Matthew, 7:13-23

Alright, this passage here, we have kind of three titles, if you will, starting words or pairs of words. Enter, beware, and not everyone. So that's the quick version. Are we done? Probably not. This passage is going to return to something brought up in Matthew 5.20, to the subject of entry into the kingdom.

It's one of the things that underscores the point that the Sermon on the Mount is not so much about in the kingdom itself as what happens until we get there. The extent to which it points to the kingdom itself is where it talks, and we'll get into that a little bit today, where it talks about ranking in the kingdom.

In this parallel to, that's probably the best way to put it, parallel to the fact that believers in the church, us, we have laid before us rewards. Scripture in the New Testament frequently puts those in terms of crowns, victor's crowns, right? And so these rewards are something that are an outflow of how we live now. And it's not us putting effort into it, it's the Lord's work through us. to the extent that we depend upon and rely upon and trust in the Lord, that is rewardable. For those looking to entry into the Kingdom, they're also looking for reward in the Kingdom, and that reward depends on what happens between the time that they come and believe and understand and their time of entry into the Kingdom.

So there's a parallel there in between those two things. What we see in Matthew 18, so this issue is going to go on. It isn't just like, okay, here's the Sermon on the Mount and then we're done, right? But instead, this issue, this concern about entry is going to go on. Here's in Matthew 18, there's a quote we have in the second paragraph on the page.

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and said, boy, here they are, who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Oh boy. And their idea, of course, is they were asking for somebody else, right? Yeah. Now, how do I get maximum rank? And He called a child to Himself and set him before them and said, truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Isn't it interesting? Is that what they asked? What did they ask? Who's the greatest?

And Jesus didn't answer that, at least not initially. First, you've got to worry about entry, or be concerned with entry. And then he says, unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

So he does end up answering their question, but not before he first addresses this entry issue. So something interesting is while he's here in Matthew 7, returning to the question that came up in chapter 5. Entry. Entry. And one of the things we mentioned early on, remember I asked the question, what was shocking about both John the Baptist and Jesus saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What was shocking? Yeah, they had other impressions about how I'm going to get in.

And they thought the ones who were guaranteed the most was the Pharisees, right? Because those guys were the best of the best when it comes to doing the law. And so Jesus gives them another shocking statement. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you're not even getting in.

So what he's saying here is before you're concerned about Yeah, entry is the first issue. And that was a big shocker to them. A great many of them, and this insight comes out of the Gospel of John, a great many of them had the impression that, hey, I'm descended from Abraham, man, I'm in. What's that? Yes, oh yes, good point. Good point. Yeah, I'm descended from Abraham, man, I'm there. And so there was that kind of assumption behind it all. So now this issue of entry comes up.

The next thing we see there, he says, Jesus cautioned beginning with bewares regarding false prophets. This caution to the Jews began with warnings from Moses in Deuteronomy 13 and 18. Think about what does the Old Testament law do to address false prophets?

Those chapters, 13 and 18. Thirteen, we'll talk about a little bit more later. Thirteen talks about false prophets that point to and direct people towards other gods. Eighteen talks about prophecies that don't come true. Those are the two issues that come up in those chapters. What he's doing is he's returning to this beware of false prophets issue that basically Moses had been warning about for centuries through the book of Deuteronomy.

Now, the end of the Sermon on the Mount, from verse 13 to the end here, Christ presents truths in anticipation with four sets of two. Four sets of two. Two ways, this is verses 13 and 14 we'll be going over this morning, gates and paths to entry impacting ultimate destination. Two trees, this has to do with kind and character. kind, and character. And then two claims, what you say and what you do, or what you said you did. All right, now let's take a look at verses 13 and 14. It's highlighted about two-thirds down the page there.

Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, for there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. If we could pull together a couple of bullet points, they're right there, and it summarizes. Here's the two entrances and paths. Two entrances, two paths. The gate and way to life are narrow, small, and few find it. The gate and way to destruction is wide, broad, and many find it.

Simple enough, right? But we've got some questions there. They're at the bottom of your page. What do these two bullet points tell us about the number of people who will enter the kingdom, that is life, in comparison to those whose end is destruction? Relatively few. Yeah. Isn't that something? Relatively few. I think that's just one thing to get in mind.

If you're looking for what's the crowd doing, it's not a good indication. What's everybody else up to? Boy, it's lemming time. They're headed off a different path and it's not a good one. It's wide. Paths wide. Gates wide. But it's not headed in a good direction. Why did Jesus make a distinction between gate and way? Why didn't He just leave enough alone and just talk about a narrow gate and a wide gate? Why talk about the way beyond that? What's the difference?

Yes. Yeah, here's the way that those entering the kingdom, the millennial kingdom, would have to continue to walk once they initially come to know Him and come to acknowledge that You're the Messiah. And so there's entry and then there is the time and the path from that point of entry until entry into the kingdom. So there's entry into the path and then there's the path itself.

And then notice that the narrow goes together. Narrow gate, narrow way. You don't have narrow gate, broad way. Narrow gate, narrow way, broad gate, broad way. So you've got those two and they go together. Now, let's ask this question then. Why in order to enter life in the Kingdom did Jesus say that the gate was narrow and small and that the way was narrow as well? Doesn't that seem narrow? Why would He say narrow? And by the way, what does narrow mean? Few is one of the things. Just a few people are going to enter it. And then the way is narrow. And you think about a narrow way.

Pardon? The freeway backed up, yeah. What does that mean? You sure hope you got insurance or plenty of gas? Yeah, okay. This entry is an issue, right? One of the things about a narrow way is it's constrained. There may be some difficulties. Ever see these pictures of some narrow mountain path, and it's like a gazillion miles up and a gazillion miles down, and it's winding and it's like, boy, I better not let my eyes wander. I got to keep my feet on the path because this is a little hairy. One of the things when we talked about a narrow way is that, It's not just an entry issue being narrow, but it's also, the path is a little rougher just to stay on and it might be a little more precarious. Might be a little more difficult.

Hasn't he already told them, you know, you're going to have persecution and blessed are those who persecute you. Yeah? Not only that, but the things that are maybe used in the most appropriate. Okay. for a person who is in the way to do are going to be fewer than those who are in the world. Those who are in the world can do whatever they please, whereas those who are in the way want to reflect the God in their serve. So they're not going to be doing some of this.

Yes. Yeah. Who's opening the gate and how do I go in? And yeah, that's something about a gate is that issue of entry is just right there, isn't it? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, there's another point too. If you're looking for big crowds of people, you're not going to find it. This is instead going to be something where... Are there people on it? Yeah, there are. But it's not where the crowd's headed. Yeah, this is not where the crowd's headed. Here's something else to think about. Jesus said this. Remember, who is He talking to?

Jews in the land of Israel. Alright? Tell me, who were the people, there's lots of them, who were the people who were entering the wide gate? Who were the people that were walking the broad way among the Jews in Israel? What? Yeah, you hear that? Pharisees.

They were the culture's heroes. Everybody looked up to them. They were like, they're the standard of righteousness. And so at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, he says, unless your righteousness is above theirs, you're not even getting in. Whoa! Then he tells them, here's the wide gate. That's where everybody was looking culturally and saying, man, those guys, they're the ultimate in holiness.

Instead, here's what happens. Here's this wide gate and a wide path and the people that everybody is looking up to are the ones in the wide gate and the wide path. Yes? Isn't this all of the Jews? They're all on the wide path and he's trying to call out the ones who will take the narrow gate.

Yeah, I think, you know, that's another point to look at it. The narrow gate is deliberate. And, you know, if you just want to kind of roll along with everybody, yeah, the wide gate is one, well, you're going to head down there easily. The narrow gate, you got to choose that. Yeah, good point. Good point. This is a deliberate thing. And that's why he didn't say just pick a gate.

Pick this one, okay? Pick this one. It's the one that's not obvious. It's the one that everybody isn't going on and going through. Pick that one. Yeah, good point. Let's head on to the second page there. Notice that the gated issue in order to enter the kingdom is not right at the start of the kingdom. You see that? What's the sequence? You've got a gate, and then a way, and then the kingdom.

You don't wait until the last minute and say, hey, I'll just put it off and pick later. He's saying make a choice now. It's similar to what Carol pointed out. Make a choice now, because you're not picking your entry when you go up to the time of the Kingdom, you're picking your entry now. Will there be those who choose towards the last minute? Yes. Is He encouraging that? No. Isn't there a parallel to that among us now though? Ever know anybody that says, I'll think about religion later in life? Yeah.

It's not a good plan. Some people don't get later. Some people don't get that later statement. And so, assuming that you've got it isn't a good plan. Jesus says, pick it now. Pick it now because the gate's where you are right here, and the path is where you're headed down once you pick the gate. But waiting until that final entry point is not a good plan, and that's not even the way he lays it out.

Those people who don't pick a gate, which gate are they in? The wide one. If you don't pick one, you've picked one. Yeah, if you don't pick one, you pick one. If you're going to pick the narrow gate in the narrow way, like the point that Carol made, you better choose and you better choose now. Now's the time to choose. Because you don't know.

Yes. Yes. What's interesting is. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's like, you know, everybody's getting on this highway and, you know, their assumption, there's no sign over the entry, but they always must go to heaven, you know? And yeah, everybody thinks that. Yeah.

Yeah, well, yeah, I remember when Nancy and I were in, when Nancy and I were in junior college, there was a very insightful journalist who was asking the question, you know, he did a survey among a number of people, and I forget the exact number of the survey, but it came up with a figure, it was about 85% of the students figured that they were better than average and worthy of getting into heaven. Now you work out the math on that one. But yeah, the assumption is very common. And how do people arrive at that?

Pardon? Oh, yeah. God wouldn't condemn any. And what are they doing? They're frequently comparing themselves to other people. And they look at, hey, there's a whole bunch of guys locked up over there, this military criminal or something. He's worse than me.

Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's a little bit of good in all of us and that doesn't save anybody, but that's what they think is what's going to count, right? Yeah, it's like Santa Claus. Yes. Yep. And the Lord just kind of puts his hands up, you know, boys will be boys, you know. Yeah.

Notice here that also that one is not guaranteed entry into the kingdom or even into the narrow gate by the ways that many Jews, it says many, it should be many, were thinking would guarantee them entry. Not being or trying to be like a Pharisee. If the Pharisees are your standard, that's not doing it. Not being Jewish or a descendant of Abraham. That was the John 8 issue.

Not being born again in any of the ways that the Jews thought you were born again. They had six ways that you could be born again. Six ways that the Jews thought you could be born again. Nicodemus qualified for four of those. So what does Jesus tell Nicodemus? Unless you're born again, you will not enter the Kingdom of God. Unless you're born again. And Nicodemus is thinking, man, I'm born again four times. Four of six ways.

There's hardly anybody in Israel that's going to beat that. Because the only other way to add to what Nicodemus had was to be a Gentile that becomes a Jew, and he wasn't going to do that, or to be crowned in the line of David as a king. Those are the only things that Nicodemus lacked, so far as Jewish tradition went. So for Jesus to come up to them and say, Nicodemus, you've got to be born again, they're not even entering, blew his circuits. Yes? Let's see, I'd have to sit there and recount.

The bottom line is, born a Jew, being a rabbi, and then I told you too, being born a Gentile but converting to Judaism, and then the other one was being crowned in the line of David. Additionally, being a rabbi and having a following, being the head of a rabbinical school. Those were some of the ways that they also looked at being born again. All those things qualified. So Nicodemus, he qualified by four different measures. And the other two, there was no chance of him doing it unless he was to go back into his mother's womb and somehow get born into almost another, you know, family or tribe or something of that sort.

Okay, how is there a comparison between the narrow gate and narrow way along the path to the kingdom with church saints and their salvation and sanctification before going to see the Lord face to face? Get my point? How is there a comparison between those who enter the narrow gate, walk the narrow way into the coming millennial kingdom, and those of us who are in the church And there being an entry and then a path to walk before we go home to see the Lord face to face. See the question? How is there a comparison there? Christ is still the gate in each way. Good point. Christ is still the... He is the point of entry. And you don't get there just kind of by default. Kind of slipping along while everybody else is going along this path. Yeah, you don't get there by default. It's a deliberate choice. That's one. What else?

He's the way, the truth, and the life. Yeah, He's the way, the truth, and the life. It's very singular, very exclusive. And also that word way. You see there's a commonality here. There is not only a question of entry, but as in the same way that the Jew who was looking to enter the Kingdom, through Christ the Messiah, there was a time between that entry through the gate and the Kingdom. And so there was this path. It isn't just, okay, I'm now in the narrow gate, but there's also a looking at where's the path? Where does it lead? What's it like? And it's the same way for us as Christians, isn't it? It's a question of what's it like once I become a believer? between now and the time I go home to see the Lord, what happens? What does the Lord have in mind?

Yeah? That's right. He is the exclusive entry point. And it really doesn't matter whether you're talking about the Jews and they're looking to enter the Kingdom, or you're talking about those of us in the church and church saints. It's Him. It's Him. There isn't any other gate. Yeah? Yeah, isn't that interesting? Although, there's certainly some contrast. Chapter 5, first chapter in the Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed are you when men persecute you. What did Paul undergo and tell Timothy? He who seeks to live a godly life in Christ shall suffer persecution. It comes both ways. There's commonality there. If they made the decision and they accepted Christ, they kind of lost their Jewishness in a way because they are now Christians.

You say at that time, during the time of the book of Acts, is that what you're talking about? When did the church start? At Pentecost. So that's really the entry point. for the beginning of the New Testament church. So what's happening is you find a bunch of these people at this point in time, as this is being said, he's having them enter as Jews, as saved Jews, and even what he tells Nicodemus.

He tells him he needs to believe, right? He must be born again. But it's about the kingdom at that point. So he wouldn't be a Christian? Not in the church. Not at that point, yes. But, if a Jew was saved, okay, you're now a Jewish, a saved Jew, going into the kingdom, but then Jesus was crucified, would they then become part of the church?

Yeah, here's what happens is that those Jews, like here's the disciples, save, except for Judas, right? You had the 11 of them. What's going on? They're looking at entry into the kingdom. As a matter of fact, what do they ask in Acts 1? Is now the time? They're looking for this kingdom to come.

And He says, well, He didn't say, you guys are just all wet. That's never going to happen. He says, the Father has His own time. He'll call the shots on that. But for right now, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And contrary to what they were told in Matthew 10, only go. to the Jewish places and don't go on a road that leads to the Gentiles.

Now in Acts chapter one, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Yes. Yes. He becomes a Christian at that point, right? Because it's a different distance station. That's correct. Yeah. So he's a saved Jew and yet he's a Christian at the same time.

When does it go back to after we're taken up? After the rapture, then it goes back to the entry issues. As a matter of fact, talking about the special topic, there will be a return to the very issues that are brought up here. during the time of the tribulation. I guess I still don't understand how you would be saved at this point.

Obviously, you've got to believe in Christ, but it's not the way we're saved. I mean, how was Abraham saved? Oh, by faith in Christ. Yes. Say that again? Abraham was saved by faith. By faith. All the time. Everyone. But Jesus isn't... the crucifixion hadn't taken place yet, but wasn't he looking toward Is that the coming of the Messiah? I mean, and by faith in the coming of the Messiah in the future? I don't know. Yes. Here's what you look at. You bring up an important point. We're going to take a side trip here. Essentially, here's what you look at.

Salvation for all people of all time is by faith. Always. No exceptions. Always by faith. How was Abraham saved? You're back in Genesis. Saved by faith. How was Isaiah saved? By faith. Habakkuk. The righteous shall live by faith. And into the New Testament time, saved by faith. And those going through the time of the Tribulation, saved by faith. Jew or Gentile. It doesn't matter. Always, every time, saved by faith. Yes, that's right. We're looking back at it and forward to it. The end is always by faith. What was the issue that Jesus brought up to Nicodemus? Unless you're born again, you won't enter the kingdom. How do you be born again?

Faith. Okay? Faith. And so that's the ultimate issue. And that's why John could write the Gospel of John and tell you towards the end that my whole purpose in writing this book is that believing you might have life through His name. Okay? Always. All time. All people. Doesn't matter where.

By faith. Yes. Yes. And what's it faith in? Well, because remember, looking forward is also just like Bud was pointing out. Yes, Christ still had to die. Yep, absolutely. Notice when we say by faith, what we assume when we say that, and let me explain that because that's an excellent question.

It's not just that you have faith of some kind. You ever hear the phrase people of faith? And it's usually just some sort of vague religious term. That doesn't save you, because it is faith in God and God's provision, specifically through Christ, and not just some kind of faith in something. The truth is, everybody has faith in something. Oh yeah, Muslims have faith. They have a faith that causes a number of them to want to kill you, but they have faith.

And so yeah, it's not just faith, end of story, but it is faith in God, the God of the Bible and the provision that he's made. That's the gate. Yep. Now, always salvation by faith, and yet what we keep returning to is we find Gentiles and Israel and the church, those three groups, the Lord dealing with those groups in different ways, and yet always salvation by faith. Always. Okay. Let's take a look at 7.

Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, and the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits."

Okay, here's this caution. It's about false prophets. And this reflects the warnings we referred to earlier in Deuteronomy 13 and Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 13 is regarding Prophets that point you to any other God beside the God that's revealed in Scripture Okay, so that's chapter 13 if you have a prophet and he's pointing to any other God No good, okay and chapter 18 prophecies that fail to come true.

What the prophets would typically do as a practice is they would have a near-term prophecy, and then they would have longer and even longer-term prophecies. But they would have a near-term prophecy by which you could test them. One of the things we saw as we were going through Isaiah is Isaiah made a prophecy.

I believe it's in chapter 7. This is the one that people look at and it talks about a virgin coming. But there's also in that prophecy a fulfillment that was about a year and a half out. A year to a year and a half out from the time that Isaiah said it.

So they could test him. If Isaiah said, this is going to happen, and it's a short-term prophecy, and it didn't happen, guess what Isaiah gets? A rock party. So there's a short-term prophecy. So that was the Deuteronomy 18 test. Do you pass the Deuteronomy 18 test?

So it wasn't just one or the other, it was both, right? They, one, had to point to Jehovah God, or Yahweh more correctly, the God of Scripture revealed to them, and their prophecies had to be true. Either pointing to a false God or pointing to a false prophecy. Either one of those things. You could fail on either score. Either one of those things and you're out the door. And it's a long way down once you step out. So that was the criteria.

What he was basically doing is repeating succinctly the warnings in Deuteronomy 13 and Deuteronomy 18. Jesus' words will not only continue to be valid and valuable in the time of his earthly ministry, but even more so in the tribulation period. By some other records there were hundreds of people claiming to be the Messiah during the time of the New Testament. Jews claiming to be the Messiah, and even some other non-Jews claiming to be the Messiah. Hundreds of them. Here's Matthew 24, 23 through 27, which is a prophecy that takes place during the Tribulation period.

If anyone says to you, behold, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance, so that if they say to you, Behold, he is in the wilderness, do not go out. Or, Behold, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe them. Why not believe them? Why shouldn't somebody say, Hey, here he is? Why would you say, Don't even believe any of them who says he's over here and pointing out why.

What will it be like when Christ comes again? Is this going to be something you're going to need to have somebody whisper a rumor to you or give you some news? No. It'll be something everyone will know. There's the lightning flashes from the east to the west, right? Bang! Did you see it? Boom! Did you hear it? Yeah. It won't be something that somebody says over here. It won't be that.

Revelation 16 and 13 regarding the false prophet. Now, we have Christ's statement that there are multiple false prophets, but there's a specific false prophet, and Revelation puts this false prophet as one of, and this is not a term that's specifically in the Book of Revelation, but I think it fits it well. Part of the satanic trinity. Part of the satanic trinity.

But for us in the church, Peter made a distinction. Interesting. Peter made a distinction between false prophets, Old Testament, and into the tribulation period, and for the church. It's not an absolute one. In other words, it's not that the New Testament never refers to false prophets among those in the church, but the preponderance is focused with the term false teaching, false teachers. But false prophets also arose among the people, past tense.

Who are the people, by the way? In the terminology of the Old Testament, and it's carried over substantially into the New, The nations is the ethnos, the ethnic ones, the Gentiles. The nation is Israel. The peoples are the Gentiles and the people are the Jews.

False prophets arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you. See the distinction that he makes there? These Jews in these Old Testament times had false prophets. But among us in the church, the substantial characterization is false teachers, different kind of significance there, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Interesting distinction there, huh?

If you go through the epistles, dealing with the false teaching and false teachers is a major theme of the epistles. There was one, I think it was a Bible college or a seminary class that I had heard about where the professor grouped everybody in groups of three or four and he says, all right, I want you guys to come back to your next class meeting and tell me what's the major theme of the New Testament epistles. And interestingly, all the groups came back, they said false teaching. Isn't that interesting? The major theme of the New Testament epistles, false teaching.

Think about it, we're studying through Galatians upstairs, what's that dealing with? False teaching, right? Paul sends Timothy to Ephesus. 1 Timothy, what did he send him there for? To correct the false teachers. False teaching is a major issue. We just went through studying 1 and 2 Peter. What's 2 Peter substantially about? False teachers. Anybody study the book of Jude lately? False teachers, right? Big issue. Big issue. Let's take a look here. Here's chapter 7, 21 through 23.

Not everyone who says to me, like the doubles here, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? Not just a few, many. And then I will declare to them, prove it. I will declare to them, good boy, no, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

Oh, that's a zinger. Jesus said there would be many who would base their qualifications for entry into the kingdom. Notice the entry issue. entry into the Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Millennial Kingdom, on what they call Christ superficially. Got that? Go ahead and grab a handout there. Glad to have you with us. So, here we have what they say they have done in Christ's name, however impressive, Your name-dropping, however it sounds, and outward actions, however impressive they may appear, are not what qualifies a person for entry.

Christ said that these name-droppers and actors are ones that he never knew and, in fact, didn't live up to their impressive claims of great works. Here's what Jesus said to the 70 disciples that he had sent out. Luke 10, 17-20. The 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And verse 18, He said to them, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless, Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. Don't get all wrapped around the axle about the stuff you do.

Names are recorded in heaven because people believe. That's the bottom line. Names are recorded. And why do we say that? Remember what we said before? Salvation is always by Salvation is always by faith, always by faith in God's provision. Always. Not just some kind of faith, but specific faith. And this holds true for those under law as well as those under grace.

Here in verse 22, Christ used the word pair that day and then. To us, those might seem plain, vanilla words, but those were word pairs and combinations of words that were hugely significant among the Old Testament prophets. They would frequently, not always, but frequently use those to point to the coming millennial kingdom. In Isaiah 11, and I've kind of selected a few verses there.

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. In verse 6, this is one that's well known. And the wolf, usually often called the lion because then you've got two L's, right? But the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And the little boy will lead them. In verse 10, Then in that day, the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious."

What we have going through this passage here is Jesus laying it out. Here these guys, they say, I've got this claim. First of all, what do they call the Lord? They call the Lord, Lord, Lord, right? Say the name twice. I guess it's extra special if you say it twice. Lord, Lord.

And then, how about the things that they're doing? Is there anything wrong with what they at least claim to be doing? No, no. There's really nothing wrong with it. It's some of the things that either Jesus Himself did or the disciples that He sent out did. So what's the matter with these guys? What's the problem? Why would Jesus say something as radical as this? They didn't know him. Stuff you say and stuff you do is not what ultimately counts, is it? Does it count? Yeah, but not ultimately. In the end, no matter what somebody says or what somebody does, they got to know him.

And one of the things that comes out as we look through, and we kind of include it as an appendix because we don't have time to address it particularly, but knowing Him is Him knowing you. If we know Him, He knows us. And so what does He say here? I never knew you, depart from me. I never knew you. Alright, we need to wind it up here, so let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage here, we're thankful that even though we look at it and we say, well, it doesn't all apply directly to us, nonetheless, we can look at it and see things that very much fit. That coming to you as the point of entry is the one option that you provided. You are indeed the way, the truth, and the life. And that along the path, too, there are characteristics of walking through that narrow gate, that entry point that is Jesus Christ. And Lord, we thank you for the insights that we have here and the understandings that come to us. And thank you, Lord, how it is phenomenal, how awesome that we can know you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.