HOW TO PLAY CHURCH (Part 1)

HOW TO PLAY CHURCH (Part 1)

Matthew 7:21–23

JOHN MacARTHUR

I want to look at Matthew 7:21–23 and talk about “How to Play Church,” or how the false church becomes incorporated within the true church: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 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?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

Matthew 13 tells us that the church age is going to be strange. In Matthew 12:22–31 the Pharisees and those connected with them had committed the unpardonable sin of attributing to Satan the works of Christ. Jesus said He could forgive them for anything but not that. In other words, it was as if He was saying, “If you've seen all the things I've done, if you've seen all the miracles and heard everything I've said, and all you can conclude is I do them by the power of Satan, you’re beyond the possibility of believing. If you've received all this revelation and haven’t accepted it, there isn't any more you can have. To follow Me, to see Me, to watch Me, to listen to Me and conclude it’s satanic puts you out of the possibility of belief.”

He says that in the church age there are going to be wheat and tares, which are the true and false believers. They’re going to be so hard to tell apart that you won’t be able to choose until God, who is the final judge, decides between them.

The mustard seed illustration gives the idea that the church will explode in great numbers, but will include the real and unreal, true and false believers.

They’re dead mainly because the people in them are dead. They’re dead spiritually. Paul said in Ephesians 2:1, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Consequently, dead people are going to constitute a dead church. The church is not suffering or dying today because of attacks from the outside; Satan doesn't need to waste time on them—the people are already dead on the inside.

But on the other hand, a living church—a church that knows Jesus Christ and proclaims His gospel—is always going to be under attack because that kind of a church will be the conscience of the community.