There are many ways in which people are fooled each and every day. Sometimes they are fooled in harmless ways like by a simple prank or even an illusionist performing a trick on a stage. Those things can be fun, but sometimes we can be fooled in ways that can hurt us. Sometimes it can hurt us financially - like when a scammer tries to fool us into giving them our financial and personal information by cleaning out our bank account. We can even find ourselves physically or emotionally hurt when we are being used by someone who we thought was our friend, but we find out the hard way that they weren’t. While those ways are terrible and I pray you never have to experience any of them, there is a worse way to be fooled that can cause much more damage and that is when we fool ourselves. It can be something as simple as fooling ourselves into thinking that the check engine light on our car isn’t a big deal. Soon we find ourselves stranded on the side of the road with an astronomical mechanic’s bill that could have been avoided.
Now as terrible as an unexpected and avoidable car repair is, how much worse would it be if we fooled ourselves concerning eternal things? In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul tells the church ”Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.” That is my challenge to you this morning, to test yourselves and see if you are really in the faith. How can we do that?
Jesus wraps up His sermon on the mount in Matthew 7, He gives us three tests to see if we are truly in the faith, or if we are just fooling ourselves.
1. Test One - What road are you on? - Matthew 7:13-14
Matthew 7:13-14
13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”
In this text, Jesus gives us a picture of two roads that are being traveled and both are very different from each other. He describes these roads in such a way that we must ask ourselves which road we are on right now, because as much as we want to, we cannot travel both roads at the same time. Let’s start by looking at the pathway to life (the narrow road).
This path cannot be entered into without first going through the narrow gate and what exactly is this gate? It’s Jesus Himself. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is recorded saying in one of His seven “I am” statements that, “I am the gate” and in another He states that “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except by Me.” Jesus is the only door to this path that leads to God’s Kingdom. Once you enter this path, Jesus describes it as difficult and narrow. This is in sharp contrast to the other path Jesus describes here. The idea is that a narrow gate and a narrow path means you can’t take anything with you for there are things you will have to leave behind. Warren Wiersbe said when we are trying to decide which road, we are on in our lives we must ask ourselves, “What did my salvation cost me?”. When you are on the narrow path, it will always cost you something.
The other path is the one that we have all traveled at one point in our life and many of us might still be on. It’s the path that leads to destruction. This path doesn’t have a gate at the beginning, but rather at the end. If we are honest this path is rather appealing. It’s wide and comfortable. There are many people there and most are just like us. You can bring anything you want. You don’t have to sacrifice a thing to walk this path, and to be honest it’s probably a lot more fun… until the path ends. This path is easy, it’s fun, and most people prefer it until the consequences of this path are felt.
These are two very distinctive paths so it shouldn’t be hard to tell which path we are on. As we said before the problem, we face is that many people try to be on both paths at the same time. We can fool ourselves into thinking we have the assurance of salvation while still enjoying the temporary benefits and pleasures of the wide path. When we try to stay on both paths, we are, in fact, still on the wide path. There is no doubt a life with Jesus will cost you something, some more than others, but it always costs something. Which path are you on?
2. Test Two - What fruit are your producing? - Matthew 7:15-20
Matthew 7:15-20
15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way, they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”
When we hear the term “wolf in sheep's clothing” we tend to think of others. It maybe some TV preacher who takes advantage of those who watch or a prosperity gospel preacher. While those are definitely wolves in sheep's clothing, I want us to look at it in a slightly different way. The sermon title this morning is “Don’t Fool Yourself”, so I don’t want us to look at others this morning, but rather look at ourselves. How do we do that? We look at the fruit in our lives. As Jesus says here in our text, fruit is one thing you can’t fake. While it is true from a distance, fruits can look similar, but it’s not until we get up close that we can tell the difference. It’s like a yam or a sweet potato, a plantain or a banana, or the worst of all mix ups: the chocolate chip cookie or an oatmeal raisin cookie. The people around us in our lives will feed off the fruits our lives produce. When we are producing bad fruit that they take in (many times thinking they are good) we are that “wolf in sheep's clothing.” Those around us as well as ourselves will reap those consequences. What exactly do the good fruits look like in our lives?
First of all they must be different. In Christ we are a new creation, the old is gone and the new is come. This is not just a renewal of parts of our lives but is a renewal of everything in our lives which includes the fruits we produce. If the fruits have never changed it should be awfully hard to convince ourselves that we have been made new in Christ. We will often fool ourselves into thinking that it’s no big deal, that we’re fine just the way we are, when our fruits say otherwise.
We need to know what good fruit looks like. There are plenty of things in scripture that we can go to for examples of good fruits. Does how we love others reflect the attitudes laid out in 1 Corinthians 13? Does our daily attitude reflect the Kingdom attitudes Jesus speaks of in Matthew 5? Are we seeing the fruit of the spirit that are laid out in Galatians 5:22-23? Are we sharing our faith with others and seeing people come to know Christ? These are just a few of the many fruits that the Bible talks about that will come from a life that has been transformed by Christ. Will these fruits be perfect? No, they will still have flaws because the people who are producing them have flaws, but they will still be good. What types of fruit are you producing?
3. Test Three - Who do you follow? - Matthew 7:21-23
Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.”
The last test Jesus gives is a very unnerving test and should cause each of us who call ourselves Christians to pause and consider. It’s the lordship test. In this account we are at the judgment and there are many there who seem from the outside to have it all together and are ready to face the Judge of all the earth. These people Jesus speaks of seem to have all the right doctrines and teachings. They seem to have the right outward religious actions. They even seem to have all the right religious words, but yet they are cast out of the presence of Jesus on judgment day. Jesus tells them He never knew them. That should be a terrifying thought to all, but why did Jesus do this?
This is because it’s not religious words that save you. It’s because your religious works do not save you. It’s because your correct doctrines do not save you, but only grace through faith that will. The Bible says in Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.” The key word here is confess. If you confess to something that means it is true, so you must have placed your faith or trust in Jesus to be the Lord of your life and actually made Him the boss. That’s the key and it goes hand in hand with all the other tests. When Jesus is Lord of your life, when you have a saving relationship with Him you enter through that narrow door and are on the difficult path. When you have a saving relationship with Jesus, He renews and changes everything about you including the fruits of your life. When you have a saving relationship with Jesus, He’s not just someone you give lip service to, but He actually is the Lord of your entire life. He is your Lord and everything about you proclaims that fact to a lost and dying world. Like I have said many times in previous sermons, it’s obedience that flows out of this relationship. It’s not obedience that gets us into this relationship. It’s by grace we have been saved, through faith, not of any works. It’s making Jesus the Lord of your life that is key. Jesus is Lord of all, but is He truly YOUR Lord today?
I encourage you this morning just like Paul was encouraging the church at Corinth to test yourself to see if you’re in the faith. It’s not fun, but you must be honest to get honest results. Are you on the narrow path? What do your fruits look like? Who is really leading your life? These are questions no one can answer but you. Don’t try to fool yourself into thinking you’re ok. Don’t like the results? Good! Jesus can change those results immediately and He’s just a prayer away. What is keeping you from making Jesus the Lord of your life today?
