Episode 54 – Proceed with Caution
Welcome to Proverbs 9:10 Ministries Podcast, No Trash, Just Truth. We are your hosts and co-founders of Proverbs 9:10 Ministries, Rose Spiller
And Chris Paxson. We are in the home stretch in our series, The Best Sermon Ever with only 2 episodes left. We’ve titled today’s episode, Proceed with Caution. We are going to cover Matthew Chapter 7, verses 13 – 20.
Chris, Theologian John Stott has called The Sermon on the Mount “one of the most rich and interesting, yet misunderstood, sections of sacred Scripture. This sermon is one of the most studied, quoted, yet also ignored, chapters of God’s Word. The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed.”
I think we both would agree with that. I hope we have shed Scriptural Truth on a lot of the parts of the SOTM that are often misunderstood. And today, we are going to look at another part that often gets misinterpreted. And maybe it’s those misunderstandings that has led to it being ignored and disobeyed. As we begin to look at Matthew 7, starting in verse 13, we see that now that Jesus has laid out what He expects of us as believers, He is wrapping up His sermon. But just like when most Pastors say “to finish up” in their sermons, Jesus still has a lot to say!
He does! Let’s read Matthew 7:13 – 14, which says, ““Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Chris, at first read, it appears as if Jesus is asking us to choose whether or not we will follow Him. Hmm . . .
Well, since it’s God who chooses who will follow Jesus and who won’t, we know that can’t be what it means. So let’s begin by putting this scripture in the proper context. As we keep saying, in the entire Sermon on the Mount is addressed to believers (although there are unbelievers also there listening). As scripture tells us, God is responsible for our salvation. When God chooses us, the Holy Spirit, at some point in our life, will regenerate our heart so that we will come to Jesus. And just one of the many verses we see this in is 2Thesselonians 2:13-14 which says, “ But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits[d] to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Okay, I think we have made the point using Scripture that Jesus is not asking the people to make the choice whether or not to follow Him. What He is doing, is showing them the only two path alternatives for every human being. God is the one who chooses which path a person will be on. Jesus is showing His people which path they could have been on (the wide path) had God not put them on the narrow path. In addition, Jesus is telling His people what to expect on the narrow path they have been put on.
Jesus’ use of the narrow road and broad road are probably metaphors that the listeners would have understood. During this time, there were public roads that were roughly 24 feet wide and there were private roads that were roughly 6 feet wide. As their name suggests, the public roads gave access to anyone; the private were only for certain people.
Blows my mind how God plans and uses everything for His purpose. The people building those roads had no idea that they were building an illustration lesson for Jesus to use to explain the soul condition of everyone who has ever lived!
Matthew 7:13-14 lays out each path. The narrow road is the tougher road less traveled. On it, believers are called to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. The broader, more traveled road is seemingly the easier way. These two paths are the only two options. People on the narrow path, say to God, “Thy will be done.” People on the broad road say to God, “My will be done.” The first way is the road that leads to life. The latter is the way that leads to destruction.
Chris, let’s take a look at this broad path. The people on this path are dead in their sins. Either they have not yet had their hearts regenerated or they never will have it regenerated. These people are lord of their own lives. This is why it is seemingly the easier path. What is easier than calling all your own shots about your life? However, Jesus says it leads to destruction. And that is because people on this path are slaves to their sin nature. There is nothing in them that desires a relationship with Jesus. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t decent people on this path. There are, but any moral compass people on this path may have is of their own making and can therefore be erratic and inconsistent. Not only does their condition wreak havoc and cause problems in their lives on earth, but if their condition is not changed, it will ultimately lead to hell.
In contrast to the broad path, there’s the narrow path. People on this path have had their hearts regenerated and are saved. However, we should note that while all those on this path are save, they are not necessarily at the same point in their sanctification or spiritual maturity. This narrow path is the tougher path for sure because we have to give control of our life over to God. Jesus needs to be the Lord of our lives. For those of us on this road, there should be no picking and choosing of some of Jesus’ teachings / commands while ignoring / rejecting others. All of Jesus’ teachings, and in fact all of the 613 laws in the Old Testament, including the 10 commandments, are summed up in the two commands Jesus gives in Luke 10:27 – “Love the Lord Your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Only two commands? Chris, that doesn’t seem like a lot, but we are to look at everything we do, think, and believe in light of these two commands. There are Christians who will say that they believe and follow Jesus’ teaching of loving the people around them; but think Jesus went too far, or really didn’t mean it when He said to love people who hate you. This is nonsense. Jesus did not say here are my commands, you decide which ones you want to follow and how you want to interpret them. He says as we see in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” We need to give complete control of life over to Jesus. We will blow it many, many times, for sure; but consciously making the choice every day that Jesus is Lord of all of our life is part of our sanctification and matures our faith. And if all that wasn’t tough enough, being on this path can lead to persecution, and possibly death. Doesn’t get much tougher than that!
Jesus says that the narrow road, while the harder road, is the road that leads to life. It is the right, life-giving and fulfilling way. This stands in direct contrast to what liberal theology says. Liberal theology sees the narrow road as described by Jesus as being narrow-minded, life-depriving, bigoted, and arrogant. They try to broaden the narrow road by downplaying the sovereignty of God and the authority and inerrancy of the Bible. This isn’t just a condition of today, though.
It's not. In 1887, Charles Spurgeon wrote an article entitled, “The Down Grade.” This turned into the famous “Down Grade Controversary.” In a series of articles, Spurgeon, and fellow Pastor, Robert Shindler, called out pastors and church leaders for straying from the inerrancy and authority of scripture, down grading the sovereignty of God and preaching liberalism. Instead of giving the truths of the Bible, they were preaching moral lessons. Sermons were less about spiritual matters, and more about wordly wisdom and behaving better.
In summary, the churches were conforming to a changing liberal society that did not want to hear about being under the control of a Sovereign God. They were not interested in absolutes or Biblical doctrine. As a result, in order to stay “relevant,” Pastors and church leaders began to soften and then change their theological positions. Spurgeon received backlash from the liberalists for these articles. The reaction against Spurgeon from the opposing side was merciless. At the annual Baptist Union meeting in 1888, representatives from the churches of the Union voted 2,000 to 7 to modify the organization’s statement of faith to reflect a moderate theological position between those on the conservative evangelical side and those on the liberal side. Spurgeon’s own brother, for the sake of keeping the denomination together, orchestrated setting up the new, theological guidelines. Shortly after this, Charles Spurgeon became ill and died. His wife said it was this situation that made him sick and he died trying to fight for the faith.
Chris, this section of scripture ends with the words, “Only a few find it.” This correlates with Matthew 22:14 where Jesus says these same words after He tells the parable of the wedding feast. In short, He is saying that while a general call of the Gospel goes out to many (and it should go out to all!) only a few are chosen by God to be one of His people. However, remember, that this is not for us to decide or even worry about it. Our job is to put that general call of the Gospel out to as many as we can, and let God handle the rest.
Rose, let’s move onto Matthew 7:15 – 20. In this section, Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
Chris, there’s an old Mafia saying that goes, “Trust someone until you give you a reason not to.” Maybe it’s my Italian heritage, but I admit, that that is pretty much my life motto, too. My husband, on the other hand, who was a police officer for over 30 years, lives by the motto, “Be cautious of everyone until you see evidence otherwise.” Matthew 7:4-5 that we read earlier, Jesus’ motto seemed to be, “Don’t be so quick to judge others, you’re far from perfect yourself.” But, here, only 10 verses later, it appears that Jesus has a different motto about judgement when it comes to false prophets and false teachers.
The Google dictionary definition of “prophet” is “a proclaimer of the will of God.” Good job, Google! It goes on to list synonyms for the word as: soothsayer, fortune teller, and clairvoyant. Wrong, Google! While sometimes Biblical prophets foretold of future events, this type of prophecy called apocalyptic makes up less than 5% of the all of prophecy in the Bible; with less than 1% being about events still in our future. Most often, prophets relayed a message from God to a specific people group. This group was usually the Israelites, who were divided into the northern nation of Israel and the southern nation of Judah. The lion’s share of these messages to the 2 Israelite nations pertained to judgement, their current or near future circumstances, and future hope for encouragement. But sometimes, the prophets had a message for the Israelites’ enemies. These messages were prophecies of judgement, punishment, and destruction of the foes of God.
Chris, it’s important to note that prophets spoke only what God told them to speak, never adding anything to their message. Some other religions, while not believing that Jesus is the Son of God, will acknowledge Him as a prophet. Every word out Jesus’ mouth was a message from God because Jesus did not just speak for God; He spoke as God!
In contrast, a false prophet is someone who does not speak a message from God. Some passages in Scripture use false prophets and false teachers interchangeably. Therefore, when Jesus speaks of false prophets, it applies to false teachers as well. This makes perfect sense. The Bible is God’s message to His people. Just as a false prophet speaks what isn’t from God, a false teacher is teaches what isn’t from God’s Word.
Jesus calls these false prophets or teachers ferocious wolves in sheep’s clothing ready to devour us. While He is speaking about false prophets in a general sense, He is also saying this right after his narrative on the 2 gates & 2 paths. The two narratives are related. False Prophets will try and keep you from the narrow gate and lead you towards the wide gate. In other words, they will try and lead you away from Jesus to your destruction. Scripture is full of warnings about false prophets / false teachers. Ezekiel 13:1-7, Jeremiah 23:13-17, and this from 1John 4:1-6, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Why does Jesus call false prophets wolves in sheep’s clothing? Sheep are used throughout scripture as an allegory for the chosen people of God. For example, 1Peter 2:25 which says, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
Wolves were one of the shepherd’s biggest headaches. They were always trying to get into the sheep pen to kill and eat the sheep. Jesus uses this real-life situation as an allegory for our situation. Luke records Paul using this same theme in Acts 20:28 – 30, “ Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
The wolf will be dressed in sheep’s clothing to gain access to the sheep pen. In other words, these false prophets / teachers will look like sheep. In other words, they will appear to be Christians. The warning is clear. It is not from the outside, unbelieving world that these posers will come – they will come from within the body of believers - the church! False prophets & teachers will have enough truth in what they are saying, that many may be swayed to think they are truly speaking for God. However, the lies that their message contains will lead to destruction. This is exactly how Satan works. Going back to the Garden of Eden, his discourse to Eve contained truth, but he twisted it just enough so that it led to Adam and Eve to sin against God.
Rose, this is why knowing scripture is crucial! It is only when we know the true Word of God that we can spot the subtle lies we are being told by Satan, “Christian” evangelists, “Bible” Study authors, churches, or any other “false teachers” we may come into contact with who say they have a word from God but are really teaching or preaching heresy which is a belief, opinion, or doctrine that is contrary to scripture.
Besides knowing scripture, Jesus tells us in the verses we read from Mattew 7 that another way to spot false prophets is to examine the fruit they produce. Bad trees produce bad fruit. If you look at the works of the false prophet, you will be able to see through them. Are they preaching the true Gospel? What are they saying about Jesus? Do they exhibit characteristics that glorify God? Are they backing up their teaching / preaching with scripture or they putting their own “creative spin” on things? Where does their message ultimately lead you?
Jim Jones, an ordained minister, preached that socialism was God’s will. He claimed he was God’s agent and set up a commune called The People’s Temple, first in the U.S., then in Guyana. Media reports began to come out saying that abuse, rape and incest were taking place within the camp. As the authorities were on their way to dismantle the camp and make arrests, Jim Jones had 918 of his followers (including 304 children) drink cyanide – laced kool aid. Some did it willingly, some were forced to. All died.
David Koresh claimed to be the final prophet of God. Like Jim Jones, he said God’s will was that he set up a commune, The Branch Davidians, and live separate from the world. Also like Jones, reports of human abuses came out of the commune. During a standoff with the FBI, David Koresh shot and killed some of his followers, including 5 children, and had other followers blow up their compound, killing 79 people.
Andy Stanley is probably a familiar name, as much for his own ministry as for his famous father, Charles Stanley’s, ministry. Andy Stanley used to be pretty conservative in his theology. However, recently, he has stated that we need to unhitch the Old Testament from our faith. In an attempt to reach “Christians” who walked away from their faith because they didn’t like or didn’t agree with something written in the Old Testament, he proclaims that while the OT is divinely inspired, its not the basis of Christianity. Stanley called the OT, “The back story for the main story. And while its important, its also violent, disturbing, and offends all of our modern senses.”
Bill Johnson, senior pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, CA. Recently a 2 year old girl named Olive died. They started a movement called #WakeupOlive. Bill Johnson, and Bethel Church, are part of the Word of Faith movement. They subscribe to the doctrine that not only can God heal, but that it’s always His will to heal everyone when believers have enough faith and use the power of their words. Olive’s parents are part of Bethel church and believed this teaching wholeheartedly. Bill Johnson said if they had enough faith, God would resurrect their daughter from the dead. After 6 days of “having faith” and speaking the words of power, they finally had to start planning Olive’s memorial service.
T.D. Jakes is a best selling “Christian” author and pastor. He is associated with Oneness Pentecostalism. Not only does he teach the prosperity Gospel and positive thinking, he also believes in modalism, which is a belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not 3 distinct Persons of the Godhead, but are, instead, different modes of existence of God. So God, the Father manifested Himself as Jesus, the Son, and then eventually manifested as The Holy Spirit. T.D. Jakes was a frequent guest on Dr. Phil.
Trinity Broadcasting Network, a popular venue for false teachers, announced recently they are getting rid of one well-known false teacher, Kenneth Copeland, and replacing him with another hugely popular Steven Furtick, another false teacher from Elevation Church. (Home of Elevation Worship) Not only does Furtick believe in modalism like T.D. Jakes, he recently stated that what God creating us in His image means is that, “God needed someone to show the world what He looked like or else He would have just been a concept. God would have been an abstract theory.” So what he is saying is that God needs us.
Tony Alamo founded the Alamo Christian Foundation. Members would preach their version of the Gospel on the street and invite potential new members in for a meal and a meeting with the church. The foundation was based on conservative principles and even set up drug rehabilitation programs. Tony Alamo was sent to prison after it was discovered he was sex trafficking children through his foundation.
Rob Bell is a Pastor and noted youth speaker. He created a series of videos of topical discussions based on scriptural principles. Hundreds of youth groups across the country have used these DVDs and Rob Bell has made a lot of money from them. He made even more money, though, from a best-selling book he wrote declaring that hell does not actually exist.
We should examine anyone who is in a position of teaching us (whether directly or through a book), or who has Biblical authority over us, by asking the earlier questions you mentioned - Are they preaching the true Gospel? What are they saying about Jesus? Do they exhibit characteristics that glorify God? Are they backing up their teaching / preaching with scripture or they putting their own “creative spin” on things? Where does their message ultimately lead you?
. We may feel like we are being too suspicious, but there is too much at stake not to. Besides, one who is truly teaching / preaching the Word of God will pass our scrutiny and probably respect our diligence.
False Prophets and Teachers is a reoccurring theme in scripture. Jeremiah 23:16, for example says, “ Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. There are also references in Matthew 24:24, 2Timothy 4:3-4 and many other places.
We pray you will take the time to meditate on Matthew 7:13 – 20, as well as all the Scripture supporting what Jesus taught in these verses. But we need to end for today. Thanks for tuning in. In the next episode, we will continue in Matthew 7 with a familiar parable.
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