Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1158
“Not everyone that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in Heaven.” Matthew 7:21.
IN reading this chapter one is led to feel that it is not, after all, an easy thing to be a sincere Christian. The way is hard, the road is narrow. Who will, may represent the way to Heaven as being easy, but our Savior does not speak so of it. “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way, and few there are that find it.” “Many are called and few chosen.” The difficulty of being right is increased by the fact that there are men in the world whose trade it is to make counterfeits. There were, and there are, many false prophets. Our Savior has spoken about them in this chapter and given us a way of testing them—but they are still carrying on their trade as successfully as ever.
Now, since there are traitors abroad whose business it is to deceive, we ought to be doubly vigilant and constantly upon our watchtower lest we be misled by them. I charge you, examine every statement you hear from Christian pulpits and platforms! I charge you, sift and try every religious book by the great standard of the Word of God. Believe none of us if we speak contrary to this Word—yes, believe not an angel from Heaven if he preaches any other Gospel than that which is contained in Inspired Scripture.
“To the Law and to the Testimony,” if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no truth in them. God grant us Grace to escape from false prophets! We shall not do so if we are careless and off our guard, for the sheepskin garment so effectually covers the wolf—the broad phylactery so decorates the hypocrite—that thousands are deceived by the outward appearance and do not discover the cheat! Crafty are the wiles of the enemy and many foolish ones are still ignorant of his devices. Tutored by the experience of ages, seducers and evil men not only wax worse and worse, but they grow more and more cunning. If it were possible, they would deceive even the very elect! Happy shall they be who, being elect, are kept by the mighty power of God unto salvation so that they are not carried away with any error.
In addition to the fact that there are false teachers, it is certain that there are false professors. There never was a time in the Church of God in which all were Christians who professed to be so. Surely the golden age of the Church must have been when the Master Himself was in it and had selected 12 choice spirits to be nearest to His Person and to act, as it were, as the prime ministers of His kingdom. Yet there was a devil among the 12—a devil in the Church of which Jesus was Pastor! Judas, the treasurer of the Apostles, was also a son of Perdition. When Paul and the Apostles kept watch over the elect Church, surely that must have been a happy time—and when persecution raged all around and acted like a great winnowing fan to drive away the chaff—one would have expected to find that the threshing floor contained only clean grain!
But it was not so. The heap upon the threshing floor of the Church was, even then, a mingled mass of corn and chaff. Some turned aside from love of the world and others were deluded into grievous error. And there were others who remained in the Church to discredit it by their impurity and to bring chastisements upon it by their sin. We shall never see a perfect Church till we see the Lord face to face in Heaven. Above yon clouds is the place for perfection! But here, alas, nothing is undefiled. Even in the purest Churches we find deceivers and deceived. Among you over whom it is my calling to preside, I know that there are false professors—lovers of the world rather than lovers of God—and though I cannot remove you any more than the servants of the householder could uproot the tares from the wheat, yet I sigh over you and you are my daily cross and burden. Oh, that God would convert you and make you true to your professions, or else remove you from the Church which you so greatly grieve and weaken!
But now, if in the Church of God there are those who are deceivers and deceived, the question comes to each one of us, “May we not, also, be mistaken? Is it not possible that we, though making a profession of religion, may, after all, be insincere or deluded in that profession and fail to be what we think we are?” Therefore let us put ourselves, at this time,
into the attitude of self-examination—and whatever is spoken, let it come home to us personally. May we try ourselves whether we are right or not, not flinching from any pointed Truth of God but anxiously desiring to be tried and tested before the Lord Himself.
I would bring the text before you by noticing, first, that it contains a very commendable expression, “Lord, Lord.” But, secondly, it was used by gross hypocrites. And then, thirdly, we shall show wherein these hypocrites failed—what it was that they lacked which rendered it impossible that they should enter into the kingdom.