JESUS STRAIGHT TALK - Sayin’ It Don’t Make It So!
Matthew 7:21-23 (p. 679) June 11, 2017
Introduction:
I had an Elder in West Virginia named Jack Clay. He grew up in the coal. He and his wife Hazel were some of my favorite people…at 86 he still parked in the back of the parking lot so new people could have a better spot. He fell in his garage changing a light bulb one day…didn’t tell anyone…then came to board meeting that night…and we had to rush him to the hospital for brain surgery. He spent 2 weeks in the hospital and walked out. Jack couldn’t hear very well and during one meeting we were talking about resurfacing the parking lot…and Jack got mad and stood up and yelled. “If you are going to spend $3,600 on coffee pots you’re crazy.” Another of our leaders tugged on Jack’s sleeve and said, “PARKING LOT, JACK…PARKING LOT!” He laughed and said, “Oh…well that’s different” and sat down.
I remember Jack commenting about new projects and ministries with these words more than once… “Sayin’ it don’t make it so!”
And then Jack would volunteer to help. He would show up and be there no matter whether it was resurfacing the parking lot or men’s breakfast…Jack didn’t just talk about stuff…He did stuff…He supported stuff. He helped make it “so.”
On the heels of talking about false teachers and leaders and the fruit that they bear…In the context of wolves among sheep…Jesus makes an amazing statement…One of the most powerful Jesus Straight Talk moments recorded in scripture…He says:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven.”
I. SAYING JESUS IS LORD DOESN’T MAKE IT SO
Let me make one thing very, very clear as we start this discussion. Neither Jesus or I, are talking about a works theology of earning His grace and salvation.
In fact, it’s clear in this discussion there were some who tried that method.
Jesus indicates that on the Day of Judgment, “Many will say to me on that day ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?”
Clearly these are individuals who believe they’ve done a lot…they believe that the stuff they’ve done should gain them entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. And it’s not little stuff either…It’s preaching…teaching…engaging in spiritual warfare with demons…it’s miracles.
Jesus isn’t talking to the crowd here…He’s talking to the church…He’s talking to people who defend themselves with these words:
“In Your name we prophesied!”
“In Your name we cast out demons.”
“In Your name we performed miracles.”
It sure seems to me that the problem is the statement “In your name.” Jesus uses this statement 3 times in 1 verse.
My point is…doing stuff in “the name of Jesus” can make you feel good like you’ve earned kingdom entrance…but if you have no real relationship with Him…If He doesn’t really know you and you don’t really love Him…it’s worse than doing nothing at all because it leaves you deceived.
This might be one of the most heretical and damning teachings of the Church today. It’s certainly one of the greatest tools that our enemy, Satan, uses to deceive people who have a loose association with Jesus in the Church today.
“Let the stuff you do become more important than the Leadership of Christ.” Let Him just be a name you speak…not a Savior you passionately love and serve.
David Platt in the amazing book “Follow Me” writes this:
I have a friend - let’s call him John - whose first exposure to the concept of hell was during an episode of Tom and Jerry when he was young. During one particularly vivid scene, Tom was sent to hell for something bad he had done to Jerry. What was intended to be a humorous cartoon scared John to death, and he later found himself at church talking with an older man about what he had seen.
The church man looked at John and said, “Well, you don’t want to go to hell, do you?”
“No,” he responded.
“Okay, then,” the man said, “pray this prayer after me. Dear Jesus.”
John paused. After an awkward silence, he realized he was supposed to repeat after the man, and so he hesitantly responded, “Dear Jesus…”
I know I’m a sinner, and I know Jesus died on a cross for my sins,” the man said.
John followed suit.
“I ask you to come into my heart and to save me from my sin,” the man said.
Again, John echoed what he had heard.
“Amen,” the man concluded.
Then the man looked at John and said, “Son, you are saved from your sins, and you don’t ever have to worry about hell again.” Surely what that man told my friend in church that day was not true. Surely this is not what it means to respond to Jesus’ invitation to follow him. Yet this story represents deception that has spread like wildfire across the contemporary Christian landscape.
Just ask Jesus into your heart.
Simply invite Christ into your life.
Repeat this prayer after me, and you will be saved.
Should it alarm us that the Bible never mentions such a prayer?
Should it concern us that nowhere in Scripture is anyone ever told to “ask Jesus into their heart” or to “invite Christ into their life”? Yet this is exactly what multitudes of professing Christians have been encouraged to do, and they’ve been assured that as long as they said certain words, recited a particular prayer, raised their hand, checked a box, signed a card, or walked an aisle, they are Christians and their salvation is eternally secure.
It’s not true.
“We’ve taken the lifeblood out of Christianity and put Kool aid in it’s place so it tastes better to the crowds and the results are catastrophic.
According to Jesus, “Many”…“Scores of men and women believe they are saved when they are not.
In Matt. Chapter 7 Jesus isn’t talking to atheists and pagans. He’s talking to people who are associated with Jesus and His ministry. They assume their eternity is safe and will be shocked to find out one day…it’s not. Even though they professed belief in Jesus and even did all kinds of work in His name, they never really knew Him…and He never really knew them.
His response is heartbreaking…it keeps me awake at night…It burdens my soul.
“I never knew you…away from me you evildoer.”
Maybe this straight talk reveals the truth of real salvation…and the real issue.
That term evildoer…Remember Jesus is using it towards people who thought they were “good” because they did good things.
This word “kakos” reveals the inner character of a person. The iniquity, the sin, the wickedness that lives in us all.
This inner wickedness and sin cannot be cured by a name association with Jesus or doing “good things” that would be like putting running shoes on a corpse…like cleaning the outside of a cup…while it’s filled with maggots and mold.
In the corresponding scripture in Luke’s gospel someone asks Jesus “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” And here’s His answer:
LUKE 13:23b-28 (p. 728)
The narrow door is the only way in…and once the owner of the house shuts it, it’s too late.
Get the picture…the door’s shut, but people are knocking and pleading to get in. But, it’s too late. The owner’s response: “I don’t know you or where you came from!”
Those outside respond, “But we ate and drank with you, and hung around you while you taught in our streets.” He responds:
I don’t know you or where you come from…Depart form me all you evildoers.”
“We hung around you Jesus…we listen to your teaching…we ate and drank your meals.”
“Away from me…you never dealt with your sin…you never knew me…and I never knew you.”
No wonder verse 28 records: “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth.”
The heartbreak of basing your life on the false hope that “Hey, Jesus is my friend” but you never died to your sin…you never surrendered your life to His ownership…you never accepted His grace…and now it’s too late!
It all comes down to this truth:
II. WE CANNOT SAVE OURSELVES
If your heart is not open to understanding how much we need God’s grace you can say a thousand prayers, be baptized over and over again and work your fingers to the bone in Church and you’ll still be lost.
You remember this scripture that Paul wrote to the Galatians…it goes like this:
“I have been crucified with Christ, It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)
What Jesus is addressing in His straight talk in Matthew is the difference between those who know about Him and those who live in Him.
It’s the difference between working for Jesus to earn His favor and walking with Jesus..out of an overflow of faith.
When you or I…or anyone is “in Christ” we haven’t “gotten a get out of jail free card.” We haven’t been redeemed because we just believed something…we’ve died to self…and we now have Christ “IN” us through the gift of His Holy Spirit…If you are no different than you were before or you are no different than the rest of the world, you’ve been deceived and you are not a Christian.
The Barna Study Group did some research and published it on August 4, 2011. Almost half of Americans claimed to be “born again” Christians. (I don’t know of any other kind!) Here’s what they discovered.
But out of this group of “born again Christians,” researchers found that their beliefs and lifestyle are virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the world around them. Many of these “born again Christians” believe that their works can earn them a place in heaven, others think that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, some believe Jesus sinned while he was on earth, and an ever-increasing number of “born again Christian” describe themselves as only marginally committed to Jesus.
Many people have used this data to conclude that Christians are really not that different from the rest of the world. But I don’t think this interpretation of the research is accurate. I think the one thing that is abundantly clear from these statistics is that there are a whole lot of people in the world who think they are Christians but are not. There are a whole lot of people who think that they’ve been born again, but they are dangerously deceived.
Listen, I understand the concept of different levels of spiritual maturity…babes in Christ versus grown up followers…but Jesus didn’t come to make good people better…He came to raise dead people to life…and that cannot happen in someone’s life and it not be noticeable in the attitudes and actions.
I had someone share this illustration with me…and I think it fits really well here:
Imagine you and I set up a meeting for lunch at a restaurant, and you arrive before I do. You wait and wait and wait, but thirty minutes later, I still haven’t arrived. When I finally show up, completely out of breath, I say to you, “I’m so sorry I’m late. When I was driving over here, my car had a flat tire, and I pulled over on the side of the interstate to fix it. While I was fixing it, I accidentally stepped into the road, and a Mack truck going about seventy miles per hour suddenly hit me head-on. It hurt, but I picked myself up, finished putting the spare tire on the car, and drove over here.”
If this were the story I shared, you would know I was either deliberately lying or completely deceived. Why? Because if someone gets hit by a Mack truck going seventy miles per hour, that person is going to look very different than he did before!
Jesus isn’t a pussy-cat. He’s the lion of Judah…and if you come face to face with him, the Word of Creation…the Sovereign Lord of the Universe and He reaches down into the depth of your heart, saves you from the slavery of sin and transforms you to follow Him…you are going to look different…very different.
Jesus Straight Talk: People who claim Him as Lord, but don’t know Him are lost eternally. People who claim to believe in Him but have lives that are no different than the world, are clearly not Christians. They are deceived.
So what happens when the Mack truck of God’s glory and forgiveness hits us? There is repentance, and baptism and a resurrection of new life through the Holy Spirit. And, we begin to look like Jesus in this world, according to 1 John 3:1-10.
1 JOHN 3:1-10 (p. 856)
Let’s pray.
