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[0:00] 7. Matthew chapter 7. Probably the next to the last time we're going there.

[0:11] Probably got one more week. Matthew chapter 7. Last week we started talking about the two ways we have. Verse 13 says, Enter ye at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.

[0:38] Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. We were talking about mapping the two ways that we can choose to go.

[0:49] We had that little chart behind me there talking about the way of righteousness and the way of wickedness. Listen, the gate for the way of righteousness, narrow and straight.

[1:03] I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. There is one way. If you need an extra one, I got one. Somebody needs one. And it says, the way to wickedness is wide.

[1:18] It's easy to find your way to go do wickedness. It's easy to find your way to go do things that are wrong. You ever notice it doesn't take a lot to find a way to do something wrong?

[1:31] It's easy to do. It's all out there, and it's easy to find. The way, narrow and difficult, or broad and easy. Few that be that find righteousness, many that be that find wickedness.

[1:44] In the end, life and destruction. Destruction. The broad way is popular and easy, but it leads to destruction. You know, we find that going the way that's easy and attractive and everything, we don't, we want the way of least resistance, the way it's easiest to get to.

[2:00] The narrow way, unpopular, difficult, leads to eternal life. When we say that Jesus is the only way, are we being arrogant? No, we're quoting what Jesus said about himself.

[2:13] You know, people say, well, that's very, you know, exclusive. It's very, I didn't say it, Jesus did. Take it up with him. You know, it's just, that's the way it is. That's the way he said.

[2:24] And it's not exclusive, because, Jesus also said, whosoever will, may come. And we talked about that. And then testing the two ways, we talked about, we watched for false teachers, verses 15 through 20.

[2:40] We talked about, beware of false prophets. It starts there in verse 15. And we said, false teachers appear good without examination. We have to take time to look at what we're being taught.

[2:51] We have to take time to look at what people are saying and what they're trying to teach us. Too many people just listen to somebody and say, oh, well, that sounds good. Okay, I'll go with that. But does it match up with what scripture says?

[3:02] Does it match up with what God's word says? We have to make sure we're going with that. And there's a lot of attractive, charismatic type leaders out there who, you know, can win people over with their speech and with the way they do things.

[3:19] But it doesn't mean they're always right. They come, says, as wolves in sheep's clothing. That's one of those verses that everybody might know as well, even if they're unsaved.

[3:31] Talking about people being wolves in sheep's clothing. Sheep looks after the other sheep. The wolf is looking for food. The wolf is looking, and today's thing, we talked about target markets or revenue streams.

[3:45] And things of that nature. Sheep is just another follower of the shepherd. He knows where to keep his eyes and how to get where he's going. You keep your eyes on the shepherd.

[3:57] We talked about, I think we talked about it, or we start to, trees with bad fruit. We sometimes have trees that they look good, but they're not good.

[4:10] We have vines that look good, but they're not good. You ever seen a tree? I've seen this before. Winds blowing, and you kind of wonder. We had a tree in our back yard.

[4:20] It was 60 feet tall. And it could have come down on my neighbor's house, my other neighbor's house, or our house. So we finally had it taken down, because not so much this tree was bad, but the ground it was on.

[4:31] It was on the side of a bank. Some of these winds we had, I could see it just going, especially with really wet ground. So we had it taken down. But I've also seen trees where the guy comes along, and he cuts it, and it looks like a good tree, but once he cuts it, you find out the whole inside was hollowed out.

[4:50] I don't know if termites or whatever got into it, but the whole inside has been hollowed out. It looked good, but it was not good. It was not safe. Sometimes you find people with grapevines and things.

[5:01] How do you know if it's a grapevine? It usually has grapes on it. If it has thorns and things like that, it's not a grapevine. So we have to be careful, and we have to do a little examination, a little looking at things.

[5:14] Hold your finger there in Matthew 7. Go over to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1.

[5:28] I want you to be thinking about false teachers here. Listen to what he says about these. 1 Timothy 1, beginning at verse 3. He says, As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.

[5:47] Paul's talking to Timothy. Timothy, I'm leaving you in charge here in Ephesus, because there's going to be some who are going to try to teach other doctrine. In the verse 4. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying, which is in faith.

[6:04] So do. Now the end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, from which some, having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling.

[6:18] Idle talk. Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. He says, Look, there's going to be false teachers coming in, and they're going to try to lead you astray.

[6:31] They're going to try to lead you with things that will take you away from God's word. They're going to try to lead you with things that will make you question God's word. He says, Be very careful. Examine what they're saying and what they're talking about.

[6:43] Go with me over to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2. Beginning of verse 1. 2 Peter 2 verse 1 says, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false prophets among you.

[7:01] He says, Look, there's going to be false teachers who are going to come in among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies. They're going to teach you things that are totally contrary to the word of God, even denying the Lord which bought them.

[7:18] He says, They're going to come in, and they're going to tell you that Jesus is not the answer. He's going to come in, and they're going to tell you that Jesus, you know, when you take the Bible and you read the Bible, you know, like we talked a few weeks ago. Oh, yes, the Bible is a good book, but you know, not everything in it is right.

[7:31] Not everything in it is true. Not everything in it is, you know, to be believed. No. Yes, it is to be believed. He goes on. He says, Denying the Lord that brought them, and bring unto themselves swift destruction.

[7:45] And many shall follow their pernicious ways, their destructive ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you whose judgment now is of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

[8:06] Did you notice that little part there? They use feigned words that make merchandise of you. A lot of the stuff that you hear today on TV, radio, and things, what is the purpose?

[8:19] To make somebody wealthy. Yep.

[8:44] So, you have to be careful. You have to examine what they have. So, false teachers are going to draw people in, and they're appealing to the flesh.

[8:55] There's so many today out there. There's one church in our area that I know a little bit about it, and people who go there, and they basically are teaching do whatever you want.

[9:09] You know, love God, and why you love God, just do anything you want, and do drugs, do this, do that, do whatever, just go do it, and you'll be good.

[9:22] You'll be well taken care of. God will look out for you, even though the things that they're telling people to do are contrary to what the Word of God has. So, we need to be so very careful to make sure that we look, we study, we understand what they have.

[9:38] You know, communion, when we have communion, we talk about examining ourselves. We need to do that all the time. The things that we're listening to, the things that we're bringing into our lives, examine yourself.

[9:53] Are you walking closer to the Lord by the things that are coming in, or are you going further away from Him by the things that you're allowing in? What's happening in your life? False teachers inevitably produce bad results.

[10:08] They produce bad results. You know, the evil, we talked about here in verses 15 through 20, talking about trees and plants that don't have good fruit.

[10:21] They're going to produce the wrong things if they're not where they need to be. if they're not getting the substance and the soil and the nutrients that they need to have. And we try to do things without God, we're going to fail.

[10:35] We're going to find problems. Better be there. We examine our allegiance. Examine your allegiance. Think of verse 21. Back in Matthew chapter 7.

[10:47] Verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?

[11:05] And in thy name have we cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you.

[11:16] Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I don't want to make people question their salvation. But Jesus makes a bold claim here.

[11:29] He says, I'm going to be at the door of heaven. I'm going to be saying who gets to come in and who does not. And you know, there's going to be people coming and who are going to say, you know, Lord, Lord, we did all these things in your name.

[11:44] We taught Sunday school in your name. We sang in the choir in your name. We did this in your name. We did that in your name. You know, all of these different things that we did, we did them in your name.

[11:57] And Jesus is saying, you know what? Sometimes we did those things and we might have used his name, but we did not really trust in his name and follow his name.

[12:07] We can deceive ourselves into thinking that we follow Christ. Again, I don't want you to question your salvation. I don't want you to doubt your salvation, but I want you to look, examine again, your relationship with God.

[12:22] How are you doing in your relationship with him? He challenges the people he's talking to there. He says, look, look at where your faith rests.

[12:32] What are you trusting in? A lot of people trust in a lot of different things. What are some of the false things people look at for assurance of salvation? healings?

[12:46] Baptism? You know, all those different things that we talk about, you know, going to church, doing this, doing that, doing the other thing. You know, there's a lot of different things we look at, but doesn't mean we're saved.

[13:00] Salvation comes from Jesus Christ in our trusting in him, our following him, our putting our faith in him, not in anything else, him.

[13:12] So what happens? First of all, intellectual assent. We give intellectual assent. Yes, yes, I believe in Jesus, I have a knowledge of God, I believe Jesus is Lord and Savior, but I've never accepted him as my Lord and Savior.

[13:29] I believe, you know, I know the terminology, I know how to use the terminology, but does it affect me? Is it going in my heart? You know, the Bible says in James 2.19 about, all of a sudden I forgot it, about the devil believes, say that again, and trembles.

[13:59] The devil believes and trembles. You know, is the devil going to heaven? No. Are the demons going to heaven? No. They all believe that God exists, but they've never had their trust and faith in him.

[14:20] Another thing people use a lot of the time is emotion. Oh, what are most of our services built on these days? Emotion. We've got to get this high type thing.

[14:32] We don't do drugs, so let's get a high by other things that we do. And we try to get it all worked up and make it feel good and we call that worship. Worship, to me, is bowing down before God and recognizing who he is.

[14:47] We need to know who God is and spend time with him. The worship part of this is not all the emotion. It's recognizing God for who he is.

[14:59] Another one, third thing, great works. works. We do great works in Jesus' name. We go out and we do things in Jesus' name and we do all kinds of things for him and we think, if I do this and if I do this and if I do this and if I do, you know, let me give you a prime example of why that won't work.

[15:18] You know, right there in Matthew, go to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, look with me at verse, beginning at verse 5. These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans into ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as ye go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[15:49] Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, freely ye have received, freely give. Okay?

[16:02] I'm sending you out and I want you to be able to give the word of God, kingdom of heaven is at hand. I want you to be able to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, you know, raise the dead, cast out devils, do all of these things.

[16:16] Who did he send? Notice what it says in verse 10, verse 5. These twelve, who are the twelve? The disciples, right?

[16:28] Which included who? Judas. Judas was part of the twelve. Judas went out and preached the message.

[16:40] Judas went out and was able to do these things. How was it he could do these when he did not believe? You know, devil's a good imitator. I'm going to cast the demons out of Steve.

[16:54] The devil can say, yeah, you guys go for right now because we want him to look good. We want him to be able to think he's okay and he's all right. Judas was part of this group.

[17:05] He did all the works. He did all the things that everybody else did. He was a part of the group. But he was never really a part of the group. He did not believe in Jesus the way the others did.

[17:20] association with God's people. Association with God's people. Some people trust the fact because they're in a church.

[17:32] They go to a church and they're in part of a church. They're part of a family that says it's Christian. They're part of a group of people who say they're Christians. You know, they grew up in a Christian home.

[17:43] They grew up, you know, however. So they must obviously be a Christian, right? No. Go with me to Romans chapter 14 for a second.

[17:56] Romans chapter 14. I know I've got you moving around a lot tonight, but I want you to see these verses tonight. Romans chapter 14.

[18:13] Look at verse 10. How did this chapter 7 start? Judge not lest he be judged. Notice what he says in verse 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy brother?

[18:25] For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.

[18:36] So then, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. The fact that I grew up in a Christian home, the fact that I go to a church with Christians, the fact that I'm a part of some organization that's made up of Christians does not mean I'm saved.

[18:53] What did I do with Jesus himself? Not what do I do with the group, what did I do with Jesus himself? You know, I think there are a lot of times people think, oh yeah, I'm saved because I did one of those things.

[19:10] what we need to do, number two on your thing there, probably already there, we need instead to do the will of our Heavenly Father.

[19:22] We need to be following him. Jesus explains the difference between false believers and true believers. True believers obey God, obey the God that they trust.

[19:34] They will submit to the things of his word, they will submit to him and what he has for them. they will obey outwardly and inwardly. They'll follow what they know to do from God's word.

[19:49] They trust the Lord and he will grant them the righteousness of God. We need to be so very careful that we don't get so wrapped up in the practices and the things of being a Christian that we forget the very center of it.

[20:08] which is belief in Jesus Christ and allow him to be in control of our life. And we'll continue this and finish it hopefully next week.

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