Matthew 7,13 29, Dr. John Carpenter

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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Matthew chapter 7 verse 13 to the end of the chapter, hear the word of the Lord. 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.

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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.

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You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

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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.

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Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

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Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me

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Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven.

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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

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I will declare to them I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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May the Lord has blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well if you want to know about the start know about the end.

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Often beginnings and endings are very different. Christmas time is about the start.

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It's about the birth of Jesus the start of his life on earth. Now our culture has embraced

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Christmas in a way as the pinnacle of the holiday season. Even many secular people who during most of the year seem to care very little about Christ during Christmas will suddenly show some interest in Christ at least in this birth.

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They might put up a nativity scene. You know they might sing Christmas carols. They might even attend church.

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They'll focus then on this season on the baby Jesus but they don't really know what he's about unless they know where that baby ends up.

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In this passage we see where he ends up. Now I think modern people particularly

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Americans have a hard time appreciating and really even comprehending this passage.

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Just feeling what it's about. It's power. What it gets to because we tend not to take threats or punishment very seriously.

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Now we can hear great threats and great threats of punishment that we might get but we tend not to take it very seriously.

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Last month Maurice Clemens walked into a coffee shop in Washington State near Seattle and gunned down four police officers killing all of them.

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The reason Clemens was free to do such a thing was because just the week before he had been released on a particularly low bail for assaulting a police officer in the rape of a child.

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The reason he was free to assault a police officer and rape a child was because he had had his earlier sentence in Arkansas which there he had been sentenced to 108 years in prison for aggravated robbery had it reduced to 47 years which still sounds like a long time until we realized that in many states including

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Arkansas a 47 year sentence really means that one is eligible for parole in about 11 years which happened to be the exact time when he when he got his sentence reduced to.

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So what was a hundred and eight year sentence essentially with life in prison this great threat of what he was supposed to get became just 11 years and that's not really unusual in America in our time we have a system in which the courts throw out these enormous threats of the punishment you're supposed to get 108 years but it's easily turned into 47 which really means 11.

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We like to think we have these these grand threats of what will happen but in reality most of them are just fluff.

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So we huff and we puff and we throw out idle threats and we think that's supposed to change people but what it really does is create the impression on people's minds not to take any threats seriously anymore.

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We make idle threats of how horrible it will be if you commit a crime or if you fail out of school or you misbehave in class or whatever but the most often these punishments are never really as bad as threatened and and and when we do that on a more personal level to some parents threatening their kids if they misbehave you know

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I'll skin you alive but that's all just talk you know they don't really skin them alive and sometimes they don't really do end up doing anything as a consequence for their actions.

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In our culture many people's approach to discipline is to so inflate what will happen thinking that will scare the little punks into finally behaving but what it really does is teach the little punks that nothing you say has any consequences that it's all just talk and so we begin to think that's the way it always is everywhere with all threats that 108 years is really 47 which is really 11 that judgment is never really as bad as some authority says it is be it is huffing and puffing that it will be so there's no reason to take any threats seriously anymore but it's not always like that I learned that when

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I went to Singapore you know the first thing that impressed me about Singapore is going into the country like a slap on the face before I even took my first step on to Singapore you're flying in the plane descending and they they hand you these immigration cards which you're supposed to fill out tell them why you're entering the country where you'll be staying put your passport number and on it is stamped in these friendly looking

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Asian fonts probably you know come up by the tourist board to attract tourists it says welcome to Singapore nice friendly warm welcome they want they love tourists directly under that probably written by somebody else in all capital letters with red ink it says death for drug traffickers

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Singapore has a mandatory death penalty for anyone who is caught bringing in more illicit drugs than one would use for themselves there's no alternative sentence okay there there are or were no plea bargains there's no deals there's no way out dogs drug sniffing dogs they catch it in your luggage on your way in well that's the end of you the same is true for first -degree murder it's not just a huff and puff threat either

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I followed several cases in the newspaper there when I lived there and in one instance a

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Dutch man caught trying to bring in heroin either into or through Singapore he was caught the arrested and put on trial sentenced to death and the

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Dutch government appealed for mercy for him but it was no use he was hanged another Dutch man and I don't know what it is about the

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Dutch in Singapore okay they don't seem to mesh very well another Dutch man was caught having murdered a

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South African man in in Singapore again the Dutch government appealed for mercy after he was caught and convicted but within about a year within about a year of his arrest mind you he was hanged if you bring drugs into the country are you murder someone there you will be you will be at the end of a rope in about a year's time the threats are not idle they're to be taken very seriously on that system you take them seriously here the

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Lord Jesus's threats are not idle he makes four of them and you think of that that the beautiful sermon on the mount which many people celebrate for it's just it's wonder great great words on the meek inheriting the earth about loving your enemy about forgiving and not judging about doing unto others you know this beautiful sermon how does it end with a warm friendly invitation you know welcome to Singapore no it ends with four threats and they're not huffed and puffed it's not just you know some fiery rhetoric but in the end come on we all know it's not surely we think it's it's not gonna be that way yeah he might warm us over the fire a little bit but he's not really gonna throw us in he won't really tell us to to get lost really he won't really let the house of our lives be destroyed but in the end he'll say just like nearly everyone around us has done we think you know come on ah shucks

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I'll let you in you know what was gonna be eternity let's make it purgatory and serve a few thousand years you'll get off but in the end we see here friends he will do exactly what he said he will do this isn't even just a threat it's just the way it's going to be now there are four descriptions of judgment here that conclude the

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Sermon on the Mount four and they all begin with our isn't that convenient roads in verses 13 to 14 then rotten fruit in verses 15 to 20 then the relationship in verses 21 to 23 and then the rock in verses 24 to 27 road roads the rotten fruit the relationship and the rock first the roads and there are there are two of them and only two one goes to life and the other goes to destruction the

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Lord Jesus here says in verse 13 for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many the way to destruction has no demands it requires no discipline you don't have to take up any cross to go down that way you don't have to deny yourself anything you can get to destruction by any way you choose in fact if it is just you choosing your own way following your whims and your will you can be sure you are going to destruction but remember beginnings and endings are often very different what ends in destruction may begin well very comfortably a smooth level easy path no curbs no restrictions no lane lines no speed bumps no traffic laws no whatever sheriff's deputies hiding behind a billboard waiting to catch you there's lots of people going that way enjoying the trip and if someone want and if you want to kind of go a little bit of different way at your own style the way is so broad you can do that it is broad enough to encompass all the different ways we might want to go now we might think destruction is only for a few you know it's like being expelled from school or getting the death penalty

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I've never actually met anyone who was expelled from school I guess it happens somewhere but it is very rare get expelled suspended for a few days but who cares you know it's like that it's a threat that we hear about but is very rarely does anyone really get it but here

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Jesus says destruction is not rare in fact it's very common and it begins but in so horribly begins so easily the gate into the final destination is will let anyone take anything along with them they want they can come in trusting in Buddha or Mohammed or Joseph Smith or their own morality and or their own goodness or just the fact that they're really not so bad after all they never gunned down for policemen in a coffee shop the beginning is easy but at the end is hard it is destruction everything we wanted and everything we enjoyed all that we sought for ourselves all that we gave ourselves to will be obliterated gone nothing good is left that's destruction that's where the wide easy path that begins so comfortably ends up but there is another path he said the path to life it doesn't go the way we might always want to go we have to follow to go that way it takes some strain it is arduous and there won't be nearly as many companions on that road as there were on the broad one sometimes we might look over and see in that broad road what appear to be roving parties over there you know laughing and carefree relishing their stroll down this easy life this easy way sometimes we might even envy them for having such a comfortable path when we forget their dreadful end we might try to warn them but they'll think we're just huffing and puffing that it's just an empty threat when we when we come to the gate of the celestial city we'll find it's very very narrow that we can't bring in any of the baggage we've been hauling around the sins or the proud religious accomplishments that we've been carrying we have to lay them down we can only get in through Jesus he is the door no one enters except through him we have to lay down our own sense of self -righteousness and to trust in the perfect life and sacrifice of Christ saying that he's the one who earned the way in for us there's only two roads and it isn't just an idle threat when he says that broad is the road to destruction and many go that way you can get destruction by any way you choose and you can get there sincerely your sincerity will not keep you out of hell one second if you sincerely went your own way not following the

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Lord Jesus down the narrow path and you can find yourself in destruction if you bear rotten fruit now here the

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Lord Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets now this doesn't just to apply to people who claim to be prophets we might read this that they well this time what's to do with me

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I never come across any prophets right no one's claiming to be a prophet very few people claim that in our day you do in some places but you watch out for the false ones it doesn't just apply to people standing up and saying thus sayeth the

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Lord okay but it applies to anyone who claims to be teaching the truth to have a revelation or a reality that you should accept and organize your life around false prophets are certainly the missionaries who knock at your door perhaps with a clean -cut look you know these teenage boys with nicely ironed shirts white shirts a sharp -looking tie and a name tag that says they are and elder how you can be an elder and be 19 is beyond me but that's what he said or our false prophets are certainly those who may knock on your door and invite you to a

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Bible study with them insisting that you use their New World Translation and leaving you with a watchtower magazine to read in the interim the fruit of their lives are to see people who end up thinking if they accept their doctrine that they have to do the same kind of false prophesying in order to be saved or even closer to home a false prophet could be the emotional could be an emotional revival preacher pulling at you to come forward at an invitation even the little kids if you can manage to stagger up and you'll be eternally secure if you do no matter what your life is like after this no need to ever question your salvation again especially if you can count you as a convert and get a lot of them and so get invited to preach more revivals or it could be the secular professor at college who says that as long as we're sincere every truth is relative it's all true if it's true for you that the only false statement is the statement that there are false statements the only false doctrine is the doctrine that there are false doctrines or a false prophet could be the sweet old lady who says that any behavior is fine by her except pointing out that some behavior is not fine she doesn't like to hear that troubles her or a false prophet could be the

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TV preacher using the Bible to tell you that you can use God to get rich get everything you always wanted if of course you remember to send in your checks to him or it could be the amiable friend who tells you he just wants to have a good time that's all why be so hung up why not why stick to that narrow path you're on it's so much more fun over here come give it a try join your friends and don't worry don't worry about where all this is going live for tonight or it could even be the respectable church member who the last thing he wants to hear is that he is a sinner who cannot please

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God by all his religious accomplishments but has earned the eternal wrath of God he has earned the real punishment of being thrown into the fire of eternal destruction if he does not trust that Jesus did for him on the cross what he cannot do for himself false prophets look like good people they will come to you in the guise that you are most likely to accept in a way that appeals to you do you like the clean -cut conservative look well they'll come right to your door perhaps you like the party life they're probably waking up right now from a wild Saturday night logging on to Facebook and inviting you to join them and wondering why you aren't responding in early on a

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Sunday morning they look like what appears to you as good but here that's why

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Jesus describes them as wolves in sheep's clothing in other words they look from the outside like harm like harmless people they look like one of us but they will destroy you in the natural world

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I think of this comparison in the natural world we know sheep you know what they look like and we know wolves wolves like to feed on sheep they prey on sheep but in the natural world wolves aren't able to disguise themselves to look like sheep okay they're not clever enough to get sheep's clothing on in the supernatural world our predators are able to do that they are able to make themselves look like one of us like anything that would appeal to you you'll know they are false prophets trying to woo you from that narrow path to the broad one going to destruction by their fruit by the result of their lives we hear the

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Lord Jesus switches metaphors from sheep and wolves to trees and vines to use another analogy from the natural world a good and bad fruit tree no good and bad fruit trees look the same at the beginning of their inception these trees of the growing look the same but beginnings and endings are often very different they begin by looking the same we can tell them apart though by what they produce

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Jesus has a verse 16 and 20 says it twice you will recognize them by their fruit he repeats it for emphasis when the fruit appears you'll be able to tell if they are good or bad trees whether they are true or false prophets in verse 16 he asked the question are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles no you don't go to a thorn bush and expect something good by its nature it produces only thorns by the same principle in verse 17 every healthy tree bears good fruit

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Jesus says that's just what it does okay it's in its nature it's not that it becomes a healthy tree by bearing good fruit you know it makes up its mind

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New Year's resolution I'm gonna bear good fruit this year and it makes itself do it and so becomes a good tree it's by bearing good fruit that it demonstrates that it is by its nature a healthy tree now some people think that they can make themselves good by doing enough good works but the truth is that they they cannot do good works unless first they are good people so what they need is to have their natures changed if they want to bear good fruit they need to be born again they must have it in their nature for goodness to issue out of them then in verse 18 the

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Lord Jesus states it emphatically a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a disease tree bear good fruit this is a statement of fact he stresses that it is contrary to nature it is naturally impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit and vice versa sure some people will pretend to be and appear to be and try to be something they really are not they'll try to put good fruit on their naturally bad branches but for some that's that's what their religion is all about is trying to put a wool over their wolf nature just trying to stick good fruit onto a rotten tree but eventually you'll be able to tell by what comes out of them their fruit is the impact of their lives on themselves and on other people do they tend to make themselves and other people live for the

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Lord to trust in him alone for their salvation to get on and continue on that narrow path to life is that what they lives do or do they tend to draw people off of it now here doctrine does matter okay all he says it was not good enough to say but still it is things that we believe does matter someone who does not believe in the

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Jesus described here and the Jesus described for that matter in Colossians 1 we saw in Sunday school someone who does not believe in that not not some other

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Jesus made up by religion or someone of their own imagination but someone who does not believe in this

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Jesus cannot be a good good tree or a true prophet and someone who may believe the truth may have his doctrine in order says

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Lord Lord to the Lord but it's so obnoxious and judgmental about it that he or she drives people away from the

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Lord while he's bearing bad fruit remember a couple weeks ago Sarah Ruth beating

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Parker's back we hear the Lord Jesus repeats it twice in verses 16 and 20 we know them by their fruit not just by what they say we have so much confusion today because we've ignored this very truth that Jesus repeated for emphasis okay he repeated it for emphasis said it as clear as he possibly could and we still just pretend like he never said it okay we have we have been dispensing

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Christians have evangelical Christians over the past century or plus have been dispensing assurance of salvation you know like the way the kids were dispensing candy off their float on the

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Christmas parade just throw it throw out assurance to everyone who just says they believe in Jesus you know maybe they don't know much about him because they've never been interested enough to find out about him that's why they don't know much but they they will say probably not without probably without any enthusiasm but they will say they believe in him yeah okay

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I believe in him and and so there and and so someone come along to them and assure them well you say you believe so you want you can be confident you are saved based on that what you said but Jesus says right here we know true prophets and we can assume truly save people by their fruit by the impact of their lives not just by what they say they can talk sweetly about how much they love

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Jesus but if they have no hungering and thirsting for righteousness they have no no work in their life

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I mean a practically in their living not just in their speaking no work to extend the kingdom of God to bring other people to try to know the rule of Christ to every part of their lives and their own lives practically their dating their marriage their entertainment habits their use of money if all of that they're not seeking to come under the rule of God if they don't have that then don't give them an assurance of salvation

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Jesus doesn't do it here remember this is the

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Sermon on the Mount this is the gospel of the kingdom this is the good news that God's rule has come on earth and those who truly accept that as good news are living more and more under the under that rule

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God's way now that is the good fruit what we believe and we teach how it influences others and the fruit of a life over which

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God is ruling more and more of if we don't have that fruit friends don't take these threats idly don't think that they're just empty words he doesn't say here notice about the trees he doesn't say you know just just a few of those trees that bear bad fruit they'll be cut down and thrown into the fire a few of them few of them there are really really bad fruit trees just horrible fruit trees if they have really bad lawyers who can't get them off from the lumberjack and and they have a particularly mean jury they come before and the judge is feeling in a bad mood that day and the appeals courts are all stacked against them and for some reason the whatever the people won't intervene on their behalf no he says every tree every single one that's what he says isn't it look at the text every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is thrown into the fire in verse 19 every single person who doesn't make the good confession whose life draws people away from the narrow path who isn't living under the rule of God no matter how good -looking and cute and well -mannered and how well ironed their white shirt is every single one is ending he says in hell and that's not huffing and puffing that's just the way it's going to be well the road is narrow the fruit must be good not rotten and then there must be he says a relationship now there's no replacement for a true relationship with the

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Lord we saw that throughout this sermon from the beginning it's about how our heart relates to him if it does we know that we need him and so in the first beatitude we are poor in spirit we know he sees our secret giving and that he hears our secret praying he is the treasure that we seek above all if we don't have that relationship then really nothing else matters people who don't have it and pray and give and fast

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Jesus says they have their reward already we can rightly call him Lord as they do here in this passage starting in verse 21 but that's not enough we've had in our day the doctrine that all one must do to be saved is acknowledge certain facts about Jesus just say you believe he is

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Lord but here the Lord Jesus says as clear as it could possibly be said that that is a lie you can call him

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Lord and still go to hell in verse 21 he says not everyone who calls me

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Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven you can say all you want that Jesus is

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Lord but if he is not really ruling your life then you will not get in to life you are still on the road to destruction here the

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Lord Jesus says we must do the will of my father who is in heaven those who don't do he says who think they can just say and then maybe continue some sinful relationship that they can continue to treasuring other things above God's kingdom who have no hunger who have no thirst for righteousness who stay on that broad road perhaps with their respectable friends perhaps with their partying friends those are deceived and they are so deceived by you know in the previous section about the wolf in sheep's clothing those people are people there are deceived by them by others by false prophets here they are deceived by themselves they have an assurance of salvation you know they're so sure of their salvation that on the judgment day itself they walked so boldly right up to the judge to Jesus boasting of what they've done

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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 notice that they actually did do all those things now surely they're not gonna lie to the judge on the judgment day okay and Jesus did not say back to them no you didn't you made up those prophecies yourself you know you had a radio receiver in your ear with your wife transmitting behind the curtain giving you information so you can look like you were getting supernatural revelations about people the people you look like you were healing or your own plants that you put in the audience to you know to put on the big show no

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Jesus doesn't say any of that in response he doesn't refute what they claim the frauds who did that kind of thing are probably on the judgment day going to run and try to run and hide when they see that Jesus is real and is the judge getting ready to pass a sentence on them but these people apparently really did all these things

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Jesus never refuted it they prophesied they cast out demons they did many mighty works perhaps they taught

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Sunday school or were preachers or missionaries but they had no real relationship with Jesus they didn't know him oh they knew about him you know they had a head knowledge of who he was they saw him they'd call him by the right name

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Lord Lord they could prophesy they could preach they could teach they could write books they could sing songs and tell others about him but they didn't know him in their heart he wasn't real to them and so they will hear him say much to their surprise

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I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness well here we see the clearest picture of false assurance at the conclusion to one of the most famous passages in the

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Bible the Sermon on the Mount we see the grave danger of false assurance it is you know it's not as though this is a hidden obscure passage that's difficult to interpret it is as clear as crystal at the last judgment some people will be so sure they are saved and they'll get a very rude shock and despite that despite the prominent place of this passage despite despite its clarity evangelicals have been handing out an assurance of salvation over the past century to anyone who can say

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I believe in Jesus to little children manipulated into saying of repeat after me prayer to people who suddenly feel an emotional rush to come forward and what is the fruit of that for the fruit is that is now multitudes of people many all around us particularly in this environment who are now harder to reach with the gospel than they would be if not for that we've taught some of them that at the last judgment they can come before the judge and say

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Lord Lord did I not pray that prayer and get baptized but they'll hear the same response first I never knew you this is the

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Lord Jesus speaking to deceive people people deceived by false assurance we just said that they didn't in their hearts know

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Jesus and that's true but to be precise here to interpret this passage precisely here he says that Jesus didn't know them you understand

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Jesus says I never knew you now certainly he knew about them he is he is

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God he's the second person of the Trinity this passage right here puts him on the judgment seat on the judgment day where only

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God himself could sit that he's doing the judging on the judgment day is because he is

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God that's who that baby in the manger grew up to be so he knows he knows factually all about these people but he never had a relationship with him he never effectively revealed himself to them he made them he never made them children of the

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Father and the initiative in the relationship then is with him he never knew them these people as impressive as they were in their supernatural power in their religious works and perhaps in their dedication our people

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Jesus did not relate to so here it is no idle threat to say that unless Jesus decides to know us we won't know him well then they'll be told to depart those who had no relationship with him even with their powerful spiritual gifts they will be told to go get out now why because they even with their many mighty works are really workers he says of lawlessness that is they they live their lives day by day as if there was nothing they had to submit to that they were without restraint on what they wanted and what they did they were law less without law going their own way as they felt best unrestricted unguided down that broad road to destruction so what if the lane they chose on that road to destruction was very religious they thought they had so much to be proud of that they hadn't chosen to be drunk they hadn't chosen to be promiscuous but the reality is that they were still doing their own thing no

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Lord or law in their life it's not an idle threat that everyone that lives that way with no relationship with Jesus is expelled by Jesus finally is the rock the previous people had accomplishments but no relationship their problem was between their saying and their doing they called him

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Lord but they never knew him as Lord here in verses 24 to 27 we see people have a problem between their hearing and their doing all the people here in the last warning have heard the word some do it and some don't those who do it who put the teachings of the

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Lord Jesus into practice are building their life he says on the rock it doesn't it doesn't change their life doesn't change the core of it with the fashions are with their moods it is solid and immovable now here the comparison is to houses in a desert not we usually think of sand at the beach he's probably referring to a desert like near some dry creek bed and when a storm came it'd be very dry most of the year but storms can come in the desert sometimes a flash flood will arise and the house founded on a rock would stand you know most of the year everything is fine why worry about what might happen when a flood comes when there's no water around but you know that's the way some people are now they live their lives why wonder about judgment when there is no judgment around but those who built on the sands could see the floods coming would see the floods come when the storm finally did come it would undermine their house and then bring the whole thing crashing down those are the ones

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Jesus said who heard the word and didn't do it they did their own thing you know they they built where they thought best maybe with a view was the best how it was most comfortable to them what was most fashionable to them with the idea that there will never be any judgment skies are clear now they're clear almost all the time there's no judgment coming and there are were plenty of people around them that told them as long as they built sincerely as long as you mean well by the way you build your house you mean it you like it well you'd be fine they had assurance and all those warnings a few people come by so there's good there's danger coming there's day oh that's just so much alarmism you know it's a siren wailing but there's no real danger here the

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Lord Jesus uses the comparison to building on a rock or on or on sand to show the certainty of destruction if we don't follow his word not just say we believe it but really practice it the certainty of destruction you know we have so many people today who think that the warnings of danger are just so much alarmism you know it's chicken little running around saying the sky is falling but it's never going to happen so many people assume that when judgment comes they can just sweet -talk their way into heaven you know that's how they've gotten by their whole life you study for a test you can sweet -talk your way into a passing grade okay

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I've tried people tried that with me when I was a teaching assistant they get pulled over for speeding they can sweet -talk their way and just getting a warning no not have to pay a fine and they think that's the way it always is but we should know we as Jesus uses this comparison you can try sweet -talking your way to a flash flood all you want it's not going to do any good the floods will keep rising and buffeting and will will bring down that house the point is here that these are not idle threats that if we hear and don't do we're in unavoidable trouble and great will be our fall well that's why for this church one of our core values is to be active that's why unlike so many

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Baptist churches our evening service and we do have one is not just another occasion to hear but it is an opportunity to do so many church attendees in our day go and hear and hear and hear and think that their hearing is good enough but here

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Jesus repeats the phrase you notice he repeats it there twice about both groups of people who put it in to practice who do it do his word if we hear and don't do we're worse off than if we had never heard at all when the storm comes now or at that judgment great will be the collapse of our lives and that's no idle threat but if we hear and do then we built our house on the rock and the rock is

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Christ finally we see now after the roads the rotten fruit the relationship and the rock who this baby who began so insignificant to the world that they wouldn't even let him inside to be born we see where he ends up he is the rock and here's a fifth are he is the ruler the final lesson on the

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Sermon of the mount is that he is the ruler he's here not just commentating he's not just giving his opinions and you know

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I I kind of think it might be a good idea if you entertain the idea that maybe this would be a good way to live like this maybe for you it works for me anyway maybe not for you maybe think about it he is saying here authoritatively that he is the

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Lord upon whom you must build your life not just say you believe him in him and then go about living as you feel best but build every part of your life on what he says he all the crowds it says because he insisted that he was the

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Lord to whom they will come on the judgment day and that he is the one that even now he says it twice in verses 24 and 26 they must listen to and follow he says you must hear these words of mine and he says the same to us hear and do he is our ruler at Christmas time we look at the beginning at the baby

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Jesus he began so poor and powerless he was born what we would practice all a barn no one cared enough about him to even give his mother a room to give birth in but look where that baby ends up far from being just a baby with a sweet head asleep in the hay amazingly not even crying he is the ruler with authority whose final verdict will make some people cry for eternity he is the one sitting on the judgment seat pronouncing no idle threats not exaggerating what's gonna happen demanding that we either do his word or be damned go to destruction thrown into the fire away from him collapsed utterly gone obliterated great will be the fall and that turns out to be the end for many people even people who began a comfortable life strolling down a broad way but he wasn't born to damn us know he could have stayed in his comfortable home to do that he was born to seek and to save those he knows we've all begun we've all begun badly we begun in sin if we want to end well what we need to start by putting his word into practice he said before this sermon in Matthew chapter 4 verse 17 repent for the kingdom of God is at hand we repent we turn around and then we accept that to approach the judge we need our guilt paid for we need a relationship with the father built on a perfect life and it's certainly not ours it's his the life of Jesus we need for Jesus to do for us lost sheep what he was born to do to seek us to save us and to know us let's come to him now for that.