Three Warnings | Matthew 7:13-29

The Quorum Deo church community is a missional church rooted in historic biblical Christianity and committed to cultural engagement. We hope the message you are about to hear spurs you to deeper reflection on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening. This morning scripture reading is Matthew chapter seven verses 13 through 29. "Interby the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Our grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased trees bear bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name and then I will declare to them I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it and when Jesus finished these saints the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. This is the word of God for the people of God. When I turned to 12 years old I was invited into one of the solemn responsibilities that we enjoy living in this part of the country, the responsibility of wildlife management or as we sometimes call it hunting. My family, the men in my family every year in November did a big pheasant hunt, grouse, quail, all that stuff and so when I was 12 I was invited to join that tradition and in order to do so first of all I had to participate in a hunter safety course. Sure that's still the case to this day some of you young men may have taken a course like that recently or young women if you were seeking to get a hunter's permit and a hunter safety course consists essentially of a series of warnings. The warning to treat every gun as though it's loaded, the warning never to point a firearm in the direction of another person, the warning to always know where the other parties you're hunting with are so you can be aware of your surroundings, the warning to unload your shotgun when crossing a fence line and so forth. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission realizes that hunting is a great responsibility and that those who want to take on that responsibility need to heed the warnings that are appropriate to that responsibility and that's true for a lot of different kinds of responsibility isn't it? I mean it's true for hunting but it's true for all kinds of other things in life as well. When we're invited into things that carry with them a significant amount of responsibility often there are warnings that accompany that taking on a responsibility and here in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is inviting us into the responsibility of being his disciples and as he does so he also issues a series of warnings appropriate to that responsibility so the Sermon on the Mount ends here in chapter seven with a series of warnings from Jesus. I want you to think about this what a what a kind and loving thing for our Savior to do. Jesus Christ wants you to live a life of flourishing and blessing and joy and because he wants that for you he's willing to warn you about the foolish choices that would keep you from that kind of life and that's what wisdom does isn't it? We've been talking throughout this series about how the Sermon on the Mount is essentially wisdom literature. If you think about books in Scripture like the book of Proverbs if you've ever read Proverbs you know it doesn't just lay out for us instruction in how to become wise it also warns us about foolishness about the consequences of bad decisions and foolish choices that would keep us from flourishing. If you've ever had a wise coach or mentor or teacher or someone in your life that was trying to help you walk in a good direction part of what they probably did is to warn you about the consequences of foolish choices and bad decisions. This is what wisdom does wisdom issues warnings and so as he concludes his most famous sermon our Lord Jesus issues three warnings in order to guide us in the path of wisdom he wants to give us warnings about how to avoid foolishness. Now here's the great thing about how Jesus leads us and even about how the Sermon on the Mount concludes the responsibility is yours. You must decide whether you will heed these warnings or not it's up to you what you do with what Jesus says here but if you want to live a flourishing life if you want to experience the joy and fullness and meaning that you're meant to experience you'd be wise to heed these warnings. So this morning I don't have a catchy phrase or big idea statement or anything like that what I want to do is just walk through these three warnings together they're very simple they're quite basic and I think they have power in and of themselves and so we're just going to walk through these three warnings in Matthew chapter 7 and as we do I want to invite you to to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit addressing you. Where do you need to heed these warnings? Where is Jesus in saying these words? Speaking to you, speaking to your heart, speaking to your situation. Let's consider the three warnings Jesus gives here at the end of Matthew 7. If you have a Bible, if you use the Bible under your seat you'll find the text on page 762 or perhaps if you still have the Matthew study guide page 72 coming to the end of this particular little study guide and so we'll find the text here Matthew 7 beginning in verse 13. Here's the first warning Jesus issues us. The easy way is not the right way. The easy way is not the right way. Matthew 7 verse 13. Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. Notice the contrast that is given to us here. Two gates, two ways, two paths. Consider how each one is described. The gate is wide. The way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. By contrast the way is narrow. The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. So there's a wide gate and an easy path that many people choose and there's a narrow gate and a difficult path that few people find. And so in light of this warning, here's the first question you should ask. Does being a Christian feel easy to you? If it does, you should probably be concerned because the easy way is not the right way. Jesus wants us to embrace here that following Him, being His disciples, will be challenging. It will feel like you are in the minority, like you are swimming upstream against the current of the world around you. The easy way is not the right way. And as we ponder the warning Jesus is giving here, we can understand there are actually two different expressions of this easy way, of this broad path. The first is the way of the world, or as Proverbs 14 calls it, the way that seems right to a man. There's a way that seems right to our fallen human hearts. According to the Scriptures, all of us are bent towards self-love and self-advancement and self-indulgence. So the way that seems right to a man or a woman, the way that seems right in our fallen human condition, is going to be the way of self-love and self-advancement and self-indulgence. And the apostle Peter describes what that path looks like this way. 1 Peter 4 verse 5, "For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." This is the way that seems right to man. Sensuality, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, lawless idolatry. Going this way doesn't take any courage or any selflessness. The gate is wide and the way is easy. And you all know that. You can sense that. There's a way that seems right to the world and Proverbs says, "Yeah, that's what seems right to a lot of people." But there's also a second expression of the easy way and it's what we might call easy way Christianity. It's particular, I think, to the American context. I would think of it this way. It's basically the American dream with a Jesus bumper sticker attached to it, okay? Easy way Christianity doesn't talk about obedience, doesn't talk about sacrifice or death to self or the fear of God, doesn't talk about the narrow gate or the hard road. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, the Apostle Paul warns about people who have the appearance of godliness but deny its power. That's a great description of easy way Christianity. It's the appearance of godliness without the power of the gospel. It's a religious veneer without discipleship to Jesus. Easy way Christianity is sort of like the Nicola One. I don't know if you know this story but the Nicola One was billed as the world's first all-electric zero emissions semi-truck. When it was announced a few years ago, it took the world by storm. In fact, when this company went public, it was valued more than the Ford Motor Company. Every investor wanted to get in on the ground floor of this technology that was going to revolutionize the global transportation industry. The company's founder Trevor Milton hosted a huge press conference to unveil this truck, the Nicola One. But what you see in this photo is all there is. It turns out the Nicola One had the appearance of electric semi-truck without any power. There is no battery in this truck. There's no hydrogen fuel cell as he advertised. There's nothing under the surface. It's literally just the shell of a truck with nothing inside. This entire project was a sham. The company's founder was indicted for securities fraud and the company went bankrupt earlier this year. It was the appearance of something impressive without any substance. An easy way Christianity has the appearance of godliness but without the power, the substance of discipleship. So we need to understand that there's an easy way that's the way of the world. There's an easy way that's the way of religion but the first warning Jesus wants us to heed is that the easy way is not the right way. So are you heeding that warning? Have you entered through the narrow gate? Are you walking the hard road that leads to life? The first thing Jesus wants you to understand is that the easy way is not the right way. That's the first warning Jesus gives as he closes the sermon on the Mount. Here's the second warning. The impressive things are not the important things. Verse 15, "Beware," notice the warning language there, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire thus you will recognize them by their fruits." Notice the warning here is about false prophets. A crucial question for every Christian, for every person trying to walk in the way of Jesus. A crucial question is who should I listen to? Who should I follow? What leaders are worthy of my trust and respect? Because there are in fact many false prophets in the world. Jesus is warning us saying, "Take stock of who you're listening to, who you're following." This warning from Jesus is more important now than ever because one of the things we face in the modern world that complicates discipleship to Jesus is the rise of influencers, right? It used to be the case that to have any kind of broad influence, you generally needed to be connected to an institution, a church, a college or seminary, a publishing company, a broadcaster, some way to get your message out there. And even when that was true, there were still plenty of false prophets, but at least we knew what cable chandel to find them on usually, right? Now the false prophets have podcasts. The wolves have YouTube channels. And so the need for discernment has never been more important. I'm quite grateful for the proliferation of media. I'm glad that we can get the message of the gospel out using all kinds of new means like podcasts and videos and things like that. I'm even glad I can go on YouTube and find out how to change the headlight in my Subaru Outback because you got to go through the front fender. It's very confusing. It's like difficult. But the problem with online Christian influencers is that you can't see their life. Jesus says here twice, you will know them by their fruits. How do you tell a good influence from a bad influence? How do you tell a good teacher from a bad one? Well, Jesus says by their fruit, by what you see in their life. Throughout the Sermon on the Mountain, Jesus has been reminding us of the necessity of harmony between the inner life and the outer life. Right? A good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit. Discipleship to Jesus brings congruence between who I am on the inside and who I am on the outside. All of us are always in process. There's never perfect congruence. But the whole point of the Sermon on the Mountain is that the trajectory of spiritual transformation is toward wholeness, consistency, integrity. False prophets by contrast, Jesus tells us, are sheep on the outside, wolves on the inside. There's a disconnect between who they seem to be and how they actually are. But here's the tricky thing. False teachers, those who are sheep on the outside and wolves on the inside can still do some pretty impressive things. Look at verse 22. This whole section is fits together. It's talking about these false prophets. Verse 22, "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name.'" These false teachers are doing impressive things. They prophesy in Jesus' name. They even cast out demons. Yet Jesus says to them, "I never knew you depart from me." In other words, the fact that they're doing impressive things in Jesus' name does not mean Jesus knows them. That's an important warning. Had a funny thing happen a few years ago. One of the church planters that we support in India was back in the States and I ran into him. He said, "Hey, I got to tell you this story. I went to this other city in India to visit and to meet with some pastors. There's a pastor there in this town and his church is called Cormdale. And it's literally your mission statement, your branding, your website. It's like he just downloaded everything and then just did that in India. And he said, "Do you know this guy?" And I was like, "Never heard of him until right now, right? But praise the Lord. Glad that he's, you know, finding what we do useful somewhere else in the world. That's actually kind of cool, right? But the point was this person is doing things in the name of Cormdale. It's just that I don't know him and you don't know him and we've never met him before. And I'd rather have him do it in our name than in Benny Hinn's name or someone else's name. But it's just an interesting example, right? That it's possible to do things in the name of someone but not be known by that person. And that's the point Jesus is making here. He's saying, "Hey, there are people in the world who do things in my name but I don't know them." And so here's the warning Jesus issues. The impressive things are not the important things. The way you tell if a preacher or teacher or ministry leader is worthy of following is not by the impressiveness of what they do. It's by the fruit of their life. The important things, the things that actually matter, are the simple ordinary steps of obedience to Jesus. And I want you to remember this because all of us are wowed by things that seem impressive. But the important things are getting up each day and following and serving and loving Jesus. And think about the whole emphasis of the Sermon on the Mount. Think about the sermons that Pastor Aaron preached just a few weeks ago when in chapter 6 Jesus says, "Hey, when you pray, don't pile up a bunch of impressive phrases, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who sees in secret." Do you remember when Jesus says, "Hey, when you give, don't sound a trumpet, don't be flashy about it, just be generous." Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, don't be anxious about tomorrow, instead seek first the kingdom of God. This is all that Jesus has been saying in the Sermon on the Mount. And what he's saying here at the end is the people you should follow are people who do that stuff. Not people who do impressive things that are flashy but just people that are committed to ordinary, everyday obedience to Christ. Those are the important things. That's what matters in the kingdom of God. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly or ravenous wolves. So the second warning Jesus gives us is the impressive things are not the important things. Remember what matters. Remember the important things. Care about those things and follow those who care about those things. Okay, here's the third warning Jesus gives. Obedience is what really matters. Verse 24, "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been found on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it." What an arresting image. What a powerful way to end this amazing sermon. Notice the contrast Jesus draws here is between those who hear my words and do them and those who hear but don't do. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them contrasted with everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them. So I want you to notice the difference isn't in the hearing, the difference is in the doing. At the end of the day what really matters is obedience to Jesus. You can hear a lot of words. You can listen to a lot of sermons. You could agree with a lot of truths but in the end the only thing that matters is are you doing what Jesus says. Are you actually following Him by putting His words into practice? That's it. That's the difference between wisdom and foolishness. Between flourishing and failing to flourish. So listen we might say it this way. There are two kinds of people in this room. Those who hear the words of Jesus and do them and those who hear the words of Jesus and think about doing them. You notice how we always use thinking about it as a way of just not doing stuff? I'll think about that. Look at that some thought. We'll see how that might apply to my life, right? It's just sort of a way of saying I'm gonna not do that for now. I might do it later but right now I'm just going to think about it. And by the way what Jesus says here in Matthew 7 at the end of the Sermon on the Mount anticipates what he's going to say at the end of the Gospel of Matthew in the famous passage we call the Great Commission. Where Jesus is going to say to his disciples go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teaching them to think about all that I've commanded you. That's not what it says is it? Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. What is discipleship? It's teaching people to do what Jesus says to actually observe the things he commands. In other words obedience is what really matters. Jesus is telling his disciples that here at the end of the Sermon on the Mount and he's gonna tell them again when he tells them to go and make disciples of all nations what matters is observing, doing the things that Jesus says. Now listen as we said last week Christian maturity is a journey not a destination. The goal is not perfection, the goal is obedience and repentance is a part of obedience. The wise person who builds his house on the rock is a person who says in his heart I'm committed to doing the things Jesus said and when I fail I'm gonna turn to him in repentance and faith. That's what obedience looks like. Obedience is what really matters. So listen some of you perhaps are aware of some place in your life where you know you're not doing the thing that Jesus would have you do. And so I just want you to hear this morning it's really crucial that you heed this warning and that you turn to Jesus in repentance and faith. Because if you don't what you're cultivating is hypocrisy. You're cultivating that same thing that the false prophets cultivate where there's a certain way they are on the outside and there's something else inside. When we fail to actually do the things Jesus says that's what we're cultivating an appearance of discipleship without the reality of discipleship. That's not a good place to be. Jesus wants to warn you that's not a wise life. That life is not going to stand and be solid and have a firm foundation. Verse 28 "And when Jesus finished these sayings the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes." Why were they astonished? Because Jesus was teaching as one who had authority. These three warnings are warnings that come with the loving authority of Jesus. Jesus can't live your life for you. He can't live my life for me. You must choose the path you're going to walk on. You must choose the foundation you're going to build upon. No one can make those choices for you. But Jesus knows everything there is to know about the human life. He's offering you his authoritative wisdom about the good life. He's telling you here's how to live a life of flourishing and blessing a life that honors God and blesses others and serves the world. Here's how to be maximally content and fulfilled and live a life of blessing. To live that kind of life he warns you you have to know the easy way is not the right way. The impressive things are not the important things and obedience is the thing that really matters. So let me ask you to reflect just for a moment. I want you to heed these warnings as the Holy Spirit's word to you. So let me invite you to reflect on three questions. Question number one, where is the broad way attractive to you? Question number two, where are you trying to be impressive to others? Question number three, where are you hearing Jesus' words but not doing them? If we will step back and ask these questions in our own souls, we will go a long way to heeding the warnings Jesus is giving here. Maybe there's one of these three that really grabs hold of you. Maybe all three have something to say to you. Where is the broad way attractive to you? Where are you trying to be impressive to others? Where are you hearing Jesus' words but not doing them? At the end of chapter seven, we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. The most famous sermon Jesus ever preached and the most studied text in the entire Bible ends here. But Matthew's gospel does not end here and that's important because it's a reminder that Jesus did not just come as a wise teacher. Jesus did come to instruct us in the way of wisdom. He did come to invite us into a life of flourishing. He did come as an authoritative guide for what a wise, healthy life looks like. But that's not all he came to do. This Jesus who says these profound words, who offers us these wise warnings, is going to be delivered over to his persecutors and betrayers. He's going to be nailed to a Roman cross. He's going to be delivered up to death and to the grave. He's going to rise from the dead on the third day and he's going to do all of that in place of fallen sinners so that you might be forgiven and set free and empowered to be his followers. So that your love might be awakened and that you might not just say this is a good way to live. I should do this. But that you might be awakened to say praise the Lord Jesus Christ who lived in my place and died in my place and rose from the dead to set me free. How would I not do this? The glory of Jesus is not only in the wise words he speaks. It's also in the beauty of his substitutionary sacrifice in our place. So I want you to put yourself in the place this morning of Jesus' original twelve disciples who are gathered around him as he gives this sermon on the Mount. They're there listening to him say these words. They're hearing his warnings and pondering what way do I want to walk in. Those original twelve disciples began to follow him on the narrow road of discipleship. But it was when they saw his death and resurrection. When they realized the depth of his love for them. When they saw that he was willing to go to the cross and die in their place to set them free from sin. That's what changed them. And then they went forth in the power of the Holy Spirit and changed the world. The center of the story of the gospel, the high point of the ministry of Jesus is not the sermon on the Mount. It's the resurrection. This is the beginning of the journey and the disciples would begin to follow him and when he rises from the dead and they realize what he's done that's what changes them into the people they become. So the Jesus Christ who issues these warnings to you and to me is the same Jesus who has died on the cross and risen from the dead and offers free and full forgiveness to all who will come to him in repentance and faith. You don't walk on the narrow road in order to get to him. He is the narrow gate by which you enter this road in the first place. So this morning the best thing you can do is to see his love for you, to come to him in humble repentant faith, to be awakened with renewed love and worship to go forth and to put his words into practice. Let's come to him now together in prayer. Our Lord Jesus Christ we thank you that you love us enough to issue warnings. Would you allow us to feel the weight of these words and to heed the caution of these words? We don't want to walk on the broad path that leads to destruction. We don't want to be among those who say to you Lord Lord but don't do the will of the Father and who follow others who are like that. We don't want to build our house on the sand. So would you speak these words to our situations, to our lives and to our circumstances? And would you remind us that you loved us enough not just to issue these warnings but to go to the cross in our place, to die for us, to rise from the dead, to send your Holy Spirit so that we might live a radically transformed existence? So we want to come to you in worship, we want to come to you in repentance and faith, we want to come to you in joy and celebration, we want to come to you in humility and confession. Let us draw near to you this morning in humble faith to receive again your grace and to be sent from here as those who would follow you on the hard way of life as your disciples. We pray this for our good and for your glory. Amen.