The Surprising Truth About Salvation

Introduction

You would go ahead and open a Bible to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. Need to do a little housekeeping here. Matthew chapter 7 is where we’re going to be studying this morning. And we’re going to be finishing up our time that we’ve been spending in the Sermon on the Mount. And I’ve got to say, this is the last time I’m going to be before you. I just want to say again, thank you so much for this weekend. Thank you especially to the teenagers and for your engagement. Tracking with me, thinking about these things, working with me. And I want to thank you for the invitation to be here. It’s just been a great weekend for me. Thank you so much for your encouragement, different kind things that you’ve said to me.

It’s just been a real treat. So I appreciate so much this time to be with you. We’re going to finish up this section, beginning in verse 13 of Matthew 7 through the end of the chapter, and that will serve for our time of worship and our time of study where we open God’s word together this morning. Matthew 7 and verse 13 says this. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the way gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are you. So how do you feel about surprises? Do you like to be surprised? I think that probably depends on what kind of personality you have.

You know, there are kind of people that live life kind of by the seat of their pants. And so, you know, any change seems kind of exciting and fun. And then there are other people who live their life by a very rigid schedule. So surprises are not good. I guess that depends on which one you are. But I think for all of us, right, we may want to ask the question well, what kind of surprise is it, right? Good surprise or bad surprise. That’s what we want to know. But most of us, no matter what personality type we have, we want to know if things are going to be really different than what we were expecting, right? Think of particularly about uh maybe you’re invited to a party.

And you want to know, well, you know, if it’s formal dress, I don’t want to show up in a t-shirt and shorts, right? Okay? You want to know a little bit before, because a surprise like that would be really bad. So what I want to show you is that this section of Scripture, Jesus’ words are really surprising. Because they tell us about some place we’re going. They tell us about what’s going to happen at the end. They tell us about who will be saved and who will not. And there are some surprises here. So, in a way, we have something very valuable. We can prepare ourselves now for what’s going to happen so that there don’t have to be surprises. So that we don’t have to be caught off guard.

1. Salvation Is Not Easy or Popular

And we don’t have the bad kind of surprise that this would be if we were not told. Jesus is trying to prepare us with the surprising truth about salvation. And it would do us well to think about whether or not we are going to be in one place or another at the last day. So I want you to think about these things with me as we study through. The first thing that I want to show you that is a surprising truth about salvation is here in that first text, and that is that salvation is not easy or popular. Look again at verse 13. Matthew 7 and verse 13 says, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. So let’s summarize that again. Gate is wide, way is easy, lots of people. The destination is destruction. Then you have the gate is narrow, the way is hard, and there are few people on the way that leads to life. That’s a surprise. Now it’s a surprise for a number of reasons. For one, it’s a surprise, because if you talk to most people in our country, they would be hard pressed to say that there’s anybody who wouldn’t be saved. Okay, let me explain that a little bit. Have you ever, maybe you’ve seen a funeral on TV, or maybe you’ve been to a funeral, and you hear the preacher, whoever’s talking about the person in the casket, and the more they go on, the more you think, who are they talking about?

That’s not the guy I knew. When people die, just mark it down and notice it in the future, if you haven’t already. Whenever people die, nobody says anything bad about them anymore. We talk about the good things, but the things that were bad, the things that they did that were wrong, or maybe even grievances that we had against them, we just kind of let that go. That’s the way people think of people after they’re gone. And so there is maybe in an assumption, surely that’s the way God’s going to work when everything’s over. You know, God will see all the good and then all the bad, he’ll just kind of wipe away. It just won’t be that big a deal. I mean, if people can do that, surely that’s the way God would work.

And then you add to that the fact that in our culture, we don’t just talk about sin. We more think about things in terms of something that was really bad, a really terrible sin. There’s a ranking of sins. And so there are very few people. Maybe you know, a handful, maybe you’ve got maybe some Hitlers or somebody like that. But most people, we would say, are they going to go to heaven, they’re going to be saved because they’re generally, you know, pretty good people. That’s why this is surprising. Salvation is not easy, and salvation is not popular. Jesus says there are few who will be saved. Look again at verse 13. Verse 13 says, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

He says, enter by the narrow gate, choose the hard way because there’s another way that’s easier that’s dangerous. Because it’s not going in the right direction. And just because other people are traveling down that road, or just because it’s easy for you to travel down that road, doesn’t mean it’s right. Jesus is warning us so that there won’t be surprises on the day of judgment. Now, let me be clear about this. That doesn’t mean we need to go out of our way to be unpopular or to make things hard. I’ve known of Christians who seem to feel like they weren’t persecuted enough, and so they tried to make persecution for themselves. That’s not the idea. We don’t need to give any help to the world. It’ll persecute us on its own.

The idea here is, instead, Jesus is reassuring us that if we’re on a path that’s hard, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. And if we’re on a path where we are one of a precious few, that doesn’t mean we’re wrong. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re right. We could be on a path that’s not the right one and be there with just a few. But it does mean that if we’re on the path everybody else is on, we need to look out. We don’t want to be surprised in the day of judgment. So it’s surprising because what that means is salvation is not a matter of public opinion polls. What does the majority of the people around us believe? Those are dangerous things. In fact, we might even be skeptical of what everybody believes, because Jesus says, the road that leads to life, the gate is narrow, the road is hard, and those who pass by it are few.

2. Salvation Is Not About Appearances

That’s a surprise. But we learn about it now so that we don’t have to be surprised at the last day. Second, Jesus teaches us that salvation is not about appearances. Look in verse 15. In verse 15, he says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruit.

You don’t know it by its appearance, do you? The appearance is of a sheep. But there is something else that needs to be considered. Jesus warns us that appearances can be deceiving, that we cannot judge people or treat people solely on appearances. And that’s surprising. Because that’s what we love to do. That’s what we’ve always loved to do. Do you remember when God said this to Samuel? Samuel goes looking for a king into the house of Jesse, and he sees these fine young men, and all of them look like a king. Sort of like looking presidential, I guess, you know, there’s just a look. And so Samuel says, Oh, that’s it. And it says in 1 Samuel 16, 7, the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Something else to it, God says. I didn’t pick them because they look like a king. I looked at the heart. But see, he says this is what man does, doesn’t he? Man looks on the outward appearance. That’s what we do. And so we think that salvation has got to be based on the way things appear to be, because that’s the way we reason as people. But the Lord has a different standard. Jesus is trying to tell us about that so that there are no surprises on the last day. Now, we need to beware of this. Because we tend to think that we can judge people solely on the basis of their appearance.

In fact, I’ve known of brethren who seem to take great pride in this. The ability to know somebody just by a casual or superficial conversations. Jesus is warning us, beware that not everything is going to be what it appears to be. Then he switches metaphors. Verse 16. In verse 16, he says, you will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Okay, so he says, you’ll recognize the wolves and the sheep by their fruit. So, yes, we are mixing metaphors, okay? Wolves, sheep, trees, fruit, we got it all in here. But what he’s saying is, it’s very simple. Tell a tree by the fruit. I’m not much of a tree guy. I really wanted to be. When I had kids, I really thought, you know, my kids are gonna ask me, Daddy, what kind of tree is that?

And I thought, I gotta study up. I gotta figure out all the trees so I can answer all my kids’ questions. Well, I got three kids and I don’t know anything about trees. I guess you get busy with other stuff, right? Not learning about trees. So I can tell you this, though, about trees. If I see a tree with a big old orange dangling off of it, I know what kind of tree that is. And if you tell me it’s an apple tree, I know better. I don’t know much about trees. I’m not an expert. But I know this. Orange fruit comes from orange trees. I got it. Okay? You can tell a tree by its fruit. You can watch a tree all day long. I’ll sit there and look at a tree if there’s no fruit on it.

If it’s not a fruit I recognize, I’m in trouble. But when I see fruit, I know the tree. That’s what Jesus is saying. It’s just that simple. That if you inspect the fruit, then you know what’s behind it. You know the type. And so he says, there’s no tree that’s diseased or unhealthy that’s gonna bear a good fruit. There’s no person who can pretend to be a Christian long term and you not know it. Now that’s dangerous in two ways, isn’t it? That’s dangerous for us personally. Remember Jesus taught us think about yourself first. We already talked about that this morning. That’s dangerous because that means I can deceive myself. Think that I’m keeping up appearances and I convince a group of people, maybe my local church family, I convince them that I’m a good person, but I’m not really at heart.

Jesus says the fruit, the fruit will bear you out. Don’t need to wait for eternity to find that out. The fruit will tell you what the heart should be. Then, though, there’s also the idea of applying to other people. Which is what he’s talking about here, right? Beware of false prophets. You’ll know them by their fruits. That there is a sense in which we need to be looking out for others and asking the question, are they really serving God? And guess what? The fruit of their lives will bear that out. Now, this seems to me to be more of a long-term view. Not just that you observe the fruit in the first couple of weeks you know someone. But it seems to me to say that if over time we see that somebody’s not really serving the Lord, they’re not really moving out of sin, that they’re not really what they appear to be, that they’re not really repentant when they do things that are wrong.

When you see those things, there’s a fruit there that shows what kind of person it is. But on the other hand, when we see the opposite, when we see people who are bearing the fruit of the Spirit in their lives, and they’re growing. And maybe they sin, but they are willing to forsake that and move forward. And when you see how Jesus is working in them, he says, you know them by their fruits. But in a way, what he’s doing is warning us so that we’ll protect ourselves now, beware, and also so that there’s no surprises in the last day. No surprises for me, and for those who are close to me, those who I can see their fruit, I can help them to become what they need to be now before it’s too late.

3. Salvation Is Not Based on Claims or Freelance Works

Verse 21 now. Let’s keep reading. Verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. What I want you to see here is that salvation is not based on claims or what we’re going to call freelance works. This is a surprising verse, isn’t it? Because when you read about people coming to Jesus in the last day and calling him Lord and saying all these awesome things that they did in his name, you assume these are going to be the VIP line into heaven, right?

Okay? You don’t have to stand in the normal line, you just come on through. Okay? And Jesus says something surprising. I never knew you. I never knew you. This is a passage that should give every one of us pause. It should frighten us. Because Jesus is pointing out that what we think or claim may not be the reality. Now there’s a contrast in verse 21. Look in verse 21 with me. He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. There’s a difference between what we say and what we do. The claim of belonging to Jesus, of allegiance to Jesus. I am a Christian. That claim by itself is insufficient.

Now, it’s a part of what we do. Christians should claim to be Christians, but it’s not all we do. That’s the problem. There has to be more to it than just a claim. There has to be something to support the claim, to back up the claim. They also claim impressive works. In verse 22, they talk about we prophesy and cast out demons that did many mighty works in your name, and yet he says, verse 23, I never knew you. He calls them workers of lawlessness. Now, these people are doing what I’ve called here on the board freelance works. I hope you understand what I mean by that. Let me be very clear about what I mean. They were doing things in the name of Jesus, but they were not doing the will of the Father.

Now that’s a hard thing for us to process. That we can do things and we can stamp Jesus’ name on it and say, Well, this is in the name of Jesus. And we can do that about a lot of stuff, even good things. And we say, I’m doing this in the name of Jesus. But that doesn’t mean Jesus told us to do it. Do you see the difference? One of these is about obedience, and the other is about me deciding what I want to do. And then stamping Jesus’ name on it after the fact. Look again at verse 21. It’s the key. Verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

I don’t know if you underline things in your Bible or highlight them or put a big box around them, but that last sentence, that last phrase, he who does the will of my Father in heaven, that’s what Jesus says is the key to salvation. Those are the people who get in. He who does the will of my Father. So on what am I resting my confidence about the last day? That’s the question you need to ask yourself. I need to ask myself. Is it about the fact that I claim to be a disciple? And let me tell you how that would go today. That would say, you know, I’ve been a Christian for umpteen years. I’ve been going to church since 1973.

Is that where our confidence is?

4. Salvation Is Not the Same as Hearing and Liking

Is it in things that we do? You know? I’ve decided I should do this, and I do this, and I do this with my family, and I do that. Are we resting our confidence and hope on actual obedience to God’s word? That’s Jesus’ question. And he’s asking us now, he’s teaching us now, so that at the end of time, we don’t have any surprises. Salvation is not based on claims or on freelance works. Salvation is not the same as hearing and liking. We need to read the last little bit of the Sermon on the Mount, beginning in verse 24. In verse 24, Matthew 7, 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 fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And 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 great was the fall of it. I want you to notice, we’re very familiar with this story. It’s one that the kids sing about. The idea of the builders and the rock and the sand. I want you to notice who the builders are in the story. Because I think this is the point we missed.

Verse 24, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them. That’s the wise man. Hear it and do it. And then verse 26, everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is the foolish man. Guess what? Everybody heard it. Both people in the story heard the message. Both of them built a house. But only one of them did what Jesus taught. So, in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, I think what he’s saying is there are a lot of people here. Hearing my words. And you know, I bet if you took a poll of those people, and you asked them, well, what did you think of Jesus’ sermon? I bet they’d give it nine or ten out of ten.

I doubt there were many people who fell asleep that day. I bet they liked that. I bet they talked about it on the walk home. Well, I sure liked what he said that thing about fruit. That’s pretty, that’s pretty clever. Like that about the eyes. Jesus’ sermon had an impact. But not on everyone. You know Jesus talked about lay up for your treasures, lay up your treasures in heaven. A lot of people heard him. But I know at least one person who didn’t do it. His name was Judas. A lot of people heard.

Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her in his heart. Not everyone obeyed. A lot of people heard, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not everyone obeyed. A lot of people heard. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also. Not everyone obeyed. A lot of people heard this sermon. And guess what? Today, a lot of people hear this sermon. And they like it. It’s a beautiful sermon. It’s a powerful sermon. And when somebody preaches about it, we can say, Amen. And we can like that sermon. We can download it on our phone and listen to it again. But can’t we understand? Hearing something and liking something is not the same as obeying it.

What a step there is between saying I like that and saying I’m living it.

Jesus is warning us that because we nod along, we might begin to think we’ve actually done it. When our work is only just beginning. Salvation is not the same as hearing and liking. Getting real with God. Means I take the step from listening to his word and liking it and thinking about it. And I take the step to where I say, how am I going to do this today? On Monday morning. How am I going to live by Jesus’ words? What is God’s will for me in my job, at my school, in my home? What is the job that God has for me when I talk to this person on the phone? What is the will of God for my life and how am I going to do it right now?

5. Salvation Is About Sincere, Dedicated Obedience

Those are the questions that will echo in eternity. Jesus is warning us. Don’t think you’ve done it because you’ve listened. That’s good. But it’s not the end. It’s the beginning. Salvation is not the same as hearing and liking. Well, if you’re like me. Sometimes you get frustrated with all the knots. Do you notice all the knots? It’s not easy. It’s not about appearances. It’s not on claims. It’s not the same as hearing and liking. So what is it? Don’t just tell me what it’s not. Okay. You don’t have to get upset. Okay. Salvation is about sincere, dedicated obedience. That’s the truth about salvation. Let’s go back through it. Verse 14. Matthew 7 and verse 14. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life.

And those who find it are few. Salvation, friends, is not for the faint of heart. It will take work. We have to want to it. We would really prefer. That this whole process of salvation was a little more like a transaction. You know, God, I’ll give you this, and you give me that. You know, one time and we’re done. And some people think about salvation that way. That feels better for them. And so they say, I got saved. Or sometimes Christians will say, I got baptized. That was what happened. We did it. I’m good. Okay? I gave him this, he gave me this. Jesus won’t have that. That’s not what salvation is. Salvation demands that we be dedicated and committed. It is a process. It is a path that leads to life.

Not something you do one time and then you can be done. So salvation is about dedicated obedience. In verse 15, he says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? He says that salvation is for the sincere. The people aren’t trying to trick anybody or pretend to be something they’re not. They’re not wolves in sheep’s clothing. They’re not faking the fruit. Now, are you a Christian with no agendas? With no posturing that the only thing that you want is to be with God forever. Or is there something else that corrupts that process? And I want to say to you, as kindly as I know how.

Other people are going to know. God always knows. And you know. Do you really think it’s going to work? That you can trick your way into heaven. Salvation is for the sincere. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Is your obedience, is your commitment exactly what it appears to be? In verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. The one who does the will of my Father, obedience is the issue. Are we obeying God? That’s the one who will enter. Now, I have to tell you, I am flabbergasted by the broader religious world that preaches a gospel wherein they say that man has to do absolutely nothing in order to be saved.

Because Jesus didn’t say that. Jesus said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, we’re in the kingdom, but he who does the will of my Father. And there is no spiritual sleight of hand you can do over that verse to make it say something different. Jesus said that. And he is talking in context about who is going to be saved. We ignore that, brethren, at our peril. These are Jesus’ words. He says, obedience is essential. Salvation is contingent on my obedience to God. That’s the way he has offered it to us. But the question becomes then.

Am I dedicated? Am I sincere? Because that’s what salvation is. Salvation is about sincere, dedicated obedience. And how does Jesus sum that up? He talks about a wise builder. A wise builder who’s concerned about the stability of his house long term. And so he says, I’m not just going to build on whatever ground is here. Because there might be some shifting and settling and moving. There might be storms that come in and wash out some from under the foundation. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to build on the rock. Because I want this thing to last. Jesus says, that’s the person who hears my words and does them. Sincere, dedicated obedience. Now I hope you see these are sobering thoughts. They are deeply challenging.

Conclusion

Because they mean we have to think about our own lives, our own expectations, and why we believe we are right with God. Are you obeying God this morning? You can’t fake the fruit. It’s going to be what it is. What is your life show about your obedience to God? I want to challenge you to think about Jesus’ expectation, Jesus’ statements about what’s going to happen on the last day. And I want to ask you the question. Are you going to be surprised in that day? Surprised that you thought you were right when you weren’t. That you thought things were okay when they were not. Do you need to make a change in your life to be obedient to God? There might be someone here who is ready in some public way to come and to put Jesus on in baptism, to put away the sins of their past, to have the forgiveness that is offered through his blood.

And we want to invite you to do that. Because we are all sinners who have only been saved by the grace of God. That God reached out to us and offered his son. And that we, in response to that, have turned away from our sins, and we’ve confessed our faith in him. We’ve been baptized into Christ. And now we walk with him. And you can do that. And you can know the freedom and the hope that is found in Christ. If you’re ready to do that this morning, we’re going to sing a song now. Because we want to encourage you to take that step and to be right with God. If there’s any way that we can help you, we invite you to come to the front right now as we stand and sing to encourage you.