One of Jesus’ Most Sobering Warnings… | Matthew 7:21-29

Show Notes

Episode 870: 
In this episode, we unpack Jesus’ warning in Matthew 7:21–29 about hearing His words versus actually living them out. We discuss why religious activity alone doesn’t equal real faith and how obedience reveals what’s truly rooted in our hearts. Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount by calling us to build our lives on solid rock—not sand.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, Jeff, what it's Friday Friday? Oh no, it's all about Friday baby, Okay, Yes. I love Fridays. Fridays are fun. Yeah, yeah, Fridays are good days. And then JF. Tomorrow's church day. For all of our heritage church listeners, for all of our train I. Thought you converted the Seventh Day or something. No, no, no, but for all of our hair to church listeners, we have really great services on Saturdays. Yes, and that creates more room on Sundays. Yes, and we're out a room. Yeah. Yeah, there's two. There's two services at four and five thirty. And actually the number of people that were there last Saturday were scared. Yeah. Yeah, no, I don't want to say it. You say it. Yeah. Yeah. They said they total up the attendance, yeah, like they always do. And then they give us the reports and so we come in and we look at them and there's totals for every campus and everything else. So our Saturday services and Sterling High. We're six six six And I said, you can find one more. I said, find one more. There's a pregnant lady somewhere in the audience. Exactly right, come on, or just take one down, just just sacrifice one. So we need to the altar. We can't stick with that. We need you to move over to Saturday. There you going there thinking about it. Yeah, that's right. If you go to Heridage on Sunday, move to Saturday so we can get that number. So Friday is always exciting because Saturday services are coming. There you go, and so we do two identical services on Saturday and then four more against Sunday and Sterling Heights. I get an, it's for you. That is not where Fridays are exciting. It is for me. It's not for man. Yeah, it's because most people work money through Friday and they're glad to be done. Yeah. So anyway, hey, but yes, you're right. We do have four services on Sunday, So that's. In Sterling Heights and then two more in Stony Creek and three up in Emily City. For sure. It's Peach and Peach king man. All right, Hey, we are coming up on a couple of verses in Matthew seven. But before we get some of my favorites. We have a Friday segment. We love Friday segments. It's everybody's favorite segment, and it's the only reason people tune in. Quite honestly, if you're new with us, you're about to discover why this is so exciting. But for our long time listeners, it's the only reason they tune in on Friday, because it's all about what made Chris mad this week. Yeah. Well, if you're listen, tell our new listeners you are not angry for you. You are vicariously angry for all the rest of us. You're mad for us on our behalf. You see an. Injustice and you are upset that all of us have to suffer with it. Well, this is that's why. This is actually true. Okay, So I mean it is like generally true. So here's the thing I was reminded today today I drove past the mall. Okay, now you know the mall that's right near the church right here. Okay, yes, and sorry about that, we turned that off. But way them all by, the church is getting bulldoze. Supposedly, yes, this year, that's correct, And we're talking like billions of dollars, probably right over a billion dollars. I don't know how much it costs to build them all, but that whole thing is just getting bulldozed down. And so here's what I'm mad at. You ready for this? Tell me? I am mad that the progression of new things kills entire industries. Wow. Like, for instance, when when when the iPhone came out, who would ever think that was going to be the end of most taxicab companies? Yeah, through a thing called Uber. Right, so Uber comes along, Everybody's like, hey, we can do it from our phones. Then all of a sudden, the way the world works except for pretty much in New York in a couple other cities, but the rest of the entire world just collapses with the taxi cab industry. Right, because it's like because and I feel so bad. It's like what it's like, you know, think about like just the way the world operates and how many hundreds of thousands of people around the world have completely had to shift because of that. And then you think about the malls. You think Amazon, it's so convenient, and all of a sudden, next thing, you know, boom, malls are getting bulldozed everywhere and there, you know, you see these things on like Instagram, where people are touring malls that used to be vibrant and now they're just completely gone. Uh gee whiz the oak Park Mall, the one Oakland Mall or whatever. They actually filmed that the day before Christmas, and therefore Christmas supposed to be packed, and there was like one human being in the entire mallow. And so then and then here's another thing. You know, you're only half a step away from screaming at kids to get off your lawn, you know that, right, This. Is not that. I I love my stage coaches. I hate these cars. Right, That is not what I'm doing. He's ruining the entire carrier pigeon industry with that thinking telephone. I am not resisting change. You know. Henry Ford said if I gave the people what they wanted, I would give them better horses. No, by the way, that is that is a very appropriate quote. Way to pull that out. That's really good. But that is not what I'm saying. That is not what I'm saying. I hate I hate sitting on my couch in my socks and pushing a button. You and in four hours they dropped it off at my front door. Hate it. I would rather have to get dressed, drive across town again, go to that mall. It's amazing to me how much you're demonstrating how much you're not listening. You are, you are advocating the fact that you're not listening. Okay, because again I am not saying that I that I don't like change. I love Amazon, love it, I love Uber. You just hate the other industries. I feel so bad that there's no malls in our area. Hey, let me tell you another thing. Ready for this. I think, honestly it's inevitable that the that the movie theater is going to go away. All the AMC's in the area. Y sure that that you know there's an AMC next to us. I prefer to stay home. I see my point exactly. I turn up my sound system and my big TV. And by the way, pop, my TV's bigger than yours. It is, it is, and so I I I one hundred percent love that for my house. But what I'm saying is I. Feel staucha going to the theater. The everything about the experience, yes, everything about the experience. But the point is I feel bad that that is going to go away. It's going to be a lost thing. Eventually I know it is, and so it's like it's like, I just feel bad that progress has to kill large portions of the way the world works. Okay, yeah, I feel bad, thank you. Yeah missed those carrier pigeons. Did you know? Did you know? I met a billionaire and he has a family. Museum and he had. The last carrier pigeon, the last of the car they went the stuffed. It's stuffed. Yeah, that kind of pigeon went extinct and the last one was alive in a zoo in Cleveland back in the twenties and he has it. It's stuffed in his museum. They're trying to restore them. Really yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, they're trying to bring it back, use the DNA from it, and bring it back. Wow. He also has a baby wooly mammoth that was in the permafrost. It's still in the ice and they're using the meat from that to try to make new wooly mammoths. Oh. Really super cool. Jurassic Park Lake. Yeah, except the elephants. It's not like dinosaurs. Yeah yeah, yeah, a neat Yeah. Anyways, well, hey, listen, I thank you Chris stand by that I feel bad for the industries that go away. Yeah, maybe it's just time for the industries to go away. Well, maybe there's a new thing. I just I still feel bad for every everybody involved because they get blindsided. When it used to be that the the uh what was the pony express? Yep, that was the fast stretch across the country. But when the when the horses were replaced with cars, then we get roots sixty six right right. It took fifty years, but it's pretty cool. Some something, something will come in its place that will be as good as malls. Okay you think I don't think so. No, No, okay, all right, you kids, get off my lawn. Give me my mall's back. That is not what I said. Okay, listen, you know what. Forget it, Jeff, don't ever ask me again what made Chris mad I refuse to refuse to give you my unbridled feelings and thoughts. I am just harassing you today, all right, that's all it is. I don't disagree with you, and I'm not gonna lie. I lamented this exact same thing in my truck in front of my wife and my daughter, not two weeks ago, three weeks. About the mall, about the mall. Yeah yeah, my wife and I had to go. We went to the. UH to the big mall over in Troy, and we went to a cooking class there. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So we took a cooking class there, and then we just walked around the mall, like I really miss walking around the mall. Yeah, and that mall is still pretty crazy. Yeah yeah, So we went to that one. But when I complained about it, we were at the mall near the mall down in Taylor, and that was the mall we used to go to all the time when our kids were growing up. We go there all the time, and now it's mostly closed. So ye yeah, all right, so I also lamented the same thing. Good yees, just just harass me. It felt good, though, I'll tell you it felt really good. It feel good for you because it felt good for me. Yes, And you know what, I was dedicated to that opinion, just as much as Jesus calls us to persevere, persevere with true discipleship. Wow, that's good. Good transition. There's really good transition. We're moving to the end of the sermon on the mountain. I think this is the last one, ye. Mount We'll start a new series, next new series next week, next week, yep. And I think I'm going to just read to the end of the chapter rather than just the two verses were supposed to read. Is that okay with you? Yeah? And by the way, we're going to be covering all the different types of flowers in the Book of Songs. I'm kidding you. What I was like, what I hadn't heard that? Okay, I I haven't. I haven't found out what we're doing yet. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be a different series. Yeah. Sure, So I'm excited. So I have a big meeting tomorrow that may chart the course for what the next series. Is, so that's important, Jeff. Yeah, well no, it's just it's a big meeting and it needed to be yesterday so we could talk about it today rather than tomorrow. Where we're hinting that something BIG's happening, but it's not confirmed yet. Okay, okay, are you ready? Ye here's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven, verse twenty one, And I'm just going to read to the end of the chapter. There's lots of things anything he's important to talk about, he says. Not everyone who calls out to me Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter on judgment day. Many will say to me, Lord Lord, we propheside your name and cast out demons your name, and perfore many miracles in your name. But I will reply, I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws. Then he says in verse twenty four, anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise. Like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise, and the winds beat against the house, it won't collapse because it's built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority, quite unlike their teachers of religious law. I love that. I love that last sentence that talk about Jesus' authority and how it so, you know, was different than those who taught the religious law, because you know, there's a big difference between you know, the heart behind the law and the law itself right, and that's really it. I mean, this is God, the author of all things, communicating his heart and his laws in his truths right. And so whenever you get the heart of God behind each truth, then I expect that you feel that radically differently right than just growing up and being told don't do this right. The Pharisees spoke, and they were always quoting previous Pharisees or previous lawyers, previous opinion, previous It was like all of their authority was in footnotes, and Jesus stepped up and spoke in his own authority. Jesus isn't trying to say I'm right because Moses agrees and Elijah agrees and write here's an idea, but it's essentially all just quotes of all the other prophets. He steps up and as a prophet says, that's Saith the Lord, and this right. He's speaking his own authority. Whereas the Pharisees would always quote Averybel's. And I had this happen In Bible College. I was in a class that the professor was always talking about being a man of ideas, a man of thought, all this kind of stuff, but then only ever quoted proofs through the footnotes of all the research he'd done. So then a big part of that class also included we'd had to take strong positions. We would have to put those positions out in front of the class in debate form, but not not in a debate class like you normally normally think of debate, but more as a pastor. Two pastors disagreeing that that's how we would have to to do it, and the class would vote on it and stuff, and I got I got into a thing. The class voted that I won, and I got a D on my on my work from the professor. And the professor said I didn't cite another enough sources. And I had explained it both in my notes and then later to him in my justification. They were my original thoughts. I'd never heard any about say those things. That was my argument. But he stuck with it and gave me a D. I got an I got the top. I won the debate in the class, but from the professor. I got a D. So I went to one of the other guys the professors. That were my was one of my mentors, and I complained about it and he said, sometimes some professors are educated beyond their intelligence. That was his argument. Wow, right, So I'm going to celebrate research over ideas, right? And he said, is that really what a seminary is supposed to be about, is just standing on the research of others or should you also be working on developing your own ideas? Right? And he said, I think both should be rewarded. And as long as the work can be shown that you put in the work, and you did the work, you thought it out, you wrote it out. And he tried to advocate for me and it didn't work, and so I stood there. I took that D, but I won the class. The class was like, that's the best argument, right. And it's a little bit of the same. You've got pharisees who had no authority of their own that they only spoke going so this scribe believed this, and this, you know, Rabbi taught this, and that's all. They were just regurgitating what they were told. And I love Jesus stepping up and going but I say, you've heard the law say this, but I say this, But I say that the Kingdom of Heaven is like this. And he spoke with authority when he gets there, and he goes, listen, if you're a fool, you're gonna hear me and not do anything about it. If you're a wise man, you're gonna hear me and do it. And by the way, and this gets to the first part of that, just because you say you know, God is of no consequence, there's gonna be lots people show up and say, oh, Jesus, I know all about you, I know about your name and everything is I'm gonna say, go away. I never knew you. And he says, because you never actually did the thing, You never acted like a Christian, you never actually did what God said to do. And so no, it's that simple. So it's that kind of authority that the people were like, I love this guy. Well only that. But the biggest part I think of the authority piece is the fact that Jesus said, on that day in eternity, people will stand in front of the Lord. Didn't say, Lord, Lord, I prophesied in your name. And then he says, but I will I will say. He's saying, he's announcing that in eternity they're going to be looking to him to pass judgment. He's the final authority in heaven, right, And he's like, but I will say to them, depart from me. I never knew you. And it's like, what it's like, can you even imagine, you know, Jesus being one hundred percent man, not even revealing himself at this point, is the Messiah? Right? This is only Matthew chapter seven, right, this isn't a public revelation yet, and yet he's basically saying, it's going to be me right right by the way I thought of it's. Me, so if you find me so this can be a really shocking thing if you just read it right off the top of the page. And I believe you can just pick up the Bible and read, read, and understand the huge majority of the Bible just by reading the simple words on this for sure. But it does take sometimes, especially when Jesus is talking, It takes sometimes cross referencing to be able to The Bible is its own best commentary, and so the Bible will explain the Bible. And in this situation, what you see is Jesus is going, Hey, just because you say Lord, Lord doesn't mean you're automatically on the way to have Just because you go to church, just because you do the religious rights and rituals that are necessary, doesn't mean you're any way to have it right. And so he's already talked about these kinds of things a little bit, But he says only those who actually do the will of the Father will enter heaven. Now we know salvation is by grace through faith. Romans tells us that very quickly, very clearly. Ephesians tells us that very quickly, many many places in scripture, it's very clear you can't work your way to heaven. So what's he saying here? If you go back one phrase earlier, he says, a good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. So I can talk a good game about being a football player, but if I go out on the field against the best high school team, let alone against an NFL team, they will kill me. Kill me I like to I like to work out in boxing gyms a little bit. Why, Like I can shake that heavy bag pretty hard, I can hit it hard. But I've also taken some punches in the last few years in those boxing gyms and go, thank God, I'm not up. Against a real boxer. Right, So that's the thing. By their fruit, what you can do. Alls you need to do is put me in the ring, and immediately the fruit I'm producing is not a pro boxer. All you need to do is put me on a football field, and the fruit I'm producing is not pro football. Doesn't matter what kind of game I talk. There's lots of people who talk a religious game, but the fruit of their life is not Jesus fruit. Well, he's clearly talking about Christians and non Christians. Yeah, he saying he's saying, there are those who produce good fruit, those or those who those are Christians, true Christians, because you can see what comes out of them as evidence of you know of what they're producer. So you're not going to heaven because you're producing good fruit. You're producing fruit because that's right. You've talked Jesus and that's what he's talking about. He's talking about those who say, oh, yeah, I'm a Christian, right, and he's saying, no, no, no, You've never had the Holy Spirit work within you to know how to do the will of the Father. Right. It wasn't keep the will of Father perfectly or else. It was like, you will pursue God's will over your life because the Holy Spirit in you, if you are in Christ, will inevitably do that. So there's a footnote in this study Bible that says this about these verses. Obedience to the Father's will is the true test of faith in Christ. True faith does not say Lord, Lord, as if believing and then disobey the Lord's commands. We can easily learn a religious vocabulary and even memorize Bible verses and religion of songs, and yet not obey God's will or even be a Christian. For those who are truly born again have God's Spirit living within them Romans eight nine. And the Holy Spirit enables them to know and do the Father's will. God's love in their hearts Romans five to five motivates them to obey God and serve others. Wow, it's really good. That whole thing is great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that says it so much better than what we said. Turns out, Warren weirs Be is a pretty smart guy, is the one who wrote that. Yeah, the way he wrote those others, it says what we were trying to say in a more concise way. I think. So you're you're you can't do enough religious things to have God save you and take you to heaven. But if God has saved you and you're on your way to heaven, the fruit coming out of your life should be different, and it should be evident, right, what kind of fruit? You stop trying to store up treasures you're on earth and start destoring treasures in heaven. You stop worrying so much today about everyday life, and you have faith in God. You don't judge others anymore. Right. You keep on asking, and you keep on seeking. And and and and. You you forgive those who sin against you, and you you. Love your neighbor, and you love your enemies. And you choose not to do your religious rituals just so that you get credit. And you pray often and write all the things that He talks about through the things. You keep your vows, You you stay married, You don't go for revenge. You you're careful about what you let your eyes dwell on with regard to lust, and you manage your anger well, and you write all the things Jesus talks about through this whole message. He comes to the end and goes, so, that's the kind of fruit my followers have. That's that's what he's saying. Is this whole Because we tend to read these passages like one line at a time, or just a couple lines at a time, and we separate them, we forget this is a who one giant message. So he starts at the end. Let me tell you the kind of people God blesses. Let me tell you how all that looks. By the way, you either have good fruit or bad fruit. And it's all one message. The whole thing is connected, right, And so if we understand that, then his idea of not carrying anger on but going and making things right with our friends and our neighbors and our enemies, it's not just a nice idea, it's expected. Right, and anything other than that is wrong. And he goes, Dude, if you're gonna be my follower, that's the kind of fruit that needs to start showing up in your life. Now. As we mentioned a few days ago. We're growing up in our faith, and so the most mature version is we absolutely just generously forgive our neighbors, we pray for them, we do good for them. Maybe the infant version of that is Okay, I'm gonna Jesus, this is so hard. My feelings hurt so bad, but I want to forgive them. Would you help me? Right, there's the middle school version of Okay, we do it grudually, you know, all right, I'll do what you say, but I'm not happy about. It, right kind of thing. I think there's different levels of us actually applying these things, but we should be You should be able to look back on your life two years ago and go, wow, I've come a long way in that area that it used to be. The fruit is growing on the tree. It might not be completely ready to be harvest, but it's way different than it used to be. Right, And that's in every area that he mentions through the whole Matthew five, six and seven. All of the things he brings up is what he's talking about with by their fruits, you'll know them at the end. And you think going to church is going to get you to heaven. Nope, right, right, Well, Hey, I think that's that's about it, and that's about our times. So he's Jeff, I'm Chris, and stay off my lawn.