"RESPONDING TO THE GOSPEL"
Twin Peaks Bible Camp JH 24 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Proposition - As we continue to build from last nights message I want us to now talk about how you have or have not responded to the Gospel message. We will look at three things this morning: 1) the two destinies, 2) the proof your your destiny, and 3) the deception about your destiny.
Interrogative question - Friend I am going to be very direct with you this morning - where are you going when you die?
1. The two Destinies - vs. 13-14
1. The two Destinies - vs. 13-14
13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Friends - what do you think that these verses are talking about?
Who is talking?
What is the importance of what Jesus is saying?
*the word “Enter” - is a command -
What do you think the wide gate represents?
What does the narrow gate represent?
7:13–14 The narrow gate symbolizes the exclusive nature of Christ’s kingdom. Entrance requires the disciple to do the will of the Father in heaven (v. 21). The gate that is wide indicates that hell grants unrestricted entrance and that many will enter through its gates. The difficult (lit “narrow”) … road may symbolize the life of hardship and persecution that the disciple must face. However, since Jewish literature often used the symbol of the road to represent a moral path (Jdg 2:22; Is 30:21; Jr 6:16; 2Jn 6) and because the law was portrayed as a narrow road from which a person was not to deviate (Dt 5:32; 17:20; 28:14; Jos 1:7; 2Kg 22:2), the narrow road probably represents Jesus’s morally restrictive teaching. The wide road permits travelers to meander and pursue worldly desires, but the narrow path requires travelers to stick to God’s will (Mt 7:21). Quarles, C. L. (2017). Matthew. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 1512). Holman Bible Publishers.
2. The proof of your Destiny - vs. 15-20
2. The proof of your Destiny - vs. 15-20
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits.
What does beware mean?
What do you think the point is that Jesus is trying to make?
What example does Jesus provide us with?
Images drawn from horticulture would have resonated with Jesus’ audience, as first-century Palestine was primarily an agrarian society. In the Greek text, this rhetorical question is phrased in a way that expects a negative answer (“Of course not!”). Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Mt 7:16). Lexham Press.
Vs. 20 is key for us to understand -
19 Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” 20 Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”
38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
1 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. 2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. 3 “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.
22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
Friends take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of 1 John -
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
1 John 4:1–5 (NASB95)
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.
3. The deception about your Destiny - vs. 21-23
3. The deception about your Destiny - vs. 21-23
21 “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. 22 “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?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
What kind of people is Jesus talking about?
Who are the people that say “Lord, Lord...”
Do you think that Jesus is being harsh when He says “depart from me you who practice lawlessness…?”
7:21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ Those who say this acknowledge Jesus as master. The affirmation that Jesus is Lord is meaningless if it is not backed by obedience to God’s will. Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Mt 7:21). Lexham Press.
SO WHAT?
1 And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— 2 for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—
Friend I am going to be very direct with you this morning - where are you going when you die?
7:13–29 Warning! With Jesus or Against Him? Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount by giving the disciples, the crowd, and the religious leaders four basic warnings: they must choose between two gates and roads (vv. 13–14), two kinds of prophets (vv. 15–20), two kinds of disciples (vv. 21–23), and two foundations (vv. 24–27). They are either with Jesus or against him. Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 1834). Crossway Bibles.