Law & Grace - Matthew 7:13-23 Entry, beware & entry

This picture on the overhead is not accidental. We'll look at that in a minute. There's a reason for it. As Brad read for us, we'll be looking through this passage. It's in the middle of the seventh chapter of the book of Matthew, the last chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, which is Matthew chapters 4, 5, excuse me, 5, 6, and 7.

And so what we find in summary, verses 13 and 14, speak of entry into the kingdom of heaven. It in fact doesn't use that full phrase, but the context indicates that is the intent. We won't go into all the entry issues, but there's a two-page supplement on the Law of Moses and entry into the kingdom. available for you if you don't find it on the cabinet to the right, available for download on the website. The next part, verses 15 through 20, is a warning from Christ about those who are false prophets, as Christ characterizes them in the passage, wolves in sheep's clothing. The next part in the last three verses, 21 through 23, go back to the issue of entry. In fact, all three sections, all three parts of this passage, talk about entry into the still future kingdom of heaven.

This is the kingdom where Christ will reign. Revelation 20 says he will reign for a thousand years. This is the kingdom that's in reference here. And the question is, we'll be addressing it, can someone fast talk their way into the kingdom? That'll be the question that we want to look at here.

So these verses are all being spoken to the Israelites in the very land of Israel, being spoken by their coming king. And very interestingly, you think about it, what were the wise men seeking when they came? Interestingly enough, they came to Herod. They said, who is he who was born King of the Jews, right? So from his birth, he was the coming king. And he presents himself as the coming king in these verses here. He's presenting the gospel of the kingdom here to the Israelites.

Important here. He presents basically three hazards. The wide gate, we could just as well call it the false gate. It's the wide gate is a hazard. The false prophets, those who are wolves in sheep's clothing. And then finally, a false attempt at kingdom entry, fast talking your way into the kingdom. Can you do it? That's the question he addresses there.

The two Gospels in the New Testament, now there are four Gospels in terms of the books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But the two Gospels that are in the New Testament, and by that I mean the messages, are the Gospel of the Kingdom, which was specifically directed to the Jews. Jesus didn't travel into other Gentile lands. He really rather avoided talking to Gentiles, interestingly enough. But he focused this message on the Jews, the gospel of the kingdom. It was directed to them. He spoke it to them. He made sure that he spoke it to them. And also the gospel of substitution, which was for both the Jews and the Gentiles of all time.

Those are the two gospels that the New Testament talks about. And it's not in your handout, but I could very easily put Old Testament in there, too. The Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of Substitution, that is, the Gospel that Christ died in your place and mine, both start from the Book of Genesis. From the Book of Genesis, the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of Substitution, the Gospel that Christ died in your place and mine, both are presented starting in the Book of Genesis and continue on through the Gospels and into the Book of Acts. Matthew 7, 13 and 14 reads like this. 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.

Now you might have noticed I've got some color coding here. This word narrow in verse 13 and verse 14 are actually two different words in the original language. And then the word destruction and life each have definite articles in the original language. So we'll talk about that more in a minute and what that means. So let's talk about the narrow and the wide gates.

The narrow and the wide gates are both in reference to the entry of Israelites into the coming kingdom in which Christ will reign. One of them gets there, the other one doesn't, right? That's the way Jesus presents it. Entry through the narrow gate is the way, the singular way to kingdom life.

It is definitely not the broad way. Entering the narrow gate is a deliberate, considered decision. You must intentionally do it. You can't accidentally do it. If you try to accidentally do it, you'll end up going through the broad gate. That's why he says, deliberately enter the narrow gate.

That's the message that he has there. In verse 14, the Greek word translated narrow means to be pressed by tribulation and affliction. Everywhere else after this means to be pressed in, and particularly by tribulation and affliction and trouble. So that specific word there has that meaning. The insight that Jesus is warning them of affliction as they choose the right path is an important one. It's an important one for the Jews that are listening to them, and it's important for us. Why? Here's why. If you are encountering difficulties, it does not automatically mean you've taken the wrong path. As a matter of fact, it may be because you've taken the right one. Very important.

This goes with the warning about persecution that Christ gave to these Jewish Listeners earlier, back in Matthew chapter 5, the warning about persecution fits perfectly with this. Enter the narrow gate. Yes, there will be persecution with it, but it's still the right gate. We who are in the body of Christ can also suffer persecution. Matter of fact, he writes to Timothy. Paul writes to Timothy and says, he who seeks to live a godly life in Christ will suffer persecution. Trials are certain to come. God has a purpose in it. When we encounter trials, it's not the time to think, God, what are you doing?

God, this isn't what I signed up for. But guess what? That's exactly what you signed up for, right? It's exactly what you signed up for. But God has a purpose in it. And that's the difference. There is no trial in our lives that takes place without God's purpose and intent. Oh, I know, there's a lot of them you'd look at and you'd say, but I didn't sign up for this, or I didn't want to sign up for it. But that's not the point. God has a purpose in it, in each and every one. There is no accidental trial. There is no accidental trial.

Now from time to time we will use a set of terms called expanded and explained. What it is is the idea of bringing out the meaning of the language and the context in a fuller way. So here I have translated Matthew 7, 13, and 14 in an expanded and explained version, as indicated by the little one in the corner of the slide.

You also have it on your handout. It goes this way. You must enter into the kingdom through the narrow gate. You must. For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And there are many who enter through it because it is easy to find. Easy to get through and quite popular. Quite popular. Get that? Okay.

Even though in the end it leads to utter disaster. Verse 14, for the gate is small and the way is constrained by affliction that leads to the kingdom life of Messiah, me, that is Christ. And there are a relative few who find that small, narrow, and constrained gate because of the hard and difficult path that goes with choosing it. You walk up to the gate and you say, boy, that looks rough. Yep, that's the right gate.

You see, Jesus is not a mix-and-match Messiah, where you kind of say, well, I'll take some of Jesus and some of this, and I'll take Jesus this way. I'll take the thumbs-up Jesus. Yeah, right? I'll take the Jesus that's the kind that hugs me, you know? I'll take the Jesus that picks me up whenever I fall down. No. Jesus is as He is, right?

He's not a menu selection among saviors. Let's see, which Savior is it today? You know, I put in my quarter, well actually these days with inflation, several quarters, right? And then I get this Savior, right? Press that selection, the machine drops it out, there I got my Savior for today. No, He is not that kind, is He?

Jesus presented Himself to the people of Israel as their one and only Messiah. The path of following Him meant entering the one singular narrow gate. That's it. Jesus presents himself also in scripture as the way, the truth, and the life. That's the gospel of substitution. He died in your place. Let me expand on the translation of that in John 14, 6.

Jesus said, I, in contrast and distinction with everything else and everyone else, am the singular way, the singular truth, and the singular life. No one comes to the Father except by me. There is no other Lamb, there is no other Savior, and no other path to the life. And that's a point in here where it says, the path to life, it's definite article, the life, the singular. Here's the singular gate, and that's the singular life. It's exclusive. First Timothy underscores that point.

First Timothy 2.5, there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. One, one, one. That's it.

Oftentimes, we may think of the choices in life as sort of, well, I got two different paths, or maybe there's three or four, and they're just sort of equal. And it's a little hard to know which one's right, and maybe one's right, and the other's right too, or they're both wrong. But the two choices don't always present themselves as being drastically different, or taking us to a different place. The paths that Jesus is presenting here to the people are not at all the same.

And which gate is chosen does make a difference. It does matter, which is why he tells them, you must enter through the narrow gate. You must. Now we step into the middle of the passage, verses 15 through 20. He says, beware of false prophets who come to you in cheap clothing. But inwardly, are ravenous wolves. Years ago, boy, it's getting to be a lot of years ago, I used to work with the sheep. And sometimes you had to watch out for some of the sheep.

But definitely, the predators were a problem, quite a problem. In fact, my folks, for a while, they had a flock of sheep there and a llama. Because the llama was really tall, and unlike the sheep which would run away from the predator, the llama would run towards the sheep. And that really stunned the predator. He didn't know what to do with that. That helped preserve some of the sheep.

But nonetheless, the predators like, and our problem was not wolves, but mountain lions, like to come after the sheep. And boy, they would come and hit fast and hard. But Jesus uses this word picture here. There are wolves wanting to bite into and devour these animals, disguising themselves at first. And he says in verses 16 through 19, he starts and ends it the same way. You will know them by their fruits, in verse 16.

Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. So, do you like to be lied to? Do you enjoy that? Is it a favorite hobby of yours? Do you prefer that? Probably not. That would be my guess anyway, right? In verses 15 through 20, Jesus warns his listeners, these Israelite listeners, about the false prophets. In fact, Moses had done that very thing, oh, some 14 and more centuries earlier.

Deuteronomy chapters 13 and 18 are the chapters where the warning comes in place there. One chapter talks about prophets who would say things, this or that is going to happen. In fact, it doesn't come true. But the other chapter, and I think that's what Jesus is more pointing to here, and that is a prophet who points to the wrong God. Now, I think Jesus' application here is similar. In verse 15, Jesus calls them wolves in sheep's clothing, and then in the next part, he switches to a fruit and tree illustration to get his point across. We'll take a look at that shortly here. The idea is you've got good fruit and you've got bad fruit. This is a picture of inedible fruit. I have no idea what kind of fruit it is because I don't eat it. And you can't either. Okay.

So, but Jesus tells about how the false prophets disguise themselves as sheep. So, how can one tell the wolves who are disguised as sheep from the real sheep? How do you do that? Well... You have to look for wolf fruit. That's how you do it. You look for wolf fruit. The wolves, after all, are not playing leap sheep, right? They're not playing games. Just as good trees produce good fruit, so bad trees will produce bad fruit.

I think those of you studying in 1st John are discovering that John writes that way. Sourced in. Right? Sourced in God. Sourced in the devil. Isn't that the pattern that you've just recently seen? Same thing here. What's the source? That's what Jesus is pointing to. Good and bad is from the source. The fruit's bad or the fruit's good because the tree is bad or good. Right? It's the source.

That's what determines what fruit you get. The law of Moses, interestingly enough, did not allow, I mean, it's against the law to cut down good fruit trees. Yeah, that's right. The law of Moses forbids cutting down good fruit trees. But if the tree is a tree that produces bad fruit or no fruit at all, go ahead and cut. Not a problem. But what's the difference? It's the source. It's the source. Now we need to talk about gates, wolves, sheep, and fruit. Okay? Ready for that? Can you hold four things in your head at once? Okay. Don't hold these in your head. Okay.

False prophets, who are the wolves, will point an Israelite to the wrong gate. False prophets, those are the wolves, will point an Israelite to the wrong gate. It's sort of like some of the game shows. Behind door number one, right? Behind door number one, we have the Messiah. Door number two? Oh no. And that's the problem with the false prophet. He points to the wrong gate, the wrong door, the wrong place, the wrong God. By contrast, a true prophet among them would point them to the narrow gate, the one that leads to life.

Will there be trouble with it? Will there be persecution with it? Oh, yes, very likely. Will you sometimes wonder if you picked the right path? Yeah, you might. Is there any question, though, that it's the right gate? No. The false prophet, however, will point to the wrong gate. Go this way. Come join me. I'm going here. So is everybody else. Come on. There's lots of attractions. It's very popular. You'll love it for a while.

False prophets will not only point people to the wrong gate, they will end up going there themselves to their own destruction. Now, interesting point of comparison here. False prophets and false teachers. False prophets, interestingly enough, are a prominent theme in the Old Testament and then into the Gospels and it is a message that doesn't disappear but diminishes as you get into the New Testament epistles. What becomes prominent whether by name or otherwise is false teachers. So the ones that Israel is warned about particularly was false prophets, those who claim to speak for the Lord For us in the body of Christ, the primary, not the only, the primary warning is against the false teachers.

2 Peter 2.1 has that warning. It looks like this. But false prophets also arose among the people, Israel, just as there will also be false teachers among you in the church body, who will secretly introduce heresies, divisive teachings, Even denying the master who bought them.

How did he buy them? He paid the price of his life. The master who bought them bringing swift destruction upon themselves. That word destruction is the same one used by Jesus there in the passage we just looked at earlier. False prophets to false teachers. We are in a time when the primary warning is against false teachers. Those who teach things that are false and wrong. That's the place that we are at now, here in the body of Christ.

Now, 2 Peter 3, 17 and 18 has an interesting contrast here. I think it's very relevant for us. 2 Peter 3, 17 and 18. If you think about it, Peter wrote two letters that we know of, that we have copies of at the present, and this is the last two verses of that second letter.

So if you were writing something to someone and maybe it was either the last or near the last thing, wouldn't you want to get the last things that you said out as very important? Let's look at what he says is very important. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.

So what's the alternative? That's verse 18. But grow, which is an imperative. You must grow. You must be growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. We have essentially an alternative set of paths and he's saying it's not just pick one. We're either going to be carried away by error or grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? It's one or the other.

The warning that Jesus gave the Israelites on the Sermon on the Mount as a parallel warning here is you're either going to be carried away by the air and fall from your steadfastness or you're going to be growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Does he mean by that just information about Christ? Does he mean just information about Christ? No. This is personal knowledge. Grow in the grace which is fundamental to God's character and the personal knowledge of Christ. See, my hard drive knows a whole bunch of things about Christ. It's not saved. And I doubt it's going through heaven's gates, right? I mean, the amount of information is immense, but that doesn't do it any good. Because it's personal and hard drives aren't. I hope not anyway. Okay.

Last three verses, Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many of you 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? Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Verses 21 through 23 focus on some key verbs here. Those are do, enter, say, know, practice.

We're going to see as we go through this book of Matthew a continuing theme. One of the things that this introduces is something we're going to see all the way to some of the final chapters in Matthew and that is the Israelites will be judged. There will become a time when Christ comes back for the second time and he will judge Israel and by the way he'll also judge the Gentiles and we'll see the basis for that too. But he continues throughout this book, almost like every couple of chapters. And matter of fact, we're going to see it again in chapter 8. He continues to talk about the judgment of the Jews in view of that coming kingdom. You see, the Jews were shocked. Jesus was giving them stunning information.

What is that? That just because you're Jewish doesn't mean you're getting in. The Jewish mythology, not in the Bible, had it that Abraham on the last day would be standing at the gate of hell to make sure no Jew ever went in. That was their mythology.

What Jesus was shocking them with was, you know, you might not get in. You've got to have a righteousness that's better than the scribes and the Pharisees. Enter the narrow gate, many will go through the wide gate and won't get in. That to them was shocking news. This was stunning. They were open-mouthed. Shocked, stunned, surprised to hear this information.

The judgment that we're talking about here and will continue to talk about will be at Christ's second coming. There will be those who will say, of course I'll get in for this reason or that reason. But he's saying not so fast. We'll be looking at that judgment as we proceed through the book every chapter or so. There's more revelation about that.

For now, let's talk about ice cubes to Eskimos and a hind leg off a donkey. Someone who is very persuasive is talking about, we use an expression that they're so good at it that they could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo. or they could talk the hind leg off of a donkey. So those are terms that we use for people who are very persuasive. For example, here's the donkey who's had his hind leg talked off of him. And just so you get, that's a little better picture, see? So that's that. Now, in some cases, there are variations on that theme. One instance where both front legs of the donkey were talked off of him. So anyway, some people are very persuasive.

We won't go into that anymore, though. You might be relieved. But there are those who are persuasive and will figure that when they get to talk to the Lord, they'll just be persuasive. Hey, I'll get in because I'm a fast talker, right? He says, uh-uh, it's not going to do it. It's not going to do it. Verbal eloquence, being very persuasive, won't carry any weight. Why?

Because Jesus will know the truth, as he does now, as he will then, as he always will. For the Israelite hoping they enter the kingdom in which Christ reigns, talking a good talk won't mean anything. even if other people are impressed. The Israelite must have been doing the Father's will, which for the Jews means the real law of Moses. Jesus had said it in chapter 5, your righteousness must be better than that of the scribes and the Pharisees, which also was shocking to them. They are the apex of righteousness.

No, I'm sorry, it's got to be better than that. From God's side, however, the ones who will enter the kingdom of heaven will be those whom Christ knows. Did you notice that in what Christ says? The question is, does he know you? It's not how fast can you talk. It's not how impressive are the things that you at least claim to do. But does he know you?

The fast-talking Jews here use this, Lord, Lord, and as we see later on in Matthew, in chapter 25, that gets used again. Remember, as we brought up before, in the Hebrew way of saying things, if you want to make something ultimate, you say it two or three times. We've mentioned that in Isaiah, perfect peace, as it's translated, is actually peace, peace. and uh... this is similar it means ultimate lordship if lord lord is he is certainly the highest lord of all the ultimate lord these israelites are gonna make claims to prophecy impressive they're gonna cast out demons oh boy you're gonna be impressed they're gonna perform miracles and every one of them and they repeat it is in christ's name i mean what could be better than that If it were true, that would be impressive indeed.

There's no indication that Christ is impressed. Verses 13 and 14 and then 21 and 23 talk about kingdom entry, entry into the kingdom of heaven. Both passages talk about the many. There will be many that don't. The majority won't. Most of those who come to the place of potential entry into the kingdom will be turned away. Not you. I never knew you. Not you. Most will be turned away.

Relatively few will actually be granted entry into Christ's coming kingdom. Those few The ones who will be granted entry will be the ones that Christ actually knows. He won't be fooled. He won't be talked into it. You can't impress him and say, wow, of course you're going to be in. No. You see, more than what you know, see, knowing a lot of Bible stuff doesn't do it.

Or even who you know, it's who knows you. We in the body of Christ certainly are to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing Christ is of immense importance, there's no doubt about it. But we must be known by Him to be saved in the first place. What do we mean by known by Him?

We have to establish a relationship first before there can be any fellowship. The relationship must be there and he is the one who knows the truth and knows the heart. The relationship must be there before fellowship can be there. We grow by fellowship. We have a relationship when we believe and then he knows us.

Galatians 4 and 9 puts it this way, but now that you have come to know God, so these were in fact Christians, or rather to be known by God. That's really the starting point. In John 10.27, Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I what? I know them. He knows us. He knows those who believe. He has a knowledge of us because he knows who has a relationship with him. They're my sheep. It's on that basis that we have fellowship. We, in fact, have fellowship with the Lord.

He knows us, and we grow in the knowledge of Him. Does God grow in the knowledge of us? No. That, once we believe, is absolute and total. But we grow in the grace and knowledge of Him. That's God's intent. We grow in the grace and knowledge of Him because He knows us and we have relationship with Him and therefore we can grow as we fellowship with Him.

Let's thank Him for that. How about that? Lord, we do thank You as we look to Your Word, as we look to the truth that You've laid out here. Thank you that you in fact have made a way for you to know us and for us to grow in the grace and knowledge of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that we would indeed be growing this day and this week and this month or until we see you face to face. And I hope that's today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.