Don't be a peer with the many!

No Compromise Radio. Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

The Sermon on the Mount Ends With a Call for a Verdict

Well, this morning I'm going to start a sermon the way Jesus ended a sermon. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain fell, floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house. And yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house. And it fell, and great was its fall. Bow with me, please, and let's pray. Father, we would ask this morning, as we continue to worship you, that you would help us to see spiritual truths, you would help us to understand what Jesus said, what he meant, and then, Lord, by your gracious Holy Spirit, would you apply that to our lives.

Lord, I'd specifically ask that for those sitting here today under some kind of illusion that they might be Christians, or for those who are sitting here today knowing that they're not right with you, that today, Lord, would be a great day, a day that you would show forth your great grace, and you would be pleased to save, pleased to illumine, pleased to make them born again.

And Lord, we know you do that at your own good pleasure, at your own perfect timing, but Lord, we have loved ones and friends, and we love to see you do your work of salvation. We love to see the evidence of that in a baptism.

And Lord, for the Christians today, I pray that you would increase their thankfulness, knowing that it's by grace alone that they've been saved, and that they would increase their desire to love Jesus and love his word.

In whose name we pray, amen. We're coming to the end of the greatest sermon, I believe, that has ever been preached, Jesus' sermon in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. Today, we'll actually finish his sermon, and we'll finish chapter 7 next week.

Jesus is done preaching, and instead of acting like most modern-day preachers, who would kind of console at the end of a sermon, who would kind of stroke, who would kind of make sure the congregation wasn't emotionally battered or abused, Jesus doesn't do that at all.

He calls for a verdict. It's a call to arms. He says, I've taught these things to you, and now I want you to obey them. Of course, we know it's the grace of obedience, but now he says, I want you to obey.

There's a lot at stake. Jesus lays before all humanity and before everyone in this room two builders, two houses, two foundations, and two eternal outcomes. And in typical style of Jesus, typical of the prophets, typical of Hebrew preachers, he says there's only two ways.

Choose this day which master you're going to serve. Now, if you look back in chapter 5, verse 20, that verse spoken by Jesus pretty much sums up this sermon. If you had to focus in on kind of one verse that would give us an idea to the entire sermon, it would be Matthew chapter 5, verse 20.

For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses, exceeds, goes beyond that of the most religious people on the planet at the time, the Scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

And Jesus says the righteousness that you have to have has to be an internal righteousness. It has to be a righteousness that you can't even manufacture. It has to be given to you from the outside, externally.

It has to be God's righteousness. And Jesus comes along as this great prophet of God that Moses spoke about in Deuteronomy 18, and he says this, watch out for these other false teachers. Watch out these Pharisees are going to say, well, we'll just turn down God's holiness.

We'll turn up man's goodness, and there'll be a good meeting in the middle. And Jesus says, you can't do that. Look at verse 48 with me of the same chapter. If chapter 5, verse 20 is more negatively stated, this is more positively stated.

Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. My favorite thing to do when I go to teach chapels at junior high schools, high schools, and I go around and I'm invited, I love to say this.

This is how I start my message most often. How many kids in this room believe you have to be perfect to get to heaven? And hardly any of them raise their hand except for that, you know, typical kid that sits in the front and no matter what question is asked, they have to raise their hand, you know, pick me, pick me.

How many people think you have to be perfect to get into heaven? Here's this perfect God, this holy God. What are the entrance requirements to God's holy heaven? Less than holiness, less than perfection.

The bar is set so high, no human, no matter how good they are, can somehow live this life that's acceptable in God's eyes because there's been the fall. Adam and Eve fell. We have inherited that by God's declaration, by our own sin.

We need help. We need a savior. We need someone to rescue us. We don't need a partner. We don't need to cooperate. We don't need some kind of joint venture. We need a God who's holy to save us. So God sends his son, Jesus, not just to die on the cross, but to also teach about what God wants to be taught.

In other words, but I don't think I said that well, Jesus, instead of just coming on Friday morning, dying on the cross, being raised from the dead on Sunday, he came early to teach about the kingdom of heaven, to teach about righteousness, to teach about God's demands, so they would all be forced to look away from themselves saying, there's no righteousness in us.

There must be an external righteousness, an alien righteousness, a different righteousness. And he says, you're not going to find right teaching by the Pharisees. Don't believe them. Watch out for what they say.

Then in chapter 6 of Matthew, Jesus says, watch out for what they do. And they're linked. You can't get away from what people say and what they do because eventually, they just mold it together. Don't believe what they say, verse chapter 5, don't believe what they do, chapter 6.

And then he says in chapter 7, there's a way to relate to other people in the kingdom. And he spells that out in verses 1 through 12. Then he gives four warnings. We've seen the first three. But in review, the first warning, you probably could memorize these, and I hope you do.

The first warning Jesus gave at the end of his sermon was found in verse 13 and 14. And he says, salvation is narrow and you must enter. You see that in verse 13? Enter through the narrow gate. Gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it.

When I was a kid, we would go to the Missouri River in between Nebraska and Iowa, and we would bring our inner tubes and we would have our mom drive us up about two miles north of where we stayed, and then we would get in the river with our inner tubes and we would float down.

We'd say today, oh, can we float down today? You just get in the river, you get in the inner tube, and what do you do? You just float down. In a couple hours, you're back at home. And Jesus is saying this, you can hear about God's heaven, you can hear about God, but you're just not going to float into heaven.

You have to enter. He requires entrance. He requires volition and will. And the reason why Jesus gives the warning is because too many people think they're born a Christian, I'm going to die and go to heaven because I'm good.

He says, you've got to enter. He gives the second warning found in verses 15 through 20. Sermon's done, basically, and now he applies it. He's pressing people's consciences up against the word of God, almost with the attitude of, I dare you, you've got to react.

No reaction is a reaction. And he says in the second warning, verse 15, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. There are people, in other words, who stand by the door that says heaven, that doesn't really go to heaven.

It's the broad door, it's the broad gate. It says heaven, but it doesn't go there. And the false teachers say, yeah, that's the door you want to go into. Come one, come all. You don't have to repent. You don't have to, you know, stop sinning.

You don't have to do anything. You just keep coming. You just come as you are. God loves you already unconditionally. This is the door right here. There's no repentance. There's no belief. There's no turning from sin.

Then he gives the third warning, which we found last week. Verses 21 through 23, the first warning was summarized by the word enter, and the second warning summarized by the word beware. The third warning would be summarized by the words, don't be deceived.

And he says in verses 21 through 23, 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 intimately knew you. Oh, I knew all about you, but I didn't personally know you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And Jesus says, no matter how loudly people say it, no matter how often they say it, if you don't have actions commensurate with what you say, lip service doesn't count for anything.

Just a quick side note, before I was saved at 29 years old, I had my own list of things that I would have said on judgment day. It would have been my list. Standing at the bar of judgment and hearing God say, you're going to be banished from my good presence.

I would have said, God, when I was 21 years old, I went to a missionary trip in your son's name to Galeana, Mexico, to tell them that Jesus is the only way of salvation. God, I was part of the youth group at church.

God, I went on a Christian backpacking trip to Chicago. I mean, you don't backpack in Chicago. Colorado. Maybe they do backpack in Chicago, I don't know. Lord, I got confirmed. I got baptized when I was 10 days old or whatever.

I would have these list of things. And of course, would God know about it? Yes, he doesn't learn anything. He sees everything. He sees everything as the eternal now, and he knows. But there's no intimate relationship because I didn't enter, because I followed the false prophets, and I myself was self-deceived.

It's the goodness and kindness of God incarnate who says, don't be deceived. Enter, beware, watch out. And now we come to the final warning. And again, people don't preach like this today because it just seems too hard.

It seems too strong. There's too much masculinity here almost. You kind of want him to end with a poem, don't you? Some kind of, well, you know, and they all live happily ever after. That's just not the way Jesus preaches.

And if you want to end with a poem or a hymn, that's fine, occasionally. Now, let me reread these verses again, verses 24 through 27. And I will read them with the focus on the main point. And the main point ahead of time, I'll telegraph it, is this.

There's a difference between hearing and acting and hearing and not acting. In other words, 21 through 23 was, we say, but we don't do. 24 and following is, we hear, but we don't do. Some say and don't do, these hear and don't do.

Verse 24, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them, maybe compared to the wise man. Verse 26, everyone who hears these words of mine, same phrase, and does not act on them will be like a foolish man.

That is the key. The key word here is obey. Enter, beware, don't be deceived. Now, you have to obey. This reminds me of Moses' words in Deuteronomy. I was reading it the other day. Deuteronomy 32, when Moses had finished speaking all these words to Israel, Jesus is done speaking his sermon, Moses was done.

How did these two end their messages? Moses ended like Jesus. He said to them, take to heart all the words which I am warning you today, which you shall commend your sons to observe carefully even all the words of this law.

And then for those who think, you know, the letter kills, people worship the Bible, Bible-olatry, they're just words. Listen to Moses, for it is not an idle word for you. Indeed, it is your life. These words are your life.

And by this word, you will prolong your days in the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. The similarity is, here's the end of Moses' sermon in Deuteronomy, the second law, and he says, these words are your life.

But for Moses, these were your words for your life able to enter into Cana. For us, it's words that not let us enter into some kind of physical place, but heaven itself. Let me give you a series of proclamations this morning, if you'd like an outline so we can see progression and feel the sermon move.

Let me give you a series of proclamations that will fine-tune your mind so you can say, do I obey the gospel by grace or do I not obey? Am I a doer or am I a hearer only? Somehow, deluding myself, a series of proclamations.

Many times, by the way, the Bible teaches that pastors are called heralds. They're called preachers. And so, many times, the king would say, by the way, we're going to go slaughter that land up there and all the people in it.

But before we do, before we exercise this judgment, let's send a few heralds up there. And these heralds are going to say this, if you don't do what the king says, you're going to be slaughtered. But if you do what the king says, there's clemency.

There's kindness. The king will take care of you. The king will guard you. The king will watch over you. The king will grant you wives. The king will do all these things. If you don't do what the king says, it's judgment.

But if you do, there's clemency. There's forgiveness. There's kindness. That's exactly what heralding is. And so, let me give you a series of heralding proclamation that will help you ask the question and answer it, do I obey the gospel?

Am I entering? Am I bewaring? Am I self-deceived? Real belief obeys. Do I really obey? False belief does not obey. Am I fooling myself? Proclamation number one, your obedience or a belief that obeys has eternal ramifications.

Your obedience to the gospel has eternal ramifications. Your belief that obeys, a belief that follows, has eternal ramifications. You say, didn't we hear this last week? Didn't we hear this the week before?

And didn't we hear this two weeks ago? The answer is yes. It's basically the same sermon because they're the same kind of warnings, just different views of the same warning. Eternal ramifications. Are you sitting here today known by God as a hearer and a doer or a hearer and a disobeyer?

Some say, oh, I obey verses 21 through 23. Some hear and don't do. And look at how this text, it almost speaks of some kind of invitation, some kind of call or beckoning to believe. Notice how it starts, therefore, everyone, verse 26, everyone, each of you sitting here, each of them listening originally, there's this open-ended, come one, come all, whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, kind of open invitation as it were.

And Jesus says, I'm inviting you, I'm commanding you to be the wise one, not the fool. Would you be the wise? You can almost feel his words having this hand that wants to pull you in and say, everyone, you're either one of these others, so be the wise one.

Don't be the fool. There's a lot at stake. It's not some kind of parking ticket. I mean, I'm just trying to think of the most inane kind of stupid thing in my life that I could think of that just kind of ruins my state.

And I remember one time I was driving, mom was almost dead. She died the next day. I went home to sleep for a couple hours. I left the hospital, go home, sleep. I'm driving back to go see mom and just processing all these things, and I forgot that I was driving too fast.

There's a construction zone, and the policeman pulls me over, and I said, officer, I'm completely guilty. I was speeding. I have no defense. You see all these oxygen bottles. I'm on my way to visit my mother.

I think she's going to die in the next couple of days. He said, well, I won't charge you for speeding in the construction zone. I'll just charge you for nine miles over, so it's a $100 ticket, and he wrote me up.

I just thought, I don't know what kind of policeman this is, but I thought, my day's practically ruined, and I've got a parking ticket. You want to talk about the ruin of the eternal day? Can you imagine standing before God, and He says, I knew all about you, but get away from my presence.

That is sobering, isn't it? This hearing and obeying, and hearing and disobeying isn't just some kind of light thing that can be amended by traffic school. This has eternal ramifications for everyone in this room, and he says, why don't you be the wise?

You notice the text there? This is a wise person who hears and does. Matthew loves to talk about the wise person. Other gospel accounts don't usually talk about the wise one. Matthew, seven times, he talks about the wise one, most often in parables.

And like the wise, the contrast that Matthew often talks about is the foolish. Not many others in the gospels, Luke, Mark, and John, talk about the wise and the fool, but with proverbial kind of writing, Solomonic writing, Jesus says, here's the wise, and here's the...by the way, what's the Greek word for fool that Jesus used?

Here's the wise one, and here's the moron. What's a moron? A moron is someone who is deficient intellectually. They don't have all the information in their brain and their gray matter to process things.

And here, with a spiritual application, Jesus says, this is morally inadequate information processing. Don't be the fool. And Jesus uses a great illustration that almost everyone could see in their mind's eye, that we can even see 2 ,000 years later.

He uses a storm picture, something that happened very often back in those days, and you would have in the Middle East something kind of dry, something kind of hot. And out of nowhere, here comes these torrential kind of squall-like winds with rain that would turn some kind of dry riverbed or dry area or dry wadi into a flood zone.

And Jesus uses language. It's interesting. Look at verse 25. Let me give you kind of an interpretive sense. And the rain slammed against that house, verse 25. And the floods slammed against that house.

And the winds slammed against that house. The rain, the floods, and the wind, all in combination, are slamming with kind of a clashing sound, if you will, against this house that was founded on the rock.

And what happened? Here comes the storm, and the storm doesn't do anything to this house because it has the right foundation. Conversely, in verse 26, there are other people here, and here comes the same rain that slams, wind that slams, flood that slams.

And what happens? It falls. It falls. The house falls. Full, last, end times eschatological judgment. And allowing a little greater emphasis, look at the verse 27. Look at verse 27, at the very end, and great was its fall.

True or false? It is dangerous to listen to sermons every single week, but never do them. One of the most dangerous things you can ever do in your life is not pick up some kind of poisonous adder by the tail, not somehow run around saying, well, out of all the mushrooms in the world, only 10 of the edible mushrooms are...excuse me, only 10 of the mushrooms around are edible.

I think I'll try some of every mushroom I can, just seeing if I can get the good ones. That's dangerous too. One of the most dangerous things you can do in your life is listen to sermons every single week and then do nothing about them.

It's eternally dangerous for those who aren't Christians. It's only in time sketchy and dangerous for Christians. It certainly doesn't honor the Lord. The context here is it's dangerous to hear Jesus preach and then say, I'm not going to believe in the risen Savior.

It's dangerous. And, you know, what does the world say? I'll just go to church today. I'll go Christmas and Easter only. I'm a CEO Christian and I just kind of go and I'll throw a bone to God. I'll throw a bone to my wife.

I'll throw a bone to my kid. I kind of go and off I'll go. And you think you're pleasing somebody on earth and Jesus says, if you're not going to obey him, it's dangerous. It's better off if you don't hear.

If you're never going to obey the gospel, never going to believe that Jesus is the only Savior, then run from church because it's only going to be worse for you. Now, shouldn't this kind of talk in Matthew chapter 7 obliterate once and for all this insane notion that you can have Jesus as your Savior but not as Lord?

This asinine kind of theology that says, do you know what? We'll have him as a hell insurance, but we never have to obey him. This non-lordship, anti-lordship kind of theology just would be stench in the nostrils of Jesus in a sermon like this.

You don't make Jesus Lord, Jesus is Lord. It's ludicrous and laughable to somehow think, I'll listen to Jesus, he's going to take me to heaven, but when it comes to obeying him, I've got something for you, Jesus.

And it's not an open hand of praise and worship, it's a hand like this that says, I'm going to stiff arm you, Jesus, in the face.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.