Gates and Fruit
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01-19-2020
Sermon on the Mount
Gates and Fruit
Last week we covered how once again Jesus invites us to pray through asking, seeking, and knocking
We also learned last week that God is a good Father and desires for us to meet Him in prayer
We wrapped up last weeks sermon with
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
That sort of summed up the entire sermon last week
That you and I are to love God with our entire being
And we are to love others as we love ourselves
And out of last week you all were issued a challenge
That actually wasn’t part of my notes but I do believe God is calling this church to return to a prayer something we have neglected for so long
The challenge was to find time each and everyday for quality time spent in prayer with the Father for 21 days
How is everyone doing
We are sending out emails, and making facebook posts and sending out text messages to help remind you and to help guide your prayers
We believe that when we pray it changes things
So this morning as we continue with our Sermon on the Mount
The gates and the fruits
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. 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. 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.’
This is where we are going to camp this morning
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.
At first glance we have probably heard this verse before and we probably have some sort of understanding about this verse
These verses are implying that there are only 2 choices in life
Those choices are very important and those choices will lead to somewhere
We know that the choices Jesus is referring to is Heaven or Hell
These are the only 2 options, there is a not a Heaven B or a Hell A
Rather it is only Heaven or Hell
I have read that the size of the gates means something
Often times when you are going to a very special big event that is expecting a lot of people the gates will be wide and can be rather enticing
But if you are going somewhere that is secluded and not many people know about then the gate is not expected to be very large
Jesus is saying that you and I are to choose wisely because the narrow Gate is the right choice but that few will find it
So church this morning let me ask you something have you chosen the right gate?
Have you walked through the narrow gate or have you been misguided by false teachers and lies to go through the wide gate
Understand that if you have not made the decision to walk through the narrow gate and begin a relationship with Jesus you can still do that today
But understand that you are not promised tomorrow
I find it interesting that God talks about wide and narrow gates and then moves directly into false teachers
I believe those go hand in hand
Those people who are heading towards the wide gate are believing a lie, whatever lie that is they are believing it
Church it is our job to simply present the truth and introduce them to Truth Himself and then allow the Holy Spirit to do the saving
See those heading for the wide gates often times are listening to false teachers
Either they are telling them heaven and hell doesn’t exist or they are telling that it doesn’t matter what you believe there are many ways to get into heaven and that Jesus is loves and won’t send anyone to hell
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?
Jesus tells those listen to be on alert
There are people who if you and I are not carful will lead us to the wide gate
They will lead us to death and destruction because they are false teachers
They are wolfs in sheeps clothing
We have talked about it the last few weeks but you want to know how to find out a a false teacher
You have to come to practice, you have to know the play book and you have to run your routes
Listen I want you all to take what you hear on Sunday Mornings and filter it through scripture and if there is a problem come to me or let me know
Jesus is warning you and I that there are people who are out there that will lead people astray and will seek to utterly destroy them
They may look the part, they may even sound like the part at times, but when you get to their heart they are not
Then Jesus tells us that you and I will know them by their fruit
If their actions don’t follow what they are saying we have a problem
I am not saying that you can only look for perfect people because you wont find any
Rather you and I are to look at the fruit that people produce
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.
Trees are known by the fruit the produce
Apple trees are called apple trees because they produce apples, they are not called orange trees
You know why apple trees are not called orange trees because they don’t produce orange trees
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.
Jesus explains that every good tree will produce good fruit and that bad trees will produce bad fruit
A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit
It is all about what those teachers produce
And church you need to be on alert because those false teachers sound like good teachers but because they are bad teachers they cannot produce good fruit
Are you on alert church
Are you filtering things through scripture
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, 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.’
Jesus is telling them to be on alert adn to filter things through scripture
Jesus is telling them if they do not they run the risk of thinking they are saved or thinking they have a relationship with Jesus
and it not being so because they are following a false teacher
Because it sounds so right and we are no longer testing things against scripture
Church I want you to be reading your Bible so that you can test what I say or what anyone else says against scripture
That is why we make the scriptures available to you, thats one reason why we record them so you can go back and review them
Because we don’t want anyone to stand before God and God tell them I don’t know
We don’t want anyone to think they have a relationship with Jesus and in all actuality they don’t
Which church is why we explain salvation almost every Sunday
In many churches today there is a false sense of salvation because at some point you were asked to walk down an aisle and pray a prayer
And someday those people will stand before God and try to walk through the narrow gate and God will say to them depart from me because I never knew you
All because church they followed the false teachers and for what ever reason failed to filter things through scripture
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Salvation is not something you can earn, or get on your own
Salvation is strictly a gift from God and the way you get gifts is to accept them
13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
To accept that free gift of salvation is to call on the name of the Lord
To invite Him to be Lord of your life
CLOSING
As we move into a time of invitation
We want to invite you to the front if you want to accept that free gift of salvation
To walk through the narrow gate this morning
Or maybe you have walked through that narrow gate, and God is calling you this morning to renew that relationship
Or maybe you need to spend sometime in prayer this morning
The altar is open