Matthew 7:15-29 (Teaching)

[0:00] Even the Lord will be wrapping up the sermon on the mountain.

[0:12] And before we do so though, I want to make it very plain that this is by no means been an exhaustive study on the sermon on the mountain.

[0:28] I'll tell a missy while we was eating supper. If we'd been going deeper, we'd still be in the beatitudes of Matthew 5.

[0:39] But this is by no means been horribly deep or anything along those lines. But I hope it has been a blessing to you all.

[0:50] And they're important words. I mean, Jesus spoke these words, so yes, they're important. And they're in Scripture. They're in the Bible that God has left for us for instruction.

[1:03] For us being, as you all have heard me say, time and time again going through this, us being kingdom people, us being children of God. So yes, they're important because Jesus spoke them.

[1:16] Yes, they're important because they're in the Bible and they're important. I mean, honestly though, if you took the words of the sermon on the mount and if the world could just live by those things, the church has a hard time living by it.

[1:33] But it's just like the book of Leviticus. You go through the book of Leviticus sometime. If the world could live by the book of Leviticus, you'd never see anybody that had any financial problems.

[1:45] You'd never see anybody that really had many problems at all. Things are going to pop up here and there, but the things that we're so familiar with, those things are found all throughout Leviticus.

[1:59] But the Jews, they had a hard time going by it. And us Gentiles, we have a hard time going by it. I'm not by any means saying you're also trying to live like me because I have just as hard of a time as anybody does.

[2:13] But anyway, we'll get back into the sermon on the mount here. We're not very far to go. Last week we ended with verse 15.

[2:24] We're going back up to verse 13 and reread through that because really verse 13 through about verse 27 are all linked together.

[2:36] So we'll pick up in Matthew chapter 7 verse 13. It says, And many there be which go in there, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

[2:55] And I know we talked about this one last week, but something I think that I neglected to bring up last week was this, these two verses here begin with a command.

[3:09] And I don't believe I brought that up last week. And I say that because what we're getting into this week begins with a command as well. And there's reasons for that, but it's a command.

[3:21] Enter ye in at the straight gate. He doesn't say, Jesus here doesn't say I advise you or I exhort you to, or I would recommend that you enter in at the straight gate.

[3:34] It is a command to enter ye in at the straight gate. And he tells us why, and we went over that last week, that why does the gate and brought us away to leadeth to destruction.

[3:46] And many there be that go in there at, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth to destruction. So he says, why does the gate and brought us away that leadeth to destruction, and there be many that go in there at, and then he tells us why, straight is the gate, and there is the way.

[4:05] That's why people won't, they won't the broad path, they won't the wide gate. They won't it easy, in other words. They won't the easy way to go in this, you know, I could take this very easily and bring up what's commonly referred to, that I refer to it as easy beliefism.

[4:26] You know, simply believe in Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. And folks, that is true, it is true. It takes belief in Jesus Christ. But I've said it here, I've said it in multiple churches, I've said it on street corners, I've said it in people's houses, and hospitals, and everywhere else, that a gospel without repentance is a false gospel.

[4:48] And it takes repentance, it's got to take repentance. That's what the Bible teaches. I mean, that's what Jesus Christ came out, according to Mark's account, when Jesus Christ came out preaching.

[4:59] And he said, the time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, repent ye, and believe the gospel, repent ye, and believe the good news. But we've got all kinds of people that say, well, I do believe, I do believe in Jesus Christ.

[5:12] I believe the Bible, I believe he was born of a virgin, I believe he was dead, he was buried, he was resurrected, and all that. But you see, zero repentance in their lives, they're on their way to that wide gate.

[5:24] Because there's no repentance there. And this is the fruit that we're about to get into hearing these next verses of Scripture. It's the fruit or the lack thereof, or the rotten fruit.

[5:37] However, you'd like to phrase it. In verse 15, Jesus says, beware of false prophets. Now, I want you to notice here, he doesn't say, I recommend that you beware.

[5:48] He doesn't say, I advise you, just as he'd said to enter ye in at the straight gate, this is a command that he is giving who? Who have we been talking about? Kingdom people.

[5:59] He's giving us this command to beware of false prophets. He says, beware of false prophets which come to you and sheeps clothing, but inwardly there are ravening wolves.

[6:10] He shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree that bringeth forth good fruit, but every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

[6:24] A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.

[6:36] So back up to verse 15, beware of false prophets. Again, that's a command which come to you and sheeps clothing, but inwardly there are ravening wolves. And he gets into this a little bit further in here when he starts, well in the next few verses we'll get to that when we do, and we'll get ahead of myself and do this.

[6:57] But he says beware of false prophets. Again, a command which come to you and sheeps clothing. In other words, sometimes it's hard to tell that they're a false prophet or a false teacher, we might say, nowadays.

[7:10] Sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. But he says, he gives us really good descriptions here and it's very practical descriptions that he gives.

[7:21] He says, you shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Well, no they don't. And I said it's very practical. Jesus not making it hard on the people that he's speaking to during the time that he's given this sermon, nor does he make it hard for us 2,000 years later.

[7:39] He gives us something that's easy to relate to. No, we don't gather grapes from a thorn bush or figs of thistles. We get figs from a fig tree.

[7:50] We get grapes from a vine. And we know that. Just no different. You'll never get an orange from an apple tree. You'll never get an apple from a grape vine. You know, it's very practical things and that's what Jesus is teaching here.

[8:05] So he gives these examples that 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.

[8:20] Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. Now, there is nothing in cross discourse here.

[8:32] There's nothing in his teaching that says every tree is going to bring forth a whole big bunch of fruit or a whole lot of fruit. You might produce more fruit than I do.

[8:43] I might produce more fruit than you do. We might produce fruit equally. And some days I might produce more and some days you might produce more. Some days I might just produce one apple or one grape or whatever the case is and you might just produce that much.

[8:58] But regardless of that, regardless of the quantity of that fruit, Christ here is teaching there will be fruit from a good tree. There will be fruit of some kind.

[9:09] It will be good. There will be nothing wrong with it. It won't be corrupt. It won't be evil. We will have good fruit. Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

[9:23] There's no room here for any kind of confusion that he's leaving these people with or leaving us with for that matter.

[9:35] Good trees bring forth good fruit and corrupt trees bring forth evil fruit. He says a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. In other words, kingdom people, we cannot bring forth evil fruit.

[9:49] It's an impossibility according to what I'm reading here in Jesus' word. He says a good tree cannot, not may not or might not. He says a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.

[10:00] Does that mean that we can't sin? Absolutely not. That's not what he's getting at here. We will have fruit. What's a good fruit in the life of a safe sinner?

[10:11] One of them is repentance. One of them is when we do sin, we go to God and repentance, we go to God with a penitent heart. Sorry for what we have done, folks. That is good fruit.

[10:22] And that's fruit that God is pleased with when he sees his children doing that. So, while we do have sin in our lives, that repentance, that the Holy Spirit will prompt us to go to God and seek forgiveness and seek His mercy, throw ourselves on the mercy of God, throw ourselves under the blood of Jesus Christ.

[10:47] That's good fruit and that's fruit that God is pleased with. But he says a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

[11:00] Again, he's allowing no leeway here. He says neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. It's an impossibility. That's not to say that a lost person can't do good deeds, because they can.

[11:14] There's lost people who do good things for the world, for their community, for their families, all day long. There's lost fathers that have died and gone to hell, but they were providers for their families.

[11:25] There's lost mothers that raised their children and raised them to be respectable people in society, but they died and went to hell because they were lost. He says neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

[11:39] And people might use those examples, or see those examples or hear those examples that I just used, and say, well, is that not good fruit that they're bringing forth? In the eyes of man, yes it is.

[11:50] In our eyes, yes it is. But outside of Jesus Christ, no good work is good enough in the eyes of God. Outside of Christ.

[12:01] But within Christ, within Christ, we could feed one homeless person. We could give one cold glass of water. We could put clothes on one naked person's back, or do something for somebody within Christ.

[12:13] And that is good fruit. But outside of Christ, it is not good fruit. Outside of Christ, we do it for self. We do it to gain praise from men. We do it to make ourselves feel better.

[12:26] You know, however you'd like to see that, but either way, we're not doing it to the glory of God. And anything that we do, we should do to the glory of God. The Bible says, Paul wrote, whether you eat or whether you drink, do it all to the glory of God.

[12:40] Amen. So, verse 19, Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Now, I've heard this verse twisted so bad, and you may have heard it twisted really bad too, and I've seen it twisted probably five or six different ways, but the worst way, the worst way that I've seen it twisted.

[13:02] Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. The worst way that I've seen this one twisted is people saying, well, that's God giving people a second chance.

[13:15] That's God cutting that person down and throwing them into the fire so that they beg God for his guidance, or they beg God for his forgiveness, or they beg God for his mercy.

[13:26] No, folks, not in this context. Not in the context that we are in. We just started reading at verse 13, where it's talking about the straight and the narrow way and the straight and narrow gate and the broad path and the wide gate, and it leads to destruction.

[13:40] That's the context that we were in in verses 13 through 15, and that's the same context that we are in now. This is not God giving people a second chance. We are talking about people standing before God in judgment, and the next verses that we'll be getting into confirm that.

[14:00] So to say that this is God weeding one of his own down, weeding one of us kingdom folk down and casting us into the fire so that we can run them back to him.

[14:12] Folks, not in the context this is in. No way. No way. It's talking about exactly what the context is talking about. It's talking about people that bring forth good fruit and people that bring forth evil or corrupt fruit.

[14:25] It's talking about people that are on the straight and narrow way and people that are on the wide and the broad way. That's what it's talking about. In these verses that's what is being talked about here.

[14:36] Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is him down and cast into the fire. What happens when we clear off land? We clear off land or we clear off a camp spot.

[14:48] I remember doing that when I was a kid. What do you do? You cut that stuff down, you throw it in the fire. What happens to it? It's destroyed. It's destroyed in the fire.

[14:59] So this is not a fire of God that's supposed to prompt his people to run back to him. It's a destructive fire. Verse 20, Wherefore, by their fruits, you shall know them.

[15:12] Wherefore, by their fruits, you shall know them. Because of these things, in other words, you shall know them. Because of this, because of the words, Jesus saying, what I just told you, by their fruits, you shall know them.

[15:28] You shall know who. Well, who is he talking about? Beware of false prophets there in verse 15. He is specifically talking about false prophets in this, here in Matthew chapter 7.

[15:44] So by false prophets, you will know them by their fruits. And folks, sooner or later, they'll bear their true fruit. Sooner or later, they will.

[15:57] How do we determine who's false and who's true? The best way to do that, there's actually two ways. One is by the doctrine that they have, the doctrine that they teach.

[16:11] But folks, we can't go just on doctrine. Because there's plenty of false teachers out there now that say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And I can't argue that with them.

[16:23] But we can not only go by doctrine, but we go by their practice of the doctrine that they teach or they preach. We go by how they do with that doctrine.

[16:35] Do they live like they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do they live like they believe that Jesus Christ is going to be judged one day? And that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about the judgment of God from verse 13 on to verse 27 here.

[16:51] And yes, it's talking about what we would call good folks, but it's also talking about evil folks. It's talking about destruction and judgment that God is bringing. So, wherefore, by their fruit, you shall know that I'm speaking specifically about the false prophets or the false teachers.

[17:09] Verse 21, not everyone 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. And y'all probably heard it said and I've heard it said and I've even said to myself, this is some of, if not the scariest words in all of Scripture, that there are people that are going to stand before God one day, stand before Jesus Christ as their judge.

[17:35] That's exactly what Jesus is talking about here. He's talking about people standing at him and the eschatological end time judgment saying, calling him Lord, just like they do now.

[17:52] But he says, not everybody that calls me Lord says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Well, who will? He tells us who will, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

[18:06] Now, what I want you to pay attention to here is how much of this responsibility falls on us. Now I've talked and I've preached, y'all have heard me do it and I'll go to my grave doing it, that salvation is a complete and total gift of God and you had nothing to do with you being saved and I had nothing to do with me being saved.

[18:30] But we have in verse 13, enter ye in, that's a command, we have in verse 15, beware of the false prophets. Beware we have, but he that doeth, he that doeth.

[18:43] Folks, this responsibility lies in our laps, he that doeth the will of my Father. I believe in the sovereignty of God, yes, but folks, really in everything that he is talking about here, from verse 13 through verse 27, he is laying out choices.

[19:00] He is laying out choices. You can either take the straight and the narrow path or you can choose the wide path or the broad path in the wide gate. It says you can listen to the false teachers or you cannot listen to the false teachers.

[19:12] But here he is saying, many will come to me saying, Lord, Lord, Lord, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father.

[19:25] What is the will of the Father? Well, in this immediate context from Matthew chapter 5 verse 1, all the way up to what we are reading right now, in this immediate context, because this is all one sermon, he has pronounced the will of the Father to these people that are standing around and listening to him preach what we call the sermon on the mount.

[19:46] In a broader picture, in a broader way, what is the will of the Father? I am going to tell you what the conclusion is. Solomon wraps that up in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, next to the last verse.

[19:59] He says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments. That is the will of the Father. That is the will of the Father, is to fear God and keep His commandments.

[20:10] Jesus says in the Gospels, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. What are the commandments? You go through the beatitudes, you go through everything we learned in Matthew chapter 5, everything we have learned in Matthew chapter 6, and everything we have learned up to this point in Matthew chapter 7.

[20:23] That is the immediate context. That is the will of the Father that he is talking about here. Now, does the will of the Father go broader than that? Sure it does. Sure it does.

[20:34] But the context that we are talking about here is this sermon that Jesus was preaching to these people. He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. So Jesus here at the end of that statement, laying claim to His deity, my Father which is in heaven, laying claim to His own deity there.

[20:54] Verse 22, 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.

[21:05] And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity. Many will say to him in that day in what day, in the great day of judgment, the great day of the Lord's judgment, that day.

[21:21] That is what we are talking about through all these verses tonight. Many will say unto him, not a few, who is this many? That is the one that was on the broad way going through the wide gate.

[21:33] He said, many there be that go in there at. Many there be. That is why you have got thousands upon thousands and millions of people following false teachers now because they are telling them what they want to hear.

[21:48] They are telling them you don't have to repent of your sin. They are telling them all you got to do is come forward and either sign a card or profess Jesus Christ and you are in. And folks, that is easy beliefism.

[22:00] But that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, if any man will follow after me, let him take up his cross daily and do so. Not just once.

[22:11] Not just coming up the aisle one time. Let him take up his cross daily. Deny himself and follow Jesus Christ. Folks, if it is a gospel that does not cost you something, I am not saying for salvation because Christ paid for all that.

[22:27] But it will cost us something. It will cost us to follow Christ. It will cost us friends. It might cost us family. It might cost us our jobs. It might cost us our lives. But it will cost us something.

[22:39] And if it does not, it is probably not the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied and done that? I hate the thought of me standing before God and saying, God, I prophesied, I preached, I taught in Your name, I told people about You, I prayed in Your name, I done all these things in the name of Jesus Christ and Him to turn to me and say, depart from me.

[23:12] I never knew You. Now, folks, when He says that there in verse 23, He says, I will profess unto them, I never knew You. He doesn't say, I knew You 20 years ago, but here in the past few years, you've really gotten off course.

[23:26] He says, I never knew You. And there's millions of people going to hell thinking that they knew Jesus, thinking that they were on the right path, thinking they were headed straight for that narrow gate because that's what some false teacher had told them.

[23:47] And now we're talking, we've gone from false teachers unto false professors in Christ. That's exactly who these people are. They're professing Christ falsely.

[23:58] But I hate the thought of people living their entire lives, whether it be 20 years or 50 years or 100 years, thinking that they knew Christ, thinking they were doing the right thing.

[24:09] And I'm afraid that there's millions of people that have died in that very state, thinking that they were on their way to heaven because that's what some false teacher had taught them to think.

[24:21] Now, I'll profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, you that were coniquity or you lawbreakers, in other words. Folks, this is in direct contrast to what we read up in verse 21.

[24:36] Not everyone says unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Then in verse 23, I'll profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, ye that work, work is in the perfect tense there, ye that continually work iniquity, ye that continually break my laws, that's not the will of the Father, those that do the will of the Father.

[25:01] Those are the ones that will enter into the kingdom. If we are constantly breaking God's law, if we are constantly sinning, if we're constantly wrapped up in iniquity, we're wrapped up in self, we're wrapped up in our pride, we're wrapped up in all these things, if that is a constant thing, folks, it's because we don't have Christ, it's because we are not saved if we are constantly thinking of self.

[25:24] We must think and we must love God and we must think about and we must love our neighbor. We come way down at the bottom of the list ourselves. We love God and we love our neighbor.

[25:38] So he says, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, and again that word, work there, that's in the perfect tense. So do you work iniquity in your life? Do I work iniquity?

[25:51] Once again, all of us sin, all of us break God's laws. And just because I'm a born again child of God doesn't give me permission to do so, but when I do, when I know that I've sinned, folks, I go and I repent and I produce that good fruit that God is pleased with, with my penitent heart and all as well between me and God.

[26:12] But those that are lost, those that are professing Christ falsely here, they're the ones that repentance never crosses their mind. They just continue on their way.

[26:25] That's why I said that's in the perfect tense. They continue doing what they're doing. Verse 24, 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.

[26:42] So Jesus here saying therefore, that word therefore, that puts us back to what's been previously spoken, but he tells us what's been previously spoken.

[26:53] Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, what sayings of his? Once again, you go back to Matthew chapter five, you begin where Jesus starts speaking, and that's the sayings that he would be talking about here.

[27:07] I'm persuaded, there's no Bible to back it up, but I'm persuaded that the sermon that he gave here, this is a very condensed version of the sermon that Jesus Christ actually preached. You can start reading in Matthew five and get through Matthew chapter seven in ten minutes.

[27:22] And me personally, I think that the man preached for longer than ten minutes. But Matthew being a tax collector, being a public and Matthew would have been very good with his shorthand as well.

[27:34] So he could have taken really good notes of what Jesus was saying and wrote a really good condensed version like I believe that we're reading here. But we would be talking about the, when he says here, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, we'd be talking about the entire sermon.

[27:51] And doeth them, that's the key, that's the key. And doeth them, once again, you go back up to verse twenty one, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.

[28:04] And here he would hear these sayings of mine and doeth them. Folks, there's, part of this lies in our lap. There are choices we have to make. We can choose to hear the gospel.

[28:16] We can choose to hear the sayings of Jesus Christ. We can choose to read the Bible and not let it affect us. And if it does affect us, we can choose to brush it off of our shoulder and go on our way.

[28:29] And it was, it was no different than Old Testament than what it is here. I mean, the Old Testament, you had in the book of Deuteronomy, Jesus, or God tells the Israelites there, he says, I set before you, right and wrong, good and evil, life and death.

[28:45] And he tells them, choose life. And you have in the book of Joshua, he says, choose you this day whom you will serve. There were choices all throughout Scripture that had to be made. And Jesus Christ has given us these examples beginning at verse 13, where we started tonight through verse 27.

[29:00] He's given us these examples showing us that there are choices that we must make in this walk that we call life. He says, 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.

[29:17] 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. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.

[29:31] And when the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell, and great was the fall of it. Now, we can look at this two different ways.

[29:43] Most times when you hear this talk or you hear it preached, people will make the distinction between the man that built his house upon the rock and the man that built his house upon the sand.

[29:54] They'll say, and that storm came, life came at that man, and it threw that house around, and it beat on the shutters, and it shattered windows, and trees were falling in the yard, and limbs were coming through the roof, and all kinds of different illustrations that they'll give with it.

[30:13] But they'll make it sound like it was life that was doing that to him. Folks, that is not what we're talking about. We must keep this in context. Beginning at verse 13, we are talking about someone has built themselves upon the sayings of Jesus Christ as he is talking about here, and someone who is not, which will lead to destruction.

[30:33] That's what the context is. It's not when the storms of life come my way, when cancer comes my way, when heart problems come my way, when financial problems come my way, when divorce comes my way, when my kids are doing this or doing that, or getting in trouble comes my way.

[30:50] Nothing like that, when my grandbaby sick comes my way. That's not what Christ is talking about here. He's talking about the final judgment of Almighty God. He's talking about people standing before Him, calling Him Lord in the verses previous to this, and talking about their utter destruction in the verses previous to that.

[31:08] We must keep this in context. Now, could we use that for illustrative purposes and preach a sermon on that? Sure we could. But folks, the context is destruction.

[31:20] It is destruction. He says, whosoever hears these sayings of mine, do it to them, I will lock him into a wise man which built his house upon a rug. James puts this great in James chapter one.

[31:34] He says, to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Folks, if we just hear the word, but we don't do, what good is that going to do us?

[31:45] What good is that going to do the cause of Christ? What good is that going to further the kingdom? What good is that going to do to produce fruit that we were talking about earlier? It won't. It will do no good to just hear the word.

[31:58] We must do the word. I said the false professors in Christ that we read about earlier and the false teachers as well, they might profess Christ.

[32:09] They might teach or preach in Christ's name and the people they're professing Christ that are calling Him Lord Lord. They might do all these wonderful things, but where is their house built?

[32:20] Is it built on the rock of Jesus Christ and the teachings that He's saying? Because He began this with whosoever hears these sayings of mine and do with them. I will lock him into a wise man which built his house upon a rock.

[32:33] The rock is the sayings that Jesus Christ has been, that we've been reading through for the past several weeks, beginning in Matthew chapter five. That's the rock that is being immediately talked about here.

[32:45] Could that rock expand? Yeah, sure, but in this immediate context, that's what we're talking about, is the Sermon on the Mount. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not. Verse 27, the rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell.

[33:02] There's only one difference, folks. The storm was the same. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house.

[33:13] We read about that storm in both of these circumstances. So, when I'm standing before God in judgment, folks, it's going to be a fearful thing, even though I know I'm one of His.

[33:26] Even though I know that I belong to God and I know I've been redeemed, it will still be a fearful thing to stand in the judgment of Jesus Christ. But when I stand before Him, my house is going to stand, it won't be destroyed. I won't be destroyed.

[33:43] But those that have professed Him falsely, those that have talked about Him falsely, those that have taken the wide road and went toward the broad road and went toward the wide gate, those people, those are the ones that have built this house upon the sand and they're the ones that will be destroyed.

[34:01] And great, Jesus says, great was the fall of it. Everybody around Him is going to be able to hear that. God's going to strip away the blinds one day for everybody.

[34:12] And everybody's going to know who was a false professor, who was a false teacher, who was a false preacher, who was a false prophet. Everybody's going to know that one day. Everyone will.

[34:24] It says, great was the fall of it. Verse 28, And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings that people were astonished at His doctrine. What sayings?

[34:35] Again, the Sermon on the Mount is the immediate context beginning in Matthew chapter 5. But it came to pass when He had ended these sayings that people were astonished. Not at His looks, not at His etiquette, not at His eloquent speech.

[34:52] They were astonished at His doctrine. Why? Why? Because He spoke true doctrine. He spoke a doctrine that He didn't have to run to the rabbis.

[35:03] He didn't have to run to the scribes. He didn't have to run to get their verification or their affirmation that He was correct in what He was thinking about the Scriptures or anything else.

[35:16] They were astonished at His doctrine. Don't tell me that doctrine is not important. I've heard too many preachers in this area say, I don't need theology and I don't need doctrine.

[35:28] Just give me the Bible. You read the letters that Paul wrote to Timothy. He brings up doctrine multiple times. Don't tell me that doctrine is not important. Your theology, you all heard me say it before, your theology will determine what Christ you worship.

[35:44] Your doctrine will determine what Christ you worship. Don't tell me it's not important. They were astonished at His doctrine, at His teaching, that He spoke these things so plainly to them.

[35:57] You know what that tells me though? What's so sad about that? They were astonished at His doctrine. That tells me they somewhat believed it.

[36:08] If they hadn't believed it, they wouldn't have been nearly as astonished. The only astonishment would have been, I can't believe He said that. But that's not what we're talking about here. They were astonished.

[36:20] They were amazed at this man's doctrine. Why? Because all they had heard was the rabbis. They'd heard the Pharisees. They'd heard the scribes. They'd heard all these people give their take on Scripture.

[36:32] But it tells us in verse 29, he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. That word, four, that puts us back to the verse previous to that.

[36:44] They were astonished at His doctrine. Why? Because He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. And He taught them as one having authority because He had all authority.

[36:58] This looks forward to the end of this very same Gospel where Jesus Christ says, All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. In other words, all authority is given to Jesus Christ in heaven and on earth.

[37:11] He spoke to them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Again, like I just said, the scribes, they had to go to the rabbis. They had to go and get it affirmed what they thought about Scripture by some other man.

[37:24] Jesus Christ had to ask no one if what He was saying was correct. He knew what He was saying was correct. He knew that it was true and He knew that it was right and He knew that it was just and He knew that it was holy and He knew that it came from above.

[37:40] That's why He spoke the way that He did and that's why the people were astonished. They'd never heard a man speak such as this man had. That brings us to the end of the sermon on the Mount.

[37:53] Anybody got any questions or any comments on any of that? Or anything over the past few weeks or several weeks? We thank you. Yes, sir.

[38:05] I've enjoyed it. I hope you all have. Amen. God bless you. I appreciate your attention.