Father, we are so thankful for this opportunity to gather together as your people in this local assembly. We think about all our brothers and sisters around the world doing the same. And Lord, we live in, as you well know, very interesting times, times that make me think your return is surely near. And I pray that's the case, Lord. We are prepared to study your word, but I pray, Lord, that before we even finish, that you would take us to be with you forever. And if not, Lord, I pray we would be diligent to study your word, to retain the things we learn from your word, that we would apply it to our lives, that we would teach it to our family, our loved ones, and those who are our neighbor. Lord, I pray you'd teach us as we come to the conclusion of One of the most powerful sermons ever delivered especially from your son Jesus I pray that these things would be clear that we would Observe Error with this passage that has been taught and or mistaught And that we would rightly or accurately handle your word and that we would protect ourselves and this flock from false teaching We love you Lord and thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Turn in your Bibles to the book of Matthew We are in chapter 7, and we are coming to the end of the sermon. And imagine, if you thought I was long-winded, at this point, Jesus' audience, although enjoying what they're hearing, I'm sure the sermon has gone on for quite some time now. They are outside, not inside an air-conditioned room, they're outside in Israel. So as you might imagine, it's very hot. It's very dry. At this point they're thirsty. And Jesus, to the comfort of his audience, is wrapping up his conclusion. So what we might expect to see in this sermon is Jesus bringing home the points that he's been driving at all along. So essentially this passage is fundamental to the entire Sermon on the Mount. And I will say that this passage you have heard before. And I will say that this passage, I think, is often misinterpreted to the detriment of its hearers and its teacher. So we've talked about the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew is a Jew. He's writing to Jews and he's writing to ask and answer this question, why did the king come but not the kingdom? Why did the Messiah come but the messianic age didn't come with him? If Jesus is who you say he is, Matthew, where's the kingdom? After all, all the prophets said when the Messiah comes, this glorious age of peace and prosperity would come with it. And Matthew had to reveal to them that Jesus is in fact the Messiah, but the Kingdom didn't come because the nation rejected. Now we haven't gotten to that point yet. We've seen some foreshadowing of Matthew, that there is a rejection coming. And we're going to deal with, well what about those who didn't reject? Do they just miss out on the Kingdom? No, they are sons of the Kingdom. In fact, that's where I think we can have some direct application for ourselves. We are children of the Kingdom if we have believed in Jesus Christ. We are heirs, co-heirs with Christ and will rule and reign with Him should we receive the rewards for the works that God has prepared for us. We are in the section of Matthew, borrowing from Stanley Tussaint's very great outline, where we are looking at the Declaration of the Principles of the King. The Sermon on the Mount is not a way of salvation. We're going to really focus on that today. It is not about salvation. There was an issue in first century Israel where religious leaders were changing, adding, subtracting, twisting the law to make it say something other than what God intended. So the true righteousness of the law was missed. And if the true righteousness of the law was missed, then the people following that alternative were not righteous. They were, in fact, self-righteous. And so Jesus had to give the correct interpretation of the true righteousness of the law. We've looked at how he did this with some example laws. He talked about murder. You've heard it said, as long as you don't kill a guy, you're righteous, right? Well, I tell you, if you hate someone, you're guilty of breaking the true righteousness of that law. You've heard adultery. Thou shalt not commit adultery. So long as you don't sleep with someone other than your spouse, you're good to go, right? Well, I tell you, if you look with lust towards someone, to lust after them, you're guilty of breaking this righteousness. False witness is issued. And then he talks about true worship. He talks about giving and not being a hypocrite like the religious leaders who made sure everyone knew how much and when they made their offering. He talked about fellowship. Prayer, specifically. Prayer, we just finished up our study of it on Wednesday night. It is so crucial for us to understand what prayer is, and what it isn't. Prayer is the means by which we maintain our fellowship with God. We maintain our communion. After all, communion, etymologically, relates to the word communication, right? In order to have fellowship with another person, don't you need to be able to communicate? Or, fellowship with another person is hindered if communication cannot take place. And so communication is prayer. Prayer is our way of maintaining fellowship. We talked about fasting, or in other words, devotion. Are we devoted to God? Discourse on true living. Wealthy living. We talked about it's not bad to be wealthy, but if that's your top priority, you're misguided. Carefree living. What do we do about tomorrow? Or the next day? What about the next month, the next year? Will God provide? We talked about self-reflective living, dealing with pride. Today we're going to talk about, as we come to the conclusion, and this is most likely, as you know me, going to probably be a two-part message. But I didn't want to isolate verses 15 through 20 from 13 through 14. They are two separate passages, but I think they belong together because I think 15 through 20 is the obstacle to the narrow way, the narrow path in which Jesus is charging his audience to get on. And so the title for today's message is Following the Kingdom Road. Again, Jesus is giving the true intent of the Mosaic Law, and I believe that should the nation of Israel repent, change their mind, and go back under their covenant obligations, that they signed on the dotted line, Book of Deuteronomy hashes that out. Had they done so, they would have received the full blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. That would have been living in their land in wealth and prosperity and safety. They would have received the New Covenant, I believe. And they would have been blessed with their Messiah ruling on the Davidic throne. Now that didn't happen. And we haven't gotten there yet. But that is the background. But He is issuing this charge. The Kingdom is at hand. Jesus is the Messiah. Get right with God. And the Kingdom will come. So there's four responses that I want to highlight that I think Jesus is emphasizing here. Now, with every text, we want to first understand the original audience. What did the author intend to communicate to his original audience? First and foremost, that's our top priority. But, we also want to highlight, what do I do with this information? Should I change the way I think about God's eternal program? Should I change a behavior in my life that God is clearly showing He detests? Or should I keep doing something that God praises? There's four responses to the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus expects of his audience. Number one is, be a kingdom disciple. Be a kingdom disciple. I believe it was Dave's first message, in my absence, where he talked about the curious nature of the disappearance of the word disciple. And I think with that comes disciple is a term we don't often think about, but essentially it was a student. It was a follower. And in the ancient world, it was a very intimate relationship. In fact, I'm convinced that in the modern age, it's very difficult to practice biblical discipleship in the way that they did. Because what it required is leaving your job and occupation to follow this teacher, live amongst them and with them, do everything they do, eat what they eat, sleep where they sleep, listen to every word that comes out of their mouth. And to watch their behavior. And at the end of which, the disciple shall become a teacher themselves. Now in a sense, there's some secondary application. Are we to be followers and learn and grow from Christ and then become teachers? Yes. But in that strict sense of Biblical practice it's hard to do is anyone able or willing to quit their job today and go to seminary Or go to or come sit with me every day Or one of the other elders. I would I would I welcome that by the way, but I Trust that that would be difficult for you So verses 13-14, I just want to read it. Again, you've heard it before. "...Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way, which leads to life, and there are few who find it." So, some observations before we draw some conclusions. First of all, the Sermon's Command, verse 13a, when he says, enter, this is an imperative. In other words, it's not a, hey, if you think about it, maybe enter through the narrow gate. He says, no, after everything I've said to you, get in there. Now, listen to me. Enter the narrow gate. Listen to what I have said and do it. enter by the narrow gate." Now, the narrow gate implies that this is going against a predominant way. Now, what Jesus is communicating is very simple. It's very straightforward. But that doesn't make its interpretation easy, does it? In fact, by looking at your average sermon or commentary on this passage, it's apparently very difficult to understand what Jesus is saying. And then he talks about the wide gate in verse 13. The wide gate's dimensions, in verse 13b, or excuse me, yeah, 13b, broad is the way, wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And the wide gate's end is that destruction. Now again, we'll talk more about what that means. The narrow gate, verse 14, It's dimensions. Because narrow is the gate. And New King James has difficult. The word is essentially constricted. Confined. It's narrow. Hard to get into. Difficulty. And the narrow gates end. Difficult is the way which leads to life. And there are few who find it. So what is Jesus saying in verses 13 through 14? Now we have to review the Sermon on the Mount approaches. How you approach or see the Sermon on the Mount will determine how you understand what Jesus is saying in chapter 7 verses 13 through 14. So we covered this a while ago, but some of the reviews or the approaches, there's basically two categories. One is a non-literal historical grammatical approach. In other words, you don't really care so much about the words that are used, but what's the gist? What do I feel like Jesus is saying here? And with that, number one is the soteriological approach. In other words, the salvation. Everything Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the Mount is about salvation. I hope, if you've heard this, I hope it terrifies you to think about that. Because can anyone be saved? Again, think through what Jesus has said. Can anybody be saved by doing what he said? You might do well for a little while, but no one could be saved. The way is not just narrow, it's blocked, if that's your view. The second approach is the sociological one. This is kind of your seeker-sensitive, your social justice, right? I'll tell you what's wrong with the world, it's people just don't have the necessary means to do good. Down deep, people are essentially good, they just need a little help. Maybe if we take all the world's wealth and redistribute it in a basic minimum income, people will do well, right? They'll prosper. Hey, how would you like to not have to go to work? You'll get your paycheck. You'll get your bag of potatoes and your stale bread. So the sociological approach is saying, well, Jesus is not really dealing with so much spiritual things. He's dealing with very pragmatic, practical things that if you implement these, society will change. Things will get better. Now, I don't doubt that's true. Of course it would. Anytime you do what God says, or you follow His principles, things are going to work out better than if you ignore them. But is that what Jesus intended to communicate? Did He intend to save the world by giving people glasses of water on their way to hell? Because that's the chief issue with the social justice gospel. And I'm not against social justice. I'm not saying there's not injustice in our world. And I'm not saying that Christians shouldn't be aware or maybe even involved in righting some of that injustice. But what I am saying is if that is your top priority, your main objective as a Christian, you're misguided. It's as if you're giving people glasses of water on their way to hell. rather than being focused on, hey, you're heading towards a direction you really don't want to go. Come over here, I'll give you some water and tell you about the gospel. So now we get serious. There's the second approach, or second category, the literal, historical, grammatical approach. In other words, we recognize This is a piece of literature. And like a piece of literature, it's filled with words. And it's filled with grammatical constructions. It's filled with people that were real, living human beings. It was in history. There was a setting. There was a location. There was a place. All of these factors play into this interpretation. And this approach is saying, I want to know what the author intended to communicate. Not what I think what he intended to communicate. And so with that, there's five. First of all is the believer's ethic. In other words, some view this, and all these, I don't agree with all of these, but I think they're closer. They say that these are general ethics for all believers of all time, that they should follow these principles. Okay, that sounds well and good. I mean, some of the, many of the things Jesus said certainly are principles that believers should and can follow. But is that what Jesus was intending to communicate? I don't think so. There's the kingdom ethic. In other words, Jesus, the kingdom is at hand. He's issuing the ethic. This is what it's like to be in the kingdom. And as kingdom people, shouldn't you pattern your life after these things that I'm saying? Again, it's closer, but I don't think it quite captures Jesus' true intent. The penitential approach. A nice big fancy word. I didn't come up with this, so don't blame me. But the penitential approach is actually a really good view. But it talks about Jesus is trying to expose the audience to the complete righteousness of the Mosaic Law. He's giving the true intent of the law, but it's in order to show them how utterly incapable they are of being righteous. And it would draw them to himself. draw them to faith. Again, I have no issue with this view at all. In fact, many of the people that hold this view, I hold in high regard. I think there are some things that are incomplete with it, however. Then Stanley Toussaint, we've been following his outline, he has what is called the interim ethic. In other words, there's an interim period of time prior to the kingdom in which Jesus is saying, we need to get with it if the kingdom is going to come, and I'm going to tell you how to do that. Come listen to my Sermon on the Mount. Again, it's not a bad view. And if you hold any of these, you're in good company, by the way. Except maybe, and maybe I shouldn't say this, the believer's ethic. Let's work on that, if you hold that view. So the interim ethic is another alternative, but I think there's a better way. And not just because it's my way, but it is, I think, better. And that is the Biblical covenant approach. Not to be confused with covenant theology. It's the Biblical covenant. Everything is outlined in history and scripture through the covenants God made with man. He made the Abrahamic covenant with a man named Abraham. It was transferred to Isaac, transferred to Jacob, transferred to his children. There were other additional covenants made with that, as we will look in our Exodus series, that we will soon start once we finally finish Genesis, we'll see that on the way out of Egypt and into the land, they make another covenant with God, known as the Land Covenant, or the Real Estate Covenant. And that covenant was essentially, here's the Mosaic Law, if you do it, you'll be blessed. I'll bless your socks off. If you disobey, I'll take, I'll rip your socks off and make you walk out of the land that I promised you. There's blessings and curses based on their obedience or disobedience to the Mosaic Law. That's crucial to understand because that is essentially what Jesus is getting at. In fact, understanding that point makes sense of all of the Old Testament. You think about the prophets, that's what they were. They were God's prosecutors. They would come to Israel and say, we have broken the covenant. We got to go back. We got to make it right. We got to follow the law. And if we don't, there will be judgment. I see Jesus's ministry and John the Baptist for that matter as no different from the Old Testament prophets, except they had the awesome privilege of adding to their message, the kingdom is at hand. Upon repentance in this occasion, in this situation, the kingdom will come. No more will you be tossed out of the land. No more will you cry out for rain and it won't come. The locust eats the crops. People steal your children. Not a concern. So Jesus is giving the true intent of the Mosaic Law to call Israel back to their covenant obligations. And if they did so, well, then they have to deal with the day of the Lord. Let's not forget that. The Day of the Lord would happen and God would sift the wheat and the chaff in Israel. Those who accept will be trusted or will be protected by God. Those who reject the Messiah will ultimately die. And that is what will happen in the Day of the Lord. God will pour out His discipline upon Israel and His wrath upon the, as Revelation says, earth dwellers. I think we can narrow it down yet further. There's two general approaches to the conclusion, verses 13 and 14, and that is number one, salvation. So those who take the salvation view will say this is clearly about salvation. So they would see the narrow gate is salvation, the wide gate is eternal damnation. Entering the narrow gate is by faith. Of course it is, right? We can't say anything otherwise. But, they'll say it's also by perseverance. Or, I like to say, perspiration of the saints. In fact, I would prefer preservation of the saints. I believe those who are in Christ are held by Him. And the Father holds them also. And nobody can snatch them. I don't think this is what he's talking about. No idea where this came from. Oh, okay. This is what I intended. I forgot the animation on that slide. Here's a quote. I don't often like to pick on other Bible teachers, but this is a well-known one. This is a well-followed one. And in my estimation, a very dangerous one. And I don't say that lightly. Listen to what John MacArthur says in his book, The Gospel According to Jesus. No passage in all scripture attacks modern-day easy-believism. That's what you believe, by the way. That's what this church teaches, by the way. We don't call it easy-believism. No scripture attacks modern-day easy-believism with more force than Matthew 7, 13-14. It is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. and it amounts to the Savior's own presentation of the way of salvation. How different it is from the trend of modern evangelism, there is no encouragement in these words for those who think they can be saved by a casual acceptance of the facts about Jesus Christ. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it, for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. Here our Lord brings the Sermon on the Mount to its evangelistic climax. This passage crushes the claim of those who say the Sermon on the Mount is not gospel but law. In fact, these closing verses are pure gospel, with as pointed an invitation as has ever been issued. Which makes me think of Romans 4. Specifically verse 5, that seems very clear. And to the man who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. This is false teaching. We must be aware. And I will say, this is the pardon the pun, broad or widely held view of the church in history, which is completely ironic. Which by the way, just look at your text for a moment. So he said that this is not the law. How dare you say it's about the law? Look at verse 12. Therefore, now what is the therefore usually there for? Usually drawing some sort of conclusion, right? So he's transitioning into conclusion time. Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the gospel and the prophets. The law and the prophets. So the therefore is highlighting what he's been talking about. He summarizes this is the law and the prophets. What has he been talking about? The law and the prophets. But if what he is saying is true, if I may be so bold, Paul, Peter, John, James, Jude, and the writer of Hebrews are all false teachers. Why? Because they all preach the gospel of faith alone and Christ alone. Or worse yet, Jesus is. Or, this is not what Jesus is saying. Now, I don't think Paul or anyone in that list are false teachers. I certainly don't think Jesus is a false teacher. And I most certainly do not think Jesus right here is issuing the gospel. In fact, he did issue the gospel to a man named Nicodemus. And what did he say? In fact, if you do a timeline, I believe that account, the Nick at night episode, I think some people call it, occurred a year prior to the Sermon on the Mount. There's already out there how to be personally justified. But now he's talking to a nation how to receive the Abrahamic blessing. So what is he saying? Well, there's an alternative. This isn't an alternative I see, but some of you may see this, and so I want to deal with that. They will see narrow gate as faithful discipleship. The wide gate is unfaithful worldliness. So the individual entering both gates is a believer, they're saved, eternally secure in God, The narrow gate is the one who's faithful, and the wide gate enter is unfaithful and worldly. Entering the narrow gate results in kingdom rewards. Entering the wide gate is a loss of kingdom rewards. Some problems. First of all, what do we do with the word destruction in verse 13? This poses, I think, some very serious issues to our theological understanding. And it's a conversation we're going to have as we keep going through Matthew. But I think we need to be careful. Just because Jesus isn't talking about salvation, our safety net can't automatically be discipleship or rewards. It might be, but it might be something else. We can't just jump to that. What about his audience? Well, if we make it about rewards and loss of rewards, that sounds more church based rather than the audience being Jewish and listening to Jesus, their Messiah. Also the purpose, it was very law based, it wasn't talking about rewards in heaven. So summary application, the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to rightly understand true righteousness of the Mosaic Law. Jesus and John the Baptist are calling the nation of Israel to come back under their covenant obligations. If you're curious what I'm talking about when I keep mentioning Deuteronomy, read all of it, but especially 28-30. Chapters 28-30 clearly lay out the consequences and blessings of obedience or disobedience. So the issue was, first century religious leaders were misleading the nation by their rabbinic interpretations. In fact, in our Ezekiel study, we'll talk about the worthless shepherds. I think there's been a lot of eras in Israel's history where there were worthless shepherds. The first century was one of them. And I think Jesus, the true shepherd, which interestingly, in that prophecy against the worthless shepherd, God says, I will raise up a shepherd. And I believe that's the Messiah. So my interpretation is the narrow gate is repenting and following Jesus' teaching. It's not salvation, it's not discipleship. He's saying, enter the narrow gate. In other words, agree with what I said. If you disagree, change your mind. Repent. Metanoia. Change your thinking and follow what I said. Listen. The wide gate is not changing your mind or not following Jesus' teaching. Now, fair question, which view seems to fit the context better? Don't answer out loud, but just think about it. Which seems to fit the context? In my estimation, I think this seems to fit the context best in regards to, is it salvation, discipleship, or something else? I think it's something else specifically. He's giving an illustration. Okay, everybody, there's two gates. After everything I've said to you, there's two gates. If you change your thinking, you're going through the narrow gate, it'll be good for you. leads to life. If you go through the white gate, you reject what I'm saying, well, that leads to destruction. Alright, everyone, take your pick. What will you do? That's essentially what he's doing. The narrow gate is not easy, and the white gate is. So, application for us today. Is it easy for believers today to follow God and His Word? Now, we may be not faced with the same choice that Jesus is putting before the nation of Israel in the first century, regarding the kingdom, but we are faced with the choice every day of whether or not we will serve and follow the Lord. I love in the conquest period, in fact I think this scenario echoes so much, I wanted to go there but for sake of time, the famous passage in Joshua, choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will follow the Lord. Is that our heart cry? Is that the decision we make? Now the unfortunate thing is that's not a light switch decision. You don't just flip the switch and there you go, you're following the Lord. Congratulations! It's one of those timer lights, right, in the bathroom. Have you ever been? And it's never happened to me, but I've heard it been said that someone in the bathroom for a long time, the light just goes off and they have to try to move and get it to come back so they can see what they're doing, right? Following the Lord, making the decision to live according to His Word. It's not a light switch. It just stays on. You've got to wake up every day, flip the switch. On your drive to work and that jerk cuts you off in traffic, you've got to make sure you don't flip that switch back off, right? You've got to keep it on. When you come home from work and you're tired from a day of work, keep it on. You come home and the house is a mess and the kids are waging World War III in your house, keep the switch on. So the first response to Jesus' sermon is, be a kingdom disciple. He says, the narrow gate and the wide gate. Choose this day whom you will serve. After everything I've told you, you have a decision. You either follow what your Messiah has told you this day, or you listen to the religious leaders. You tie your boat to them, and whatever happens to them will happen to you. The second response, and we'll probably only get through two, be aware of harm. Be aware of harm. Verse 15 says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Some observations. First of all, the obstacle to the narrow gate. This is why I wanted these two passages together. The narrow and wide gate is the conclusion of what you're going to do with what Jesus said. Here's the obstacle to the narrow gate. False prophets. false teachers. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Again, this word beware is an imperative. Look out! It's coming, watch out! Of false prophets. Now it's very interesting that he uses the word prophet, not teacher. We'll talk about that. But what is a prophet? Now we might say the two categories, someone who foretells the word of God. Essentially a prophet is the mouth of God. They are speaking for God. And if you are a true prophet, your words carry with it infallibility. Thus saith the Lord. A teacher is not infallible. I don't have to tell any of you that, right? Make mistakes all the time. A teacher is fallible. A prophet isn't. And I'll say if there's anyone claiming to be a prophet today, they're not a true prophet, right? Because God has revealed everything that he saw fit to reveal. So now we don't need prophets, we need teachers. We need people to study this book and to communicate it to the people. and to train the people how to study it for themselves. And then we're edified, and we fulfill the work of the ministry that God has called us to, right? So there's a test there in Deuteronomy 13, 1 through 5. And let's go there. Time is of the essence. Although we don't have to beat the Methodists or Presbyterians to lunch, because we're eating here. So I could go over, potentially. But I won't. Of course not, right? Deuteronomy chapter 13, God gives instructions on how to deal with prophets. He says, I'm going to send you prophets. How do you know whether they are a good prophet? 13 verse 1, If there arises among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer. Now what is he saying? What is God telling them? If they do a sign and a wonder, and it comes true, but they're telling you to go after other gods, don't listen to them. Now is the reason to not listen to them is because of the sign or wonder? Or because they are going against what God has clearly communicated? And it's the latter, right? And this is why we must be careful. And this is why I think the charismatic movement gets things wrong. Is Satan capable of signs and wonders? Did Pharaoh's magicians turn their staffs into snakes? The sons of Sceva? The demonic strength of the people we see in the Gospels? Signs and wonders are not the ultimate test. But Pastor, what about the Apostles? They did signs and wonders to verify their ministry. Yes they did, but what else did they have? They retained Orthodox teaching. They were in line with the Word of God. They didn't change anything. And God sent forth miracles to demonstrate His stamp of approval. So the first test is Don't pay attention to what they do, pay attention to what they say. If you want to find the wolf in sheep's clothing, find what they are saying. Go to chapter 18 and verse 18. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command them. And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of the other gods, that prophet shall die." So what's the consequence of a false prophet? Death. So God gave Israelites tests for false prophets. But they weren't following them. So back in our text in Matthew, we have the appearance of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. In other words, by visuals alone, you won't tell the difference. They just look like sheep. They look like one of you. But inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. How can you tell? The tests. Run the tests. What are they saying? Which leads perfectly into the next passage, which we will elaborate on next week, but I want to just read it for sake of continuity. I'll start in 15 again. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. How do we know, Jesus? Verse 16. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit. Every bad tree, bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. A bad tree can't bear good fruit. I'll stop there. So how do you know if they're a false prophet? They're fruit. Wait a minute, Pastor. I thought this was talking about believers. In fact, let me go ahead. We'll cover this again, but I want you to see my third main division. Be a fruit inspector. I want to encourage you to be a fruit inspector. What? I want you to be the right kind of fruit inspector. Not the fruit inspector that's looking at other believers and saying, brother and sister, so and so, I see that you don't have the joy of the Lord. I wonder if you're saved. Stop. None of you I know questions anyone's salvation, but for the sake of anyone perhaps listening to this in the recording, stop. Behavior does not determine salvation. If it did, it would be by works. If someone has believed, they are saved. Now, can you see into someone's heart and see if they have accepted as true the facts of the gospel? No. So we're left with people professing to accept as true the facts of the gospel. Okay. Now, I will say, if someone's behavior is not in step with how they should be living as a child of God, Should we continue to communicate the gospel to them? Maybe there's a chance they never understood? Sure, I have no problem with that. But don't come to the conclusion that, yep, see, they did that there. Oh, it was nasty. That jerk cut them off in traffic and I saw him do something Christians would never do, right? Not saved. That's not what he's talking about. You will know them by their fruit. What is their fruit? Their teaching. You'll know them by their fruit, by what they say. You'll know they're a false teacher if they are teaching falsely. You'll know they're a false prophet if they prophesy falsely. And Jesus is issuing to His audience, inspect those who proclaim. In fact, I think He's saying, you know who I've been talking about this whole time. Judge for yourself. The things that they say, does it line up with God's Word? No, it doesn't. Sadly, we are out of time. I don't have the miracle of Paul that can raise someone from the dead if they fall over dead. So we better stop. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this text. We thank you so much for your salvation, the free gift of everlasting life through faith alone and your son alone. We also thank you that you have given us your spirit as Bernie Explain downstairs that we are called to walk filled with the Holy Spirit in constant fellowship with you and you give us the instruction to maintain that fellowship Lord and I know we're prone to wander Lord and as he used the illustration of a shepherd breaking a sheep's leg So that they don't keep wandering sometimes Lord. We need that We thank you for the disciplinary rod We thank you for your loving kindness towards us Lord I pray that we would follow you, that even though the kingdom is not here, it is coming. And we are told that we are heirs with your son. I pray, Lord, as we train to reign that we would live faithfully in the here and now until you come. And Lord, if you're taking suggestions, now would be a great time. We love you, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.