Faith or Foolishness

Chapter seven of Matthew's gospel is a very unusual chapter. It contains, in all likelihood, the one verse that is quoted more than any other by non-Christians. You heard me right, by non-Christians. It’s the first verse. It reads, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

We live in a day where truth is believed to be whatever you believe it to be. In other words, the individual can determine what is right or wrong, consequently, no one should be passing judgment on anyone. After all, since one’s actions, language, clothes, lifestyle, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and thirty-five thousand other choices one might make in a day’s time is determined to be right or wrong, not by others, but by the individual himself, or herself. And if that's the case there should be no judging going on anywhere.

So in this, “everything is permissible” culture we now live in, the number one no no, the number one sin that should be punished quickly and severely, is that of judgmentalism.

So in this, “everything is permissible” culture we now live in, the number one no no, the number one sin that should be punished quickly and severely, is that of judgmentalism. Oh, thou shalt not judge the world shouts.

The ironic thing is that as short as this verse is, it is often misquoted. Many quote only the first two words of it, “Judge Not.”

Quite often even this short little verse is misquoted. Many quote only the first two verses of it, “Judge Not.”

The ironic thing about this verse is that it is attached to the front of a chapter that is all about judging and discerning. Consequently, on the surface it may look to be contradictory, but I assure you that it’s not.

Ironically, this verse is attached to the front of a chapter that is all about judging and discerning. On the surface it may look contradictory, but I assure you, it’s not.

In this chapter Jesus first stresses the need to judge correctly. Secondly, the need to judge ourselves before we judge others, and to use the same standard on yourself that you use on others.

The main purpose of this chapter, however, is not the judging of others, but the judging of whether we really believe what we believe we believe.

This chapter focuses on two groups or types of people, both of which believe they are going to heaven. Both of them believe, but not in the same way. As a result, Jesus provides judging points from which to draw on enabling us to determine or judge whether our faith is a saving kind of faith or a foolish kind of faith.

Let’s read our text that is found in . It can also be found in the pew bibles on page 1032. READ TEXT

The first thing we need to do is determine what Jesus means by house, storms, sand, and rock. Verses 13 & 14 give us some clarification. Look at them, “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. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

There is a way of life that leads to eternal destruction and another way that leads to life, eternal life. The house refers to our hope of receiving a heavenly or eternal home. The storms can mean troubling times, including that of death. In this case, the rock is a solid faith that believes the teachings of God’s word and obeys them.

Being sure you have the right kind of faith is why Jesus stresses the need for discernment.

​I. Discernment Needed

Discernment means making judgments about why we believe what we believe about inheriting eternal life. In verses 13-14, 15-20, 21-23, and 24-27, which is our text, Jesus gives us several judging points to examine.

Knowing for sure that your faith is a saving faith is vital, so Jesus gives us four different things to look, four truths to use as bench marks for whether we doe or do not have a saving kind of faith.

The first thing we see is that saving faith produces faithfulness.

A. Faith Produces Faithfulness

Look at verse 24 of our text. It reads, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” It’s not the person who listens to, or reads the word of God, but the one who surrenders his life to Christ, and allows Christ to have control by submitting to the Word of God.

Is this the kind of faith you have? Does your faith produce faithfulness to God? Not just any kind of faith will do. Not just any kind of belief will do. It has to produce faithfulness, commitment, surrender to the will and word of God.

Jesus is saying, don’t expect to get to heaven on any faith that doesn’t produce faithfulness.

The foolish man or the foolish kind of faith is the kind that may believe in Jesus and even listen to the words of Jesus, but they fail to obey Him. This foolish kind of faith produces only empty assumptions.

B. Foolishness Produces Empty Assumptions

There is a foolishness in Christianity these days that claims heaven, but denies obedience to God’s Word. I titled my sermon Faith or Foolishness because it’s pure foolishness to not examine one’s faith. It’s foolish to not be open to the possibility that your faith might be the kind that Jesus warns about.

According to Jesus “everyone who hears His words 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.”

Is your hope of heaven based on the sure Word of God, or on foolishness? Is it based on what you’ve always believed, but never checked out? Is it based on what some preacher said, which may or may not be true, because you never checked it out in the Word of God.

Confirmational bias is employed by nonreligious and religious people all the time. It’s where we look for tidbits that will support what we already believe, while ignoring obvious truths and facts that conflict with what we believe.

In this chapter Jesus provides hard, bold, stark truths meant to shake us up and force us to look at our faith from His perspective. He wants us to see clearly the dangers of trusting in a false faith, a counterfeit faith, a non-saving faith, a faith that produces only empty assumptions.

Those whose faith is based on hearing and believing the Word of God, yet fails to obey it, and seek to live it faithfully and consistently, will one day discover that their hope of heaven will come crashing down when the storm of death descends on them.

So I ask you, what kind of faith do you have this morning? If you’re not sure, then do a little fruit inspection. In verses 15 through 20 Jesus tells us to inspect a person’s fruit.

II. Fruit Inspection Needed

When buying fruit, we naturally look over the apples, oranges, and bananas before putting them in our cart. We want the best looking ones. We don’t want damaged or diseased fruit. In essence we are making judgments about which ones are the best ones, the healthy ones.

Yes, Jesus is telling us to do some fruit inspecting. We are to judge, not the people themselves but the fruit they are producing. The fruit, however, does reveal the kind of person that the fruit is coming from.

Far too often people make judgments about others based on their looks, the color of their skin, their nationality, or their economic status, all of which are wrong and sinful. The only criterion by which judgments can or should be made is their fruits or works. And even this is to be done over a period of time.

But remember what Jesus said in verses 1 through 5. They read, “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. “

It’s true that the world is full of judgmentalism. Sadly, those who cry out the loudest against judging are often the ones who practice it the most. Much of the judging in this world is wrong. Much of it is done for the wrong reasons and employs the wrong bases for making judgments.

When we are, however, put in a position of having to make judgments, remember those you judge will also be judging you, so use the same criterion on them that you would want them to use on you.

In other words, Jesus is saying be sure to start with yourself. Judge yourself before passing judgment on others. Our fruit inspection must start by looking into a mirror. Everyone who claims to be follower of Christ, needs to take a hard look in the mirror. There needs to be an inspection of self.

A. Inspection of Self

It’s easy to see faults in others, after all, our eyes are pointing outward. But when we get a speck of dirt in our eyes, we need help. We need a mirror or someone to look for us.

Jesus uses a hyperbole here for humor and effect. He points out how someone might focus on a speck that’s in someone’s eye, while ignoring the log that is in their our own eye.

Since the flow of this whole chapter is about eternal life, we have to conclude that Jesus is talking about the essentials of life, our ultimate destination, our final resting place, our eternal destination.

Does your fruit reflect that of a follower of Jesus? Do you, and others, see Jesus in you? Or do they simply see a good moral person that dabbles in religion a little bit on Sundays?

What we believe determines what we do and how we live? Consequently, the way we live reveals what we believe. So do we really believe what we say we believe? I saw a post on Facebook by a friend of mine that caught my attention this past week. It read, “Do you really believe what you believe to believe?

A good question. Do we really believe what we think we believe? The proof is in our fruit. The proof is in our actions. If we sin wilfully and refuse to repent of it, the answer is no, we don’t really believe what we say we believe. If we live a life that is selfish, unconcerned about the needs of others, the answer is no, we don’t really believe what we say we believe? If we are unwilling to make commitments to God in the giving of our time, talent, and money, do we really believe what we say we believe, the answer is once a again, no we don’t.

If we claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, and hope to go to a place called heaven, then we’d better do some self inspection. We need to be sure that our faith is the real thing, because the foolish kind of faith that many live by today, will only produce empty assumptions. I say empty because any hope based on the wrong kind of faith will fall apart when the storm of death blows in.

While inspecting our own spiritual fruit is necessary, there is a need to inspect the fruit of others, especially preachers and teachers. Anyone sharing information that will drastically affect the lives and future of others should have their fruit inspected thoroughly.

B. Inspection of Others

In verses 15 & 16 Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits.”

Things haven’t changed much since Jesus’ day. There are still a lot of wolves in sheep’s clothing. Matt Walsh, who’s a syndicated Christian writer, recently wrote a post that epitomizes the problem we have with false gospel preachers and teachers these days.

Things haven’t changed much since Jesus’ day. There are still a lot of wolves in sheep clothing. Matt Walsh, who’s syndicated Christian writer recently wrote a post that epitomizes the problem we have with false gospel preachers and teachers these days.

He writes, I spoke to someone at an event recently and he told me that a pastor at his Methodist church actually gave a sermon about lessons from Spider-Man. I guess he was trying to tap into the superhero craze, taking his preaching cues from Stan Lee instead of St. Paul. Millennials must love that! Well, this millennial didn’t. He left mid-sermon and found a new church that very day.

He then added, A woman emailed me last week to complain that her priest has given three homilies — three, in a row, Sunday after Sunday — on “inclusivity.” Yes, the brave warrior for Christ stood before his church and fearlessly waged war against the great spiritual danger of non-inclusiveness. This is the real problem we face, you see. There’s not enough including going on. It’s not that our families and marriages are falling apart. It’s not that millions of babies are being killed. It’s not that America is full of porn addicts. It’s not that our children are being sucked into a heathen culture of decadence and moral degradation. It’s the lack of inclusiveness. The road to Hell is paved with people who weren’t appropriately inclusive. That’s what this priest thinks, anyway. A priest who became a priest for reasons that are as unclear to me as they likely are to him.

Well, there is a lot of false gospels and nonsense being preached these days. One of the things I look forward to on vacations is attending other churches. As a result, I’ve heard some good, some not so biblical, and some confusing sermons along the way. One one Saturday night I sat listening or trying to listen to a sermon while looking at the pool table located in the middle of the pulpit area. I missed the sermon a few weeks earlier that included a bed in the pulpit.

Don’t take me wrong, I’m all for enhancing a messages with props, music, and video clips, but the message must be the main thing. And the message must be Scriptural and true to the scriptures. It should call sin those activities the Bible calls sin. it should major on the majors and minor on the minors.

And being sure that your faith and fruit line up with the Bible is a major concern that runs throughout the New Testament. Any faith that doesn’t produce fruits of righteousness is a false faith that produces nothing but empty assumptions about heaven and eternal life. Don’t get caught with a faith that’s full of empty spiritual assumptions.

Heaven should never be an assumption. It should be a certainty, a certainty that’s based on God’s unchangeable and trustworthy Word. The apostle John put it this way in , “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

What did He write? He wrote about how believers are to live in obedience to God’s word. He writes in , And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

A faith that doesn’t enable a person to keep God’s commandments and doesn’t guide him in the way in which Christ walked is a fake faith, it’s a foolish faith and it will only result in empty spiritual assumptions about heaven and eternal life. It has not real meat on it.

Jesus tells us to examine our fruit and the fruit of those we listen to. He tells us to examine whether we are just listeners or doers of God’s Word. And in verses 13 &14 Jesus tells us to examine the pathway we are traveling. He says, “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. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

III. Pathway Inspection Needed

Needed

What kind of spiritual pathway are you traveling? Is it the easy way? (Hit the Easy button). This is the kind of life that America idolizes. We want everything to be easy. We want easy jobs and good pay. We want easy banking. We want easy travel.. We want an easy religion that requires little, but gives us much.

Jesus warned of just such a Christianity. It’s the easy way that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. It’s easy because it doesn’t demand much. It doesn’t demand holiness. It doesn’t demand giving money to God, to His church, or to others. But it does allow you to live in immoral relationships. It allows you to have sex outside of marriage. It allows you to gossip, lie, hold grudges, be judgmental, steal, cheat, watch shows full of nudity and foul language, be a bully, and ignore the needs of others around us. Yes, the easy kind of Christianity allows all of this and more.

When was the last time you examine your spiritual journey, the pathway you’re traveling? When has your faith caused you difficulty? When has your giving to God puts you in a tight place financially? When has your life caused you a problem because you took a stand for Christ, and your fiends or fellow employees made fun of you or criticized you? When has your faith caused you to sacrifice doing what you wanted, because your church needed you, your neighbor needed you, or your enemy needed you?

So I ask you, when has your faith caused your way to be hard, narrow, and self-sacrificing?

This chapter gives us a lot to think about.

Conclusion: In conclusion I can’t get away from what Jesus says in verses 21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 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?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

There will be many who believe they are going to heaven, but will discover too late that what they believed they believed, they didn’t really believe. Their belief was not the biblical kind of belief. It was not a saving kind of faith. It was not a life changing, soul saving, I surrender all kind of faith.

Jesus wants all of us to examine our faith. He wants us to examine our fruit. He wants us to examine our pathway, our way of living. He wants us to ask, is it hard and narrow? Does your faith cause you difficulty and problems? Does it cause you to be committed to knowing and obeying the Word of God. If not, it’s a faith that won’t hold up when death comes knocking.

Today would be a good time to choose the right kind of faith. Today would be a good time to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior. He took your sins upon Him. He died in your place. He wants to save you. He will save you, but it takes surrendering your life completely to Him. Will you do that?