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Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

True Disciples Obey Jesus

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April 13, 2025
Matthew 7:21-29
Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Transcript

0:17Well, thank you to our children and our youth and many others who helped lead us in worship this morning. It is a joy to see all of our young people lead us this morning. Scriptures say, out of the mouth of infants and babies, God has prepared praise for himself. And if our children don't cry out, and if we don't praise even the rocks and the trees will praise the Lord. So we're glad you're here this morning. Thank you to our youth choirs, and if you're here specifically for those, we wanna especially welcome you. If you're joining us, perhaps for the first time as we observe Palm Sunday, we're continuing our series in the Gospel of Matthew.

0:55So let me encourage you to keep your Bible open to Matthew seven, and join me as I pray for our time together. Father in heaven, we have sung Hosanna this morning. Come, oh, saving one. So would you come, we worship you, open our eyes by the power of your spirit so that we would see your truth and that it might change us, that it might conform us into the image of your son. Jesus. We pray that in Jesus name. Amen.

1:38Imagine that you have a friend who says, I'm, I'm finally ready to get in shape. And so they say, you know, for the last three months I, I've been doing all these different things. They joined a gym with some high intensity interval training, and the trainers there are just super fit. Like they are ripped. They, they just bought a heart rate monitor, A GPS running watch, and even a sleep tracker. They've loaded up on all the gear, the latest technical moisture, wicking workout clothes. They have an exercise bike, they have a standing desk, they have a pull-up bar, and they even picked up some adjustable free weights from Facebook marketplace.

2:25They've checked out a few health books from the library. They've been watching hours and hours of fitness videos on YouTube, and they just downloaded an app to track all of their calories and macronutrients. And your friend says, uh, I've been doing this for three months, but I don't know why I haven't gotten into better shape. But you know why? They haven't done anything yet. They've gathered the information, they've bought the right tools, they've even grown in knowledge, but they haven't acted upon any of it yet. This is the danger of activity with no action. You, you can do all the appropriate things, but until you take action, it's ultimately useless.

3:14This is a picture of what can happen to us spiritually, which Jesus addresses in our passage this morning. It's easy to be all talk and no action. James chapter one, verse 22 says, be doers of the word and not hearers only. Thus deceiving yourself. We can be self-deceived thinking that if we just hear the right things and we don't do any of them, that somehow that is fundamentally enough. We can be deceived that with lip service, but with no obedience, that we can somehow be obeying God, which means dangerously, that we can listen to sermons, we can read the Bible, we can go to Bible study, we can fill our minds with all sorts of truth.

4:02And yet if we do not obey, we have wasted our time and it's useless. That is what Jesus warns us of this morning. It's spiritually deadly to be merely a hero of God's word. So as we saw last week, Jesus now concludes the Sermon on the mountain. We're looking at the very last section of this sermon. We've been in this sermon from chapter five, chapter five, chapter six, and now chapter seven. And we saw last week that there were four images. We had two gates and two trees. And now we turn our attention to the last of these two images. And we have two claims in verses 21 to 23. And then we have two builders in verse 24 to 27, and then these concluding words in 28 and 29.

4:57And what Jesus emphasizes in this word is that true disciples will be doers of his teaching. And the reality is that it's really easy to be a hearer, isn't it? There's no cost, there's no sacrifice. You can listen to sermons, you can go online these days and watch any preacher in the world. In fact, and I kind of did some research on this earlier this week, you can even grab an old sermon from someone long dead like Jonathan Edwards or Spurgeon, and you can have an AI voice generator read that back for you so you can even hear them preach perhaps not in their own voice. Yet the best sermon listeners are not the most godly of people.

5:45You can be a prolific listener, not be growing, not be maturing, and even dead in your sins. And Jesus warns us this morning not to be deceived. The main point of our passage is that true disciples obey Jesus, authoritative teaching from the heart. Uh, we're gonna break down each of those words, but true disciples of Jesus obey Jesus' authoritative teaching from the heart that true children are going to exhibit this wholehearted allegiance and this wholehearted allegiance is gonna manifest itself as obedience to his commands, but not just any old obedience, but rather an obedience that comes deep from the heart.

6:39And in fact, it's an obedience to Jesus and an allegiance to him and him alone. So we're gonna look at that as we go along. Just like last week's text. Jesus is calling for a decisive decision. Will his audience here in obey his teaching or will they reject him? There's only two ways to live. You can either go my way or you can go the way of the world. But, but there's no middle ground in these decisions. Will these people listen, have their ears tickled and then go away unchanged? Or will they be transformed as they put into practice what Jesus has taught? So first, let's look at these two claims in verse 21 to 23.

7:27First, there's several surprises in this section. You, you see that in verse 21. Jesus says that there will be many who come to me and say, Lord, Lord, up to this point in the sermon, Jesus has primarily kind of veiled his identity as the Messiah and as the son of God, he, he doesn't tell his disciples, for example, in the Lord's Prayer, at the end of it, he could say, and when you pray, conclude every prayer in Jesus' name, because I'm the one who's gonna make mediation between man and the Father. He, he doesn't say that he's largely veiled his divine nature, but now he shows his hand and he says, there's coming a day when people will come, when they get to judgment, they will say, Lord, Lord, and they will be talking to me.

8:19The second surprise is what some of these people say. Look at verse 22. Did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name? And do mighty works in your name? If you remember with me last week, we looked at the metaphor of fruit that you can tell the nature of every tree by its fruit, every good tree will bear good fruit. And, and here it looks like these people have some pretty good fruit, some pretty good evidence. It's quite the fruit basket, if you will. And the surprise is Jesus' response in verse 23, I never knew you. So what's going on here? Well, first, if we go back to the Lord, Lord, what we can see that Jesus infuses this with new significance and meaning.

9:09The, the word Lord could mean teacher or sir or master or even an owner of a vineyard. But what Jesus is revealing is that he is the judge of humanity. And, and you don't have to look far, you just have to look at the context. These people are going to come and they're gonna say, Lord, Lord, and they're not gonna get in into the kingdom of heaven. Well, Jesus is saying, I am the judge. I'm not just some teacher. I'm not just the owner. I am the Lord of heaven and earth. I determine who gets in and who does not get into the kingdom. I'm the judge of all humanity. And so this phrase, Lord, Lord, is pregnant with meaning, it's rever referring to Jesus', divine nature.

9:57And, and this phrase, Jesus' Lord becomes a central confession of the church. Jesus reveals his identity as the judge. Now the second thing we see is that the right confession is useless without the right actions. We see that in verse 21, Lord, Lord is not merely what matters, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. And so you can have the right confession, you can call Jesus Lord, but if you don't have the right actions, it's useless. And in fact, this is the first occurrence where Jesus says, my father there in verse 21, he says, this is my father. And he's revealing again, he's the son of God.

10:44So he's showing his cards here. Third thing we wanna notice, Jesus says, many are going to say to me, Lord, Lord, and are going to point to these kind of fruits of their ministry prophecy, casting out demons and doing mighty works. And these are all things that Jesus and his disciples did during their ministry. And, and so this kinda set of things seem like really good things, really good fruit. Most of us, I imagine here gathered this morning would be pretty pleased if we could have that on our resume. Like I've cast out demons, I've done mighty works, I've prophesied it's come true like we would all sign up for that list.

11:27And yet Jesus says, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. And those are some of the most sobering, disheartening words one could ever hear. Why does Jesus respond that way when he's just said, you'll know every tree bys fruit. Here's these people. Look at the fruit. Jesus demands not only the right confession, but he demands the right actions. And he demands not only the right actions, but in the right way. It requires knowing Jesus and obedience to God's will. It's a little bit like if I, you know, told my kids, you know, if you guys could wash the dishes, that would really be great.

12:16And they say, sure, dad, we'll we'll go wash the dishes. And, and then I go and see them washing the dishes later and I'm like, this is great. Thank you for washing the dishes. And they said, we're only doing it to get you off our back. I'd be like, well, I won't tell you what I would do in my house, but uh, I'd be a little bit disappointed. Um, why? Because that is not the heartfelt obedience to my commands that I'm looking for. Right? Confession will do it right. Action. They're doing it wrong attitude. And, and we've seen this throughout the Sermon on the mount, haven't we? Doing the right thing with the wrong motives is still wrong.

12:57In Jesus sermon, he says, you can practice righteousness for the praise of man, and it gets you no reward. That's chapter six verse one. You can even give and pray and fast like a hypocrite, right? Actions require obedience. But what is true obedience? It's one who does the will of my Father. That's what we see. The one who does the will of my father who is in heaven, which means the way that we do the will of the Father is that we know the Son in order to obey the Father. And then we obey from the heart, which means we can't just give lip service. We can't just pretend we can't just follow the letter of the law, but it has to be born out of the right heart and the right motives.

13:43And that's what Jesus has been pointing to throughout his entire sermon. You can't do this on your own. You have to come and submit to me, hear my words, receive me as Lord and a savior, and to submit your entire life to who I am and all that I've taught. And only then can you begin to do the right things in the right way because it requires a transformed heart. Uh, this has been taught throughout the scriptures. Isaiah 29 13, Isaiah the prophet says, they honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me. You can say the right thing, but if your heart's not in the right place, useless or Hebrews 11, six, without faith, it is impossible to please God's.

14:35You can do all the different right things, but with a deep seated faith in Jesus, it's all garbage. So God requires the right actions from the right heart with a deep abiding faith in Christ. And that's what Jesus is calling forth for his people. They don't, he doesn't want 'em just to miss it, to say, well, look at this basket of fruit that I bring. Jesus, I've done really good stuff. Like I shared the gospel with someone and they came to faith like, I'm just gonna hold onto that. And he says, don't you dare just point to fruit. Yes, fruit's gonna reveal the state of the tree, but that's gonna be revealed perfectly at final judgment in Acts 19, we see that there's the seven sons of the Jewish high priest named Skiva, and they were casting out evil spirits.

15:34And they, they get to one demon possessed man. And the demon possessed man looks at them and is like, I, I I know Jesus, the name that you use, and I know Paul who you're talking about, but I don't know you guys. And then he beats them silly. And, and that's again, a picture people who were casting out demons, the same works that these people who say, Lord, Lord, claim. And yet they were not doing it the right way. And they are not known by the demonic realm, nor are they known, ultimately known by God. So mighty works are not immediate proof of being in Christ. Jesus says, I never knew you. It doesn't mean he is unaware of them.

16:13Rather it means something much more sobering. Your names are not written in my book of life. You are not my sons and daughters. You're not members of my kingdom. My father in heaven doesn't know who you are. I never knew you true disciples, much mu must make much more than a claim and do much more than work. We need to know God and we need to be known by him as well. So note that Jesus only mention of these miraculous lifts, gifts in this sermon are in the negative light. Whereas sermon emphasizes the normal pattern of righteousness like prayer and giving and peacemaking, meekness and suffering and persecution and forgiveness, and resisting the love of money.

17:06At no point does Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is reserved for all those who have the most decorated resume, who've done the most amazing works. Rather, those who have faithfully walked out their commitments to me in righteousness. So the kingdom of God belongs to those who do the will of the Father and who know the Son. So this is the shocking teaching of Jesus here at the end of his sermon. You need more than the right confession. You need the right actions. You need more than the right actions. You need the right heart. And ultimately you need to know Jesus. That's his point. You, you cannot get to the Father apart from the Son.

17:52I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father apart from me. Genuine faith in Christ requires doing the will of the Father. And the only way you can know the will of the Father is if you know the son. That is Jesus' point. So we need to be aware of hypocrisy this morning. That's one of the primary applications from this first section I wanna draw out. We need to be aware of hypocrisy at work in our lives. Unfortunately, hypocrisy saying one thing and doing another has become largely normalized. For example, during uh, COV, there, there were many places that were banned, church surfaces, weddings, but mass protests where hundreds and thousands were gathered where permitted or California's governor infamously attended a fancy restaurant in Napa Valley while all the other restaurants were shut down.

18:53Chicago's mayor went to go get a haircut at a salon when all the other salons were shut down. This is a prime example of rules for the not for me. Politicians say they're public servants, we want what's good for you. And then they're off their insider training with some of the best stocks that one could ever imagine. Celebrities say, we, we want to be all about, you know, protecting the planet and avoiding climate change as they hop back onto their private jet and fly to their second and third vacation home, some value tolerance and justice and kindness, and then enact violence and lawfare and doxing, sadly saying one thing in our world and doing another is commonplace and accepted.

19:45And yet this cannot be so among God's people that cannot be true among Christ's church. There will be no habitual persisting hypocrites in the kingdom. Jesus demands the right beliefs, the right confession, but also the right action. And not only the right action, but a heart that is fully surrendered to Christ and his commands. So religious activity can never replace true obedience from the heart. And so how is this obedience possible this morning? It's that we surrender to Christ and we look away from our own justification. That's what these people were doing. Look there again, verse 21, Lord, Lord.

20:39And they will say, did we not prophesy in your name like we fully expect to get in? Didn't we do all this stuff? And, and there's a sense of entitlement. They're pointing primarily to what they've done rather than to the foundation. What should be the foundation of their faith, which is Christ and what he's accomplished on their behalf. And a judgment day is indeed approaching. And so the primary application for us this morning is let's not be self deceived. Beware of being a pseudo Christian. E even Judas walked with Jesus for three years and made a shipwreck of his life. So Jesus gives us a warning this morning here at the conclusion of his sermon, don't be those who on that final day, say, Lord.

21:33Lord, look at the resume there. There's a passage in Revelation three that I think is a stark warning that Jesus speaks this to the church in Sardis and writes this, this is Revelation three, verse two. I know your works, you have a reputation of being alive, but Jesus says you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die for. I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Uh, I can see your works. I can see what you think is the fruit. They're not satisfying. What does he go on to say? Verse three. Remember then what you received and heard. Keep it and repent.

22:26If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. So Jesus issues this warning to this church reputation of being alive, but deep down they're dead. May that not be us this morning. May we be a people who have repented, who believe, who are striving by God's grace and by faith in him to uphold all that he commands and who are rooting out any hint of hypocrisy or doublespeak or lip service in our hearts and in our minds. And we'll talk more about that in just a moment. But true disciples obey Jesus, authoritative teachings from the heart.

23:10This leads to the second part verses 24 to 27. Here's Jesus final illustration in verse 24. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain came and the floods came and the winds blew and be on that house. But it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. Notice that the contrast here is not between saying and doing, but now hearing and doing, everyone who hears these words and does them will be like this wise man who built his house in such a way that when rains and flood and storms came, it was able to withstand that storm.

23:56But in verse 26 and 27, everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell. And the great was the fall of it. Uh, the key difference between the fool and the wise man is not whether one heard or not, it's whether one did or not, whether they put into action, whether they practiced Jesus' teachings. So if you took the two houses, they both look the same. They both look safe from the outside, but only one is built to withstand. It means that we can have intellectual commitment without complete and wholehearted surrender to Jesus.

24:48And Jesus again says, there's only two ways to live. Brothers and sisters, you can have complete devotion, but if you hold back in any way, if you think you want to be neutral, you are building your house upon the sand. Jesus' sermon is not only to be heard, but it's to be heated. No one loses weight by watching workout videos. No one grows in godliness merely by hearing sermons. There's no sanctification by osmosis. I'll just go to a good church and hang out with other Christian people. Righteousness requires obedience to God because we love the sun. And the fool lacks this obedience. And what's the result of his life that when the wind and the rain and the storms came, destruction was the final result.

25:40So the importance of the foundation of our lives cannot be overstated this morning. And just to think about with me for foundations of buildings for just a moment, the tallest building in the world is the, I think the Burge Khalifa in Dubai. So it's very tall. It's 2,717 feet high. So that's like half a mile. It's twice as tall as the Empire State building. The tallest building here in Minnesota, I think is the IDS center. And it's three times as tall as that building. And yet as tall and as impressive as that building is, its foundation is even more impressive. Like what holds this up? Well, it has 192 concrete piles each five feet in diameter.

26:30So five feet in diameter. Think of that concrete pillar that big sunk deep into the ground, 192 of them, and they go down 164 feet into the ground. Jesus likens obedience to his commands as having that type of foundation. When the winds come, you're not worried if you're sitting up on the hundred 63rd floor, you know the foundation that lies beneath you and you say, bring it on. That is what Jesus is saying. He's the structural engineer who's coming around to his audience and saying, have you looked at your foundation lately? Have you examined what you've built your life upon? Are you mainly looking at what you've done or have you put your complete and entire hope in me?

27:23And what I have done, I I, is your foundation going to stand up in the final judgment? Have you built your life upon money or fame or power or financial prosperity? Or have you built your life, not just upon belief in Jesus, but obedience to him? Very often we can think about obedience to Jesus, like it's not that important. You know, if I don't really do this, I know I'm gonna sin. I'm just gonna ask for forgiveness later. And Jesus is saying, don't think you're gonna have that opportunity endlessly. He's calling you to obey his words because they're that important. Every time you obey, you're, you're putting one of those pillars down into the ground and every time you disobey, you're taking a whole sledgehammer to that pillar and saying, I don't need it.

28:21So the application of this portion of our text is to not just be hearers of God's word, but doers of his word works must accompany faith as evidence of true faith. We do not earn a right standing with God, but if our hope and trust is in Jesus, he will, he will produce in us good works, increasing holiness, greater love and affection for Christ and for his church. Now, one might object and say, well, are are, are you somehow subtly promoting kind of works righteousness? Pastor, you know, it sounds like you're putting a lot of emphasis on earning and working here. We do nothing to earn our salvation.

29:12So hear me loud and clear. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, not a result of works. And yet Ephesians two, eight and nine, which I'm quoting now after we've been saved by this grace through faith, what does it produce in us so that we might walk in the good works he has prepared for us. There are good works for us to exhibit as evidence of true saving faith. Good works will accompany saving faith in Christ. Now, I I, I know in a group this large that there are some who are just kind of inclined to doubt their salvation all the time. Like you have a tender conscience, you're a doubting Thomas by nature.

29:58You're constantly wrestling with, am I saved? Like I sinned Again, I don't know, like I hear the pastor talking about obedience and like I try to obey, but it's not perfect obedience. And like I still have sin in my life. And, and so what does this mean for me? How much obedience, like okay fruit, like, okay, I think there's some good fruit in my life. And, and yet Jesus says, depart from me for these people who had some good fruit in their life. Like what about me? At one level, I think Jesus words here are written so that there would be a very healthy self-examination for us this morning. It, it's not sinless perfection that he demands, but it's true submission and surrender to Jesus and to his commands.

30:50Jesus is warning against this pseudo faith, this cultural Christianity that says, I, I'll just do just enough. I, I I I'll say the right things. Go to church at Christmas and Easter and when the family invites me, but deep down there's nothing. This is the warning. And to others, uh, this passage should be a word of encouragement. It should be a word of insurance. If I were to ask you right now, are you trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins and the fulfillment of all of his promises to you, including eternal life? And if your answer is yes, right now in this moment, all of my hope is in Christ, in Christ alone, then you should feel encouraged.

31:43You're not pointing back to a particular baptism date. You're not looking back to a particular set of fruit. Like there was a time when I, when I was reading the Bible, there was a time when I was obeying. But you're saying right now by God's grace, I'm seeking to follow him, to surrender my life. Can you say that there are increasing glimpses, not perfection, but increasing glimpses of the fruits of the spirit of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and self-control, that the the things I struggle with this year are different than the things I struggled with last year.

32:19Like they're getting better. Uh, I'm struggling less different in severity. Are you striving to fight sin and put to death the deeds of the body so that when you sin you don't say grace will abound, but rather, oh Lord, again, again, I did it again, but I I'm grieved at my own sin. Oh, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. If that's you, you should be encouraged because God is still at work in you. His spirit is bringing it to mind that yes, those things are wrong. And oh, I want more and more obedience. I can't wait till I get to heaven where there's no more sin where I stop grieving my savior.

33:03So we see that true disciples obey Jesus' teachings from the heart, that there's this heartfelt love and affection is not just, well, what do I gotta do today? Lemme check it off the list. But there's this relationship here that we're dialoguing with our savior. Jesus says, you must obey these words of mine. He doesn't say you need to obey all of the Old Testament. He's elevating his teachings here in this sermon on par with scripture. What determines whether you get into the kingdom or not, whether you obey these words of mine. People will say to me, Lord, Lord, they're trying to come to my Father.

33:55Jesus is revealing again and again. I am the judge of all humanity. There is no end around where you go around Jesus. You must hear and heed my words. Now, look with me at verses 28 and 29, Jesus finished these sayings, and the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching as one who had authority and not as their scribes. So the the, the crowds are astonished, not because they've not heard teaching before. This is a very common occurrence. Lots of rabbis and teachers would sit people down and teach them. They've heard lots of teaching in those days. What they're astonished by is his authority that he didn't teach like the scribes.

34:48So in what way is Jesus different from the scribes? Well, the scribes were like the teachers and the lawyers of the day. They were the ones who taught and kind of explained the mosaic law, the Old Testament law. And so what they would typically do is they would refer back to other teachings that had come before, uh, other interpretations, other rabbis. They would have these memorized traditions that had been passed down. Like, well, my rabbi once said, and then they would kind of give that. And my take is a little bit like this. And you know this one other rabbi, and it's a little bit like lawyers today.

35:23Lawyers have their expert opinion and it's based on their knowledge of previous cases and precedents that have been set. So, so the reason that a, a, a lawyer can speak authoritatively is they're like, well, I remember a case in 1964 where so and so against so and so, and, and because of that you have good standing today or on whatever issue. Jesus doesn't do any of that. Jesus didn't refer back to the other teachers interpretations or rabbis. He spoke with the authority of God himself. The fundamental difference is me standing here in this pulpit and saying, thus sayeth the Lord, I I feel like I can in good conscience say that.

36:03And yet you judge it according to this word. You have to be berean. You have to measure it according to this. And if I get it wrong, my elders are gonna come talk to me and they're gonna be like, dude, you made a blunder. Like you totally miss that. And, and I'm held accountable. But if Jesus stands up in this pulpit and he says, thus say it the Lord. There's no measuring that needs to take place. Jesus is the Lord. He speaks not only for God, but he speaks as God. So listen to several passages throughout the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus has claimed authoritative teaching. Matthew five 11, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account because of me.

36:49Jesus says, not just because of your general obedience to the Mosaic law. Well, who would, what, what Jews are persecuting other Jews for obeying the mosaic law. He says on my account, or Matthew five 17, do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them, I and the climax of redemptive history, I have come to perfectly fulfill the sacrificial system and everything in this Old Testament, Matthew 5 21 and onward, Jesus says, you have heard it said, but I say to you, uh, you've heard it said in the Old Testament and other teachers, but I am telling you what these scriptures really mean.

37:34He reinterprets them. He deepens the mosaic law. Or Matthew six, nine to 13, he teaches disciples how to pray to the Father. How audacious is that? Unless you know the Father, you have a intimate relationship with the Father. So in our passage, notice that Jesus is the one who grants authority. He has the authority to grant entry into the kingdom of heaven. And what he's doing here is he's revealing that he is the messianic king. He makes clear whoever hears these words of mine and does them is like this wise man who he doesn't say whoever obeys the Old Testament, but he elevates his own words to the same plane as divine scripture.

38:24His teachings are authoritative revelations from God that must be obeyed. This is why Jesus' teaching was astonishing. He didn't just teach about the Messianic kingdom. He ushered in the messianic kingdom. He didn't just interpret the Old Testament law, but he fulfills the Old Testament. He doesn't just warn of a divine judge who is coming and saying, be, be, prepare, beware. He says, I am the divine judge. People are gonna come and say to me, can we get in Jesus? And he's gonna say yes to some and no to others In that final day, I will separate the sheep from the goats. Jesus doesn't just speculate about the will of the Father, but he reveals the will of the Father perfectly in his own flesh.

39:17He isn't telling us about God. He says, I am God, I am Emmanuel God with us, I'm here. These words are the ones you need to hear. And and the sad reality is that these crowds were astonished 'cause they heard authority in there. And yet many of them went their own way. They went home and were unchanged. Jesus teaches with authority as God in the flesh. And he demands a response. He is the litmus test for all of humanity. He is the divine judge. He pronounces, banishment and or entrance into his kingdom. And so the question is, will we submit to the authority of Jesus by obeying his teaching? Or will we be those who say, Lord, Lord, did we not, did we not look at the stuff I've done?

40:26The the sad reality is that these people weren't astonished enough. If they had truly caught where Jesus was going, it, it's my words that you must obey. I am the judge of the living and the dead. You can only get to the Father through me. If they had truly understood in that moment, they would've fallen on their faces and they would've cried out, oh Lord, save us Hosanna in the highest glory to God who is on high. And my, my burden for us this morning is that there would not be any here in this room who on that day say, Lord, Lord, did we not? And who hear the most frightening words in all of scripture depart from me?

41:15I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness. But instead, we would not just remain astonished at the authority of Jesus, but that we would be worshipers who say, oh Lord God, you and you alone are Lord you and you alone are great and we bow down and we worship you. We obey you from the heart. Let's pray. Father, do that and much more. We don't wanna be hypocrites. We don't want to be those who do one thing and say another and believe another. We don't wanna be those who are constantly waffling in the wind, unsure of our salvation. Oh, but instead that our hope and our faith would rest on Christ and Christ alone.

42:09So may we be all. May we all be able to say, my God, how great you are. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Matthew 7:21-29

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