Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
if you have a bible turn to matthew chapter seven we have two more uh sermons in our summer through the sermon on the mount we called it summer on the mount and we have this week and then next week we're going to finish it as you're turning there uh let me just extend also kind of in the in the same in the same vein of announcements just a praise report from last weekend it was so cool to be out of the sanctuary and into the park kind of like what marlon was describing and just allowing our church to go out into the wild in a sense and really as i stated at last week's church in the park the great joy of that service is not only all of us being together but also the river and the way that we get to watch god call people into his kingdom through the obedient act of baptism and we got to see over a hundred i don't know what the final number were but uh many people decided to make that proclamation that public declaration to the world that they're following jesus so praise god for that some of you uh leading up to that were probably a part of our church and listening to the sermons and getting to hear the stories that i got to hear some people had been waiting a long time to get baptized and other people had chosen that day uh without even really planning on being at the church in the park but passing by um decided to get baptized and heard the message that was preached the gospel that was shared and so whether you've been coming here a long time and you got baptized last week or maybe this is your first time at our church not in the park this is the first time in the building grateful that you're here and grateful that you've also gone through the obedience of not just getting baptized but also now following into the community that christ has called you to and i lead off by sharing that prayers report and welcoming in those who have been baptized because i think it's a really appropriate message that we're going to read this morning for anyone who has decided to follow christ to listen to the message that we're going to read this morning because sometimes you may consider following christ as a as a moment of great joy that will lead to greater joy and it's going to be easy sailing and following christ is going to be the end of the failures of your life in the beginning of heaven and you know parts of that are true but for those of you who were baptized last week you already know that just in a week's time there's some real challenges to following christ and i say that because jesus wants to be very clear up front with his disciples we see it in the sermon on the mountain we see other areas where the gospels give a warning of christ to people that are about to follow him or do people have chosen to follow him and he says be warned we look at a warning this morning one of the ways that he warns is in john chapter 16 verse 33 and if you're if you're new to the faith if you just got baptized your first week at church know this promise of god don't be surprised when trouble comes just because you decided to follow christ and just because the reality of god's love has been imparted into your heart to give you newness of life does not mean the world has stopped being fallen the world is still a dark place apart from the grace of god giving common grace to all and jesus says to his disciples you're still going to have trouble in this world but take heart as you follow christ and you come across the thorns of the curse that still exist jesus says take heart no matter what the world throws at you i've overcome and it's a great promise to cling to as a new disciple and a great promise to be reminded of someone who's already following christ the world's still crazy but christ has overcome there's a warning for the outside view of the follower of christ the world's still crazy this morning we're going to look at a an equally important warning an equally important warning for those of you who are new to here and for those of us to be reminded of because what we're doing right now is actually a dangerous venture you've decided to come to worship god to sing his praises to hear his word and you're going to get the interactions in some ways with god through the vessel of man because throughout the recorded history of god and his people he always sees it fit to use men and all of their fallen ways to bring glory to his own name and we're doing that this morning the songs were sung to god by people and today we open his word god's word preached unto his glory by a man and now the warning is this not only will you have trouble outside of the church but you're also going to have trouble inside because what you have confessed as you declared baptism is you decided to follow christ is that there is a living god with power to save to forgive to make me new and wherever there is power there will be people who use power for an unintended purpose it's true in all ways that you can experience a little bit of fame a little bit of celebrity a little bit of glory a little bit of success there will be those who look at the success and the power of whatever venture you can find yourself in life and make it about themselves and jesus says so it is with the church there's great power in the church god says i give you all authority to his disciples the power to forgive sins according to his word and his power he gives his disciples the power to do great things in his name for his glory and with that power is the reality that wherever there is power there are people who want to use it for the wrong reason and so that is the warning that we're going to look at this morning so read along with me in matthew chapter 7 verse 13. i'm actually going to start with what we talked about last weekend because i do believe that last weekend's sermon and this weekend's scripture are connected so start with me in verse 13 where we where we p where we left off last week enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it and now immediately jesus is going to say so watch out he's talking about the reality this morning that there are two paths to your life last week we looked at this caution that jesus gives where the world the culture says there are lots of paths to one destination you live a good life you'll have a good destination well jesus says there are actually two paths but there are two destinations there is a broad path that will lead to destruction and there is a narrow path and it's hard but it leads to life and then he says so watch out because some people are going to come on the scene with a different message they're going to try to broaden the path we're going to stand at the gate of the narrow way and they're going to come with a message that is not actually god glorifying but it is self-seeking he says beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they're ravenous wolves you'll know them by their fruits do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles even so every good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears bad fruit a good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire therefore by their fruits you will know them is going to happen not maybe they may come in says they're going to come and here's what you're looking out for and then he says something that is often read or preached with such a sobriety to it because of the heaviness of the reality that jesus is warning every single person that claims to follow him about he says not everyone who says to me lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven many will say to me in that day lord have we not prophesied in your name cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name and then i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness and then he's going to give a teaching that will save for next week about the two responses that people will have to the words of christ two builders two foundations but today we look at this reality that jesus says watch out because people are going to come in my name that don't actually represent me and i want you to know how to spot them and for those of you who've been following christ for more than a week and even those of you who have followed just in between last sunday and today it will not take long for you to know that this is true that the gathering that we're taking part in this morning has all sorts of landmines for human exaltation for the exchange of god's glory to be given to man and for people to be confused as a byproduct of someone else coming in not to glorify god but to feed themselves ravenous wolves that word ravenous can be translated hungry this is a sobering moment for all of us because we are singing songs sung by people listening to sermons preached by people and inviting each other into a community where there's going to be all sorts of people that will be mixed up with the temptation of the glory of god so what do we do this morning i want to look at this in three ways first i want to look at the care of jesus to offer the caution and the caution that he is offering is a caution for our protection this is for us to listen and to avoid the evil intentions of people who are coming to devour and then he's going to offer us clarity for our confusion i found this very helpful in my time in this passage of scripture in preparation of today because whenever you have this happen in your own journey of god where someone would come in with the name of god with evil intentions there will be as a byproduct confusion in your own heart in your own journey so we look for clarity for the truth to come as medication as the word says that it would wash us of the confusion that exists for all of you who know this lesson all too well and finally we're going to look at some questions for reflection this is like many passages in the sermon on the mount one of those mirrors to the soul where we look at it and we can't help but ask the question what does this say about me the warning not all paths will lead to life was last week today the reality is this not all ministers are genuine and not all ministries are authentic and yet god cautions us so that we would know how to see them out and continue to love god in spite of the failure of people so we start with a caution for our protection and this is not the first time in this particular sermon of christ where he offers a caution remember earlier in our series we looked at this very clear caution where jesus says beware of hypocrisy much of the lesson of the sermon on the mount is that man sees from the outside and god judges the inside and so jesus says watch out that you aren't living to impress people from the view that they see of you externally while your inside is rotting away don't be a hypocrite that is correction that he's offering us it's a caution to correct us now we have a caution for protection now he's saying watch out jesus it says in first peter is the shepherd of our soul and he's saying i care for you and i protect the people that want to follow me and here's how i want to protect you there are people who are not what they appear there are prophets and i think a full understanding of the word prophet goes so far beyond the kind of the cultural trend of the prophetic ministries being all about your health and prosperity and wealth and you come to me and i'll tell you your future of course the prophets of god that we read about have insight into the sovereignty of god and they have wisdom that can give you an outcome if you continue the behavior you continue to worship false idols then this will happen god will remove his protection over you and people will invade and your false idols will not protect you and that will be your lesson but it's also anyone who speaks as a messenger of god the prophetic word of god is to tell you the truth and the doctrine and the heart of god for you to be blessed by and jesus is saying not everyone comes as a messenger actually has the right message look what it says in ii timothy paul writing to timothy warning him in a similar way he says the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine they actually don't want it they don't want sound truth and they don't want sound doctrine and they don't want to know what the authority of the word is actually doing to shape them and mold them and call them and bid them once again to die what they're actually after is to suit their own desires they'll gather around teachers a great number of them to say that they're to say what their itching ears want to hear it was true in the first church it's true now that sometimes people are in the pursuit of god not to be shaped by him not to allow him to carve away all of the flesh that has nothing to do with his will for your life but actually just to affirm what they already believe about life and plans and godliness and so we live in a church age where people can find their appropriate echo chamber where they'll never be challenged and they'll always be affirmed and lifted up so they can leave church with the plans they have to crush life and you find the right teacher and where there are people with itching ears there are teachers ready to scratch ready to build an audience and build a following and stand to say never mind with a narrow gate you can broaden this whole thing it'll be a lot easier for you in jeremiah's day the jeremiah was called the weeping prophet his title gives you a picture of the way that the prophets given to us in the word often are called to very challenging lives with very challenging messages and in the days of jeremiah as impending invasion was looming there were some prophets that raised up and said don't worry about it don't listen to this crying prophet listen to the smiling prophet don't listen to this prophet preaching a message of repentance a message that would challenge your current version of the pursuit of god listen to us and everything stays calm and yet they were wrong and in our day we have for the itching ears of people who want their life to be as they see fit we have prophets will rise up and say listen to me and your life will be just as you want it and so the question that we start with as we consider the warning and we receive this offering from jesus to protect our souls from failing at the next headline news of the ravenous wolves exposed at the next time that we all have to go through the church listening as one of the elevated preachers and messengers is brought low again is how do we figure out who's who well there's one way that you can't do it and it's part of everything we've been growing in through this series because one way you can't figure it out is by what you can see look what jesus says beware of false prophets who come in sheep's clothing they come with a message of god they come with the title of prophet and they come with the gentle clothing of a fellow follower of christ and yet inwardly they desire to devour so reminder do not try to size people up you're not a good judge that's one of the lessons of this particular chapter matthew chapter seven it actually starts out with a very simple command judge not and when you first look into that command of jesus it's clearly because we often look at people and judge way too harshly so we get that cool picture where jesus says you know before you help someone with the sawdust in their eye you should probably take the log out of your eye it's like you judge pretty harshly for someone else but for yourself you're pretty merciful and gracious how about you start with yourself and go to someone else so you can curb your harshness until you've actually experienced mercy from god sometimes we judge too harshly but this is a lesson in how we judge too favorably it's a prophet that's all i need to know and look at the robes it's gentle clothes of white soft wool looks like a nice guy and how many times do we have to go through the lesson where the wolf is exposed and so many people say i never saw it coming we judge far too favorably you have a 45 minute glance at my life today and yet i stand on a stage and i open the bible share some memory verses sing the songs and you size me up you size other pastors up and you say must be a spiritual dude to do that he must be really right with god to have such insight and clarity if that's what you're thinking but in the reality is that you really don't know what's happening in my heart you don't know the struggles that god is working on me to chasten me and correct me and disciple me and so it is with the outward appearance of worship leaders and pastors and authors of book deals and huge followings online and we think surely this person is close to god it's clear their reputation says it all and jesus says don't judge on the outward because the inward is what matters so how do you judge the inward where jesus actually gives us the answer to that as well he says they come in sheep's clothing but inwardly they're ravenous wolves you'll know them by their fruits you can't judge someone's heart but you can judge what comes out of someone's heart you can judge what is actually happening that produces the behavior of people in the epistle of peter the first epistle of peter chapter five he actually gives an exhortation to elders and pastors and church leaders and anyone who is called to represent god so i hope i'm qualifying most of you who follow christ as ambassadors of the new creation and he says i got to tell you i got to exhort you how to do this and he gives an example in his exhortation of what not to do and what to do and these are really good measurements of the fruit of the messenger judge the fruit because you don't know what the root system looks like so here's what peter says he says the elders who among you first peter chapter 5 verse 1 i exhort you as a fellow elder and a witness to the sufferings of christ before he even gets into the details of character and content of behavior let's remind all of us what qualifies anyone to be inside the kingdom representative of the new creation the sufferings of christ let it never be something that isn't part of the qualification of who you're listening do they honor and receive the sufferings of christ on their behalf so they can suffer on your behalf and where the message of suffering is missing the suffering pastor will probably not be seen where the cross is missing from someone's view of who god is and why they're accepted the pastor picking up the cross is probably missing from the flock he says i'm qualified as an elder because of the witness of the sufferings in christ also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed oh if we could if we could raise up a new generation of church leaders who are living for the glory of eternity and not for the glory of the platform the glory that will be revealed how do we get there shepherd the flock of god which is among you serving as overseers listen not by compulsion but willingly here's a measurement of the heart a leader who preaches because it's part of the religious system that he has to do it's like i've got to do it this is i wish i didn't have to a person who lays down his life not because he receives the free gift of god's life about because it'd be you know good for pr if i did a little bit of ribbon cutting and went to the elderly care and took a picture and i'll love you because i'm called to but one of the fruit of a honest shepherd and honest caretaker is that they willingly suffer on behalf of the body of christ because of the suffering of christ suffered for them he says not for dishonest gain but eagerly don't measure the tree measure the fruit is the messenger coming with a dishonest gain because the reality is that anyone that god uses is a normal person but as soon as you get used to give god glory you have abnormal opportunity for sin you have an abnormal opportunity to take something that was good and mix your own glory with the glory of god so i have an abnormal opportunity to use the word of god and somehow benefit from it's strange but it's true greedy for gain i could gain a bigger church gain more followers gain more esteem gain more reputation gain more money for the budget there are so many motivations that have to be absolutely annihilated by the power of the holy spirit to separate the shepherds who are laying down the life from the shepherds that are building up their own nor is being lords over those entrusted to you but being examples to the flock and so we also repent of and caution and carefully avoid the power of the pulpit or the power of church authority as a way to control people do what i say that's why you have some standing at the gate to broaden it and now you have some standing at the narrow gate as a gatekeeper you got to come through me this is the church you have to be a part of and this is the way to know god everything else is dangerous come through me and i will tell you everything that you need to know about how i'm going to use your life peter is giving us the measurement of the fruit that we are supposed to watch out for and also the failure that we're supposed to cut off i heard a quote that said movements of god begin when the founders fall in love with jesus and movements die when people fall in love with the founders there is an absolute danger of coming to church and not worshiping god and there is an absolute cautionary warning of falling under the authority of a pastor or a church that is not leading with the authority of the word and so this is just a moment for i believe every church as they go through this passage of scripture to have a moment of humility to say so sorry for the ways that those things happen this is just a reality and it hurts and it's painful and when you come to seek jesus and you find someone who is all about themselves and you get ripped off it is a painful experience that jesus wants you to be covered from and cared for through and no doubt there are people here that are feeling this message all too real because people will let you down and they use power for greedy gain and they use the glory of god for the glory of themselves and for that on behalf of christ the church says sorry may you be healed by the clarity that i hope christ can bring this morning for anyone who's ever experienced that because the reality is when you experience someone preaching the name of christ in a way that fully lets you down there is confusion that will follow you'll be confused about church and church leadership and you'll be confused about sermons and worship and you'll go through a season of hurt and pain but i hope that we can as it says in ephesians we can use the word to wash us of any way that christ has been mixed up with wolves because what christ says when wolves are exposed is that they're cut off and they have to be departed from him they're not his they're exposed as hypocrites and fakes and somehow we have to separate the name of christ used for evil gain from christ himself because peter goes on to say that when the shepherd appears the shepherd will appear and all other shepherds will bow at his name so what is the clarity for any confusion that you may feel with your interaction with church leadership or with the name of christ in a way that is totally violating the person of christ for this i want to re-examine starting in verse 21. often times in my reading of this i've separated the first part of this a warning against false prophets and wh
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.