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Matthew chapter 7. This is a very, very popular chapter in the Bible. There's a lot here. There's very, very common teachings in this. And it's so popular, this chapter, that it contains the most famous phrase in all the Bible. All right. Now when we go soul winning, all right, we often say, hey, the most, you know, we talk about, hey, I'll show you the most, most popular verse in the Bible, don't we? We say that. And we turn, what do we turn to when we say that? Where do we go? John 3 16, right? The most famous verse in the whole Bible, right? It's known by, by all kinds of Christians, you know, all kinds of people that go to church. And it's even known by some non-believers. But you know, there's a, there's a phrase in the Bible that's even more known than John 3 16. It's right there in verse number one, Matthew chapter 7 verse one, judge not. That's the title of the sermon tonight is judge not. I mean, look, everybody knows that, right? Anyone that doesn't like preaching, doesn't like honey hard preaching, doesn't like preaching against sin, doesn't want false prophets to be called out. They'll say things like judge not. The Bible says judge not. And yes, the Bible says judge not. I love it. Okay. It's in the Bible. Jesus said those words, but we need to understand what does he mean by it? What does he mean by judge not? Matthew chapter 7 verse one, judge not that ye be not judged. All right. That's the most famous verse or most famous phrase that judge not. Now look, we can easily stop here. When the world says to us, when non-believers say to us, or just the carnal Christian, judge not, you know, they're saying we shouldn't make any judgment on anybody, on anybody's sins. You know, sometimes you might go and knock the door, preach the gospel. Have you heard people say this? Well, I'll let God judge me. Only God can judge me. You can't judge me. You know, and that's where they get this idea that we cannot judge non-believers. We cannot judge sin. And yet the Bible over and over and over tells us that as believers, as people that know the word of God, that want to seek his righteousness, we're instructed to judge. I mean, look, I just, you know, caught, caught, you know, the plane here, the train. Then I walked to my parents' house. I got to a busy road. I had to watch both sides. You know, I had to judge. I had to make a judgment call. When am I going to cross that street? All right. Because I had to cross at a point when it was safe for me to cross. Every day in your life, you're making judgment calls all the time in your life. Okay. It's something that, you know, to not judge is just the most ridiculous thing. You'd be dead by now if you weren't making any kind of judgment calls, right? I mean, you'd be playing with snakes. You know, you'd be doing ridiculous things if you couldn't make good judgment. But again, the Bible tells us over and over again, we are to judge. John chapter 7 verse 24 says, judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgments. You know, the appearance can trick us, but, you know, what's the saying? Don't judge a book by its cover. You know, sometimes you might, you might see a cover of a book and you go, that looks really interesting, but you've not read the inside and you don't know, you know, maybe the inside's really boring. Maybe the inside's not interesting at all. Okay. But you've got to read the book to be able to make a good judgment of it. And you know what? There are many teachers today, many preachers, just like there was in Jesus' time, the Pharisees, that on the outside, they looked fantastic. On the outside, they looked righteous. On the outside, they looked like they wanted to serve God, but on the inside, they were full of dead men's bones. All right? So we are not to judge on the outward appearance. And then even 1 Corinthians 5 verse 12, you know, we're instructed to kick out grievous sinners out of the church. And the Bible says, you guys don't need to turn there if you don't, you know, just read them through quickly. But 1 Corinthians 5 verse 12, it says, Paul writes to the Corinthian church, he says, For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? Hey, a church is to judge the people inside the church. If we have someone that's in excessive sin, in grievous sin, we may need to make a judgment call and kick that person out of the church until they give up that sin, until they're repentant, and can come back and apologize and once again be reunited with the church. Hey, we're instructed to judge. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 2, it says, Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? Hey, you know what? God's going to give us the ability, the authority to judge this world. In the millennium, in the world to come, we're going to be put into places of judgment, places of authority. But then it says, And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? We're going to judge angels? The angels of God? You know, it's an amazing thing. All right, that we're going to judge angels. You know, how well do they serve God? How well do they do the task that God has given them? That's going to be bestowed upon us to make the judgment call. I mean, that's an amazing, amazing responsibility. I don't fully understand that. That's what the Bible says. And then in verse 4, it says, If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are the least esteemed in the church. Hey, even the least esteemed, even the one that's only been saved for a short period of time, the one that might be the most carnal Christian out here is worthy to make judgment calls in the church. Even the least esteemed can make judgment. And then verse number 5, Paul says to the church, I speak to your shame. Is it so that there be not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren. So we see over and over and over again, we are commanded to judge, okay, not only the things pertaining to this world, but God's going to give us the judgment to make judgment over the world to come, and also over the heavenly host, the angels. What an amazing privilege God has given us. So we're in Matthew chapter 7, verse 1, it says, Judge not. Are we then to tuck out all these other verses about judgment? No, let's understand. It says that ye be not judged. This passage is about hypocrisy. You know, we shouldn't judge someone for their sin if we ourselves are in that sin. And if I call you out for, I don't know, for smoking a cigarette, and then at the end of the service, I'll get the back and no one sees me and I'm out there smoking a cigarette. Hey, that's a poor judgment of me. I'm making a judgment of you, but I'm doing the same thing. So look, better than being a hypocrite is don't judge others, okay? And the whole point of this is to clean up your life first. We'll see this later on. Then you can help others. Then you can make good judgment cause when you clean up your life first, then you can help other people. All right? Now, one question that comes up is what about the preacher? What about the pastor? And have you ever heard, have you ever gone, you know, preaching the gospel and people say, I don't go to church anymore because the church is full of hypocrites, you know? And look, the church is full of hypocrites, okay? Because we all sin. We all say we want to keep the commands of God. We all say we're desiring to do that, but at the same time, I know you all sin. And I know you all sin because I sin. Okay? Does that mean we're hypocrites? I guess in a sense we are. Okay, in a sense we are because when we sin, we are breaking God's laws, but then we're also saying, hey, we're striving to do that. We're striving to keep the commands of God. But you know, people that preach, like especially myself as the pastor here, I've got to preach. I'm commanded to preach all the counsel of God, you know? So do I not preach on something because I'm struggling with it? No. I should be able to open the Bible and preach all the counsel of God even if it's something I'm struggling with. And when I preach, it's something I need to say to myself, hey, this is an area of my life that I need to work in. This is an area of life that I need to improve in. Okay? But it's not hypocrisy. Otherwise, you won't have any preachers preaching the whole counsel of God because every preacher has a weakness. Every preacher has sin. Okay? So let's not misunderstand preaching as hypocrisy, but if I just call you out as an individual for your sins, and I'm doing it myself, then yeah, you know, that would be hypocrisy. Let's keep reading. Matthew chapter seven verse two. Matthew chapter seven verse two. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Basically what Jesus is saying here is a hypocrite will be found out. And if you judge someone, you make them feel horrible for whatever they've done, but you yourselves are in that same sin, God says you will be found out. You know, be sure because your sin will find you out. And we saw an example of this just recently in the United States, right? Of a pastor who's been in grievous sin themselves, you know, has been disqualified from being a pastor, was kicked out of his church because of his hypocrisy. He was living a life, you know, a dirty life, you know, and he's there standing behind the pulpit trying to teach these things. First of all, should he teach it? Yes, but at the same time, when you're calling out individuals for their sins and you're doing it yourselves, that would be a picture of hypocrisy. All right? He measured one way, he got measured the same way back by God. And it was so embarrassing. So embarrassing. Let's keep reading verse number three. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider'st not the beam that is in thine own eye? Hey, what's a mote? A mote is a small speck. Have you ever had something get stuck in your eye, maybe like even an eyelash? I remember on my wedding anniversary with Christina, we went to Melbourne. You know, it's a city we hadn't been to before. So we went to Melbourne. And on the last day, we were on like a train. I can't remember what it was now. But anyway, she got like a little, little speck of dust or a little, little stick or something, something in her eye, and I couldn't even see it. But her eye got swollen. We had to go. It ruined our day because we had to find and it was a public holiday. So it was difficult to find, you know, a medical practice. And you know, someone looked at it, but she was in so much pain. And we had to do that quickly before we had to get our flights back to Sydney. But yeah, just even a small mote, a small speck can cause a lot of pain. All right. Now if you see someone struggling with a bit of, with a small mote in their eye, you might be tempted to go and help them. But what's the teaching here? What's the teaching? And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider'st not the beam that is in thy own eye. Hey, what's a beam? That's a, that's a piece of timber. It's primarily used for construction. All right. You know, when you, when you build a house and you've got the wooden beams up there, the framework, you know, you're looking at the other person with the small speck in the eye, but you've got this large beam sticking out of your own eye. That's the hypocrite. The one that says, hey, I can help you. Hey, you've got a problem in your life, but you yourself have this massive beam in your eye. And I'll give you one example of this. And I'm not getting this off my chest or anything like this, but it happens. You know, every now and again, I get people telling me, hey, you should run church like this. You know, you should do church this way. The church will grow fast if you do it this way. But then their marriage is falling apart. You know, the kids are undisciplined. The kids are running wild. You know, they're looking at the small moats and yeah, they want to help, but then they've got other problems in their life and they're trying to tell other people what to do instead of fixing things that are in their own lives. Hey, let's be careful. Let's not be hypocrites. All right. It's all good to help. In fact, that's what Jesus is teaching. We should help each other. But first, what's he going to have to do before he can remove that beam, that moat, before he can remove that speck, he's going to have to get rid of that beam, isn't he? So he can see clearly. Let's keep reading verse number four. Uh, sorry. Yeah. Verse number four. Oh, how would thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the moats of thine eye and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moats of thy brother's eye. Hey, you can help someone else once you fix up the hypocrisy in your life. Once you fix up that sin in your life. And if you're someone that has struggled with a particular sin in your life and you know, there's a brother that's struggling the same sin, but you've, you've overcome that. You know, you found victory in Christ over that sin. You're someone that can go and help that brother who's struggling in that area of life. You know, if you're someone that's maybe had financial difficulties in the past, but you know, you, you've got to fix fixed up, you've paid your debts. Now you're doing well. And you see a brother in financial difficulties. You know, you can be someone that goes by their side and helps them out and says, Hey, I've got some advice for you. This is what I did to overcome my financial burdens. Let me see if I can help you. Hey, that would be the right approach. You know, a really good example of this is, you know, I fly every week now and every time I fly, they give the safety instructions. You know what I'm talking about? They lift up a safety card and they, they tell you how to tie your seat, your belt and, um, and, and even the oxygen mask, right? They give the example of oxygen, oxygen mask. So, you know, if, if there's a problem with the air pressure in the, in the plane, you know, and it's, it's hard to breathe, then the, the, the mask will drop so you can put it on and you can breathe oxygen. You can breathe well, but the instruction is always put yours on first and then help the other person. It's the same idea. Okay? Because here's the thing. Let's say you're traveling with your little child and there's a problem with the air pressure and the oxygen is not flowing properly or the air is really thin. You can't breathe properly and you go, Oh, I'm going to help my child because they're struggling. You know, it's a little child, but then what happens if you're, if you're going, if you're going to do it, but you pass out, then you're both going to fail. You're both going to fall into that ditch. Okay? You're both going to have difficulties breathing, but if you put your mask on first, cool, fixed, I can breathe. Now I can help my child. Now you can help many people because you're fine. You're in a good position. It's the same idea that Jesus Christ is teaching us. Fix your own problems. Make sure you're not a hypocrite. Then you can go and help your brother and help him cast out the mote that's in your brother's eye. Verse number six, give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Neither, well, I'll just stop there for a minute. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Now what I believe is being said here is probably because this is still the Old Testament days. People were still bringing their sacrifices to the altar. And as you know, the priests would often, you know, the Levites would eat of the, of the meat that was offered. And if you also know the leftovers would be taken outside the camp and be burnt up to a crisp, okay, there should be nothing that's wasted. And I think what's being said here by Jesus Christ is you shouldn't take the leftovers of the food of the meat of the lamb or whatever it is that's been sacrificed, and give it to dogs. All right, I think about the problem, you might say, Well, why not the dogs hungry? Yeah, but if you take that meat and you feed it to the dogs, I know what dogs are like, they become dependent, and they'll keep coming, they'll keep coming, and then other dogs will come and other dogs coming and you start creating a problem for yourself, something that was meant to be holy, something that was meant to be kept in the temple for the Levites are now being given to dogs. Okay, let's keep reading. Neither cast ye your pearls before swine. Now, I'm not rich enough to have pearls. All right, I do have a gold ring. All right, but the idea there, you know, I wouldn't take this gold ring and give it to swine, give it to pigs. What's a pig gonna want to do with a gold ring? They don't know how to cash that in, make that into cash. They don't know how to, what to do, they wouldn't know what to do. What does, what would they do? It says, lest they trample them under their feet. It's what the pig's gonna do. They're gonna see the gold ring, they're gonna trample it under their feet, they're gonna see your pearls that you've given to them, trample it under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Okay, so they're not getting what they want, and they'll come and rend you, meaning they'll come and hurt you. They'll come and be destructive, kind of like maybe wild dogs or wild pigs. I mean, some pigs are really wild. All right, and if you don't, you know, if you're not careful, they can come and hurt you. So the idea here, guys, with the pearls are spiritual truths. We all know things in the Bible. We all know at least the gospel, don't we? We at least know what we must do to be saved. Hey, this is precious, okay? The wonderful words of life we have, the wonderful gospel of the kingdom that God has given us are like pearls. And the Bible says, hey, we've got to be careful, we should not cast them before swine, before pigs, okay? Otherwise they'll trample it and hurt you, rend you, all right? Now let's try to understand this a little bit with preaching the gospel, all right? Guys, now, when we go and preach the gospel, we go door to door. We want to give everybody the opportunity to hear, all right? But you know what? You've got to be careful. You've got to be mindful. Sometimes you're going to knock on the door of a dog. Sometimes you're going to knock on the door of swine, of a pig, and you're trying to give them these pearls of knowledge. You know, you're trying to show them the way to heaven, and they'll just trample it under their feet. Hey, don't waste your time anymore. You've got to realize, hey, this is not going anywhere. This guy's a full-blown heretic. This guy's not even listening. This guy's wasting my time. There are other people down the street that need to hear the gospel. That would be a perfect time where you would say, hey, I'm taking those pearls back, and I'm going next door. I'll give you one example of this just on, today's what, Tuesday? This happened on Saturday. I went door-to-door. So I went in, knock on the door of a Baptist pastor, all right? I asked him, you know, he told me, you know, I'm a Baptist pastor. I'm like, well, okay. But more important than what our church is, you know, would you be 100% sure that you're going to heaven? I'm a Baptist pastor. I'm like, yeah. I didn't tell him I was, all right? Okay, yeah, it's good, you know? And then I said, I mean, what would you say to someone if they asked you, what must I do to be saved? What do I need to do to go to heaven? What would you say to them? And immediately, his demeanor changed. He got angry, he got defensive, and he goes, well, I've been pastoring this church, and I've been pastoring that church, and I was even in, I think, Jakarta. Where's Jakarta? Which nation? Indonesia. So he's a pastor in a church in Indonesia, you know? And then he says, and I speak with tongues, you know? And it's like, and he goes, you know, do you speak in tongues? I said, yes, I speak in English and Spanish, and I can speak in two tongues, you know? And maybe I should, I don't know, but as soon as I said that, he got even more aggressive, more, you know, defensive. He started rebuking me in the name of Jesus, and I told him I love the name of Jesus, right? But I got to a point where I just was, you know what? I don't know why, as a Baptist pastor, I don't know why you're so defensive. He was attacking the King James Bible. I never didn't bring up the King James Bible, but I realized I'm at a point now where this is swine, and this is a dog, and I'm not gonna pass my pearls before swine, and I just moved on, just moved on to the next house. Hey, if that happens, you've got to move on. Don't get offended. Don't get upset. Just move on, okay? Cast your pearls to those that will appreciate it, all right? Another example of this, guys, might be the friends you have. Now, I'm someone, guys, that I honestly have a big heart. I actually care a lot for people, all right? And I try to be the best friend that I can be, you know, to the people that are my friends. But you know what? Sometimes there are friends, and I like to call them the black hole friends. Now, I don't know if there are black holes in the universe, but the idea is, if there is a black hole, that, you know, the gravity is so heavy that it attracts everything to it that even light cannot escape the black hole because of the strength of the gravity. That's why it's black. That's why it's dark. That's why you can't see anything, all right? There are some people that are like black holes. You know, you try to be a friend to them. You try to serve them. You try to be nice to them. You even take your pearls, and you cast it to them, and what do they do? They trample it under their feet, all right? And you, as a believer, you might be tempted to say, well, surely God wants me to just maintain this friendship. But if they're trampling your friendship under your feet, okay, if all they do is take, take, take from you, they never give something back in friendship, it's time to no longer cast those pearls before swine. Okay, what did it say? What did you say? And turn again and rend you. It's these people that can hurt you. It's these people that will take you and abuse you and take advantage of you. Sometimes it's time for you to go, you know what? This person's a waste of my time. This person's bringing me down. This person's not helping me at all. I've done everything I can, and then they're letting me down. It's time for you to walk away. We can apply this in many aspects of life, okay, many ways. So be careful with the friends that you have. You know, if all they're doing is using and abusing you, it's time to let go. Let's keep reading verse number seven. And now we're moving on to prayer. We did cover prayer last week, so I don't want to go into too much detail, but it says here, Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. This is about prayer. Very quickly guys, ask, seek, knock. These are great principles when you have requirements, you have needs that you want to bring to God. Think about this process, okay. First of all, you go and ask the Lord. Say, Lord, I have this need. You know, Lord, I need a, I need a job. You know, I need a, I need a wife, I need a husband, Lord. You know, these are things and you go and ask the Lord, right? But you just leave it there. Do you ask the Lord and you just don't do anything about it? No, the instruction is to seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Hey, if you're looking for a job, you go and seek the job, right? You go and you, you go for the interview, you go and knock. You knock the businesses and say, hey, I'm here for my interview. Okay, same thing with a, with a prospective spouse. You can't just say, God, give me a spouse and not look for it, right? You go, you go and look, you go and knock. You might have to face rejection from time to time, but that's fine. It's just going to build your character, okay? It's going to keep you humble. That's fine, okay? But then you do what you can do is basically what I'm saying here and God will answer your prayers. Ask the Lord, but you need to go and seek. You need to go and find. You know, you might be studying something in the Bible. You read a passage of the Bible. You go, Lord, I don't get what I'm reading here. And you might go and ask the Lord for wisdom, Lord. You said I can come to you and ask for wisdom. So please let me know what this passage says. Then you close your Bible and walk away. You think you're going to get wisdom that way? No, you need to seek and you need to find, okay? Open your Bible. You look at parallel passages. You study the word out. You ask God for wisdom. You put all those things together and God will show you the answer. It's just a guarantee, guys. It's a guarantee for your prayers to be answered. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. You say, but I've made requests in prayers and they haven't been answered. Have you, have you, have you seeked? Have you found? Are you looking for it? You know, you need to do what you can do, what's in your control and you leave what is in God's control to Him to answer. All right, verse number nine. Or what man is there of you whom if his son asks bread, will he give him a stone? Or if you ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good gift, good things to them that ask him, to them that ask him. All right, once again, I covered this last week, but I want to reinforce this. Please be prayerful people. Okay, have you prayed today? Have you gone to the Lord in prayer and say, Lord, I have these needs. Look, he's going to answer, but you're going to ask him. Okay, that's what the Lord wants us to do. All right, now it says, look, give us an example. Hey, if your son needs bread, are you going to give him, what is it, a stone? No, you're going to give him bread. Even the natural father wants to provide for his children. You know, even the unbelieving father wants to make sure their children needs are met. How much more then will our heavenly father give us the things that we need? All right, verse number 11. Again, just the last bit. How much more shall your father which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? You might say, Pastor Kevin, I asked for the Ferrari. All right, I asked for the Ferrari, but I got the Toyota instead. Yeah, praise God, you got what you needed. God gave you the good thing that you needed. All right, sometimes, yeah, God's going to give you something else. All right, but he's going to make sure that your needs are met. All right, if you got the Ferrari, maybe the Lord knows that would have, the pride would have gone to your head. You know, maybe you would have, you know, destroyed your life or whatever. You know, so he's giving you the Toyota instead. Praise God, he knows what you need. He knows the good things that you need when you ask him. Verse number 12. Therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them? For this is the law and the prophets. This is known, verse number 12 is known as the golden rule. All right, the golden rule. And, you know, when people say to you, you know, again, you got soul winning, you know, what, what do you need to do to be saved? Well, I do unto others. Who's heard that phrase before? I do unto others, or we need to do unto others. A couple. Well, that phrase is not in the Bible, but it comes from verse number 12. Okay, comes from verse number 12. Therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you. So what you, what others do to you, how you want others to treat you, if you want others to respect you, then it says, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. The whole purpose that God has given us the law, yes, is to be that schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, but also that we would love our neighbors, okay, to love the Lord God with all our heart, mind, strength, all right, but also to, to love our neighbors. And basically, all those things, if you do those things, it's what the prophets and the law teaches us, okay. And, you know, we need to be kind people. We need to be generous people. You need to be a good neighbor. You need to be a good employer. You need to be a good employee. You need to be that good husband, that good wife. Hey, you need to try to maintain strong relationships. Say, you know, do well with people. As I said, don't take, don't let certain friends take advantage of you, you know, but more often than not, you should be people that people like to talk to, okay, someone that, you know, reflects Jesus Christ, and they feel like, hey, this person's a good friend. This is someone that I can, I can trust. This is someone that I, that I know well. Hey, that's how we should be, and if we do that, then others will treat us in the same way, okay. You know, if you can do a favor, you can be generous to someone, maybe one day you're going to need a bit of a favor. Maybe one day you're going to need someone to lend you a bit of money to get you out of trouble, but, you know, you can only expect that if you've done it yourself, okay, if you've done it yourself. Let's keep going. I'm sorry, the reason I brought up the golden rule is because that's the one a lot of people say you have to do to be saved, okay. What do you think you have to do to go to heaven? Oh, you got to keep the golden rule. Do one to others. That's works, okay. No, that's not what we do. Let's keep reading verse number 13. Enter ye in at the straight gate. Now, straight s-t-r-a-i-t, that doesn't mean straight as in straightforward, it means straight as in narrow, okay, as in narrow. Enter ye at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at. Why? Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. This is a sad reality. Few there be that find it. Few there be that find the straight gate. Look at verse 15 because it goes together. Then it says, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Keep your finger there in Matthew. Turn to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. I want to show you something else that Jesus said here. Luke chapter, sorry, Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. Luke 13 verse 24. Luke 13 verse 24. Jesus talks about this straight gate once again, and I just want to give you an understanding of this just in case someone uses it against you. It says, strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able. All right, let's understand this because Jesus is saying, hey, strive. What does it mean to strive? It means to put great effort into it, right? You know, to try hard, try hard, make great effort to enter in at the straight gate, and so those that want to teach a workspace gospel, those that want to teach a false gospel will take a verse like this and say, look, you've got to strive. You've got to try hard to be saved. Is that what it's about? We know that salvation is a free gift. We know that salvation has been paid by the blood of Jesus Christ. All the work has been done. His righteousness is imputed upon us by faith. We know that it's without the works of the law, without the deeds of the law. So how do we understand Luke 13 verse 24? Why would you need to strive to find the straight gate, to find the narrow way? Why is that? Let's keep reading. Verse 25. Luke 13 verse 25. I just want you to think about it for a little while. And once the master of the house is risen up and have shut to the door, and you begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. And he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are. That means I don't know where you're from. You know, you're calling me, Lord, I don't know where you're from. Whence, you know, where from whence you are? Verse 26. Then shall ye begin to say, now let me, let me ask you this, guys. Let's say, hypothetically, you find that you don't get up, you don't go into heaven, you know, and you have a chance to talk to the Lord. And he says, Lord, you know, he says, why should I let you in? What are you going to say? I know what you're going to say. You're going to say, because I put my faith on Jesus Christ, right? Surely, you know, I know that I haven't, you know, it's not by my works, I know it's been paid for by Jesus. I put my full faith and trust on Jesus Christ. What do these people say? The people that Jesus says, I don't even know where you're from. Verse 26. Then shall ye begin to say, we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. So Jesus, you were in our city, you were coming and teaching. Aren't we saved? What a bad answer. What a horrible answer, right? Verse 27. And he shall say, I tell you, I know you not, whence ye are, thee apart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. All right, so we see that these people are responding, hey, we're saved because you taught in our streets. Now, we don't have Jesus Christ teaching in our streets today, but that might be someone that says, hey, I'm saved because I went to church. I heard the preaching of the Bible. I heard what you said, and unfortunately, you know, there are churches that have the right gospel, that do have the right God of the Bible, and yet there are people still sitting in the pews that aren't saved. They haven't placed their faith in Jesus Christ, and they're the ones that are going to answer like this, hey, we were there, and God's going to say, I don't even know where you're from. All right, now, let's go back to Luke chapter, sorry, Matthew chapter seven, Matthew chapter seven. Let's understand what this means. Why do we need to strive into the narrow way? Why do we need to work hard to find that place? Verse number 15 again, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. That's why you need to strive, because there are false prophets. Guys, what is the broad way that leads to destruction? How many churches are actually teaching the right gospel? Most often than not, even those that come under the Christian umbrella are teaching some works-based gospel, are teaching some false gospel, let alone all the other religions in the world, let alone all the other priests and the pastors and the preachers in the world. Hey, look, first of all, for those that grew up in a Christian home, you probably don't need to strive, because mom and dad are going to teach you the right way. Mom and dad are going to tell you the gospel, but for some of you that didn't grow up in a Christian home, you know, some of you probably did have to strive. You had to look at all this broad way that's been presented to you and go, I want to be saved. What is the right way? And you have to search for it and diligently find it. You have to ask and seek and find, and finally you found, wow, it's salvation by grace through faith and that not of myself. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. When you come to realize that, you know, you realize, man, I've worked really hard to find it, praise God, now I know the narrow way. And Jesus said there'd be few that go that way. That's a sad thing. Most people would not strive to find that narrow way. Most people would be content with the broad way that leads to destruction. Okay, and that's why Jesus warns us of the false prophets. There's plenty of false prophets. Okay, plenty. Verse 15, 16, sorry. You shall know them who, the false prophets, buy their fruits, the men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Hey, if you want to eat some grapes, you go to the thorns. If you want to eat figs, you go to the thistles. No, if you want to eat grapes, you go to the grapevine. If you want figs, you go to the fig tree, right? You've got to go to the right source. Be careful who you listen to. You know, if you're trying to learn Bible doctrine, you know, before you read a book, before you read a book about the Bible, at least find out, is this person saved? All right, you might be tempted to say, well, actually, this guy's not saved, but he's got some other good things that I can learn in the Bible. No, you can't learn from him. You can't gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Let's keep reading. Verse 17, even so every good tree bring forth good fruits, but a corrupt tree bring forth evil fruits. Hey, if you go to a corrupt source, say, but he's got other good things about the Bible. No, it says that he will bring forth evil fruit. That means harmful fruit. It'll harm you. It'll hurt you. Verse 18, a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruits. Why do you think you're going to find any good fruit in a preacher that doesn't believe the gospel? A preacher that doesn't have salvation rights. Run away from these false prophets. Go to the good tree and get the good fruit. Verse number 19, every tree that bringeth forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Okay, now that is a reference to hellfire. Let's understand what the fruit is. Okay, because again, you've got to be careful. A lot of people like to add works. Say, well, the fruit is works. All right, if they're doing good works, and if they're teaching salvation by good works or whatever, you know they're right. All right, let's keep reading. What are the fruits that we will know them by? Okay, thank you, brother. Verse number 21. By the way, the fruits, just to help you understand, is what they say, is what they teach, is their converts. Okay, have a look at this. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Does that concern you? Because I'm sure you call Jesus Christ Lord, right? Does it concern you when you read this? There you go, wow, not everyone that calls him Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But how do we enter the kingdom of heaven? We know what Jesus told Nicodemus. You must be born again. You must be born of the Spirit. If you believed on Jesus Christ, you have been born of the Spirit. You have entered into the kingdom. You have everlasting life. You can never lose it. You shouldn't be worried about this day. Okay, because you're not going to respond like these people respond, right? That is if you're saved, right? Let's keep reading. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not, verse 22, sorry, did I finish verse 21? Let me read verse 21 again. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. What are these people trusting in? Are they trusting in Jesus Christ's finished work of Calvary, his death-bearing resurrection? What are they trusting in? They're trusting in their many wonderful works. They say here, that have we not prophesied in the name? Hey, these are preachers. They have prophesied in the name of Christ, and says, and in thy name have cast out devils. Now I don't believe they've cast out devils, but they're claiming to have cast out devils in the name of Jesus Christ, okay? I don't believe you can cast out devils unless you have the Spirit of God. These are people that are being cast out. Let's keep reading. Verse 23, what does Jesus say to these people? These people that are trusting their many wonderful works, and then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from a year that worked iniquity. He says, I never knew you. Not only did he say in the book of Luke, I don't know where you're from. Now he's saying, I don't even know who you are. I've never met you. I've never knew you, all right? This is not people losing their salvation, because Jesus says, I've never knew you, okay? Once you're saved, you're always saved, praise God, okay? But these are people that have trusted in their works. Hey, these false prophets, their fruits was a works-based gospel, okay? Their fruits was the tongue speaking. Their fruits was, you know, I'm a pastor in all these churches in Indonesia. This is a perfect example, what I just gave you the example before, of a man who is trusting in his many wonderful, in inverted commas, works, all right? But God says, Jesus Christ says to them, they are work of iniquity, works of iniquity, year that work iniquity. Verse 23. Let's keep reading, verse 24. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. Hey, do you want to be wise people? You want to be a wise father, a wise mother, wise children? We then, if that's the case, we need to do what Jesus said here, to build our house upon the rock, all right? We don't build our house upon a false prophet, the teaching of a false prophet, the teachings of some non-biblical book. No, we need to build it upon the rock. What is the rock? In verse 24, it says, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, it's the word of God. The rock which we are to build our house upon is the word of God. But notice it says, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, and doeth them. That's the important part. Many of us can hear the sayings of Christ. Many of us can go to YouTube and listen to some great preaching, or you go to church week in and week out, and you're listening to preaching, you're hearing the words of God, but that's not going to be enough for you to build upon the rock. You also need to do what you've heard. You need to apply the things that you've heard, okay? That's how you build your house upon the rock. James 1 22 says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. That's what I'm seeing today a lot, especially with YouTube. People that listen to, I'm saying good preaching online, there's nothing wrong with it. They listen to a lot of preaching, and they think they're so smart, they think they're so wise. Look how much doctrine I know, but they don't do it. They don't practice what they teach. They don't go to church. They can't practice fellowship. They can't practice serving in the church. All right, they don't go soul winning. You know, they don't, they don't do anything to put into practice the things that they've learned, and the Bible says in there in James, those that do that, they're just hearers only, they're deceiving themselves, deceiving themselves. They think they're righteous. They think they're good with God, but they're deceiving themselves. Verse 25, but look at this, even if you hear and you do the words of God, look at verse 25, and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. Guys, listen to me, even if you hear the words of God and you do them, the storms are still going to come. The floods are still going to come. The winds are still going to blow. There's still going to be problems in your life. You're still going to go through struggles. You're still going to go through financial difficulties. You're still going to go through marital problems and all the other problems that people go through. It's still going to happen. That's the sad part of life, but it says that when it happens that it fell not. Okay, the house stood strong for it was founded upon the rock. You know, even if we serve God with all our hearts, we're still going to be persecuted. We're still going to go through tribulations. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 12 says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Something that's guaranteed guys, if you live godly, you will suffer persecution. You will be mocked for the name of Jesus Christ, but you won't fall. You will remain standing. Okay, you remain strong. We're almost done now guys. Look at verse 26, and everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not, be careful. Okay, if you don't do the things that you've learnt, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell. Not only did it fall, it says and great was the fall of us. We've got to be careful guys to build our house upon the rock, to listen, to do the things that we see in the Bible because it doesn't matter. Okay, you're still going to go through those problems. Like I said, health problems, family problems, financial problems, whatever it is. But you can fall and we've seen that again with the example of the American pastor, right. Why did he fall? Why was his fall so great? Because he didn't build his house upon the rock. Hey, he knew the words of God. He preached the words of God, but he did not practice it. He did not do the works of God and saying great was his fall. Great, you know. And let me ask you this guys, when you go for difficulties, when there's a bit of stress in your life, you know, things aren't going right and there's problems, are you someone that can say to me, hey, it doesn't matter what we've gone through, we've always stood strong on the Lord, we've always been faithful to church, we've continued serving him, or you're going to be someone that says to me, hey, you know what, in all honesty, when I've gone through problems, I've gone through major stress, depression, I've locked myself in the house, I didn't want to get out. If that's you, if that's an example of you, that means you've not built your house upon the rock. You need to dig in deeper. You need to dig into those foundations of the word of God. Practice what you hear. Let's keep reading, verse 28. Almost done now guys, appreciate your patience. Verse 28, and it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings that people were astonished at his doctrine. Why were they astonished? Why were they shocked and surprised at the doctrine? For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. I guess that means the scribes didn't teach you authority. You know, the scribes were probably some soft-spoken preachers, you know. You know, didn't want to call out sin, didn't want to preach about hell, you know. You know, they didn't want to offend anybody, but when Jesus Christ preaches, he's not afraid to offend, okay. He's preaching the word of God, and when he taught, he taught authority, all right. Why? Because he was preaching the word of God, you know. If you say to me, you know, Pastor Kevin, you preach too loud, all right. You preach or you're too aggressive in the way you talk, you know. First of all, the reason I do it is because here we learn how preachers ought to preach. Preachers ought to preach with authority, all right, and I don't preach with authority because I'm thinking I'm such a great person. Well, first of all, I've got authority because I'm the pastor in the church, but I preach with authority because if we build our preaching on the word of God, we know the word of God is sound. We built it on sound doctrine, then we shouldn't be afraid. We shouldn't be ashamed to preach loud. We shouldn't be afraid to preach with boldness, and when you go and knock doors, guys, and you go and preach the gospel, please don't be timid. You've got the words of life. You've got the word of God on your side. You've got the truth. You knock on that door like we did some other guy this week, and they thought it was a police officer, okay, because he had boldness. He had confidence in what he was doing. He was preaching with authority. That's how we ought to be as long as we're building on the word of God, then we do have the authority to preach with boldness the way Jesus Christ did, all right. So if you're ever caught up here to preach, please do it with boldness. Do it with authority because you should have built your sermon on the word of God, all right. That's what I've got for you today. Let's pray.