Matthew chapter 7, verse 15-29. If you turn there with me in your Bibles, Matthew chapter 7, verse 15-29.

And Jesus finishes the Sermon on the Mount by saying this, Jesus says this, Nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruit. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came. And the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teaching for He was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. I was rummaging through my desk at home earlier this week and I found in there a yearbook from elementary school. I was in third grade. Carter Elementary School. And so I’m going through this. And of course you see all these faces of these kids you knew and your buddies and it’s just kind of nostalgic to look through it. But you also see teachers, right? And I saw some teachers. I thought, oh yeah, I liked her. Then you see other teachers like I did not like her. I remember third grade. I mean, she believed in homework. I mean, that was my life was just doing homework. So I was so happy. I was so happy to be out of her class. But then I remember in high school, it got me thinking about Mr. Cobb. And Mr. Cobb, he loved world history and he was interesting and he really cared about students. And so he really pulled you in. And so I kind of always value, you know, that man. So we all have teachers and not just in an academic setting. You have parents and your parents are, for better or worse, teachers in your life. You, whether you like it or not or know it or not, you have certain antics and tics and you’ve got habits. You have certain perspective on life because of how your parents raised you. Certain friend groups that you chose when you’re a teenager, even now, they speak into your life and shape you. Given your political affiliation, you let certain news organizations, you let certain commentators give you a perspective on the world. So we’re all being shaped by a number of people. We all have teachers. And all those teachers produce in us, as we inevitably do in other people, a certain way of life. We all have a way of life that we see things in the way we live. This is the last passage in the Sermon on the Mount. I know we’ve been in this sermon for a very, very long time. But here at the end of the sermon, Jesus does not teach anything new. So we’re not learning anything new. Rather, what Jesus does in finishing the Sermon on the Mount is He gives, He gives us three warnings. Three very serious warnings with serious consequences if we don’t listen to the warnings. That’s how He ends it. And the warning has to do with this. Who’s your teacher in life? Who is most shaping your life? And is that life what you want to be judged on on Judgment Day? That’s really the end thought in the Sermon on the Mount. So here God is in the flesh. Teaching us, saying to us, who is really shaping your life. That’s the warning, okay? So let’s go back to verse 15.

He says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased sheep, the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. So Jesus starts in verse 15 by saying, Beware. So it means, hey, you ought to be very, very cautious. Like, hey, pay certain attention more than you normally would. Like, look out. Watch out. Watch out is what Jesus is saying. And I don’t take Jesus to be a fear monger, right? He’s not the kind of guy that goes around like needlessly setting off alarm and distressing people, right? So I think we can take Jesus serious. He’s being legitimate in what He’s driving us to be aware of. So what is it? Well, Jesus says we’ve got to beware of false prophets. Now, prophets, that’s not a word we use on a daily basis. What is a prophet exactly? What’s that mean? Well, going all the way back to ancient Israel Testament, a prophet simply was someone who spoke God’s Word to usually God’s people, sometimes other nations, but mostly God’s people. Sometimes those were encouraging messages or positive messages. A lot of times, they are messages of rebuke because of patterns of sin, patterns of disobedience. Sometimes it was a blessing and a promise, but often it was forthcoming judgment for sin, but also redemption. So to be a prophet was just to speak what God had to say to people. And as much as we see the prophet in the Old Testament, really when we come to the New Testament, prophecy is alive and well. The Apostle Paul talks about the gift of prophecy and he says to the church, you need to weigh what’s being said. So this spiritual gift of being able to uniquely speak into someone’s life or something that’s coming, that was there and that was happening. So I don’t think we can say in the 21st century, that that gift is dead. At the same time, I do believe with the closed canon we have of Scripture, these 66 books, we don’t quite need it as much as they would have needed it in ancient times. We have the very dramatic beginning of the fall in Genesis all the way to the glorious end in Revelation. So I wouldn’t say it’s as necessary. Craig Blomberg, a theologian, a commentator on Matthew says, prophecy is both foretelling, so what’s to come in the future, but prophecy is also foretelling. Just being honest about the plain facts of what God has said is right and true. And so friends, I think it’s that one that we need to most hone in on and know, are we hearing correct prophecy, correct teaching? Are we hearing what is correct in its proclamation, in its explanation, and in its application? So Jesus is saying, if it can be done right, and hopefully it can, He’s saying, hey, you better watch out, you better beware, because you better believe it can and will be done wrong. And the outcome of falling for false teaching, false prophecy, is nothing short of deathly. But it’s not a new problem. If we go all the way back to Deuteronomy, right? We’ve said the Torah, that’s the Jewish Bible for them. It’s Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, right? Right? He gave them the Torah for the first time. He kindly built into the Torah a warning, an instruction about this. In Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse 1, He says, If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, but then if he says, 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 of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love your God with all your heart, with all your soul. And actually, the next few verses say, Kill that prophet.

So fast forward to the New Testament and see what Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 2. He says, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift disciples, destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

So here’s what we have to conclude. There’s never been an era in church history, or even in the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, in which dealing with false teachers, false prophecy, isn’t an issue. It’s an issue for all of us. You’ve got to be aware of it. You’ve got to take it very serious. But Jesus says, Don’t forget, they don’t have this capital F, you know, branded in their forehead, like false. Don’t listen to him. It’s the opposite. They’re particularly good at being hidden. Paul says, Hey, if Satan can masquerade as an angel of light, he says, Don’t you think that his servants can hide themselves as servants of righteousness? So you will be duped if, Jesus says, Because you don’t know what to look for.

So if the teachers we hold and the life we have will come under judgment, the first warning Jesus gives us is this, friends. Be careful what you learn and who you learn it from. Be careful what you learn and who you learn it from. So what’s the sign that Jesus gives? Well, I’m not a horticulturalist. I had to look up that word to make sure that was correct for studying plants. I’m not a horticulturalist and neither are you. But Jesus says, Jesus’ illustration is obvious. You can’t get grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. Good trees don’t bear good fruit. Bad trees don’t bear good fruit. It’s an obvious, isn’t it? An obviously simple argument.

And in the same way it’s that simple, Jesus is saying, Hey, if someone is a pretender, just look for the right thing. And what do you look at? Well, Jesus says, Look at their life. The life that they’re living, their character, the relationships they hold, the way they spend their money, the way they carry themselves. Does that look like the gospel you know? Does that look like the Jesus you’re familiar with? Their teachings, what they’re teaching on a normal basis, does that seem to match the gospel and the scriptures you already know? It’s really that simple. I don’t think, Hey, that’s a special elite thing. Not at all. I think Jesus is saying, Hey, you know, like good trees don’t bear bad fruit. Just watch their life. Listen to what they say. And does it match the Bible? I think it’s really that simple for us. But let me say to you, it raises this all-important question. All-important question. How familiar are we with our own Christian faith? Because you know it’s really, really, really difficult to spot a fraud if you’re not really, really, really familiar with the real thing.

You know, I think God does give pastors, He gives theologians whose special responsibility is to study the Bible and know the faith. And hopefully those pastors are half decent, and they’re teaching you the whole counsel of God’s Word. But at the end of the day, all of us individually ought to strive to grow in a knowledge of Christ and His Word. As much as I would like to, and I would like to, I cannot pastorally give you a passion for loving God’s Word. I cannot do that. I cannot give you love. I cannot learn it for you. Jesus says to all of us, Love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, strength. And here’s the last one I think that we really dropped the ball on in the 21st century church. Love God with your mind. The psalmist says, I’ve stored up your truths in my heart so I don’t sin against you. So friends, if we love Christ, there ought to be a resolve in us to more and more learn Christ. No one stays unfamiliar with the people they love, do you? If you love someone, you fall in love, what do you do? You spend all your spare time, you spend all your time with that person, you just get really familiar with their personality and their antics and details about them. You want to defend their integrity, right? You just know the people you love well. And isn’t that what Jesus said in John? He says, hey, my sheep don’t recognize the robber’s voice, but my sheep, they recognize my own voice. So friends, your own passions, what you really spend your time learning in life, that finds you out. What you really love, what you want to grow, what you want to grow in. So it’s got to be true. Our growing or our stagnant ability to defend and articulate the faith says whether or not we’re being careful about who we’re allowing to be our teachers and what we’re learning from them. So Christians are thinking people. I mean, we don’t say that Christians ought to be, based off of what Jesus says, discerning people, right? Paul says, hey, test the spirits. Test what’s being said. Don’t just, oh, that person’s a Christian? Well, let me accept what they’ve said. Or that person on the TV, they said they’re speaking of Jesus. It must be true. Or that person’s a Christian artist, so their music must obviously be edifying. It isn’t so, friends.

The Christian thinks, because the Christian wants to know more about God. You want to know more about God. And I think the psalmist gives a really beautiful picture, word picture of this in Psalm 1, verse 3. He says,

So why does Jesus say, hey, be really careful what you learn and who you’re learning it from? Because He knows it’ll come to either great approval or condemnation on judgment day. So I don’t know how much more serious to make. Like, it has to do with your eternal soul. It’s that serious. It’s like, oh, well, you learned some really bad theology and you learned to pervert a gospel. No big deal. It’s a big deal!

Because only the gospel and its purity and its integrity can save a person’s soul. Jesus says the bad fruit of the bad tree, it’s cut down and it’s thrown into fire. How do I keep myself from being infected with the bad fruit of the bad tree? Jesus says, discern. He says, look out. He says, watch out. He says, beware.

In one of Paul’s missionary journeys, they go to Berea. And if you’ve read that passage, and you know a lot of people, there’s a denomination of Bereans, for a reason. They came and they were Jews and Paul starts preaching the gospel to them and it says that they were eager to learn what Paul says. So that’s good. But they also daily examine the Scriptures to see what they’re doing. To see if what he was saying was true. So we all ought to be Bereans in that sense. It’s not like, hey, let’s constantly doubt Chad. Is he really false up there? What’s his motives? We’re not supposed to doubt one another like I wonder who you are. At the same time, friends, there should be Holy Spirit,

sanctified common sense. I’m just going to compare what I hear with what the Bible says.

And I think sometimes when we hear these things, a lot of people go like, hey, I’m not an academic.

I’m not reading some ancient church father who’s dead. I’m not getting into all that stuff. That’s great because Jesus doesn’t want you to. You could have countless PhDs in Bible and theology and no more be saved and no more know Jesus. You know why? Because Paul says the gospel is spiritually discerned. It’s not something that a man, it’s not something even that study in and of itself can give you. It’s when you come with an earnest desire to truly learn Christ, that the Spirit says, yes, I’ll teach you, because you’ve come and you’ve asked.

I’ve been very proud of my wife this year. I’ve been very proud of my wife because she has made a resolve to read through the Bible. And I’m going to bed at night and I can see the glow from her screen and she’s reading through the Bible and she’s made a commitment to just work through it. And so friends, I think if you can read, which I hope that’s all of us in the room. If you can’t, we’ll get you some lessons on reading. I think if you can read and you desire to learn and know Christ, the Spirit will give that to you if you’re seeking it. I want to say just very practically, never in the history of the church have so many resources been made available to you to know the Bible. Not like you couldn’t order 10,000 Bibles off the internet right now if you wanted, which some Christians could not do around the globe. You can order a great many number of studies and helps to help you understand the Bible. In addition to that, and I know I send out emails about, you know, India and China all the time. These people are fearing for their life. They’re literally, they’re fearing for their life. They’re getting maimed physically. They’re being lied about by the government and thrown in prison because they’re studying the Bible together. You and I can endlessly study the Bible together. You have a community of church believers and we live in a country where you can say, hey, you want to meet Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday morning, Thursday morning? Hey, can we just take off work and just study the Bible all week? You could do that if you wanted to, but I think because we have that great privilege and freedom, we neglect it so often that we can study the Word in community as a church together.

You’re here this morning and I’m glad you are, but prioritizing Sunday gatherings, that’s so important for the life of a Christian who wants to learn. It’s not a religious, like, oh, look at me, I’ve shown up to church again, but it’s about wanting to hear the Word of God. That’s what it’s about and I hope that’s why you want to gather as we sharpen in the truth of God’s Word. So the question has to remain for us, are we going to be a Word-saturated church together? It’s how we’re going to be. It’s how we bear good fruit for the Lord and it’s how we keep ourselves from being infected with bad fruit. It’s important.

I want us to consider the second warning.

Verse 21,

Jesus says, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to Me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and do many mighty works in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness. Now, I’ve said it before that I think this passage, and I kind of bounced off this passage when we were in Revelation a few weeks ago. I think this passage is one of the most terrifying and dreadful things that we’ve seen. It’s one of the most dreadful passages in all the Scriptures. But I don’t think it has to be if we read Jesus right and we understand what He’s saying.

Upon initially reading this passage, you think, well, goodness, these people on Judgment Day, they’ve cast out demons in Jesus’ name. They’ve done many mighty works in Jesus. These are like rock star Christians, it seems like. So forget the Sermon on the Mount with all of its talk about, hey, don’t get wrongfully angry and don’t lie and love your enemies. These people are doing next level stuff.

You know? And so Jesus is going to say to them, hey, get out of my face. I don’t want you here. And we can only assume He’s saying go to hell because He just said you’re not coming into heaven. So it’s kind of discouraging on the surface of it because it’s like, Lord, what do you want from me if this didn’t work? You know?

But I want us to understand this.

While it’s a good thing to call Jesus Lord, and that is a good thing, it’s apparently not equal with doing the will of the Father, which is Jesus’ greatest concern here. And more than even calling Jesus Lord, doing things in Jesus’ name is neither the will of the Father. Jesus condemned, or these condemned, they’re not truly submitted to Jesus as Lord. They’re not doing the will of the Father and they can’t get in the kingdom. So those three things. They’re not doing the will of the Father. Jesus is not truly Lord. They’re not in the kingdom. Those three things are synonymous. And I want you to understand why those three things they cannot do. Though they declare allegiance to Jesus’ name, though they think they’re doing the Father’s will, and though they think they’re going to inherit eternal paradise, they didn’t do the one thing that Jesus actually told them to do, the one thing the Father’s actually telling us to do. Here’s what they couldn’t do. And literally everything hinges on this one thing. They didn’t really know Jesus personally. It’s the difference. They never knew Jesus in such a way that in knowing His person, their person was changed. Their first priority was to do the right thing, not know the right one. But friends, it’s only in knowing Jesus that the Spirit comes into our hearts and lives and raises us up to where Jesus is to give us Jesus’ person and Jesus’ power to live right. I can’t live right before God. And if I try to live for the kingdom, or live for the Father’s will, or submit to Jesus in the power of my flesh, you know what? It’s not going to work. It’s going to come out and be really ugly. These people on judgment day, you know what they were doing? They were saying, hey Jesus, look at the nasty, dirty fruit off of our tree. Can you let us in the kingdom because of this nasty, dirty fruit that we did in our own power, in our own strength, in our own wisdom? And Jesus says, get that out of my face. The reason they could not get into the kingdom of heaven, hear me say it, is because the kingdom of heaven had not first entered them.

Unless by faith we turn from our dead selves and our dead works to the living Christ, we remain filthy wells offering up sin-poisoned deeds and actions. In John 6, verse 40, is what Jesus says, for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise Him up on the last day. And it’s not even the last day. It’s not even like that’s something you’ve got to look through the Gospels and like, oh, there’s the thing Jesus said we’ve got to do. What’s the very, very first thing Jesus said when we started Matthew months and months and months and months and months ago? What’s the very first thing Jesus said? It was the first thing Jesus said if we would have taken it serious. He said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus is saying if you would die to yourself, die to your works, die to your wisdom, and what does repentance mean? It means to turn completely towards Him. If you would have just, turned to Christ and admitted, I don’t have any wisdom and I can’t do anything right, then and only then would Christ come in to you to give you the power to do right. Friends, we must know before we do. So what is it to do the will of the Father? It is to know Christ. It is to know Christ. When we know Christ truly, we obey Him really. Not in external deeds, but as an overflow of a new nature. We become like Him in the Spirit. And then doing things for Him is not duty, but it is delight.

The Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 13, verse 20, Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, here it is, what’s God going to do once we turn to Him? God will equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight. What is it? Through Christ. God equips us to do right. It’s God’s power coming to us through Jesus Christ. Let your doing start with your knowing.

I think Judas is one of the most perplexing,

sobering characters in Scripture. You think about Judas. Judas didn’t have like a 9 to 5 relationship with Jesus. Like, hey, I know Him pretty well. I’ve got Him on speed dial. Like, hey, I know Him pretty well. Like, Judas was with Jesus for three years. Like, we’re sleeping in the same places and we’re like in private rooms together. He’s seeing literally everything He’s doing. He’s hearing every word Jesus is saying.

Yet what is it about Judas? It was something to do.

Jesus was never someone that Judas wanted to know.

Don’t mistake the game of religion for knowing Christ. They looked at Jesus. They looked so similar. But oh, look beneath the surface and ask the question, do you know Heaven’s Christ?

Do you know Christ?

Third warning.

Verse 24.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.

So Jesus again uses a simple, a homely illustration because He’s just making a simple point He really, really, really wants you to grab. He’s saying, hey, if you build your house on a rock, you know, it’s much better than building your house on the sand where it can get blown away. He’s saying the same way, build your life on my teachings. Build your life on me. It’s as simple as it gets. It’s why it’s so important, you know, when you build your house, you have a good foundation. You ever hear about someone discovering, oh, I’ve got cracks in my, in my foundation. It’s extremely expensive and it can be very problematic. Why? Because when you’ve discovered your foundation has been compromised, it compromises what? Your future security. That’s the problem when you don’t have a good foundation. You may be okay now. You’re not going to be okay tomorrow. I once heard a missionary talk about this and they were trying to come up with a translation of the Bible for this indigenous people group and they tell them this story. About, hey, build your house on the rock that’s Jesus. And these people start laughing because where they live, rushing waters were a problem. And if you built your house on a rock, it would get washed away. They had to drive poles deep, deep into the ground so the water could rush under it. But the point’s the same, isn’t it? The point’s the same. What is your security in life? Because at some point, it’s going to be tested. Will it stand?

Paul recounts the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. And he makes this point when he does it. I want to read what he says in 1 Corinthians 10.

He says, For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And hear this, the rock was Christ.

Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. So the Israelites had multiple up and close experiences with God by His power. They were brought out of Egypt. He provided food for them. He protected them from enemies. He gave them the Torah to guide and teach them the way to go. And Paul reveals here, that hey, that was pre-incarnate Jesus with them, caring for them and protecting them. Yet, because of their love of sin, their love of self, their love of the world, they did not want to build their life on that spiritual rock. They saw the rock, didn’t they? They saw how that rock was uniquely strong and powerful. Egypt couldn’t stand against it. You know, natural laws couldn’t stand against it. God’s dropping bread from heaven for these people. Yet, they did foolishly. When trial came, when tests came, when things got hard, they were quick to jump off of that rock and figure out their own way, didn’t they? They built the golden calf. Ah, here’s our God. We’ll do it this way. And they were overthrown, Paul says. Or in the words of Jesus, they were like a house on sand.

I want you to believe this and hear this. Jesus is not advocating to us this morning. That He is a security.

Jesus is advocating that He alone is security.

Friend, do you know right now for sure that Christ is the rock on which you have built your life? Because if you don’t know it now, let me say to you, a storm is going to come. It’s going to reveal it. And if you don’t know for sure, it’s in Jesus alone. My hope is found. You’re going to be swept away with the storms. And being careful that Jesus alone is your rock, it doesn’t mean great. Now, I’m never going to have to face any storms. The opposite. You’re going to face a lot of storms. But you can be sure you’re going to weather those storms. And through those storms, you’re going to come out with a greater and stronger faith in Christ who is the immovable rock. Not in just this life, but for eternal security. In Acts 14,

Paul is again on a missionary journey and he gets stoned. He gets rocks pelted at him. And a lot of people think Paul actually died from that. And he leaves the city for a little while. But then he comes back. And don’t you see what he says in Acts 14, verse 21. When they had departed the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in their faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. I wonder what that would have been like to hear that from Paul. Paul, you came back here to tell us that it’s tribulations we’ve got to go through to get into the kingdom. You mean like that time when you were literally just stoned to death, Paul? Is that what you’re talking about? Like Paul walked his talk. And why didn’t Paul abandon the faith when he was stoned? Because Paul was firmly planted on the rock.

The psalmist says in Psalm 62.6, He only, only, He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be shaken.

I shall not be shaken. And Jessica and I were in Gatlinburg a few weeks ago, however long ago that was, about a month. We took one of those ski lifts up, you know, you go to the top of those mountains and there’s this, you know, giant, beautiful bridge and you can walk across this really long suspended bridge and you can see the mountains. It’s really cool. So we’re walking across this bridge, which that’s scary enough because it’s shaking. You’ve got, you know, goofy kids making it shake more. But you get to the middle of this bridge and there’s this giant pane of glass. And you’ve got to walk across this. You’ve got to walk across it. You can’t not walk across it. And I wasn’t thrilled about walking across this glass. But you know, there’s people laying on it, like taking their pictures, like they’re suspended in the air and people standing on it. And so I just skittishly like went across it, like not excited about it at all. And hey, I’m still here. Like it upheld me.

But you know, that thing upheld me not because of the strength of my faith, but because of innately how strong it was. Friends, in the same way, don’t look to your own faith to save you. Look to the object of your faith, Jesus. Look how He alone is uniquely strong and capable to see you through. What storm will come in your life? Will it be a sickness? Will it be a sickness of a loved one? Will it be a catastrophic fight for your own faith and being confused about the Christian life which that happens sometimes? Or will it be temptations to sin? Or will it be what you and I aren’t familiar with, but so many believers deal with in the world, physical persecution? Friends, these things come to real believers. They do come. Have you built your life on the rock so that you’ll weather these great storms? That’s what’s important. Do you know the rock? And it goes back to point number one. If you’re not a learning Christian,

you’re not going to know how great that rock is. Study the rock. Look at the rock. So when times of trouble come, you can say, yeah, this storm’s bad, but you know, you know what? I know how faithful this Jesus is. I’ve seen what He’s done in this world. I’ve seen what He’s done in my life. I see what He’s done in the lives of other people that trust Him. I’m going to know this rock and study Him so I can stand firmer and firmer upon Him. So the promises of Scripture give us assurance when we learn what they teach us.

So those are the three warnings that Jesus ends that great sermon with.

And when He finishes it, it says in 28, when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teaching.

For He was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. And scribes were, and we’ve talked about this a little bit, scribes were like lawyers. They knew the law really well. Scribes were often also Pharisees. But we know the Pharisees and the scribes, while they had a head knowledge alone of the law and God’s Word, they twisted it and they manipulated it and they used it for their own purposes and they thought their righteousness wasn’t how well they could keep that law. So what way of life could these false teachers, and Jesus calls them bad guides, blind guides, false teachers, what way of life could they give to the people that matters at last? Well, they can’t. They can’t at all.

But I want you to see this, all the way back in Deuteronomy when God gives the law and gives all the rules, He promises a better teacher is going to come. Deuteronomy 18, verse 18. God says this through Moses, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to My words, that he shall speak in My name, I Myself, I Myself will require it of him. Friends, Jesus has come to teach us a better way, to teach us what it means to really know the way of the kingdom, to really submit and gladly submit to His good lordship, what it really means to enter the kingdom. Jesus Christ alone can give us the better life because Jesus Christ alone is the truth. So when I learn from Him, I’m getting the fruits of the kingdom. And when I know Him, and I watch Him, and I hear Him, I’m learning His ways, and the Spirit imparts to me a greater and greater measure of Jesus. And the more I know Jesus, the firmer and firmer my feet are on that rock, and not just security now is mine, but eternal security at the same time.

All the way back when we started this, if you remember, when Jesus called everybody to Him when He started preaching the sermon, there were two people in the audience. Do you remember this? I said there were disciples, and there were listeners.

Those were the two people in Jesus’ audience for this sermon. There were listeners, and boy, did they hear what Jesus said, and boy, was it interesting, and boy, was it flashy, and boy, did they want to, you know, what’s the latest, buzziest thing Jesus has said? What’s the controversy going on in Jerusalem?

But then there were the disciples. And you know what the disciples were there to do? Not just hear Jesus. They were there, but they were there to follow Jesus, to obey Jesus. So, is Jesus someone you hear good things from and you appreciate it from arm’s length? Or is Jesus your teacher? And boy, oh boy, by His grace, working through faith, oh, you want to know Him and follow His way and His life. Friends, when we know Jesus, we won’t be cut down and thrown in the fire. When we know Jesus, we won’t be cast out, and we won’t be overthrown We’ll be built up. We’ll be brought in. And we’ll be taught what it means to really love and know God forever.

Jesus teaches us the better way of life. Is that your way of life?

I just want to end with this psalm. Psalm 119.99

I have more understanding than all my teachers for your testimonies or my meditation. I understand more than the age, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts, I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, You are the way. You are the way. You are the truth.

And You are the life.

Oh, that You would tear down those false idols in our heart.

Oh, Lord, those things in which we think there is life. Those things that bring us temporal happiness. Oh, how You would show us, we pray, for our great need to be in Your presence, to sit at Your feet and learn from You.

To eat Your flesh and drink Your blood.

Oh, we thank You for great grace. We thank You for mercy. That, Jesus, You would leave the everlasting. You would leave Your rightful throne. And You would come and condescend Yourself to be among Your enemies.

Oh, Lord, we just pray Your Spirit would just overwhelm us with the truth of that Gospel that You’ve come to save us. And I pray by Your grace, we would have the faith to believe. And to obey. And to follow. And to be kept.

So we say we trust You this morning, Jesus. And we desire by Your grace to trust You all the more. For Your glory and for the Father’s glory.

We pray this in Your name. Amen.