Imposters
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
21 “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.
22 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?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Pray.
1. Beware What Path You're On (vv.12-14)
1. Beware What Path You're On (vv.12-14)
12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Jesus talks about two paths that you can travel and two gates that you enter into those paths.
I cannot read this passage without hearing the words of John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress as he speaks of Christian’s instructions to enter the wicket gate.
Now, a wicket gate is a small door or gate. What Christian is told by Evangelist is that in order to enter the Celestial City, which is a picture of Heaven, he must enter in by the wicket gate. There are others who join Christian throughout his journey to the Celestial City, but they never make it because they have tried to enter other ways.
The point that Bunyan is picking up on is what Jesus teaches us in this passage. There is only one gate that we can go through to get into the Kingdom of God. Jesus is that gate.
Now, the gate is described as narrow and the way is hard that leads to eternal life. Why is this?
Remember that Jesus also said that He is the door.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
This imagery is of another type of door. In Israel at the time, shepherds would often corral their sheep into pens and lay down at the entrance to the pen becoming the door to the pen.
Jesus also said in John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
All of these passages speak of a narrow gate that leads to eternal life. If you want to be saved and have everlasting life, if you want to go to Heaven, you have to go through Jesus. You have to believe on Christ and accept His sacrifice for your sins to be saved.
It is a narrow gate, because as Peter said in Acts 4:12
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
This is not only a narrow view of eternal life, but it is a hard path because the world will hate you for taking this stance.
We need to understand that the gospel is a narrow way. We do not preach a universalism that everyone is going to be saved.
In fact, living the Christian life is a hard path because it calls us to take up our cross daily and sacrifice our own desires and plans for what God wants to do in our life.
2. Beware of the False Prophets (vv. 15-20)
2. Beware of the False Prophets (vv. 15-20)
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
Jesus has warned of the false way that people might travel, but now He warns of false prophets.
Prophets are those people who cry out to the people on the path of this life. They cry out, “thus says the Lord.”
Well, there are true prophets and false prophets. We must discern through the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the confirmation of God’s Word who is a true and false prophet.
Jesus describes the false prophets as those who come in sheep’s clothing.
These false prophets are those who look like they are sheep. That means they look like true believers, until you examine their lives.
We will live out what we really believe. Magicians are successful because they can distract you with their words and the lights and their showmanship, but you have to keep your eyes on their hands to see the secret to their trick.
The same is true of a false prophet, only instead of looking at their hands, you look at how they live their lives.
Jesus uses the illustration of inspecting fruit. You can look at the fruit that a person produces from the life that they live and see what they really believe.
3. Beware of False Confessions (vv.21-23)
3. Beware of False Confessions (vv.21-23)
21 “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.
22 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?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
The final warning is probably the most personal. Beware of false professions.
There are many people that are going to be turned away from Heaven, because they were trusting in their religious works and not their faith in Christ.
You see, Jesus goes on to describe the fact that there will be many who think that they belong to Jesus because they paid lip service to Him or maybe even did some religious deeds, but they really had not placed their faith in Christ.
Be warned that we must examine ourselves.
28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
We do not want to take a gamble with this.
Conclusion
Are you in the faith? Have you entered in through the wicket gate? Are you on the narrow path? Have you listened to the true prophets? Have you found fruit in your life that is in keeping with repentance and have you trusted in Jesus alone?
If you haven’t, you can turn back now.
Spurgeon put it this way:
1242If I saw you at the very gates of hell—so long as you had not actually crossed the threshold—if I saw you trembling there, and you said to me, “Can Jesus Christ save me now?” I would reply, “Yes, my brother, look unto him, and he will take you from the gates of hell to the gates of heaven in a single moment.”—52.154
Charles Spurgeon