2nd Sunday after Pentecost.
May 29, 2005
Matthew 7:15-29.

^7:15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰Thus you will know them by their fruits.

²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²²On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ ²³Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

²⁴“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. ²⁶And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

²⁸Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, ²⁹for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. (NRS).

Hear and Act!

  Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Those words probably make you a little uncomfortable. And I hope they do! I say that for two reasons. First, I hope you sense a sort of tension between Jesus’ words and those of Paul, that we are justified by grace through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Hearing Jesus say that only those who do the will of God will enter the kingdom of heaven should at least make you wonder about the relationship between faith and works.

  The second reason is that I hope those words make you reflect on your own life. Do you do the will of God? Do you care whether or not you do the will of God or are you so sure of your own goodness that you never give the question of doing God’s will a second thought?

  Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. With those words Jesus does not contradict Paul. Jesus was the first to proclaim the Good News by freely forgiving people’s sins and healing them. So he does not mean to tell you to trust him and then take away that trust by reading you the fine print, that you that you must do something to earn your place in the kingdom. But he does want you to take very seriously the relationship between faith and deeds so that you do not loose faith. The point that you need to understand is that you must strive to do the will of God—not so that you can be saved—but so that you will not be deceived, loose faith and thus fail to enter the kingdom.

  You see, faith and deeds are inseparable. This is the constant testimony of the Scriptures. Faith in Christ causes you to act a certain way and value certain things. The person who has seen himself in God’s mirror, seen that he or she is a law-breaker, is lost and condemned, is a poor, miserable sinner, and then sees God wash him with the blood of his Son and clothe him with Christ, that person will love God. That man, woman or child will know that God has given him a new life, has literally brought him back from the dead. And his life will reflect that faith. That faith in Christ and gratitude to God will well up inside and come out as words and deeds that please God. It happens naturally, like a good tree bears good fruit, like an apple tree bears apples.

  Since faith and deeds always come together as a pair, when we speak of one, the other is assumed. It’s like the two sides of a coin. You can examine and speak of one side, but it does not exist without the other side. That would be an absurd thought! So when Jesus says that only he who does the will of God will enter the kingdom of heaven, it is assumed that faith is part of the picture. The context makes that clear. The Sermon on the Mount was teaching directed to Jesus’ disciples. He began with the section we call the Beatitudes in which he tells his disciples that they are the children of God who will inherit the kingdom. Then he goes on to call them the salt of the earth and the light of the world. They are already right with God. They already have faith in Jesus. So he teaches them how to live as his disciples.

  Because faith and deeds always go together, the Scriptures always speak of the judgement in terms of our works. Later in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells how he will return to separate people, the just from the unjust, like a shepherd separates sheep from goats. He says nothing of their faith. He speaks only of their deeds good or bad. Paul in his epistle to the Romans, the great letter of justification by grace through faith speaks of the judgment in terms of our deeds. God will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. (Romans 2:6-8).

  In each case, faith is the assumed cause of the deeds in question. But faith is invisible. It’s a matter of the heart, mind or soul. God sees it directly, but you and I can’t. We can only see faith indirectly through the behaviour it produces. We can see faith only in our deeds. So when God judges, and wants to show us that his judgment is just, he looks at our deeds. There is where we can see a person’s faith or lack of it. And so Jesus says of the false prophets, You will know them by their fruits. You can’t see into their soul, but you can see their deeds. And so, in the end, faith isn’t abstract. It’s concrete, tangible and practical.

  So what happens when a person doesn’t do the will of God? What if he or she has no deeds that come from faith? It’s very simple! That person looses faith. Since faith and its works are inseparably bound like the two sides of a coin, one cannot have one without the other. According to Jesus’ words, without deeds, one becomes a false prophet and a fool. That person has been deceived. Faith in God cannot exist without doing the will of God. You cannot trust Christ and ignore his teaching. That is the deception about which Jesus is warning us.

  One can be deceived in two ways. One way is by false prophets. Jesus doesn’t define who he means by false prophets. But in the Scriptures we encounter false prophets as either people who claim to have revelations from God but really don’t, or people who claim to be Christ but really are not. Basically we’re talking about people within the Church who deceive and manipulate others by claiming to speak for Jesus. Extreme examples are Jim Jones and David Koresh. They are dangerous and literally lead people to ruin.

  How can we spot them? Twice Jesus says, You will know them by their fruits. He doesn’t say to give them a doctrinal exam or analyse their sermons and books. He says to look at their works. What do they do? Do they do the will of God or only talk about it? There are people who can quote the Scriptures to you like the devil did to Jesus. They put on a fine show. They even claim to perform miracles in Jesus’ name. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. Jesus only repeats their claims and says, I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”

  When words and deeds don’t match, you know something is wrong. People can say the right things but not do them. This is one of the reasons why Jesus railed on the Pharisees. The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. (Matthew 23:1-7). If you and I fail to see this in others, they may deceive us like Belinda Stronach deceived Peter McKay! They may get us to believe that it’s all right to do what God forbids and ignore what he commands like Satan deceived Eve. And then Jesus will have to say to us, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”

  The second way we are deceived is that we deceive ourselves. We hear God’s word but we don’t do it. We imagine that simply admiring Jesus and agreeing that his example would be a great ideal is to be his disciple. But the truth is, if we don’t do what he says, our faith is an abstract, meaningless word. So James says, But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

  Brothers and sisters, God doesn’t play silly word games. If you do what Jesus says, you will be blessed; if you don’t, you’ll bring on your own ruin. Faith and deeds go together. It is impossible to have one with out the other. Therefore you must strive to do the will of God—not so that you can be saved—but so that you will not be deceived, lose faith and thus fail to enter the kingdom.