Two religions. Two religions. Several of you were in the Bible
classes this morning. I'm writing lessons through the
book of Matthew. And we're going verse by verse
this morning. I think it was lesson 104. So we've had several lessons. I've got a few more. I just finished
writing 107. and it'll be more on top of that. But anyway, our lesson for today
was the Great Separation. And actually, writing that lesson
and then this morning teaching that lesson kind of was the background
for, I think, for me being led to this passage of Scripture
in Matthew chapter 7. As we studied this morning the
great separation and the final judgment, there's just going
to be two groups of people, but really, that's the way it's always
been. In our lesson we studied in Matthew
chapter 25, when the Son of Man shall come again in His glory
with all of the angels with Him, He's going to separate He'll
gather the nations before Him, He'll separate them with the
sheep on the right and the goats on the left. That's going to
be a separation and it will be a manifestation, really a revelation
of a division that took place before God ever made the world.
It's just going to be a kind of a formality, a presentation,
of this is the way it's always been. There's always been just
two groups of people. God ordained that He would have
His people. A people out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue. A people that He loved. A people
that He would save. A people He would redeem. A people that he would bring
to himself. A people that would glorify his
grace. A people that would love and
adore the Lord Jesus. These people are known as the
righteous ones. They're known as the sheep. They're
known as the elect. They're known as believers. And
you may not have a grasp of a lot of doctrines this morning. I
don't know what level your spirituality is, your spiritual knowledge
is, but if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus, and this has
got to be established, if you look to Christ Jesus for all
of your hope of salvation, if you understand If you understand
that the only way you can ever be accepted by God is through
a suitable mediator, through a suitable Savior. And if you
believe Him, you're among the people of God. And the reason
you believe, the reason you are among the people of God, the
reason you are numbered among His sheep, is not because of
your belief. Your belief is a wonderful thing,
but your belief did not set you apart. Your belief didn't make
you a sheep. It revealed you were a sheep. It revealed it was a revelation
that you belong to God. And He set you apart before the
world began. And for those who die in unbelief, Those who live and they go through
their lives and then they leave this world and they leave in
rebellion, they have no hope in Christ Jesus. They don't look
to the Son of God. They're going to perish in their
sins. And they're the goats. They're
the goats. So in this world, there have
always been just two groups of people. And listen, that's the
way it is here this morning. It's the way it always is. Now,
I don't have the ability to see anybody's heart, so I don't know
who the sheep are and I don't know who the goats are. And you
don't either. And so we preach to all men.
We preach Christ to all men. And we say believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. We say God demands that you repent. Repent of your sinfulness. Repent of your idolatry. Repent
of your evil works. And believe, believe. Embrace
the Son of God. Flee to Christ Jesus. There is no other Savior. You
understand that. You realize that. And we ask
God, if He would, to make application of the Word to the hearts of
those who are listening to us. And I hope that He will. If you're
brought to believe today, we'll rejoice with you, and we'll thank
God for you. Because faith is a gift of God.
Repentance is a gift from God. Spiritual life is a gift from
God. But the fact of the matter is,
the division was made before God ever made the world. And
that's the way it is. I know there are many denominations,
a lot of different beliefs, a lot of different churches, but they're
just two religions. And we know that. You go all
the way back to the book of Genesis. You know, the book of Genesis
is the seed bed for all Bible doctrine. Just go back to the
book of Genesis. It's the book of beginnings,
isn't it? That's what Genesis means. It's the book of beginnings. And there we see creation. There
we see man made upright. There we see God giving the law. There we see man breaking the
law. There we see man's fall. And then we see his restoration. It's in the book of Genesis.
When God said, the seed of the woman is going to come. And yes,
his heel will be bruised, but he's going to bruise the head
of the evil one. And then the Gospel is set forth
when God took the animals and He killed them and He clothed
our fallen naked parents. I'm telling you, the book of
Genesis, it is the seedbed for all the doctrines of the Word
of God. It wasn't Adam and Eve seeking the Lord, it's the Lord
seeking them. It establishes right from the
beginning, salvations of the Lord. If the welfare of Adam
and Eve had been left to those two, they would have perished. If it had been left up to their
will, If it had been left up to their thinking, if it had
been left up to their actions, they would have died. And we
know that because they ran from God. They hid from God. In the
very beginning of the Bible, it is established man's absolute
depravity. You will not come to Me, Christ
said, that you might have life. No man can come to Me except
the Father which has sent Me to draw him, and I'll raise him
up again at the last day." That's what the Savior said, and it's
evident with Adam and Eve. seeking the Lord. They weren't
pursuing mercy. They didn't have any interest
in the grace of God. They didn't have any desire,
any inclination to approach God and ask Him for mercy. No, they're
hiding from God. It's the way it's always been.
But God sought them. You see that? God sought them. God went after them. God came
calling in the cool of the day, not in the heat of his wrath,
but in the coolness of his mercy and his loving kindness. And
he taught them the gospel. We get to Genesis chapter four.
We're faced with two boys, two sons, and I'm persuaded they
were married men at this time. They had their families. The
first man mentioned is Cain. He was the first son born to
Adam and Eve. His name was Cain. And of course,
Eve said, I've gotten a man. He's the Lord. And she believed
that this is the seed of the woman here. This is the one who
was promised. Boy, was she ever wrong. I tell
you, Adam and Eve lived to see that this man Cain would break
their hearts. He was a devil. That guy was. But they had another son. His
name was Abel. And both of them sought to worship God. Both of
them sought to approach God. Here they are. Genesis is the
seedbed for every doctrine. Here are both the peoples right
here represented in Abel and Cain. Abel, he's a sheep. How do you know he's a sheep?
Did he have sheep written on his forehead? No. Well, how do
you know he was a sheep? He worshipped God by means of
sacrifice. He understood something of his
own sinfulness. He believed what his father Adam
told him, without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin. He believed that message. Do
you believe that message? Without the shedding of blood,
there is no forgiveness now. And he embraced that. And he
brought to God the firstling of his flock. Not an also ran,
not some lamb or old sheep that's wore out and going to die anyway.
No, he brought the firstling. He brought the best. He brought
it to God and God had respect to his offering. God had respect
to Abel. He brought it by faith. By faith. Abel sacrificed. This is what
it testified. I deserve to die, but I'm bringing
the life in my stead. Remember that. I'm bringing the
life in my stead. This life is going to die for
me. And God had respect to Abel in
his offering. He brought it by faith. His offering
pictured Christ Jesus and Him crucified. But there's another
man, Cain. He brought his offering. But
he didn't bring a life to be laid down. He didn't bring any
blood. It was a bloodless sacrifice. He brought the fruits of an earth
that God had cursed. He had labored. He had worked. He is not an irreligious man. He is a religious man, but his
thinking was, on the basis of what I produce, what I have done,
I present this to God and I expect God to accept me. You see, in
Cain's offering, there was no blood, there was no life, there was no death. It was just
the labors of his hands. And God didn't have respect to
Cain's offering. God rejected his offering and
rejected him. And you know what happened? Cain
got mad. And he killed Abel. He killed his brother. Abel was a man who just worshipped
God. He just believed the Gospel. Not Cain. He was a rebel. He's a rebel. He didn't like
the fact that Abel was received and he was rejected. He rose
up and killed Abel. And God said to Cain, you're
cursed. You're cursed. And God said,
I put a mark on this man. Nobody else is going to touch
him. He's mine. I'll kill him one of these days.
And God did kill him. Let me tell you something. God
was angry with Cain. He's the first rebel. He's the
first man who believed in salvation by works. God despised him. God hated him. God always hated
him. God hated him from the foundation
of the world. That's right. Scripture says
of Jacob, I loved him. Esau, I hated him. And I'll tell
you, of Cain and Abel, God loved Abel and God hated Cain. Cain, he made known his true
feelings toward God. He hated God. He despised God. He despised God's way of salvation. I've got a better way. I don't
need blood. I don't need a sacrifice. I don't need a lamb. I'm religious. I'm as good as Abel. I'm as good
as my brother. And God said, I've got nothing
to do with you. Never did, never will, never
shall. God put a mark on him. One man
believed in salvation by grace, Abel. Another man believed salvation
by works, Cain. There's your two religions right
there. One man believed in salvation by the will of God. Another man
believed salvation by the will of man. There's your two religions
right there. One man believed salvation by
the act of man. Another man believed salvation
by the act of God. There's your two religions right
there. And go down through the years. All these last 6,000 years
or so since creation. to right now, it's still the
same way. Just two religions. Right here in Matthew chapter
7, we have the evidence of it. That it's still just these two
groups. You know, these are our Lord's final words in His message,
the most famous of His sermons, Sermon on the Mount. These last
verses of this great sermon, he gives vital instructions to
these people who are listening. And he gives vital instructions
to you and me. Let's don't be guilty of doing
what many people say, well this was written for another age,
for another dispensation, for another group of people. This
was written for us. This was written for our admonition.
This was written for our instruction. You see, He's speaking to men
and women, just like us. Men and women who wanted to enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven, though they didn't have a full understanding
of what the Kingdom of Heaven was, still they were religious. And they had some kind of interest
in going to heaven, though like most people, they didn't understand
what heaven was. And here's our Lord standing
before these people, and He lays it out for them. And here's what it's about, entering
into the kingdom of heaven. Now, here you said before me
this morning, and those of you who are watching by way of the
internet, and I'm absolutely certain, if I ask each one of
you, do you want to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven when you
die? You'd say, sure! Absolutely, I do. Let's have this understanding.
Most people don't know what the Kingdom of Heaven is. Most people
don't know what Heaven's all about. It's a place of worship,
is it not? It's a place where Christ Jesus
has all the preeminence. I've told the Bible classes more,
I said God ordained from the very beginning that His His Son,
the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, would have the preeminence in
creation, providence, salvation, judgment. God's ordained His
Son to sit on the throne. He's the King. And this is the
one we've got to know. This is the one we're going to
appear before. Who are you going to stand before at the judgment?
You're not going to stand before a little baby in a manger. I
don't stand before a man hanging on a cross. You're going to stand
before the King of Glory. That's why it behooves us to
be very serious about this. Yes, we want to go to heaven. I want to go to heaven. I understand
that's a place of worship. Do you understand that? I hope
you do. I don't think most people do.
Most people think heaven is about a family reunion. And, you know,
doing in heaven the kind of things you used to do on earth. It's
like a grandfather told his little grandson. His grandson said,
Pappy, what's heaven going to be like? He said, you'll get
to do in heaven your favorite thing that you used to do on
earth. That's what you get to do in heaven. And his granddaddy
said, what do you like to do on there? He said, Pappy, Grandpappy,
I like to fish. He said, that's what you'll do
in heaven. And we kind of snickered a little bit and said, well,
that's a child's thinking. That's the way most people think. They don't understand that in
heaven all the glory goes to Christ Jesus. He's seated on
the throne. And people are singing, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain, who redeemed us to God. We're singing,
worthy, worthy to the Lord Jesus Christ. He shed His blood. He
redeemed us. We're going to be singing about
blood redemption in heaven. That's what we're going to be
doing. We'll be singing salvation to God and to the Lamb who sits
upon the throne. But anyway, these people had
some... Here's this big multitude now the Savior's speaking to.
They had some interest in heaven, some interest in the kingdom
of God, and they felt the necessity of being ready to die. And you
do too, to some degree, you understand that there must be a readiness
to die because there is within you, though it's defiled and
marred by sin, a God consciousness. And you know there's a judgment.
You know. Those out there watching on the
internet, you know there's a judgment. I know it and you all know it.
Children know it. We're going to stand before God.
Now we don't understand the basis of the judgment. Though the Scripture
is very clear, the basis of the judgment is righteousness. It's
not who did the best they could do, who worked the most, who
was the nicest person. whose good deeds outweigh their
bad deeds. I can tell you that right now.
Your bad deeds way outweigh your good deeds. In fact, you don't
have any good deeds unless they're made good by Christ Jesus. But you want to enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Our Lord Jesus is speaking to
people who are religious. And He sets before them These
four things, four sections, where he gives them instructions. Briefly,
let's go through this. And I think I can cover this,
not as it ought to be covered, but I can give it to you in general. Because I want you to get the
overall picture. Here's the first part. Here's
the Lord's command. He gives a command. Look at verse
13. Ron read it to us. Enter ye in
at the straight gate. That is not an invitation. That
is not an invitation. That is the Lord's command. He
commands you, He who is the Lord, He who is the King, He says to
these people who are gathered around Him, who are listening
to Him there on the mount, And He says to all of us who are
reading this, enter ye in at the straight gate. Now watch
it. Wide is the gate, broad is the
way. You got a wide gate and a broad
way leads to destruction. And many there be which go in
thereat. That's one way. That's one way. Remember, there's just two ways.
We're talking about two religions, so it's just two ways. It's just
two ways. The right way and the wrong way.
The right way and the wrong way. You get ready to go on a freeway,
you better not be going the wrong way. If you go the wrong way,
you may end up killing yourself or killing somebody. There's
the right way to go, there's the wrong way to go. Our Lord
Jesus says, enter in at the right gate, the straight gate, the
narrow gate. He said, but there's another
gate, wide is the gate, broad is the way, it leads to destruction. And many there be that go in
therein. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto us. life and few there be
that find it. Here are the two groups of people.
There they are right there. Some on the narrow way, some
on the broad way. Some go through the straight
gate, a very compressed gate, very compressed, and others go
through the wide gate. Lots of room in that gate, lots
of room for every kind of belief there is. Through the wide gate. See, there's all the rest of
the religions of the world. There's Mormonism, Jehovah's
Witness, Baptist, Methodist, Muslim. Man, there's a lot of
room. That's a wide gate. There's room
for everybody. And it leads to this broad way.
Well, a lot of people going with you say, well, surely all these
people can't be wrong. I'll just go with them. Wait
a minute. It goes to destruction. The end thereof is destruction. But here's another gate. It's
very compressed. And you go through that gate
and it leads to a narrow way. But it leads to life. It leads
to life. There are lots of people over
here on this one. Just a few people over here on
this one. And people look at these two ways, these two gates,
and they say, well all of these people, surely they can't be
wrong. And these few people over here,
they're very narrow-minded. You're absolutely right. Very
narrow-minded. Because the way of salvation
is a narrow way. It's a way of grace alone. It's a way of Christ Jesus alone. It's a way of His sacrifice alone. To get in through this straight
gate, you've got to take off all that baggage, all that junk,
all your good works that you've been thinking has been impressing
God. You've got to get rid of that.
There's not room for you and your works. There's just room
for you. It's a straight gate. So I've been a pretty good person,
and God knows I've prayed, and God knows I've given money to
the church, and God knows I've read my Bible. Yeah, God knows
all about your self-righteousness. He sure does. And it's got to
go. And really, He's got to strip
it off of you. He's got to show you that all
your works that you thought was pleasing Him, they're just filthy,
stinking rags. That's all they are. There is wickedness in your so-called
righteous deeds. And you cannot place any confidence
in them. You've got to get rid of them.
They've got to be ripped off of you. You can't go through
the straight gate with all that baggage. Oh God, get rid of that stuff
from us now. so that I have no hope, no hope
at all of mercy and grace and salvation except Jesus Christ
and His sacrifice alone. Here are the two religions right
here. One's a very popular religion.
One's not popular at all. And then secondly, now that's
the Lord's command. Here's what He says. Enter ye
in at the straight gate. Oh God, issue that command to
my heart by your sovereign voice. Speak with irresistible grace
and give me grace to enter in at the straight gate. Beginning
at verse 15, here's our Lord's caution. He issues a word of
caution. He said, beware of false prophets.
See, just like there are two kinds of ways, there are also
two kinds of preachers. And these two kinds of preachers
preach, one, the religion of man, the other, the religion
of God. He says, beware of false prophets.
They're out there. They come to you. They're dressed
up in sheep's clothing. They appear to be nice and kind
and friendly. Surely they're Christian. They
love everybody. A man told me not too long ago,
he said, I tell you, we've got the world's best preacher. I
said, really? He said, yeah. He spends all
day at the hospital. He goes into every room at the
hospital. I said, is that preaching? That's
not preaching. I'm not saying preachers shouldn't
visit the sick of the congregation, take care of the ailing sheep,
but the minister's duty is to seek the Lord, pray, and study,
and preach. Preach. He says, beware of false
prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing,
but in really, they're wolves. Wolves who want to devour. And
you'll know them by their fruits. What are the fruits of a false
prophet? Number one, his doctrine. His
doctrine. What does he say about God? Boy,
that means everything what a man's got to say about God. You tell me who your God is,
and I'll tell you whether you're worshiping the right God or not.
Well, who made you the judge? I'm not the judge, but the book
is. This is a judge. The preacher tells me, what does
he think of man? What's man's condition? My heart was broke this week
because the person I've been corresponding with and I preached
to years ago, they told me what church he was going to and I
looked it up on the internet. What an absolute mess. I thought,
and I'll write them. I'll write my friends. I just
can't believe that you're mixed up in something like that where
the man said, listen, you need a relationship with God at the
end of the service. Come down here to the altar and
pray through. What? It's just somebody who's
sat under these people that I've loved and known. I've preached
to them. They've heard Sovereign Grace. I've been visiting with
them, with the man he and I visited together. And this is the stuff
he's under now. He's under the ministry of a
false prophet who is all smiles and making jokes and great entertainer,
a great manipulator of people. But he doesn't know God. And
that's what people are looking for today. They're looking for
somebody to make them laugh and make them feel good. Make you
feel good about yourself. In fact, this guy said, let's
just give us all a round of applause. For what? You think we've ever done anything
to be applauded? We're a bunch of sinful people.
Drink iniquity like water. had our fists in the face of
God. We've despised His Son, haven't
believed Him, haven't given Him the glory. Evidence of God's mercy is that
we're still alive. Still alive. These false prophets,
you'll know them by their doctrine. What they say about God, what
they say about men. what they say about Christ Jesus,
who He is, what He did, why He did it, where He is now. You'll
know them by their fruits. Just listen to what they say.
Listen to what they say. I had a person one time, he and
his wife visited with me. The wife visited with her husband
and she said, I've been going over to such and such a church.
I want you to listen to the preacher. and let me know what you think.
I said, well, I'll listen to it. If you really want me to
tell you what I think, I will. She said, I do. And I listened.
I took notes. I went back and I told her, I
said, he doesn't say right things about Christ Jesus. He's a false prophet. I just
told him. I said, I love you, but I'm not
trying to be mean to you. I'm not trying to be cruel, but
I'm just going to tell you the truth. He's a false prophet.
You say, why do you say that? I say, because he's lying on
Christ Jesus. He's not telling the truth. He
talked about him, Christ, trying to do something at the cross.
And He wants to save you if you'll just let Him. I said, He's got
the wrong Jesus. He's preaching a false Jesus.
I said, you better dump that guy and dump that church too.
And she did. She did. And I don't think she
did it just because I advised her to. I think her eyes were
open to the truth of God. Our Lord Jesus said, Here's a
word of caution for you. Beware of false prophets. They're
out there. They're out there. Bunch of them. Ask Elijah, he squared off against
850 of them. 850 to one. Somebody said, do
you think that's the way it is today? 850 false preachers to
every one true preacher? I don't know. I don't know, I
think probably that 850 number needs to go up, in my opinion,
based upon what I hear. But you'll know them by their
fruit, by their doctrine. I'll tell you something else,
you'll know them by their followers. That's their fruit too. Ask their
followers what they believe. And they're believing what the
guy from the pulpit is saying. And if he's a wolf, Believe in
what He's saying. They're on the wide road that
leads to destruction. Beware. Beware. And I'll tell
you what's going to happen to the false preachers. They're
like trees. They give forth this bad fruit.
God's going to cut them down. And I'll tell you when He cuts
them down, the saints of God are going to rejoice. I'll be
thankful. I'll be thankful. Several years
ago, I was talking with a man. We were talking about the death
of a very, very famous preacher. And I said, well, that's one
mouth God has shut. He won't be spewing out his air
anymore. He said, oh, don't say that. He preached Jesus. I said, well,
he didn't preach the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't preach his
effectual work of redemption. I had a person tell me one time,
I see good in all preachers. Really? Boy, you're looking through
some kind of glasses different than what I'm looking through.
You're not considering the glory of God then. You're not considering
the Word of God. All preachers are not good. You
cannot trust a man who comes to you carrying the Bible and
says, hey, I'm God's preacher. You just can't trust him. I don't
care who you, whether it's me or anybody else, you've got to
listen to their message. Does he exalt God? Is he magnifying
God? Is he glorifying Christ Jesus
and the blood, the blood, the blood of the substitute? That's
what he's got to preach. And then, our Lord thirdly, here's his... It's condemnation,
words of condemnation to some. Look at verse 21. Not everyone
that saith to me, Lord, Lord, not everybody who's religious
now shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Some people think as long as
you're religious, you're going in. No! The Lord is very specific. Not everybody who calls me Lord,
Lord, who says Lord, Lord, is going to enter into the Kingdom
of Heaven, but he that does the will of my Father who's in Heaven.
He says many will say to me in that day. You reckon that's the
same many as back up in verse 13? Many there be that go in
there at? Many will say to me in that day,
what day? The day of judgment. Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in Thy name? In Thy name cast out devils,
in Thy name have done many wonderful works, trilogy. That's what they profess. And
he said, now here's going to be my profession. I never knew
you. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. He's always known them. But the Lord's going to say to
a bunch of people, all these are on the wide road that leads
to destruction. All these who've been listening
to these wolves, these false preachers, He's going to say
to them, I never knew you. What does that mean? He didn't
know about them? I thought God knew everything.
Indeed, He does know everything. When He says, I never knew you,
He's saying, I never loved you. I never had affection toward
you. You and me, we never had a relationship
like you think you've had. No. Get out of my sight. Depart from
me. You mean Jesus is going to say
that? Yeah. Depart from me. Ye that work
iniquity. I know you've been religious
and you've been religious for many, many years, but everything
you've done is just iniquity. That's all you've done. Just
iniquity upon iniquity. All your religion, all your praying,
all your Bible reading, all your church going, all of those things,
it's just iniquity upon iniquity. Get out of my sight and you'll
cast them into hell. Say, that's tough, preacher.
This is serious business. We're talking about the glory
of Christ Jesus here. Talking about worshiping Him
in spirit and in truth. And you'll worship Him, you'll
honor Him, you'll believe Him, or He'll damn you. That's just
a fact. And then here's the last section.
Here's the Lord's comparison. Therefore, whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them." Are you doing what He
says? This is the will of God that
you believe on Him whom He sent. Are you doing what He said? Are
you looking to Christ? Are you honoring Christ? That's
what God told you to do. He says, I liken Him unto a wise
man. Verse 24, built His house upon
a rock. Rain descended, floods came,
winds blew, beat upon the house, it didn't fall because it was
founded on a rock. The rock Christ Jesus. You built
on a rock? It's immovable. It will stand
forever because it's a very firm foundation. It's the foundation
God Himself has laid. He's the rock. Christ Jesus is
the rock and God laid Him as the foundation. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I stand on
the rock. You see, everybody to a degree
is building some kind of house, a religious house. The building
is meant, that which is intended by building is faith. We believe
in somebody, we believe in something. I believe in Christ. Then he says, everyone that hear
these sayings of mine doesn't do them, doesn't believe on Christ,
doesn't look to Christ. He shall be like none but a foolish
man which built his house upon the sand, the rain descended,
the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house. And
of course, this could be the troubles and trials and tribulations
of life that's gonna blow against your house. Ultimately, it's
the final judgment. And look at the end of verse
27. And it fell, and great was the fall of it. You know why
the fall was great? He is in the house. That's why
the fall was great. That's why it's so devastating.
Here's a man who built the house. He didn't build on the rock. He built on the sand of his own
works. This is just another illustration
of those who are foolish, of those who are goats. They build
on the sand, the sinking sand of man's works, man's will, man's
ways. That's not going to stand up
before God. That's not going to stand in
the judgment. And the thing of it is, when your house falls,
you're in it. You're falling. That's the sad
thing about it. And listen, I know there are
a lot of sincere people in this world who are involved in religion. There's no question about that.
And I don't doubt their sincerity and I don't doubt the fact that
they mean business. But sincerity is not the same
as truth. I'll tell you what, when Saul When he stoned, or he held the
coats of those that stoned Stephen, he is sincere. When he went with
papers to arrest anybody who believed in the way, and he put
them in jail, didn't matter whether it was man, woman, or child.
Man, woman, or child. He'd have them arrested. He'd
say, you're going to jail. That's sincere. Those Jews who crucified the
Lord Jesus Christ or saw to it that He was crucified, they were
sincere. They thought they was doing God's
service. You better have something more than sincerity when you
stand before God. You better have a righteousness
that God Himself says, I find no fault in that righteousness.
You better be washed in the blood. The other house had stood. And
I'll tell you, he finished all this and says in verse 28, the
people were astonished at his doctrine. You know why they were
astonished at his doctrine? He taught as one having authority
and not as one of the scribes. And they were astonished because
he preached a message of pure grace as contrary to what they're
used to hearing. Had nothing like they're used
to hearing from the old rabbis who said, keep the law, keep
the Ten Commandments. Oh, he's all together. This is
different. It's a narrow way, that's for
sure. But here's the thing, it leads
to life. It leads all the way to life eternal. Ah yeah. May God give us grace and bring
us to the Lord Jesus.