Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
July 17, 1983
Lord, Lord
Matthew 7:13-23 (NIV)
This week Celeste and I went out to Old Man's Cave, which is part of Hocking State Park. The whole area is filled with deep gorges and beautiful rock formations. One of these formations is called "Fat Man's Squeeze". Bev Marshall told me he would never try to get through it. It would be pretty embarrassing to get halfway in and find you couldn't get out.
In our passage today Jesus says salvation confronts us with a similar dilemma. We can choose to go through the big gate and down the wide highway. Or we can try to squeeze through the tight gate and work our way over the narrow path. Most of us here think we have found that narrow gate that leads to eternal life. Even in our village, many people would say they believe in God and are saved. But according to Jesus, few people will really be saved. Apparently many people will be able to fake it.
One reason few people will be saved is found in verse 15. False prophets will run around and deceive people. They will steer the people away from the narrow gate and toward the wide highway. When the New Testament was written, many Christian prophets wandered from church to church to teach people about God. It was a real problem to figure out which ones were from God and which ones were out to make a buck. One false prophet could do a lot of damage.
Once the New Testament was completed, Christian prophets pretty much died out. In my opinion, the false Christian prophets of the first century have been replaced by phony Christians today. Many people who think they are saved are really imposters. Have you ever heard the word, "hypocrite?" Heh, I meant for you to raise your hand, not point your finger! The person sitting next to you may be an imposter. It could be a deacon. In some churches, it's the pastor. We face the same problem the early disciples faced. How do you tell who the phonies are? How do you tell if you're a phony?
Apparently you can't tell by appearances. Jesus says they come in sheep's clothing. When a shepherd watched his flocks out in the country, his shirt was a sheepskin, worn with the skin outside and the wool inside. But a man could wear a sheepskin and not be a real shepherd. Another group of people wore sheepskins: prophets. Both Elijah and John the Baptist wore scratchy sheepskins to show they were rough and tough and close to God. False prophets looked the same way. Verse 16 makes the same point:
"Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?"
There is more here than meets the eye. There was a certain thorn bush in Palestine which had little black berries which looked like little grapes. There was a thistle which had a flower and from a distance this flower looked like a fig.
There may be a superficial resemblance between the real Christian and the phony. The phony may wear the right clothes and use the right words but when you scratch the surface you find they are not genuine. You can't tell phonies by their appearances but you can tell them by their fruit. People who claim to be Christians and don't bear fruit can expect to be judged by God just like old apple trees that are cut down and burned.
Jesus' emphasis on the need for fruit has tripped up many well-meaning Christians. These people think you have to work hard in order to become a Christian. They make superhuman efforts to perfect themselves and when they fail they assume they have missed the narrow gate. Trying to get into heaven by producing good fruit is like weighing three hundred pounds and heading for Fat Man's Squeeze. You just can't do it.
Fruit does not save you. You produce fruit after you have been saved. The only way to be saved is to have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. You have to truly seek God and place your life in his hands. Few people are saved because few people will humble themselves this far. People prefer to do things on their own, maybe be a little religious. Come to church, do God a favor. This is where salvation can be hard to grasp. It's totally free, a gift from God. But it's so expensive it will cost you your life. You aren't saved by producing fruit but if you're not producing fruit - positive, godly changes in your life - then you should question if you've truly made a commitment to Jesus Christ.
Fruit inspection is a very valuable practice. We don't know who's really a Christian or who's a phony. But we can get a good idea of someone's spiritual standing by looking at their fruit. How do you think people look at you? A scary thing about phonies is that many of them don't know they're phony. Jesus says they deceive themselves. Phonies seem to do everything right. In verse 22 they say, "Lord, Lord." Saying it twice is a Jewish way of making the statement authoritative. "Lord, Lord" means they see Jesus as their master. Some scholars think they're saying Jesus is God.
Phonies know how to say the right things. Intellectually they know the truth. That verse goes on to say:
"Did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?"
If you knew these people you would think they were super-Christians. I've never performed a great miracle or prophesied. These phonies did and they gave Jesus the credit. But Jesus says to them, "I never knew you." This means he had nothing to do with them. He is totally rejecting them. They claim to believe in him and do great things for him but their true situation is that they are workers of iniquity-sin. Those wonderful Christian things they did were really from God. It's too bad the phonies will never get credit from the miracles. God can make rocks prophesy. Our job is to know Christ and honor him with our lives.
You've never really studied a passage in the Bible until you apply it to yourself. Do you believe the right things about God? Do you know that Jesus is divine? Do you consider the Bible to be God's word? Do you believe Jesus died for your sins? All these things are good and I hope you believe them. Just remember that you may still be a phony.
Take yourself to the next step. Do you do the right things for God? For starters, you're in church this morning, which please God. Perhaps you give God ten percent of your income as Jesus says we should. Are you witnessing about Christ to people? If you do these things you can consider yourself to be pretty religious. Almost as religious as the super-Christians Jesus locked out. The ultimate test is whether your life is consistent with what you believe. If you've been forgiven by Christ, you should be forgiving people who burn you. You should be honest in paying taxes. Are you faithful to the one you married and giving them all the love and attention you want them to give you? If you sincerely committed yourself to Christ and made him your Lord, this fruit should be more and more abundant in your life because Jesus will produce it in you. The other side also needs to be considered - a lack of fruit goes with sin.
Judge your fruit. You may feel you've been a phony all along. If so, you've only fooled yourself. Other people have probably guessed it for a long time. If you're only "playing church," calling Jesus your Lord but not meaning it, your destiny will not be the smallest apartment in heaven. You're not partially pleasing God, you're under his wrath.
The solution is not to be more religious or moral. God's standards are too high. The solution is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the narrow gate.
Have you ever asked Jesus to be your Savior? Have you ever said, "Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to enter my heart." If you have never done that, you have not gone through the narrow gate of salvation. If you have said that, then you can be assured that he has entered your life. Jesus said,
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." (Matthew 5:6)
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Typed on May 22, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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