Hear What You Need to Hear

Hear what you Need to Hear, But Not What You Want

Trinity 8 T Matthew 7:15-23

INI

Jesus is here to tell you what you need to hear. But never what your sinful flesh wants to hear. What sinners need to hear is never easy to accept. Because the way of Jesus is hard – it’s not easy. The easy way leads to hell. The more difficult path of salvation leads to life. In our sinful human nature, we desire the path of least resistance. We desire the path that makes me feel good – that avoids suffering for what’s truly good and profitable in this life. And while we walk this path of discipleship here below, who does Jesus tell us to be aware of? False Prophets. Wolves in sheep’s clothing. For they will lure you away from the truth. They will lure you away from life. Their teachings will make your life sterile. They will lure you away from the true Jesus and replace Him with a piece meal version of Jesus that soothes your mind and makes you feel good, but never soothes your soul.

So, beware of false teachers says Jesus in our text. You can spot them by their fruits. “Every healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” What is the fruit to watch out for in false teachers? We typically talk of the “fruit” language in Scripture in reference to good works. Which, a lot of times, it does. But here, this “fruit” language more deals with what the false prophets teach. That is to say, you will recognize false teachers by their teachings. Are their teachings what you need to hear for you to grow spiritually? Or are their teachings appealing to your sinful flesh, making you sterile to God’s fruits of the Spirit – like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness – and the killer for us sinners today – self-control?

We know false teachers by their teachings, and the two verses before our Gospel text clues us in to that. It says, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14). Their false teachings will attempt to widen God’s gate to heaven by teaching you that you can cling securely to your sins and still get into heaven. That all you need to get into heaven is belief, an intellectual assent that Jesus existed. Nevermind following His teachings. That’s just extra. They’ll give a nice picture of Jesus, saying he hangs out with sinners. But they’ll never tell you that the sinners left their encounter with Jesus changed! They won’t tell you that they no longer desired to live securely in their sins, but rather, they dropped their idols to follow Jesus.

False teachers piecemeal Jesus, treating Him and His teachings like a vending machine– pick the option you like if that’s what makes you happy. Ignore the rest. But in reality, that’s not the real Jesus. Hence why at the last day, the false prophets are confused – “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And of course, Jesus responds with the worst thing you could ever hear from Him– “I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” False teachers, whether knowingly or unknowingly, are influenced by the evil one to bring the followers of the false prophets to a fake Jesus.

Don’t follow a false prophet, and his fake, partial version of Jesus. Follow the Jesus of the Scriptures – not in part, but the whole Jesus. Even the parts you don’t like. Because the way isn’t easy. It’s hard. Because it’s not easy to hear that you’re a sinner. And it’s even harder to allow our hardened hearts to soften – to identify our idols and sinful pleasures – and allow Jesus into our lives to come and smash them.

So, how do we know who to listen to? What’s a sure way of identifying a false prophet in today’s time? False prophets will water down the teachings of Law and Gospel. They never teach God’s Law in totality. The morality they teach accepts one part of scripture and ignores the other. They never teach a true repentance and turning away from your sins to follow Jesus. As a result, they rob God’s people from the richness of the Gospel. They make it cheap and essentially meaningless.

These wolves will prey on your sinful flesh. Human nature is satisfied always with the status quo of being okay with sin. Being okay with a lukewarm faith. Being okay with sterile faith. But such faith is useless, and as I mentioned from Revelation last week, God spits out such lukewarm faith.

The way to eternal life isn’t easy – because you must deny yourself. You must stop making yourself the idol and leader of your own life. Because at the end of this path is a wide gate that leads to destruction. So, if your impression of the Christian faith is that you can satisfy the desires of your sinful heart and plan to repent on Sunday to be forgiven to just go out and do it all over again – then reevaluate who you’re following. Are you following yourself? Or are you following Jesus?

Look away from yourself and instead look to the real Christ who changes you away from who you were and into who HE wants you to be. He hates your sin. He hates your self-serving. To love Christ is to hate the passion of the flesh, for it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. This Jesus doesn’t allow you to cling to your idols for security, for some sort of psychological comfort. Such a false teaching is called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism – not Christianity.

Now-a-days, you can hear a message of true repentance – hearing at church Jesus’ words about striving to stay on the narrow path and avoiding the wide path that leads to destruction. But then go home and truly be shaped in your character, morality, and life by what you hear on your televisions and phones. This is to say, you can ingest the false doctrines of whatever your itching ears want to hear. Because false prophets are more accessible now more than ever. Want to justify your behavior about sexual immorality? Go read an article on the internet how God doesn’t really think sex is that big of a deal. Want to justify your behavior about skipping church? Watch a video of an untrained theologian saying that Church doesn’t matter, and it’s all filled with hypocrites anyway. Want to justify your behavior about holding grudges against your neighbor? Watch and read sermons from other pastors who have a particular ideal about what Christianity looks like instead of bringing people to real Jesus who changes them. These are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Beware.

Jesus must convict you of your sins, forgive you of your sins, change your desires away from sin, and guide you to live a God-pleasing life. Jesus must mold and shape you how HE desires you to be, not how YOU desire to be. He’s not here to destroy you. But He is here to destroy your sin. And He’s here to give you a new heart, and a new mind, and a new will that seeks to please Him in ALL things.

Jesus calls you to follow Him on the narrow path, where the blood which He shed stains your path forward. His path wasn’t easy. It didn’t make Him feel good. His path led towards a cross. Yet, His path was fruitful. His path led towards the fruitfulness of death, through which, life abounds for all. He did this because He loves you – He wants to be with you. And He can only be with you by smashing your idols, and having your sinful flesh die with Christ on the cross. And through the power of Christ’s own bodily resurrection, He rises within us to lead a new life. For as Paul says, it isn’t I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

          Receive the fruits of Christ’s own life now in His body and blood, given through Bread and Wine. Here, Jesus meets you to smash your idols. He meets you to become Lord of your Life. He strengthens your faith in the REAL Jesus, and not in some caricature of Jesus. Finally, He forgives your sins and sets you back on the narrow road, and He changes your desire to follow His hard, difficult, blood-stained path to eternal life. This is the real Jesus. Follow Him, and Him alone.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston