Contend For The Faith!

Jude 1-5

I. INTRODUCTION

Ia. The Book

Today we will start a three part series on the little but important book of Jude.  In this first message we will go through his introduction to the letter and get to the key command for which he wrote the letter.  I want to talk about what he called “our common salvation” and I want to bathe this talk in scripture, so I plan to tie together many passages today.  Hopefully you will be as blessed as I was in reading them this week.

First, a few facts about this tiny little book:

• Most Christians probably give the book little notice, due to
• its small size (one chapter of 25 verses) and location (end of letters – last stop before revelation),
• its obscure author (not a big name or apostle - not Paul or Peter or James or John – who is Jude?),
• its bullet-like use of OT references and references to extra-biblical strange stories
• even its very negative, condemning tone when talking about false teachers.

Have you studied Jude?

• Even historically, it was one of the later books to be accepted into the canon, along with 2 & 3 John, partially because of its non-apostolic origin.
• It is actually a very valuable book with an important command for all Christians – one that is very timely in our age (as in every age).  It also eloquently and beautifully describes the basis for the security of our salvation, with one of the most wonderful doxologies in the NT. 
• For this reason, its placement between the epistles and the final book of Revelation is very appropriate – sort of a last reminder of what we need to be careful about as we live in this age when there are false teachers all around trying to turn us away from the faith.
• Because of the emotional (nearly poetic) tirades against the false teachers and the piling on of obscure examples in the book we might come to the conclusion that it lacks structure and forethought – just an emotional outburst.  But a closer look reveals a large amount of forethought and organization.  In its 25 verses we actually will find a well-reasoned series of thoughts that are bound together in a very tight and organized structure, which shows a lot of work on the part of the author.
• The book of Jude shares over half of its basic content with the second chapter of the second letter from Peter, so it is generally thought that one of the two authors borrowed from the other, or that both of them wrote their letters at about the same time and from the same place to deal with the same pressing issues.

Ib. The Author

Jude 1:1-2  ¹ Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.  ² May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

• As with most of the epistles the author follows the Greco-Roman ancient letter format of Author, Recipient, and greeting.  The author identifies himself as

• Jude.  Actually Judas (Hebrew Judah), a very common name (8 named that in scripture).  Popular because of the progenitor of the tribe of Judah but also the hero Judas Maccabeus.  (The name Judas lost most of its popularity outside Judaism because of the actions of Judas Iscariot and now “Judas” is as common in most cultures as “Adolf”)

• The brother of James.  James was the leader of the Jerusalem council (Acts 15:13), an important figure in the early church.  James was a half-brother to Jesus, so Jude also grew up with Jesus as a big brother.  (The two are mentioned in the gospels, for instance [Mat 13:55 NASB] "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”  It is interesting that neither James nor Jude mention this fact in their letters – their being children of Mary was not what gave them value – it was their relation to the Lord Jesus in salvation.  This is especially interesting because, as John points out in his gospel, when Jesus was doing his public ministry on Earth “…not even His brothers were believing in Him.” [Jhn 7:5 NASB].  Instead of using his family connections to “lord it over” the church he instead identifies himself as

• “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ”.  He does not say “good ol’ Jesus’ favorite little brother.  No, he calls himself literally “a slave of the Messiah, Jesus”.  James says basically the same thing in his introduction.  In Christ we all bow together equally before the throne of love and grace, marveling in his acceptance of us.  How different is that from many modern televangelists and leaders of “Christian” cults who talk about their special visits and visions from giant glowing Jesuses who direct them to tell everyone about their special relationship.  How unlike the true humility of someone who has come to Jesus face to face, only saved by His undeserved grace, mercy, and love!.

Ic. The Audience

• The intended recipients of this letter are all Christians everywhere.  They are given a three-fold description by Jude:

• those who are called.  A favorite term of the apostle Paul, this speaks of what we call the effectual call of God.  There are two calls mentioned in the NT with respect to salvation.

• A general call to all sinners to repent.  The invitation goes out to all sinners, and all who respond are promised salvation.  All who reject this call will not be saved.  Paul in Athens said:  “[Act 17:30-31 ESV] 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."  Jesus told Nicodemus “[Jhn 3:16 ESV] 16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  Paul told Timothy “[1Tim 2:3-4 ESV] 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

• The effectual call of believers to salvation. In the case of people who believe, God, in his mercy and through the Holy Spirit implants understanding and faith in people who are spiritually dead.  Paul calls the Roman Christians “[Rom 1:6 ESV] …you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” and tells the Corinthians “[1Co 1:9 ESV] God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Peter warns “[2Pe 1:10-11 ESV] ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹ For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 

• This effectual call includes the entire package: enlightenment, a change of heart, keeping the heart from falling away, and delivering us to eternal glory in his presence.  None of it is by our own strength or righteousness – only his power and glory – so ONLY HE GETS THE GLORY!  Paul says: “[Rom 8:28-31 ESV] ²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. ³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”  and also “[Eph 4:4-7 ESV] ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-- ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷ But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.”  To the Corinthians he wrote “[2Co 4:5-7 ESV] ⁵ For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. ⁶ For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”  And, at the end of this letter, Jude caps off his treatment of THE FAITH once delivered for all the saints with these wonderful words, ending with a hymn of praise: “[Jude 1:24-25 ESV] ²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”  It is ALL Jesus!  Amen!

• With Jude we are of course filled with praise and excitement about the wonderful news of God’s mercy and love, and the peace with God and peace of God that we experience because of his calling.  It is impossible that a redeemed soul would not be moved by this wonderful truth.  It is the ultimate humbling to the unsaved human soul, however, which cannot accept that (a) he is unworthy of the love of God and only worthy of hell, and (b) that his good deeds, such as they are, should not make God his debtor to forgive those myriads of sins that he may have committed in some “moment of weakness”.  But that is the case – we should give God the glory, often and with great amounts of genuine thankfulness.   Like Paul, when we realize the “surpassing grace of God” upon us, we should say “[2Co 9:15 ESV] Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

• But James gives two more descriptions of his recipients (actually, we will see that through his entire letter he presents things in groups of three):

• beloved in God. John MacArthur writes “God chose to save believers because He loved them.  Based totally on His sovereign pleasure and for reasons beyond human comprehension.  … Even when they were rebels, he chose them to be His children” As Paul told the Romans “[Rom 5:8 NASB] 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

• The word beloved is agapaō.  The passive participle in the perfect tense, indicating that “God placed His love on believers in eternity past with results that continue in the present and into the future.”  This agrees with Paul in Eph 1:4 “… he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us…”
• We already spoke of Paul’s exaltation of God’s love in Romans 8.  The apostle John also exulted with “[1Jo 3:1a NASB] See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. “, where “how great” actually translates a term meaning “from what country?”.  It is, as the song says :

Your love is amazing, Steady and unchanging

Your love is a mountain, Firm beneath my feet

Your love is a mystery, How You gently lift me

When I am surrounded, Your love carries me

• Is it not just icing on the cake that Jude adds “in God”? As Jesus said “[John 10:27-29 ESV] ²⁷ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” 

• Do you see the call, and the love that makes it happen?  Excited yet?  But wait!  There is more!

• kept for Jesus Christ. As we just read in John 10, we belong to Jesus.  As the Good Shepherd, he knows us (his sheep) and we know Him.  How do we know Him?  Remember the work of the Holy Spirit shining in our hearts to “give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”  See how it all works together, this mercy and grace of God?

• The word “kept” means “to observe, pay attention to, keep under guard, maintain”, and many translators believe that a better translation of the phrase would be “kept by Jesus Christ”.  Our salvation is secure because He keeps us.  The truth is that if it were up to us to keep our salvation, we would be out of luck.  But the call of God leads all the way, as Paul wrote: “[Phl 1:6 ESV] And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.“ Exult, then, and sing with the hymn writer:

Let Thy mercy, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above

Ic. The Greeting

• Continuing his tradition of groups of three, Jude’s greeting wishes three things for his readers:

Jude 1:2   May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

• After reading his threefold description of us, his readers, as called, loved and kept, this greeting follows pretty closely the truth he has already expressed – for those of us to whom the call extended mercy, driven by love, which keeps us at peace with God, Jude wishes that these qualities would be multiplied to us.  The word multiplied means to be increased – (implying) to the fullest measure.  Certainly we need a constant supply of God’s mercy, peace and love to not only get by in this life (on this fallen world) but also to live life to the fullest.  Try showing the patience of God to your neighbor without God’s peace in your heart.  Try passing on the love of God to others without remembering the depths of God’s undeserved love for you.  And try showing mercy to others without remembering his amazing mercy to us that called us when we were not even looking for Him.

• We cannot pass on any of the good attributes of God to others unless they are manifesting in our own lives.

II. Jude’s Purpose

• Jude is an unusual book in that it is the only one (that I know of) where the author admits that he sat down with the intention of writing one thing and ended up writing something else:

Jude 1:3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

• The original intention of Jude was evidently to write a treatise about salvation, which he was eager to do.  Actually the words translated “I was very eager” actually literally mean to “make every effort to” or “rush eagerly to”.  It was greatly on his heart, and just by his greeting we get a glimpse of what a magnificent document that would be.  But the Holy Spirit had something else in mind, and try as he might, James felt the necessity to make a different appeal.  (The word necessity literally means “to compress”).  He was squeezed by circumstances, or his concern for the church, or by the Spirit (probably all three) to make an appeal, with great urgency, for Christians to “contend for the faith”.

• When this book was written (probably AD 68-70) many of the original apostles were gone.  Paul had recently been executed by Rome and Peter would soon follow.  The second generation of church leaders was taking the reigns, and it was nearly time for final instructions.  The canon was being gathered and would soon close (John would finish the revelation some 20 years later as the last surviving apostle.)  As has happened since the beginning of time (including in the garden of Eden with the serpent), when God had given his words, Satan had been right there twisting and contradicting and trying to turn people away from the truth.  He has never changed his strategy of “has God said?”, and he enjoys success because of the sinful desires in the hearts of his hearers.

• Jude wished to appeal (parakaleō – exhorting, encouraging) that they (therefore we) contend earnestly for the faith.  This is a “powerful expression” which translates the word epagōnizomai (containing the word from which we get the English word “agonize”).  This is no light, part time, extra credit (if you have time) job, but an entrenched battle, hard work, an all-out effort.  The verb is a present infinitive, which means that we need to defend the truth continuously and vigorously. We must, like Paul and Timothy, “fight the good fight”!

• IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND JUDE’S DESCRIPTION OF THE FAITH.  It is “once for all delivered to the saints”.

• Delivered: We are not to sit, meditating and contemplating our navels, take drugs, have séances, seek secret knowledge from monks and hermits in caves in distant lands.  The faith was given by God, therefore seeking it from other sources than his word is wrong and an insult to Him.  Paul states “[2 Tim 3:16-17] ¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” And Peter agrees: “[2Pet 1:20-21 ESV] ²⁰ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. ²¹ For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

• Once for all: the word “hapax” here refers to “something that is accomplished or completed one time, with lasting results and no need of repetition”.  Peter again: “[2 Pet 1:3]  His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,”

• To the saints: This “the Faith” was given in its entirety, by God, once for all, for his people, us.  It is his gift and guide, and we do well to keep and defend it and very poorly indeed if we lose, misuse, misplace it, or worse, allow it to be attacked or obscured within our own church.  Thus we need to agonize for the Faith.

III. THE Faith

W hat is it that unifies us together?  What makes us Christians?  THE FAITH.  No, I did not say “faith”.  We are saved “through faith” (Eph 2:8), God gives us faith (Eph 2:9, Romans 12:3), but faith is not a “force” that we used to gain favor with God.  And faith with the wrong object does not save.  If I believe that I can be saved by doing any amount of works I am in the same category as someone who jumps off a bridge because he believes wearing a superman cape makes him able to fly.  The truths of the universe are fixed, no matter how much we believe otherwise they will not change.

It is interesting that all through the New Testament the apostles often talk about “THE FAITH” as a particular and unique thing as distinct from other things, other beliefs, and systems.  When we see the definite article in front of it we need to pay particular attention.  What does scripture tell us about “THE FAITH”?

·         We see at the beginning of the church deacons were established to allow the apostles to devote themselves to preaching and teaching, so that “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7) 

·         On his first missionary journey, even being stoned and left for dead outside of one town did not stop Paul from preaching in the next towns, “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.””  (Acts 14:22) 

·         The same was true on his second missionary journey, when, after recruiting Timothy, his team went to all of the churches in Asia minor so that “the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.” (Acts 16:5).  

·         Paul told the Corinthians “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Cor 16:13)

·         and warned them “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test? ⁶ But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test.” (2 Cor 13:5-6)

·         Paul said of his own Jewish people “before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.”  (Gal 3:23)

·         He told the Galatians: “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” (Gal 6:10)

·         He told the Ephesians that spiritual gifts were given to Christians for a reason: “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith” (Eph 4:11-13a)

·         Paul told the Philippians he believed he would not be put to death in his upcoming trial because “, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith,”  (Phil 1:25)

·         Paul referred to his convert Timothy as “my true child in the faith” (1 Tim 1:2)

·         He told Titus to “Greet those who love us in the faith.” (Titus 3:15)

·         He told Timothy “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim 5:8)

·         He said of his own conversion that others were amazed that “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy." (Gal 1:23)

·         At the end of his life – finishing the course involved keeping the faith – from loving his appearing:  “⁶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;”  (2 Tim 4:6-7)

These references to THE FAITH come with several admonitions and warnings:

·         Jude tells us “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” (1:3)

·         Paul tells the Colossians: “²¹ And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, ²² yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach-- ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.” (Col 1:21-23)

·         Paul warns Timothy about loving the world’s lusts and riches ”For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs..” and also ²⁰ “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called "knowledge"- ²¹ which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.” (1 Tim 6:10, 20-21a)

·         He said that when churches appointed Deacons that they “must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain, ⁹ but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience..”  (1 Tim 3:8-9)

·         He was even stronger with Elders, who should always be: “ holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.”  (Titus 1:9) Why do elders need to be able to do this?  “¹⁰ For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, ¹¹ who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.¹³ ... For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, ¹⁴ not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. … ¹⁶ They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.” (Titus 1:10-11, 13b-14, 16)

Why contend against false teachers for THE FAITH?  There are people who actively try to oppose it:

·         At the start (on his first missionary journey) we see Paul being opposed in Salamis by a false prophet named Bar-Jesus “⁷ who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. ⁸ But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith” (Acts 13:6-8)

·         About the other end of the church age Paul warns us “the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doc-trines of demons,” (1 Tim 4:1)

·         In 2 Tim 3:2-9 Paul warns about these false teachers, saying they are “⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁸ …[they] also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.”

So, THE FAITH was revealed to us by God, THE FAITH made us into a family, THE FAITH unifies us, THE FAITH gives us our progress and joy, THE FAITH gives us a clear conscience, THE FAITH is THE TRUTH.

THE FAITH will be attacked, so we need to stand firm in THE FAITH, to be strengthened in THE FAITH, be obedient to THE FAITH, hold to THE FAITH, test our selves to see if we are in THE FAITH, and to continue in THE FAITH (which demonstrates the reality of our salvation)

We need to beget others in THE FAITH, preach only THE FAITH, teach (and be taught) THE FAITH, contend for THE FAITH, and correct those who stray from THE FAITH.

[Next Sermon]

Another Take on the Two Ways (The Lord arranges his own illustrations)

Luke 18:1 – 19:10

INTRODUCTION

As the sovereign Lord of the universe Jesus has many advantages over us merely human teachers and preachers that have come after him. Certainly his omniscience is the main advantage (!) but this passage brings out another one.  If I want to find examples to illustrate what I want to say I have to think back to things that have already happened that hopefully show my point or just make up a story (Jesus did both of these also). But as we see in this passage, Jesus is able to arrange it so that right after he gives a teaching, a series of examples occur that illustrate exactly what he meant!  (No fair! J)

Actually Glen referred to that just last week, at least in passing.  When he asked me to preach I decided that I would like to pursue this thought a bit more and explore the four events in Luke that followed the teaching of the two men praying in the temple.  So today we will be tying together some thoughts from Glen’s series of messages in Mark, some of my recent Sermon on the Mount messages, and even the video series that we have been watching in FBH.  Yes, there will be some overlap and repetition, but God used repetition in the Bible many times to get important points across.  There are even four different gospels because different perspectives on the same events were more useful than just longer descriptions – you get a sort of 3d experience that brings out the heart of Jesus’ message and ministry.  So let’s get into the story and then what happened to illustrate it!

I The Teaching (18:9-14)

As we have seen, at this point in the gospels we are approaching the end of the earthly ministry of Jesus.  Holy week is just around the corner, with its quick succession of events from triumphal entry to arrest to trial to crucifixion to burial to resurrection. Here in Luke (which calls itself the chronological account) we see a flurry of teaching and encounters just before the end, and like the SOTM from the beginning of his ministry, these teachings weave together a big picture of the kingdom of God.  Right after he teaches about persistence in prayer with the story of the widow and the unjust judge, Jesus gives this teaching about two types of hearts “coming before God”.  Only one is saved.  Before the next teaching in Luke there are four encounters which illustrate many principles that are contained in the story.  So let’s read it one more time.

Luke 18:9-14 ESV   ⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰ "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

At a first glance we a series of two’s

• Two men with
• Two jobs  (a Pharisee and a Tax collector)
• Two levels of religion (one devout, one who had abandoned his very people for monetary gain)
• Two different lifestyles (one known for his piety and religious observance of the law, and one who lived a loose lifestyle with his non-religious friends, spending money left and right for pleasure, parties, and possessions)
• Two very different public standings (one a well respected leader followed and looked up to by all, one who was shunned from traditional society and hated by his own people)
• Two prayers with
• Two heart attitudes (one confident, proud and self-trusting and one humble, contrite and fearful)
• Two different contents (one thanking God for how awesome he was compared to others, and one asking for God’s mercy that he knew he did not deserve), and
• Two different outcomes (one not saved and one justified)

We have talked through this a couple of times over the last few months so we don’t need to spend too much time rehashing our thoughts, but we should notice Jesus’ own application in verse 14.  Justification before God will not come to those who wave their credentials in his face and expect Him to be impressed.  Those who lift themselves up before God will be humbled. The word tapeinoō pictures the whole “mountains being leveled into plains” kind of picture.  God does not abide any pride on our part.  Moses at the burning bush had to take off his shoes – even a quarter inch of leather under his feet was too exalted of a position before the holy presence of God.  In the last chapter of Isaiah God says:

Isaiah 66:1-2 [ESV] ¹ Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? ² All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

If God flattens those that exalt themselves, then what does He do with the humble?  If someone humbles himself (the same word tapeinoō then He exalts them! And this is not just putting them on a little footstool.  The word hypsoō is used as a metaphor of “to raise to the very summit of opulence and prosperity” or “to exalt, to raise to dignity, honour and happiness”.  Clearly a different outcome! 

So, if you blow your own horn you will be abased but if you humble yourself before God you will be lifted up on high!

Here Jesus has finished his teaching, and we can take a lot from this passage.  But questions might remain.  For instance:

1. What does it mean to humble yourself?  Should you hate your very existence and damage yourself and tell yourself that you have no worth?  Is God asking you to call yourself names and wish you were dead and generally be dead to yourself?  (This may seem like a silly question but how many people do you know that look at themselves this way and actually end up avoiding God or getting angry at him for this?)

2. Should we not try to live a righteous life and do good because everything we do is tained by sin?  Put another way, is Jesus saying that people who live “good” lives are actually at a disadvantage to people who live awful lives, or that he secretly hates religious people?  Paul asks these questions (in so many words) in Romans (answering with an emphatic “NO WAY!”

3. What are the specific requirements or characteristics of saving faith then?  We see two heart attitudes clearly layed out but we don’t know if the tax collector said “the sinner’s prayer” or what, if anything, came with his being justified.

One of the main rules of biblical interpretation is given in three words: CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT.  As I mentioned there are four separate encounters (beyond his immediate disciples) which deal with salvation which answer these questions and more. 

In the old 3^rd grade AWANA book one of the sections asked the clubbers to answer the question “what does it mean to trust Christ for salvation?”  Can you answer that question?  Could you tell others in a way that they could understand?  This passage will go a long way to giving the answers to that question.

So let’s go on to:

II The Four Real-Life Illustrations (18:15-19:10)

The first story takes place immediately after Jesus finishes this teaching.

Luke 18:15-17 [ESV]  ¹⁵ Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. ¹⁶ But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. ¹⁷ Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

We heard this story from Mark a couple of months ago so we don’t need to go through the whole history.  But notice the tie-in to the story that Jesus has just finished.  In verse 16 and 17 Jesus relates this to “receive(ing) the kingdom of God”, so it is very clear that He is using this as an illustration of his message.

Remember what is happening here.  The disciples of Jesus are indignant that the ignorant (and superstitious) folk are bringing children to the famous teacher and healer to be blessed by him and they have actually rebuked them for doing so.  “How dare you take away the important time of our important Rabbi to do these unimportant, mundane things.  He has a higher calling and message and you are not supposed to interrupt it.  Indeed, how can these ‘mewling and puking’ infants (to use Shakespear’s language) understand anything of the sublime teaching you are privileged enough to be allowed (by us) to hear?”

Unfortunately for the disciples, their rebukes get turned around on them by the Lord himself (oh, the embarrassment!)  He slams the self-importance of his own disciples and calls for the children to be allowed to come to Him.  He is happy to bless them.  But that is not all.  He now proceeds to describe that humble, saving faith that He had just talked about.  It seems that the difference between the Pharisee and the Publican is (at least partly) a child-like attitude in the Publican.    How could this be?  A few points might be suggested right away:

1. A child is totally dependent on adults for everything it needs.  An infant not only cannot earn its keep, but it cannot even feed or clothe or clean itself.  It does not even (initially) have conscious control over its extremities or control over its excretory functions. What is the only built-in ability a baby is given to control its external environment?  It can cry.  It cannot even articulate what it needs.  It probably doesn’t even have much conscious idea what it needs – it only feels a keen sense of lack and the crying begins.  If there is nobody to hear the crying and respond, the baby will die.  It is completely dependent.  It needs a loving parent to live.

2. A child is trusting (unless through abuse he or she has been trained otherwise).  If you tell a child that a man in a red suit comes down his chimney every year to bring presents or that there is a magical fairy that gives him money for his teeth it will seem to him the most natural thing in the world.  “Cool!” will be the reply in his heart, not “you’ve gotta be kidding me.”

3. A child is not finished.  They need to grow up into adulthood.  They don’t start out as the finished product, and they are not self-made.  And they are aware that they are not there yet and long to be grown up.

When we come to God we must be like children.  We come to God with an empty hand, asking to be born.  We are glad that He receives us as we are, but we can’t come to Him expecting to stay the same.  We come acknowledging our need to change and rely on Him to accomplish that change.  Asking God to “save” us while loving the way that we are does not work. 

Right after this the second encounter happens as a listener asks Jesus a question:

Luke 18:18-23 [ESV] ¹⁸ And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" ¹⁹ And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'" ²¹ And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth." ²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." ²³ But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

Probably without even realizing it (or maybe having his conscience pricked for the first time in his life by Jesus’ parable) a very good man in the crowd asks Jesus a question.  And it is exactly the wrong question.  Because it is the wrong question he gets an answer that is not what he wants to hear.  But it is the answer is what he needs to hear.  Just like the billionaire who was asked “how much money will be enough” that answered “just a bit more”, the person on the treadmill of earning salvation by good works who asks “how many good works does it take” will always get the answer “just a bit more”.  But it is always a bit more.  Jesus is merciful in that He chose the one step that was too far for the rich young ruler to go on his own.  Unlike some works-based religions which keep people on the treadmill by offering absolution by repeating a prayer a few times or doing some easily done good deed Jesus attempts to kick him off the treadmill completely.  If he was ready to receive salvation he would have realized his need and immediately asked for mercy.  But he was not yet ready.

Just as an aside, though most teach that this man was never saved, I have a different opinion.  Certainly we are not told about his future, and things do not look good at the end of the encounter, but consider several things:

1. In the account of this encounter in Mark these words are added: “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said…”.  It could be argued that this was His universal love for all (in John 3:16), but I think it was more.

2. Jesus lamented to his disciples right after this that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom.  This completely shocked his disciples, of course, since riches were seen as a blessing of God given to the worthy.  But they seem to understand what Jesus is saying and immediately ask Him “then WHO can be saved?”  They understood that Jesus was speaking about everyone, and He gave the great hopeful message of the gospel “with GOD it is possible”.  Again it was the broken person with the open, empty hand who is saved.

3. When Jesus closed the door of hope for someone’s salvation he spoke surely and prophetically.  Like when with Judas Iscariot he said “it would have been better for him not to have been born”.  THAT is a pronouncement of sure judgment.

Because of this, I believe the following probably occurred (and nobody will be able to prove me right or wrong until we get to heaven):  The ruler came to this divine appointment because God had brought him there.  The Holy Spirit had been working in his heart, or it would not (I believe) even occurred to him to feel doubt about his salvation.  Certainly the Pharisees would not have asked that way.  Though he was not ready at the time, Jesus hit him with exactly what he needed to hear (remember he had also just heard the parables of the widow and the two men in the temple as context).  I think he was probably one of those 3000 who were saved on the day of Pentecost (or soon after) and I think it would not be at all unlikely that he might have been the first of the people in Acts 2:45 where it says “And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.”

As I said, there is no way to prove it one way or another, but if true it illustrates an important point for evangelism.  Some programs emphasize the importance of trying as much as humanly possible to force a commitment (down to wording the question in such a way as to make it harder to reply “no”.  Jesus did not do that.  He told them exactly what they needed to hear and left the work of conversion to the Holy Spirit.  Nicodemus came to Jesus in John chapter 3 and was told that he needed to be born again.  We see him later asking the other leaders to give Jesus a chance, and later he is a disciple.  Jesus did not “seal the deal”, he planted the seed by telling the truth.  In our “results oriented” culture we try to do the work of the Spirit and end up with a lot of people who “prayed a prayer” but fall away from Christ in huge numbers soon after.  Maybe we should be more like Jesus?

After this story there is a short break where Jesus reminds his disciples about his upcoming death (which they STILL do not understand) and then we have the third encounter:

Luke 18:35-43 [ESV] ³⁵ As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. ³⁶ And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. ³⁷ They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." ³⁸ And he cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" ³⁹ And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" ⁴⁰ And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, ⁴¹ "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me recover my sight." ⁴² And Jesus said to him, "Recover your sight; your faith has made you well." ⁴³ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Since this was the topic of last week’s sermon I will go through this quickly.  While salvation is not mentioned (as such) in this account, it is part of the section and fits in beautifully.  Notice especially the parallel with Jesus’ parable.  The man is excluded from society and downcast, and his request is identical to the one of the publican in the story: “have mercy on me!”  While grace is the giving of something not deserved, mercy is not giving someone something bad that they deserve.  Sometimes when we come to the Lord for grace do we also realize that our need includes mercy (which is the opposite side of the same coin in this case)?  So right away we get the idea that he is not coming to Jesus with any pretense that he is deserving of anything but his current condition.  He is not demanding help, he is coming with an empty hand with nothing to motivate him but hope and faith.

Now the really remarkable thing about this story is Jesus’ response.  “What do you want me to do for you?”  If Jesus showed up right now and asked you that question, what would you ask for?  But the man makes a simple request.  He wants to be able to see like the people around him, to not be excluded from society and to be able to take care of himself.  And the answer is “yes”.  And unlike the 9 lepers who were cleansed, he was not only thankful but three more things happened:

• He followed Jesus,
• He glorified God, and
• He caused others to glorify God also.

Based on this, we see that more than a physical healing occurred.  And the crowd following Jesus has now seen in the last two examples a real-life picture of what Jesus had just taught them.  But there is one thing missing – the tax collector. But look what happens next:

Luke 19:1-10 [ESV] ¹ He entered Jericho and was passing through. ² And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³ And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. ⁴ So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. ⁵ And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today." ⁶ So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. ⁷ And when they saw it, they all grumbled, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." ⁸ And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." ⁹ And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

It is probably true that the people of that day were more surprised by this than any of the previous events.  “ Tax Collector?  We thought that was just an extreme example in your parable.  You could not possible have meant that they could literally be saved? That’s too much to believe!”  But Jesus had arranged this meeting from the beginning of time (like all of us as Paul wrote in Eph 1) and when the exact moment came, Jesus and Zacchaeus were there in the same place.  It was Jesus who looked up at the diminutive sinner ridiculously perched in the tree and saw a heart of a man ready to become a child of God.  And Zacchaeus gives us the final puzzle piece to understand the parable.

Unlike the outwardly righteous rich young ruler, Zacchaeus has come to the point where his money is not as important as his soul.  Please note that this is not teaching that one has to take a vow of poverty to become a Christian.  We are not told what percentage of his wealth he gave away.  That is not the issue.  But what he did was a clear illustration of something else.  He specifically repented of his sins, which were many.  Like the publican in the parable, he did not trust in his own righteousness, but came to Jesus with the attitude of “be merciful to me a sinner”.  His money was not evil.  The fact that he had cheated others out of their money to get some of it was.  Under the Roman system if someone was able to get themselves appointed as a tax collector for Rome they did not receive a salary but were given license to collect extra from the people as their salary.  Some were undoubtedly greedier than others, and abuses abounded.  It was a lucrative position to get because you got to set your own salary and could extort it from the taxpayers with the full authority of Rome.  No wonder they were hated!  But Zacchaeus wanted to be saved.  He divested himself of all of his sin and showed his actual repentance by making restitution to all of his victims.  It may have impoverished him – we don’t really know.  But the result is clear, Jesus declared unambiguously that he was saved!

III The Two Questions

As a third point I would like to point out an amazing contrast between the saved and the unsaved people in these encounters.  As I said, the rich young ruler came to Jesus with the wrong question.  We can re-word it as follows:  “What can I do for YOU?”  As we said, that is the WRONG QUESTION.  As Paul said to the Greeks at the Areopagus:

Acts 17:24-27 [ESV] ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ²⁶ And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

When it comes to salvation, we bring nothing to the table.  Our only cry is “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner”.   But notice something amazing – when blind Bartimaeus came to Jesus with that plea, the Lord responded (paraphrased); “what can I do for YOU”. 

Now if the question is going to be asked by you or by the Lord, which would you rather it be?

III Conclusion

So in conclusion I think the context teaches us a lot about saving faith.  These four encounters tell us that salvation requires:

1. Childlike Trust – dependency, a declaration of inadequacy, and an open, empty hand to receive God’s mercy
2. Self-Abandonment – Trusting in ourselves leaves us without any hope.  As Paul wrote, after listing all of his righteous accomplishments “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:8 ESV)  We bring nothing God wants but ourselves – we have nothing that he needs.
3. A step of faith.  We need to ask (to seek, to knock).  (no presumption, no entitlement, just a heartfelt need and request)
4. Repentance – an acknowledgement that we know we need to be saved because we have sinned against God.

With all these things in place, we can have Jesus’ assurance that we, like the publican in the story, “go away justified”. 

That is the hope of the gospel.  That is the message we need to tell.  Can you tell someone the answer to the question “what does it mean to trust Christ for salvation?”

Sermon on the Mount Part 8 - Self-Deceived

Decision Time means Action

Matthew 7:21-29

(previous sermon)

Matthew 7:21-29 ESV

False Professions: ²¹ "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' ²³ And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

Foolish Builders: ²⁴ "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

Full Authority: ²⁸ And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, ²⁹ for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Sermon On The Mount Comes to a Challenge

We saw last week in the previous section that Jesus warned people to get on the narrow, difficult path that had few people on it and that leads to life, and to not go by the wide, easy, well-populated path that leads to destruction. But our image of this is usually wrong.  We picture two roadsigns, one that says “To Destruction” and one that says “To Life”.  But in reality both paths say “To Life”!  Every human way and every false religion promises the same thing – utopia, happiness, rewards, peace, life.  The way of self-righteousness always promises life.  Because it is man-made it seems right to the majority of people. But “it seems right” is a poor guide to spiritual truth because we are spiritually broken.  As Solomon wrote “[Pro 14:12 ESV]   There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”  But human religion appeals to use because it bolsters our ego.  Way back in chapter 5, I proposed the three purposes of human-made religion:

1. It is the system by which we distinguish between “us” and “them”, where “us” is the “good” people and “they” are the “bad” people.
2. It is the set of special rules, that if we follow them God is made our debtor.  In other words, we “earn” our way to heaven, which then God is obligated to give us as our reward for following them, and
3. It is the framework that we can use to feel good about ourselves and whatever we choose to do in life.

As we have seen, in the body of this sermon Jesus has done two things:

1. In a masterful and powerful series of arguments and pictures He has systematically destroyed every excuse of self-righteous religion and left his listeners naked and sinful before the throne of the Holy God.  But He has not left them desolate, for
2. He has also presented a possibility of a better life from a loving heavenly Father who is waiting to provide salvation if they will just repent and turn to him for forgiveness.  All they must do is Ask, Seek, and Knock.

Now that He is drawing the message to a close, his challenge is clear, finishing the Sermon on the Mount with FOUR BINARY CHOICES:

• Narrow and Broad gates and roads (13-14)
• True and False prophets (15-20)
• True and False disciples (21-23) and
• Wise and Foolish builders (24-27)

The first two warned that we should be careful of external sources of deception – we must not follow the false way just because it seems easy and because the crowd seems to be going that way – there is NO safety in numbers!  Also we are responsible to evaluate prophets and teachers for ourselves and not be led astray by false teachers who come and tickle our ears with what we want to hear.

But Jesus saves until last his warning against the most evil, sneaky deceiver of all – our own selves.  We are the biggest deceiver of our own hearts, as today’s text warns us:

IIA.  False Profession (21-23)

Matthew 7:21-23 [ESV]   ²¹ "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' ²³ And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

These words have often (rightly) been called the saddest words in the bible.  There is surely no more pitiful scene in all of Jesus’ teachings than this one.  One can imagine no more desolate situation than to stand face to face with Jesus, citing a lifetime of “Christian” religious deeds, and be told by Jesus “I never knew you”.  Imagine for a moment how it would be to find yourself in that position.  Eternity stands before you and the Lord Himself looks at you in the eye and says “depart from me”.

On first glance this just seems wrong. 

• “Wait a minute!” we find ourselves asking – doesn’t it say “whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved?”  Didn’t Jesus just say "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”????  Didn’t Jesus say [John 6:37b ESV] “whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”?  Is Jesus being cruel here … or dishonest … or ungrateful? 

• On the other hand, those of us who believe that the Bible clearly teaches salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, look at this and see Jesus using the language of works-theology and say “wait a minute – is salvation by faith or is it by works?  What does this mean for our treasured evangelical doctrine of salvation by faith?  How does this fit with Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:16 – or with the entire books of Galatians and Romans for goodness’ sake??

To sort this out, and to understand Jesus’ stern warning, we need to look closely at what He said, and also at the rest of scripture.  And it is vitally important that we should do so.  This is the climax of the conclusion of the manifesto of the King!  Everything has built up to this, and without this the entire sermon will be pointless.  This is the main challenge – the place where every single member of the human race finally stands before Christ for eternal judgment.  This is the decision that Jesus is calling for in his hearers, and in all of us who have read this in all of the centuries since then.  And right after this, in the very last words of this sermon he refers to this decision as one which will lead to salvation or to eternal ruin. So what is he saying here?

The answer is found by seeing the theme of the entire sermon – we are sinners who use self-righteousness to hide ourselves from the holy wrath of God using self-deception.  And the people here encompass those He has warned through all three chapters – those who reject the law, those who trust in their following of the law, those who substitute public acclaim for God’s approval, those who are self-sufficient, those who justify themselves by comparing themselves to others, and those who in their hearts don’t come to God for his forgiveness but insist on doing it their own way.

These are all self-deceived.  And Jesus paints the ultimate picture of the self-deceived here – the religious self-deceived.  And the warning comes right out of the pages and points its warning fingers even at us, because the last people are evidently claiming to be followers of Jesus himself!  But Jesus says that while they claim to be his followers, they lack one crucial ingredient – they have no personal relationship with him.

In John chapter 10 Jesus identifies himself as “the Good Shepherd”.  The main characteristic of this true shepherd is that He knows his sheep and his sheep know Him.  But here in Matthew we have people who say that they are Christians and who have a form of religion, but their confidence is empty and their hope is vain.  What can we discern about these poor souls, so we can avoid being one of them?

1. First, we see that they say “Lord, Lord” to Jesus.  By the context it is clear that this is not just “Mr” Jesus.  They definitely claim to be followers of Christ, and they claim his name for themselves.  They even seem to be acknowledging who He is.  But their claim is empty – it is a false confession – there is no reality behind the words.  This is very important, because they have turned salvation by grace into a mere profession of a verbal formula or intellectual knowledge.  But we know that faith is not just intellectual assent – as James wrote (to self-righteous self-deceived potentially false believers also): [Jas 2:19 NASB]  “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”  Being a Christian is not just knowing some facts, or saying “I choose you!” like He was some sort of cosmic pokemon.  Calling Jesus “Lord” is an acknowledgement of who He is, especially who He is in relation to who I am!

2. These people preach in the name of Jesus.  It is not enough that a church has a bunch of crosses all over it, or that it has “Jesus” in part of its name or in its songs.  Paul warns the Galatians that they seem to be turning to a different Jesus, and even Jesus Himself warns that in the last days many would come in His name that were false messiahs and false prophets.  It is not enough to say the word Jesus.  A true believer does more.

3. These people also claim to have supernatural power – they can “cast out demons” (again in Jesus’ name).  (Remember the sons of Sceva (Acts 19:14))  But Jesus warned in his apocalyptic discourse in chapter 24 that in the last days that these false Christs and false prophets would “arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”  The evidence of a true believer is not supernatural power against demons.

4. The final claim of these false believers is that they have worked miracles in his name.  The word here is “dynamis” which means power and is used in 1 Corinthians 12:10 & 28 for the spiritual gift of working miracles.  But miracles are not proof of salvation.

Then what do these self-deceived people lack?  Two related descriptions call out their problem, and the indication that their spiritual condition is a sad illusion:

1. Verse 23 says that Jesus never knew them – their relationship is all in their own minds.

2. Verse 23 also calls them “workers of lawlessness”.  Lawlessness is associated all over scripture with enemies of God.  In Matthew 24 Jesus describes the last days with this phrase “[Mat 24:12 ESV] 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”  In 2 Thessalonians 2:8-9 Paul refers to the AntiChrist as “the lawless one” (elsewhere he is called “the man of sin”).  Lawlessness is rebellion against God and his rule.  (Note how lawlessness is increasing in our age).

3. Finally back in verse 21 says that the one who enters the kingdom is the one “who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  Isn’t calling on his name, casting out demons, prophesying in his name, and doing miracles part of the Father’s will?  What is the difference?

For the answer to this we need to determine what the message of the Sermon on the Mount actually is.  Is it just an intellectual exercise to cause conviction?  Or is it a standard of how to live today?  Or is it just a picture of what heaven will be like but not binding now?  Or is it something more? 

I believe that it is all of these.  This is the embodiment of the real heart of the law.  Jesus has not made up a new religion to replace Judaism here.  In fact, if you carefully read through the Old Testament law you will find every principle Jesus spoke of laid out in full color.  No, we cannot keep the law, but it nonetheless shows the heart of God and his Holy nature.  It is a standard that should guide our behavior. As Paul says it should rejoice our hearts even as we are frustrated by our inability to perfectly keep it.  It is a picture of the goodness of our ultimate perfect state, and this sermon is a picture of what the Christian life should look like.  Jesus did not tell his listeners that hating your brother is the same sin as murder in your heart so that we could get saved and then go on hating our brother, secure in the belief that Jesus’ blood was shed for the purpose of enabling us to sin without consequence.  When Paul asked [Rom 6:1-2 ESV] “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” he himself answered “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”  He says in Ephesians that we were chosen “[Eph 1:4 ESV] “in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” We were saved to be sinless and perfect in heaven and with the new nature and his resurrection life in us it is impossible that there would be absolutely no change.  Back in verses 16-20 He said of false prophets that we would know them by their fruits.  The same applies to us.  And, contrary to the easy-believe-ism of much of modern evangelicalism, the Bible is full of warnings about making a false profession.  In fact, though the fact that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is absolutely incontrovertible the saved are almost always described in terms of the prevalent fruit of their lives.  Consider the following passages:

Eph 5:4-5 [ESV]  ⁴ Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. ⁵ For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

1 Cor 6:9-11 [ESV]  ⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Gal  5:19-21 [ESV]  ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Rev 22:14-15 [ESV]  ¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

This in no way negates the doctrine of salvation by grace.  But it does warn us to be sure of our own salvation.  Paul makes it clear that the real sign of salvation is that Christ is in you, and the evidence of this life is testable:

2 Corintians 13:5 [ESV]  Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

We know that James challenges his readers to show their faith without works while he will choose to demonstrate his faith by his works.  Martin Luther was so frustrated by this that he wanted to remove James from the Bible, calling it “an epistle of straw”.  But there is no contradiction here.  As some have put it “Faith alone saves, but faith that saves is not alone”.  The apostle John’s entire first epistle reads like a checklist for self examination:

I John:  

• If say we have fellowship with him but walk in darkness – we lie; (1:5-7)
• Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar (2:4-5)
• Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness (2:9-11)
• If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him (2:15-16)
• If they leave us they were never of us and are antichrists (2:17-19)
• Everyone who hates his brother… does not have eternal life abiding in him (3:15)
• Love one another … anyone who does not love does not know God.  (4:7-11)
• Anyone who says “I love God” and hates his brother is a liar (4:20-21)

In the middle of chapter three there is one of the most comprehensive statements about the balance between faith and works:

1 John 3:7-10 [ESV]  ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸ Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. ¹⁰ By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

The more modern versions of the Bible are careful to give the flavor of the verb tenses in this passage, which gets rid of a lot of confusion that may have come from this text in the past.  The use of continuous tenses in the verbs makes it clear that John is speaking of  a pattern of life that involves continual sin so that it characterizes the life of one claiming to be a believer.  In chapter one he makes it clear that ALL CHRISTIANS STILL COMMIT SINS and need to confess it and rejoice in the propitiation paid for us by Jesus on the cross.  But if our lives are lawless we may fall into the group described by Jude in his epistle who are  [Jude 1:4] “designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality”.  These are the self-deceived.

So there is no contradiction here.  Paul says in Ephesians 2:10 that we are saved “unto good works”.  The one who says “Lord Lord!” and points to his “churchianity” but loves sin and the world is on dangerous ground and is wise to examine whether he or she is self-deceived and trying to play God for a fool.

The first lesson here, then, is the uselessness of a mere outward profession of Christianity.  The second lesson is a picture of two types of hearers:

IIB Hearers Only (24-27)

Matthew 7:24-27 ESV  ²⁴ "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

Jesus here is possibly drawing on his own experience as a carpenter/builder and current building techniques to warn the crowd of the importance of responding to his sermon here.  As one commentator points out:

“The locale of the sermon near the Sea of Galilee finds a natural setting for this parable.  The alluvial sand ringing the seashore was hard on the surface during the hot summer months.  But a wise builder would not be fooled by surface conditions.  He would dig down sometimes ten feet below the surface sand to the bedrock and there establish the foundation for his house.  When the winter rains came, causing the Jordan River pouring into the sea to overflow its banks, houses built on the alluvial sand would have had an unstable foundation.  But houses built on bedrock would be able to withstand the floods.  Excavations in the late 1970’s in the region uncovered basalt stone bedrock that was apparently used for the foundation of a building in antiquity.”

Jesus uses this building analogy to describe two types of hearers.  The one who understands and heeds Jesus’ words is like the wise builder.  When trouble (or judgment) comes what he builds will stand firm and he will be safe.  But not so with the one who only hears.  J.C. Ryle describes him this way:

“He satisfies himself with listening and approving, but he goes no further. He flatters himself, perhaps, that all is right with his soul, because he has feelings, and convictions, and desires, of a spiritual kind. In these he rests. He never really breaks off from sin, and casts aside the spirit of the world. He never really lays hold of Christ. He never really takes up the cross. He is a hearer of truth, but nothing more.

And what is the end of this man's religion? It breaks down entirely under the first flood of tribulation. It fails him completely, like a summer-dried fountain, when his need is the sorest. It leaves its possessor high and dry, like a wreck on a sand bank, a scandal to the church, a by-word to the infidel, and a misery to himself. Most true is it that what costs little is worth little! A religion which costs us nothing, and consist in nothing but hearing sermons, will always prove at last to be a useless thing

The bible has always warned hearers of truth that they are in special peril.  Paul warns in Romans [2:13 ESV]  “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”  James is even more appropriate here:  “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  The context of this latter passage speaks plainly about what self-deception looks like:

James 1:21-27 [ESV]  ²¹ Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. ²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. ²⁶ If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

IIC The Lord is Speaking (28-29)

The passage ends with the crowd’s reaction

Matthew 7:28-29 [ESV]   ²⁸ And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, ²⁹ for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Since our time is short, I will only point this out.  Jesus spoke authoritatively here.  His teaching was not derivative, he did not point to a Rabbi that taught Him and gave his interpretations clout.  His clout was intrinsic to his nature – as God incarnate he was speaking not as one who interpreted the words through scholarship and proofs, but as the One who originally wrote the law and was now teaching what He had meant all along when He gave it.  And as such he spoke with authority and they recognized the difference.  How blessed the crowd there was to hear the meaning of the law from the Lawgiver Himself!  In our slang we might describe this as “drinking directly from the fire hose”.  In fact, the word “astonished” is the Greek word “ekplēssō”, which literally means “to be struck out of oneself”.  It meant “to cast off by a blow, to drive out, to strike with panic, shock, astonish,

to be struck with amazement or amazed”.  We should be no less affected by the depth and also the urgency of Jesus’ teaching.

III Conclusion

In conclusion, Jesus is calling on his listeners (and now us readers) to make a decision. This is a call to action now even as it was then.  We must examine ourselves.  We must seek His kingdom and his righteousness.  We must ask, seek, and knock.  We must strive to enter the narrow road. We are responsible before God for our own spiritual state and destiny. John MacArthur put it this way:

“Let me suggest to you there are two things you cannot do with the Sermon on the Mount.  One of them is you cannot stand back and admire it.  Jesus is not interested in bouquets for his ethics.  Jesus is not interested in folks who want to just admire the virtues of the ethical statement of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus wants a decision about your destiny.  I believe there is a second thing you can’t do with the Sermon on the Mount and that is to push it into some prophetic tomorrow.  I don’t think Jesus is suggesting that this is for some far future era.  I think He is demanding a decision now – in this time.” 

My hope is that as we have unpacked this great sermon over the last couple of years we have seen not only how Jesus prepared the people of his day for his ministry of salvation but that we will see the heart of God and adjust our lives accordingly.  And as we examine ourselves by comparing ourselves to the infinite beauty of the holiness and goodness of God as revealed in the beatitudes and in the explanations of the law we will find areas where we need to be more Christlike, or maybe we will find ourselves needing to make sure of our calling.

Isn’t your eternal destiny worth it?  Doesn’t your love for the Lord demand it?