The Choice Is Yours!

Matthew 7:13-23

Main Idea: Every person must choose either to obediently follow Jesus and true teaching or to disobediently follow their own path and false teaching, a choice with eternal impact.

1. You Must Choose between the Narrow Gate That Leads to Life and the Wide Gate That Leads to Destruction (7:13-14).
   1. The wide gate leads to eternal death (7:13).
   2. The narrow gate leads to eternal life (7:14).
2. You Must Choose between the Good Tree That Produces Good Fruit and the Bad Tree That Produces Bad Fruit (7:15-20).
   1. False teachers are deceptive (7:15).
   2. False teachers can be detected (7:16-18).
   3. False teachers will be destroyed (7:19-20).
3. You Must Choose between the Genuine Confession of the Obedient and the False Profession of the Disobedient (7:21-23).
   1. We give evidence that we know him by our obedience (7:21).
   2. We give evidence that we do not know him by our disobedience (7:22-23).

In the spring of 1977, I was faced with a choice that would impact the course and direction of my life. While attending a junior college, I was invited by the baseball coach to travel with the team throughout the summer in Latin America to play daily doubleheaders^[4] seven days a week. As a left-handed pitcher, I would be a valuable team member and play often. However, I had begun to walk with the Lord again and had my heart set on going on a two-week mission trip in the summer to an Indian reservation in Arizona. Much to the dismay and disbelief of my baseball coach, I turned his offer down. Little could I have imagined at the time that on that mission trip the Lord Jesus would call me into the gospel ministry. My life was altered and changed forever by that decision.

Life is filled with choices and decisions, what are often called “forks in the road.” The Bible recognizes this truth and speaks to it on several occasions.

• Joshua 24:15 calls you to choose which God/gods you will serve.
• Psalm 1 calls you to choose the way of the righteous or the way of the wicked.
• Proverbs 15:19 calls you to choose the way of the slacker or the way of the upright.
• Deuteronomy 30:19-20 says, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life.”

Like these passages, Matthew 7:13-27 sets before us a series of choices—forks in the road—that require us to make important decisions that will not only impact our lives but also our eternity. In sum, this section of Matthew asks us four questions:

1. Will you choose the difficult road and the narrow gate that lead to eternal life or the broad road and the wide gate that lead to eternal destruction (7:13-14)?
2. Will you choose the good tree with good fruit or the bad tree with bad fruit (7:15-20)?
3. Will you choose a genuine confession marked by obedience or a false profession marked by disobedience (7:21-23)?
4. Will you be wise and choose to build on the rock-solid foundation of God’s Word, or will you be foolish and build on sand that will lead to your destruction (7:24-27)?

This chapter will examine the first three. We will see that the choice is ours. We will see that we must choose wisely.

You Must Choose between the Narrow Gate That Leads to Life and the Wide Gate That Leads to Destruction

Matthew 7:13-14

A poem titled “Forks in the Road” by Sara Stowell nicely sets the stage for these verses.

There will always be forks in the road,

Decisions that have to be made.

You will always have to bear the load,

Of each debt that has to be paid.

Every fork has a destination,

With consequences to each choice.

Be wary of Earthly temptation,

For it may have the loudest voice.

Other paths will intersect your own,

Other lives will feel its effect.

The aftermath may remain unknown,

With results you may not expect.

Be careful not to be led astray,

From the righteous course you once strode.

Only through Faith can you find your way,

When you reach the forks in the road.

We have reached the climax of the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord’s teachings demand a response. Sitting idly by and trying to remain neutral is not an option. Sitting on the fence will not work. Two paths, two gates, stand before us. The one you choose has massive consequences.

The Wide Gate Leads to Eternal Death (7:13)

Jesus immediately throws a command in our direction: “Enter through the narrow gate.” “Enter” is an imperative and calls for decisive and immediate action. What we are to enter or “come into” is described as “the narrow gate.” Verse 14 tells us it is the path that leads to eternal life. The reason our Lord delivers such an urgent command is quickly made plain. Another gate and another road lead in a different direction and to a different destination. They lead to destruction and to damnation. That gate is wide. That road is broad. “There are many who go through it,” Jesus says.

The road that leads to the gate called destruction is large, attractive, and well traveled (Carson, Sermon, 123). Lots of people walk down it. It is the popular road, the well-known road. Ideologically it is not narrow in its thinking; it is open-minded. Morally it is not restrictive in its behavior; it has few rules. Virtually anything goes. Spiritually it is inclusive. Those on this road argue that there is a wide highway to heaven. Take the left, take the right, or stay in the middle, they say. We are all headed to the same place, its signs tell us.

This broad road is not new. It has been around a long time. You can find its origin in the garden of Eden when Satan said to Adam and Eve, Trust me rather than God. Solomon warned his son of it in Proverbs 1:10-16. The words there are striking and ominous. We ignore them at our own peril. There the father warns,

My son, if sinners entice you,

don’t be persuaded.

If they say—“Come with us!

Let’s set an ambush and kill someone.

Let’s attack some innocent person just for fun!

Let’s swallow them alive, like Sheol,

whole, like those who go down to the Pit.

We’ll find all kinds of valuable property

and fill our houses with plunder.

Throw in your lot with us,

and we’ll all share the loot”—

my son, don’t travel that road with them

or set foot on their path,

because their feet run toward evil

and they hurry to shed blood.

And do not neglect verse 18:

They set an ambush to kill themselves;

they attack their own lives.

Those on the broad road say, “All aboard!” They say, “Come join the party.” Little do they consider that this road is a dead end of eternal destruction. They are, as Solomon warns, setting their own eternal ambush.

The Narrow Gate Leads to Eternal Life (7:14)

Jesus calls us to walk the road less traveled. He calls us to pursue the narrow gate and the “difficult road.” Why? Two reasons are given. First, this road leads to a gate called eternal life. Second, because this road is difficult, “few find it.”

There is no universalism in the teachings of the Bible. Not everyone is going to be saved. There are not many roads that lead to heaven. Just consider the words of Jesus, Peter, and Paul:

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Tim 2:5)

Jesus is crystal clear in his teachings. The way to God is exclusive and restrictive. There is only one way, one road. The road that follows Christ is a road that is difficult and will involve suffering and persecution (cf. 5:10-12), but it takes us to a gate called eternal life. It is a road that can cause us to doubt and even despair if we get our eyes off the end game. If we lose sight of how it will all turn out, we will lose hope. Sinclair Ferguson points out the wisdom of Psalm 73 at this point (Sermon, 164). It is worth reading the entire psalm, but it is important for our study to notice the psalmist’s observation of the broad path. The psalmist says,

I envied the arrogant;

I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

They have an easy time until they die,

and their bodies are well fed.

They are not in trouble like others;

they are not afflicted like most people. (Ps 73:3-5)

The psalmist, however, realizes that the end of the broad road is a “slippery place” that makes those on it “fall into ruin,” “become a desolation,” and be “swept away by terrors” (Ps 73:18-19). This realization leads the psalmist to remember why he ought to pursue righteousness:

I was stupid and didn’t understand; . . .

Who do I have in heaven but you?

And I desire nothing on earth but you. . . .

Those far from you will certainly perish;

you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

But as for me, God’s presence is my good.

I have made the Lord my refuge,

so I can tell about all you do. (Ps 73:22, 25, 27-28)

There are those who will certainly perish. Then there are those who will discover God’s presence is their good. The latter travel the road I want to be on. It is the road that we find our Jesus on.

You Must Choose between the Good Tree That Produces Good Fruit and the Bad Tree That Produces Bad Fruit

Matthew 7:15-20

Jesus now moves the discussion from the path of destruction to teachers of destruction. He calls false prophets wolves in sheep’s clothing (v. 15). Just as it matters which spiritual and moral road we travel, it also matters which spiritual teachers we listen to and which moral guides we follow. Looks can be deceiving, so we must pay close attention. In order to discern whom to follow, Jesus tells us to watch how teachers act toward God’s people and to examine the fruit of their teaching. In the end false prophets will be exposed as those who walked on the broad road that leads to eternal destruction.

Before examining verses 15-20 we should note that the New Testament repeatedly addresses the danger of false teachers. Jesus will do it again in Matthew 24:23-26. Paul will do it in Acts 20:28-30; 2 1 Corinthians 11:3-4, 12-15; and 2 1 Timothy 3:1-9. Peter will do it in 2 Peter 2:1-22. John will do it in 1 John 2:18-23; 4:1-6; and 2 John 7-11. Jude will dedicate his short, twenty-five-verse book to the subject. False teachers produce bad fruit. We need to be careful from which trees we pick our fruit. Matthew 7:15-20 provides three principles to help us pick well.

False Teachers Are Deceptive (7:15)

Jesus once again fires off a command in our direction: “Be on your guard against false prophets.” “Be on guard” is a present imperative. It means to pay attention, be on the alert. Keep your spiritual guard up. The devil and his false prophets are working against you. However, they do not work fully exposed and transparent in their intentions. Rather, they dress themselves up like us. They come in “sheep’s clothing.” In reality they are not sheep. If you get past the façade, you will find “ravaging wolves.” Spurgeon well says, “Sheep’s clothing is all very fine, but we must look beneath it and spy out the wolves” (of Jesus Christ and the Word of God. Eloquent speech is not the issue. Faithfulness to the Bible is.

False Teachers Can Be Detected (7:16-18)

Charles Quarles notes, “False teachers disguise themselves as Jesus’ disciples in order to live undetected among the sheep of the flock and thus devour the sheep with great ease” (Sermon, 322). However, the wolves need not succeed. Jesus tells us we can “recognize them by their fruit.” He then provides a contrasting illustration to make his point. He makes the simple observation that grapes come from grapevines, not thorn bushes. Figs come from fig trees, not thistles. Not only are grapes and figs this way, but all good fruit comes from good trees, not bad trees. All bad fruit comes from bad trees, not good trees. In the same way, good teaching comes from true prophets, not false prophets. False teaching comes from false prophets, not true prophets.

Two essential tests will expose those working to slip into our communities of faith: the doctrinal test and the practical test. The doctrinal test asks, Do their teachings line up with the gospel of Jesus Christ that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone? It asks whether they avoid the deadly mathematics of false teachers that add to the Bible, subtract from the person and work of Christ, multiply the requirements of salvation, and divide the people of God by a divisive and destructive spirit. The practical test asks, Are they antinomians on the one hand or legalists on the other? It asks whether they throw off all constraint to the extreme or seek to shackle us with legalistic obligations that are suffocating. If we closely watch doctrine and practice, then rotten fruit will expose a rotten teacher.

False Teachers Will Be Destroyed (7:19-20)

The destiny of false prophets is a signed, sealed, and settled reality. They do not produce good fruit. In the end they are “cut down and thrown into the fire.” The words of our Lord echo those of his cousin John the Baptist who says, “The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt 3:10). False prophets are on the broad road to hell. Those who follow them will face the same fate, the same eternal destiny. This is the Word of God, not ours. The responsibility we bear is found in verse 20: “So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.” Daniel Doriani is right:

Matthew, 299–300)

You Must Choose between the Genuine Confession of the Obedient and the False Profession of the Disobedient

Matthew 7:21-23

These are some of the most terrifying verses in all of the Bible. They follow naturally from verses 13-20. I tremble every time I read them. To think I could say, “Jesus is my Lord,” and hear him respond to me, “I never knew you,” is frightening. To think I could preach and even do miracles in his name and have him say to me on the day of judgment, “Depart from me, you law breakers,” is horrifying. These words should send shivers down our spines and cause our hearts to skip a beat. They should drive us to ask not, “Do I know Jesus?” but instead to ask, “Does Jesus know me?”

The idea of true lordship dominates the passage. The word “Lord” appears four times in two couplets. Jesus will make a clear distinction between a false profession and a genuine confession. He will provide an ironclad, rock-solid test to distinguish between the two.

We Give Evidence that We Know Him by Our Obedience (7:21)

Jesus begins with a surprising and even startling statement in verse 21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus does not say our profession of him as our Lord is unimportant. Scripture makes clear that our confession of Jesus as Lord is important. Paul says in Romans 10:9 that “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:3 that “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (cf. Phil 2:9-11). The implication is that by the Spirit’s enablement we can truly and authentically declare Jesus is Lord and that this is an evidence of authentic Christianity.

But Jesus wants us to understand that we can profess Christ as Lord without knowing Christ as Lord. It is possible to profess Christ as Lord and for Jesus to deem that profession as false and inauthentic. What is the test of a true profession of faith? A transformed and obedient life reveals true faith. The one who “will enter the kingdom of heaven” is the one who professes Jesus as Lord and “does the will of my Father in heaven.” Obedience is evidence that a profession of Christ is true. Spurgeon says it so well:

An orthodox creed will not save if it stands alone. . . . Without personal holiness, the caster-out of devils will be cast out himself. . . . Nothing will prove us to be true Christians but a sincere doing of the Father’s will! (Exposition, 45)

We Give Evidence that We Do Not Know Him by Our Disobedience (7:22-23)

Three times in verses 22-23 the false professors declare that they did what they did “in your [Christ’s] name.” Standing before God in eschatological judgment (“On that day”), they will declare, (1) we prophesied in your name, (2) we drove out demons in your name, and (3) we did many miracles in your name. Nevertheless, they will hear from the one they called Lord, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers” (cf. Ps 6:8). The word “lawbreakers” (Gk anomia) connects back to the idea that they failed to do “the will of my Father in heaven.”

Once more we are confronted with what I call “demon faith” (cf. Jas 2:19). There is an orthodox confession and even an impressive spiritual resume as judged by men. God, however, sees things in a completely different light. He sees us as we truly are. Don Carson brings a helpful perspective on all of this when he writes,

It is true, of course, that no man enters the kingdom because of his obedience; but it is equally true that no man enters the kingdom who is not obedient. It is true that men are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ; but it is equally true that God’s grace in a man’s life inevitably results in obedience. Any other view of grace cheapens grace, and turns it into something unrecognizable. Cheap grace preaches forgiveness without repentance, church membership without rigorous church discipline, discipleship without obedience, blessing without persecution, joy without righteousness, results without obedience. In the entire history of the church, has there ever been another generation with so many nominal Christians and so few real (i.e., obedient) ones? And where nominal Sermon, 131)

Quarles insightfully adds, “Just as false prophets were ravenous wolves who disguised themselves as sheep, some goats (25:31-46) [attempt] to masquerade as sheep as well” (Sermon, 330).

Conclusion

These verses teach us how important it is to stay close to Jesus, to know him, love him, and obey him. When you and I consider the road to walk, we must remember that Jesus is the way and no one comes to the Father but by him (John 14:6). When you and I consider the two gates that open before us two eternal destinies, we must remember Jesus is “the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7). As the Lord promises, “I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” (John 10:9). When you and I consider the teachers whom we will follow and whom we can trust to give us the words of eternal life, we must heed the words of the apostle Peter who said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69). And when it comes to the essential wedding of our confession and obedience, we will daily recall the words of our Savior in John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” Life is filled with choices. May we always choose Jesus. We will never be let down or disappointed if we choose him.

Reflect and Discuss

1. How can you know if you are walking on the wide path or the narrow path?
2. Is the choice between the wide and narrow paths a one-time choice, or will you need to choose between them on multiple occasions? Why?
3. Is the path to eternal life narrow because of God’s design or man’s choices?
4. Read all of Psalm 73. How does the psalmist’s realization help us choose the narrow path when it is the more difficult one?
5. True teachers and false teachers will both appeal to Scripture. So how can the church know which teachings are true and which are false?
6. Why are false teachings so convincing at times?
7. What false teachings are popular today that the church needs to be aware of?
8. What are steps the church can take to protect itself against false teachers and false teaching?
9. Is it possible for someone to teach something incorrect but not be a false teacher? Why or why not?
10. If not everyone who says they know Jesus is in fact known by Jesus, how can you know for certain that Jesus knows you? How can the church help make sure each person genuinely knows Jesus as their Lord?