This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 21, 1990.
The prophecy of Micah, chapter 3. If you’re having a little trouble locating Micah, it’s after Jonah. And we will be reading from the fifth verse to the end of that chapter. Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray. When they have something to bite with their teeth, they cry peace.
But against him who puts nothing in their mouths, they declare holy war. Therefore, it will be night for you without vision and darkness for you without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets and the day will become dark over them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.
On the other hand, I am filled with power with the spirit of the Lord, and with justice and courage to make known to Jacob his rebellious act, even to Israel his sin. Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who have poor justice and twist everything that is straight Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests instruct for a price, and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord in our midst? Calamity will not come upon us. Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will become high places of affluence.
And then turning over to Matthew chapter seven, beginning with verse seven. Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. For what man is there among you when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? For if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him?
Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them. For this is the law and the prophets, entered by the marriages For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing that inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from from thorn bushes, more figs from thistles are they? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree can produce, cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit. Every tree that is not that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruit.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons? And in your name, perform many miracles, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you, apart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
Oh Lord, as the sun rises upon the earth, so your word rises upon the continents. Your word goes forth, and that is to perform your will. And our Father, we would have your word performing your will in us, that we might be known as those who do the will of our Father in heaven. Our Father, we are weak, yet you are strong. Grant us power, Lord, in and by your word, so that we, in the service of your great name, may do those things that are pleasing in your sight. Our God, encourage us with respect to the reading and the retaining of your word.
May we be dutiful with regard to that reading and may we remember well the things that we learned. This for Jesus’ sake and your glory. Amen. There are two things that we must keep in mind at all times as we move through the Sermon on the Mount. Two things that we’re very liable, likely to forget. The first is that this sermon is built upon the reality of an event.
Jesus doesn’t come to us as one who just communicates to us ideas, a philosophy. even ideas about morality behave. Jesus is, first of all, and foremostly, that proclaimer of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom has come in him. Now, there’s another thing we must keep in mind as we would expound the kingdom of heaven. And that is central to this figure of Jesus Christ is the ministry that he performs for us. We think, therefore, of his cross and of his resurrection.
At no point can we distance ourselves from these two things as we move through the Sermon on the Mount. We must discipline ourselves to keep these things in view. the event of the coming of the kingdom in Christ and the centrality of Christ’s death and resurrection.
At every point, you must remember these things so that you might interpret the sermon. All right. We have now come to the third and final section of this particular portion of the Sermon on A portion which we have entitled invitations and warnings. And as we move through this portion. We will watch Jesus, our Lord, move from that expensive and explosive invocation in birth seven. to the firm and awesomely serious warning of verse fifteen, beware. Beware. And as we move through this portion, it becomes plain to us just how interconnected all of the various aspects of this text are. We’re looking at verses seven through twenty three. And we will become conscious increasingly conscious of the interconnectedness of what Jesus has to say. No. Jesus with birth seven.
Invite his disciples. His disciples are specifically in view those who are drawn to him, specifically now, those who are united to him, not that the multitude mentioned at the end of this chapter, verse twenty-eight. Don’t hear the things that Jesus said, but specifically the disciples, those whom he has deliberately chosen, gathered to himself, assembled there on the Mount with him.
Jesus invites his disciples to ask, to seek, to knock. In that, you should hear a message concerning yourself, if it’s true that you claim to be a disciple of Jesus. If so, then, you are invited You are encouraged to ask, to seek, and to knock. If you are a disciple, if you are a member of his body, if you are a part of his church, the invitation goes out, ask, seek, knock. And how magnanimous the invitation.
Now, Jesus does this because heaven itself and the Father, who is in heaven, have now become accessible in a way they never were before. It is a new day of access with the coming of Christ and His kingdom. Because of this new day, now you may ask and seek and knock as never before and with assurances that were inconceivable previously. Well, how marvelously refreshing invigorating. Jesus’ words are. For note, note the significance of them. What is at their foundation is this. Something new has happened. Something new has taken place.
An event has occurred that cannot be erased that cannot be undone. Can we go back and unmake history? Can we go back and undo what God has fixed in the plane of space and time, in the history that you have experienced Something then has transpired that cannot be erased or undone. God has acted. He has acted mightily in Christ. He has acted summarily in Christ. He has acted finally in Christ, and now because of this unprecedented act of God.
Come, ask, see, marvel, and you will not be disappointed. You will not be. But with this wonderful invitation from our Savior, Also comes the strongly stated reminder, the reminder that sets before the boundaries of our life as disciples of the king. Yes, by all means, now and now, as never before. seek not.
Confidence utter and absolute confidence about your access, because of who Christ is, what he accomplishes, the entrance that he gives up to heaven and to the father. But remember, as you come and ask and seek and knock Remember that you are a disciple, a disciple of the realm of the king, and it is the kingdom of that king and his righteousness which you, after all, seek after. Seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Matthew six, thirty three.
Therefore, in your asking and in your seeking and knocking, you are bounded. Jesus intentionally makes it sound as if there are no boundaries at all, so much that he wants to communicate the access that is now wrong, but we know, do we not? that that invitation has boundaries all its own.
We are bounded, therefore, by the kingdom and by this God who issues invitation to us. Our requests sit within the frame of that kingdom. and are in accord with the nature of the God we serve, in keeping with his righteousness. And therefore it is imperative that we know him well, that we might ask well and write. But remember the other borders that we’ve spoken of, the borders of covenantal response.
Those borders spoken everywhere in Scripture, asserted and reinforced. The covenantal response of faith. Can we actually ask without faith Can we speak without faith or not without faith? Are we not told elsewhere in Scripture, without faith it is impossible to please God. For we who come to him must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews eleven verse six. So there is the border of faith, covenant response to him. We cannot ask without faith.
And what about that other inseparable covenantal response? Repentance, not a very popular word in our time. Repentance. That is The humility expressed in the prayer of the penitent publican, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Can we come to our God and ask, seek and not, without that humility in us? So ask, seek and not, but keep before you the kingdom. Keep before you faith. and contrite humility. Well, you know, as is testified in the Old and New Testaments, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
Now, in what we have studied, Jesus will point out for us that consummate covenantal response, that response that is spoken of in the twelfth verse of the seventh chapter as the summation of the law and the prophets, the covenantal response of love. This new day of access, then, that has opened up for us because of Christ, with which we are given invitation there in verse 7, builds on to that twelfth verse. so that it is not so much complete in us until it is complete in such a way that there is a new day of access to us, not just access for us. The new day of access to God means now for you a new day of access to you by others.
Shall we paraphrase, then, for you the golden rule, as we have been setting it out here for you week by week? Listen now, listen Whatever you want others to do for you, when you ask, do for them when they ask. You see how 7 begins with you asking, and then 12 closes with others asking of you. In the covenant. We are taught. That the objective is. Conformity. And is not God in his life open to you. Has he not proved it. Through Jesus Christ. And should you not be now. open to others.
If you are truly his, you are compelled by what Jesus says. For in hearing him, there is the evidence of your regeneration. But now this one Jesus Christ who informs us of the new day of access and draws us on in this day of access, so that we are accessible to others. Now this one, who in his very person and by way of his death for our sins, and by virtue of his resurrection, actually sealing that day of access that is ours in him, this one delivers to us appropriate good. Now the first warning is laid, as it were, beneath the surface. There, verse 13, it picks up in part on the spirit of that grand invitation. Not only ask, seek and not, but now Jesus says in verse 13, enter in. Jesus invites the disciple to enter life, to enter the kingdom of heaven in full. But as he does, there is this warning that begins to dominate the words of our Savior.
He sets before us two gates. He tells us that invariably, inevitably, you can’t avoid it. No matter who you are, there are two gates before you and there are two ways upon which you can walk. There are two cities and two destinations, only two. There is heaven and there is hell. You will be gripped by Jesus’ invitation when you enter. He beseeches. He pleads. O disciple of the king, enter. Will you not enter? Jesus says, be on your guard now.
There is that popular, that easy gate that seems ever so right, but is wrong. On the other hand, there is that unpopular, hard gate, that gate that is narrow and filled even with suffering. that seems ever so long to the world and sadly too much too much of the church.
But in the end. The one day is the one that by entering you will indeed save your life in this world. The other gate is nothing less than the cross. The route by which you lose your life in this world, but gain it for eternity. Enter the small gate by the narrow way that leads to life indeed.
But just as Jesus would not have you naive about gates and ways and destinations and cities, he would not have you naive about guides along the road. He would not have you naive about the company you keep. Doesn’t Paul quote for us the Proverbs? Bad company corrupts good manners. But here Jesus has in mind specifically the guides that appear along the road, on the way. And he says, beware. Beware of the false prophets.
The new day of access, inaugurated by Jesus and the invitation to enter that comes forth from him, does not mitigate the dangers that arise for us in our circumstance, in our present circumstance. Although the kingdom has come with its saving power and its gift of righteousness by grace with its rich and deep blessedness in Christ, still we stand at this time short of glory. We have not entered into heaven yet in our resurrected bodies. And while this circumstance persists, and it shall until Christ comes again, We are in need of this admonition, and that is why it is so tragic to hear some within even believing churches tell us that there is no enemy from within.
The enemy is only from within. It is a lie. It is a lie. And every false prophet delights in that lie. So then, on the authority of Jesus himself, there are in fact false prophets, those who enter in and tragically take advantage of sheep. Those who purport to know the way and to know it intimately, who can give you all the details, who claim that they themselves are in the way of the true gate that leads to life, but in fact are not.
Jesus here explicitly describes them. They are wolves. They are ravenous wolves. Don’t be naïve, don’t be deceived. What’s the force of Jesus’ description? Wolves, ravenous wolves. They come disguised as sheep. wolves in sheep’s clothing. They come disguised as harmless, as part of the flock.
But in the end, they are sheep eaters. And you are their meat. Don’t offer yourself up as meat to sheep eaters. These people are intent upon feeding themselves. They will secure for themselves their well-being at your expense. But you say there’s a problem. Ordinarily, sheep eaters don’t go around with signs on them. They don’t walk around advertising the fact, I am a sheep eater. I am actually a wolf. That’s why they’re wearing sheep’s clothing after all. So how are you to know a sheep eater?
Jesus tells us that they are recognizable. He tells us that they are recognizable in the fruit that they produce. He tells us bad trees produce bad fruit. You say, I’m listening, Jesus, but I’m not sure I’m helped yet. I’m listening to you, all right? I get the images, I can follow the words, but help me a little more here. What does Jesus mean? What does he have in mind by this fruit of which he speaks? Can we with confidence then recognize the sheep eaters, the wolves?
No, it is too bad. It is unfortunate that Jesus’ words here in this section, for too long and by too many, have been reduced to a matter of mere good doctrine and good works, as if the contrary were what Jesus had in mind exclusively. Just look for the guy that has bad doctrine. Just look for the fellow that is empty, devoid of good works. Then you’ll know. Is it all that easy?
Why, Jesus has in mind here unbelieving modernism. He has in mind liberalism. Those who have abandoned the truth, attacked cardinal doctrines of Scripture, turned their back on the virgin birth of Christ as sinless life, His substitutionary death on the cross is bodily resurrection, the authority of the Word of God. Why, it’s everyone that’s not an Orthodox Presbyterian. That’s who he has in mind.
Now, of course, we do favor good doctrine and good works. But don’t go down that road that nearly reduces Jesus’ statement here to a matter of discerning good doctrine and good work, as if you had in them the infallible guarantee to sort out who the sheep were and who the wolves are.
That was the problem, you see, that overtook the prophets in the eighth century. The false prophets of Jerusalem, of which the false prophets of Jerusalem, during the time of Isaiah and Micah, we have read from Micah today, the third chapter, for all intents and purposes were orthodox. They preached in the name of Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, and from their point of view they were law keepers. But according to Isaiah and Micah, these men were motivated by their appetite. Isaiah and Micah go to work on them to expose their inner motivation, and that inner motivation clearly manifests itself in their doctrine and in their work, but you have to be clear-headed to see that.
The false prophets, as maybe you discern from that reading in Micah 3, the false prophets preached the invincibility of Jerusalem. God wouldn’t overthrow Jerusalem. He wouldn’t destroy that city. And these false prophets proclaim to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the certainty of an earthly rule of which they were going to get a sizable portion.
In fact, they already were getting a sizable portion. The prophets prophesied for money. They feasted on the things of this world and worked for the increase of this world’s good, as those goods were accumulated for themselves. They preached for the wages of unrighteousness, for the sake of mammon. They were prophets for profit, who manipulated doctrine and law to their own advantage. Leaders who, in the end, were incapable of suffering for the sake of God’s cause and the cause of the eternal kingdom. There was no cross in their gospel. None. None. In the end, they proved that they are not reborn, they are not a good tree.
In the end, they prove they are interested in one thing, satisfying themselves, and you are here for that purpose. Did you know your purpose is to feed my ego? As well as my pocketbook? To make sure I have a secure and safe life? to make sure my authority is not challenged and I can rule over you with an iron fist, make demands and see you jump? Did you know that it is your purpose to build for me my kingdom, my empire? Now we’ve gotten off to a slow start, but I do have plans. And you can all be a part of it. You can be on the first floor. Well, in the expansion we’ll even dedicate a brick to you. You’ve heard the appeals. The foolish. The money dragon. You’ve heard the message from the walls, and it doesn’t have one thing to do with the cross, despite what they say. In the end, it isn’t a matter of conservative versus liberal, is it? For we’re hearing so much from evangelicals and conservatives who are saying just that. when all of the debris and subterfuge is cleared.
Beware of the false prophets, says Jesus. In the end, these prophets prove themselves removed from that great, true and final prophet. The true vine the right and proper tree, the righteous branch, the one productive of perfect fruit, who sacrifices himself in his love for his sheep. No wolf, no sheep eater, but the veritable lamb of God. who takes away our sin. Let’s pray. Lord, would you impress upon us the greatness of Jesus, the great and true and final prophet of ours. How marvelous a prophet he is, proclaiming to us the riches that are found in him, the way of salvation, the gate by which we might enter in, he having gone before us. But Lord, we pray too, that we would be on the alert against all false prophets, and may we not give in to them an inch. but call them what they are, sheep eaters, bulls, who would devour the sheep so that they might be satisfied. Oh Lord, protect your church, guard her along the way, may we with all humility cry out unto you that we might be preserved.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.