We come to the end of the Sermon on
the Mount. If the Christian life is, as we have suggested, a pilgrimage then it
must have a destination. This is our Lord’s final warning concerning the
journey — and how to get to the real destination.
Not Everyone
Matthew 7:21-23 NASB
"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.'
False Signs
One of the characteristic logical errors common to the
scientific age runs something like this:
·
If Joe is a major league baseball player, then he will have a
baseball bat.
·
Joe has a baseball bat.
·
Therefore, Joe is a major league baseball player.
All you need is one Little League baseball player with a bat
to prove that this is false. But the same type of logic can be applied to
religion, and it seems much more acceptable there. Let’s try the same logic
again:
·
If Fred is divinely inspired, then he will be able to work
miracles.
·
Fred is able to work miracles.
·
Therefore, Fred is divinely inspired.
Doesn’t that second set of logic seem so much more
appealing? But it is exactly the same logic, and it is every bit as false. Our
Lord warns us here that we will see many who prophesy in his name, cast out
demons in his name and even perform miracles in his name — and are headed
straight to hell. This, of course, brings up the question: why?
Christ does not definitely tells us in this instance just
why this would be so, but I think there is a relatively simple explanation.
Permit me an example. I am a teacher of the gospel; I teach a relatively small
class. I believe I could successfully defend myself against the charge of
having done great things for Christ; indeed, I would argue that I should be
content with doing small things for Christ. That’s what he’s called me to do.
This small class, however, is part of a very large church — and the preacher in
the church has every reason to feel pleased with his accomplishments, which are
far greater than mine. But because his accomplishments are so much greater, the
temptations that come with them are greater too. The temptation is to think and
act as if you believed that “God owes me.” In other words, I’ve done such
wonderful things that surely God recognizes that he is in my debt. I have a lot
of favors with God that I can call in any time I want.
This, of course, is pride — and a most stubborn and enduring
pride it is. (The reader will note that I am not accusing our preacher of
this.) Great accomplishments bring the temptation of great pride. Such pride is
the sin of Satan himself, and a ticket to suffering at the least and hell and
damnation at the end. This is so serious a consequence that our Lord warns
against it in the most serious way.
There is a minor temptation in here for the humble
Christian. We can take this to an extreme and decide that anyone with such
achievements must, therefore, be going to hell. This is just as much a logical
fallacy; our Lord warns against it in the parable of the wheat and the weeds.
I Never Knew You
We may now take a look at Christ’s reaction to such people.
He tells them that he never knew them. The word in the Greek implies something
more than a casual acquaintance; we could not safely conclude that Christ had
no knowledge of their existence, for example. The meaning is fairly clear;
there is no personal relationship here. That is a devastating thought,
especially for someone who thinks that he’s achieved greatness in the kingdom
of God. So for anyone who has achieved anything in the kingdom of God the
question, “how would I know” is something which must be addressed.
Christ tells us. It is the practice of lawlessness. We may
take a look at this in a little bit more detail:
·
Lawlessness we understand – it is the breaking of clearly
understood code. Sin is lawlessness.
·
The key word is “practice.” This is not a demand that you are
perfect; it’s a demand that you do not continuously practice lawlessness.
·
Why is this important? Because sin, in the presence of God, is
not permissible. For this we have forgiveness — but if you continue to practice
it without seeking forgiveness, then what?
There is another trap in here. There are those who think
that God will forgive, and therefore they can do as they please. This wouldn’t
work with your mother; what makes you think it will work with God?
Christ’s reaction to all this? He throws you out. There are
several instances where he repeats this theme in the Scripture; perhaps he
meant for us to understand it clearly and definitely. There will come a time
where the habitual sinner will be removed from the presence of God to spend
eternity in hell. It’s that serious.
Who Does the Will
At this point things don’t sound so good for the average
Christian, do they? But if you look back up at the Scripture, you will see that
those who do the will of the Father are the ones who get into heaven. So
we might well ask, just what is the will of the Father?
·
One answer is that we are to behold Christ, and believe in him. We are assured
that the result is eternal life and the resurrection to come.
·
We are also taught that the will of God is to know Christ, for
this implies that you know the Father.
·
Indeed, Christ declares that those who do the will of the father
are in effect his brothers and sisters.
Hear and Act
Matthew 7:24-27 NASB
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine
and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the
rock. (25) "And
the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that
house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
(26) "Everyone
who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish
man who built his house on the sand. (27)
"The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds
blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."
To Hear
If you’d like to see some interesting results on your
computerized Bible search, look up the phrase, “hear the word of the Lord.”
Especially in the Old Testament you will find that this is almost exclusively
reserved for the prophets. It is a command, and a highly imperative one.
·
There’s a tremendous power in this command; God tells the prophet
Ezekiel that he is to prophesied to the dry bones in the valley and tell them
that they are to hear the word of the Lord.
·
Indeed, the power of God seems to be wrapped up in the word of
God. It is by his word that he created the universe, and such power is still
his.
·
So powerful is his word that the apostle John tells us that
Christ is the incarnate Word of God.
So one might think that was such power behind the command,
everyone would listen. We obviously know that is not the case. But we should note
that the command in question is given to “everyone.” It is personal; it does
not seem to have exceptions. You have been warned.
So why is it was such a warning that we don’t have
practically everyone in church on Sunday morning? Our Lord explained this in
the parable of the soils.
The word gets out to everyone — at least in our society — but some of us have
it snatched away from us; some of us are such shallow people that it never
really takes root; and others have the crowded out by the cares of this world.
This is yet another warning that it could happen to us.
To Act
Okay, you’re going to hear the word if you live in America,
at least. The question is, what you going to do about it?
Curiously, Christ seems to imply here that you’re going to
have trials and tribulations whether you act upon his word or not. Trials and
tribulations are just part of life; the results of those trials and
tribulations depend upon the preparations you make. So we can safely conclude
that the idea that a Christian never has any problems belongs to somebody’s
book of fairy tales.
So, how exactly does a wise man prepare for such trials and
tribulations? Here’s what’s Solomon has to say:
Proverbs 14:16 NASB
A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, But a fool is arrogant and
careless.
It might seem that such advice is rather generic; but, after
all, Christ talks about the foundation — not the details of the walls and the
windows. The key point is to do this before the trials and tribulations hit;
which, since you have no idea when they’re coming, means you should do this
first thing. Get the foundation right, get it right quickly and work from
there. Just don’t put it off.
To Not Act
Can we begin with an obvious point? The foolish man’s house
looks pretty much like the wise man’s house. The difference is in the
foundation. This is a really good reason not to judge your fellow Christians.
You don’t know how they laid the foundation. All you can see are the walls and
the windows. The warning is personal; you are to take care of your own
foundation, not worry about somebody else’s. That applies unless you happen to
be a teacher, and the passage you’re teaching on this week happens to be in
Matthew chapter 7. It is then the teacher’s business to warn you — to take it
personally.
So what happens if you don’t like the correct foundation?
Note that the trials and tribulations of such a person are the same as for
those who lay the foundation carefully. In other words, you can’t tell who the
real Christian is from the fake one just by the trials and tribulations they’re
going through. That cuts both ways. It means first that if you don’t lay the
foundation correctly you’re going to encounter trials and tribulations that
will sweep you away. But it also means to your fellow Christians that they
can’t tell what kind of Christian you are just from the trials and tribulations
themselves. Job has quite a bit to say on the subject; you will recall that his
three friends were convinced that he was some sort of gigantic secret sinner
because of all the trials and tribulations he had. The argument was that God
must be punishing them for something, and since the punishment was severe, it
must be something big. Neither Job nor they were ever told the real reason; nor
does he tell us about our sufferings.
What we are to observe is this: the collapse is
catastrophic. May I give you a parallel, please? Your teacher lives in Southern
California; those of you who are not familiar with the area might conclude that
flood insurance is something which would be completely useless. After all, you
guys live in the middle of the desert, right?
So did Noah, my friends. The existence of the desert flash
flood, and more commonly the swift flow of water which is not held back by the
light vegetation of the California hills can cause quite a flood. So just
because the place looks like it would never have a flood doesn’t mean you are
safe. It’s like Solomon says: time and chance happen to all.
Authority of Christ
Matthew 7:28-29 NASB
When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; (29) for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Reaction: Then
It is a truism that we don’t understand people of other
places and times. Such people made differing assumptions about the universe
around them. In this time, the people had advantage over those of us who live
in these modern days. They clearly understood the awe that was due to Almighty
God. It was not just the common people who understood this, but the scribes and
the elders of the nation of Israel. There was a clear distinction between the
authority of a scribe, which we might call expert authority, and the authority
of God, which is intrinsic.
The priests and elders understood this, and therefore they
had a logical question for Jesus concerning the authority with which he taught.
Here’s the story.
Matthew 21:23-27 NASB
When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came
to Him while He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing
these things, and who gave You this authority?" (24)
Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one
thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these
things. (25) "The
baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?" And they began reasoning among themselves, saying,
"If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Then why did you not
believe him?' (26) "But if we say, 'From
men,' we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet." (27) And answering Jesus, they said, "We do not
know." He also said to them, "Neither will I
tell you by what authority I do these things.
This incident clearly highlights the question of authority;
it also shows us that the people judge such authority by its consistency with
God. The common man had no great theological prowess, but he understood a
prophet when he heard one. And John the Baptist was one that he heard. The
method of judgment was his consistency with the message of God — John the
Baptist sounds just like one of the Old Testament prophets. He behaved like one
too. So the people believed he was one. This explains why the common person
heard Jesus gladly; his message was the good news of God.
It is therefore important to us to pay attention to Christ’s
claim of authority. Either his claim to authority is false, or it is true. If
he claims to have authority on the basis of God, then what ever he claims must
either be completely true or completely false. He’s a fraud, a lunatic or the
son of God. If you believe that he is the son of God, then you must accept his
claim to authority. So, just what is his claim to authority?
Matthew 28:18 NASB
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All
authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
If this is true, then we should accept his warnings in this
passage (and others) as being of primary importance.
Reaction: Now
When you show this to a modern citizen of the United States,
the usual reaction is, “you can’t really mean that.” But as we have just shown,
the logical options don’t include any middle ground. Why is it, then, that the
modern citizen thinks that he can find a more reasonable alternative?
First, it is because of the impact of the philosophy of
Postmodernism. One of the core beliefs of this philosophy is that there is no
such thing as absolute truth. It’s the primary logical fallacy of the
philosophy: “it is absolutely true that there is no such thing as absolute
truth.” This philosophy is clearly contradictory to classic Christianity, was
Lord claims to be the “way, the truth and the life.”
It’s worth asking how this philosophy became so widely
accepted. One reason for it is the desire for a standard of proof which
conforms to the modern God, science. If you examine the logic, it seems absurd.
But if you don’t examine the logic, it sounds very nice to say that everything
which is true must be capable of being proven scientifically. Let’s think about
that: can you scientifically prove that Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo?
You can prove it historically; but you can’t prove it scientifically. The
standards of scientific proof are so high that most of history simply cannot be
proven to such standards. That’s not a criticism of history; it’s a criticism
of applying the wrong logical standards of proof to a particular problem.
A similar example might be made with regard to the question
of trust. It’s obvious that a successful marriage is built upon mutual trust.
Can you in fact expect to verify that trust to scientific standards? Well, you
could hire a detective to follow your wife around all the time to see if she is
unfaithful to you. If you did that, however, you would destroy the trust she
has in you. The very act of determining whether or not she is trustworthy kills
the trust so necessary for the marriage. You cannot scientifically prove that
your wife is faithful to you — and you’d be an idiot to try.
The average denizen of our century therefore rejects the
phrase, “because God said so.” That’s never been a standard for nonbelievers;
it’s now ceasing to be a standard for believers. Think about the sermons you’ve
heard recently, considering marriage as an example. How often has the preacher
referred to someone psychological study as being a good reason for you to take (or
not take) some particular course of action? As a modern citizen, you’re not
about to believe the authority of the Scriptures. You want your truth to come
out of pop psychology. And pop psychology says nothing about the judgment to
come. Pop psychology says everything is relative; your problem isn’t that you
are sinful; it’s that you feel guilty.
Which Way?
It appears that you have three choices.
·
You can do things in the way of the world, the way the Christ
described as being broad and well-traveled. For the Christian, this is been a
trap that is been known for centuries and we are often warned against it.
·
There is a more insidious route. We might call this the “way of
the easy church.” It involves what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace. We
offer God’s forgiveness without repentance; we don’t demand that you behaved
righteously. As long as you’re better than somebody else, as long as you done
your little bit, you are happy with conversion and no results. This does make
people feel good — and it doesn’t require a lot of effort. As far as I can
tell, its only drawback is that it doesn’t work.
·
Then there is the narrow way — a pilgrimage, not a voyage on a
cruise ship. The world tells you to be comfortable where you are; the easy
church tells you that you’re on a spiritual journey, just like being on a
cruise. Christ tells you that the way is narrow and the gate small.
Aim carefully.