Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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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.