Journey Through Matthew: The Narrow Way Part II
Journey Through Matthew • Sermon • Submitted
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· 2 viewsJesus is the one and only way to heaven.
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Introduction
Introduction
Good evening and welcome back for Part II!
This morning we started with the last half of and Jesus’ practical application of the Sermon on the Mount.
Just to recap and bring us up to speed, this morning we looked at verses 13-23 and covered the first two of the three topics that Jesus covers here.
Specifically this morning we looked at the narrow way and how that way is the only way to heaven.
We can’t go the way of the world and do things the way of the world and expect to make it to heaven.
That way isn’t going to cut it.
Because the world is full of lies and deception that is designed to draw you further away from God instead of pulling us toward God.
In fact John tells us that . . .
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.
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The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.
And Jesus says that . . .
And Jesus says that . . .
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
The world and it’s ways will come to an end.
The only hope that we have is Jesus Christ.
Jesus is . . .
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.
So, if we want to endure, then we need to be on the narrow road-On Jesus’ road.
That was the first part, the second thing we talked about this morning was bearing fruit and the type of relationship we have with God can be summed up by the type of fruit we bear.
And we hit on it just bit this morning, but the reality is we all bear some type of fruit.
We are all “fruitful” in some sense of the word.
Either the fruit is good fruit or it is bad fruit.
Just our very nature dictates that we will all bear some sort of fruit.
Good fruit indicates that we have a good relationship with God and bad fruit that our relationship is not so good, or that it doesn’t even exist.
And we sort of left off with the question of what type of fruit are we bearing?
One thing we didn’t get into though was the impact of rotten fruit on other fruit.
Think about, what happens if you have a sack full of fruit and there is a bad piece down in the bottom?
If we don’t get rid of it, it will spoil the other fruit.
Paul sort of clues us in on this point . . . .
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:6-
And also in Galatians . . .
“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
Galatians 5:9
And we actually need to be looking at this in two way here.
First, people who are rotten, if we are not careful will pull us down with them.
But even more importantly, if there is some rottenness in us if we don’t get rid of it will ruin is.
And by rottenness I am talking about sin.
If there is sin in our lives that is not being dealt with then it will eventually ruin us.
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but if it is allowed to persist it will absolutely ruin us.
Which brings us up to where we will pick up tonight.
Because in this last section Jesus is going to tell us how we should go about staying on that narrow path and about bearing good fruit.
We are going to pick up in verse 24.
Matthew writes . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Building on the Rock
Building on the Rock
So here we are and this is actually a very familiar parable that Jesus tells.
And he does so in such a way that the people can really understand what he is talking about.
In his day, people built their own houses.
There were not construction companies and contractors that came in and built a house.
If you wanted a house you had to prepare the land and build it yourself.
And there were different types of houses as well.
Some were built out of rocks and mud, some were stone structures, but the one thing that all of them had in common was a good, solid foundation.
Some stone.
Today houses are either built on concrete slabs or they pour a concrete footer around them.
This give the house stability and keeps it from rotten down around you.
They used different materials in Jesus’ day (mostly rock) but the concept was the same.
You either built a house on a rock or dug out around the perimeter and laid rock for the foundation.
So Jesus is going to talk to them in this same way so that they could really grasp what he was talking about, which was . . .
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Matthew 7:24
So, we see a couple of things playing out here.
Jesus says that the one like the wise man, who we all want to be, is the one who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice.
It is not just enough to hear what Jesus has to say.
It is not enough to hear it and even agree with it.
We have to do something with it.
We have to put it into practice.
It has to be useful to us in some way.
Otherwise, just like we talked about this morning, it’s just words and it’s pretty much useless.
In fact, if we will recall the words of James . . .
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:22-
And that is the truth.
How many times have we listened to someone and then immediately after they were done talking forgot what they were saying?
How many people heard the sermon this morning and after they walked out the door immediately forgot what it was about?
How many here tonight could not tell me what the sermon was about this morning?
And the reason we are like this is because we fail to apply what we are hearing.
We may even agree with what is said, we may like what is said, we may be challenged by it, but if we fail to put it into practice, we will quickly forget about it.
And we struggle and struggle and fail to have lasting victory in our lives because of it.
We are hearers of God’s word and not doers.
We need to change this.
We need to be sincere doers of God’s Word.
If we are then we are like the wise man who built his house on the rock.
In other words he had a very strong foundation.
That foundation was the Rock, it was Jesus.
The foundation of his entire life was Jesus and everything else was built on that foundation.
The path he took was built on Jesus.
The fruit he bore was built on Jesus.
It was a strong and solid foundation.
And because of that . . .
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Matthew 7:
And we all know and realize that there will be storms in our lives.
And those storms will beat and beat against us.
It happens to us all . . .
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
The storm will come.
The question is, will we be prepared to handle it?
Will we weather the storm?
Will we make it?
If it has a solid foundation built on the Rock, then yes we will make it.
We will as Paul puts it . . .
Romans 8:37-
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But, do we believe it?
What is our foundation built on?
Is it built on the solid rock or something else?
That is an important question because lots of people build their foundation on lots of other things besides Jesus.
Some build their foundation on their jobs.
Some on their money.
Some on their family.
Some on their friends.
But the most deceiving and dangerous of all is when we build our foundation on ourselves.
We think that we have it all figured out and we don’t need anything or anybody.
Jesus tells us otherwise . . .
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
And as Paul puts it . . .
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Romans 1:21-
The result is, we took shortcuts and cut corners.
Instead of doing the hard work to establish a foundation built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, we became exactly what Jesus describes in verses 26-27 . . .
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Not only did the house fall, but it fell with a great crash.
You see what happens in life is when we put our faith and our trust entirely on God and our foundation is built on Jesus Christ, we can weather the storms.
But there will also be times that we may stumble and fall.
However, because of the strength of our foundation we can get back up again.
But, when our foundation is built on the sand that is always shifting, when we fall, we have no support to fall back on.
And there is a great and devastating crash.
So devastating that we may never recover.
Altar Call
Altar Call
So tonight’s question is simply this, what is your foundation built on?
Is it built firmly on Jesus Christ or on something else?
And here is the thing for most of us here tonight, is it built entirely on Jesus?
Because what we have a tendency to do is mix our foundation materials.
We want to take shortcuts and cut corners so we may mix a little extra water in with the concrete, or we may mix a little bit of sand in there, so it’s not as costly.
We may try to mix a little of the world our a little of ourselves in with building that foundation on Jesus.
I’m wondering if that describes any of us tonight.
So, this is what we are going to do.
Michelle is going to put on some music for us and I want us all to take a few minutes and reflect on our lives.
What path are we on, narrow or broad?
What kind of fruit are we bearing, good or bad?
And, what is our foundation built on tonight?
So, where you are, or at the altar I would encourage you to respond to the Holy Spirit tonight and engage the Lord.