The Purpose of the People of God - 7:15-29
The Purpose of the People of God - Matthew • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 51:01
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The Purpose of the People of God
The Purpose of the People of God
Review:
Mt 7:13-14
Matthew talks about the kingdom as a whole
Matthew puts all of this in the context of entering the kingdom
13 Enter through the narrow gate; because broad is the gate and wide is the way leading into destruction, and many are entering through it. 14 How narrow the gate and constricted is the way leading into life, and few are finding it.
To conflate this as only justification is to greatly limit the point. Furthermore, the rest of the sermon on the mount has been about how to be a disciple, it seems more probable that the main idea of the sermon continues through the discourse.
Destruction = ruin or waste
Matthew is about to detail the broad way and the narrow way which brings us to our text today.
13 Enter through the narrow gate; because broad is the gate and wide is the way leading into destruction, and many are entering through it. 14 How narrow the gate and constricted is the way leading into life, and few are finding it.
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. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
17 “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear 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. 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, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 “And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and fell against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
26 “And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them, may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 “And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
28 Now it happened that when Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were astonished at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Let’s Pray!
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Beware(!)
false prophets
What is a false prophet?
What is a prophet?
18 ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
Simplest Definition - A prophet speaks the words of Yahweh
3 But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and encouragement.
Prophets speak
edification, exhortation, and encouragement
What is a false prophet?
20 ‘But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 “Now you may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?’
Steep consequences here
22 “When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
So we look to see if it comes true
1 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us walk after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you to find out if you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
So not only does it have to be verified if it comes true, it must be consistent with God’s Word.
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
What is a false prophet?
Someone who speaks and it does not correspond to reality
Speaks “what was revealed by God”
Corresponds to reality - Future or Present
2. Someone who speaks presumptuously, speaks as if from God when they shouldn’t
OR
3. Someone who speaks and it does correspond to reality, but not with God’s Word
The consequences for false prophecy is high in both Testaments, but that is a study for another day.
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
One of the first things we should ask is who is the you?
Well Jesus has been using this term for those who identify with His character. So we need to notice that the work of the false prophets is among the disciples.
We should also stop and ask who/what makes a false prophet.
What do they look like? - sheep
Innocent
Harmless
They are coming to disciples
INWARDLY! - Don’t miss this
What has Jesus been teaching matters in the Sermon on the Mount?
Internal Righteousness!
These false prophets are not internally righteous?
So at this point, we know they are not disciples!
16 “You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
What is the fruit of a prophet?
What they speak! What they communicate!
Most people say this is their actions
But what do they look like?
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. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
As such I don’t think the fruit of Mt 7.16 is their works, but rather their words.
Grapes of Figs from thorns or thistles
You will not find grapes or figs on vines with thorns or thistles
17 “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
What is the barometer for good?
A good tree is one that is internally righteous!
The good fruit is the good word!
So what is the bad tree?
One that is not internally righteous
The bad fruit is the bad word
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.
Just like we saw earlier, there are steep consequences for false prophets
Fire is used in many different ways in Matthew.
You may remember in chapter 3 we had 3 uses of fire, all of which seem to pose a different meaning based upon the context.
10 “And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
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.
Once again, I would propose that this fire is destruction, ruin, or waste, not eternal separation from God.
This is consistent with our last section.
But we must read on....
So then, or “consequently” you will know them by their fruits:
remember this is in the context of false prophets
Their fruit is what they communicate from the Lord
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.
I hold to what I have previously taught and maintained about the phrase “enter the kingdom”
We remember that Matthew writes about things in the totality of salvation, not in separate categories of justification, sanctification, glorification, or restoration.
So He is talking in this wholistic way as to what it means to enter the kingdom, but the gist of the entire sermon has been “how to be a useful disciple.” That is still what I think is in view here. This is supported by the following clause:
“but the one doing the will of My Father will enter.”
What is the will of the Father in Matthew?
That we reflect His character!
16 In this way shine your light before men, that they may see your good works and may glorify your Father in the heavens.
What is this light?
These are the characteristics of disciples.
Dependent Upon God
Mourning
Humble/Gentle
Desiring Righteousness
Merciful
Singular in Purpose
Restorers of Relationships
Persecuted for Righteousness
This is Mt 5:3-10
It is the character of God!
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.
So the one who enters the kingdom of heaven, does so by DOING THE WILL OF THE FATHER!
So in a succinct way we can say from this verse that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” is a disciple.
But once again, we must keep reading.
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
There are several things that we can observe in this passage.
Many - the who is not specified. Certainly this includes at least some of the false prophets, but if it is exclusive to them or totally inclusive of them, Matthew would have simply said false prophets or used a pronoun like “they.”
“on that day” - looking to the future, and it appears to be looking towards a future judgment. Matthew is going to go deeper on this later in his gospel.
So what do the “many” say and what did they do?
“Lord, Lord”
They Prophecy
Cast out Demons
Many Miracles
Can we admit that they did some amazing things?
And at least here Jesus does not dispute the claim
But what does He say?
And I will declare to them, “I never knew you”
I think the only way to understand this at these “many” as they’re called in the text, did amazing things, but never exercised faith, never believed in Jesus.
Though many would argue that this text teaches that your deeds are required to get you to heaven, I think we see exactly the opposite here. The deeds of those who produce a false profession of Christ, are not enough to save, it is by faith alone.
And these “many” Jesus never knew.
Jesus continues with a command:
Depart(!) you who practice lawlessness.
What is lawlessness in the sermon on the mount?
Isn’t it internal? Hasn’t the whole thing been about getting right internally to be useful, to participate in the kingdom?
The practice of lawlessness here isn’t what the “many” have done, it is the posture of their heart.
This section has told us what the “Broad Way” is.
Let’s look at the Narrow Way:
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
So in contrast to the words of the false prophets, we have the words of Jesus.
Which words - “these words” The Sermon on the Mount
To follow these is to be wise
The beatitudes - μακαριοσ - indicative of wisdom literature
Compared to the wise man
25 “And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and fell against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
It outlasted the storm.
Because of what it did?
No
Because of what it was founded on.
26 “And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them, may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
And then the parallel
Hearing and NOT Doing
Foolish man on the sand.
27 “And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
The foolish man, did not weather the storms.
“and great was its fall.”
Though this makes a great conclusion to the whole sermon, it is also of note that this comes on the heels of what our priorities should be.
store up treasures in heaven
seek first the kingdom
ask, seek, knock
Misaligned priorities, not pursuing an internal righteousness, result in a great fall.
Not a loss of salvation/justification
But a loss of a life built to glorify the Lord
The loss of the life of a disciple
28 Now it happened that when Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were astonished at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
So at the end of the sermon, the crowds were astonished.
Who are the crowds? - Not disciples
They are astonished
By What?
Authority
“not as their scribes”
How does Jesus exercise authority in the Sermon on the Mount?
There are ~50 commands in the Sermon on the Mount
Furthermore, Jesus has completely taken the common legalistic practice of the Pharisees and shattered it against the Torah!
Takeaways:
Beware of false prophets
The look like sheep!
The act like sheep!
2. Weigh all things against Scripture
3. Do Jesus’ words have authority in our lives?
Next Week - Reading the sermon on the mount
MOVE CHAIRS!
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 “And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and fell against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
