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One of the most well known sermons ever preached and recorded is Jesus' "Sermon On The Mount." Matthew records this sermon in chapters five, six and seven. When Jesus has finished preaching this sermon, the people were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. While the entire sermon is a masterpiece, it is well known that a good conclusion of the sermon is critically important to tie everything together and to remind the audience why it's important to apply the teachings to their lives. The Lord's sermon on the mount is no exception. In fact, in the conclusion of his sermon, Jesus makes it abundantly clear why it is vitally important for everyone not merely to hear his words, but to obey them. First of all, Jesus sets the stage by saying in Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Now according to this passage, each of us are faced with a decision of utmost importance and there are only two options. The narrow way and the broad way. The broad way leads to destruction, while the narrow way leads to live. The broad way is easy to travel down and the narrow way is difficult. Because the broad way is easy, most people will travel down that way. Because the narrow way is difficult, only a few will find it. The fact that the narrow way must be found implies that it must be searched for, but there are many dangerous obstacles along the way and Jesus points out in Matthew 7:15-17 what those obstacles are. He warns about some of them, namely false teachers which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Jesus then focuses his attention to warning us about the inevitable and inescapable day of judgement that we must all face when we stand before God. Matthew 7:15-17 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." Indeed, one day we will all stand before God to give an account of the things that we have done. But Jesus is not merely warning us on the reality of judgment, he is instructing us on how to be ready for the judgment. In Matthew 7:21 Jesus says, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 7:21 He is telling us that to prepare for the judgment. It takes more than words and wishes. It takes a compliance to the will of God. Now the people Jesus describes here, we'll be surprised on the day of Judgment. He goes on and says in Matthew 7:22-23, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Here Jesus is describing people who never had a real relationship with God, although they thought they did and they felt they did. Now that is a scary thought because Jesus is talking about self deception. He wants us to know that you and I can be deceived, that it is possible for us to go through life only to find out that on the day of judgment we were not really in fact doing the will of God. Now that is a warning. So how do we avoid being surprised on the Day of Judgment? Will. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:24-25 "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." Be wise. Jesus is describing a wise man. The reason he is a wise man is because he built his house upon the rock. In other words, when he laid the foundation, he was thinking about the future. He was wise enough to realize that even though the sun may have been shining when he built the house, some day it was going to rain and flood and if his house was not built upon a firm foundation, it would be destroyed. You see, preparing for Judgment Day is like building a house. Jesus is telling us that if we want to stand on the Day of Judgment that we must build our lives upon the rock and then he explains exactly how we can do that. He said, "whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them is a wise man who builds his house upon the rock." Now when you turn over to Luke's parallel account, Luke gives us something that is a little bit extra. He adds an additional detail in Luke 6:47-48 where Jesus said, "Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock." Now notice that in order for the wise man to reach the Rock, he had to do some digging. In fact, he had to do quite a bit of digging because Jesus said he dug deep. It was not easy for him, but it required deliberate and diligent effort. In other words, it took a spiritual muscle and some and a shovel to reach that rock. Then I submit that for us to build upon that solid foundation that will stand on the Day of Judgment that we too are going to have to do some digging. Now there are many foundations that we can build on that are unstable and dangerous and we've got to be able to determine today the difference between sinking sand and solid rock. Let me give you some examples of sinking sand. First, majority opinion is unstable ground and unfortunately we sometimes follow the crowd and we let the majority opinions sway our thinking. Large numbers can deceive us and lull us into a false sense of security. God commanded his people of old and he's still warns us today, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil," Exodus 23:2 If we're not careful, we can catch ourselves saying, "well, everyone else is doing it and that many people can't be wrong." But whenever you hear everybody else is doing it, that's a red flag and it's a good enough reason to run in the opposite direction, because the majority opinion doesn't have a very good track record of being right. Sometimes the majority opinion just means you've got a lot of fools in the same place. Look at the days of Noah, only eight souls were saved. Look at the days of Jesus after having thousands of people following him one day, they forsook him the next. During the last week of his earthly ministry, the people lined the streets shouting their accolades. "Hosanna. Blessed is the king." But by the end of the very same week, the crowd had shifted from commendation to condemnation, as they shout, "crucify him." We must not be persuaded into believing something simply because a lot of other people are doing it. Jesus warns us not to be deceived by the numbers because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at. So don't allow the masses to manipulate you into following them down the road to hell. Dig Past what everyone else is saying, what everyone else is believing and practicing because the majority opinion is sinking sand. Something else that is equally unreliable is our emotion or our feelings. Regrettably, many are building upon a foundation of emotionalism. In other words, as long as something feels good, makes you happy, and doesn't bother your conscience. That is the standard that is often used to gauge whether something is right or wrong. But feelings are subject to change and feelings are subject to deception. What feels wrong one day may feel right the next. What is so dangerous about feelings is that they are so powerful they can make a lie seen true. When Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt by his brothers, they took his coat of many colors, dipped it in animal blood and presented it to Jacob, their father with the lie that Joseph was dead. Now, Jacob believed that lie and he believed that for years and he felt the same way as if it had been the truth. He grieved. He wept, his heart was broken. In fact, his feelings were so real and powerful that even after they told him the truth, he did not believe them until he saw for himself. Well, the Bible warns us about the deception of feelings. Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Our emotions are sinking sand. The Bible also warns us of another deadly foundation that is the teaching or the traditions of men. Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 2:5, "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." In Titus 1:14 it says, "Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth." And then in Matthew 15:9, Jesus said, "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." When someone is learning to fly an airplane, he is taught to rely on the instrument panel when learning to fly because it's so possible to get jostled around in a storm, to lose visibility and experience vertigo and to lose equilibrium. And what seems to be, up may really be down. And if pilots are guided by their senses, they can crash. So they're taught to rely and to trust the instrument panel even when it seems counterintuitive. Now it's possible for us to get so jostled around by the what the Bible calls "every wind of doctrine," that we lose our spiritual equilibrium. Our hearts can deceive us and what's wrong may seem right and what's right may seem wrong. And if we are swayed by the numbers or led by how we feel or, what seems right, we could be headed in the wrong direction and we may never know it until it's too late. The Bible is our instrument panel. It is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, (Psalm 119:105). The Bible tells us that we are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. When we talk about our emotions, about the majority, about the doctrines of men, these three things have absolutely no authority to save our souls or to make our worship acceptable or prepare us for eternity. So what must we do? Well, we must dig deeper. We must dig deeper than sinking sand. The sinking sand of emotionalism that really has no foundation. Dig past what the majority opinion says or the doctrines of men teach and come to the words of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 12:48 "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." When we stand before God on the Day of Judgment, as we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, there's going to be only one standard of judgment. The word of God. In Revelation 20:12, John The revelator, as he sees a picture of the judgment scene, he says, "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." And so we're going to be judged on the day of judgment by the word of God. And that's why Jesus said, "he who hears these sayings of mine and does them is a wise man." Now, there is a lot of misinformation and false doctrine in the world today and one particular area that we need to address is what the Bible teaches. We need to dig past all of the doctrines of men to learn what the Bible teaches about the church. For example, some say the church is not important or necessary, but when we dig deeper into the word of God, we find several passages that highlight the great value that God places upon the church. First of all, notice a few ways the Bible describes the church. It's described as the body of Christ, the family of God or the House of God, the Kingdom of God, the bride of Christ. In fact, Paul says in Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." Jesus gave himself shed his blood for the church. He purchased the church. He owns the church. In fact, before he died, he made this promise in Matthew 16:16-18 "And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Jesus is the builder of the Church and us, it belongs to him. Sometimes we hear the statement, "choose the Church of your choice." But that idea is not found in the Bible because when Jesus established his church, there was only one to choose from. But in the process of time, men drifted away and began to denominate, designate, that is divided into differing groups. Denominationalism is nothing more than an attempt to justify a system of organized division. Today there are over 18,000 different religious groups that claim Christianity. All of these groups teach different things, have different names and worship in different ways. We are told that that is okay because we can be doctrinally divided and still be spiritually united. But that idea is not found in the Bible either. Now, it is true that we read of congregations of the Lord's Church that met in different locations, but they were all expected by God to follow the same teaching. When we take the word of God and when we dig into the truth, we see that the Lord's desire for his church is unity. But what kind of unity does the Lord desire? Is it "unity and diversity" or "unity and conformity?" Well, the answer to that question is found in the Lord's prayer in John 17 when Jesus was praying for his apostles, he said in verse 20-21 "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Jesus makes it very clear that the kind of unity he desires for all believers is the same kind of unity that he shares with the father. Now, what kind of unity do they have? Do they agree to disagree? Do the Father and Jesus have unity and diversity? Do they disagree on doctrinal matters such as what a sinner must do to be saved? Do they differ on the kind of worship they like? No, not at all. That's not the kind of unity between the father and the son, and that's not the kind of unity that Jesus wants for the church. In fact, when you take a look at what happened when Paul addressed division within the Church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1:12-13, "Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" You see, the church there had divided and had fractured and we're calling themselves by different names, perhaps their favorite preacher, but Paul refutes such carnality by asking the rhetorical question is Christ divided? Notice Paul's solution for division in verse 10, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." Now does that sound like Paul is telling the Corinthians that they can be doctrinally divided and be spiritually united? Not at all. Paul did not command, and Jesus did not pray, for a unity in diversity, but uniformity to the word of God. That's why when we dig past all of the doctrines and the denominations of men. We see in the Bible that each congregation of the Lord's Church was alike in doctrine and in its practices. So we must dig through the mantra of choosing the Church of our choice and go to the word of God and find the Church of God's choice. Now that isn't always easy. It's going to take determination and diligence and a shovel to dig past and all of the sinking sand that is about us and come to the solid rock. But it's worth it. Are you willing to do it? Are you willing to say, as we sometimes sing on Christ, the solid rock I stand? All other ground is sinking sand. I hope that you consider these things for yourself. And if I can be of assistance, please let me know.

Go Deeper Bible Study

Category: Bible Studies