Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 Part 2

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

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

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

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

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

2 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

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 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

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.