Discernment in the Kingdom
Kingdom Living

Transcript

Good morning, church and happy July 4th weekend! It's good to see you here this morning; we're continuing our series entitled, “Kingdom Living.” We've been going verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount. Before I begin, I want us to pray. I'm thankful for our country that we have the freedom to have worship the way we do.

We can worship God freely, we can share our faith with others and people can hear the Gospel freely. I think it's appropriate for us to give thanks on a weekend like this, not just this weekend, but every day. Let me pray, “Lord, thank You.

Thank You for the blood of Jesus that makes it possible for us to know You, receive the forgiveness of our sins and be adopted into the family. First and foremost, we thank You for the freedom we have in Christ. Lord, we also thank You for the patriots that have shed their blood in order for us to have freedom. Freedom isn't free and we are thankful, Lord, for those that bought our freedom, that we might have a place that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren, where the gospel is freely proclaimed and people are able to worship freely.

We're thankful for that, Lord. So be with us now as we preach Your word, as we hear Your word. Help us to be good listeners and obedient to what we hear. In Jesus’ name and all God's people said, “Amen.” “Kingdom Living,” we've entitled this series; we've broken it up into sixteen parts. This is week fifteen,

so, we're very close to the end. It's been a wonderful journey as we've gone verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount. It's been called the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher Who ever lived. Certainly, I would agree with that, as we've studied this, it gets deeper and deeper as we study. There is so much meaning and so much challenge in this Sermon on the Mount and in this sermon. We call it, “Kingdom Living,”

because Jesus is saying, ‘This is what kingdom life looks like for those who are kingdom citizens, those who have made Jesus king. This is what it looks like. It looks like this. It looks like loving your neighbor as yourself, but not only your neighbor; it means loving your enemies.

It means cleaning up the way that you think about life.’ The Ten Commandments is not just, “Thou shalt not murder,”
but it's ‘Thou shalt not call your brother empty head or raca.’ It means, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ It means, also, if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery in your heart. He goes on, and He moves this outward religiosity to heart change.

So, the invitation of our church is to “Come as you are and be forever changed by the love of Jesus.” In other words, come as you are, but don't stay that way. Jesus is moving from the pharisaical outward religiosity of his day, challenging them to have real heart change. That's what the kingdom is about, and that's what He's talking about in the Sermon on the Mount. He's bringing it to a close now as we get to the end.

He gives four sets of pairs, if you will. Last week, we hit upon the first one. He says that there's two gates and two ways. One gate leads to destruction. It's wide and it's easy; the other one is narrow, it's hard and it leads to eternal life.

Now, He begins the second pair, if you will, this second set of twos. There are two kinds of preachers, two kinds of teachers or prophets. They put off two kinds of fruit; some put off bad and some good. That's where we're at. Next week, He will talk about two types of confessions and two types of builders who build on two different kinds of foundations. He's closing the sermon.

He's told us what the kingdom life looks like and now, He's calling us to choose the narrow way. He's calling us to not listen to false teachers. Dr. Danny Akin, the president of Southeastern Seminary, writes in his commentary. He says, “Just as it matters which spiritual and moral road we travel, it also matters which spiritual teachers we listen to and which moral guides we follow.”

That's because looks can be deceiving. We must pay close attention to who we will listen to and who we will follow. Why does He give this warning here at the end? It's because He recognizes, Jesus recognizes that there are those who, after He teaches the Sermon on the Mount, who are going to lead people astray.

There are going to be others who lead people to, not the narrow way, but to the wide way, the broad way to destruction. Here's another reason why we should talk about this today: It's because Jesus talked about it. But, it's also because false teaching is on the rise. It's increasing.

Jesus said this would happen when He gave his end times discourse in Matthew, chapter 24. He brings this back up again, and He says that it'll be a sign of the end times, an increase of false teaching. Jesus is not the only one. All the apostles talk about it. Paul talks about the rise of false teaching in apostles warned of this, and especially of its increase in the last days. Jesus warns of its increase in Matthew 24:23-26. Paul will do it in Acts 20:28-30; 2 Corinthians 11:3-4,12-15; and 2 Timothy 3:1-9.

He says it's going to increase. Peter talks about it in 2 Peter 2:1-22, the increase of false teaching. John talks about it in 1 John 2:18-23 and in 1 John 4:1-6; he says to “test the spirits.” Then, Jude dedicates his whole book to it. It's a short little book, but the whole book's talking about beware of false teachers.

So, we need to beware of false teachers. We need spiritual discernment. To do this spiritual discernment, we must exercise this, or else we will potentially be led astray by false teaching. In Matthew 7, 15-20, Jesus warned His kingdom citizens that they must exercise spiritual discernment in order to avoid destruction, in order to avoid falling prey to false teachers. I believe today that we can exercise spiritual discernment in Christ and that Jesus gives us three ways to do this.

So let's look at the text, and then we'll “unpack” it together. Chapter 7 of the book of Matthew, starting at verse 15. Matthew 7:15-20 (ESV) 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. This is God's word.

Amen. We're looking for three ways that in Christ we can exercise spiritual discernment. The first way is by:

1. Knowing the truth to spot the deception.

Notice in verse 15, He begins with a command word in the Greek. It's an imperative Greek word: “Beware.” Be on the lookout.

Get your spiritual radar activated. It could be translated as, “take heed;” “be on guard.” Watch out for false prophets, false teachers.

Why? Because they come in disguise. How do they come? They come dressed in sheep's clothing, but indeed they are wolves and not just any kind of wolf, but ravenous wolves.

He says in verse 15, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” They are dressed like sheep, but they are predators with predatory hearts. They are pretenders with predatory hearts. The word, “beware,” calls us to discernment. Now, it's a little confusing.

If you're reading through the Sermon on the Mount, maybe you're confused or maybe you sense a conflict that you're trying to learn. Chapter 7:1. Remember this just a few weeks ago? “Judge not that you be not judged.”

”Judge not lest you be judged.” So Jesus says, “Don't judge lest you be judged.” Now, He's saying, “Beware of false teachers.” So what's the difference between discernment and judgment?

What's the difference between discernment and judgment? Probably the simplest way is just to look at what He's saying- discernment means being “fruit inspectors;” to be “fruit inspectors.” You're not judging. You can't see their heart.

The Bible says that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. So, look at the fruit of their lives and discern. Now, discernment also calls for the believer to exercise spiritual discernment.

So, we're asking the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, to help engage our mind and our observation and to see if it's consistent. So, discernment is spirit filled, spirit led evaluation of fruit in truth and love. That's discernment. Judgment,

as we learned earlier, is hypocritical. This is fault finding, condemnation in order to put someone down. It's hypocritical because Jesus said earlier that it would be easier to get that speck out of your brother's eye if you could get that log out of your own. It's hypocritical.

He doesn't say, ‘you shouldn't try to help get speck out of your brother's eye.’ He says, ‘get the log out of your own first.’ Okay, so there's a difference, you know, we hear today. I thought Jesus said, ‘do not judge.’ We hear the world say that to us.

Well, He did and it meant something. But he also said, you'll know them by their fruits, you'll recognize them by their fruits, which involves spiritual discernment. I hope that's helpful. The words, “false prophets,” are two words in English. It's one word in Greek.

I like Greek words like this. It's a compound word, “pseudoprophētēs;” it’s one word. “pseudo” means “pretending, false or liar.”

“prophētēs” means ”false prophets, false teachers in sheep's clothing.” When Jesus talks about believers, what does He often call us? He called us His “flock;” His sheep of His pasture.

So, to say, “sheep's clothing,” they come in looking like a Christian, they've memorized Christian language and “churchy” language. They come across as Christian, but they're not. They're false; they're “prophētēs;” they're false prophets. They'll come in in sheep's clothing, but inside, inwardly, where you can't see, it'll be known over time as their fruit are exposed for what they are. Inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. The word, “ravenous,” has the idea of having such greed, such desire as to be insatiable, to be rapacious and insatiable in their desire, often desiring power and money; grasping.

When do wolves come? They come at night, in order to kill the flock. Now, this was a well-known agricultural imagery that Jesus would use and the people would think about. Many of the people in the audience were probably shepherds and they would say, ‘You're right, those wolves, they come in cover of darkness when you can't see them.

They're deceptive, they're sneaky.’ That's what false prophets are like. They're deceptive. The best way to reveal them is to recognize them with the truth. Jesus, I said earlier in Matthew chapter 24, is answering the questions that the disciples were asking. They were admiring the buildings, the temple and stuff of Jerusalem.

Jesus said, in Matthew 24:2, “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” They went, when's this going to happen? In chapter 24, He gives signs of the end times. Among them in Matthew 24:11 (ESV) “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.” So, we see an increase of false teaching today.

We see it everywhere. We see it on the internet and we see it on the television. It's easily accessible today. And we see a great increase in false teaching. Paul talks about it in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, and he identifies them as being under the influence of Satan.

He says this, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (ESV) 13 “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” He says that Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light and they disguise themselves as sheep, as believers, but they're not, they're ravenous wolves.

You remember the story where Paul, Silas and their group of missionaries, traveled from Asia Minor and went into Greece? They stopped off at Philippi and Thessalonica. At both of those places, the Jews at first listened, but then they cast them out and rejected them. So, they've gone from Philippi to Thessalonica. Now, they're coming into the little town of Berea and Berea reacted differently.

The Jews there in the synagogue heard the message that Paul was preaching and they went back home and looked it up to see if he was teaching the truth. Look what it says in Acts 17:11 (NLT), “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.”

Paul commended them for that. He didn't feel challenged by that. He was grateful because he knew he was preaching from the word of God. So, he commended the Bereans. I wish everybody was like the Bereans, that they'd go home, get their Bibles out and to see if what the preacher said was really there, if it's really true. I preach under this Book, under its authority, by the power of the Holy Spirit. I study.

I'm an imperfect preacher, but I'm honest about it. I do my best to expose what the word of God says. This is my source of credibility and authority. Go home and be like the Bereans; verify that what I'm preaching is true.

This is what Paul commended. Now, maybe you know this, maybe you don't. Maybe, you've worked in a bank or maybe you've been a cashier at one of the big box centers. People give counterfeit money. The most popular counterfeit bills are the $20 bill and the $100 bill.

Those are the most popular counterfeited monies. You might think, well, they probably train you by showing you what counterfeit money looks like, but you'd be wrong, because the way they train you to identify a counterfeit is by knowing the genuine article.

Get a $20 bill out and notice how it feels. Hear the crackle when you pull it apart, hold it up to light and look at it. Flip it over and look at it and you'll notice. You'll get to know.

You'll just know, as soon as they hand it to you, you'll know it doesn't feel right. With $100 bills, you inspect it the same way. So, that's how they train; bank tellers, especially, know the genuine article. Then, you'll be able to recognize the counterfeit.

This is what Jesus said in John 10:27 (ESV) “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Here's what He's saying, ‘I know them and they know Me. I know their voice and they know My voice.’

If you're a believer today, if you'll study the word of God, saturate your mind and your heart with the Word of God and learn to listen to the spirit of Christ speak to you, you'll know the real thing. You'll know the genuine article. Then when the counterfeit comes your way, you'll know that too. And you'll be able to beware and say, ‘That's not right. That's not correct.

That's not the way it should be.’ Here's a question: Are you immersing yourself in Scripture on a regular basis? Are you allowing God's word to rewrite the hard drive of your mindset, of your thinking?

Are you comparing what you hear to the word of God itself? Don't let someone's charisma deceive you. Measure everything by the truth of God's word and by the voice of Christ. Are you listening for Christ's voice? These are questions that you should allow the Spirit to apply to your heart.

Right now, some of you are watching “The Chosen” series. I think it can be helpful to watch a series like that. I remember back in the 70s or 80s, when a miniseries came out, “Jesus of Nazareth.” I've seen several of these,

I know that you've seen them too and they can be helpful, but it's a director and an author with actors, trying to reenact what's written here. I've heard some of you come and quote from “The Chosen” or quote from a movie or something and you say, ‘Hey, do you remember when this happened?’ I have to say this often, ‘Yeah, I remember that happening there, but it's not in the Bible.’

So here's what I would say to you, Christians, if you want to enjoy one of those series, it might be really helpful for you to get in touch with it, but be careful that it’s not your “Bible” because it's an interpretation and it doesn't always perfectly get it right. I'm not against it;

I'm just saying that it is not your source of truth.

It's not your Bible. Your Bible is the Bible, okay? In Christ, we can exercise spiritual discernment by knowing the truth to spot the deception.

Okay, that's the first way. Here's the second:

2. Inspecting the fruit to expose the disease.

Let's keep going. In verse 16, He says, “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” That word, “fruit” or “fruits” is in the scripture seven times in our reading. It occurs seven times. This is the key word to this passage.

He says, “You will recognize them…” The word, “recognize,” has the idea of you will know them. You'll know them by their fruits. You'll know if they're the genuine article or the false article. You'll know.

You'll know if they are walking in the spirit. If you've got your “discernment cap” on, spiritually speaking, you'll know. Hey, there's something that doesn't feel right about this. He begins to talk about this. He says, “You will recognize them…”

In fact, that's so important in verse 16, “You will recognize them by their fruits,” that He concludes with that in verse 20 “Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” Now, He's going to give us some agriculture; He's given us some “pasture” references to sheep and wolves. Now, He's going to go in a slightly different direction;

agriculture. He says, “You will recognize them by their fruits.” He continues with, “Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” People in that audience might have just sort of smiled and said, ‘No, that's not true.

No, you don't get grapes from a thorn bush.’ Well, what about figs? Do you get them from thistles? No. You know that, right?

Yes, everybody knows that. Well, did you know this, that you can't get good fruit from a false prophet? He's talking about the source of fruit, that good fruit only comes from a good source and bad fruit comes from a bad source. He goes on and He gives that question which begs the answer.

He doesn't answer it himself, but it begs the rhetorical question, to answer the rhetorical question of “no.” Then He is going to apply it, 17 “So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” In case you didn't get the point in verse 17, He reverses the way he says it and says the same thing again in verse 18,

“A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” Here's what He says - ‘If the person, if the teacher is true, they've had a heart change. You can't see the inside; man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. But, you can look at the fruit, because the fruit's out there.’

Now, some of you might be experts at tree identification. My grandfather was. He could identify a tree. He could just look at it and tell you what kind of tree it was.

We'd go through the woods and he could tell the kinds of trees. I'm not that good at it, but I can tell certain trees apart. I can especially identify an apple tree if there are apples hanging from the limbs. I bet you could, too.

If there's apples hanging, you can say, ‘I bet that's an apple tree.’ Now, I'm not sure I can tell you what kind of apple tree it is, but if it has apples hanging from it, I'll tell you right away - I know that's an apple tree. I remember growing up that just down the street from my house, Ms. Miller

had an apple tree in her backyard. It had these little apples. They were shaped funny and about that big. I found out that it was an apple tree, but they didn’t always taste good. My mom would say, “Well, that's because those are ‘crab apples.’” Apparently, they're good for cooking.

I can't prove that, but I'll tell you what they were good at. They were good at throwing. You could throw those crab apples. Ms. Miller didn't like that.

Then, I found out they were also good for getting you in trouble. I got in a lot of trouble with those crab apples. You can tell a tree by its fruit. You might not be able to tell if it's an apple tree or not, but as soon as it bears apples, you say, ‘That's an apple tree.’ That's what Jesus says.

It takes a little time. You don't always recognize a wolf in sheep's clothing at first. In fact, they might be the most Christian person you have ever met at first on the outside, but over time, you may see them at the Walmart checkout, and they get ill with the checkout person because they didn't recognize something that was on sale or it took them too long to punch it in or whatever. You see them driving somewhere and you see them yelling at somebody or using some sort of strange sign language. You just observe them over time.

and all that fruit might be their followers. Are the people who follow their teaching becoming more like Jesus? What about their family? What about the way they treat their spouse and their kids?

Remember that this is a metaphor. It's not like we're going to bear fruit. It's about the outward product of our inward lives. The words, our relationships, our work, those things you can see; you can inspect and see them outwardly.

He says that you'll know them. It might take a while. If you see an apple tree in off season, you won't necessarily recognize it until it produces apples, but you'll know them. Jesus gives these great images about thorn bushes and thistles.

Well, here's some verses from the Apostle Paul, who's talking about this, applying this in his teaching to Timothy. He says,
1 Timothy 6:4-5 (NLT) 4 “Anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lacks understanding. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions. 5 These people always cause trouble.

Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy.” So, there are those who see religion as a means of greed, as a means of becoming wealthy. They often accentuate obscure sections of the scripture and base their whole ministry on those obscure sections and it creates divisiveness in the church.

Paul's warning Timothy about it. You might even look at what Paul writes to the Galatians as an example of bad fruit. He calls them “works of the flesh.” But, you could call it bad fruit, bad results, bad outworking. He says, Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV) 19 “Now the works of the flesh are evident:

sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” He's talking about the kingdom of God, just like Jesus here. He says that it is bad fruit, those works of the flesh.

Now, the listeners, the hearers in Jesus’ day probably would have picked up on this. Did you know that thorns and thistles are like code words from the Old Testament for being under the curse? Go all the way back to the book of Genesis and you'll see it.

Genesis 3:17-18 (ESV) “And to Adam he said, …cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…” So, for Jesus to use that terminology, the students of the Torah, the students of the books of Moses, would have said, ‘Those are the words that happened because of the curse of man's sin!’ They would recognize it and just think about thorns;

not only do they not produce grapes, they do produce blood. They cut you. So thorns, what kind of fruit do they have? They inflict pain. What about thistles?

Well, I thought I knew what thistles were. You sometimes probably wonder what the pastor is studying during the week. Well, this week I was studying thorns and thistles; I thought I knew what a thistle was and it turns out I was pretty much right. They tend to have sticky leaves and it gets residue on you.

They often have burrs. You know what a burr is; it'll stick to animal fur and it'll stick to your clothes. So,you're on a path in the woods and you're enjoying it, but you decide, I'm going to go off the path. You walk through and you get into some thorns, you get all cut up, and then you come out and you find out, I also went through some thistles. Your clothes are covered with little burrs and you're trying to get them off of you.

The thing about those little burrs is that wherever you drop them, they grow more thistles. In fact, that's their means of propagation. They get you to carry their seed somewhere else by sticking to you. If you think about thorns, if you think about a “thorny” prophet, he does harm to you. Ultimately, his teaching causes you pain

and if you think about a prophet who teaches thistles, you spread the pain, you propagate it yourself, you begin to carry it to others. I was digging in on those two words this week. In fact, I started thinking about some of the thorny and “thistley” teaching of our day. What happens is they tend to go just a little too far in one direction or the other and they land in a place that's dangerous. One is what I would call “the word of faith movement” or “prosperity theology.”

Some call it “name it, claim it.” Others might more correctly refer to it as, “blab it, grab it.” It's the idea that your faith is what matters. If you have a lot of faith, then you can be wealthy, healthy and wise, but if you don't have enough faith, well, that's why you're sick.

That's why you don't have something. Now, faith's important. It's by faith that we believe. “For by grace you're saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God.”

It's important, but when you carry it too far, then you land in a false teaching because Jesus tells us there will be trouble in this world. That's just an example. Here's another one: Those that weave over into what I would call the “too much grace and not enough righteousness” ditch, they fall over here and they say, ‘I'm saved. God's forgiven all my sins, past, present and future, which means I can do what I want to now.’

So, it's all about grace, all about God's love, but not enough about holiness and righteousness. Paul told Titus in Titus 2:11–12 that grace teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness because it's such a great salvation, freely given, we should live willingly holy lives. Maybe in that same ditch, that idea of grace, we move over even a farther step where we begin to accommodate the culture completely, where you can't tell the difference between the church and the culture. So, they begin to say things like this, that the Bible has an outdated view of sexuality, its view of gender and its view of judgment. It's outdated.

Jesus didn't really mean that and they began to redefine terminology. So, we have churches today that are affirming and accepting those that the Bible says are sin, those that the Bible says are apart from God's word. They pronounce themselves and present themselves as being compassionate allies, but instead they are false teachers leading them on the road to destruction. If you really loved people, if you really cared about people, if you really wanted to be an ally, be an ally to Jesus and tell people the truth and tell them you love them in Jesus’ name.

We have an invitation here at our church: “Come as you are…” Absolutely, come as you are, but don't stay that way. “Come as you are and be forever changed by the love of Jesus.” Because every one of us here came in as sinners and we're still sinners, saved by grace. We're still imperfect in this world, but tell people the truth.

Some call this “progressive Christianity.” Well, it's progressing on the wide path to destruction. There's other categories I could mention. There's the self-help Christianity where it's all about a better you, when in fact the scripture says you must crucify the self and there must be a new creation in Christ. We could talk about the other ditch that some churches land in where the teacher is overly legalistic and makes it all about your dress code or a long list of don'ts that prove that you're a Christian.

They're very legalistic and don’t have enough grace. So, they can land over there with false teaching. Then, there are false prophets that are just clearly false prophets who speak, claiming special revelation. Two of them are American-made religions that both started in the 1800’s. One was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830;it's a prominent world religion today - the Church of the Latter Day Saints of Christ Jesus.

They claim to be what we call “Mormons,” but they have a confused view of Jesus. I wrote my master's thesis in seminary about Mormonism. I know too much about it, so I won't talk further. I will say this, that not only do they have a false prophet at its head, but they also have a problem with the divinity and the exclusivity of Jesus, which is a real warning sign that John talks about in 1 John, chapter 4, that was to test the spirits. What they say about Jesus will determine what's true of a false teacher or a true teacher,

which leads us to another American religion that was founded in the 1800’s in 1870 by Charles Russell. It’s Jehovah's Witness, which has become very legalistic. They do not believe in the Trinity. I could go on. So, I'm not here today just to do this, but what I'm telling you is there's an increase. Did you hear what Jesus said?

He said that there will be an increase, in the last days, of false teaching. A couple of them today that have gone around the world are made in the USA, made in America. In Christ, we can exercise spiritual discernment by inspecting the fruit to expose the disease. To expose the disease. Notice, He says that they are diseased.

The tree is diseased. Literally, you could translate it “rotten on the inside.” That leads us to the third, the third way. We've said that if you know the truth, you can spot the lie, right?

If you examine the fruit, you can see the truth of it. Then here we go with number three:

3. Recognizing the end to avoid the destruction.

He says this, 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” It sounds very similar to what he said about the wide way and the wide gate, that it leads to destruction. He's consistent here. There's not three ways.

There's not five ways. There's two ways. There's two gates, there's two ways, and there's two kinds of teachers. There's true and there's false. There's good and there's bad.

Those that are bad will be judged and their teaching will be judged. His description is very figurative, but also specific. He says that they will be cut down and thrown in the fire. I started thinking, trying to visualize “cut down.” Perhaps, that implies that their ministry teaching will be exposed for what it is in this lifetime.

It will fail over time. Their manner of leading, their false inside will eventually show itself. It will expose itself and they'll be cut down. All you do is follow ministries today, where they had a false person at the center.

Over time, it's exposed; they'll be cut down. Then, this idea of being thrown into the fire.

We have to say that this mirrors Christ's warning about destruction. Dr. Carson says in his commentary that this speaks of eschatological ruin, final rejection by God and exclusion from His presence. This is final judgment. They will not escape final judgment. This is what Jesus is warning about.

Then, He says
in verse 20, “Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” He repeats verse 16. He adds the word, “thus,” which could be “therefore,” “in conclusion” you'll recognize them by their fruits. It might take time, but with spiritual discernment, eventually you'll know, you'll feel something's not quite right about their teaching and you'll pick up on it and be warned about it,

because those who go on that road, that road leads to destruction. It sounds similar to what John the Baptist preached, this idea of trees, bad fruit and cut down. He says this in Matthew 3:10 (ESV) “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

John the Baptist was preaching this to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He looked them right in the eyes and said, ‘Even now the ax is at the foot, it's at the root, about to cut it down.’ I studied that. I thought, What's he saying to them right there?

He's saying that your outward religiosity is all about show and not heart change. That whole thing's about to come crumbling down. Wake up and repent of your sin and come to Jesus. He's the Savior, and instead you're rejecting Him. Don't you know that God's already got his axe at the tree?

By 70 A.D., Jerusalem fell. His prophecy came true. The ax was at the foot of the tree; this idea of outward religion without heart change found its end.

It was cut down. He warned against it. The apostle Peter talked about false teachers. He talks about their destruction. In 2 Peter, chapter 2, he says this,

2 Peter 2:1-3 (NLT) 1 “But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.

3 In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.” The way of truth will be slandered. It's slandered today in the world. We're called “prejudice.”

We're called “limited.” We're called all of these names because we say Jesus is the only way. There's no other way. He's the only way. The narrow way is the only way.

We're called a lot of names. We're slandered because of that. But He says, there's only two roads. There's only two gates. There's only two kinds of teaching.

There's good teaching and there's bad teaching. And he warns against bad teaching. He says it reveals something rotten on the inside. I remember when I was a little boy, I spent summers with my pawpaw on the farm. He had a 70-acre farm.

I loved spending the summers with him, my mother's father. One day, at the end of a long, hard work day, it started raining. It kind of rained us out a little bit, so we went in. We were sitting on the front porch and it was raining.

He had a tin roof. Man, it was fun. We were sitting there with some iced tea, talking about the farm. It was really good. And then suddenly a bolt of lightning struck a willow tree in the front yard.

There were these two big willow trees in my grandfather's front yard. You couldn't put your arms around these trees; they were probably 100 years old. They were huge. Lightning struck one and half of it came right at the porch.

We ran in the house. My pawpaw did not like lightning storms. It scared us both. We ran in the house, but as soon as the storm was over, we went outside to see the damage.

That willow tree that was that big around; it looked as healthy as it could be. But, it was completely rotten all the way through the center and filled with black ants; those great big black ants. We said, “Wow, it was ready to fall over. It didn't need a lightning bolt. It could have been a hard wind that would have knocked it over.”

You just never know. It looked healthy on the outside. It was like a “wolf in sheep's clothing.” It was diseased, it was rotten on the inside. When the fire fell, it fell.

When the storm came, it fell. Don't be indifferent about who you follow. There's too much at stake. Eternity's at stake, not just for you, but for those around you that you carry burrs on your clothing and spread. Be careful about the teaching you embrace and the teaching you pass on.

You might even have the teaching right in your heart but because you don't want to look bad in the culture, you want to be accepted. You say things that you know better than to say. Follow faithful shepherds who bear gospel fruit and be one who not only believes right teaching but shares it in Christ. We can exercise spiritual discernment by recognizing the end to avoid the destruction.

Jesus ends this portion of the Sermon on the Mount with a serious word of warning. Not all who sound spiritual are safe. Wolves wear wool. Thorn bushes don't bear grapes, but they do inflict pain. Thistles don't bear figs, but they do pass along false messages that can hurt others.

Diseased trees get cut down, destroyed and burned. Are you spiritually discerning? Do you study God's Word so that you're like the Bereans and you can tell the truth from a lie? Do you measure what you hear by God's word and by the voice of Jesus? Are you a fruit inspector?

Take care. Don't be a passive follower. Be a discerning citizen in the kingdom. Let's stay close to the shepherd.

Know His voice, trust His Word and when in doubt, bring it before Him. Let's pray. Lord, thank You for your Word. Oh, we love Your Word, Lord Jesus, and we thank You for it. We are so dependent upon Your Spirit's guidance, interpretation and revelation to our hearts, so that we have heart change and we have life change.

Lord, I pray for that person that might be in my hearing today. You've heard the Word and now it's the Spirit of Christ that's knocking at your heart's door, asking for you to consider becoming a child of God, a child of the Kingdom. Would you do that, right in your seat, today? If you sense the Holy Spirit's call to you, would you say “yes” to Jesus today? Would you confess it? Say, ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner and I need a Savior.’

Just pray, right in your seat. He hears you. ‘I believe that You died on the cross for my sins and that You were raised from the grave. Come and live in me. Forgive me of my sin.

Make me a child of God. I want to follow You all the days of my life.’ If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, the Bible says you will be saved. Others are here today and you know someone that's fallen under the “spell,” as it were, of false teaching. Maybe, it's a teenager.

Maybe, it's one of your children. Maybe, it's your mom, dad, uncle, aunt or a friend. Would you pray for them right now and say, ‘Lord, I pray You'd open their eyes to the false teaching. Help them to see the truth of Jesus. We pray it all now in Jesus' name, Amen.’