Oct 10, 2009

Matthew 7:21-29 — Series on the Mount #31

Let’s Pray…
Tonight we close the Sermon on the Mount series that has covered 31 weeks. Since February or March, we have been dissecting the profound, often unsettling, completely counter-cultural and always-glorious words of our Savior Jesus Christ in His first major sermon found in the Book of Matthew.

We’ve taken it piece-by-piece and at times word-by-word, and examined what He was saying in the context of His time and then learning together how relevant His words are — even today, almost 2,000 years later.

And tonight we will close with the last portions of a warning that Jesus gave His hearers, both the disciples and the religious leaders and the regular Joe’s and Jane’s in the crowd that had been gathered around Him on that mountain and to us, sitting here tonight.

His warning, just like the rest of His teaching still works to cut away through all of the fluff, through all of our excuses, through all of our grand-human ideas and forces us to examine our hearts in the light of His, Jesus’ truth.

Before we get into that, let’s review the summary statement that opened this final part of His sermon:
Matthew 7:13-14:

Last week we studied Jesus’ warning to Watch out for false profits, because if we are following anyone who preaches any way to Heaven except through faith in the saving work of Christ on the Cross, than we are, as Jesus tells us, not on the right path. If we are putting out faith in ANYTHING else to save us because of somebody’s false teaching, Jesus says, we are headed for destruction, that is God’s wrath, death and eternal punishment and separation from God — Hell. (Revelation 14:11; Matthew 25:46)

It’s a sobering warning and not one that we should take lightly, Amen.

Expanding on that summary truth from verses 13 & 14. The truth that only a few will find eternal life with God, Jesus continues to press in and shows us some who may have a false assurance of their salvation.

Matthew 7:21-29
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

When teaching a lesson on the Sermon on the Mount, Tim Keller talked about his uneasiness with the popular way we mistakenly preach the gospel as “two ways to live”.

He said that we must make it clear that there are in fact three ways to live.

We in Christian circles, usually end up teaching “God's way” vs. “Mans Way.” But Keller teaches that it is better to point out the three ways of (a) morality (doing the right things and following all of the laws of God or society in hopes of being saved Because of your “good” behavior), or (b) immorality (Saying forget the rules altogether because you simply don’t care, don’t believe or maybe you are living in outright rebellion) that’s the second way to live. Or (c) you can live the third way, the correct way, which is by the gospel.

Remember in a gospel centered life, we recognize how fallen and broken and sinful we are, and realize that even if we lived perfectly from here on out, we would still stand condemned because of our past sins. But then, with a Gospel understanding, we don’t fall into despair because of our brokenness, No!

Instead realize that we can and must turn to Christ, because by accepting God’s free gift of grace, which leads to faith in Christ as our savior, then all of our sins, from the first to the last and all of them in between; all of our sins, the “little” ones that we have shrugged off to the “big “ ones that we don’t want anyone to ever know about; they all are put upon Christ on the cross, he takes all of our sin away and gives us a covering of His righteousness and perfection in the sight of God the Father.

Now let’s dissect these, first the morality piece, that is, those who believe they deserve to be with God, because of their good behaviors or “right living.”

This is the first group attacked in Jesus’ teaching in this passage, let’s read it again.


Just look at the position of those who will be making this argument. They say, “Didn’t WE prophecy, and drive out demons and work miracles?!

It’s all about what they did! They will argue on the last day on the Day of Judgment, that God OWES them for all of their “good works!” It’s like the Pharisee in Luke 18:
Luke 18:10-14 (New International Version)

Now get this, by all accounts, this is a “good” guy, he’s doing all the right THINGS (praying, fasting and giving {Matthew 6}), but with the wrong heart.

What have we been saying since March? It’s the heart, the heart, THE HEART!

And here’s a warning I would put out there for all of us who are quick to write off the Pharisees. Those of us who automatically see them as the guys with the black hats in the cowboy movies. We look and we say, oh, they’re the bad guys. They’re the ones who just don’t get it. They just can’t get right.

I would warn us not to forget that we share many of the same traits. I would remind us all that our world operates on the same values. Work harder, work harder, earn your keep, pull YOURSELF up by your bootstraps.

That’s the world we live in. Jesus blasts the Pharisees and us all at the same time. He is totally counter cultural.

Now, moving on. In comparison to the Pharisee, who plays the first part of morality well, we then in the same passage see the tax collector.

Now by all accounts, this tax collector is a guy who has tried his own way he has lived by his own standards, by the second way to life — immorality, all in obvious violation of God’s Law.

But here’s the difference, he moves from the second way to live — immorality — into the third way to live, what Jesus shows as the only way to live. That third way is by the gospel! Let’s read:

Do you see the tax collector? He is living out the first two Beatitudes. He recognizes that he is spiritually bankrupt and he mourns his brokenness and sin. Then in verse 14, Jesus fills out the rest of the second Beatitude, saying the tax collector was justified. We can read comforted.

We see another example of the three ways to live in Jesus’ story about the prodigal father in Luke 15. We’ll read it together and look for the three ways. Here’s the hint, the younger brother. Like the tax collector will start out as the immoral person. The Older brother will try to live by morality and then at least one will come into the Gospel life.


17 "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. (Maybe into Gospel living) 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son (maybe into Gospel living!); make me like one of your hired men.' (Oh, No! into morality thinking! — he decides he can and has to work to be accepted by the Father and he doesn't realize that we can't WORK our way out of sin)

Now watch, the Father isn’t going to give the younger brother a chance to move out of Gospel living and back into morality nonsense.

25 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field (We’ll see in a moment, how this was work in the morality mindset). When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on (Notice how we can be totally blind to what is going on in the Father’s house if we are focusing all of our efforts in our own works). 27 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

28 "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' (Older brother shows us how morality, works-based salvation ideas can lead us to resent God when things don’t go our way and make us arrogant and unloving to those who the Father is bringing in from lost and broken lives of immorality)


So at the end of the story, we see that the immoral kid came to the Father broken and repentant and was accepted into the family. And the tax collector in the last illustration, who beat on his chest and cried out for God’s mercy, was justified, or made right with God. But the Pharisee was not made right even though he did a lot of “good” things. And we are never told what happened with the older brother outside pouting at the party.

What Jesus seems to point out in Luke 11, and 15 and in Matthew 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, is that there are a lot of people who think that they are heading to heaven because of their “good” works who are actually on the broad path to destruction, to Hell, because they put all their hope in THEIR works and not in Jesus.

Again, Jesus says they will say Lord, Lord, they will tack His name onto what they are doing, but their HEART will be resting in a hope of self-justification, self-righteousness, and self-saving works.

And that will lead Him to say, I never KNEW you.


When he says knew there in verse 23, it is the Greek word gee-no-sko, which doesn’t mean knowing something like knowing the answer on a math test, or know which way to go to get to Wal-Mart.

Nope, this is to know as in, to be intimately involved with. The bible says that Mary was confused as to how she would be a mother, since she had not “known” a man. In other words, it is related to the most intimate of relationships.

Brothers and sisters, we are called into an intimate relationship with the Triune God, Father, Son and Spirit through the avenue of the cross.

If we do not go to Jesus and look to Him and him alone for our salvation, we will never be known by God.

And, whether we did a bunch of good things or not, we will have no place with God in Heaven.


A great storm is coming friends, yes it is true that there will be storms in this life, but more so, there is a bigger storm coming.

The old preacher, Jonathan Edwards compared the wrath of God to a crashing river waiting to wash over those who do not accept Christ.

When those waves come and the winds of His judgment blow across the earth. Will your house stand? Not if you live in immorality it won’t. If you are here and you just flat out, don’t believe that God is real, or that He does not really hate sin and punish sinners, than you will be surprised on that last day and by then it will be too late.

But what about the rest of us, the “church folk?”
Will our houses stand when the waves come and the winds blow? Not if we are counting on our church attendance, or our parent’s faith, or our service to the church, or even our rigorous devotion to the Laws and commands of the Bible.
No, let me urge you, plead with you, to repent of your sin and rely on Christ and Christ alone for your salvation.

And, in case you think I am saying that you don’t need to follow the commands of God, I would first tell you to read the notes from any of the other sermons in this series.

I would say that we are ABSOLUTELY supposed to follow the commands and will of God as spelled out in the scriptures, but only in a loving and thankful response TO our salvation through Christ — NOT for our salvation.

A pastor named Michael Andrus once said in a sermon on this passage:
“…Someone is probably asking, ‘OK, how obedient do I have to be to be secure?’ We are so prone to probe the boundaries, unfortunately sometimes so we can know how far we can push the envelope. But even though the question may be wrongly motivated, let me do my best to answer it. I would say that if you have confessed Christ as your Savior, if you desire God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, if you feel godly sorrow when you fail to meet His standards, if you repent when you become aware of sin, if you are growing in Christ-likeness, and if the Holy Spirit witnesses with your spirit that you are a child of God, then I suggest you are secure and can legitimately have assurance of your salvation.

But if, despite your verbal profession of faith and perhaps even your membership in church, you have no overriding concern for the will of the Father; if violating His commandments is the norm in your life; if your conscience does not trouble you when you sin; if you feel no godly sorrow for your sin; if your lifestyle is really no different from that of your pagan neighbor; then any assurance you feel is mere presumption, because you are not, most likely, secure in your relationship with Him.”


One last thing to say here. The crowds were amazed by the teaching, they recognized His authority. But recognizing Jesus does not amount to turning your life over to Him. Surely, some in that crowd did. And surely some in this small gathering have or will, but, Jesus warns that only a few will. Are You in the few?

We are now going to join together in a time of reflection and remembrance. We will share in open communion. We are here to be a first step into church or back to church for all who would come, but this one practice, and the practice of baptism for believers, are two things we do specifically for Christians. If you are here and are not a follower of Christ, then we ask that you refrain from this sacrament.

And if you are a believer, remember that we are told to search our selves to make sure we are talking of the bread and the cup in a worthy manner. So don’t just go through the motions. Confess your sins to God before you partake of the body and the blood.
And before any of us take the elements, let us remember, that Christ didn’t come to live and die for us so that He could be an add-on in our life. He didn’t come to be part of the solution or part of our focus, or to take part of our lives. He is the whole thing.

He is our focus, He is our filter in which we see the world, and He is our Way to God the Father.

So when you take this bread and you drink from the cup do it in remembrance for and in the full knowledge of His love for you.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (New International Version)


Partake

Pray

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