LIFE IN GOD’S KINGDOM
DISCERN’S THE WAY OF ESCAPE
MATTHEW 7:15-29
INTRODUCTION
At 7 am on Sunday, Dec. 7th, 1941, two U.S. military officers
arose in their respective quarters. They looked outside and saw a beautiful
morning to go play a round of golf, which they planned to do together.
The two officers were Husband E. Kimmel, admiral over the Pacific fleet
stationed at Pearl Harbor and Walter C. Short, commander of all military
forces in Hawaii. As they arose that morning they were completely unaware
that just 100 miles away, 175 Japanese warplanes were on their way to
destroy Pearl Harbor. Before they left for the course the sky was split
apart by an unexpected enemy and nothing was the same again. Many people
are as falsely secure about going to heaven as these men were about the
security of Pearl Harbor. Confident they are far from danger, they will
find, one unsuspecting day, that their assurance of heaven is blown apart,
and that they themselves are sinking forever in a place much worse than
the bombed and burning USS Arizona.
That is the warning Jesus left us with last week in Matt. 7: 13-14 (read
them). These words are so harsh and offensive to our modern ears. There
are only two gates and two roads from which to choose. There is a broad,
easy road that leads to hell and there is a narrow road that leads to
eternal life. The majority of people are on the road to hell and do not
know it. So Jesus takes on the role of guide and gives instructions to
help us find the small gate and stay on the narrow road that leads to
life. "Am I on the road that leads to heaven or to hell?" is a question
that ought to concern each one of us. How do I know, when only a few find
the gate that leads to life, that I am one of those few? Because this
is such a critical question, Jesus concludes his sermon with one of the
most powerful warnings you will find in the Bible. He warns that…
MAIN POINT
The path to heaven is easy to miss because…
I. There are false prophets (vv. 15-20)
We live in a world that is full of people claiming to speak God’s truth
as God’s representative. It has always been this way. I am one of them.
Jesus wants us to know that not everyone who claims to be speaking God’s
truth as God’s representative is truly doing so. There are lying prophets.
These prophets are dangerous and they are deceptive. In v. 15 we find
out that the false prophets are dangerous because they are wolves. They
are deceptive because they are clothed like sheep. They look like God’s
representatives, they sound like God’s representatives but they are not
his representatives. Rather they are wolves who are pretending to be sheep.
What do wolves do to sheep? They kill them. To listen and follow the teachings
of a false prophet is to lose your eternal life. It is to go down the
broad path to hell. It is not at all obvious who the false teachers are,
they really do look and sound like what you would expect one of God’s
spokesman to look and sound like. There is an amazing verse in Acts 20.
Paul, one of the chief spokesman for the early church, gave a farewell
speech to the pastors and leaders of the Christian church in the town
of Ephesus. Listen to what he said, "I know that after I leave, savage
wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from
your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw
away disciples after them. So be on your guard." Did you hear what he
told this group of Christian leaders? He told them that some of them were
going to become false teachers. Some of the very men to whom he had entrusted
the leadership of the church were going to turn and begin to teach false
things and so mislead many who professed to be followers of Christ. Can
you imagine these men looking around at each other and wondering which
of them would become false teachers? It’s one thing if all the error and
lying is outside the church and we can say, don’t listen to those bad
teachers over there. The scary thing about what Jesus is saying is the
lying prophets aren’t just "out there", they are among us. They sound
and look like Christians, but they are not. So Jesus tells us we need
to be careful who we listen to.
How do we know who is a false prophet and who is not? How do you know
that I am not a false prophet? If a teacher has the title of pastor and
has been to seminary does that make him true? If a preacher is on the
Christian radio station or the religious TV station, does that make him
true? I hope you know the answer to those questions is no. Fortunately,
Jesus does not leave us defenseless. He changes metaphors and tells us
that we will know who the false prophets are by the fruit they produce.
Look at the beginning of v. 16 and at v. 20. What does Jesus mean by fruit?
First, fruit takes time to develop and so you may not be able to discern
immediately if a person is a false teacher or not. Second, in v. 16, you
cannot get grapes and figs from thorns and thistles. The kind of plant
determines the kind of fruit. Third, in vv. 17-18 he tells us that the
quality of the fruit is determined by the quality of the tree. Good trees
cannot produce bad fruit and bad trees cannot produce good fruit.
So what does Jesus mean by fruit? There are three things he is referring
to. First, we are to evaluate the teaching of the person who claims to
speak for God. Jesus is obviously putting himself forward as the ultimate,
true prophet. He has claimed that he is the fulfillment of the entire
OT in Matt. 5. In another place he declares that He is the truth. So when
a person who is teaching about God disagrees with anything that Jesus
has said or anything that the Bible, as fulfilled in Jesus, says, then
you can know he is a false prophet. The first fruit inspection to engage
in is the fruit of doctrine. How is God described? How is Jesus described?
According to the teacher what is man’s problem? How does God save people?
How are those who belong to God to live? It matters how you answer these
questions. There are true answers and there are false answers to these
questions. It is so important for you to know this book. You cannot simply
rely on me or on some favorite preacher on the radio. You must personally
study this book if you are going to make it safely to heaven. It is so
important for you to study Christian doctrine. You will never be able
to spot counterfeit teaching if you do not what true teaching looks like.
The second kind of fruit to be inspected is the personal character and
integrity of the teacher. Again, Jesus is the standard. Do you find the
character of Jesus growing in the teacher? Do you find the kindness and
compassion of Jesus? Do you find the courage of Jesus? Is he a man of
his word? In short, does the preacher practice what he teaches? There
must be a congruence, a correspondence between the life of the teacher
and who he claims to represent. The teacher ought to be able to say with
the Apostle Paul, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." Paul commanded his
young apprentice, Timothy, during his first pastorate, "Set an example
for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."
Don’t miss the absoluteness of what Jesus is saying here. A good tree
cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Here
is the reason that in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1 when Paul sets forth the
criteria for pastors and elders he includes the family life of the teacher
because nowhere will you see the fruit of a man’s life more clearly than
in his family.
The third kind of fruit to be inspected is the fruit of the lives that
the teacher influences. In Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah says this is what false
prophets produce in the lives of people, "They strengthen the hands of
evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness….They keep saying
to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: you will have peace.’ And to
all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will
come to you.’" The result in the lives of those who follow false prophets
is that they pursue a life of wickedness. Now, it may be that the external
performance of religious duty and civil relations is high among the followers
of false teaching. However, they despise the true God by following false
gods and you can be sure exhibit their idolatry in secret sins. All of
which will be exposed. You have to examine the fruit of the teaching.
Are the listeners more holy? Are they more loving and merciful? Are the
listeners better neighbors and workers and businessmen and husbands and
wives and parents and children? This is the fruit to be measured. As you
can see, it takes time to see if the fruit is bad or good, it is not apparent
immediately.
The misery false teachers have brought into the lives of people and into
churches is enormous. But the worst thing they do is take their followers
to hell with them. Look at v. 19. There will be no escaping God’s judgment
for those who do not produce the fruit which is truth about Jesus and
the character of Jesus.
It’s not just the presence of false teachers that makes it hard to
find the small gate that leads to life but also…
II. There is self-deception (vv. 21-23)
Not only do others deceive us, but we deceive ourselves. Look at vv.
21-23. These are some of the most frightening verses in the Bible. I don’t
want you to miss the thing that makes these extremely frightening. You
need to use your imagination a little. Imagine you are among the crowd
of people listening to Jesus while he speaks. What do you see? You see
a very human person sitting and speaking in very human words. He looks
like everyone else, there is nothing remarkable about him except for this
one thing. He calls God his Father and declares that when people come
to the day of judgment they will be speaking to Him. He will be the judge
of whether or not each individual human will enter heaven or not. Imagine
if I were to stand in front of you and say these words, "Not everyone
who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
only he who does the will of my Father in heaven." Christianity is Christ.
The question that must be answered before all others is, "Who is this
Jesus?" As C.S. Lewis says, "get quote".
I want you to see how Jesus describes the people to whom he is going
to say, "I never knew you. Depart from me." These people have an orthodox
faith. In other words, they believe true things about God and about Jesus.
We see this in how they address Jesus, "Lord, Lord". They know that Jesus
is Lord. They belong to the visible church and are actively engaged in
its ministry. They publicly profess to be Christians. They do all they
do, "in the name of Jesus". That is, they do their work for Jesus and
as Jesus’ representatives. Notice the work they do. They teach about Jesus.
They drive out demons by calling upon Jesus’ name in prayer. They even
perform miracles by crying out to Jesus. They ask Jesus to perform miracles
and miracle are performed. This is absolutely astounding. You can profess
an orthodox belief in Jesus, have miraculous answers to prayer, share
your faith openly with all who will listen and yet have Jesus tell you
to go away when you stand before him in the judgment. Someone might say,
"I’ve never prophesied or driven out a demon or performed a miracle, so
these verses can’t apply to me." Jesus is arguing, as he has frequently
done in these chapters, from the greater to the lesser. His argument would
go like this, "If people who have professed to be my followers and who
have done such extraordinary religious activities are going to be condemned
by me, then what will happen to all who have professed my name and not
done such extraordinary acts of service? What do you think will happen
to those who have never professed to be my followers and who have ignored
me and my teaching?"
I want you to notice the first word of v. 22. "Many" will come to Jesus
on the day of judgment and will call him Lord and describe a life of Christian
ministry and he will tell them to go away. Notice how that word is the
same word in v. 13. "Many" enter through the broad and easy road that
leads to destruction. Do you see what Jesus is saying? There are lots
of people on the road to hell who believe the truth about Jesus and are
engaged in lots of Christian activity, including prayer for miracles and
for deliverance from demonic oppression. And, don’t miss this, they have
their prayers answered. These people are self-deceived. They think that
because they profess Jesus as Lord and work in the church and share the
gospel with others and pray and see answers to prayer, they are going
to heaven. Jesus says, they aren’t.
What does Jesus say is necessary for ending up in heaven and escaping
his condemnation? There are two things. First, you must profess Jesus
as Lord. See that in v. 21? "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’".
The implication is however, that, while not all that profess Christ as
Lord will enter heaven, no one will enter heaven who does not profess
Christ as Lord. That is to say that there will be no one in heaven who
does not acknowledge Jesus as the only Savior and Lord of their life.
Second, there will not be anyone in heaven who does not do the will of
Jesus’ Father. He puts it negatively at the end of v. 23. Why does he
tell them to depart? Because they "do evil". To not do the will of Jesus’
father is to do evil. If you are doing the will of the Father, you are
not doing evil. What is Jesus saying here, that we are saved by what we
do? No, but what he is saying is that there is an infallible connection
between faith and works. All those who trust in Jesus hunger for God’s
will, pray for God’s will and do God’s will. If you do not do God’s will,
it doesn’t matter how much you talk about Jesus or pray for Jesus to do
miracles or work in his church, or believe true doctrine, you are not
going to heaven but you will experience the rejection of Christ at the
last day.
What Jesus is saying here is something that the modern church does not
talk about near enough. Assurance of salvation is not given in the Bible
to those who profess Christ or engage in religious activity by to those
who obey Christ. Turn with me to perhaps the clearest statement in the
Bible that salvation is not by works but those who are saved always work.
Ephesians 2: 8-10, page____. (Go through them and show the necessary connection.
Salvation by grace not by works but those who are saved do the works of
God.) Do you see that this is exactly what Jesus is saying in Matthew?
We had a family membership at the YMCA this past year but it became apparent
this summer we weren’t using it enough to make it worth the cost. We were
paying for it by automatic withdrawl. I asked them in August what I needed
to do to cancel it. I thought they said I needed to write a letter and
send it in, which is what I did. I understood that they would charge me
for September, that was part of the original contract. I looked at my
checking account statement in October and I had a debit for the YMCA.
When I called them they had no record of my letter and they informed me
that the way to cancel is to fill our a form in person and turn it in.
So, I thought I had done what was required to stop the deductions from
my checking account. It was very disappointing to find out I had a false
security. That disappoint is nothing compared to the disappointment that
awaits all who profess faith in Christ and engage in Christian duties
but do not do the will of the Father.
It’s easy to miss the path to heaven because of self-deception. So test
yourself right now. Can you say that your ambition is to do God’s will?
Is obedience to God the thing that consumes your attention and to which
you have given yourself?
The path to heaven is easy to miss because…
- There are false prophets
- There is self-deception
- And…
III. There is an unreliable faith (vv. 24-29)
The final point in this warning from Jesus is a parable of great power.
But it begins with the word , "therefore". Because many who profess faith
in Jesus and do religious work in Jesus’ name are going to end up in hell
you had better give yourself to doing what Jesus says. Jesus puts before
us a choice. Do you want to be a wise person or a fool? Let’s look at
what these two builders have in common and what distinguishes them. Notice
what they have in common. They both listen to the teaching of Jesus. They
both come to church and listen to sermons. They both go to Bible studies
and talk about spiritual truth. They both read the Bible and know the
teachings of Jesus. They both are building their houses which represent
building their lives. They both go to work and have families and take
part in life in this world. You cannot, by looking at their "houses",
tell which one will stand and which one will fall because what makes them
different is in the foundation and you cannot see the foundation.
Both of them will experience a storm of enormous proportions. The rains
will fall, the rivers will rise and the wind will blow and beat against
each of these lives. The storm that Jesus is referring to is the storm
of God’s wrath that is coming upon all the earth and is going to sweep
all evil and all who do evil into eternal judgment. He is not primarily
talking about bad things happening in this life, though again, there is
a greater to the lesser argument here. If your house can withstand the
storm of God’s wrath it can withstand anything like the loss of a job,
the loss of child, the rejection of a boyfriend, the abandonment of a
spouse, a chronic illness.
What is it that distinguishes these two builders? The wise builder listens
to Jesus and then does what Jesus says. The builder that is a fool listens
to what Jesus says and then ignores it. Show how the wise builder responds
to several of the commands of Jesus in the Sermon. (5:29, 44, 6:9-10,
14-15) Show how the foolish builder responds to these statements.
Why does the wise person do what Jesus says? Because he believes that
Jesus is the Son of God and that he knows what he is talking about. He
believes there is a great storm coming. He obeys Jesus because he wants
his house to stand firm in that storm. Jesus appeals to your desire to
be happy. Obedience to him comes out of a heart of faith that believes
in Jesus and trusts his leadership, that believes that only by following
Jesus will you be happy. Why does the foolish builder not do what Jesus
says? He does not really believe in Jesus. Disobedience to the teachings
of Jesus merely shows that you either do not believe Jesus wants
to make you happy or that he is able to make you happy. Imagine
you were driving in a strange city and trying to find a friend’s house
who had recently moved there. You only have the address and you don’t
want to call because you want to surprise him. So you pull over and ask
a guy whose out working in his yard to give you directions. He says go
to the end of this street and turn left and go through 2 lights and take
the first left. That is the street. When you get to the end of the street,
instead of turning left, you turn right. When your wife politely reminds
you that the guy said to go left you say, "I know but I don’t think he
knows what he’s talking about. I think this way will get me there sooner."
When you turn right instead of left you show that you do not trust the
guy who gave you the directions. Your action reveals your faith or lack
of it in the one who gives the directions. In the same way it is not your
obedience that saves you but your obedience shows that you trust Christ.
If you spend your whole life ignoring his instructions you can be sure
he will ignore you when you stand before him at that judgment, not matter
how much you listen to his instructions.
There is a key word that binds all three of these warnings together.
It is a word that binds all three together. It is the word "do". In vv.
17-19 the Greek word translated "bear" is the word ποιεω.
It is the same word for "does" in v. 21. It is the same word translated
"puts them into practice" in vv. 24 & 26. All who trust Christ, do
what Christ says. All who do not do what Christ says, do not trust Christ.
It’s that simple. When the great storm of God’s wrath against sin comes
Christ will be no refuge for those who have not obeyed from a heart of
faith.
I know that this kind of talk troubles many of you, because you have
told me so. I’m glad it does, that’s a good sign. I pray that all of us
will be troubled by the words of Jesus and will more energetically pursue
him. The person who is in danger is the person who is not troubled by
these words of Jesus.
The path to heaven is easy to miss because…
- There are false prophets
- There is self-deception
- There is an unreliable faith
© Copyright 2000 John Swanson.
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If you would like to post this material to the web or if your intended
use is other than outlined above, please contact River Hills Community
Church, 2843 West Court Street, Janesville, WI 53545. (608) 758-0943.
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