good and faithful servant. (Matthew 25:23)
C. Foolish building.
1. Not pursuing the First Commandment
Think about loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. I think that it is safe to say that we all fall short in this most basic and simple command. It is important to occasionally take inventory in our heart and reexamine what it looks like to love Him with everything that we are. Do we love Him more than our family, job, house, life, or even…yes, football? Praise God that His mercies are new every morning. He actually wants to pour out His grace and strength on us, if we just ask Him for help.
a. The American Dream.
In this country in particular it is easy to get caught up in the spirit of this age. In the parable of the sower, Jesus speaks of those whose seed gets choked out by the cares of this world. This nation is built on greed. We always want more than our neighbor, so we will make certain sacrifices (usually our family life) to work more hours to make a little more money. We think that this will make life better, easier, and more convenient, however in the process our families are being torn apart.
b. Church that is devoid of Biblical Christianity.
There is seemingly a church on every street corner in this nation. Yet morality is deteriorating around us. The church is paralyzed with compromise and the spirit of the age. Many churches are nothing more than self help businesses, with a little bit of Jesus thrown in. Most churches do not even try to disguise it. They look at the pastors as a CEO, have huge marketing departments, and view the Body of Christ as customers. Most church activity is centered on pancake fellowship breakfasts, and church rummage sales designed to pay for the new sanctuary, to be built for the glory of God of course!
We seem to have forgotten Christianity 101. The Sermon on the Mount would be a good place to start. What about prayer and fasting. When is the last time the church was packed for a prayer meeting? Do we contend for God to release His power through signs and wonders? Please don’t misunderstand; the church fellowship dinners are not wrong, however with out doing the things just mentioned all other things are pointless.
c. Getting our identity from something other than Jesus.
This one is very hard to detect. For many of us we take great pride in our job title. We view ourselves as a lawyer, accountant, doctor, etc… This is a sign that we get more value of what man views us as rather than what God sees us as.
This is especially difficult to detect when the titles are church titles. I want to tell on myself for a moment. I had always thought that my identity was in Christ, however after sitting before the Lord in a prayer room for months I discovered it was not. Over the years I have served as a worship leader, deacon, and house church pastor/leader. In a subtle way I took pride in these titles. I think that every one who is alive struggles with their identity being totally rooted in Christ. The point is, I want us to be aware of this huge pitfall, and to war against it.