Standing Sure and Secure on God’s Word :: Matthew 7:15-23

NOTE: This was written for an elder (or as some denominations might say, a deacon) to preach in my absence.

Once again, Pastor invites you to open your service book, this time to Page 324 and join us in confessing our faithful doctrine on the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. 

[PAUSE]

What is the Sixth Petition? And lead us not into temptation.

What does this mean? God tempts no one. We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

3.

We have come to the conclusion of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. Here, Jesus first gives us a warning, Beware of false prophets, he says (v 15). In other words, pay attention to what the wolves in sheep’s clothing say, but also pay attention to yourselves, as Paul reminds us in our reading from Acts. This is the word for our meditation.

In his closing words of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expresses deep concern for his disciples ... Christians everywhere ... cautioning them ... and all who are still listening ... to beware lest we be ensnared by the trappings of life, to beware of the wolves, to beware of those who say they speak for the Lord without actually speaking God’s Word. The first trap he warns us about is the fatal seduction of false prophets. The second trap is to think that we can build a life apart from the Word of God. 

In order to drive home his warning, Jesus uses the pictures of wolves and sandcastles. Beware of false prophets (v 15). ... and, Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock (v 24)!

A key theme that runs throughout these two declarations is to beware of deception ... not only by the world but from yourself. This deception involves accepting as true or valid what is false or invalid. This is easy to do amid today’s secular Christianity. I don’t use that term ... “secular Christianity” ... lightly. Secular Christianity is not Christianity at all. It is dangerous. This so-called Christianity blends itself into the world. It eliminates God’s Word to us and for us ... it speaks of Law apart from the Gospel. Because of a lack of training and knowledge, far too many people are more confident than they should be that they could never be enticed away from Christ and his Word. They convince themselves that ... “we all believe the same thing.” They convince themselves that we all know what the Gospel is. ... But it’s not true.

Because of traditions, some of which began long before even our oldest members were even born, far too many people refuse to be wise men, listening to scripture, which pointedly shows us ... first, the truth about ourselves, and second, the astonishing generosity of our Lord. They then build their house on a sandy foundation ... a foundation of false doctrine ... that leaves them denying themselves the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. They build their house with the sand of secularism and unionism, ignoring the word of warnings from our Lord, who says, false prophets come to you in sheep’s clothing.

2.

Who and where are these wolves? These people often make themselves sound like Christians. But in fact they are anti-Christs. They distort what God has to say in his word. The sheep’s clothing they wear is their appearance as defenders of the faith. But they do not actually proclaim and administer the Gospel. They proclaim self-justification. They preach lessons that are meant to inspire instead of giving peace, which is the forgiveness of sins.

This is why Jesus declares, Beware! These wolves will not tell you how our Lord Jesus Christ became flesh, lived for you, died for your sin, was buried, was raised from the dead for your justification, and ascended into the heavens so that he will always be with you. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear (Rm 8:14). The Word of the False Prophets is devoid of this Gospel. Their word is one designed to inspire you to do better ... which is Law ... instead of showing you your sin and your need for a savior. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need Law ... AND ... Gospel. It is why Paul says in our second reading from Acts 20 that he doesn’t shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God. The whole counsel of God helps us identify who God really is ... What God really is like ... What God literally died for. ... And why God rose from the dead. If you don’t hear this message from me on Sunday, please don’t walk past me without telling me you didn’t hear what Christ has done ... for you ... in you ... through you ... and what he continues to do for you, in you, and through you. As Paul tells the Galatians ... the Gospel I preach is not one that man made up. ... Our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father (Gal 1:4). 

THE HOLY SPIRIT ENABLES YOU TO STAND SURE AND CERTAIN ON THIS GOSPEL

1.

All scripture points to this truth. All scripture is about Christ. It all shows us how Jesus is willing to hold himself to the same test you face. 

He is the one who came not for his benefit ... but for ours. 

He came not to glorify us ... but to glorify God. 

He came not to start a movement among us ... but to bring the kingdom of the heavens to us.

He came not to be served ... but to serve you. 

He came not to abolish the law ...  but to fulfill it for you. 

Immanuel, God with us, has come into our arena of apathy, ignorance, and despair. He has come to open the door to life with God. Guided by his word ... enlightened by his truth ... you will be like wise men, building your house on the rock that is Christ. You can then begin to check out what people are saying about Jesus ... his way, truth and life ... and learn to discern who the true prophets ... that is, the proclamation of God’s Word ... who these people actually are. We can compare their statements with the revelation shown to us in Christ and his word, studying like the Bereans in Acts chapter 17, whether these things are true. 

Don’t allow your Bible to become more of an heirloom in your home than the revelation of Christ. Read it every day. Study it with your pastor. Search the scriptures. See that these things are true. Then we will be able to tell the good fruit from the bad. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot learn to confront error and untruth by listening only to a sermon every week. Dedicate yourselves to personal devotions ... of the Bible and catechism, as the head of the household should teach it in a simple way. Learn the difference between Law and Gospel. When we do this, God will lead us to put aside all the distractions that hold us back from studying and learning his most precious, life-giving, corrective, guiding, nourishing Word that leads us back to our baptism, back to absolution, back to the Lord’s supper ... back to Christ. His means of grace all deliver to you the tangible gifts of the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. It is upon this rock that the faith of Christ is established.

These means all proclaim that our Lord Jesus died for all of your sins ... sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Jesus literally took all of these sins and so many more from you. He carried these to the cross so that your sins would be punished in his body, not yours. All of God’s wrath was poured out upon Jesus ... for you. Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree ... for you ... so that we might die to sin and live in his righteousness, not ours. By his wounds you have not only been healed, but in exchange for your sin, Jesus gave you all of his sinlessness, all of his righteousness, all of his holiness ... just as God promised from the beginning. 

Now you who hear these words of Christ and believe them ... that is, you who have faith in them ... you are saved. He has adopted you as a son or daughter. He has promised you an inheritance ... eternal life with God in paradise. This belongs to you right now. 

God has sealed this promise within you through the baptism he keeps you in ... even today. As we heard just two weeks ago, Do you not know that your sin died with Jesus on the cross through baptism ... and just as Jesus was raised from the dead ... you were raised into new life through baptism (Rm 6:3-4). In this new life, the Holy Spirit has clothed you in the robes of Christ’s righteousness. Jesus now is able to live in you and you in him. You can now approach the altar for the Lord’s Supper. Here, God will feed and nourish your faith in him as he delivers to you the forgiveness of sins through his body and blood given and shed for you. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the will of God ... that you pay attention to this true word of God which gives you saving faith in Jesus ... of what he did for you on the cross, and what he continues to do for you even today. And it came to pass that when Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished upon his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority (vv 28-29) ... in Jesus’ name.

Now may the Lord of peace grant you peace at all times in every way (2 Th 3:16)