Its Such a Blessing That We Still Have Preachers Who Preach It

I was horrified when i think or read statements by men of the faith that get older. Many of them (J.I. Packer, John Stott, F.F. Bruce and others) as they age, they get soft in their theology and their Gospel proclamation. I am so refreshed when i heard the first sermon of John MacArthur at his church 40 years ago. After 40 years he is still preaching the same strong and true Gospel. That is so refreshing. He gave this message, and half of the church left. One sermon, the first sermon...and half the church quits. That is what we need. Men that will preach the Gospel so strongly that the unsaved and false converts leave. I hope that i will be blessed on day with that. Adrian Rodgers said "the problem with preachers today is no one wants to kill them anymore." Men and Women of God PREACH THE GOSPEL PREACH IT LOUD AND HARD IT IS THE MOST LOVING THING YOU CAN DO IS WARN THEM TO FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME. ESPECIALLY AT CHURCH!!!!! Please don't be so naive to think that everyone in your church is saved. Preach as a dying man to dying men. Here is an excerpt of his first sermon. You can read or hear the whole thing at: http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1316A

And then we read about the fact that there are various dimensions of the
church. The mustard seed illustration gives the idea that the church is
going to explode and it's going to be a great big thing including real and
unreal, true and false. And so the Church Age is going to be a very
strange era and truly it is. For under the name church, quote/unquote, we
have all kinds of things going on today. Christ commanded John in Revelation to
write to the Sardis
church, "I know thy works that thou hast the name that thou art alive and art
dead." What a commentary on most churches today. They have a title,
they have a name, but they're dead. And why are they dead? Well they're
dead initially because the people within them are dead. I would say that
the great majority of church members in America today probably...probably and
according to Billy Graham statistics this is pretty accurate, probably the
majority of them don't even know what it is to be a Christian and they're dead
spiritually. Paul says in Ephesians 2, "They're dead in sin."
Consequently dead people are going to constitute a dead church and the church is
not suffering today or dying today because of a tax from the outside, most
churches Satan wouldn't even waste powder and shot on them, they're dead from
the inside.
But on the other hand, a vital church, a
living church, a church that in reality knows Jesus Christ and proclaims His
gospel, that kind of church is always going to be under attack because that kind
of a church must be the conscience of the community. A church that is
alive, a church that is one proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ is going to
become an issue in the community. Jesus said, "Woe unto you when all men
speak well of you." The church in the world must always be at opposite
poles because light and darkness have no fellowship. What concord hath
Christ with Belial,
there's no relationship.
Very important to
understand this and Paul elucidates it in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 beginning in
verse 14 where he brings up the fact that the love of Christ is a very basic
issue and that what is really important is that the church is involved in making
new creations out of these dead people. A church that is a real living
vital church is a church that is in the business of taking dead people and
communicating to them the gospel that alone can make them alive. That's the
mission of the church. There is no way biblically under the sun that the church can ever
court the world. The church must be the conscience of the world. The
church must be so well defined that it becomes the antagonist of the
world. For those outside of Jesus Christ, this church I trust, I pray,
this church will be the most uncomfortable seat in the world because we present
a gospel that divides.
It's so true that when the
church courts the world it dies, as I read to you from Revelation 3:1, the Sardis church thought it
was live but it was courting the world and so it wasn't alive, it was
dead. The duty of the church is not only to teach saints but the duty of
the church is to warn men of God's standards. And we're not fair and we're
not faithful to the call of God if all we do is advertise the abundant
life. Now that's a great dimension of salvation, but somewhere along the
line we've got to proclaim that man is a sinner, that he's separated from a holy
God and that in the eyes of God he's an object of God's judgment, he's a child
of wrath, as Paul says in Ephesians. To boldly proclaim Jesus Christ, to
boldly proclaim the truth about Jesus Christ, to boldly proclaim the truth about
man in his sin is to divide. If you'll remember correctly the words of
Jesus Christ in Matthew 10:34 you will remember that He
said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth, I came not to send peace
but...what?...a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter‑in‑law against her
mother‑in‑law and a man's foes shall be they of his own household." So
says Christ.
The true church of Jesus Christ is not
a religious institution which welcomes everybody, it is the body of Jesus Christ
set apart unto God, uniquely married and wedded to the self same Christ,
redeemed by faith. And no one outside of that faith redemption can be a
part of it for that is the requirement for the church and it is our task as a
people and a preacher to warn those who have not received Christ, to warn them
in love but to warn them nonetheless how they are in danger of the terror of the
Lord. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 11, "Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men." He says when I stop to think about the
coming of the judgment of God, I get busy sharing the gospel. This is our
task.
And our text is such a warning this
morning. Our text is a warning to those who are comfortably entrenched in
the church are who think they're comfortably entrenched in the church but who in
reality are not. This is not a warning to outside people. This is a
warning to us who are involved in the church to be sure that it's real.
And I think it only fair to begin our ministry here that we stop and really
approach this with a sense of sobriety and earnestness, to understand how we
stand in view of God right now as individuals.
I'm sure that in this church right here there are
people who come who do not know Jesus Christ in a personal vital way. I am
convinced that because of the size of the congregation this morning there are
some sitting right here in this audience who have come to church many times but
who do not know Jesus Christ. And perhaps they even have religious
sensations and perhaps they even have sanctimonious emotions but they do not
know Jesus Christ. And it is my conviction that before we as a church can
move together as a body, as a unit, we must become a unit and the only way we
can ever be united and become one as Christ prayed that we might be is that when
we are all are real in Christ. And so I want us to carefully examine our
lives this morning.
Notice the scene in verse
21. There is a phrase "in that day." It's a very important phrase
because it says that there is coming a particular day when Christ is going to
judge. The idea of "in that day" in the Bible is connected with
judgment. This picture is a picture of that day. "In that day"
appears in 1 Corinthians 3 in connection with the time of the judgment of
believers. It appears in various places in the Bible in connection with
the judgment of unbelievers. But it is always a phrase tied in with
judgment, the finality of judgment.
There is coming
a day when God is going to judge. There is coming a day when the Great
White Throne is going to be a reality. In Revelation chapter 20 and I
think it bears our careful reading, in Revelation chapter 20 in verse 11 the
Bible paints this great picture of final judgment. "And I saw a Great
White Throne and Him that sat on it from whose faith the earth and the heaven
fled away and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead
small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was
opened which is the Book of Life and the dead were judged out of those things
which were written in the books according to their works." In other words,
they had no faith to commend them, all they could go on was their works.
And if you know anything about that you know that the Bible says, "By the deeds
of the law shall...what?...no flesh be justified." "And the sea gave up
the dead that were in it and the death and Hades delivered up the dead that were
in them and they were judged every man according to his works." Again no
faith, it had to be works. "And the result of works and death and hell, or
Hades, were cast into the Lake of Fire, this is the second death. And whosoever
was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of
Fire."
Now in Matthew 7:21 to 23 we are taken to the final
judgment. We are at the Great White Throne. And we are seeing some
of the people who are confronting Christ at that time. And they are saying
unto Him, "Lord, Lord, here we are, we are the ones who were religious
people." Peter calls this day the day of the judgment and predition of ungodly
men. And the phrase that he uses, "ungodly men," may seem like a very
difficult phrase in view of the fact that these are religious people.
There is an awesome silence at this judgment. And then the silence is
pierced by the words of Jesus Christ as He says in verse 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 who is in heaven." Here we have, first of all, the condition for
entrance to the Kingdom, the condition for entrance to the
Kingdom.
What is that condition? How is it
that a man enters the Kingdom of God? How is it that a man becomes a part
of the Kingdom of God? How is it that a man can be in, as it were, with
God in a real vital relationship? How is it? Well, first of all,
it's not the ones who say, "Lord, Lord." But it's those who do the will of
God. In Matthew 25:1 to 13 you have a very
interesting story. You have a story of ten virgins. And they were
invited to the feast. And five of them came and they had prepared by
bringing oils and putting...bringing oil and having it in their lamps. The
other five were foolish and they did not prepare. And in verse 11 of
Matthew 25 the door is shut and the five are on the outside and you remember
what they say, they say, "Lord, Lord, open to us." And the Lord of the
feast says, "Verily I say unto you, I know you not."

Interesting, isn't it, that they were invited to the feast. They had heard
the gospel, in a sense, symbolically. They had heard the proclamation,
"Come to the feast." This is an illustration of God's call to the
world. They even prepared to the extent that they had their lamps.
They even had the right clothes on. They even arrived at the meeting
house. But they didn't get in and their cry was the same as it is in
Matthew chapter 7, "Lord, Lord, open to us." But He says it is not those
that say, "Lord, Lord," but those that do My will.

What a solemn warning. At the end of that parable Christ says, "Watch
therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man
comes."