"We have not because we ask not"!

"Ask and you shall receive," Jesus said, "that your joy may be full."

Notice in the following verse how the Sermon on the Mount fulfills the Law of Moses .

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

Such a simple statement, but so practical and profound in its application.

It makes one think of the Jewish elders who sought to have Christ crucified. They viewed themselves as masters of the Law and the Prophets. Yet their knowledge of the Scriptures did not enable them to do what was righteous.

Christ had gone about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil. Yet the elders and teachers of the Law of Moses had Him murdered.

Such is the difference between religion and the Divine redemption.

We must keep in our mind that if we would please God we must question if what we are doing to other people we would want them to do to us.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13,14)

Notice that the goal is not residence in Heaven, but life.

The current "accept Christ and you will go to Heaven" is a religious proclamation. It is an incorrect method and goal.

Our goal is not residence in Heaven but to be filled with the Life of Christ, whether we are on the earth or in Heaven.

"Accepting Christ" is not a "ticket" to anywhere. Receiving Christ is to go through a small gate that is difficult to find and difficult to enter. To truly enter through Christ is to shed ourselves of the baggage we have acquired during our lifetime.

Then there is a road to be traveled and it also is difficult to find, and narrow and pressure-filled when we do find it. But such is the only way of gaining resurrection life. Our old life must die and be replaced by the Life of Christ. He must increase while we decrease.

Not many people are able to find the road to eternal life, so we must pray earnestly for God to show it to us.

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:15-20)

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. (Ephesians 6:14)

I do not know why there is so much craftiness and scheming in the Christian ministry. Some of the preachers are masters of extracting money from their unsuspecting audiences.

You would think that every person who presented himself or herself as a minister of the Gospel would be of unimpeachable character, truthful, sincere, an example to us.

Unfortunately this sometimes is not the case. The evangelist may do everything he can to extract money from the gullible believers. Sometime while he is in town he may behave in an immoral fashion.

I can think of only two reasons why this is so. First, people may be attracted to the Christian ministry because it seems more pleasurable than working at a regular occupation. Or two, it may be that Satan puts it in their heart to want to "minister the Gospel" so that Satan can keep their listeners in sin.

But ministers without basic integrity are all too common. Also, to many ministers, the Christian ministry is a business. They themselves do not grow in the knowledge of Christ because they are too busy building the business.

There are, however, people of the highest integrity who give their lives for the sheep. Christ knows them, and in that Day of revelation that is coming, when every individual's work shall be revealed, we will learn who is of God and who is not.

Absolute integrity, honesty, truthfulness, are demanded by the God of Heaven and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God will not accept any so-called "success" in the ministry if these virtues have been violated.

The structure we have erected will, when it is tested, prove to be a house of cards. We shall be rebuked by the Lord Jesus when we stand before Him. In fact, He may send us to be with others like ourselves, because He never knew us.

Then we will see what God's people have experienced as we have deceived them with our cunning. The outer darkness is a fit environment for us!

And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. (Malachi 3:18)

Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

How do the proponents of "grace" justify their position that we can disobey God's commands and still please God?

Also, notice that the goal is not Heaven but the Kingdom of Heaven. The difference between the place termed "Heaven" and the "Kingdom of Heaven" ought to be made clear by today's Christian leaders.

One can go to the place called Heaven by dying. But a believer cannot go to the Kingdom of Heaven by dying, only by obeying the injunctions of the Sermon on the Mountain.

For example, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven if there is someone we have not forgiven.

But we might die and go to Heaven if there still is someone we have not forgiven. If I am not mistaken, the Lord does deal with people who are about to die concerning any hatred that is in their heart toward another individual.

It may be true, however, that numerous professing Christians have died and gone to Heaven with unforgiveness in their heart.

But what happens to them when they get there I cannot tell you.

So it is time now for the preachers to wake up the believers to the fact that their goal is the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness, not a mansion in the spirit paradise.

Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?" Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:22,23)

If a believer today prophesied, cast out demons, and in the name of Jesus Christ performed many miracles, would we not think of him as a mature Christian on his way to Heaven?

But in the Day when Christ judges our works, he was told that Christ did not know him. Not that he did not know Christ but that Christ did not know him.

Why did Christ not know him? Because he was an evildoer. And notice this was true of many who worked miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Would we not believe that he would be saved by grace; that God saw him through Christ? After all, he delivered many people and worked miracles!

This is what most American Christians of our day would believe, because they are in delusion. They are placing belief in Christ as more important than obedience to Christ. They have been deceived by preachers who want their money. They will experience very great agony in the future when they find out that God was not seeing them through Christ but was recording their unconfessed sins.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matthew 7:24-27)

Now I want to ask you a question. Is belief in Jesus Christ the rock on which we are to build our life? Or is putting into practice what He taught the rock on which we are to build our life?

I think the majority of the Bible scholars of our day would answer that the most important aspect of our salvation is to believe in Jesus Christ. Whatever works we perform are of little importance compared with believing in the Son of God.

What do you say? What is critically important: that we believe in Jesus Christ (whatever that means); or that we demonstrate our belief by putting into practice what He taught?

What did Jesus say is the more important: to believe that He is God's Son and the promised Savior; or to hear His Words and put them into practice?

But wouldn't we be trying to save ourselves by "works" if we believed and maintained that doing what He taught is more important than believing in Him?

No, we would not be trying to save ourselves by works. Rather, we would be obeying God.

On one occasion, Peter seemed to be unsure whether he merely liked the Lord or loved the Lord.

Jesus did not say to Peter, "Peter, you really ought to try harder to love Me, you know."

Rather, the Lord Jesus said to Peter, "If you love Me, feed my sheep."

If we truly love Jesus, we will not just talk about it. We will do what He commands. Am I right in this?

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (Matthew 7:28,29)

They had every right to be amazed! The Law had just come from Zion (the Lord Jesus), and the Word of the Lord (Jesus) from Jerusalem.

As we have gone through the Law that has come to us from Zion, we may have noticed the emphasis on human relationships. The Bible states that of the increase of Christ's Kingdom and of peace there shall be no end. There shall be eternal peace because the people shall be taught the Sermon on the Mount.

When the Lord comes with multiplied thousands of His saints, He shall make an end of sin in the earth.

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 14,15)

When the power of sin has been broken, the Lord's teachers will instruct the people in the Sermon on the Mount. Those who are willing and obedient will enter a wonderful Paradise, the new world of righteousness.

Those who refuse to obey Christ and His saints will be imprisoned so they cannot destroy the righteousness, love, joy, and peace that God has created.

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra's den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Next Part APPENDIX A

Sermons WOR