Beloved, we are going to end this conference with the fear of God of all things. And I've wondered why it is that this text has been assigned for this very last message. That we would somehow end this conference basically to consider the fear of God, to consider your life, to consider your latter end. And our text here in Matthew chapter 7, it begins with a gate and a path. It moves on to a storm and then it ends with a fire and it examines everything that happens from the time you enter the gate to the final result.

And the Lord Jesus Christ is preaching the kingdom of God. He's explaining the nature of His kingdom. In Matthew chapter 7, beginning in verse 13, a new section is marked where the Lord Jesus Christ is wrapping up the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 6 that we were engaged in last night, we saw the Lord Jesus Christ making comparisons that there are two kinds of treasures. There's an earthly treasure and a heavenly treasure.

That there are two kinds of eyes. There are light and dark eyes. That there are two kinds of masters. There's God and there's mammon. They're two kinds of dispositions.

There's worrying about your life and seeking first the kingdom of heaven. And then when you get into chapter 7, At least the section that we'll be focusing in on here. There are two gates and two trees and two houses It brings us to two very sobering matters here so we're we're somehow gonna end this gathering with a sobering matter of the kingdom of heaven and and he does seem to be talking to the people of God and in verse 13 we read of his command so if you could please open your Bibles and find verse 13 that's where we will begin And we'll read it and then we'll back up and begin to work our way from 13 to the end of the chapter. Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them. Verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to the man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it did not fall, For it was founded on the rock, but everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall. Oh Lord that you would take these eternal pure beautiful words of life and that you would implant them deep within our hearts and teach us your will.

Amen. So, this begins with a command to enter by the narrow gate. It's an imperative, it's a call to urgency, it's a call to action. And Jesus calls those to enter, He's declaring that something must be done, that you cannot just sit there and take in the doctrine into your mind and let it sit there in your mind. It really requires action, and the action that he's appealing for is to enter in, to move, to move, to move into the narrow gate.

God is calling to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The mercies of God are shown here because He gives time, He shows forbearance, He waits, He doesn't judge us, He doesn't bring down his hammer of wrath upon us He waits and he waits and he commands and he says enter in enter in how many times? Did he call for you to enter in before you entered in it's the patience and the mercy of God And so there are there are two gates One is broad and there are many who are going through it. And the other one is actually very lonely. It seems to be failing, It's not very popular.

It's not the big powerful crowd that you see with things that are linked with success. But there's this narrow way, and there are few who find it. He's speaking about popularity. He's declaring to his disciples that if they follow him they will not be popular, they will not be with the great crowds because there are few who find it. You are different.

You have entered into a narrow way, and it's narrow in many different ways. It's narrow because it's been narrowed by the commandments of God. You can't do just anything you want, so it's narrower in what you can do. A Christian can't do everything that everybody else is doing. It's narrow because all of your friends can't be there.

You won't be able to have everyone there that has always, always been with you. You have fewer companions there. It's a whole different view of life. It's narrow at the beginning, but it doesn't widen out. Actually, the Christian life begins narrowly.

The truth is it actually gets narrower as you go because you enter in and God reveals more of your sin and there's more and more of the flesh that is eliminated. And so it narrows in that sense. In another sense though, it's enormously broad, it's immeasurably broad because you have life, you have everlasting life, and you have given enormous extra resources. So it's narrow in one way, but it's immeasurably expansive in another way. And a mistake that often people make who think they're on the narrow road is that just because they're not very many of you, then it makes it that you're on the narrow road.

No, some people are on the narrow road because of their own selfishness. It seems narrow. Nobody else is walking like them and they've sort of, they've drunk the Kool-Aid, they've taken the message in and they think they're on the narrow road, but they're really not on the narrow road. They have restricted their activities, and they thought that just by restricting themselves, that somehow that put them on the narrow road. No, no, no, not at all.

One can appear to be on a narrow road, but not really be on that narrow road. There are, but there is, your belief system is narrowed. Your way of life is narrowed. It means to be pressed in, and almost like to be in between a mountain gorge, there are boundaries to it. God gives his people boundaries.

And it's a completely different view. It's the view of humility. It involves rejection, it involves suffering, it involves self-examination, it involves personal repentance. It's narrower. The worldlings of the world don't have that much to repent of, but the Christian does.

The Christian life is a life of repentance. That's why when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Wittenberg door, the very first thing that he addressed was repentance. And he says there's nothing but repentance that describes the Christian life like repentance, because your whole life is a life of repentance. And because of that there is a kind of narrowing. At the same time though, there is an immeasurable expansiveness of the freedom that there is in Jesus Christ as a result of that narrowing.

It is a narrow, narrow gate. It is not roomy in that sense. There is a path to destruction that's involved in this broad road. He says, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way which leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. So there are many, many more who are on the broad road than the narrow road.

Why do people reject the narrow way? Because it's difficult. Verse 14 makes that very clear. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it. There are those who cannot Imagine the difficulty and imagine getting involved in the difficulties of being a disciple of Jesus Christ verse 15 shifts the conversation to false prophets And he says beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

So he begins with this command, enter, and the next command is beware. So these are the two things that one must do when he enters into the kingdom of heaven. And he must beware of false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. He's not talking about how you judge your brother to be a false believer. He's telling us how to judge whether someone is a false teacher or not.

And he says, you will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So he says that you might not know it by their teaching right off the bat, but you can know it by their fruits, by the result of their lives. And they live a double life. That's the issue.

You know, a friend of mine told me who knows many, many well-known people in Christianity, and he said, you'd be surprised how many of these very well-known personalities in evangelicalism, they're completely different when they go home. But here he says, you will know them by their fruit. This is why it's so important that you have local shepherds, that you know, you know their life. You've been in their home, and you can discern whether they are true or false shepherds or not. This is one of the great dangers of this personality cult in evangelicalism, where everyone is listening to a preacher who lives a thousand miles away from them.

And they may just hear them from a pulpit, but they can't really know their fruit. It's a great danger In an environment that we live in today This is why God has established local churches so that you can know who your shepherds are You see how they walk, you know who they really are Now it is it is possible to to fake people out and for a while anyway But but here he says you will know them by their fruit. This is a critical matter. And then in verse 17 he says, even so every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

And then the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of what he will do. He says every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them. So he's speaking about, as you're going down the narrow road, as you're walking in the kingdom of heaven, how do you detect a false prophet? And you detect him by his fruits.

Now you can, from time to time, detect him by his teaching. But those kind are really easy to detect because they're so clearly teaching false doctrine but this doesn't have anything to do with doctrine this has to do with the fruit of the doctrine and then in verse 21 the Lord Jesus Christ begins begins to speak of instead of instead of teachers he begins to speak of individuals. He says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven." And so he's now in the final clauses of the Sermon on the Mount. He's summarizing everything that he's been teaching from the very beginning. He began teaching his disciples that you enter into the kingdom of heaven by becoming poor in spirit, and you mourn for your sin.

This is how you enter the kingdom of heaven. And now he is saying that there are people that either you may be or that you may know. And those people say something and they say, Lord, Lord. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord. Now this is a type of person who proclaims sound doctrine.

He proclaims that Jesus Christ is Lord. You can say with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and not have entered the kingdom of heaven. You can actually be respectful toward the Lord and say, Lord, Lord. You can actually confess with your mouth and yet not with your heart at the same time. And he's speaking of people who say, Lord, Lord, but not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

And there are far more people who say Lord, Lord than there are those who are on the narrow pathway. And that's the point that Jesus is trying to make. Even in every visible church, every visible local church, there are those who say, Lord, Lord, and yet they have not entered the kingdom of heaven. But the Lord Jesus Christ tells his disciples, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, it's not just the talkers, it's the doers. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven.

And this is a matter of obedience. It's those who obey. It's those who change. He's not proclaiming a doctrine of salvation by works. He's not saying that you're saved by your works.

He's saying that your works demonstrate that you've been saved by faith because faith works. When someone is saved, their lives actually change. One of the most prominent features of evangelical churches today is you have many people who've never changed. They prayed a prayer and they walked down an aisle and maybe they even went into a counseling room and a counselor had them pray a prayer and they had them say, sign your Bible right here that on this day you were saved. And they continue to go back to their Bible and they say, see, I'm saved.

I said, Lord, Lord. But then, as the years go by, they realize they haven't really changed. They're still the angry people that they used to be. That the power of sin was never really broken. And they really can't see real fruit in their lives.

They may have changed outward things. They may have changed their friends. They may have changed their schedules and their patterns, going to a church and things like that. And they keep saying, Lord, Lord, and they keep going back to their Bibles to assure themselves that they're saved. But there's one thing that they do not have.

And it's stated right here. They do not do the will of their Father in heaven. Now he's not saying that They perfectly do the will of their Father in Heaven. He's not saying that they have become sinless. That's not the point.

The point that He's making is that they are not continually seeking the Kingdom of Heaven. They do not hunger and thirst for righteousness. And as a result, they're not changing. They're just the same people they were when they were quote unquote saved. And what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying is that you can make false professions.

You can say, Lord, Lord, but the acid test of your faith is not your words, but rather it is the power of God working in your life to change you and if you remain unchanged then you have remained in your sins. You might go to your pastor or your friend and say, I'm not sure if I'm really converted, I've never changed. And most of the time, people will try to assure you of your salvation because you're such a nice person. And often we make terrible mistakes by assuring people of their salvation when we have no business doing that. We do not provide people for their assurance of their salvation.

This is something that only God by His Holy Spirit can do. It's only God that can enter into the heart and give them confidence that they have repented of their sins, that they do believe in the gospel, that the power of sin has been broken, that they do hunger and thirst for righteousness, that they are poor in spirit, that they do loathe their sins. Only the Spirit of God can reveal that to someone. And there are tests that could help a person think through assurance of salvation. And there are many tests in scripture.

But the Lord Jesus Christ is raising up a warning flag to all those who would read His word from the time that He spoke it, right up until this day, that there would be people who would test their faith, and they would test it by this measure. Do you do the will of your Father in Heaven? I mean, do you love to do His will? Do you delight to do His will? When you fail, do you desire purity?

This is the issue that he's speaking of. And then, in verse 22, he actually, he kind of narrows the field a little bit. He talks about everyone, everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord. I think he's talking about the general population in the church. And then he narrows it down a little bit more to those who are prophesying those who are teaching in verse 22 he says Many many will say to me in that day Lord Lord Have we not prophesied in your name cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name." Now these are people who've been involved in public ministry.

And they're doing remarkable things. They're doing amazing things. This tells you that there will actually be, in the church, unbelievers who are preaching the Word of God. They're prophesying in His name. They are casting out demons in His name.

And they're doing wonders in his name. There are marvelous things that happen many times as a result of the lives of very very gifted people and there will be very gifted people who can do amazing things and here it's very clear that they are good things because he says that they are done in his name. In other words, in other words they're prophesying in his name. That's code for they're prophesying in a way that's consistent with His kingdom. And they're casting out demons in His name.

In other words, they're actually representing the things of the kingdom of heaven. And they're doing wonders in His name, and those wonders are things that are consistent with his kingdom. And just because there are marvelous things happening doesn't always mean that that person is a Christian. And so the Lord Jesus Christ even adds another level of discernment in discerning who those are who are false teachers. He gives us a little bit more understanding in verse 22.

And by the way, Don't be too disappointed when this happens. Don't be too disappointed when a remarkably gifted person falls because things can be done in his name. And then he says in verse 23, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Now these are some of the most terrifying words that the human ear can ever hear.

I never knew you. You know there are two parts of the Christian life. There's knowing God, There are those who know God and love God. And then there are those who are known by God. Those are two aspects of true salvation.

And to not be known by God is the worst fate than anyone can suffer. Depart from me, he says. No, not my kingdom. Depart from me. In the Bible there's this theology of casting out.

It really begins in the Old Testament where those who were trapped in sin and love their sin are cast out of the camp. And then when you get to the New Testament, you have church discipline where the leaven is removed from the church and it's really it's a picture of it's really a picture of final judgment it's a picture of being of being cast out from the blessings of God he says depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So why, why were they cast out? It was because of their lawlessness. The Lord Jesus Christ has spoken about lawlessness already.

And he speaks of it again. Again, I think, to correct the church in any age that ever declares the antinomian doctrine that it's not necessary to obey God. These are those who practice lawlessness. In other words, it's the regular perpetual habit of their lives. It's not the condition where you sin and you repent and you return to the Lord.

Again, it's not perfectionism. It has to do really with the whole direction of your life and whether there is this repetitive, unbreakable sin in your life. When you have that, it should terrify you. It should drive you to repent of your sins because he speaks of lawlessness. This is anomia, antinomianism.

Those who have rejected the law of God. God will say, I never knew you. Depart from me. And then the Lord Jesus Christ sums it up with further imagery in order to help his disciples even more deeply understand what he's talking about. He says, therefore, therefore.

In other words, as a result of all these things that he has said, and I think it's quite possible that you could go all the way back to Matthew chapter 5 verse 1. And now he is saying, therefore, bringing this final summary statement of the gospel of the kingdom of God. He says, therefore, Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." So the Lord Jesus Christ, after speaking of the person to whom God says, depart from me, now he speaks of someone who has a house that stands. And I think it's very interesting that the Lord Jesus Christ uses the imagery of a house.

In fact, if you wanna have a fascinating study, trace the doctrine of the house or the household from Genesis to Revelation, and see what houses were made for. And a house really is a picture of heaven. It's a picture of the kingdom of God. And here, there is a man who has a kingdom that is standing. The household that he has maintained stands and the wind, there's wind and there's rain and it's beating on that house and it does not fall because it is founded upon the rock.

Now later on we'll learn what the rock is and it might surprise you. You might be confused about what the rock is in this passage of Scripture Because the rock is different things in the Bible. But here it's very clear what the rock is and you need to know whether you are standing on the rock. We'll get to that in a minute. And then he tells the story of the other house in verse 26.

But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it fell. And great was its fall." Here the Lord Jesus Christ has completed his explanation of the two ways the two eyes the the and now now the two houses as He is explaining that there there are only two roads or There's only light and darkness. There's only sheep and goats.

And there really are only two kinds of houses. And your house is either this house in verses 26 and 27, or it's the house in verses 24 and 25. Every single person in the world lives in one of these houses. And there are no other modified alternative houses. Interesting thing about the houses.

They are so much the same. Each man desired To build a house. They are the same in that way each man built a house in in the same place Each man because he built his house in the same place Was engaged with the same storm and Yet there was a very very different result for each of the houses. Because the houses looked the same. On the outside you could not tell the difference between the houses.

And the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke gives us some insight into this. Please turn to Luke chapter 6 And look at verse 48. Luke 6 verse 48. And you'll find what was the difference in the two houses. Well we can start in 47.

Whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them I will show you what he is like He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock and when the flood arose in the street and the stream beat vehemently against that house and could not shake it for it was founded on the rock. So what was the difference? What was the difference? It is that one man did something that the other man did not do. The one man whose house stood, even though the houses looked the same, they were built for the same reason, and they suffered the same storm.

The difference was one man dug deep and he laid the foundation. One man was in a hurry. One man was interested in appearances. One man cared more about what he looked like. One man was putting on airs.

One man was a poser. One man was trying to make a house that looked so good and so finished. And the other man did that same thing except he dug down deep and he laid a foundation. In other words, he was different. But the difference was found under the ground.

You could not see it by looking at the house. You would have to be able to look under the ground with some kind of powerful glasses to see what was underneath that. And the Lord Jesus Christ has been speaking of this whole matter from the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount really now even to the end. That there's a way that you can look to be a Christian but you're not. And you can have all the outward appearances of a Christian, and you can have a house that looks like such a sound house, and it not be on the rock.

Because the truth is, you were in a hurry. You wanted to identify with some outward vision but you did not care about the foundation of that vision and as a result you're found being swept away and the winds the rain descended and the floods came and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall. This is the great tragedy that exists in the world. That you can look so good, you can be so modest, your children can say yes sir, no sir, yes ma'am, no ma'am.

You can have all the commands of God lined up in a row and not be converted because you did not dig down to the rock. And what is the rock? Well, it's very clear what the rock is. The rock is obedience. In other words, the rock represents the heart that has been changed and the impulses and the affections of that heart lead it to obey.

It's equivalent to what David said, oh how I love thy law, it's my meditation all the day. It's equivalent to what the Lord Jesus Christ said, I delight to do thy will, your law is written on my heart. It really comes right down to the person who loves Jesus Christ, who loves His laws, who so appreciates His ways, who is astonished at His goodness, who is amazed at His mercy, who so longs for His kingdom, who delights in his ordinances, who loves his church, who desires to be with his people, who loves the things that he loves. It all comes down to delight. What do you delight in?

And the person whose house was built on the sand was the person that did not delight in obedience. The delight of the heart that leads to obedience is the rock that Jesus Christ is speaking of. Many people think that the rock is Christ. That is not true in this text. If you want to prove that Jesus Christ is the rock, there are other places for you to go.

But Jesus Christ, when He is on the hill with his disciples and he tells this story. He is not talking about the rock being himself. He's talking about the rock being the delight that makes a person love to obey the Lord. That's the foundation of Christianity. It's not your outward appearances.

It's the affections of your heart and what you love. And how easy it is to build an outer life, How easy it is to deceive yourself how easy it is to live an ordered quote-unquote Christian life and stand before the Lord and say Lord Lord, and he says to you I Never knew you I never knew you to love me. I never knew you to delight in me, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And you know why is it that we're ending a conference like this on such a note? And I think that God designs conferences like this.

This is not a text that I chose for this final section. This came out of the prayerful meditations of those who put this conference together. And I believe that this has happened because God is sovereign, because God loves sinners, and He desires to call, He desires to call the legalistic, outwardly performing people in the world to repent and to turn to Jesus Christ, to delight in Him, to say, I have not delighted Him. Oh God, help me to delight in you. To say, I've put on all these airs, but it's not in my heart.

Oh God, change my heart. Lord, save my soul. Have mercy on me, oh Lord, son of David, and save my soul. I'm lost. And yet everyone around me thinks that I'm saved.

And even when I've expressed my doubts about my salvation, people try to talk me into the fact that I'm saved. But I know I'm not. And if you're in that place today, we who've been trying to declare the Word of God here before you and Ron Doran and Tyler and many others here would be delighted to speak with you about those matters. And so we end this conference the way that we began it. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Amen.