“Threat #4: INTELLECTUALISM (Matthew 7:21-27)” | 1/31/2021
Matthew 7:21-27 | 1/31/21 | Will DuVal
This morning, in HONOR of Family Sunday, I thought I’d recruit one of our cool kiddos to help me introduce this week’s topic. So ______ , would you come on up and give me a hand? While s/he is making his/her way on stage, let me remind ALL of us that this morning marks the halfway point through our “Church Under Fire” sermon series, in which we’re examining the 7 Greatest Threats Facing the 21st c. American Church today. And this week we’re discussing threat #4, the danger of INTELLECTUALISM. Intellectualism.
Now, ______, do you know what “intellectualism” is? No, well, guess what: neither do half the adults here. So let’s see if we can help them out by demonstrating it. I’ve got a little quiz for you, alright, _____, 3 questions, and I already know that you’re gonna ACE it, because I checked with him/her beforehand (I wouldn’t want to risk embarrassing you in front of the whole church!). Ready?
Question #1: Do you know George Washington? ...Tell me about him... [Good!]
Okay, #2: Do you know __[kids’ dad]__ ...Yeah? tell me about him... [Great]
Last question: Do you know Jesus? ...Good, now follow-up: and I don’t want you to answer this one out loud, but I DO want ALL of us here to answer it silently in our hearts right now: “Is the way that you know JESUS more similar to the way you know George Washington, or the way that you know your father?
_______ - you ACED the quiz; can I get a fist-bump? You can have a seat - Can y’all give him/her a hand for helping us out?
Speaking of quizzes, we’re gonna see in Matthew ch.7, vv21-27 this morning that we are ALL going to stand before the Lord in Heaven one day, and we’ll take a quiz. But the thing that’s so unsettling, perhaps even frightening, about heaven’s quiz, for those of us LIKE myself, like _____ , maybe like you - those of us raised in the CHURCH, good “Christian” kids from good “Christian” homes, is that you can know ALL the right Sunday school answers in the world… you can have ALL the right Bible verses memorized… you can even profess faith in all the right beliefs, even be BAPTIZED on the basis of your profession of faith… and still FAIL heaven’s test, and spend eternity in Hell, instead.
Intellectualism is defined as “excessive emphasis on intellectual matters, especially with a lack of proper consideration for emotions.” Kids: your “intellect” is your MIND. Or perhaps even better, “in Philosophy, the doctrine that knowledge is wholly or chiefly derived from pure reason.” It’s the idea that KNOWING is simply a HEAD thing.
See, when the Bible refers to “knowing”, it often has FAR more than our heads in mind. In Amos 3:2, God declares to his people Israel: ““You only have I known of all the families of the earth”. God wasn’t ignorant of the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Philistines; He’s saying, “I don’t have a RELATIONSHIP with those peoples.”
Jesus says in John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus is AWARE of every single person - every thought, feeling, and action of every person - who’s ever walked the planet; there’s not a BIRD that falls to the ground without Jesus being AWARE of it. But He only KNOWS - truly, intimately knows - his own sheep.
Genesis 4:1 says “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain” - kids, I’ll let your parents explain THAT one to you later, but suffice it to say, when the Bible speaks of KNOWING, it’s talking about INTIMACY. Being DEEPLY CONNECTED, on a VERY personal level.
My fear as a pastor, is that if we’re not careful - as a church, as parents - we could very easily raise and send out kids whose heads are FILLED with knowledge ABOUT Jesus, but whose hearts are EMPTY of Jesus. It’s easy to raise kids who know Jesus like they know George Washington; it’s very difficult - dare I say IMPOSSIBLE! - to raise a child to know Jesus like they know us, like they know their best friend. Because THAT kind of knowledge, the heart kind, can only come from God HIMSELF.
But this isn’t just a parenting concern - there are entire churches today - evangelical, Bible-believing, gospel-centered churches - in this country and all around the world that are FILLED with people who THINK they are Christians bound for Heaven because they know Jesus like they know George Washington, and they are in for a RUDE, terrifying awakening when they finally stand before the Judgment Throne and hear, “Depart from me; I NEVER knew you”.
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And statistically speaking, in all likelihood, that describes some of you here this morning. You’ve been confusing Intellectualism with genuine, born-again, regenerate faith in Jesus. You have the “appearance of godliness, but NONE of its power.” (2 Tim 3:5) You affirm all the right doctrines and you’re fluent in Church-ianity, but you know NOTHING of true, transformative Christianity. You know ALL about Jesus, but you don’t KNOW Jesus at all, and He doesn’t know you, and if SOME of you don’t wake up this morning, you are in SERIOUS jeopardy of spending an eternity separated from him FOREVER.
So how do we avoid the threat of empty intellectualism? Let’s read Matthew 7 together and find out. Would you stand… Matthew 7:21-27
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
A quick word about this passage’s Context: This is the final section of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. He began in ch.5 with the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, etc.” Then Jesus called his followers to be “salt and light” in a dark and decaying world; he warned against antinomianism, rejecting the Law of God; no, I came to up the ante, Jesus claimed. “You have HEARD it said, “Don’t murder”, but I say to you: don’t even get ANGRY with your brother”; “You have HEARD it said, “Don’t commit adultery”, but I say to you: don’t even lust”; “You have HEARD it said, “Try to avoid divorce, taking oaths, retaliation… but I say to you: Love EVERYONE and be PERFECT.”
Then in ch.6, Jesus instructs us how to give to those in need, how to pray, how to fast, and how NOT to hoard our money or be worried.
And here in ch.7, he’s warned us about judging others, treating others as we want to be treated, bewaring of the easy path that leads to destruction, and bewaring of false prophets whose religion is all show and no substance. And that brings us to his most URGENT of all warnings, here in vv21-27, and our desperate need to be known by Jesus.
So how do we make sure we know him, and are known BY him, and avoid the threat of INTELLECTUALISM, merely knowing ABOUT him? Here’s his 4-fold plan of action:
#1: Do God’s WILL. (v21)
Jesus plainly states here: ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” He says similarly in Luke 6:46 ““Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”
Listen: Talk is cheap. And usually you get what pay for, don’t you? If you were sold a “faith” that cost you a trip down the aisle in a church service long ago, to pray the sinner’s prayer and told that that one simple act guaranteed you a spot in Heaven, it’s POSSIBLE you’re saved today, but it’s also ENTIRELY possible that you are one of these folks who recognize exactly who Jesus is - that He really IS Lord, kurios, He is God made flesh, and you confess him as such with your lips - but your HEART is far from him, and you don’t really know Him at all. Because CONFESSING with your lips is only half the ticket. Romans 10:9 promises that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” See, Intellectualism gets half the equation right. It’s very important to know about Jesus, to know WHO He is, so you CAN confess him as Lord. That’s an absolute prerequisite; you CANNOT get to Heaven without it!
But frankly, it’s the EASIER half of salvation, BY FAR. Anyone can CONFESS the name of Jesus. Friends: even the DEMONS know that Jesus is Lord, and they SHUDDER. The more important, much more DIFFICULT part, is giving him your HEART. Believing, TRULY believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead - because that will absolutely turn your life UPSIDE DOWN. If it’s true - that Jesus is who He says He is, and did what He said he did for us - and if you REALLY believe it, you CANNOT, you WILL not, go on with life as usual. It will begin to and continue to, over the course of the entire REST of your life, change you from the inside out. Jesus said, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” the hands act, the feet obey. It goes back to the fruit, from the verses just PRIOR to this one: “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” (v17) It’s that simple. THAT’s why Jesus can say here, that only those who DO the will of the Father will get into Heaven. Some of you are thinking, “Wait a minute, that sounds like WORKS-righteousness! Is Jesus saying it’s faith PLUS works = salvation?” No, Ephesians 2:8 makes it very clear that it is by grace alone through faith alone that we are saved, “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” So salvation comes ALWAYS through faith alone, but NEVER through faith that IS alone. Did you catch that? It’s not mere semantics. We are saved by faith alone, but NOT by faith that IS alone. If you THINK you’ve got faith, but that faith doesn’t PRODUCE good fruit, doesn’t PRODUCE the good works for which you were created, Ephesians 2, verse 10, then you might THINK you’re a fig tree, but your actions prove you’re really a thornbush. Because the ROOTS determine the fruits.
Some of you think, “So I’ve got to DO the will of the Father?” So you’re saying I’m supposed to ALWAYS be humble, meek, mournful, merciful, pure, poor, generous, a peacemaker, persecuted, salt and light, exceed the Pharisees in righteousness; NEVER get angry or worried or vengeful or lustful or judgemental or forget to pray and fast and treat others as I want to be treated, even my enemies, to be PERFECT, as my heavenly Father is perfect!” THAT’S the will of the Father, from the Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus expects me to DO?!” ALL that?!
Well, I guess I’m NEVER getting into Heaven then!
But don’t be discouraged: I think Jesus has something else in mind here when he DEMANDS that we “do the will of the Father”. Do you know what the PURPOSE of the Sermon on the Mount is? Paul tells us in Romans 7 that the purpose of the OT LAW was to be a MIRROR to convict us of our brokenness and our utter INABILITY to please God and earn heaven on our own merit, and to convince us of our need for a SAVIOR! And yet, Jesus finds himself here, preaching to a bunch of folks who have devoted their entire LIVES to trying to obey every jot and tittle of the Law, SO much so that they’ve completely forgotten about the God BEHIND it. So Jesus says, “Look, you missed the memo: you are NOT good enough to make it to heaven on your own! Let me CLARIFY the Law for you: unless you’re PERFECT, you don’t make the cut!”
So what does Jesus have in mind, then, when he says, “You must do the will of the Father in order to enter Heaven”? In John ch6, there’s a crowd following Jesus who ask him, ““What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” [And do you remember how he responded??] Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.””
Friends: If you want to do God’s will: BELIEVE in His Son JESUS. Listen: KIDS - do you want to do God’s will and be SAVED? Do you want to go to Heaven and not HELL?! Do we still talk about HELL in kids church, Ally? We better! Parents - you BETTER tell your kids the truth about Hell! You say, “Well, we don’t want to SCARE them into a relationship with God”; the BIBLE says, “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”! Better to SCARE them toward God than to SOOTHE them into HELL!
Listen kids: just in case your parents have been giving you the PG version, here are the facts - There really IS a heaven, and there really IS a Hell. And there are only TWO kinds of people in the world, and guess what, it’s NOT good kids and bad kids. Let me shoot you straight this morning, kids: you’re BAD. You’re ALL bad. Romans 3:10 says that “NO ONE is good.” Not you, not me, not your parents - We are ALL sinners who fall short of God’s standard. The good news of Christianity is NOT that you can go to heaven to be with Jesus if you’ll just be a good little girl or boy. The good news is SO much better than that: it’s that WHILE you were YET a sinner, even though there was NOTHING lovable in you, God looked down and said, “I want _____, I want _____… to be my adopted child; Jesus, Son, I need you to go DIE to forgive for all her sins, so she can come and belong to me.” And kids… adults… those in person and those joining virtual at home... hear this: there are ONLY two kinds of people on this earth, and BOTH are sinners. But there are sinners who will get what they deserve and spend eternity apart from God, and there are sinners who have THROWN themselves on God’s mercy by trusting in the only name given under heaven by which we can be saved - the name of JESUS!
You want to get into Heaven? Jesus says, “Do God’s will”. How do you do God’s will? By believing in His Son, Jesus. Not just confessing. MANY will confess on that day. But FEW will have truly repented of their sin, and believed. Don’t just give him your head and your lips. He wants your HEART.
#2: If you want to avoid Empty Intellectualism, you need to Beware your WORKS. (v22) Beware your works.
In v22, Jesus says, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord...”
Now, before we even get to their works, we need to note that there are actually THREE dangers this passage warns us of; I foregrounded Intellectualism, because I think it’s the most threatening to most of us at a church like West Hills. But there are really three dangers possible here, and three types of FAKE Christians we need to watch out for… in the MIRROR!
The first, as we’ve said, is the Intellectual - the person who confuses orthodoxy with a relationship with Jesus. “If I just believe the right things, God will accept me.” And as Scripture says, demons believe the right things, and if you don’t repent and trust in Jesus, you’re gonna share the same eternal destination as them.
But the second kind of pseudo-Christian here is the Emotional - If Intellectualism replaces a relationship with Jesus with BELIEVING the right things, emotionalism replaces it with FEELING things. Emotion. Passion. Look back at the “MANY” who Jesus will reject, from v22: they call out, “Lord, LORD!” You know, it’s one thing to confess him as Lord, but I think the repetition here is supposed to highlight the sincerity of their cries. I think they really MEAN it. I think these are people who had a genuine EXPERIENCE of the Lord at some time in their life. People who were moved to HONEST tears in their worship of God once at youth camp. And YET, who will hear Him say to them, “I never knew you.” Because the gospel isn’t that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever feels all the feels shall not perish… whoever lifts their hands and MEANS it during the worship set… whoever got choked up watching “The Passion of the Christ” as a teenager…
No friends, it’s whoever believes in Jesus, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” And some of you might FEEL like you truly LOVE Jesus: “Jesus - Lord, LORD! - please! I LOVE you!” And he’ll say to you, “Greater love has no one than this - that he lay down his life for his friends. And When exactly did you lay down your life for me? See, I laid down my life for you, on the cross. To purchase ETERNAL life for you. And I was very clear with you, in return, that ““If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Lk 9:23-24) So let me ask you, with ALL your passion, and ALL your emotion, when did you ever SURRENDER your LIFE to me? When were you CRUCIFIED with Christ, Galatians 2:20? When did you die to yourself, to find new life in me, Romans 6:5?
There’s Intellectualism, there’s Emotionalism, and thirdly, there’s ACTIVISM - the one who confuses her religious activity for a relationship with Jesus. They say, “‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’” That’s a pretty impressive spiritual resume! I haven’t heard of anyone at West Hills accurately predicting the future, exorcising any demons, or performing any miracles lately… I know I sure haven’t! And please note: Jesus’ response ISN’T to call them a bunch of LIARS! I think we’re supposed to assume that they ACTUALLY did all this stuff! And yet they’ll be cast into HELL?! How is THAT possible?
Well, Balaam prophesied in God’s name, in Numbers ch23, and HE went to Hell. Judas cast out demons in Luke 10:17 and HE went to Hell. And the ANTICHRIST will one day perform great miracles by the power of Satan, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:8-9, and HE’S going to Hell. So I’ll reiterate again: the 2 types of people in the world are NOT those who perform AMAZING signs and wonders in Jesus’ name and those who don’t. It’s simply those who believe, TRULY believe and trust and SURRENDER to Jesus, and those who don’t.
See, the danger with works is that they DO accompany true saving faith. James 2:17 “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” You put that together with Ephesians 2:8-10 from earlier, and we can conclude:
Grace + Faith → Salvation + Works
See, works are important, CRUCIALLY important, because TRUE faith in God’s grace, his gift of Jesus, will necessarily produce eternal life AND its fruit, good works. But here’s the problem: you can also have WORKS, WITHOUT having grace, or faith, OR salvation! If A + B = C, and you’ve got C, that doesn’t NECESSARILY mean you’ve got A or B. For example: My daughter Ellery + too much screen time = grumpiness. Now, if Ellery is grumpy, does that NECESSARILY mean that she’s had too much screen time? No - she could have gotten a toy confiscated, she might not have gotten enough sleep, she might be HUNGRY, there could be OTHER reasons for the grumpiness. And unfortunately, back to Matthew 7, there can be OTHER causes of our good works as well. Our good works MAY come from a regenerated, pure, clean heart that DELIGHTS to serve and obey the Lord... But they might ALSO come from a desire to please people by performing. Our good deeds MIGHT come from a desire to feel better about ourselves, and assuage our guilt for our BAD deeds, by doing enough “GOOD” to ostensibly MAKE UP FOR the bad. Our good works could even come from a desire for power or status. In the church world, good works can buy you a lot of social capital, help you climb the hierarchy. If you’re looking for elders and deacons, you gotta examine peoples’ FRUIT, right? The problem is that there’s good fruit that comes from good trees, and then there’s fruit that APPEARS to be good, and the difference in taste may be SO slight that it’s ALMOST imperceptible, but in reality, it was grown in a petri dish in some twisted lab somewhere, and we’ll probably find out in 20 years that it gives us all cancer, because fruit is supposed to come from TREES!
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day managed to produce some good fruit. They had most of the OT memorized - you and I don’t. They tithed faithfully - some of y’all don’t. Jesus even implies in Matthew 12:27 that some of them can cast out demons - any of y’all ever done that?
And yet Jesus said of them, “"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Matt 15:8)
We need to BEWARE our good works, friends. There will be many who come before Jesus on that day and say,
“Lord, Lord, did I not volunteer in the nursery every single month?”
“Lord, Lord, did I not go through Confirmation, and memorize the Catechism?”
“Lord, Lord, did I not attend a gospel-preaching church ALL my life?
“Lord, Lord, did I not walk the aisle and pray the prayer and get baptized?”
And he will say to you, “Depart from me; I never KNEW you.”
Intellectualism says, “Here’s my head.”
Emotionalism says, “Here’s my heart.”
Activism says, “Here’s my hands.”
Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, soul, mind, AND strength,” or I’m not truly your Lord at all. O-town plagiarized Jesus, when they sang, “I want it ALL, or NOTHING at all”. That’s JESUS, circa 1st c.
Friends: Don’t let your orthodoxy, your passion, or your religious activity DECEIVE you into thinking that you’re saved if you’re NOT.
#3: To avoid deception, we need to Be WED to Christ. (v23) Be WED, to Christ.
Now we finally arrive at it: the most terrifying verse in the Bible. Matthew 7:23 “then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
And I’ve said already: the key here is to understand that it’s not enough to know ABOUT Jesus; you’ve got to know him, and he’s got to know YOU.
You know who KNOWS me? None of y’all know me. Not really. But my WIFE does. Polly is the only person in the world who truly KNOWS me. See, my exhortation here to “Be WED to Christ” is more than just a nice alliteration (kids: alliteration is the repetition of the same starting letter, if you hadn’t noticed that pattern in your bulletins yet; we pastors are FAMOUS for it!). But here’s the point: you REALLY get to know someone by being MARRIED to them, don’t you? Polly and I are leading the “Young & Married Workshop” here this Friday, and I suspect we’re gonna have a whole lot of y’all newlyweds there saying the same thing: “Ya know, I thought I knew her… and then we got MARRIED!” Some of you will be saying it in ONE tone: “Man, I thought I knew her… and now I just love her even more!” And OTHERS may be using a different tone: “Uhhh, I thought I knew him… HELP!”
But there’s a REASON one of the primary metaphors for the Church in the NT is the BRIDE of Christ. We are His Bride; why? Because Jesus knows his own, intimately, and they know him. I like to use that analogy when I’m counseling folks for baptism; I had the honor of baptizing Josh in the 9:00 service & Callie in the 10:45 service - I sometimes say that baptism is like your WEDDING day, to publicly declare and celebrate your commitment to Christ. Baptism doesn’t make you saved any more than a wedding makes you married. On the one hand, you’re SUPPOSED to ALREADY be saved when you get baptized; your baptism is just a public, symbolic celebration. I had already committed my life to Polly when I proposed, 7 months before our wedding, and technically it was legal when we signed the marriage license before the service even began; the wedding, in that sense, was just a formality. On the OTHER hand, there are plenty of people who’ve had weddings who don’t have a marriage. I mean, not in any MEANINGFUL sense of the term. They’re just roommates. They tolerate each other, for the kids’ sake. But they’re not really married.
Similarly, I fear that in a congregation this size, statistically speaking, it is almost a CERTAINTY that some of you have been baptized, but you don’t really have a relationship with Jesus.
This happens a lot with KIDS raised in the church, doesn’t it? Both Callie and Josh, were baptized as kids. I was baptized, many of YOU were baptized as a child. But in our testimonies, we’ll clarify, “I made a public profession - confessed “Lord, Lord” - and was baptized at the age of 8, but then I went through some stuff in middle or high school, or college, and strayed from the faith, and it wasn’t until LATER in life that I really realized what it meant to actually make Jesus the LORD of my life and truly SURRENDER to him.” And the reality is, we had a wedding but not a marriage there for a couple decades. This is why, if I’m honest, I’m usually pretty reluctant to baptize kids. Listen: getting married was only the SECOND biggest decision of your life, cuz it affects the last 50 or 60 years of your life here on earth. Trusting in JESUS is for ETERNITY! Some of you kids sitting here, I HOPE will go home and talk more about all this with your parents, and decide to trust Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, but I’m just warning you right now: when you come and talk to me about baptism, I want to make ABSOLUTELY SURE you know what you’re signed on for: this is for LIFE! I’m not interested in being the guy in your testimony who baptized you but shouldn’t have, cuz you weren’t really saved yet. If you’re not ready to get MARRIED yet, and commit to a wife for the rest of your life, it’s possible you’re not mature enough yet to commit for all ETERNITY to Jesus. THAT is the biggest decision you will EVER make. DON’T make it lightly, kids! Don’t make it lightly, ADULT!
But when you DO - man, be WED to Jesus! Have a MARRIAGE! Get INTIMATE - Give him your whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and don’t EVER look back! Pursue him with your whole heart, mind and strength - Jeremiah 29:13, God says, “You will find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” God doesn’t want to just peacefully co-exist. He’s not interested in being your roommate. He wants to be PURSUED passionately by you.
Let me ask you, Christian: is reading the Bible a chore for you? Is spending time with the Lord in prayer, and in His word - is it something to get checked off your “to do” list? I’ll tell you: the time at the end of the night, when Polly and I get the kids tucked into bed, and it’s just the two of us, and we get to connect on a deep level, about what’s going on in our lives, our hearts, be intimate, emotionally, spiritually, maybe physically; that’s not a CHORE for me. No one’s gotta MAKE me spend time with her in that way. Cuz I LOVE her. I want a MARRIAGE with her, and marriage means intimacy. Closeness.
Lastly, and in Conclusion - #4: If we’re gonna avoid the threat of knowing ABOUT Jesus without knowing Him, we must Act on Jesus’ WORDS. (vv24-27)
Vv24-27, Jesus concludes: ““Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.””
So I ask you, friends: what will YOU do with Jesus’ words this morning? His call is clear: ““What must you do, to be doing the works of God?” “This is the work of God, that you believe in JESUS.” Will you trust Him? Trust him with your LIFE? Build your entire LIFE on him? I pray you will. All other ground is sinking sand.