welcome to everyone we have several announcements before we begin this morning just to remind everyone I did send some of this out this week in the email there is a hymn sing tonight that begins before the evening worship if you want to sing more hymns and songs will begin at four fifteen in the fellowship hall a reminder that past reporter and I are leaving tomorrow we're going to rockford illinois for the arcade general assembly so there will be no Wednesday night Bible study if you have any prayer requests or any needs please contact one of the Deacons and then the church work day will be on May fourteenth that's the day when we gather together on a Saturday just to do some of the general maintenance and cleaning around here at the church and then one other thing I did mention in the email please watch your children it's not hot today I doubt they'll be out running around the parking lot in the rain but when it is warmer and children are out playing this is primarily a parking lot and we don't want to run over one of the children so all those things well as we begin our worship we'll look at Psalm 148 Psalm 148 a good call to worship as it calls all of creation to worship are great and our glorious god psalm 148 beginning in verse 1 praise the Lord praise the Lord from the heavens praise Him in the heights praise him all his angels praise him all his hosts praise Him Sun and Moon praise him all you stars of light praise Him you heavens of heavens and you waters above the heavens let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created he also established them forever and ever he made a decree which shall not pass away praise the Lord from the earth you great sea creatures and all the depths fire and hail snow and clouds stormy wind fulfilling his word mountains and all Hills fruitful trees and all Cedars beasts and all cattle creeping things in flying foul kings of the earth and all peoples princes and all judges of the earth both young men and maidens old men and children let them praise the name of the lord for his name alone is exalted his glory is above the earth and heaven and he has exalted the horn of his people the praise of all his Saints of the children of Israel of people near to Him praise the Lord amen well please turn in your Trinity hymnal to him number 89 him 89 when you find that please stand as we sing together you when our time this morning will remember Don neufeld who is at home recovering the prognosis is good in terms of the surgery though there is some soreness subsequent to that operation and then Sandra is recovering also sandrich witkowsky so we can remember to pray for her and for other brethren in our church that are struggling physics physically so let us go to the Lord our great god and our Holy Father it is a joy and a privilege to gather in the house of the Lord on this Sabbath day we acknowledge your greatness and your majesty we acknowledge that from everlasting to everlasting you are God your father son and holy spirit great in your power and wisdom great and your perfections and great in your works toward men we thank you for the fact that you have made this world and all things in it we thank you for your sovereign Providence and your government over all your creatures and all their actions and we praise You God Almighty for the wondrous work of salvation we thank you Father that you chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world we thank you that in the fullness of the time you sent forth your son born of a woman and born under the law to redeem those under the law we praise you for the life and the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that we have redemption through his blood and we also celebrate and rejoice and the power of the Holy Spirit who takes that accomplished work it applies it to your people so God we ask that today as we sing as we pray as we look to the Holy Scriptures all that we do would be for the praise and honor of your great and awesome name we ask that your Holy Spirit would be with us that we would know his presence in his power that we would approach you with that reverence and joy that we see set before us in the scriptures as a proper response to such a holy God and we would pray that you would cause us to worship in spirit and in truth to that end our Father we do ask for the Ministry of the Spirit of God we pray that you would forgive us from all of our sins certainly as we consider you holiness and your righteousness and your majesty we see our own sinfulness before you we confess that transgression and that iniquity and we plead afresh the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ we thank you that the psalmist said pardon my iniquity Oh Lord for it is great seems an odd argument to present before someone for forgiveness but we know that this is the kind of God that you are you abound in grace and you abound in mercy and you pour out love and redemption upon your Saints and so Lord we pray that even now we would know that forgiveness of sin that we would know that cleansing in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and for any and all who have come here this morning that are not believers those who are still dead in their trespasses and sins we pray that the spirit would use the preaching of the gospel that the spirit would bring forth sinners out of darkness into marvelous light so that they would taste and see that the Lord is good they would know the joy of being found in Jesus Christ they would know the joy of having sins forgiven and being redeemed by that blood we would commit this to you God knowing that you are sovereign knowing that you are all-powerful and that you're able to do what is impossible with men we ask as well our God that you would look with favor upon the temporal matters in our local body we rejoice in your kindness and preservation over dhanin and over Sandra we just commit them to you into the word of your grace and pray that you would continue to strengthen them physically and God we pray that in the inner man they would be strengthened and helped and encouraged and more and more conformed unto the image of the Lord Jesus we pray for mrs. bolt and we would ask you just undertake on her behalf we would pray that you would watch over our dear sister that you had just strengthened her as well and caused her to rejoice in her God and to rejoice in the kindness and the goodness that you demonstrate we thank you for answered prayer with reference to Marilyn we do pray God for your continued hand of mercy upon those in need we think a shirley crow and for Joe ditto and how we thank you God that the proctors are here with us this morning and we ask that you would just look with favor upon each and every one she would strengthen encourage their hearts and build them up in their most holy faith and our God your word says that children are a gift given by you we have many ladies that are expecting and we know that you are a gracious God so we pray that you'd watch over each of them watch over these little ones in the womb and in your timing Lord God may they be born and in your grace may they be born again one day confessing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we thank you for the birth to Daniel and Ellie we rejoice God and your goodness and in your kindness to them we thank you that they are here with us this morning and we pray that their joy would just radiate and that they would continue to honor the Great God of heaven and earth who has done good things in their lives we thank you that the Santiago's are with us today we look forward to the preaching of your word we pray that you would bless our brother we would even pray that you'd move him aside so we would hear from the Prophet Christ that we would hear the word of truth expounded that God it would find its mark in each of our hearts that your people would be more and more conformed unto the image of the Lord Jesus that those who are not your people would be saved by by sovereign grace and would be those who confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we ask for your blessing to be upon the persecuted Church and those nations that are steeped and false religion or in a political oppression we asked you look with favor upon your Saints and that you would be merciful and gracious to them and enable them to shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation and give them the boldness to hold forth the word of truth we pray in our own nation that you would send forth your Holy Spirit you would revive your people revive your churches cause us to think your thoughts after you and cause us to be prayerful at the throne of grace we would ask as well that you would awaken those who are dead in their trespasses and sins and cause there to be a great multitude that turn from their useless idols to the true and the Living God and be merciful to men in high places those who govern over us Paul says we are to pray for them that we may lead peaceable and quiet lives we pray first and foremost that you would put the fear of God in their heart that they would take the Council of King David of Israel that they would kiss the son that they would bow to the Lord Jesus Christ and confess him as Savior knowing that if they do not they will be dashed to pieces by that sovereign Lord God if you will not save them we pray that you would restrain them and as we see sin throughout this society we see sins like abortion and sodomy and euthanasia coming down the pathway our Father in Heaven we would cry out to you in your wrath remember mercy and turn sinners from the madness of their own thoughts and minds and turn them unto a gracious God who is merciful to save and who does these things for his own glory continue with us now we pray and we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord amen well please turn with me and near trinity hymnals to number 321 321 again we'll stand as we sing together a song that reminds us of the blessings of the Lord's Day please stand we can turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7 for our scripture reading this morning finishing up the Sermon on the Mount and one of the things that we observe here is that Jesus doesn't just present information you'll see that in the apostolic preaching recorded in the book of Acts they're not just conducting bible studies or presenting information that is that is encouraging or helpful that they are calling for persons to side with christ they're calling for persons to believe the gospel and to be saved and you see how our Lord does this and in giving us this situation concerning two ways and two trees and two claims and two types of builders so I'll begin reading in a Matthew 7 at verse 13 enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves you will know them by their fruits do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles even so every good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree Bears bad fruit a good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a battery bear good fruit every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire therefore by their fruits you will know them not everyone who says to me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven many will say to me on that day or in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in your name cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name and then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness therefore whoever hears these of mine and does them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain descended the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock but everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall and so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teaching where he taught them as one having Authority and not as the scribes amen was I said Jesus doesn't here just present information to give you a better life here on earth notice specifically as he brings the sermon to a close in verse 13 he says enter by the narrow gate in other words you have heard what he said make a decision now I realize we're not our minions or Pelagian that believe in the primacy of free will but by God's grace sinners need to believe the gospel I think that's what Christ is pressing upon them at this particular point enter by the narrow gate for if you don't enter by the narrow gate you will end in utter and absolute destruction he cautions as hears about the false prophets you need to be aware of that certainly the Lord Jesus Christ ministering in that first century contacts new false prophets he knew those who would miss speak concerning the things of God and certainly if that warning was necessary in the first century it's necessary for us today Jesus says beware of false prophets he does not say give them a hearing listen to what they have to say let them try and woo you over know beware of that we have seen that emphasis in the pastoral epistles Paul does not tell Timothy to have truck with false teachers Paul tells Timothy to avoid that to refuse them to stay away from them because ultimately false teachers false prophets false ministers of the gospel have a greater impact upon you than a bad doctor you go see your doctor and he missed sets your broken bone you may walk with a limp but you can still go to heaven you go to one of these false teachers and they speak ill concerning the truth of God they botch the doctrine of justification by faith alone you end up in hell so I think we need to see the supremacy and the value and the importance of being under sound doctrine and then Christ makes this alarming statement in verses 21 to 23 not everyone who says to me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven isn't that interesting he's not speaking about Muslims he's not speaking about Buddhists he's not speaking about Hindus he's speaking about those who would profess faith in Christ they say to Christ Lord Lord he says but not everyone who does that will enter the kingdom of heaven they will boast in their good work see I think people at times take this passage and say I need to do more in order to be accepted by God these persons had done a lot and they were rejected by God the point is as Jesus highlights here he says I will declare to them verse 23 I'm sorry before that he says in verse 21 he says but he who does the will of my father in heaven we know from other portions of Holy Scripture brethren doing the will of the Father in heaven is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ it's to believe the gospel and then those good works will follow these persons did these good works and they banked on that because they said did I not did I not did I not well on that final day the issue is not did I not but the issue is praise God for the love for the life death and resurrection of Jesus our confession ought never to be in what we did our confession ought always to be in what Christ has accomplished those are the ones who are cast away and told the depart and then Christ says be a wise builder none of you would go out and build a house on the sand right none none would do that I mean I imagine there's some dim bulb out there that might try to do that thinking that he can you know sort of defy the laws of gravity and all that sort of thing but for the most part we don't do things like that we don't build upon the sand and yet so many of you right now right here are building on the sand you don't receive the word of Christ you don't do what Jesus says you don't believe the gospel you don't enter in by that narrow gate and so you're exactly like that foolish man who is building his house upon the sand it will not withstand the rain and the wind it will not withstand any sorts of of natural phenomena it will be crumbled it will be dashed to pieces and the same is true concerning our never dying souls if we choose to reject the word of the Living God if we choose to say absolutely not I resist I will continue in penitent I will continue not to believe you will be destroyed like that house that has bit beat upon by the winds the way the life the way to toy the way to happiness is to listen to what the Lord Jesus says and by God's grace to believe to throw your lot in and side with him well let us pray our Father we thank you for the word of God and for its clarity and for its pointed pneus and I pray that your spirit would take these things and truly penetrate our hearts cause us to think through these things cause us to consider the big questions in our lives where will we go when we die are we right with you through our Lord Jesus I pray all these things would come to pass and the minds and in the hearts of everyone here we also ask a blessed pastor Porter as he ministers at seatac we pray that you would fill our brother with the Holy Spirit and with love and with affection for those dear Saints and may he by your grace proclaim the truth to them and may you ultimately provide for them and under Shepherd that will be able to attend to that flock and to care for that flock on a regular and ongoing basis and we pray these things through Christ our Lord amen well for our final him before the preaching of God's Word you can turn to number 427 427 the second tune and again will stand as we sing together you you
