Best. Sermon. Ever.: The Two Ways

We're going to turn our attention to God's word. If you would find Matthew chapter seven verses 12 through 29, it's in your bulletin. It's up on the screen behind me. We're going to read this aloud together. This is our last week in the Sermon on the Mount since April. We've been going through this, bit by bit. So we're going to read God's word aloud together if you join me.

In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you. For this is the law and the prophets. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the 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 good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, so then you will know them by their fruits. 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 will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Leave me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house, yet it did not fall for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell and great was the fall of it. When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.

— Matthew 7:12-29

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Many of you will know the name Bo Burnham. Bo Burnham, famously is a writer, comedian, director, musician who produced a film back in May 2021. I want you to remember that—May 2021—very significant. The movie is called Inside, and it replicates what many of us experienced during the pandemic, and it's become extremely popular.

In the film, Burnham is in this one room for the entire movie, and it's just him acting. There are these amazing light tricks that he does to make it transform the lighting in the room to create different scenes. His writing is really smart and snarky and painful and great social commentary, and also filled with some suicidal ideations. It's a really complex movie.

Here's what's fascinating to me about the movie though. It came out during the pandemic, replicates and speaks to the experience of many people during the pandemic. And yet, what I want to highlight is the reception to this movie among American audiences, because this was a piece of art. It's a production. It's a dramatization. And even though the film takes place in one room, the reality is that Bo Burnham did not live in one room for all that time. That was an outbuilding in his backyard. He went in and made coffee and slept in his house and had his life there, but he filmed the movie as if he was stuck in this room.

So a lot of people were like, "Wow, that's exactly what it feels like." The other thing among American audiences is that people did not respond to the movie just as an art form, but as if this was a cry for help from Bo Burnham himself. And people could not distinguish in many cases what was art and representation and what was real, and they responded to it as if this guy needs our intervention and help right now.

What's fascinating about this is that this is really how, in the same way, the Sermon on the Mount—Jesus's most famous teaching—ends. Where Jesus is asking us to distinguish between what is real and what looks real. And asking us, are you for real? Is your faith for real? And it's hard to tell the difference.

Here's what Jesus does. Very briefly—four parables, two ways, one major point. He tells these four brief parables, right? There are two gates. There's a narrow gate, and there's a wide gate. The narrow gate leads to life. The broad gate leads to death. There are two sheep, right? There's the real sheep, and those are wolves that look like sheep. There are two trees. Both of them produce fruits—the fruits that are good and the fruits that are bad. And then finally, two houses.

You know, the wise man who built his house on the rock and the rains came down, floods came up, and the house on the rock stood, right? You know your stuff. I knew you were with me this morning, right?

And the foolish man who built his house on the sand—you say it, you know it, right? The rains came down, the floods came up, and the house on the sand went splat. You get to say splat in church. Great.

But each of these are a story that tells us there are two ways. There's a way to life and a way to death. And what's fascinating about this is that a lot of times people look at the Bible and they say, "Oh, what you're saying is there's a hard way and there's an easy way. There's a hard way and of course, everything with God's got to be hard. So that's the right way. And the easy way—that's the way of the world." And that's not what Jesus is saying.

Or people look at this and say, "Oh, I get it. So there's the righteous good people and there's the partiers. There's the upright and those who are pagans." And again, that's not what's being described here. In each of these examples, the comparison is between something that looks really good but is not real and something that looks really good and is real. The sheep and the false sheep—both of them look like sheep. The house that's built on the rock and the sand from the ground up look great. The part you can't see under the ground is the problem, right?

There's a distinction here between what's real and what's not. And this is some of Jesus' scariest teaching, right? Listen to verses 21 through 23:

Not everyone who says, "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 7:21

There's some that are real and there's some that are not. But this is not a new point in the sermon.

If you have been around a lot of churches, you've sat under a lot of people like me, and you know how a sermon goes, right? Sermon goes: introduction with a funny story, then multiple points, and then a conclusion that relates back to the beginning and all the parts of the sermon. It's not like I'm preaching a sermon on prayer and at the end I'm like, "So therefore go and recycle." You'd be like, "I don't understand that conclusion. It doesn't make sense."

So it may feel like Jesus is sort of causing us whiplash, but the reality is this has been exactly what's been going on throughout the entire sermon. Jesus begins this sermon saying, "Your righteousness has to surpass those of the scribes and the Pharisees." It's like there's a way of doing the religious acts, the rituals of religion that looks good from the outside—giving, praying, serving—and yet is done on the one hand for the applause of other people, and on the other hand is done for God. Or there's the people who have a log in their eye and know it, and the ones who have a log in their eye and they don't know it.

See, over and over, this entire sermon—not just the ending—has been about this point. There are two ways. There's a way that leads to life and a way that leads to death. And the question is, how do we know? How do we know if we have the righteousness which surpasses the scribes and the Pharisees?

Jesus is sort of asking this main question at the end: "Are you for real?" And he gives us—if today is like the last one in the sermon, now let's treat it like it's a final exam. Some of y'all are students or you've been students recently. So you know, at the end of the class, you get a final exam and Jesus is giving us a final exam. And there are three questions on the exam. Only three. Only three. You got three this morning.

So we're going to look at the truth test, the obedience test, and the love test. That's where He's taking us.

The Truth Test

Two of these little mini parables have to do with truth. There's the one about the houses, and there's the one about the gates. So the gates parable goes like this: There's a narrow gate that leads to life. There's a broad gate that leads to death. The house parable goes like this: There's a foundation for your life and house that's true and there's a foundation that's false.

And none of y'all really reacted to what I just said because I just said a bunch of bad words in church. I've said a bunch of things that are highly offensive. I mean, if you're paying any attention and you've got a pulse in this culture, for me to say something is narrow—do we want to be associated with something narrow? Anybody like to be called narrow-minded? No, that's an insult, right?

Or what about this: to say something is true and something else is false. That may be the biggest sin in our culture—to tell somebody that what they believe in is false. Do you hear how offensive this is? Jesus saying there's a narrow way and there's a true way. And there is a truth with a capital T and there's a narrow way of getting in.

So this is what our culture would rather have—these alternate parables. Anybody know the one about the blind men and the elephant? There's a bunch of blind men and they're told, "Oh, there's an elephant over here." So they go and figure out what an elephant's like. One grabs the tail and says, "An elephant is like a rope." Another touches the side and says, "An elephant is like a wall." Another gets the ear and says, "An elephant is like a palm leaf." Another gets the trunk and says, "An elephant is like a hose." Another gets the tusk and says, "An elephant is like a sword."

Here's how the parable goes: that's what all religions of the world are like. Each of them are blind. Each of them are actually looking at the same thing. Now, that sounds really awesome and open-minded and so PC until you realize the arrogance of the parable. Because it's being taught from the one person who says, "All of you are blind and I alone have sight. And I can see that they're all just the same."

Or here's another parable: the mountain. God, whatever God is, is at the top of the mountain, and all religions are just different pathways up the mountain. All good people who want to do all the good things can get to the top. Again, sounds so great until you realize the one person telling the story is saying, "And I of all of you have Google Maps downloaded in my brain. And I can see how foolish you are thinking you have some kind of capital T truth."

The Golden Rule and the Broad Way

Here's the broad way that sounds nice and open-minded and PC: all good people go to heaven. And they could even look in this passage and say, Jesus said in verse 12—what is verse 12 commonly called? The golden rule, right? "Treat other people as you'd like to be treated." That's the way.

So let's play out that hand because this is what our culture says. The broad way, the inclusive way, the open-minded way is to say all good people can find God if they just treat each other nicely. Let's play out that hand. Here's the question then: How much golden rule do you need to do in your life in order to find salvation? How much do you need to do?

Back when I was in high school, 70 and over was passing, under 70 was failing. If you got a 69 or a 49, it doesn't matter. You're both failing, right? Both of those are failing grades. Apply that to living by the golden rule as the way to salvation. All good people go to heaven. So how much golden rule do you need to do in order to qualify you to go to heaven? How do you know if you get a passing grade in that? It feels a little arbitrary. If God is measuring us by this, if this is the way to salvation based on how much golden rule you do, then here's the problem: What if I get a 69 in obeying the golden rule? And I'm out just like the person who was a real jerk, who got a 49. That doesn't seem fair. That seems actually really narrow. I got to perform my way and I never really know how well I'm doing? That's the broad way, which is actually really narrow.

Jesus's Narrow Way

Listen to Jesus though. Jesus has a narrow way which is really spacious. This is what Jesus says: "Enter by the narrow gate." Here's the thing—there's a gate before there's a way. The world's definition of "be a good person" is there's a way and if you do enough, you get into the gate. But Jesus says no. There's a gate first: salvation through Christ alone. And that's really narrow-minded to say that, right? That's really narrow. But there is a gate first.

What does Jesus say in John 10? "I'm the gate." What does he say in John 14?

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. — John 14:6

Here's the hidden thing about the gospel. Yes, it's super narrow. Salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. He's the gate. That's the way in. And yet it's the broadest kind of narrowness. Why? Because anybody can get in. This is why the Bible tells you, "Hey, there is no cause for boasting." God is not measuring based on our performance. He's measuring on Jesus's performance.

By contrast, if you're on the like, "Hey, anybody can get there, just be a good person"—what that says is there's no rest for you. You're always performing and you never know if you've done enough. And it's actually the broadest way that sounds open-minded, and yet it's very terrifying because you never know.

So question: How'd you do on the first part of the exam? The truth test. Did you do okay with the truth test? Alright. Let's look at number two: the obedience test.

The Obedience Test

Notice the language of Jesus here in verse 24. Which house is built on the rock? Here's what Jesus says:

The wise man who hears these words and does them. — Matthew 7:24

Or verse 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 in heaven. — Matthew 7:21

In Greek, when you want to emphasize something, there was no bold or italics or underline in the parchments like there is in your computer. There's no way to emphasize text. And so when you read in Greek, the way they did that was by saying the same word multiple times. This is why Jesus, when He taught, would say, "Truly, truly I say to you." He's not stuttering. He's saying, "Really important here." When Martha of Bethany is running around doing all this stuff, Jesus says to her, "Martha, Martha," right? He's really trying to get her attention.

So when Jesus says here that these people, these false disciples, will say, "Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these things?"—it means that they know who Jesus is. They know theology about Jesus. They know lots of words of Jesus, but they don't know Him.

I grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee, in the northeast corner of Tennessee, at a Methodist church. And next door to our church was a Church of Christ congregation. We had a youth director in the church whose name was Rich Mullins. I grew up around the late Rich Mullins. I grew up as he was going from youth director to contemporary Christian musician. I bought my first Rich Mullins tape from Rich Mullins, as well as the bright yellow sweatshirt that went along with it—that I probably wore all during middle school and high school. I bought that from Rich. He did retreats for my youth group. I've been on a hike with me and a couple of friends with Rich Mullins. I've probably seen him in concert a dozen times. I had a bootleg cassette tape of a bunch of his songs that weren't released until years later. I know all of his words. I know lots of stuff about Rich. I know a lot of his mannerisms. And yet, when Rich died in a Jeep accident, I wasn't invited to the funeral. Why is that? Because I'm a Rich Mullins groupie. I'm a good Rich Mullins groupie. I know lots of things about Rich. I love Rich. But I wasn't invited because his family—if I had said, "Hey, what about me?"—they would have been like, "Depart from us, for he never knew you," right?

There's a difference. There's a difference between being a groupie and being one who knows, right? The groupie—a lot of people are Jesus groupies. A lot of people know his lyrics, been to his shows, know lots of stuff about him. I've spent a lot of time around his people. But it's another thing to know him. And this is the measure that Jesus says: how you know him. And it's interesting—He says this: you do what he says, you do his will, you obey his commands.

By contrast, look here—the ones who don't know him—He says in verse 23, He calls them lawless. Did you see that? Lawless. Now that is an interesting term because I've just been saying that these are people who look like Christians, who do all the good stuff, who know all the stuff about God, right? And it's hard to distinguish the true from the false. And yet they are lawless. What can that mean?

Well, this is what it means: this is a person who's made Jesus mostly in charge of their life. "Hey, I'll surrender most of my life to you, but I sort of want to remain in control." Imagine if you're a business owner and you got a friend and you're like, "Hey, I'm going to let you run my business. But I'm going to reserve the right to veto your decisions when I want to, or change the direction of the company." Well, who's really in charge of the company? Is it your friend or you? It's really you.

So, if you're a person who's like, "Hey, Jesus, you can have 90% of my life, but I want to remain in control of the other 10%"—who's really calling the shots in your life? You are. You're asking Jesus to obey your laws, to do what you want him to do. If Jesus is not Lord of your life, Lord of all in your life, then He's not Lord at all in your life.

See, that's not obedience to Him. That's not submission to Him. That's agreement with Him. I agree with Jesus as long as it suits my interests. You're saying, "Jesus, you can't have the final say. I'm not going to give you all of my relationships and all of my money and all of my time and all of my stuff—it's yours to direct." You're saying, "Well, I want to still be in control of it. I want to still be in control."

I'm not saying that—let me be clear. I'm not saying that to be a Christian you have to have it all together. You have to be perfectly obedient and everything. I mean, haven't you listened to me? A lot of you have been here during the Sermon on the Mount series, and I have confessed to you over and over again all my failings, or a lot of my failings as your pastor—sins and shortcomings and inconsistencies. Of course we're not holding up perfection. Of course we're not.

But listen, these false sheep, they serve God. Both of these are religious. Both of them look obedient on the outside. Both are doing good works. "Didn't we do all this stuff in your name?" But Jesus is saying this has gotta go deeper for you.

Some of you are like, "Wait, it sounds like you're saying that if we don't live obedient lives where we obey his commands, we won't go to heaven." No, I'm not saying that, but Jesus is. Jesus is saying that.

You say, "Well, I thought we were saved by faith alone in Christ alone." Yes, but it's never just faith alone. It's faith that's never alone. It's proven in our lifestyle that wants to follow him. There's a gate and then there's a way. The narrow gate and then the way. It's demonstrating a heart that is surrendered and is surrendering to Jesus.

So the question is: how'd you do on the obedience test? It's a lot harder, isn't it?

The Love Test: The Two Trees

Last one, the love test. Consider the two trees parable. When Jesus talks about the two trees, don't miss this. It's not like he's describing an incredible tree over here with bright red gala apples, gleaming, looking delicious. And over here is a nasty looking tree with shriveled fruit.

He's saying, "No, no, there are two trees. There's one with delicious looking red gala apples and there's another one with delicious red looking gala apples. What's the difference? The difference is what's on the inside. Is the tree good fruit that if you eat it will make you healthy, or is it poisoned? Is there something in this that's actually poisonous?"

Again, you get the point. Jesus is not talking about the religious versus the pagans. He's not describing like, "Oh, there's this guy who stays home from church and smokes dope and listens to heavy metal records backwards so he can hear what Satan's telling him to do, and then there's Christians." He's not saying, "Oh, there's the woman who loves her neighbors and there's the woman who wants to knife her neighbor's tires."

No, he's saying both of these look good on the outside. Both of them look like they know the theology. Both of them look obedient. "Didn't we do all these things in your names?" But it's only on looking on the inside that there's a difference.

So what does that mean? Look on the inside. How do we do that? Well, here's where the parable of the sheep is really helpful because Jesus says one of the traits of the false sheep is that they are ravenous. Now that's a word I use once a week, every Sunday after preaching two services. I go back home and I'm like, "I'm ravenous." I want to eat. I'm so hungry. I burn a lot of calories doing this up here. So I'm starving.

And Jesus is saying that's a characteristic of a false sheep. They want to be filled up. They're hungry for something. These are people who are doing the religious things, who know all the right language, but the purpose is getting something for self. It's being filled up with something besides God.

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, we've seen this is for a lot of people the praise of others—giving in such a way so that you get applause from other people, praying in such a way so that you get the favor of others. Other people like, "Man, you're such a great Christian." Jesus said, "That's your own reward if that's what you got."

You can do good works for God or to gain something for God, from God. These are people who don't want God. They want God's benefits. In fact, the word here can be used to mean extortion in Greek. Like, "God, I've done these things and now you have to reward me."

These false sheep serve God, but it was never for God. It's never out of love for God. It's because they want something from God to make their lives work. They've done a ritual, they thought satisfied him. They've served in the nursery, they've led a community group, they've done all the things and God owes them.

And again, in this passage, Jesus says these people will stand before the Lord and say, "Didn't we do all this? Didn't we read the Bible studies? Didn't we get baptized? Didn't our pastor say you're such a great part of our church?" And yet Jesus says to them:

I never knew you. — Matthew 7:23

There was a lot of ritual and religion, but there wasn't love.

So here's the question. This is a hard question: Do you love God?

Not do you like God or like the things of God or church is a great hobby for you—but do you love God? Do you love God in secret? Do you love God when nobody's watching behind closed doors?

Tim Keller puts it this way. He says, "Is Jesus beautiful to you? Or is Jesus just useful to you?" You know, a useful God is like an accessory on your car or like an app on your phone. You pull it out, you use it when you need it, but it is entirely optional. Is God like that for us? A useful God can be molded to fit into the spare space in our lives, or molded around our moods, or molded around our attitudes and opinions. He doesn't take up that much space.

But a beautiful God invades everything. He invades our space. He invades the empty spaces—when you're driving in the car and you're like, "Wow, this is who you are." He invades the empty space when we're just doing those mindless activities and you're like, "You, God—you're real." A beautiful God captures our imagination and leaves us wanting more. This is why some people can imagine heaven as a place where we spend eternity always discovering more about who God is and his character, and we're like, "That's satisfying, because He's that satisfying. You mean there's more?"

Have you ever read the Bible and you're like, "Wow, there's more"? A beautiful God to us is one where we keep going like, "More, there's more." It's more compelling and my heart is drawn in and I want more.

So again, the question for us—here's the love test: Do you love God, or do you love the benefits of God? The things that God can sort of take care of? Things like, "Okay, I'm going to trust this to you, but not the rest of it"? Or, "You're optional"? This is the love test. Do you love God?

The Invitation

Here's the deal—timeout on the sermon. Here's the conclusion. This is the craziest final exam you've ever taken. I know a lot of you have taken final exams and you've done okay. What's funny about the end of this final exam is that Jesus is not out to flunk us. Otherwise, he never would have told us this. He would've gotten to the end of the sermon on the mount and been like, "Now get out of here, all of you. Just get out of here." Do you understand what Jesus is doing? He's welcoming us. He's inviting us. "Hey, come on. Let's go. Step in." This is like the craziest teacher in school who, like, you flunk the final and the teacher's like, "Okay, now have I got a deal for you. You're not gonna believe it. Don't leave—we're not done. We're just getting started."

So if you find that you failed the truth test this morning—you're like, "I don't really know if I like this whole Christianity being a narrow thing"—cheer up, because here's what Jesus is saying to you: "Guess what? You're invited. Come in the narrow gate. I'm not sending you away. I'm inviting you in."

Or if you failed the obedience test this morning—if you're like, "Man, I didn't do that"—here's what Jesus is saying to you: "That's great. That's so great." You know, it's like when Jesus goes and approaches Peter. He's washing the nets and Peter's like, "Get away from me. I'm a sinful man," and Jesus is like, "Come follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. I want to take you places you've never imagined. Let's go."

Or if you failed the love test this morning—good news: you're in the right place. You're in the right place. That's okay too, because Jesus loves people who come to him because they're so used to loving his benefits, and he's like, "There's so much more. There's so much more."

No one's being sent away today. It's like Jesus saying, "Okay, so you failed the exam. You failed the truth test, the obedience test, the love test. But guess what? I've got a full-ride scholarship for you to play football at a Division One school."

"What, Jesus? What's this gonna cost me?"

"I told you—it's a full-ride scholarship. It's not gonna cost you anything."

"Oh yeah? It's gonna cost you everything. I'm inviting you to come play football with me at a Division One school. I'm gonna work you harder than you've ever imagined. It's gonna cost you everything to come and follow me. And yet, I'm gonna take you places that you could never have imagined. You ready? Are you in?"

I mean, you hear the invitation this morning? The invitation at the end of the sermon on the mount is not "go away." It's "come here."

Let's pray together. Father, we confess to you how hard it is to read your word sometimes. It's like a mirror that shows us things that we don't wanna see, tells us things about ourselves we don't wanna hear. This is a hard word for us this morning. We find all of us lacking, all of us failing in many ways.

And yet, Lord, we thank you that this is not a go away, but a come in. This is an invitation, not a rejection. Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters as we gather in this room this morning. We sit under your word. We pray, Father, that you would give us the courage to continue to take steps toward you, to hear in this an invitation to a new life and a depth of life with you. I pray, Father, that you would confirm these things in us.

Lord, we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

Let's respond to God's word together in song. Would you stand?