"I Never Knew You!" Paul Washer Sermon Review

Today, I'm going to review a sermon from Paul Washer at the 2026 Shepherd's Conference as he covers Matthew 7. And this is an important section because it's the whole section where he says, Lord, Lord. I prophesied in your name. And then Jesus responds with this I never knew you. Who does that for? Like who is the I never knew you for? What is the context there? It really does matter. So we're gonna listen to uh Paul Washer ha explain that particular section and then I wanna respond to it.

From a biblical context, what is the context telling us and how should it be applied? And is Paul Washer applying the context properly? Stay tuned.

Ever read the Bible? Bible and walk away feeling like you're failing, no matter how hard you try, you're never measuring up. That's not a motivation problem. That's a reading problem. Most people have never been taught how to read the Bible the way Jesus taught it. So when they hear things like, Be perfect.

Deny yourself. Take up your cross. They assume it's all about trying harder. But what if that's not what Jesus was doing at all? What if the law isn't meant to fix you, but to reveal your need for a savior? And what if the gospel isn't advice? But an announcement of what Christ has already done for you. That's the difference between law and gospel. And once you see it, everything changes. Clarity, rest, and confidence.

In the Bible according to Jesus, I show you how to read Scripture the way Jesus intended, so you stop feeling crushed and confused and start living with confidence and rest in Christ. You can get your copy of the book at theocast.org.

Welcome to another episode of Theocast. I'm your host, John Moffitt. I'm the pastor of Grace Reform Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. And if this is your first time uh listening to Theo Casting, like, what is this all about? Well, we're about pulling the clutter off the gospel and talking about how the power of Christ

that is proclaimed in the gospel is a supernatural power. It is a actual grace that does something. And we are going to talk about that today. So uh I love talking about all of the gospel, all of Christ from all of scripture and how it applies to our life. And how it gives us hope in in a world that is broken and a world that is lost. So glad that you're here.

If you are new to Theocast, uh a couple of things you might want to take advantage of. We do have a website that has m multiple books on there, uh book on rest, more than forgiven. I have a new book. Um That is called The Bible According to Jesus. And uh this is an introductory book to really how to understand the Bible from a reformed perspective. So I talk about log gospel distinction, covenant theology, a crystal section under like a Christocentric understanding of the Old Testament.

And at the end of the day, if you want to know how to find assurance and rest. from all of scripture as you study scripture, then that's what this book is. I go through uh uh uh all the tools. There's uh there's six tools in there and each one is gonna help you understand. So if you want to know, really if you want an introduction to log also distinction, an introduction to covenant theology. and uh introduction to uh how to understand scripture.

Like Jesus from all over the Old Testament. That that's that's what that's for. There is a book discussion going on in the community. If you want to join that, we're going through each of the chapters and talking about them. So if you want to go over to and join our community, it's a wonderful place with lots of resources. Um, I even drop uh anything new I'm working on, I drop it in there. So I just love that place.

It's just a lot of people from all over the world. It's it's been a lot of fun. So you can go check that out at theocast.org. All right. From the title and description, you probably have already seen uh this is me talking about a recent sermon from Paul Washer. And this was done at the twenty twenty six Shepherd's Conference. And um I'm not actually gonna address the comments he made about John.

MacArthur and the bedside conversation that he had. There's different opinions of how that was handled. Um, not technically how I would have handled it. I probably would have encouraged John with the gospel. um a man that is about to die or is on his deathbed I I just want to remind him of what the hope that he has. At this point, he can't change anything about his life. His life is now spent. It's over. What matters is eternity. And that's where I want to point his hope.

At the end of the day, this is the thief on the cross. I don't your righteousness is as filthy rags. I don't care how much you're praying or reading your Bible is your faith and sufficiency of Christ. And um, but that's not what this episode is about. This is uh this episode is another good example of law gospel distinction and lordship salvation preaching. I think that Paul Washer is probably one of the most famous outside of John MacArthur as a lordship salvation preacher.

a a law gospel confusion preacher And what is so hard about sermons like what John or what uh Paul preaches here? And I'm not going to review the whole sermon. His sermon's an hour long. I just wanna review this section and then next week, Lord willing, I'm gonna review the second section. So he does ch uh Matthew seven here and then he does uh first John.

But this week we're gonna just do Matthew seven. I wanna let him speak. I wanna point out where I think I agree with him and he says the right things and then where I would say you you jo m Paul left the c the left the context. Like he he's combining his own personal idea of what should be said here outside of what Christ was actually saying. And

Is what Paul's saying even biblical? Because I have no problems tying other biblical realities into a particular text. We do this all the time. But if it is not consistent Then that be that creates a problem. So let let's hear what he has to say. So this is Matthew seven. Then we'll walk through Matthew seven, compare it to what he had to say.

Then he goes on. Verse 21. Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord. Notice the repetition. Very important. This is Creek text, but it Hebrew idea here is it it's it's a Hebrew idea the idea of repetition for emphasis intensity like holy holy holy in Isaiah six So, what is he saying? Not everyone who emphatically declares me to be Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven.

No matter how much they jump up and down, no matter how much they scream, Lord, Lord, no matter how much they shake their hands to the heavens. Not everyone who emphatically declares me to be Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven, will enter.

Is he saying that in order to be saved, we must believe in Jesus and then do the will of the Father? No, don't get it reversed. What he's saying is this: those who those who do call upon the Lord with faith. Those who truly do believe unto salvation, they do so because they've been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And the same Holy Spirit that regenerated them unto repentance. Faith has worked in their nature so that they will now desire the will of God and desire to do it.

Okay, I want to stop here because I'm about to disagree with him on a lot of things, but here I do not disagree with him. This is this is right. Um, I'm glad that he points this out and I'm gonna praise him where he gets it right and biblical. It is true that no one repents and no one can change their own heart, that regeneration has to take place.

And that is a work of God. Go back to John three, where he tells Nicodemus that one must be born again, and this is the work of the spirit. So Paul Washer and I are gonna agree here. Praise God. And I'm glad he offers this clarification. Because it's an important clarification. But I've said this for a long time: a lot of pietistic preaching, legalistic/slash lordship salvation, it's not so much.

that they that they deny the gospel. It's that it's a matter of emphasis and I think a wrong emphasis, where they're pointing out, um They're in their the the audience that they're talking to, it's almost like they've misdiagnosed them or something. I'm not sure what's going on here, but we're gonna see here in a minute where he gets to this. But I I wanna point out here, I agree with Paul that

That what he just said, that the order of salvation, this is proper and this is right. So let's keep listening because the tone begins to change. And I'm going to talk about how I I just I think Paul is misusing this passage with this particular context.

But we'll get to that in a minute. It is a new creation. And he says, Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles, all things that can be attributed to the external. All things that can be attributed to excitement, but there's no mention here of a changed life with regard to Christian virtue or morality.

Are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. No, it's boasting and still what they did for God. Okay. This right here. I'm gonna play some more, but this right here is a great example of what I'm talking about. That is not what Jesus is talking about. And this is so important that you catch this. J uh Paul is contrasting, prophesying, external doing these outward works and

He is saying Jesus is wanting to see fruits of the spirit. He doesn't see fruits of the spirit. And so the contrast is you are only doing external works. And uh Jesus is calling it out it to be phony. No, that is not this entire context, this is not what he's talking about. It's not a contrast between external fleshly works and fruits of the spirit.

uh works that are attributed by the flesh and works that are attributed by the spirit. That's not the contracts here. The right he is pointing out self righteous works that they are presenting. But Jesus isn't trying to find fruits of the spirit. The this whole issue, the whole reason why Jesus is talking here has nothing to do with fruits of the spirit versus fruits of the flesh or the works of the flesh. Let's keep going. Then he says.

And then I will declare to them. I never knew you. I I can't think of anything more horrifying, more terrifying, than that pronunciation, than that pronouncement. I agree. To stand before him on that day, I never knew you. The the Hebrew idea yada of of knowing someone is it it can include f factual information, proposition. But it also includes personal knowledge, relational knowledge, even the most intimate knowledge.

Now, let's think about it in the context of you, because I'm not preaching to someone else, I'm preaching to you. What do you look at? Okay, so this is important for you to understand. This is Shepherd's conference. So he's not at a liberal, well known c he he he's not in a um he's not at some conference where he the majority of the be people there would not be believers.

You're at a shepherd's conference where this is conservative Calvinistic potentially reform people. I know there's a lot of reform people even on the platform. That's who he's preaching to our pastors and congregants and elders. Okay. That's his audience. And

Uh this is important because what he's about to say, he's saying it to them from this particular passage, not about understanding what Jesus is saying, but about them. So this the just context is important here. Look at you and say something like this. I never knew you. You you you didn't, I mean you went to church, but you didn't commune with me. You didn't read my letters? You didn't walk with me. You didn't seek my guidance. You didn't follow me. You and I had nothing. I never knew you.

Have I described you? Would that be right for him to say that to you? That you've really I mean, yeah, he's a part of my life. No, he's either your life or he's not a part of your life. I never knew you. We didn't walk together, we didn't talk together, we didn't cry together, we didn't love together. I never knew you.

You know, if I were to walk up to the White House when I get back, I live in Virginia, if I were to walk up to the White House and try to get through the gate, I'm probably going to be jumped by guards. And if I say, Oh no, no, no, it's okay. I know the president Are they gonna go, Oh, excuse me, just go right on in They're not going to do that, are they? But if while we're in that discussion, the president walks out and says, Hey, I know Paul Washer, I'm going in.

I know Jesus. Does Jesus know you? Does Jesus know you? Okay, let's stop here. A lot of what he says, I agree with. Um So what what's what what what's happening here is we're intermingling problems and and I appreciate Paul's sincerity and I know that there are many who

come from the Baptist revivalistic background and they're going to hear this podcast and they're going to flay me. But just hear me for a moment. And and really I'm not speaking to those people. I'm speaking to the people who heard the sermon and are crushed by it. Let me tell you why you shouldn't be crushed by this.

Um, unless you truly are offering Jesus your righteous works and saying, Jesus should accept me. And and I and I and I am of Christ because I am a righteous person. If that's you, you should be crushed. If you're offering up your righteousness to God. as why you should be accepted by Jesus, then sh please be crushed. Crushed so much that you actually do what Jesus has called you to do. Now. Paul is describing this.

uh life of like intimacy and walking with God and and where he says, I never knew you, I never knew you. Um man, that he he changed the context from false teachers. And those who were seeking salvation by the law to people here who d don't don't live a certain kind of life that he that he like it's it's so vague. What do you mean that I walked with Jesus, that I communed with Jesus?

Like w what are you talking about, Paul? Like you're you're almost setting up such a vague description of Christianity that I don't know if anyone's gonna Like you say it's by faith and it's regeneration, but yet then then to be able to know Christ, um, you have to understand Jesus knows who belongs to him.

And he says who belongs to him is those who have been given by the Father. And those who have been given to by the Father, we know that we belong to Him because we have faith in Him. We belong to Christ because we have faith in Christ. in who Christ is. All right. Now let's go ahead and just talk about this context for a moment as it relates to what's happening here.

Because Uh I think that if you don't understand the context then I'm gonna sound like I'm crazy. So let let's just work through the context here. So in order to understand the context, G G des Jesus is having one long conversation. So this is obviously Sermon on the Mount. And if you go back up to the beginning of this conversation, Jesus is dealing with people that are They're misapplying the law. This this was an issue with the the Pharisees and the Sadducees and Jesus' entire ministry.

Um he says in John, he says he's he's dealing with John in John six, he with these false teachers and these Pharisees, and he says to them, You search the scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life, but it is they that bear witness about me. Okay, if they bear witness about Jesus, in what way does it bear witness about Jesus? That he is the salvation the salvation. That's the con he literally is setting up the context.

You're you're looking at the Old Testament law and requirements. You are applying by you're applying yourself to them, and you think that's salvation. And he's saying, I'm salvation. I'm salvation, not what you do for me, not obedience to the law.

So that's so if you fast forward in the context, uh this is what he's dealing with. I mean, just look at If you look at Matthew five and verse 20, Jesus sets up the um, yeah, yeah, right here, he says, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Okay, so they're thinking to themselves, well, I don't I don't know of anybody that's righteousness that has, you know, because they are like they dedicate their entire life to this. Jesus is setting the absolute impossible standard that one's performance does not guarantee one's righteousness. So he's dealing with the issue of righteousness. How is one declared righteous? How is one considered to be acceptable and righteous before God? That's that's the particular situation.

So then you fast forward in Matthew seven, and you're dealing now with people who are practicing righteousness to be seen. And they are wanting everyone to accept it. They're wanting everyone to accept it. So this is earlier on in chapter six where Jesus is dealing with this idea that you are presenting your outward actions as means of righteousness. and he then goes and starts in chapter seven and points out how

failed these righteous people are. They are judging others and they're blind to themselves. They're false prophets. He uses this concept of a tree. So he's pointing out that the he's not dealing with people The context of this is not how do I know if I'm truly a follower of Jesus Christ? That's not it. Like, how do I know I'm a true believer?

Jesus is pointing out to self-righteous people who are be putting a burden upon people. They're putting millstones upon their neck. They're beating them down with the law. Uh there the and it's all because of this comparative righteousness. You know, we're doing righteous works, you're not doing righteous works, we're saved, you're not saved. And now they're realizing, oh, maybe Jesus is the Messiah. And so they're coming to Jesus to get affirmation from Jesus based upon their righteousness.

Like this is a a a a constant play in Jesus' ministry. And so when Jesus is dealing with them in Matthew seven, And it says, Jesus, have we not done all these things in your name? Meaning they are still pointing out their external righteousness as to why they should be accepted in the kingdom, why they should be accepted by Jesus. So the again, th this is the c you're dealing with false teachers who are

Trusting in salvation by righteousness. Jesus is not creating a contrast between between external righteousness and internal righteousness or external works of obedience and works of the f of fruit. It He's not creating a contrast between real believers and false believers. He's exposing the false believer. So when they say to the him, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy and do these things in your name? He is saying, it doesn't matter what you do in my name, it matters what you do with me.

Like that, this is the whole thing. It it's not what you do for the Father in my name. If it's it, I don't care if you partner with me. I don't care. Like if you think that you don't need me and you're doing this, you know, because at this point Jesus' ministry is beginning to grow. And so they're acknowledging That wow, this that Jesus truly is a prophet, that Jesus truly is, you know, some you know, maybe he is the son of God. But there's a difference between coming to Jesus as the son of God.

And saying, Can't can't you see that I'm an unacceptable person? And coming to Jesus and saying, Unless you save me, I will not be saved. Be you know, John, behold the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. You know, Lord will we go? Where will we go? For you have eternal life. You know, because this is John 6, right? Jesus says to him, Are you going to leave me as well? And Peter says, Well, where where would we go? Where would we go? You have the words of a life.

It's not the words of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the isn't salvation. It's pointing to salvation, which is Jesus. And so Peter actually it says the right thing. So in Matthew seven, where he says to him, I never knew you.

He is telling people, you're not a part of my kingdom. You're not a part of my family by obedience, by works of righteousness. That's not how I come to know you. Adoption is not yours transactionally. You don't prove to God that you're deserving to be a child and therefore he transacts with you. So that that this is the context of Matthew 7. Right. So if I were to use this properly in Paul Washer's context, then I would change it completely.

And say that one is never, ever accepted, no matter how much righteousness they perform, even if it's in the name of Jesus. They aren't there, your righteousness is as filthy rags, Paul says. Right. Like the the amount of time Paul gets angry with people who try and add works of righteousness to it, to their faith.

is enormous. I'm not even gonna get into it, but in if if we're gonna preach Matthew seven, five through seven properly, the whole context is that Jesus is the sufficient savior and to know Christ. To know him. In other words, he says, I know you. How is it that we know him? By faith alone, by faith that Christ is sufficient, not that he's a good teacher. I agree with that Not that he exists. I agree with that. We believe in who Christ is, Christ meaning Messiah.

Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the savior of sinners, who takes sinners and declares them righteous by faith alone, in Christ alone, right? This is how this is to happen.

So the I never knew you part is not to be like that is not for those who are struggling with. their faith, or those who are struggling with obedience. Paul, Paul always, Paul Watcher is always talking about this transformation of life, where over and over and over again, uh, that's the emphasis, the transformation of life, the transformation of life. And I agree. that God changes our heart. He goes on to talk about how um

You know, there he uses this illustration about a husband before Christ and after Christ. And I I agree with all these illustrations, but it is also true that Christians can suffer. for long periods of time, uh, disobedience. I mean otherwise church discipline wouldn't matter. Like Paul pr Paul wants us to practice church discipline not because people are not believers, it's because they are believers.

And God disciplines those whom He loves. Why would this be a a passage that to whom we w wanna preach about?'Cause Christians can live in long periods of disobedience. Um So much so that they're trapped. Galatians 6 1 says that if someone is trapped in sin, go to them, six and two, with a spirit of gentleness and meekness.

Why? To restore them. Because they are trapped in sin. John uh James 5 makes it very clear that you could have a lifelong struggle with sin, so much so that you die. I mean, this is Ananias and Sapphira, right? Where God ends up taking them home because of their of their of their disobedience. So this idea, look, I am not an easy believism guy where you can just say a prayer and live however you want.

Um, but to say that Christians I mean, how many times are we warned in the old like Paul says that you can in Ephesians four, you can be tossed about by every wind of doctrine, by human cuttingness and deceitful schemes. So if you're not in a good church that is discipling you and training you, you could live an entire life tossed about. Paul gets angry at the g at the Corinthians because they're still wanting milk instead of meat.

You're right. They're still offering uh worship to idols. He's like, you're you're communing with demons. He literally tells them, you are communing with demons. What are you doing? You can't do that. So this idea that Christians aren't going to struggle and there's like this immediate effectual change. I mean, David had like this radical life for God and then blew it up. According to Paul, like uh Paul Washer, that like if you're like what do you do with that, Paul?

Paul, David had this radical life and then blew it up. Paul deals with people like this, where they were serving with them, John Mark is serving with them, and then they went and they wanted to go live with the world. So

I I it just bothers me that um the emphasis of Paul Watcher's ministry is to call the Christian into constant doubt and fear. For wrong reasons. Listen, I'll lock arms with Paul Washer and uh pound the f pound the table and become a revivalist preacher for those who think they're going to earn righteousness by their own works. It's not gonna happen. There's nobody, there's none righteous, no, not one. Right. But

This constant calling people's salvation into question based upon whether they are living up to a certain performance. Uh I'm sorry that this this this is has to stop. Like, um Let me let me give you an example. Because this is so important to me. All right. We're going to talk about First John next. But I want you to see this, this is just a little bit of an introduction to next week. We always emphasize first John and is like this litmus test, and yet we ignore passages like this.

So this is first John three, verse one. It says this So what kind of love the Father see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God. Like that's that's awesome. Just like You need to see this. What is John doing here? John is wanting to create affection in the believer. The same issue in John Matthew 7 is the same issue in 1 John. We'll get to this next week. Same exact issue in that you've got false teachers

pillaging the church. It's horrible. They're just pillaging the church. And so John's pointing it out. Like there here's the difference between you and these people, right? So he says, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God, and so we are. The re The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved. So there's he's saying that there's a there's a contrast between

uh the way in which the world is going to be affectionate toward you and the way the father is going to be affectionate toward you. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. And so he's saying, look, you're not who you're supposed to be. You're just not. And and and who you're supposed to be is not here yet. We're waiting for his, we're waiting for him to come.

But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. Like there's this moment when Christ returns. Well, we'll look at ourselves and we'll look at him and we're like, we we are now like him. Like we'll know that something has changed. Okay. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Yeah, and that's powerful. Who hopes what? Who hopes in knowing that when Christ appears. Now now is there any

Obligation put on the believer for this transformation. No, you're a child of God. He loves you. And if he loves you, he's going to transform you. And if you put your hope in that, then you're going to naturally start to purify yourself. Why? It's Purification by love, purification by grace and hope, not by fear.

Not trying to get into this relationship. You have the relationship, so change yourself. And this is where I wish Paul would emphasize his sermons, Paul Washer. Who look who you are in Christ. Look how he has given you so much. He has set you free. Instead, it's the constant pointing to your performance and saying, You maybe you should double check yourself, right? Look at the next verse. And everyone

who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, do not let no one deceive you. Okay, who is he talking about?

He's talking about the false teachers. He's creating the dichotomy. He's creating the division between those who are the children of God and those who are not. But he's not trying to call into question their faith. He's calling into the question the faith of these false teachers. He's saying these false teachers saying they're of Christ, but they do not agree with God. Now listen, that there's a very distinct difference here.

And I it's important that we understand those distinctions. This is the same issue that he did here. He he was trying to create like, well, um, if they would have come to him and said, Lord, here are the fruits of the spirit in Matthew seven, then Jesus would have accepted him and said, I knew you. No, that is not what's going on. We have to stop creating these law gospel confusions.

It it's it's maddening to me. Uh I use this examples a lot in the book on the chapter on on Law Gospel Distinction. It you have to get this clean because No one is ever uh saved or sanctified by the law. And this is what he's doing. He's saying that Uh or or you're not even you're not even gonna show the evidences of your salvation by the law.

Like that's just just not how this, when you stand there on judgment day and you're standing this is what he says, how terrifying would it be to stand there on judgment day facing Jesus? And he says to him, I never knew you, you're not gonna offer up your good works as to why Jesus knew you. You're not going to do that. It's just not gonna happen. Right? How do I know this? So many passages.

First first and second Peter, his divine power is granted to you all things for life and godliness. So when you stand before God Jesus on judgment day. And he knows you. He's not he's not gonna say, I don't know if I know you, show me your works. That's not how this is going down. How this is going to go down is that if your faith is in Christ and you've trusted in the sufficiency of Christ,

Now your good your your life may be burn up as far as like you wasted your life. Paul Peter talks about this in Second Peter. You could have an ineffective and unfruitful life. That is for sure. I'll agree with you on that. P Paul is definitely concerned about you having an ineffective and unfruitful life. He's like, finish the race, man. Like, let's go. Let's do something with this life that's been given to us. But as nothing, like we spend our entire days and life trying to

Like verify our salvation. Like the rest of the Christian life is about keeping yourself a good standing with God. Why are we doing this? Why why are we constantly trying to keep ourselves in good standing with God by our obedience? He began a good work in you. He will complete it. When he appears, we will be like him. We do not cause his coming the first time, and we did not cause his coming the second time.

Jesus laid down his life for us and he will come again and he will transform us into his image. Right. We will become like him. That has nothing to do with you. We are being saved. We have been saved. We are being saved. We will be saved. There's three aspects to our salvation. He has totally forgiven us, he is sustaining us, and he will transform us. That is all done by God's glory and grace. It has nothing to do with you. So I love this. Uh the the encouragement in first John.

Look to the hope that you have. And as you look to that hope, you'll change your heart and your heart will change, you'll change your actions. Peter says it this way, if these truths are not about, this is true, if this is not true about you, that these fruits of the spirits that should be coming out of you, he says, you have forgotten you've been cleansed from your former sins. Paul Paul to the church at Corinth.

He is so angry with what they have become. He goes, I cannot wait to come and preach to you the gospel, because it is the power of Christ proclaimed in the gospel that saves you from your sin, that sustains you in this life and transforms you in the future. So if we are worried about these pastors and these people in this auditorium.

who may be living licentious lives, or maybe they're truly not saved. The question is, why are they not saved? What are they trusting in? What do they need to repent of? If they're not trusting in Christ, what do they need to repent of? Well, maybe they're trusting in their good works. Great. Explain how Christ is better. Maybe they're trusting in their church attendance. Great. Explain how Christ is better.

I don't I what whatever it is that you think that they're trusting in, uh, Paul deals with different, he deals with the Galatians different than he does with the church of Philippi. Right. Like he deals with them differently. What what is the issue with this context? Then proclaim why Christ is better. Like in Hebrews, Christ is better than the angels, he's better than the prophets, he's better than the sacrifices. Christ is greater. He's the great savior.

Repent of believing anything else other than Jesus Christ, including yourself, including your own fruits. The self-examination that is constantly being preached within the Calvinistic culture is suffocating righteousness. It is not producing righteousness. It's just not.

It actually ends up creating Pharisees. How do I know? Because I went to that seminary. I went to that church. I knew I listened to those sermons. And I did not walk away thinking to myself, How much joy I had in being righteous before the Lord, I was terrified that it was never doing enough. And that I was gonna be caught and then it was gonna be found out that I was a fake. And it created within me a spirit of Phariseeism because I didn't want anybody to really know just how fake I was.

There's no admittance of weakness and dependence where we are carrying each other's burdens because we're struggling. It is Phariseeism where we're always questioning each other's salvation all the time. I have friends of mine who are pastors who had to leave seminary because they just could not determine if they're they're faithful pastors now. But they left the seminary because they could not figure out if they really were saved. Like John's sermons were crushing them. I understand this.

I am not saying everything that Paul Washed are saying is wrong or John MacArthur. You need to hear me when I say this, but it's the emphasis, and I would say messing with context. Like, this is the thing that that bothers me more than anything that we start messing with context. And so I I know I got a little passionate here, and but I I think it's important when we're thinking about Matthew 7, and you hear a sermon on Matthew 7.

The conclusion of the sermon on Matthew seven should be: do not approach Jesus with your righteousness. Do not come to him offering him what you have done. Do as the prostitute caught, do as the one who understands that they are wretched, coming to him and saying, Jesus, my Lord, weeping at his feet. Why? Out of joy? Because what did Jesus say? Why is she weeping at my feet? Why is she washing my feet? She didn't wash Jesus' feet so she could be saved.

She's not weeping at his feet so she could be saved. Jesus says to the those watching, the Pharisees, those who are judging the woman. He says to her, She has been forgiven much, so she loves much. She is expressing her love to me because she has seen my love for her. And I have forgiven her. We love because He first loved us, and He laid His life down as a ransom for us. He came to us when we were his enemy. What? What? What?

Does God lose his own? No, he doesn't lose any of his own. If you've put your faith in Christ and you trust him and you're living a life of sin, Dear child, you have forgotten the wonder of Christ. You are replacing the wonder and the joy and satisfaction of Jesus Christ with the world. Now, that is a true problem in our church today. The Christian world does not believe in the supernatural power of the joy of Jesus Christ. We've been given a fairy tale.

of do do your part and you can have joy and satisfaction. No, he does his part for you. You do you walk by faith, dear Christian. You walk by faith. In what? The Christ is sufficient.

That's why it says walk by the power of the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you're here and you're trapped in sin and you've got a habitual sin and you're struggling, you need to hear the sufficiency and the supernatural power of grace in your life. Go back to my episode I did on the power of grace.

You don't need to be examining yourself and your intentions all of the time. You need to examine Christ and his intentions and allow them to shape and mold your life, looking into the author and finisher of our faith, laying aside the weight and sin. Anything that gets your eyes off of Jesus and onto you, if you're a few a fruit checker of yourself or someone else, Your eyes aren't on Jesus, they're on you.

I I've told this story before and I'll end with this here, but when my brother and I were young, we were out walking this dog. And on this Air Force base in California and there's these trees aligned on this path. And this is right at sunset. My son's holding my son, my brother's holding this dog and we're running. And all of a sudden my brothers he can see a perfect shadow of himself in the dog. And so he um

He's r he's running, looking at the shadow, and runs right into a tree. Just boom, head on, knocks him on his back. Where was he looking? He's looking at how well he's running, right? This is a perfect example of what ends up happening. We can start looking at ourselves like, man, I'm the I'm I'm looking pretty good here. The sun

Which is illuminating our path and giving us the ability to to see. Sure. Is there a reflection? Can we see in each other that there is a reflection of Christ in our life in the shadow? Sure. But don't look at the shadows. That's not the substance. That's not where it should be focused. And uh I feel like this is what's happening here in this sermon, where he's one, he's changed the context.

This this this sermon is not about those who need to be questioning their salvation based upon genuineness. This is not a genuine issue. This is either Jesus is righteous or you're righteous. That's the issue. This has nothing to do with genuineness of like, are you, are you, do you have a true affection for Jesus Christ? Jesus is angry with people who want to be righteous in themselves.

So let's not change the context. Now he switches over to first John and uses first John as a test. Again, says a lot of things that I like that is really good. But then the emphasis changed. And he sends to focus in on only the passages that are dealing with the false prophet, but the false teachers. But he he approaches his.

Is it it's a test for the believer? It's not a test for the believer. And I'll explain to you in next week's video. So thanks for listening. Uh if you want to learn more how to like how to properly distinguish so you don't fall into these traps. And I deal with some of the passages, like uh, particularly this one.

And other ones like pick up your cross. What does it mean to pick up your cross? Unless you follow me, you cannot be my disciple. All of that is in this book. You can get it, uh, Kindle, Pardback, Paperback. Um, if you can't afford a copy, just send us uh an email. I will give it to you. I just want people to have the book.

Um, I found out people like paperback. So we put'em up there. Uh those cost us money. If you want a free uh a free book, I will I'll give it to you for free. If you want a paperback and you can afford it, I will ship one to you.

uh as long as it's a country that we can ship to, I will ship you to you no matter where you live. Thanks for listening. Um these are the kind of things that we discuss in our community. So if you want to come in and ask questions, um this one was asked to me in the community. So I decided to respond to it.

in an episode instead of just into the community. But come join us. Theo Cast community is an awesome place. Lots of lots of wonderful believers there. Thanks for listening and Lord willing to see you next week.