Matthew 7:13-29 - The Proof of Kingdom

Tom Shrader examines Jesus' concluding words in the Sermon on the Mount, contrasting the narrow gate that leads to life with the wide gate that leads to destruction. He warns against false prophets who appear in sheep's clothing but are inwardly wolves, emphasizing that many who claim to follow Christ will be rejected because they never truly knew Him. Shrader challenges listeners to examine whether they are on the narrow way of genuine salvation through Christ alone or the broad way of religious activity without true faith.

“Christianity is not a religion or a faith that demands poverty, but it is a narrow, demanding, hard way that includes repentance.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Sermon on the Mount

Recorded: May 30, 2002

Duration: 44 min

Themes: salvation, judgment, discipleship, false prophets, narrow way, eternal life, repentance, discernment, questioning salvation, doubting faith, new believer, spiritual mentor, pastor, struggling with assurance, young adult, seeking truth

Scripture: Matthew 7:13-29, Matthew 5:1-7:29, John 14:6, John 10:9, Acts 4:12, 1 Timothy 2:5, Luke 18:22, Matthew 7:1, Matthew 7:15, Matthew 7:16, Matthew 7:20, Matthew 7:21, Matthew 7:22, Matthew 7:24, Matthew 7:26, Matthew 7:25, Matthew 7:27, Matthew 7:28

Theological Themes: soteriology, gospel declaration, exclusive salvation, false teaching, biblical discernment, saving faith, eternal security, christology

Full Transcript

We are looking today at the end, at least in terms of our study, of our examination of the Sermon on the Mount. That's Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. We pick up today with some rough stuff. I probably should do a little bit of explanation at the front.

If you're with us for the very first time, we're really glad you're here. It's an honor to have you with us. But you're in for some maybe tough material, so hang in there. It's only 45 minutes, so you'll be okay. You'll live. It's not going to kill you. In fact, it might save you, and that would be a good thing too.

The Command to Enter

Matthew 7, verse 13: Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate." I'm going to focus for a second on the word "enter." It's in the Greek aorist imperative tense, and that simply means it demands an action. It's not an option. It's not an invitation.

Even as Christians now, we've gotten into this practice of inviting people to come to Christ. Well, it's not an invitation. It's a command. It's "choose this day." It's "come" in command form. We don't even really share our faith, although that's what we say we do. We need to be clear on this: we're declaring the gospel. You may share part of your faith, but ultimately there's a declaration of the gospel. That's what we're concerned about. Jesus says, "Enter." This is something that's demanded of you.

Two Gates, Two Ways

Then He tells you where to enter: "Enter by the narrow gate." He contrasts two gates: "For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter by it. The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."

Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate"—a specific gate. Ultimately, it's what He's saying: it's the only gate. It's the correct gate. John Stott writes this: "There are not many roads to heaven but one. There are not many good religions, but only one. Man cannot come to God in any way that man devises, but only in the one way that God Himself has provided."

When you and I come to deal with a holy God, it's important for us to understand this is not something that's open to negotiation. Jesus doesn't come along and say, "Give my way a try, and if that doesn't work, there are other options out there." Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me." This is a definite article: *the* way—no other way; *the* life—no other life. This is it: *the* truth—there is no other truth. As if we might have missed it, He says, "No one can come to the Father except through me."

Scripture's Testimony to the Exclusive Way

In John 10:9, Jesus declares, "I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved." Peter utters these words that are recorded in Acts 4: "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we may be saved." Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:5, "There is one God and one mediator between God and man, and that is Christ Jesus."

When Jesus speaks of the narrow gate, Jesus is talking about the narrow gate that leads to life. The context always in this conversation is life here, but ultimately life eternal—those "What do I have to do to go to heaven?" kinds of questions.

The Rich Young Ruler's Example

It was the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked that question: "What do I have to do to go to heaven?" Jesus says, "Obey all the commandments." The rich young ruler said, "I did all that." Jesus said, "One thing you still lack: sell your possessions, distribute it to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven. Come and follow me" (Luke 18:22).

His response was this: "When he heard these things, he became very sad because he was extremely rich." What Jesus is doing there is not just stripping him of his possessions. Christianity is not a religion or a faith that demands poverty. Jesus isn't teaching salvation by philanthropy. We've talked about this before. Jesus is not saying, "If you want to go to heaven, you've got to give everything away." By definition, the minute I give it away and give it to you, now you're cursed. So it's like that thing kids used to have—that time bomb. We're just passing our stuff around and hoping we don't hold it when we die. That doesn't make any sense.

That's not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying there's a narrow, demanding, hard way. It includes repentance.

The Contrast Made Clear

Sometimes you don't even need much background. Just read it. Let it say what it says in terms of this contrast. He describes two gates. See it? One is a narrow gate. One is a wide gate. The wide gate is easy. It's attractive. It's appealing. I would say it's inclusive. It's permissive. The narrow gate is just that: it's narrow and it's demanding.

When you start to hear about Jesus as the only way, you ought to have a flinch to that if you're not a Christian. You ought to respond to that. There was a lady—I think it was two weeks ago now, maybe three weeks ago after church, the 11 o'clock service—so I didn't have to move on to the next service. She came up and accosted me essentially. Her issue was something that I had said. She said that I was narrow-minded and very exclusive and insensitive to other people.

I don't think I am. I think God is. I think God's narrow-minded. I think God is very exclusive. If I'm going to—and by me, I don't mean this personally, I mean if I, you, all of us—if we're going to follow Him, we're by definition going to be on a narrow way.

The Sobering Reality of Numbers

Let me point out something else He says. On this broad way, there are a lot of people on it. On the narrow way, there aren't many people. That's an evolution of my thought. When I was a non-believer, I wasn't a Christian, I thought everybody goes to heaven. I mean, there are a couple of exceptions. Hitler doesn't go to heaven. Your ex-wife doesn't go to heaven. I mean, there are about 15 or 20 people, but everybody else is going to get there.

Then I became a Christian, and I thought, well...

The Narrow and Broad Ways

When I first encountered this passage about the narrow way, I admit I had some faulty thinking. I thought, "Well, not everybody's going to go to heaven." Then I thought it was like the PGA Tour - 140 golfers tee it up on Thursday, they cut it down to 70 plus ties on Friday night, and that's what heaven's like. Everybody kind of tees it up and about half of them get there.

But we can't make those kinds of judgments - we're not God. Yet He tells us something important. Picture this in your mind: there are two arches here. This broad, easy way says, "Come on, come on in here, all of you. Doesn't matter what you think, doesn't matter what you do - just do the best you can and come down this road." Then there's another road that says, "Listen, this is very narrow and very demanding. There's nothing you can do - it's all going to be done by Christ." This is a three or four-lane highway with a lot of people on it, while Scripture says there's not a bunch of people over here on the narrow way.

Objective Truth vs. Subjective Truth

A lady came up after church, and her fundamental error in thinking was this: she said, "I believe this Bible's true for me, but I can't speak for everybody else." Here's the problem with that - it's either true or it isn't. Two plus two is four for everybody. God is an objective truth, not a subjective truth.

If I asked you right now how many of you are cold, some hands would go up - women, I would hope, not guys. If I asked how many of you are hot, some hands would go up. If I asked how many are just right, some hands would go up. If I asked who's right in that analysis, there's a sense in which you're all right because it's subjective truth.

Do I look good? Some of you would say yes, some would say no, and others would say, "Well, okay, as good as you're going to look." But if I say to you, "Is this wall here or not?" and some of you say, "Well, I think it is" and others don't, then I can say to you, "No, you're wrong." It's here. It's true.

The Reality of God's Existence

When you're dealing with God, it doesn't matter what you think He is. It doesn't matter what you think about whether this partition is here - it's here. God's an objective truth.

I was at Borders today organizing my summer reading, looking through walls - literally walls - of spirituality books with all sorts of concepts of God. We cannot say that God therefore is all these different concepts. At East Valley Bible Church and Priority Living, we say this is the inherently true Word of God. So it really doesn't matter what you think - I don't mean this offensively at all. It's that He is.

A Letter to Billy Graham

After Billy Graham did a crusade in Melbourne, Australia, someone wrote this letter to the editor: "After hearing Dr. Billy Graham on the air and viewing him on television and reading reports and letters concerning him and his mission, I am sick of the type of religion that insists on my soul and everyone else's soul needs saving, whatever that means. I've never felt that I was lost, nor do I feel that I daily wallow in the mire of sin, although preaching seems to insist that I do. Give me a practical religion that teaches gentleness and tolerance, that acknowledges no barriers of color or creed, that remembers the aged, teaches children of goodness and not sin. If in order to save my soul, I must accept such a philosophy as I have heard preached recently, I prefer to remain forever damned."

Permission granted, I would assume.

The Natural Response to the Narrow Way

This ought to be the response that you have. Whether you're here for the first time or you've been here all the time but never come to grips with this - it should be like fingernails on a chalkboard. I'll tell you, the first time I heard somebody talk about the narrow way, it was fingernails on a chalkboard to me. I said, "I don't buy that for a second. I'm out of here."

This guy had invited me to his house simply to talk about Jesus being the only way. He didn't even get to the gospel - he got to "Jesus is the only way," and I said, "I'm done. Let's have dessert fast because I'm history. I'm gone. I don't buy it. I don't believe it."

You ought to have a response to that. That's what He's saying - it's a narrow way, a demanding way, an exclusive way. It ought to produce in your mind all sorts of questions: What about those people who never hear? What about those people who don't quite get the presentation as well as you get it? What about children raised in environments where they don't hear? What about all of them?

I can give you my view on them, but that's an irrelevant comment. What about you? You've heard. Jesus says it's a narrow way. I believe Him because I believe it's true.

Beware of False Teachers

Then He issues a warning. He says this: "Beware of false..."

Watch Out for False Prophets

Watch out for false prophets. It's a warning that says, look out, be on your guard. Watch out for false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. He's saying in essence, as you're trying to enter by the narrow gate and walk on that narrow way that leads to life, watch out for those that are going to mislead you. Watch out for those that are going to point to this other gate.

By the way, this big wide gate, it's not marked hell. Nobody thinks they're going to hell. You might know some weird eccentric person who says I don't care, but most everybody that even thinks about this thinks they're going to heaven. Even the person that says, all I have to do is be good. Even the person that's judging this saying, I don't believe this. They don't say, I don't believe this, so I'm going to hell. They say, I don't believe that. And after all, God's a God of love.

I mean, let's reason here together. God's a God of love, isn't He? And how could a loving God send somebody to hell forever? Where's the love in that? See, and that's how they reason. And then they say, so I must be okay somehow because they'll take God and they'll disproportionately emphasize one attribute, His love, at the expense of His justice.

Let me flip that love thing around on you. What kind of a just God would let unrepentant sinners in heaven? See how that works? We begin to take Him as a God. Watch out for the false prophets.

They Come in Sheep's Clothing

And they're going to come along. They're in sheep's clothing. Here's what He's saying. They look like, they walk like, they dress like pastors, teachers. They carry Bibles. They're known in the scripture under these terms: false brothers, false apostles, false teachers, false speakers, false witnesses, even false Christ.

Jesus said this: "See to it that no one mislead you, for many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will mislead many, for false Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so to mislead, if possible, even the elect." When Jesus was roaming this earth and He was the Messiah, there were others who were claiming to be Messiah. There's always false prophets. There's always false messiahs. What Jesus is talking about here is you figuring out these false prophets.

It goes right in line. We talked about it last week. Probably the most familiar verse in our culture, even to those who don't know the Bible, is Matthew 7:1: "Do not judge lest you be judged." Well, obviously I've got to understand that Jesus just says that, but He's telling me right here in verse 15, I better be judging. I better have my guard up. I better be aware of false prophets. How am I going to judge if somebody is a false prophet? I must be able to distinguish between the true prophet and the false prophet.

Know the Real Thing

That's why the old, old, old story is such a great application. The story of the person that's being trained to be a bank teller. And now they're at the end of the training and the story is in the newspaper that somebody's passing counterfeit $20 bills. So on this last day of training, that guy that's going in to be trained to be a teller says, "Hey, there's counterfeits coming into the city. When are you going to show us the counterfeit so we'll recognize it?" And they said, "We're not going to. We're going to show you the real thing so that when the counterfeit comes along, you won't miss it."

I have friends who say, "Okay, I'm going to take whatever faith it is, you fill it out. And they're going to say, I'm going to take this and I'm going to study it so I can counter my friend's teaching with it and I'm going to be able to talk to my friend about it." I've never been a big fan of that. I just don't get that. Here's what I'd do. I'd study this so that when somebody came to me, I would know the false teaching.

Listen, I'll be really honest with you. Most of you already know this. There are probably a couple dozen people, maybe more in this room who just know this word better than I do. They know the Greek, they know the history, they know the word, they've graduated from seminary, they're pastors. There's probably two dozen people in this room who know this stuff better than I do. If you want to come running up afterwards and play stump Tom, it's an easy thing to do. That's not a hard thing to do. And I'm very open about it.

I'll tell you what you won't do though. You won't catch me with bad doctrine. You're not going to stump me. Because even though you've got some chapter and verse and you got something, when I hear it, I know the real thing well enough that I'm just going to say to you that's not right. I may need some time, but that's not right.

They Come from Within

These false prophets are in sheep's clothing. That means they're in the fold. As Paul is saying goodbye to the elders at Ephesus, he says this: "I know after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. They come in from among themselves, they will arise speaking perverse things. Therefore be on the alert."

Jude writes this: "Certain people have crept in unnoticed. Those who long beforehand were marked out for condemnation, they're ungodly people who turned the grace of our God into license and they deny our only master and Lord." He says, beware, watch out. Wolves are known to be merciless, ferocious. They're ravenous. They're there to destroy. They're clever. They're looking for victims. Watch out. Watch out for these false prophets.

What's interesting is, if you read most of the Christian literature today and you say, "Who's the enemy?" Most people would say, if they read, it's the ACLU, it's Planned Parenthood, it's Hollywood, it's the media. Jesus doesn't say, watch out for Hollywood. He doesn't even say, watch out for those guys out there. He says, watch out for the guys in here. Here's what He's saying. You're going to end up with churches where you got guys in pulpits and God forbid women in pulpits. You're going to end up with

Churches where you have Sunday school teachers, worship leaders, and people in worship positions who are false prophets, teaching a false gospel. So you better know what the real thing is.

See, that's why we say to you over and over again, this isn't church. What we do here, this isn't church. Some of you make the mistake of treating it like church. I've had people say to me, "What you do here on Thursday noon is my church," and immediately I say to them, "You've got issues, my friend, because this isn't church." It's not designed to be a church. This is a tool in your bag—this is the five iron. This is one club that you can use to maybe talk to your friends or get something that fills in some gaps. But if you have to choose between this and church, you ought to get out of here and never come back if you can't do both. If you're sitting there today saying this replaces church, you've got a problem. You need to be in church.

Finding a Good Church

Now that raises a question: what kind of church? There are so many churches. We think it's unique, by the way. Almost 20 years ago now we were in New Guinea at a pastor's conference, and this shows you—these are natives. These guys, probably 200 of them, probably 25 or 30 had shoes. Some of them had paddled canoes through jungles and swamps for two or three weeks to get to this conference.

It's really interesting because one of the speakers—there were four or five of us—was Franklin Graham. So they're up there saying, "Our speaker today is Franklin Graham," and they're just sitting there. Then they go, "This is Billy Graham's son," and everybody, all of a sudden, here are these natives responding. The first question, the first night of open forum, first question of the whole night: this guy, a barefoot guy living in the jungle, puts up his hand and says, "Why are there so many churches here, and how can we get our kids to not be interested in alcohol and girls?" I thought, "Man, I'm feeling like I'm home again." That's the universal question.

Well, why are there so many churches? Because a lot of these churches are bad false churches. You need to find a church. Well, how do you find a church? You find a good church where the Scriptures are taught, especially as it relates to salvation.

I was thinking today—I've never thought I could write a book, but I got a title today at the bookstore: "What's Wrong with Man and How God Fixes It?" What's wrong with man? Well, it's sin. How does God fix it? Through Christ and Christ alone.

False Prophets Appear as Shepherds

These false teachers—I just want you to understand—they are not appearing as sheep. They're appearing as shepherds. And they're clothed to look like good shepherds. But they're not genuine. They're false. You have to know the real thing. That's how you begin to spot them.

What Jesus does is say you're going to know them ultimately. They're going to show their true colors by their fruit, by what they produce. Look at verse 16: "You'll know them," speaking of these false prophets, "you'll know them by their fruits." Verse 20: "So then you'll know them by their fruits."

In that section, what Jesus is saying is a rose bush produces roses, not tulips, and a cherry tree produces cherries, not grapes. A false prophet will ultimately be seen for who he or she really is, for teaching something other than the truth.

The Ornamental Orange Illustration

We have in our backyard—it's become infamous because it supplies so many illustrations—this orange tree that produces ornamental oranges. They are good for looking at, smelling, and cleaning up. They have no other function that I can see. The first year we moved in there, there were thousands of them on this tree, literally. They looked good, and I went out and picked one and brought it in. Susan said, "Don't eat that." I said, "Why?" She said, "It's an ornamental orange." I said, "Well, what does that mean?" She said, "Well, it's just to look at."

Really. She had an orange there, and when you set them down—an orange from the grocery store and an ornamental orange—they looked very similar. In fact, the ornamental orange looked better. But when you cut it, it was just rotten and really, I don't even know what they call it, just yucky on the inside. You couldn't possibly eat it.

See, a false prophet looks really good on the outside, but when you cut it, all of a sudden you see that they don't really teach the Word of God. They tell you a way of salvation that may not in fact at all be true.

The Distortion of Love

I tell you what they do, by the way. They clothe themselves most often in love. "I love you. I care for you. We're the church that loves. We're the church where love grows, love expands—love, love, love, love. We've got love all over the place. Love, love, love, love, love." Because don't you want to be loved? All you need is love. Everybody needs love. That's what I keep hearing. Everybody wants love.

So love is there, and I slide in the love. But what happens is I slide in the love and I don't get in the justice, the wrath, the mercy of God. So I've got a whole church based on a distorted view of God and God's love. I don't talk about the cross.

Do you know, to talk about Christianity and not talk about the cross is, in a sense, not to talk about Christianity at all? Christianity is the cross. Christianity is Christ. Christianity is His death. Christianity isn't just loving your neighbor—obviously that's part of it. Here's what they're saying: you're going to know these people by their fruits. You're going to know them by what they teach, and you may even know them best by what they don't teach.

A Scary Warning

Now Jesus comes to a very scary part of Scripture, I think. Verse 21: "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven." These are people who are saying Jesus is Lord. They're acknowledging Him as Lord. It seems to be that it has in there the idea of some sense of who He is, or at least some sense of treating Him appropriately.

as such. Not everybody who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Verse 22. Many will say to me on that day. That day is a general reference to a time of divine judgment. It's talked about the day of the Lord, some day of judgment. Many will say to me on that day, did we not prophesy in your name and did we not cast out demons in your name and in your name did we not perform many miracles?

See what's going to happen. Allow me this because this is not the way it unfolds but imagine that at the end of your life Jesus is saying to you why should I let you into heaven. These people are saying because of what I did. Look at what I did. We're casting out demons. We're doing great things. There were a lot of works.

Did they really do this? We don't know. We don't know if they imagined this. We don't know if they dreamt this. We don't know if they made it up. We don't know if they really did through the power of Satan. We don't know if God did something. We don't know. All we know is they said here look at what we did and Jesus utters these extraordinarily harsh, judgmental, exclusive, damning words. Depart from me I never knew you.

Obviously it doesn't mean no in an intellectual sense. He certainly knew who they were. He knew what they were all about. He's God. He's saying I didn't have an intimate relationship with you. I did not have an intimate relationship. You depart. You depart from me I never knew you. Imagine that. In other words, there are people around who are doing a bunch of stuff but they aren't really Christians at all.

Religious Activity Doesn't Equal Salvation

We have 15 messages in this tape series so that means we have eight tapes with a blank on the other side. We're going to put on the other side of that, so the tape will be next week, genuine marks of saving faith. We excerpted this from John MacArthur's study Bible. What we do in the first half is say you may have these things present in your life but they don't mean that you're a Christian. Here's some of them: religious activity, ministry involvement, conviction of sin. You may be able to point to a time and say I had a time where I accepted Christ.

Even the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association will render numbers something like this. If a hundred people walk forward in a crusade, only ten are converted. Now I'll guarantee you those other ninety, I know people well enough to know, those other ninety when you sit down with them and you say you're a Christian you say you bet back at a Billy Graham crusade I walked an aisle. Hell is going to have people in it, I assume you understand this, that have walked an aisle at a Billy Graham crusade. Hell's going to have in it people who asked Jesus into their heart when they were five.

Now all of these things we're talking about should be evident in your life. If you're a Christian they will be, but because they're present it doesn't mean you're a Christian. Do you see that? Did I make that clear? Do you see that distinction? So you can have religious activity all over the place. We all know somebody who's been very involved in religious activity, who's led Sunday school classes, pastors who've blown out, whatever it is, and all of a sudden they just blow out on a spouse or they do whatever.

Genuine Marks of Christianity

Here are the marks of genuine Christianity. You don't need to write them down because they'll be on that tape. That I love God, that I repent from my sin, that I'm humble, that I'm committed to God's glory, that there's a selfless love in my life, that I'm separated from the world's value system, that there's spiritual growth, that I'm obedient, that I'm continually in this attitude of prayer. There's something different is what we're saying.

Is that present in your life? See, when I'm standing before Jesus in this hypothetical situation and I start listing and, well, boy, you should have seen priority living and you should have seen this, you should have seen that, He's gonna go, eh. If I'm in heaven, it's for this reason. Not because I deserve it, not because I've earned it, but by His grace.

What It Means to Be a Christian

It's by an understanding that I'm a sinner. Let's just, let me check time here. We have 13 minutes. Let's make sure we get this right today. I'm a sinner. I presume you're all gonna say yes to that. I presume that there's enough empirical data in your life, enough people around that we can get an amen to that in your life that you're a sinner. I assume that somewhere, at least once, you sin. So at that point, I'm a sinner.

What the Bible says is that the wage of sin is death, which means it's separated me from God, but the free gift through Christ Jesus is eternal life. That means that I believe that Jesus is who He said He was, that I respond in repentance and brokenness to my sin, and I trust Christ and Christ alone, and I acknowledge. I don't make Him Lord, He is Lord. I acknowledge Him for who He is, Lord of all, King of kings. That's what it means to be a Christian.

Now, because I'm a Christian, there'll be all those other things. There'll be religious activity, and my life will change. We see that all over time. It is so great. You just talk to people. That's the neat thing about having done this for a long time.

Witnessing Life Change Over Time

One of the great things about hanging in here, we've been out 11 or 12 years now, is we now have two and three, four generations of people at tables. People who have brought people, who have brought people, who have brought people. These studies now have people in them who walked in here, and they can relate to what I said at the beginning, because when they were done, they were up here in my face saying, you're full of it, and they sent me the emails. I get that kind of stuff all the time. I assume you know that.

And they'll come at me, and it'll be a personal attack, but in reality what I've learned is they're not really attacking me, they just don't want to deal with this right here. And now God's changed their life. You know what? We got a boat. I'm talking to a guy one day, and he said, you know

I used to just swear constantly. All I did was cuss and swear, and he said all of a sudden one day, after receiving Christ as my Lord and Savior, about a year later, I realized I don't even cuss anymore. He said, "I've been trying to get rid of that for 13 or 14 years."

I'm just telling you, if you're a Christian, your life will change. If it doesn't change, you better wonder. If you've been a Christian in your mind for 10 years, and there's no life change, you're at the same level, something's wrong with you. Not me, not us, not God—you. Something's wrong with you.

That's why when they say the divorce rate among Christians and the rest of the world is the same, there's no way. It may be the same among churchgoers and non-churchgoers, but to think that everybody in a church is a Christian is silly. By the way, here's the way they ask that question: "X percentage of Baptists have a divorce." Well, wait a minute. Maybe they had that divorce before they were a Christian. Did we ever think to ask that type of question?

Those Who Became Christians After 18

How many of you became a Christian after age 18? Let's see your hand. Look around the room. Look at that. It just gives me goosebumps. These are my kind of people. Put your hands up one more time, if you would, because these are all the really bad sinners right here. These are all the ones that can tell you the stories. They're the ones that can tell you the good ones.

I've noticed that at Priority Living Studies in our church, we tend to attract those kind of people. I'll tell you why. I think those people are the people that tend to be most serious about their faith. It's not to judge the rest of you. I'm not saying you aren't. I'm just saying those people got such a clear view of how sinful they are. They can go to a class reunion and hear it over and over again, and they understand what they've been saved from.

They got old Billy Joe singing, "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints because the sinners are lots more fun." That's a very distorted view of God. That's like saying in hell, "I just can never make the eight ball," but that's what hell is. It's eternal suffering. It's torment. It's separation from God and anger and anguish forever.

The Reality of Eternity

Getting hot today, isn't it? People coming in today say you're getting hot, but you know what I hear people say every time? I say, "It's hot today." Here's what I hear all the time: "Only got to put up with it for three months. Boy, once we get to late September, it'll be great again."

Now, there's nobody in hell going, "Only got to put up with it for three months," or three years, or three centuries, or three millennia. "I'm here forever." That's what He's saying: "Depart from me, I never knew you." Apparently these were people who were around.

The Two Houses

Therefore, look at verse 24 and verse 26. Let's compare them again. "Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built a house on rock." Verse 26: "Everyone who hears these words and doesn't act on them may be compared to the foolish man who built his house on sand."

Here's two guys building a house. We get the sense that it's the same general location, the same type of construction material. They're building houses. They're both going to be tested. The only difference between these houses is one's built on rock, one's built on sand.

Verse 25: "The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they burst against the house. Yet it did not fall, for it was founded on a rock." In the other one, verse 27: "The rains descend, the floods came, the winds blew, burst against the house, and it fell." Why? It was built on sand.

He says this: you're either a wise man or a foolish man. The wise man hears the Word of God and responds. The foolish man hears the Word of God and is disobedient, and their whole house will one day come tumbling down. It's imagery. There will be a great fall. It leads right back to what He's talking about when He's talking about a way that leads to life and a way that leads to death.

The Crowd's Reaction

It's unfair because we've taken 15 weeks or whatever to go through this. Jesus sits down and delivers this in one sitting, obviously, to them. Here's the reaction, verse 28: "The result was when Jesus finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority, not as the scribes."

The scribes were ones who said, "Here's what others said." Jesus said, "Here's what I say." In fact, remember when we saw that back in chapter 5, verse 21? He said, "Here's what the ancients said, but I say to you. Here's what the ancients told you, but here's what I say to you." He's not talking about Moses. He's talking about, "Here's what the scribes and Pharisees taught you. They had taught you all those things, but here's what I'm saying to you."

They were astounded. They were amazed. They were dumbfounded. They'd never heard anything like that before. You know what alarms me about that account? It doesn't say that they believed. It's just that they went, "Ooh." It's just that they went, "Wow."

Two Types of People

Maybe that's you. We got all sorts of shapes and sizes in this room. We got old men, and we got young men, and we got older women, and younger women. We got fat people, and thin people, and smart people, and stupid people. We got people well-dressed. We got people not dressed so well. We got some of you that got a boatload of money, and we got some of you that don't have two coins to rub together, but we got only two types.

of people in God's eyes. Those that are as kids, and those that aren't. Those that are on the narrow way, and those that are on the broad way.

Which Road Are You On?

So here we go. We'll apply it. Which road are you on? If you're on that broad road, you can stop, get off, and enter by the narrow gate. Jesus is not giving you here a bunch of suggestions. Jesus is telling you to act.

Are you one of those people that just come, and you listen to this stuff, and you say, that's really good, that's really amazing? That's not enough. Do you believe?

This Is Between You and God

Every once in a while, I'll get an email or somebody saying, how come you don't do an altar call? How come you don't have people come forward, or raise their hands, or make a decision? I have some personal issues there, but this isn't about you coming forward, and us trying to justify, and let everybody see what's going on. This is between you and God.

There's a sense, and please understand this when I say it, there's a sense in which I don't care if you respond. By that I mean, I'm not going to change this to make you respond. If all of a sudden we're measuring response, there's such a temptation to change this. I don't want to change it. This is between you and God. This isn't about me. It's not about us. It's about you. Between you and God.

I don't want you walking out that door saying, gee, I don't know where he stands. I don't want you grappling with what I'm doing here. I want you to figure out, are you on the narrow way? What have you done with your sin?

The Reality of Sin and God's Love

All I'm going to ask you to do is think about how offensive your sin is to God. Think about when somebody offends you or somebody hurts you. And you're an imperfect human being. Now we sin against a holy, righteous God. He's offended. And contrary to what you read, there's anger and there's wrath and there's judgment.

But there's also love. I've whacked love around today. I don't want to diminish that at all. God is a God of love. How much does He love you? Come. Repent and come.

If this makes sense to you today and all of a sudden you're going, you know what? That makes sense to me. Let me tell you why. The Holy Spirit's opening your eyes. Come.

What Does It Mean to Come?

What does it mean to come? It means you can sit right where you are. You do business with Him. You tell God, listen, I'm a sinner. I'm separated from you by my sin and I accept Christ and Christ alone. And I repent from this sin and by your grace and your mercy and your strength, my life will change.

And one of the hallmarks of that is you'll get into a Bible teaching church. It may be here, it may be wherever. It doesn't matter. And all of a sudden you'll get into His word and all of a sudden you'll love Him and you'll want to love Him more. And you'll want to know about Him and you'll want to know who He is. See, that's how you're going to know Him. You're going to have to communicate to Him.

Growing in Love Through Communication

It's interesting to watch because I've watched Tyler and Haley. And I've watched them grow in their love for others. And at first they would just call. He'd call. Then they'd talk a little bit. Then they started going out. Then they'd talk more and more and more.

And after about three or four months, I said to Haley, how much is there to talk about? All you do is talk. He'd talk all day, all night. This is the truth. He leaves and her cell phone rings. And I go, what are you doing? What is he doing? She's sitting right here. She told him what she was doing 30 seconds ago. And finally I said to her, I said, Haley, the only way to stop this is to marry him that I can see. That'll shut that communication right off. Driving me crazy.

But see, with God, that's the way it is. Some of you sadly say, I remember when I was on fire for Christ. You don't have to remember it. Why aren't you on fire today? You're telling me that after 10 years of walking with Him, you don't know Him more and you don't love Him more. And you haven't seen Him work more. How can you not be more in love with Him today than you were then? And you ought to be as on fire today as then. You ought to be more on fire today than. It's a sad thing, isn't it? That's because this is work.

The Truth Jesus Spoke

What I just told you, by the way, is the truth. Because I didn't say it. That's what Jesus said. And that's between you and Him.

If you want to know what it means to be a Christian, talk to the person that invited you. Talk to the person who brought you here. Call this church. People at North Phoenix Baptist Church would love to talk to you about what it means to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Next week we start a new series. We'll spend seven or eight weeks in it. The series is titled, How to Stay Afloat in a World that's Circling the Drain. So we'll spend seven or eight weeks on that.

Father, help us see this truth and apply it to our life. We ask that in Christ's name. Amen. Have a great week. We'll see you next week.