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?