Five Warnings About God's True Way of Life

Well, good afternoon, brethren. So very good to see all of you, and glad we're able to be inside warm and looking forward to services and being able to have our fellowship meal afterwards.

Well, as you know, over the last several weeks, we have covered here in church the sermons that I've given four different sermons on the Sermon on the Mount. This is the fifth in this series, and I'm going to conclude this series on the Sermon on the Mount. But if you'll think back, you know, what Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount is, you know, Mr. Jackson focused on one verse that he gave in chapter 7, chapter 7, verse 12. And yet, the whole expanse of chapter 5, and 6, and 7 is what we've been studying. And of course, we went over the attributes of a converted mind, the Beatitudes, as we know them. We went over the section about Jesus magnifying the law, not doing away with it, not getting rid of it, or annulling it, or destroying it, the different words that are commonly used, but actually, in a sense, magnifying and making it full and pointing out that, well, it's not enough just keep from killing someone.

The attitudes behind that, the attitudes of anger that we...I mean, what Jesus described is you can't just repent of direct action of transgressing the law. You have to repent of the carnal human nature that leads to that. Anger, hatred, lust, jealousy.

He talked later about the very human tendency to be vengeful about retaliating.

And he even concluded that section with a short discussion of a very difficult thing to do, to actually pray for your enemies, to love your enemies.

We went on from there to see what Jesus said about the right approach to fasting and to praying and to giving, giving to God and giving to others in need. Last time we covered proper judging, and we could say proper decisions or at least making wise decisions, and one of those was the golden rule, you know, doing the right thing. Not just avoiding doing anything, but doing the right thing toward others.

And so Jesus concludes this sermon on the mount, as you see it recorded in Matthew, with five contrasting pairs. He talks about two roads, he talks about two prophets, two trees, two claims, and then two foundations. And many times we separate those and kind of talk about different ones. But I think it's important to also see maybe the unit that Jesus was pointing out. And so we're going to focus today on the latter part of Matthew chapter 7, starting in, I think it would be verse 13. Matthew 7 verse 13 begins this concluding part of what Jesus said in the sermon on the mount.

And he actually, and this would be the title for this, five warnings about God's true way of life. You can see whenever you read this, if you have that in mind and see that, well, Jesus is pointing out, he was giving this to disciples and to many other in our crowd. I mean, if you think about what we're going to cover here in Matthew 7, although I don't know that anyone can now, they'll be waiting for the other shooting drop.

But if you think about all of them together, instead of separately, because often we might refer to them separately, and that would be fine to do. But see, Jesus is giving a lesson, I think, in this ending to his smashing sermon.

That's what he was doing. You know, you find a similar type thing over in Luke 15. Luke 15 has what we commonly would call the parable of the prodigal son. But see, the little parables, there's two small parables before that, and then you have the larger one that you normally remember or think about. And yet they're all talking about something that was lost and then found. They all tie together, and apparently, you know, Luke put them together in that way in Luke 15.

You don't even see that in any of the other gospels. But see, I think it's significant to look at these five and think of them as warnings, because if we're going to be the Christians that God expects us to be, that he wants us to be, that he yearns for us to grow in his divine nature and in a closeness to him and to his son, well then these are warnings to guide us in that path. First of all, verse 13. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction.

And there are many who take that wide and destructive path. Verse 14, for the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few that find it. Now again, contrary to what many people think, oh well, everybody can just come to God. Everybody can just learn about God and then follow God however they'd like. That's not what Jesus says. He says there's a wide path, an easy path that will just lead to death, and yet there's a narrow gate and a straight path, a path that we might describe as a difficult path that's going to lead to eternal life.

And so we want to realize what are we supposed to learn out of that? He's contrasting two paths, two roads. Well, I think we would initially learn from that if we back up a page here into chapter 5, that if we're going to follow the path that leads to life, to eternal life with God and with Jesus Christ, that it's going to be difficult. And there will be persecution along the way. Here in chapter 5 verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. See, this is what the prophets in the Old Testament, they endured, a good amount of ridicule, a good amount of disrespect, persecution. And yet Jesus says that, well, if you're on the narrow gate and the straight path that's actually the difficult road, then you should expect to be persecuted. Too many times, whenever we're persecuted, we wonder, oh, what happened? Why did that happen? Well, Jesus said, if you're on the right path, then you can expect some persecution.

Now, you hope to not be persecuted all the time, and neither do I want to be persecuted more than would be necessary. And yet, that's a part of what he's teaching here. He also, in addition, if we jump over to chapter 10, Matthew 10, you see in his explanation, the Bible says they were to go out and start doing some work in a limited area. They were sent to the lost tribes of the house of Israel.

He says in verse 34 of Matthew 10, don't think that I've come to bring peace to the earth. I've not bring peace, but a sword. Come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one's foes will be members of one's own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. See, that was also Jesus' instruction, that on the narrow and the right path to eternal life, you can expect persecution and you can expect peace? No.

You can expect some opposition. That's what he's saying here. A certain level of opposition might be expected. Now again, we have to avoid as much of that as we can. But as Jesus makes his contrast, he points out that persecution and opposition are pretty likely. And so, in a sense, he's giving a warning. Realize what you're getting into. Realize what to expect. Realize you're going to need to endure under the end, and along that path there will be blessings, there will be encouragement, there will be comfort. There is peace from me, but there are also going to be difficulties as you go along. There are many other verses you could go to to talk about that, but that's what Jesus points out in this first pair. Let's move on here in Matthew 7 to the second contrast he makes in verse 15. Beware of false prophets. Actually, he actually gives two different warnings about being deceived. It almost appears to be one inside and one apart from the church. This one appears to be more so inside the church. In verse 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You will know them by their fruits. You don't gather grapes from thorns. Are grapes gathered from thorns or figs from thistles? See here again he makes another contrast, this time between a false prophet and, in a sense, a true. He doesn't mention the true, but he's pointing out that, well, you've got to be watching out. And, of course, there are other verses. In verse 16, he says, well, look at the fruits. See what is produced. And whenever you go to other verses that are very similar to this, and again to think about it, you know, the whole wolves in sheep's clothing image is a pretty good image, you know, because apparently that has even happened, you know, where a wolf has been among the flock, just in a sense disguised, and waiting for a good time to pick off several of the unsuspecting sheep. If we apply that to the church and think of, you know, the church as the flock of God, let's look at Matthew 24.

Matthew 24, as we know, is an account of the Olivet prophecy. And we may eventually get there. I'm not saying where we're going with the rest of Matthew, because you can read all of the different accounts that we mentioned, and I don't have to go over each one of them in church. I am going to go over some, but the Olivet prophecy would be a good one to go over. But what I want to point out here is in Matthew 24, if we drop down to verse 10, it appears that Jesus is making a statement about those who are believers. Verse 10, many will fall away, and many will betray one another and hate one another. In verse 11, in many false prophets will arise and lead people astray. But of course, verse 13, the one that endures unto the end is the one who will be saved. And so, you know, this is clearly a reference. This appears to be Jesus gives several warnings as well here in Matthew 24. This one seems to be inside the church, and he's going to clarify it even more when we get to the next pair, the trees. Let's look at Acts chapter 20, because you see, as Jesus would give this, and he was giving it during his lifetime. He was giving it maybe even early in his ministry.

And later, this is going to be supported, as he did in Matthew 24. But then also, you see the Apostle Paul writing about this in Acts chapter 4, or Luke writing about something that happened to Paul. Here in Acts chapter 20, you see an account of Paul leaving the area around Ephesus, and he was very close to the people there in Ephesus, the congregation there. He had the elders, actually, from Ephesus come down to Miletus, and he was going to give them some instruction, and then he was going to go on his way, and he said, I don't know when I might be coming back. But here in Acts chapter 20, he says in verse 25, I know that none of you, among whom I've gone about proclaiming the kingdom, the kingdom of God, will ever see my face again. And so he realized, you know, I'm kind of, I'm moving on. I'm going to, God has other things for me to do, and maybe things I'm yet to even know about, but I know I'm not going to be staying right here and being able to serve you.

Therefore, he says in verse 26, I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I have not shrunk back from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

He says, I taught you what you have to know to grow and to be a part of the divine family.

Now, there was much more, even, that Paul would later write about in greater detail, but Luke is just recording what Paul said to those elders in that meeting, and he says, keep watch in verse 28, keep watch over yourselves and over the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseer to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own son.

So obviously, this is talking about church members, and he says, I know that after I'm gone, in verse 29, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, some even from your own group. So was he knowing who he was talking to? I think he knew who he was talking to. I think he knew who was there. He wasn't specifically identifying anyone, perhaps, but he says in verse 37, even from your own, will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples, the brethren, to follow them. Therefore, he says, be alert, remembering that for three years I didn't cease day or night to mourn everyone with tears. You know, was he concerned about the brethren remaining faithful and being consistently growing in spite of their flaws and sins? Yes, they had that. But consistently growing in the love of God? Well, I think it's pretty obvious that that's what Paul was talking about. If we go over to 2 Peter, you find a similar account.

So this is not Paul, but Peter, in a sense, concluding a general letter that he was writing, again to the church, not a specific congregation, but to the church as a whole and to us.

And he says here in 2 Peter 2 Peter 2, verse 1, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Even so many will follow their licentious ways.

And because of these teachers, the way of truth is almost maligned. Again, you see this numerous places, but we're covering a couple of these that appear to tie together with what Jesus said is, watch out for false teachers. And beware, because primarily, what are they going to want you to do?

And follow them. Instead of, and actually denying the head of the church, Jesus Christ.

I mean, that's what Jesus was pointing out. Let's go back to Matthew 7 again for the third pair.

Matthew chapter 7, starting in verse 17, he kind of connects this with his statement about false prophets or false teachers. Matthew chapter 7, in verse 17. Also, in the same way, so he was kind of tying these two together, in the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree will bear bad fruit. So here he's not only taught about, well, don't go off and follow somebody just because they want you to follow them. You need to stay true to the calling and the commitment that you made to Jesus Christ. But here, he says, I want to teach you a little more about this. A good tree is going to produce good fruit. A bad tree will produce bad fruit. He says in verse 18, a good tree simply can't bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire, but you should know or look regarding fruits that are good or bad. You have to look at those fruits to see. See, obviously, we have to make certain levels of judgment. We have to have proper judgment, looking at ourselves and asking, you know, well, what do I need to see? What do I need to look at? And clearly, you know, when you think about it, particularly here regarding the trees, he mentions a good tree producing good fruit, bad tree producing bad fruit. You know, there are some trees that produce a lot of leaves and don't produce any fruit. They look pretty good. Looks like a great tree. And so it would deal with what it appears to be, and yet what is the fruit? Well, nothing or bad. So a person can be fooled by looking only at foliage or the outward appearance of a tree and not the fruit, which is based on action and results. See, what we're wishing to produce. If we are seeking to produce love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and mickness and temperance, and then you could go through the other list of good fruit, that is what we want to look to. And of course, does that mean, oh, well, people would be flawless.

I don't think he's meaning that. He's just saying, look at the fruit. And overall, the fruit should be good. So he's pointing this out. He actually, in a sense, we talked earlier, we talked about how that he was pointing out the infractions of the Pharisees. You know, they had corrupted so many things that you read about in the Old Testament and then misapplied and then demanded that everybody else observe whether they did or not. What he says in Matthew 23, verse 3, he says, don't do as they do because they don't practice what they preach.

You know, they're glad to tell you what to do, but they're not doing it themselves.

And so here, Jesus gives these warnings about the paths, about the prophets, about the trees. And then the fourth one listed here is in Matthew 7, 21.

He says, not everyone who says to me, this was another one about a false individual, a false teacher or preacher, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

So, verse 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 deeds of power in your name? But then I will declare to them, I never knew you. I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, or do away with you.

Go away with you, you evil doers. Now here's Jesus' warning is a little different than the one up in verse 15. It's about people who claim to be the servants of God and to preach Jesus Christ and cast out demons in the name of the Lord, and yet Jesus says, I don't know you. How important is that? That's very important. Of course, you see here in verse 21, he gives an answer.

It says, it's not those that say, Lord, Lord, but it's the ones who do the will of my Father in heaven, the ones who actually act on what God has revealed to them. See now, out of a commentary, I think maybe this is not a commentary, but one of our writings, here we see that these false prophets, and of course this is what is being mentioned here, someone who claims to know Jesus Christ, to know the Lord, but then really is not teaching the truth. Maybe we should go to Matthew 24, because Jesus said, and they made a more general statement than we read in verse 9 and 10, in Matthew 24, when the disciples ask him, well, tell us, you know, when's this going to be? What will be the sign of your coming? In verse 3, Jesus said, well, beware, that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying that I'm the Lord, I'm the Messiah, and they will lead many astray. See, that was Jesus' prediction of a false system, a false Christianity that maybe uses the right words in some cases, but does not understand that, well, we've got to actually do the will of the Lord. See, and all of us realize, or we should, that we need to learn the will of the Lord. You know, sometimes that's a project of learning what God's will is and growing in that, but then when we understand it, then we do it. We obey. And of course, you know, one of the keys here, let me go on to say the key to knowing who they are is that they practice lawlessness.

Of course, lawlessness is disobedience, or maybe I should phrase that different, is lawlessness disobedience to the law, or is it completely ignoring the authority of the law together?

See, that's actually a fact. It's worse to be lawless than to be a lawbreaker, since being lawless means rejecting the law instead of a lawbreaker who could have intentions to keep the law, but out of weakness transgresses. There would be a difference between, you know, being an aware person and breaking the law and finding out or realizing later, I need to repent of that, and then somebody who doesn't even acknowledge the authority of God in the law that Jesus says we read earlier as he promotes. He says, I didn't come to destroy the law or do away with it. I came to magnify to fulfill that law so that you understand it. See, whenever people teach a sense of lawlessness, well then, that's something to be aware of, something to avoid. And, you know, whenever we read here again in 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. See, that involves doing the will, obeying the guidance that the Bible gives us. But then also, down in verse 23, I will declare to them, I just simply don't know you. See, how important is it to each one of us that God has chosen to know you, that God has chosen to call you, to grant you some understanding that not just everyone has, as Jesus says. He says it's important to realize that if I'm offering you understanding, and you comprehend what the end result is, and that you are heading toward a divine family of God to be with the Father and the Son and His kingdom forever, you need to be respecting the law. You need to be learning and doing the will of God.

But when Jesus says, I didn't know you, let's look at what it says in Galatians chapter 3.

Paul makes a statement here in Galatians 3 that's very telling.

Galatians chapter 3, again, Paul was very familiar with the people there in Galatia.

He had originally preached to them. He had gone through what is now Turkey, mid-Turkey, and he went through the area of Galatia and Iconium and Derby, closest towns whenever you follow the sequence of where he went. He was used by God to raise up a congregation there, and yet most of them were not Jews. He would go to the Jews first, but then ultimately go to the Gentiles, and so most of them making up the church in Galatia were Gentiles.

Here in Galatians chapter 4, Galatians chapter 4 is where I need to be.

In talking to them, he says in verse 8, Formerly, when you did not know God, so he was telling them as Gentiles, you didn't grow up with the Old Testament, you didn't grow up in a Jewish household, you weren't aware of much of maybe even the history of Israel, but you realized that you're Gentiles, and when I talked to you, I knew that when I was talking to you. Formerly, when you didn't know God, you were enslaved to beings of by nature or not God. You were worshipping idols. It wasn't, you weren't worshipping God, you were worshipping metal or stone or wood, things that you created out of your own hand. Now, though, in verse 9, however, that you have come to know God. So this was his direct statement to them. You are now known by God. Or, he says, rather in verse 9, rather, you have come to be known by God. It wasn't just that you figured out who God was, but that God became visible to you. He intervened in calling you to be a part, in this case, of the Church of God in Galatia, in the area of Galatia. And so he talks about how important it is that God actually knows us. Now, do we have a part in that? Well, yes, we do. You know, God can call us and we know from other of Jesus' parables that sometimes we hear the Word of God and we don't do anything with it. And sometimes we start out happily, but we get bogged down. Sometimes we actually go quite a ways, but then we let down and we are choked. Now, that's in Matthew 13.

And yet, ultimately, we hope to be in the good soil, having received a calling from God and a recognition of our need to obey God, and having come to repentance. See, what is a condition of being a child of God? Well, being repentant is an initial condition. It's an initial condition of recognizing the authority of the law of how that what I have actually earned in my lifetime is death. That's all that God could legitimately give me is just, you know, I disobeyed, so I'm dead. But see, he's not offering us death. He's offering us life. He's offering us forgiveness.

He's offering us the blessing of growing with the help of the Holy Spirit in a divine nature.

And so, whenever he tells us, it's important that God knows you. When Jesus said, I never knew you, well, it didn't matter how many times they said, Lord, Lord, since if I haven't chosen to deal with you yet, well, then you can't worm your way in to my plan, our plan, the plan, the vision that God has for man until, you know, God offers that. You know, in John 17, verse 3, Jesus was praying, and he said, this is eternal life that you know the one and true God and that you know the one he sent to the earth, Jesus Christ. See, that's a very simple statement, almost seemingly not even hardly focused on in some of the other major stuff he's going to say. He says, no, I've got to know.

And see, that's my prayer many times, that I will really come to know the Father and the Son. He sent me on the right path, but I've got to get rid of enough junk to be able to grow. I've got to be repentant, and I've got to be a desirous of changing and seeing that, well, you know, he doesn't want me like I am. He wants me to grow in his divine nature, and I think that's, you know, applicable to all of us. And so, well, let's look at 1 John 5. 1 John chapter 5, John elaborates on this differently back here in the first epistle of John. 1 John 5, in concluding what he is saying, he says in verse 19, the last two verses, we know that we are the children of God. We know we're God's children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. That's a pretty clear statement that, you know, where has the world been deceived? Yes. Have we been deceived?

Yes. Has God helped us out of that deception? Yes. It says we know we're the children of God.

And in verse 20, we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true, and that we may or we are in Him who is true, and in His Son Jesus Christ, He is the true God, and He is eternal life. He has eternal life to give. He has it. He's willing to give it, but we have to follow His conditions and, of course, be grateful for what He extends to us.

So, the claims that I'm a minister of Jesus Christ, or I'm a preacher of Jesus Christ, would need to be backed up with Christ actually knowing us, and that we are learning the will of God and then doing it. That's what He says in Matthew 7. The final pair that He describes here makes a contrast with His two different foundations. See, I think you can see all of these tie together.

You know, they point out what the right way to live is, what the right way of life is that God wants us to be following. Here in verse 24, everyone, Matthew 7, 24, everyone then who hears these words of mine and who acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock.

And because he built his house on a rock, the rains fell, the floods came, and the winds flew, and they beat on the house. But it didn't fall because it was founded on rock.

And whenever you watch television, you watch the houses falling off the side of the mudslide, you wonder, and I don't think that was a very good place to build, perhaps.

And maybe they never anticipated there'd be a fire and be a big storm and all the things. You know, but I know I've lived in places where, you know, you can be in a floodplain and you cannot be in a floodplain, and I don't intend to be in a floodplain. I mean, that's just not very right.

But here he's talking about a foundation. There's two different aspects to this, and I will point those out. He, of course, goes ahead to say everyone who hears words of mine and doesn't act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

The wind blew and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against the house, and it fell and great was its fall.

The sunshine is coming out to warm us, so we are trying to get warmed up in here.

Anyway, you see the contrast Jesus is making. He's making actually two different statements.

Again, to read a little from one of our articles, the point is that the converted man builds his house to withstand anything, to truly put Jesus' words into practice and lay a spiritual foundation that will last. Those who pretend to have faith but who don't really put Jesus' teaching into practice are foolish builders. When the storms come, the storms that we will have in life, their spiritual structures buckle not having been based on the sound foundation of obedience to God's law and on true faith. So he says, we want to be built on the right foundation.

Now, what I said is that there are two things mentioned here. Verse 24, everyone then who hears the words of Jesus and who acts on them, not just someone who hears, but someone who does what God says. Of course, we are familiar with the account in James 1, verse 22 through 25. It says, don't just be a hearer of the word, but be the doer of the word.

Don't just look in the mirror and then, oh, I see things that ought to be repaired and walk away and forget what I look like. You've got to do what Jesus says to do. Now, the other thing is, I think, a reference even to the statement that Jesus says you need to be built on the foundation of the rock. And of course, who is that rock? Well, that rock is Jesus Christ.

You know, our relationship with God is enhanced. It is compounded. It is elaborated on only through Jesus Christ. You know, He's always going to be the Lord and Master. He's always going to be our elder brother. He's always going to be in charge over us. That shouldn't offend us. That should be something to be thankful for. You know, we talk about Him being the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the ruler and the kingdom to come. Even as we think of that initial phase of the world tomorrow and the thousand-year rule of Christ on earth, well, He's the rock. He's the rock. And of course, He told His disciples, I'll build my church. I'm going to build it on the rock.

Not on you, Peter, but I'm building it on the rock. Matthew 16. Here in Ephesians 2, again another congregation that Paul knew well and that was very acquainted with.

Here in Ephesians 2, he says in verse 19, So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, strangers and pilgrims, but you were citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.

You have been drawn together, as he was telling that congregation, you've been drawn together to be the children of God, to be the family, the household of God.

Build in verse 20 upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Jesus himself, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And in Him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. To the foundation that is able to withstand the wind and the waves and the hail and the snow and the cold, a foundation that is able to be stable and strong is built on Jesus Christ. It's built on the words that He inspired. See, where did Ephesians 2 come from?

Well, Paul wrote it down, apparently. Jesus inspired it. He inspired what Paul would write and be a part of the Bible and that we would base our lives on what we read out of the prophets and many, you know, everything we see written primarily in the New Testament beyond the Gospels is written by an apostle, written by a messenger that God gave a message to. And he said that message is for our instruction so that we have the right teaching so that we can be properly reproved and corrected and then instructed in the way of righteousness. That is the basis that we are to have. So, it's very clear, and maybe we could again go back here to Matthew 7 as we conclude, it's very clear that Jesus was, in a sense, wrapping up this section. He was wrapping up this big sermon, long sermon. You see this in Luke 6 in an abbreviated form. You don't see everything there. There are some things that are similar and some things that are very a little.

But what we find here in Matthew 7, verse 28, in a sense, an identifying sign to Matthew's way of putting things together. Verse 28, now when Jesus had finished saying these things, see that's a phrase or a similar phrase that kind of groups together these different sections in Matthew. When he had finished saying this, the crowds were just dumbfounded. They were, you know, their mouths were just dropping open. Whenever he's giving information, but surely they didn't fully understand. But they could hear, they could listen, they could see the profound wisdom, perhaps, maybe not fully understanding how it applies. But see, the crowds were astounded at his teaching because of what? Well, because he taught as one who had authority.

He wasn't like the Pharisees and the scribes. He taught as one who had authority because obviously he did. He was the Son of God. He is the Son of God. And when he spoke, well, that was different than them. William Barkley comments in his daily study Bible. He says Jesus' authority was something that was quite new. It was quite new to the people who heard it. When the rabbis taught, they supported every statement with quotations saying, well, there is a saying that, or rabbis so-and-so said this, they would always support whatever it was they were telling people, they always appealed to authority of someone else. And whenever the prophets spoke, they said, thus saith the Lord. And so the prophets, if you want to go to Isaiah or Jeremiah, or even David as a prophet, they said, thus saith the Lord. Theirs was a delegated authority. God had given them information if they were to take it to the king or if they were whoever they were to deliver it to. They had some support. But of course, as he concludes this statement about Jesus speaking, when Jesus spoke, he just said, I say to you. And of course, he clarified the expanded understanding of what magnifying the law was. And whenever he said, whenever he gave whatever warnings he gave, whether it was with the paths or about the false prophets or about the trees or about the claims or about the foundations, he could say that with absolute authority.

He was authority incarnate. Here was a man who spoke as one who knew what he needed to say.

And of course, what God was extending to mankind. Now, we have to come to understand it. And yet, I think it's fabulous to see as we've been going through, this is the final section of the Sermon on the Mount. Like I said, we'll go through some of the other parts of Matthew, but I'm not going to go through the whole thing. But I hope this gives you an overview of the book itself and specifically the authoritative directives that Jesus gives to his disciples. It's quite an impressive guide to a true follower of Jesus Christ. We might go through these backwards.

If we're properly built on the rock-solid foundation of Jesus Christ, then we're not simply going to be just talking a good fight, but doing the will of God.

We're going to be bearing the good fruit of the Holy Spirit. We're going to be alert to deceivers who are simply trying to get us to follow them. It's always a bad sign. And ultimately, we could expect, as he said about the narrow gate and the straight path, he said we can expect some persecution and opposition. See, that's what Jesus was wrapping up at the end of this sermon on the Mount. And so all of us, we have a goal before us. That goal is the kingdom of God. That goal is to inherit. It is to enter the kingdom of God as a son or daughter of God. We want to keep that in mind.

You know, sticking to the trunk of the tree, seeing the big picture, knowing what the vision of God is for man, and then always reflecting back on that. Whenever we have any lapse, we can always go back to the rock-solid statements of Jesus Christ. And so we have a wonderful blessing of rejoicing, in growing, in godly character, as we prepare to be the children of God Most High.

We'll cover something else in Matthew probably next time.