Alright, Matthew 7 and verse
12. Christ the one way of life. I
was watching our TV program this morning a little bit. I always
just check it to make sure that it's on because sometimes they
preempt it. And I was talking about the passage
in John 3 verses 19 through 20 where it talks about this is
the condemnation. that light has come into the
world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
are evil. And then it goes on to say that
unregenerate people, and I know this by experience, unregenerate
people hate the light. And you can think of aspects,
you know, the light there is Christ, it's the gospel wherein
Christ is revealed as the savior of his people. according to the
Word of God. And I thought about that, and
I may mention this on the TV program, that one of the aspects
of our gospel that men and women by nature hate, absolutely hate,
is when we present it as this is the only way. And there is no other way. I remember several years ago,
a lady and her husband came to church here from another church
in town. And one of the reasons they said
they were contemplating leaving that church is because that church
now, who claims to be a Christian church, they preach progressive
Christianity. And she asked me if I knew what
that was, and I said, yes. I said, they preach that there
are more ways to God than Christ. even though they claim to be
Christian. She said, that's right. I said, well, they're wrong.
Christ said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. He is that one way. Well, that's
what the import of this lesson is, Christ, the one way of life.
Now, we start off in verse 12 with what is commonly called
the golden rule. It says, therefore, all things,
this is the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount, He said, therefore,
all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do
ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.
And of course, some people state that as do unto others as you
would have them do unto you. And of course, that is the golden
rules, we might say. You also find it written in Luke
6 and verse 31, I've got cited in your lesson. But this is a
biblical principle. I've had several people over
the years ask me about it. Is that in the Bible? Do unto
others as you'd have them do unto you. And there it is in
this form in Matthew 7, 12. That we're to treat other people
as we would have them treat us. Now what that is, this is the
perfect standard of love. in the Bible, in the law. Remember
when the lawyer asked Christ, he said, what is the greatest
of the laws? And he said, the greatest is
these, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and understanding,
and love your neighbor as yourself. Well, this is what this is saying,
love your neighbor as yourself. This is perfect love. And it's
the golden room. And some people would say, well,
why is that in here? Does it seem out of place? Well,
no. What Christ is speaking of here is salvation and the requirement
that God has for sinners to be saved. And it's a perfect standard
of love, a perfect standard of righteousness that fulfills the
law. And that's what he said. It's
like he's saying, this is the summation of the law and the
prophets. In other words, we need a perfect
righteousness in order to be justified before God. And like
every manifestation of God's law, of righteousness of the
law, what does it really show us? Should we strive, just as
people, to love people like we love ourselves? Well, yes. and
especially believers. These are things we should strive
for in our lives as we go through and we fight the flesh, all of
these things. But this is not just a moral
handbook. This is the way of Christ showing
us our need of salvation. And so when we see these perfect
standards written out, the perfect standard of obedience, the perfect
standard of love, I mean, I've heard people brag on their love.
And what we see when we see the reality of the perfection of
righteousness required by God, what we find out is when it comes
to our love for God and our love for one another, we strive to
do it, but we don't have anything to brag about. Because our love,
our obedience always falls short of the standard of perfection,
of righteousness and love and obedience that can only be found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why he launches out
here in the next verses on the straight gate, the narrow way,
the broad way and all of that. So understand it, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the only person who fulfilled the golden rule perfectly. I haven't done that. But let
me say this now, when the Holy Spirit brings a sinner into the
kingdom of God in new birth, and gives us a new heart, a new
spirit, we can honestly say, we don't have to lie to say this,
we can honestly say we love God. And we love our neighbor, and
we love our brothers and sisters. We can say that, but boy, when
we compare our love to Christ's love, we got a lot to be ashamed
about. And that's why I've often said,
I don't mean to just pick on one church, but the church that
has that big sign up on Dawson Road that says, we love Albany,
well, that's bragging on your love. I love that passage in
John 11 where Christ was told about Lazarus dying, and when
they came and told him, he says, one whom thou lovest is sick. They didn't say one who loves
you is sick. Now Lazarus did love Christ,
but the way they characterized Lazarus in his sickness, one
whom Christ loves is sick. And so I'm gonna tell you what
I'm gonna brag about in my message. I'm gonna brag about God's love
for us. for his people. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And that's the love of God based
upon his justice satisfied. The gospel truth of salvation
by God's grace in Christ is taught in the law and the prophets as
the perfection of righteousness that enables God to be both a
just God and a savior towards sinners like us. So yes, look
at the golden rule. And do your best to keep the
golden rule. But realize that your best is
not going to get you into heaven. Your best is not going to save
you. Your best is not going to gain points by way of merit before
God. But now giving it your best does
glorify God. Just like we've seen back there
in Matthew chapter five, where he talks about, let your light
so shine before men. They may see your good works
and do what? Brag on you? No, glorify your
Father which is in heaven. And that's what we do in our
witness. I can stand before you in this pulpit and I can say
I love all of you. But my love is pitiful when compared
to Christ's love. And I still have the flesh that
rears up with hatred and resentment and vengeance that I have to
fight. Don't make me mad now. It's that
kind of thing. And when you do, I really do
get ashamed when I have those kind of thoughts, but it takes
me a while to get over it, and why? because I'm only a sinner
saved by grace. I'm not saying that to excuse
it or to promote that kind of bad behavior or attitude. I'm
not doing that, really. But I just know myself and I
know you because what the scripture says about all of us. And in
ourselves, we don't have a thing to brag about. But don't we have
a lot to brag about when we look to Christ? God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
isn't the love of God something wonderful? That's a hymn. And
that's what, isn't my love something wonderful? Well, it is because
it's a miracle of God's grace, but it's not something that you
should admire and wonder at. Look to Christ and his love for
us. So what's he doing? He's showing
us our need of a righteousness we can't produce. And here comes
the next verses. Look at verse 13 and 14. He says,
enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad
is the way that leadeth to destruction. wide is the gate, and broad is
the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Now
those verses, they say a lot. First of all, the straight gate,
what is it? The word straight there, notice
how it's spelled, it's talking like a narrow passage. like on
an ocean where a ship would have to go through a narrow passage
and it would have to really watch where it's steering, which way
it went, or it would hit the sides and sink. That's the strait
gate. And it's a narrow way. And I've
often said it this way, it's narrow because it's only one
way. And it's the way of God's grace
through righteousness that comes to sinners by Jesus Christ our
Lord, no other way. And it's so narrow, it will not
allow you to enter in with your religious baggage. If you try to bring in your works,
your experiences, your dreams, your visions, even your decisions,
as making up any part of your salvation, conditioned, You're
too wide. You can't come through this narrow
gate. It's Christ crucified, risen from the dead, his righteousness,
his blood alone. And that's it. Now the broad way. How broad
is it? Well think about how many false
religions there are. Think about how many people adhere
to false religion, even false Christianity. That's how broad
it is, because it's any other way other than the straight gate
and the narrow way, which is Christ, God's grace, mercy. Every
other way is a false way. Every other way is a way of destruction,
and that's one of the main things about the gospel that the natural
man hates. You mean there's only one way?
How many people, I mean, how many preachers will tell you
openly that there are other ways to God, especially today? I heard one preacher say this,
and this is Satan's subtlety, and this is why we've gotta be
on our toes. I heard a preacher say on TV this, he said, there's
only one way to God and that's Christ, but there are many ways
to Christ. Now that's Satan's deception.
That's that strong delusion that God sends as a judgment that
people might believe a lie. He gives them what they want.
You know, I've often prayed throughout the years of being a believer.
Lord, don't give me what I want. Give me what you want me to have. And that's the way it is with
salvation. Christ said I'm the way, the truth, the life. No
man cometh to the Father but by me. It was Peter, I believe,
who preached it in Acts chapter four. There's none other name
given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved. One
way, one way only. And it's the way of free and
sovereign grace by the meritorious work of Christ as the surety,
the substitute, and the redeemer of his people. And it will not
allow for the works of man to be brought in as the cause or
the ground or the condition of salvation. Paul wrote in Romans
chapter 11, if it's grace, it's all of grace. If it's of works,
it's all of works. I've heard people say, well,
I go to this preacher and he mixes grace and works. You can't
do that. If you see a preacher mixing
grace and works, you know what you're listening to? A works
salvation. You cannot mix the two. They're
like oil and water. So it's the way of God's free
and sovereign grace based upon the righteousness of Christ imputed. It's a way of God's glory because
there's only room for the glory of God in Christ in this narrow
way. There's no room here for the glory of man. For we have
no glory. That's why I quoted that in Galatians
6, 14. God forbid that I should glory,
save, or accept in the cross of Christ. We have no glory and
God won't share his glory. And it says it leads to life.
And that's what we want, isn't it? We want to live forever in
the glory of God in Christ. Well, there's only one way to
do that, and it's the straight gate and the narrow way, and
he says, he says, few there be that find it. Now the reason
so few find this one way of salvation is because by nature, as we are
naturally born, unregenerate, spiritually dead, depraved, and
all of that, sinful, we prefer the wide gate, the wide road,
the broad road. That leads to destruction because
we don't believe it leads to destruction. People out here
worshiping a false god would not worship that god if they
knew it was a false god. They're deceived. I was deceived. You were deceived, every one
of us. That's the way we begin our life, our state on this earth. And the only way we're gonna
find the right way is if God finds us first and brings us
to it. Now that's what the scripture
teaches. Now people hear that and they don't like that. Well
you're saying not everybody has a chance. Well this isn't by
chance. All of this is according to the
purpose of God. But the broad way leads to destruction.
It makes man, rather than God, the captain of his own salvation.
And this is why many there be which go in thereat. Because
fallen sinful man is deceived by his own heart, he's deceived
by Satan. You know, Jeremiah said that
the heart is deceitful, desperately wicked, who can know it? And
so man by nature is deceived by his own heart and by Satan
into believing that that broad road leads to destruction, or
leads to life, but it doesn't. And y'all have heard the old
saying, there's safety in numbers? Not here. He says, few there
be that find it. How few? I don't know. I think,
I believe, That when we get to glory, we'll be amazed at how
many over the span of human history that God has saved. But I can
tell you this without fail, because the Bible says it. The ones who
are saved by God's grace will be a lot fewer than those who
perish. I really believe that. Now right after that, keep it
in the context now. The straight gate, the narrow
way, few there be that find it. The broad way, the wide gate,
the broad road that leads to destruction, many there be that
go in there at. And then the next thing he says,
verse 15, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Well, what is
a false prophet? Well, it's simple. Any witness,
any preacher who seeks to lead people to the broad road that
leads to destruction. Anyone who preaches a false gospel,
and he mentions specifically those who come to you in sheep's
clothing, those are ones who claim to be Christian. Claim
to preach grace. I have, in all my life, I'm getting
ready to turn 70. In all my life, I've never heard
a preacher who came under the name of Christianity, no matter
what he preached, whether he preached salvation by baptism
or by ordinance or whatever, I've never heard any preacher
claim that they did not preach salvation by grace. They all
say they preach grace. I've heard preachers say, God
loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, now the rest is
up to you, you cast the deciding vote. And they call that grace. That's not grace, that's disgrace. You understand? That's giving
man room to glory. And it's subtle. And it takes
the Spirit of God for us to see the difference, and especially
to convince us of the difference. Well, I've seen people say, oh,
I see there's a difference what you're preaching in them, but
it doesn't matter to them. It's not life and death. Well,
it takes the Spirit of God to bring a sinner to repentance,
doesn't it? To admit that that's all false. The most dangerous
false prophets are those who come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they're ravening wolves. Now, why are they, he
calls them ravening. They are ravenously seeking salvation
by something they do or decide. By their efforts. By their attitude. By their character. Claiming
to preach Christ, but it's a false Christ. And they work hard to
appear righteous. I've got this in your lesson.
They work hard to appear righteous unto men. Remember what Christ
said of the Pharisees? You do indeed appear righteous
unto men. But the problem with that is
that men, by nature, do not know what righteousness is. They want to be called Christian
based upon their appearance. Well, what did John say in 1
John 3, 1? The world will not know us. The world and its religion,
they don't know what a Christian is, really. What is righteousness? You know, I've often said this,
on that broad road that leads to destruction, two of the major
points of judgment, or you might say two of their benchmarks,
is number one, salvation conditioned on sinners, in some way, to some
degree, at some stage. All right? And secondly, they
measure holiness and righteousness on a sliding scale. Now if you
measure righteousness and holiness on a sliding scale, you don't
know what righteousness is. Remember Paul said in Romans
10 about those who are ignorant of the righteousness of God?
That's what they did. They measured righteousness on
that sliding scale. And people come by and say, well,
I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as some others, not as
good as some others. Well, what does that mean concerning
salvation and a right relationship with God? It means nothing. I'm
glad that all people are not thieves and robbers in the sense
of being amoral, which means against morality, or immoral,
which means Well, immoral means against reality, amoral means
no morality. So, I'm glad that all people
aren't here, out here just willy-nilly just killing each other and all
of that. I'm glad of that. But the fact that there are law-abiding
citizens and church-going people doesn't even begin to touch the
issue of righteousness in the scriptures. If you're going to measure righteousness,
look to Christ. And how many times have you heard
me quote Acts 17 31? Where it talks about God has
commanded all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained. And that he had given assurance
unto all men and that he had raised him from the dead. The
Bible says that Christ is the end of the law, the perfection
of it. for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. So all of this. Unbelievers have
no knowledge of what it means to be a true follower of Christ
because they don't know the true Christ. And so they're easily
deceived. And let me say this too. The
reason false preachers preach a false gospel is that they themselves
are deceived. They don't have spiritual eyes
or ears to see and hear the true gospel. What did Christ call
the Pharisees? Blind leaders of the blind. And
they all fall in the ditch together. But these false preachers, they
abuse and they misuse the word of God, and they boast in their
own works even though they claim not to. And we'll see that more
next time, Lord willing, in Matthew 7, 21. Here's these preachers
say, Lord, Lord, haven't we done this? Haven't we not done that?
That's boasting. Even if you think, well, I'm
just claiming those are evidences of salvation. You know, the devil can counterfeit
and mimic those kinds of things. But true faith in Christ, from
the heart, submission to His righteousness. The devil cannot
mimic that. And men and women cannot see
it. I can't look at you and say that I see that in what I'm looking
at. But God knows your heart. And
when He gives you a new heart, He knows it. The Lord knoweth
them that are His. That's the surety. Now let everyone
who knows Him flee from sin. Well, look at verse 16. Now here
comes the kicker that a lot of people get wrong. You shall know
them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? One of the most important issues
of righteous judgment is this. How can I know the difference
between God's true preachers and false preachers? He says,
well, you'll know them by their fruits. Somebody says, well, is it important
that we know the difference? I think so. I want to know, have
I gone through the straight gate and on the narrow way, or am
I on the broad way? And doesn't the Bible, doesn't
God's word command us to test the preachers, 1 John 4? And doesn't he say here, back
in verse 15, beware of false prophets? How am I going to beware
of them if I can't know who they are? So how am I gonna know the difference?
Well he says, by their fruit you shall know them. Now you
know what most people say about that. Most people say that that's
talking about a preacher's character and conduct. They don't even hear into what
he's preaching now. But if he has a good character, a good
reputation, he seems to be a moral person, dedicated, charitable,
sincere, then that's the fruits. And then they go, a lot of times
they'll go to Galatians 5 and talk about the fruit of the spirit.
And I've heard people say, well, I'm not a judge, but I'm a fruit
inspector. Well, that's silly. You've heard that. But the problem
with all that is this. That wouldn't fit the context
of what he's saying here, number one. But the next thing is, you
can't righteously judge things that way. Now, don't get me wrong. Should preachers of the gospel
be men of character? Obedient? Moral? Sincere? Are you sure? If you read the Bible, were men
of God always, always obedient? No. And of course, we beat up
on David all the time about that. We could go to others. You could
even go to Noah, but David's just kind of like a shining example
of that. David was a man after God's own
heart, yet he committed adultery and had a man murdered. You gonna
judge him by his fruits? You see what I'm saying? Now,
I'm not saying that to say that it's okay for us to do things
like that. That's silly. But that's not
what he's talking about here. And again, the devil, when it
talks about moral behavior, conduct, reputation, the devil can mimic
those things. Man by nature can attain those
things. Now he cannot attain the fruit
of the Spirit, but he's got a hypocritical copy of them. Faithfulness, things
like that. You shall know them by their
fruits. Well, what are their fruits? He says, do men gather
grapes from thorns? No, or figs from thistles? No,
you're gonna get grapes from a grapevine, you're gonna get
thistles, or you're gonna get figs from a fig tree. So look at what he says in verse
17. Well, let me just say this, I'll
just set it up this way. The fruits here, you shall know
them by their fruits, refer to the results of their preaching
in the testimonies of those who believe what they preach. Do
you understand what I'm saying now? If I preach the gospel, all right,
the good fruits are the people that God saves by his spirit
under that gospel and come to believe that gospel. That's what
he's talking about. If I preach a false gospel, the
evil fruits are the people that believe that and come out believing
a false gospel. Now, how do I know he's saying?
Look at the context. Enter ye in at the straight gate.
Not the broad way. He's talking about ways of salvation
here. He's not talking about character
and conduct as far as our moral behavior. Now all that's included,
but how are you gonna tell a false preacher from a true preacher?
Do those who are converted under the preaching, whatever preaching
it is, do they believe and testify of that preaching? the true gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ, or do they believe
and testify of a false gospel, salvation conditioned on sinners?
The true gospel, when God empowers it to the salvation of people,
drives sinners to look to and rest in Christ for all salvation.
False gospels drive sinners to rest in either Christ plus or
a false Christ or somewhere else. And look at it in verse 17. Even
so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. What is the
good tree? That's Christ. Christ is the tree of life. As
he's presented in the preaching of the gospel, and when fruit
comes from that good tree, it's good fruit, because it's a sinner
saved by grace. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. What's the corrupt tree? Any
false gospel that preaches a false Christ. And out of that comes
evil fruit. He says in verse 18, a good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit. Christ cannot bring forth evil
fruit. All he can do is produce good
fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
No sinner can be saved under a false gospel. A corrupt tree,
a false Christ, a false gospel cannot bring forth good fruit.
Verse 19, every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn
down and cast into the fire. All right, every tree that bringeth
not forth good fruit, what's the end? The broad road leads
to destruction. They're gonna be cast into the
fire of God's wrath. Wherefore, by their fruits you
shall know them. You've got your lessons there
and you can read the rest of it, but I hope that's helpful
to you.