We find ourselves in the same text we were in
last week. I typically don't do that, but I think
there are two primary applications to this text.
We covered one last week, so we will look at
the other Lord willing this morning. I'm not
going to read the text. It will come up within
the sermon. But as we should always do before
we begin to hear from heaven, we should ask God
for His help. And that he would show us Jesus.
So would you pray with me? Father, we have opened
your word, the word that is settled in heaven.
The word that gives light and direction. Lord,
the one that gives conviction and can split us
open. Father, Lord, we understand that, Lord,
your word is given to us from you, Lord. It's
given to your people. It is the rock on which
we stand, but it points us to the ultimate rock,
which is your son. Lord, I pray this morning
that you would help us to see something of the
glory of Christ. Lord, I pray that you would
help us to find our hope, our joy, and the satisfaction
of our soul in Jesus, Lord. God, open our eyes
and our hearts to receive this manna from heaven,
we pray in Christ's name. Amen. I remember back
in the day, there were, well, really I said back
in the day, let's say back in the 80s, which
is back in the day, there were several things
that were signs of success and wealth. And one
of them, if you were alive during that decade,
I mean, you knew that if you owned a real Rolex,
to own a real one was a sign that you had made
it. It was a sign of success or wealth. And I
had an uncle who had retired during that time.
And for his many years of service, he was gifted
by his employer a real Rolex, and he showed it
to me. And I remember being surprised at how
heavy the watch was. And since it was a status
symbol, there were many counterfeits and knockoffs.
But after he showed me the real one, the fake
ones were pretty easy to spot because, first
of all, the real one's much heavier, and the
fake ones are lighter because the genuines are
made of... High grade steel, 18 karat gold or
even platinum. And of course a knockoff is going
to use much cheaper and lighter metals. The other
thing I remember being real impressed with was
that smooth, quiet, sweeping second hands. It
didn't tick. It was just smooth. It was continuous
and it was very quiet. Fake ones of course tick
and are much louder. Now you may be wondering,
what's your point in talking about a Rolex? The
point that I want to make this morning, is that
anything that has value is going to be counterfeited.
If it is valuable, there will be a fake one out
there somewhere. You see this in currency. It's
counterfeited all the time. Clothing, purses,
jewelry, perfume, you name it. If it has value
or status, there's a counterfeit to it. But the
real ones are always going to be distinct from
the fake. They're never exactly alike, regardless
of how much that fake may resemble the genuine.
And this dynamic is also true in the church.
There are authentic Christians, and at the same
time, Satan has planted his counterfeits. He
has planted his knockoff version in the church,
and the Lord told us a parable about this very
phenomena. So in Matthew 13, which is where we
are, there are seven parables in this one chapter,
and each of the parables is related to the kingdom
of God. Each of the parables sheds some light
or gives correction to the false assumption that
the disciples would have had about the kingdom
of God. So in the parable we're looking at again
today, it's known as the parable of the wheat
and the tares, or sometimes you might hear it
as the wheat and the weeds. And last week we
looked at it, and the application we gained from
it was the application to the world. And my basic
premise last week was that the wicked and the
righteous will exist alongside one another as
long as this current age continues to exist.
But a day is coming when God will rid the world
of all wickedness. But as long as we live now,
in this current epoch, this current age, the
sons of the kingdom, Jesus said, will live alongside
the sons of the devil. And we had several applications.
So what does that mean for us as believers? Well,
since we're living alongside the wicked, Christians
should expect opposition. We share the world
with the wicked. So that means in this age, Christians
will encounter tribulation. We will encounter
suffering. And you and I are not to be surprised
or thrown off guard by that. Yes, the kingdom
of God has come. That is a very true statement.
But it's not yet come in its fullness. So we
live in the already but not yet. Jesus Christ.
He has already defeated sin and evil and death
through his life, death, and resurrection. Yet,
not yet, that victory has not been... fully realized
in the world. So we use words like the kingdom
is inaugurated, but it's not yet consummated.
Therefore, you and I as Christians, we should
not expect a fully restored world yet. Which
means believers are still going to be tempted
and we're still going to sin and we're still
going to get sick and they're still going to
suffer. And they're still going to die. Why?
Because the kingdom of God has not yet arrived
in its full, final, consummated state. So life
in this age, as much as we may think life is
precious, it's not as we would want it to be.
We can all say that. Injustice is still present.
But when the kingdom does arrive in its fullness,
then, and only then, there will be no more suffering.
Believers will no longer be tempted. We won't
still sin. No one's going to get sick and no
one will ever die in the consummated kingdom
of God. Now that teaching would have been a surprise
to the disciples of Jesus because they had been
taught that when the kingdom of God came, it
would come in its final form. They did not have
a place in their thinking for a two -tiered system,
if you will. So the Lord Jesus and John the Baptist,
remember both of them came on the scene and they
were preaching, the kingdom of God has come.
It's at hand. And you're thinking, well, that's
great. But the disciples are looking around and
said, but Rome is still here. Rome is still occupying
Israel. By the way, people are still getting
sick and dying. The righteous are still suffering
at the hands of the unjust. So Jesus' disciples,
they couldn't understand, how is it possible
that Jesus, you keep saying the kingdom has come?
See, his teaching did not line up with what they
had always been taught. So the Lord gave this
parable. He's correcting some of their faulty
understanding. But this parable, as I said, applies
to the world, which we looked at last week. There
is also a genuine application to the church.
In the church of the Lord Jesus. there will be
both wheat and tares, genuine Christians and
hypocrites. Now I use that term hypocrite. Oftentimes
we hear unbelievers slander the bride of Christ
by saying, oh, it's just a bunch of hypocrites.
Now what they normally mean, I'm going to be
very charitable to them, what they normally mean
is that the church is full of people who still
sin. Guilty. The church is full of less than
perfect people. Absolutely. And that is true.
And that will always be true. But that's not
hypocrisy. What is a true hypocrite? A hypocrite
is an unsaved person. It's not someone who's
less than perfect, someone still struggling with
sin. That describes every Christian. That describes
every one of us in here this morning. But a hypocrite,
in the classical sense, is someone who's wearing
a mask. That's where the word came from. It actually
brought in from the Greeks and those actors.
They would come on stage wearing a mask, pretending
to be someone they weren't. So when we talk about
hypocrites in the church, these are people who
are pretending to be something they are not.
It's a game. They're playing a part. They are
a counterfeit. Now, they may look the part. They
may even talk the part. They may say the right
words. But it doesn't match their heart. There's
no corresponding inner reality. Their hearts
have never been changed by the Spirit of God.
They're members of the church because they can
deceive us. But they've never bowed their knee
to Christ. They honor God, as Isaiah said, with
their lips. But their hearts are far from him.
Now with that in mind, let's reread this parable.
Another parable. He put forth to them, saying,
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed
good seed in his field. But while men slept,
his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat
and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted
and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
So the servants of the owner came and said to
him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?
How then does it have tares? He said to them,
An enemy has done this. The servant said to him,
well, do you want us then to go and gather them
up? But he said, no. Lest while you gather up
the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest. And
at the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers,
first gather together the tares and bind them
in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat.
Now, we talked about this last week quickly.
The tares that Jesus spoke of were most likely
darnel seeds or bearded darnel seeds. They produced
a weed that originally started off looking like
wheat. So in the beginning, wheat and tares were
almost indistinguishable. But once they're fully
grown, the difference becomes obvious. So as
they grow and mature, the tares will remain upright.
But the wheat will begin to bend over, loaded
down with heavy grain. Now that in itself is
a very fitting object lesson. If you saw nothing
else, the tares do not bow. The wheat bows down
bearing fruit, bearing grain. Now how does this
apply to the church? As I said last week, you
and I are very privileged because Jesus gave
us the interpretation. He gave us the key, the
answer key, to unlock. what he was talking about.
So let's go to the next part. Let's look at verses
36 to verse 43. Then Jesus sent the multitude
away and he went into the house. His disciples
came to him. So this is only given to the disciples.
They said, explain to us the parable of the tares.
He answered and said to them, okay, he who shows
the good seed is a son of man. The field is the
world. The good seed are the sons of the kingdom.
But the tares are the sons of the wicked one.
The enemy who sowed those tares is the devil,
and the harvest, well, that's the end of the
age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore,
as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire,
so it will be at the end of this age. The Son
of Man will send out his angels, and they will
gather out of all his kingdom all the things
that offend, And those who practice lawlessness
and the angels will cast them into the furnace
of fire. And there will be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then, and only then, the righteous
will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their father. And as he normally does, he said,
he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Real quickly,
the sower, it's Jesus. Good seed, the church,
sons of the kingdom. Enemy, it's the devil. The
tares that are sown amongst the wheat, sons of
the wicked one. The final harvest is the end
of this age in which we live. Who's going to
do the reaping with the angels sent by Christ?
He said the burning of the tares, well that represents
the judgment of the wicked. They'll be tossed
into hellfire. But the gathering of wheat is
the righteous entering the kingdom of God. So
what's the key? What can we say if there's one
key that we can look at this morning? There's
one key takeaway. For all of our best efforts,
this church on this earth will always be a mixture
of both Christians and hypocrites. Counterfeits.
There will never be a completely pure church
on this side of heaven. It does not exist. Now
we fight for that. We try for that. But we should
not despair because Jesus said at the end of
the age, this age is going to end, folks. This
world in which we currently live will not always
be the one in which we live. He said then the
hypocrites will be separated and terribly they
will be made to face the awful judgment of God.
Now Jesus began the parable by saying the kingdom
of heaven is like. He's given a metaphor. Obviously,
he's shedding some light on the nature of his
kingdom. He's giving us some intel on what you
and I should expect right now concerning his
kingdom. Now, oftentimes we equate the kingdom
of God and the church. I do this all the time.
And they are very close, but they're not perfect
synonyms. The kingdom of God, again, if we're
talking about classical sense, refers to God's
universal rule, heaven and earth. But the church
is tasked with bearing witness to that rule on
earth. So the church is the place where the kingdom
of God is made known in the world. Someone wants
to know what's the kingdom of God look like,
they ought to look at the church. But the kingdom
of God is actually broader, bigger. It's not
just God's rule on the earth, it's God's rule
universally in heaven and on earth. But the church,
by word and sacrament, bears witness to that
reign here on the earth. Aaron Armstrong was
writing an article. He said, the church is the
people of God who live under Jesus's loving rule
right now. You've been baptized in the name of
the triune God. You live under his lordship.
Yet you're waiting for the realization of God's
kingdom in the future. That's why we keep praying
your kingdom come. As a church, we are called
to be witnesses to his kingdom. We proclaim God's
message of salvation through Christ and we demonstrate
the power of the gospel through our good works
so that others may be brought to live under God's
glorious reign. Now in the kingdom of God, everyone
confesses that Jesus is Lord. But in Matthew
chapter 7, Jesus said not everyone who calls
him Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord,
Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.
So that means, now this is the scary part to
me. There are some who call Jesus Lord, and yet
at the end of the age will not enter into that
full, final, eschatological kingdom of God. So
you're saying, why? Or you should be asking that.
If they confess Christ, why are they denied entrance
into the kingdom? Because their confession, or
we say profession, is empty. Calling Jesus Lord
must be matched by a life that is being conformed
to God's will. If he's Lord, he's master, he's
boss. Currently in their church, there are some,
and we're talking about the church, big, whose
faith does nothing. It's a dead faith. It's not
a saving faith. And I don't like the word saving
faith, by the way. We hear it all the time. It's
a phrase, I'll use it, but I don't like it. It's
misleading. Because faith saves no one. It can't.
Jesus is the one who saves. And faith is the
instrument by which we are united to Jesus. Now
that's an important distinction because a lot
of people have faith and tremendous faith and
they're unsaved. It's only the faith that connects
us to Jesus. So that means everyone who is united
to Christ, we ought to demonstrate that union,
that connection, that faith connection by producing
good works and obedience to Christ, although
we will do that imperfectly. There is obedience,
there's love, there's good works, but none of
those are perfect this side of heaven. That's
why when we're looking at this, we see it's a
mixed bag. St. Augustine, he was writing in the
4th century. He called the church a corpus permixum,
Latin phrase, a mixed body. So what he meant
is the church on earth is comprised of true believers
and counterfeits. You and I are not privy to
know who those are. So that means there are both
saints and sinners within the church. And you
may be thinking, but I'm a sinner. Yes, you are.
Even as saints. We still wrestle with sin. Martin
Luther had that famous Latin phrase describing
the Christian. He said, Simul justus et peccator.
Latin. Simultaneously just or righteous and sinner.
So what he meant by that is all saints. Listen,
I want to make sure we understand this. All saints
still sin because we're not yet glorified. Yes,
we're just. We're righteous in the sight of God.
yet still sinners. But when Augustine was referring
to sinners, he was talking about those who are
unregenerate in the church. The hypocrites, the
tares. And the Lord Jesus referred to hypocrites
in that great sermon that he preached, the Sermon
on the Mount. In Matthew chapter 7, I already
alluded to it once, but look at verse 21. Jesus
said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter in the kingdom of heaven. But he
who does the will of my Father in heaven, look
down at verse 26. But everyone who hears these
sayings of mine and does not do them will be
like a foolish man. He built his house on the
sand. The storm came, folks. The rain descended.
The floods rose. The wind blew and beat upon
that house and it fell. And Jesus said, and great
was its fall. If your faith produces no obedience
to Christ, you are in trouble. These are not
my words. If your faith is not causing you to
love and obey Christ, albeit imperfectly, it
is a dead faith. there could be nothing more
devastating than to come to the end of your life
and find out that you have been denied entrance
into the kingdom of God. In this same sermon,
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said there's two
types of trees. And they represent two groups
of people. You have good trees and you have bad
trees. Good tree bears good fruit. Bad tree bears
rotten fruit. The bad tree, though, it can look
good for a while. But in the end, its fruit will
always reveal what type of tree it really is.
He said, look at Matthew 7 again, verses 18.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a
bad tree bear good fruit. Therefore, by your
fruits, their fruits, excuse me, you will know
them. As we think about hypocrites in the church,
the classic example is Judas Iscariot. He started
out well. He began well. He looked like a true
disciple of Christ. I mean, think about Judas.
He enjoyed proximity to Jesus. Judas was part
of that coveted inner 12. He had a very special
place. He spent significant time working closely
with Jesus for three years, side by side. Here's
the thing about Judas. He preached in the name
of Jesus. He cast out demons in the name of Jesus.
He did signs and wonders in the name of Jesus.
And yet, in the end, Judas proved to be a hypocrite,
a counterfeit, a tear. He was a tear among wheat.
See, Judas tried to capitalize off of Jesus.
Jesus was very popular. Remember, Judas was a
treasure. Jesus was very popular and Judas was
able to line his own pockets off the back of
Jesus' popularity. But when Judas saw that Jesus
kept talking about his impending death and he
saw that he would no longer be able to profit
from Jesus, he even still betrayed him for money.
30 pieces of silver. And eventually Judas took
his own life. His fruit revealed. He was a bad
tree. And the Bible speaks of them. He's a son
of perdition. Now in this parable of Matthew
13, remember the servants, they go to their master
and they say, hey, do you want us to go gather,
do you want us to get rid of these tares right
now? Do you want us to pluck them up? The master
said, no, don't do that. That'd be a big mistake.
Because inevitably, when you start to pluck up
the tares, you're going to uproot some of the
wheat. Don't do it. Now here's a question I ask
myself, I oppose to you. Does that mean we are
to ignore overt sin in the church? Are we never
to make any judgment calls on anyone? Aren't
we called to practice church discipline? Yes.
Knowing there will be tears among wheat does
not mean that we simply ignore and overlook sin
in God's church. Gross sin in the church of Christ
is not to be ignored. It is to be disciplined.
Now again, I want to say, this side of heaven,
the church will never be completely pure. But
that doesn't stop us from moving toward that
goal. Because I want you to look at one passage
in 1 Corinthians 5. We talked about this before,
but there's a man in the church in Corinth. And
he's committing gross immorality. Everyone knows
about it. It's an open scandal in the church.
He's sleeping, it says, with his father's wife.
Not his mother, but his stepmother. So here's
a man, claims to be a Christian, in the church,
and having an affair with his stepmom. Read the
words of Paul. Read the words of God. It is actually
reported that there is sexual immorality among
you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even
among pagans. Listen, pagan people don't even
do this. For a man has his father's wife, and
you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn?
Let him who has done this thing be removed from
among you. For though absent in body, Paul said,
I'm not with you. I'm present in spirit, and
as if present. I've already pronounced judgment
on the one who did such a thing. I don't need
to hear anymore. I just know the truth here.
When you are assembled, you come together as
a church in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my
spirit is present with the power of our Lord
Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for
the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord. Okay. Apostle
Paul's upset. He's not mincing words here, is
he? There's an immoral man. And he's upset that
you've not already removed him. You guys are
being arrogant. Why is the guy coming to the
Lord's table? So the expectation that Paul had
was that this man, who is unrepentant, would
be excommunicated from the church. You don't
tolerate his gross immorality. So we don't want
to hear, well, we're all sinners. Yes, we know
that. But that's not the excuse for allowing
this type of sin to exist. So the man's presence
in the church was a scandal. to the gospel of
the Lord Jesus. And that's what happens. Gross
sin in the church is like a cancer. It just grows.
Paul said that in 1 Corinthians 5. He said, do
you not know that a little leaven, just a little,
leavens the whole lump? Do you not know that?
Therefore, purge out the old leaven. Sin that
is tolerated in the church brings harm to the
whole body, which is why church discipline is
mandatory. You must do it. But the goal, the
reason we do it is restorative, not merely punitive.
See, when the church has to discipline someone,
we desire their repentance and we desire that
that person be restored to fellowship. We don't
want to merely punish them. Now, what about this
guy? Had he been repentant, the church would
have forgiven him and restored him. And that's
exactly what they did in 2 Corinthians. In 2
Corinthians chapter 2. Paul writing again, same
church. Now if anyone has caused pain, he has
caused it not to me, but in some measure, not
to put it too severely, to all of you. Hey, I'm
not a part of your church. He's caused problems
for you all. For such a one, now notice, this
punishment by the majority is enough. So you
should rather turn to forgive and comfort him.
The man apparently repented. Forgive him, comfort
him, or else he may be overwhelmed by excessive
sorrow. So I beg you, reaffirm your love for
him. That's the church. The man's repented. Paul
said, all right, first you were arrogant and
didn't do anything, and now you're being too
harsh. Forgive that man. Even for his scandalous
sin, forgive him. Restore and defile. It doesn't
matter what he did. He's repented. You restore
him. The discipline has achieved its desired
result. So yes, it's proper that we as a church
work to have a pure church, but we do so realizing
that perfection will be impossible this side
of heaven. There's always going to be some tares
living among wheat. It's always going to happen.
But we don't despair. I may not know who the
tares are. You may not know who the tares are,
but the Lord knows his own. In 2 Timothy chapter
2, nevertheless, The solid foundation of God
stands having this seal. The Lord knows those
who are his. Yeah. Jesus in John 10, that great
chapter of the good shepherd, he said, I am the
good shepherd and I know my sheep. I know them.
And I'm known by them. See, God's never confused
as to who are wheat and who are tares. He's never
in doubt about who belongs to him. He always
knows. Now Satan, if you go back to the parable,
he has sown the bad seed. He's trying to undermine
the church of Christ. Why? How? By infiltrating
the church. He's planting his own weeds in there.
And we shouldn't be surprised by it. 2 Corinthians
11. Paul, again, right into the same church.
For such are... False apostles. Deceitful workers.
Transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
They look like it. They talk like it. For Satan
himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
He's not in the red suit with the pitchfork and
the big forked tail. No. Therefore, it's no great
thing, church, if his ministers, Satan has his
ministers, they also transform themselves into
ministers of righteousness. Notice that ministers
of righteousness, whose end will be according
to the works. They're hypocrites, folks. They're
not righteous. They're ministers of Satan. They're
pretending. Sometimes the tares, though, that
have been sown in the church are the ones preaching
from the pulpit. Everything must be weighed by
the word of God. Everything. My ministry, Kyle's
ministry, you don't just, we're nothing. It's
the word of God that will stand in judgment over
us. See, there are counterfeits. There's other
counterfeits. You're like, how do you know? There
are some who start out well, but they don't finish
well. They quit. They fall away. John wrote about
this, 1 John 2. This is something that helps
me as a pastor. He says, little children, it
is the last hour. It's been the last hour since
the time of Christ's ascension. And as you have
heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now
many Antichrists have come. That's how we know
it's the last hour. It's been the last hour for
2 ,000 years now. They went out from us. But
they were not of us. Four. Now notice this. Notice
the logic of John. If they had been of us, they
would have continued with us. But they went out.
That they might be made manifest. It might be
obvious. It might be known that none of them
were of us. John says there were people who were
once part of the church and then they left the
church. And John said they left because they
were not of us. He said, had they been authentic,
had they been genuine, they would have continued
with us. One of the hallmarks of God's people
is that they persevere in the faith. Counterfeit
Christians don't do that. They quit. They apostatize.
They fall away. Now, again, I want to stress
this. Our judgment is never 100%. Some people
in the church can deceive me. You may be a terror
and deceive me, but you will never deceive the
Lord. And, by the way, there is a great day of
separation coming. The day of separation between
wheat and tares will come not until the day of
final judgment. But when that judgment comes,
it's too late for those who play the game. I
remind you of the words of Jesus. As the tares
are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will
be in the end of this age. The Son of Man will
send out his angels and they will gather out
of his kingdom all things that offend and those
who practice lawlessness. And he will cast them
into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing
and gnashing of teeth. Those aren't my words.
They're the words of the Son of God. So what
do we do as we begin to close? What's the only
thing we can do? Peter told us in 2 Peter 1,
he said, Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent.
Friends, you can't be lax in this. Be even more
diligent to make your call and election sure.
For if you do these things, you will never stumble.
For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Here's a question when
reading this. How do we make your call and election
sure? How do we make something sure that God
has already decreed? We do so not by changing
God's decision. Rather, we confirm it in our
own lives. We confirm it to ourselves by seeing
genuine fruit in our lives. Good works are never
the cause or the source of election. Never. But
they are the evidence of it. That's all throughout
the New Testament. We love Ephesians 2, 8, and
9. For by grace are you saved through faith.
And that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God,
not of works. Lest any man should boast. Amen.
I love all that. Verse 10. For we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. You
can't separate it. So we confirm our calling.
We confirm our election by the fruit that's being
produced. And you go back and read 2 Peter. Look
at 1. Peter lists a list of virtues. Add your
faith virtue to virtue knowledge. And he keeps
going on. But what about those who may be terrors
in the church this morning? What about those
who may be unconverted? I know I have no power
at all to change the heart. I pray. I pray that
God will open eyes. I want to read this thing
from Ligon Duncan, a quote from him. I thought
he said it much better than I could. God's patience
is not an opportunity to be apathetic about the
final judgment. Do you ever think about that
final judgment? We ought to. It's an opportunity
for today and for today only to realize our sins,
to flee from them, and to run to Christ. And
if we will run there, we will not only be spared
the final judgment of the ungodly, we will find
for ourselves a shining glory in the kingdom
of our Father. How do you know? Jesus promised
it. Flee from the wrath to come. by running into
the saving arms of Jesus. Today you come and
you take, as a believer, you take the broken
body and shed blood of the Son of God, which
was given for sinners. We hold those elements
in our hands and we're reminded of our salvation.
What's your hope? My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's
it. That's the only plea. It is enough that Jesus
died. and that he died for me. If you're undone
this morning, you're away from Christ, come,
repent of your sins, confess him, confess that
you're only hope and believe and trust in Christ
that his atoning work was enough and then be
baptized, given testimony to that hope. Friends,
the day of judgment is coming and we all ought
to be thinking about it. Nothing else will matter
on that day. Be diligent to make your call and
election sure. To the believer whose conscience
may be sensitive, come renew your faith. Take
of the elements. Praise God for grace that saved
you through the broken body and shed blood of
his son. Let's pray. Lord, I'm thankful, God,
for your word. Lord, it is truly enlightening,
instructive. Lord, let us live our lives, not
in perpetual fear, but certainly with the knowledge
of a day of final judgment. Lord, we're all going
to stand before you, Lord. Every single one of
us in here, we will stand before you and give
an account of our lives. May we not be numbered
with the hypocrites or the goats. Father, Lord,
I pray, Lord, our only hope, we come to you.
It's through Jesus, Lord, it's through him, through
what he's done on the cross. It's the grace of
God that has received us. But Lord, let us, as
your word calls us to do, to be diligent to make
that calling and election sure. Lord, this is
what your word tells us to do. And Father, I
pray that we'd be diligent to do so. And those
who have ears to hear will do so. Lord, open
blind eyes, open deaf ears. And Lord, remove
stony hearts this morning. I ask in the name
of Jesus, your son. Amen. We're going to come
to the table of the Lord. and commune with the
one who gave his life for us. Deacons, if you
would come and uncover the elements.