Sermon on Mount 12

Sermon on the Mount

Part 12

"Shock on Judgment Day, and Just Do It"

Last time we ended talking about how to spot a wolf in sheep's clothing. Jesus warned "Beware of false prophets that come to you in sheep's clothing...you will know them by their fruits."

Now as we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns about what a shocking moment Judgment Day will be. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (7:21).

Right on the heels of warning about false prophets, the Lord talks about those who will be totally surprised on that Day. We are presented with individuals who never for a moment thought they would be turned out of heaven when Jesus returns to judge the world.

Jesus talks of people who will say "Lord, Lord" when they see Him. Yet according to Jesus, this will not be enough to gain entrance. We would tend to think otherwise, for they are actually calling Him "Lord." As soon as they realize heaven is blocked from them, they raise a protest to the Lord:

"Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’" (7:22) Now here we have a dilemma. These people have called Jesus "Lord," and they have done miracles in His name. How then can they not be received into heaven?

The answer is simple. They are offering to Jesus lip-service without ever having truly embraced Him as Savior. We know this is so because Jesus says in the next verse, "And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" (7:23) There's the key--they never really knew Him.

These false ministers and false Christians Jesus mentions had cast out devils in His name, prophesied in His name, and done wonders in His name. Yet Jesus says "I never knew you." The Lord had never been in relationship with them for they had never truly turned to Him for salvation.

You say, "But how could they do miracles in His name if they never really knew Him?" This happens all the time. People use the name of Jesus for financial gain, have "miracle services" where people are healed, and yet somewhere along the way are found to be living utterly sinful lives.

You ask, "But how then does a miracle happen through them?" Sometimes God simply honors the faith of the recipient utterly apart from the minister. Jesus said, "Be it unto YOU according to YOUR faith."

Or at other times the name of Jesus spoken, even by a sinner, carries power in and of itself. A gun will fire a bullet whether it is a good person or a bad person pulling the trigger. The name of Jesus has power to heal, period!

Unfortunately, we see all the time fraudulent ministers using Jesus as a way to make money. Paul talks about them and seeks to distinguish himself from them. "For we are not, like so many, [like hucksters making a trade of] peddling God’s Word [shortchanging and adulterating the divine message]; but like [men] of sincerity and the purest motive, as [commissioned and sent] by God, we speak His message in the [very] sight and presence of God" (2 Cor. 2:17 Amp).

Paul warned his son in the faith, Timothy, about "...men who are corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, who imagine that godliness or righteousness is a [a]source of profit [a moneymaking business, a means of livelihood]. From such withdraw" (1 Tim. 6:5).

When Jesus returns to judge the world it's going to be a very sobering day indeed. There will be worldwide shock on the part of many who assumed that, just because they had used His name, they would be received into glory. There will be television ministers who made endless false promises to gullible viewers that if they would just send them money, God would perform a miracle for them. Most of those promises never happen and those men will answer to God.

There will be found on that day men and women who have stood behind pulpits in churches both great and small that taught false doctrine, misleading the people; those who misrepresented Christ, or who twisted the true message of the Christian faith and led people astray. Suddenly everything will be laid bare, all of their hidden sins will be exposed, and it will be eternally too late to make it right.

"Lord, Lord!" they will cry. But the injunction from the mouth of Jesus will be, "Depart from Me, I never knew you." They will reply, "But didn't we talk about you, speak in your name, and even do miracles in your name?" And He will say, "Yes, but I saw the truth. Rather than truly serving Me, you were practicing lawlessness. You used my Name only for your gain, never as one who truly knew and loved Me."

What a day this will be! And the fact that Jesus finishes His Olivet discourse on this note is certainly a warning to one and all that God is not to be trifled with. We may fool the people, we may fool ourselves, but we cannot fool God.

Now in closing out His matchless discourse, Jesus tells the world just how important His teaching is, and what will be the consequences for both those who hear and obey His words, and for those who don't. He says there are two foundations upon which we can build our lives--a rock foundation, or a foundation made of sand. First, He talks about the rock foundation:

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock."

Notice that Jesus first points out the necessity of DOING what we hear. "He that hears these sayings of mine and DOES them..." We must ACT on His teaching, not just listen to it. The Apostle James gives the same command in his letter. "But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves" (1:22).

It is only the doer of the Word that benefits. Again James writes, "But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it" (1:25). If you want to be blessed, put what you hear into action. Assimilate the Word into your life. Walk it out and you will be blessed!

Jesus goes on to tell us that life brings guaranteed storms. He says, "the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house." He doesn't say "if" they come, He intimates "when they come." The rain represents trials. Jesus says the rain of trials falls until it becomes a flood of trials and we find ourselves in overwhelming circumstances. On top of that, harsh winds of adversity are added and begin to blow against us.

Jesus said that this multi-pronged attack "beat" on the house. The word "beat" means "to rush violently upon." It signifies something so strong that whatever it encounters "falls or bows down" before it with no strength to stand. Picture someone standing in the ocean as a twelve foot wave rises and crashes down upon them, pushing them down and carrying them away.

When storms like this come, they soon reveal what we have built our lives on. Have we built our spiritual house with the brick and mortar of the teachings of Jesus Christ? Or have we built with the uncertain, faulty philosophies of this world? The storm always reveals the answer.

Jesus promises that if we pattern our lives on His teachings, when the storm is over we will be left standing for we have built on the rock of His Word. We will have put into practice per what we've studied these last many weeks in Sermon on the Mount---lives of forgiveness, moral purity, blessing enemies, right motives for fasting, prayer, and giving....

...we will have set our affections on heavenly riches over earthly riches....we will have stopped worrying about our lives, we will be found seeking first His kingdom and practicing persevering prayer....we will be found walking in the confidence that God is good and can be trusted; we will have learned to recognize false prophets, and on it goes. The foundation of His teaching is like a solid rock!

But conversely, Jesus warns that if you build your life around worldly thinking, false philosophies, faulty, worldly assumptions, the same storms will come to you as well. And they will soon reveal what you have built on. Jesus warns:

26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Any world view, any philosophy that is not from Christ Jesus will fail you in the end. It's a guarantee. Paul the Apostle warned, "Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ" (Col. 2:8).

The word "capture" here means "to be carried off like a predator with its prey." This is what worldly thinking does. It captures a person like a hawk captures a mouse and carries it away.

The Living Bible puts it this way, "Don’t let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies, their wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said."

I have noted through the years that it's one thing to turn to Christ as Savior, but it is another thing entirely to build your life around His teachings. Many who look to Christ as Savior do not look to Him as Teacher. He's just not viewed that way. But He should be, because no one in all of history understood life and people better than Jesus.

My observation has been that Christians who don't dig into the Scriptures to study and then practice what Jesus said almost always wind up captured by worldly thinking. They invariably become a mixed bag of Biblical and worldly thinking. And in whatever area of life they embrace worldly thinking--be it their morality, finances, relationships, etc.--they are robbed of what they could of had in Christ.

Notice how Jesus describes the end of the person who doesn't build their life on His teachings. "The rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

The same storm hits this last person like the first. But he or she does not have the foundation of Jesus' teachings built into their life. So the foundation of sand they have built on gives way in the storm and the whole house collapses. It's not the frame of the house that matters most in the end. It's the foundation. What holds up the rest of your house is what matters most.

In closing, Matthew records, "And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."

Astonished indeed, for this was not a normal man bringing a normal message on a normal day. This was God wrapped in flesh come down from heaven to guide us from darkness to light, death to life, and from the power of Satan to the power of God!