THE FORGING TABLE | Matthew 7 (Ep. 522)

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1:18 Welcome back to the Forging Table.

1:26 The mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push back darkness with content that

1:29 forges spiritual, mental and physical resilience.

1:32 At the Forging Table, you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience

1:35 by digging into God's Word, and we're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with

1:39 us.

1:40 All veterans today, we've got Zach, Matt, and Eric Browning.

1:42 Why did I say your last name and not everyone else's last name?

1:44 I've done that before.

1:45 It's the C.

1:46 It's like that one, I feel like I have to be more proper because you're closer to me.

1:50 Do you feel like I favor you more than the other two?

1:53 For sure.

1:54 Because I do.

1:55 That's why you're next to me.

1:56 I love it.

1:57 Really, she smelled the best.

1:58 All right.

1:59 Hey, we're digging in to Matthew 7 today.

2:00 And as we just talked about off air, like how in the world can we talk about Matthew 7

2:03 and like an hour-ish, like it's just there's so much here to really dig into.

2:08 And so I'm not going to belabor this any further.

2:11 So since I like you the most, Eric, and since you're actually drinking right now and I'm

2:14 distracting you, if you can read verses one through six of Matthew 7, we'll dig in.

2:19 Sure.

2:20 Judge not that you be not judged for with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

2:25 And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

2:28 Why do you see the spec that is in your brother's eye?

2:31 But do not notice the log that is in your own eye or how can you say to your brother,

2:36 let me take the spec out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye.

2:41 Do hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly the

2:45 take the spec out of your own, out of your brother's eye.

2:49 Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample

2:53 them underfoot in turn to attack you.

2:56 So judge not that you not be judged that first part right here, the words of Jesus, is there

3:03 a more misused scripture in all the Bible?

3:07 Because I know there's a lot of them, there's like a whole pantheon of misused scriptures.

3:12 This is the biggest one.

3:13 This one is probably the one that is misused the most by Christians and non-Christians

3:18 alike.

3:19 So if you start judging, if you're a Christian and you're judging another Christian, a tertiary

3:22 Christian would be like, oh, you're not allowed to do that.

3:25 And people that don't read the Bible have never had the Bible, they've at least picked

3:27 up on that.

3:28 These are secular people that are like, wait a minute, I thought Christians weren't supposed

3:32 to judge.

3:33 I can't think of another one that is more misused than this.

3:35 I would say it's to me, it's certainly the most used by non-believers.

3:39 Right.

3:40 Easily.

3:41 That's the hammer that they wield against a Christian who says something is wrong.

3:47 But I would agree with that.

3:49 Yeah, that's a misused opposite way.

3:53 I tried to give you like a non-verbal to point the mic directly, everybody.

3:57 It's all good.

3:58 But yeah, like the misuse is just, I don't know, like that's just what I've noticed.

4:01 Like if you guys noticed the same.

4:03 Sure.

4:04 Yeah.

4:05 I had written down that God model's unconditional love, but not unconditional approval.

4:10 Right.

4:11 You know, so it's, you know, just, you can't just throw that out there and be like, so

4:15 don't judge me.

4:16 Well, no, I mean, if you're breaking the law and you're not living by truth and I feel

4:22 like I can, I can say something.

4:24 Even the secularist judges, everybody judges, and I really like what Tim Keller has to say

4:29 about this.

4:30 And I'm not, I'm not going to quote him.

4:31 But he talks about like, if somebody asks you or says something about Matthew seven,

4:36 judge not lest you be judged, like, do you look at things that people are doing this

4:40 kind of summary of what he is talking about?

4:43 If I say to Eric, do you see things that other people do that you don't agree with?

4:46 Yeah.

4:47 I mean, and you would say, oh, that's wrong.

4:49 Like you're judging.

4:50 You're in that moment judging.

4:52 So we do that all the time.

4:53 And I, you know, the call to discernment and the thing that I wrote down was we should

4:58 hate our own sin more than we hate the sin and others.

5:01 And I know that's been said a lot, but I think it's a really good picture of how our heart

5:06 should be, or how the position that we should take towards this type of thing, like, I should

5:12 hate my own sin more than I hate Kyle's because a lot of times I can't see that.

5:19 And I'm, I'm blinded or I have a blind spot to that one and inherently there's humility

5:23 in that as well.

5:24 Go ahead, Zach.

5:25 I was just going to say, I mean, I agree with you.

5:27 You know, you get to the point where you read this and it's saying you need to understand

5:30 yourself so that you're in a good, clear position to help somebody else, potentially,

5:34 I think from a position of humility.

5:36 But in verse six, this is kind of a command.

5:39 And it sort of had implicitly states that you'll be judging people.

5:43 Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample

5:47 them under foot and turn to attack you.

5:50 So at a certain point, you have to make that judgment call that this may not be fruitful.

5:55 And I'm going to have to move on and implicitly we're judging at that point.

5:58 Well, you're bringing up a great thing there because this verse six can save you a lot

6:03 of time wasting and arguments.

6:04 Yeah.

6:05 And that's why I tell people all the time and I'll keep saying it, but it's when you feel

6:08 like you're getting into an argument, you asked this question, Hey, if you were wrong

6:12 about that, would you want me to tell you?

6:14 And they're the way they answer that will show you if they're in a good place to accept

6:18 rebuke.

6:19 If they're even open to that, if they're just being ignorant, if they're a fool, their

6:22 answer to that one was assuredly revealed that to you, but also verse six takes us right

6:27 back to verse one in that this isn't saying don't judge full stop.

6:31 This is saying that we shouldn't judge harshly or destructively, but if we don't judge at

6:37 all, then guess what is part of judgment discernment.

6:40 And you can't discern between a dog and a non dog or a, you know, pig and an on pig.

6:46 If you're not having any judgment at all.

6:48 And so I think the problem that even Christians, well, meaning Christians will run into is they'll

6:52 be like, Oh my gosh, I'm not supposed to judge.

6:54 And they lose all ability to discern between things.

6:56 It's like, dude, that's worse, way worse.

6:58 Yeah, it's interesting too, though, he says, do not give in ESV, it says do not give dogs

7:03 what is holy.

7:05 And I think the right reference point and the right frame there is to come from a place

7:11 of what is holy.

7:12 And so if we think about what is holy, God is holy, I'm not holy.

7:16 So I'm not judging by my own standards.

7:18 I'm going back to what God has put into place by what standard am I coming from what is

7:23 holy and what God has said is holy.

7:25 So I'm not coming to you or anyone with my presuppositions.

7:29 I'm coming from a place that understands what God says.

7:34 And I think that that can really gear our heart in the right way or it should.

7:37 Yeah.

7:38 And I was, I was just thinking about that whole idea of judge, judge being judgmental.

7:43 If I measure somebody's life by their worst actions, if that's my modus operandi, that's

7:48 a bad thing, right?

7:49 That's a bad place to be.

7:51 If I look at someone and only speak about their faults, you know, then I'm coming at

7:55 it from a wrong, a wrong angle and then to your point on throwing my pearls before the

8:02 swine, there are just things that, you know, if somebody doesn't have the same state of

8:08 mind that I've got on something like, here's a stupid example, like my wife and I have

8:14 a house divided.

8:15 So she's a huge OU fan.

8:17 I'm an Oklahoma state fan.

8:18 I'm not going to go share with her all these fun things that I'm finding out about Oklahoma

8:23 State, which, you know, whether there are some or not, you know, times it seems like

8:27 we're a little bit of a rough season.

8:29 Maybe it's okay.

8:31 But you know, she's not going to care about that, right?

8:33 So I'm going to throw my, my pearls before because she's going to trample and be like,

8:37 they still stink.

8:38 Well, completely contrary to what Oklahoma State football is right now, pearls are actually

8:42 valuable and they actually have like good things.

8:44 And I know this is coming out a little bit after we record it, but I think that therein

8:47 lies the point is Jesus is using these examples so perfectly in this parable because pearls

8:54 are deeply valuable.

8:56 And so when he's talking, he, when he's saying, you know, I guess the message of heaven, which

9:00 is at this point of his ministry is what he's bringing.

9:02 That is what is of so much value and he's describing animals in this time period that

9:07 were lower than low, like he couldn't be lower than like a stray dog or a pig like the in

9:13 terms of unclean animals that could defile you just by even touching one.

9:17 Like that's, that's the difference that we get that when we hear about dogs and swine

9:21 now we think about our dog and we think about, you know, was it babe or whatever, like, you

9:25 know, Disney pig is famous right now, but it's like, no, it's a, it's something that

9:29 is more valuable than anything you could possibly imagine and you're throwing it basically

9:33 in the dumpster.

9:34 I think that's a great point.

9:35 I think that's so true, like we think of our dog and so that's, I mean, I love my dog.

9:39 I would give him a pearl.

9:40 Right.

9:41 That's right.

9:42 Like, when you're reading the Bible, I don't know which, which theologian says this and

9:48 I know a lot of them do, but when you're reading the Bible, there are three things that are

9:51 really important.

9:52 Number one is context.

9:53 Number two is context.

9:54 Number three is context.

9:55 Yeah.

9:56 And so in the context of what he is saying, like, yeah, pigs are disgusting and filthy

9:59 and you shouldn't touch them.

10:01 And so that's, I think that's a really good thing to keep in mind of in that timeframe.

10:05 That's what it was.

10:06 Yeah.

10:07 And I think ironing sharpening iron is a good example of it's really a hard issue.

10:10 If you're dealing with somebody from the right position and it's coming from the right place

10:15 from a humble perspective, that's, and you're doing the right thing.

10:19 And I think Paul, you know, specifically says that we should correct and leverage.

10:22 You can love.

10:23 If it's somebody that's not a Christian that you're speaking with, I agree with somebody

10:26 like Frank Turic that says, if Christianity were true, would you become a Christian just

10:31 to ferret that out?

10:32 Great answer.

10:33 Great question.

10:34 And it goes back to what you're saying earlier, Eric, to where it's like, okay, so let's take

10:37 a, you just a made up person, John Doe, and we know that John Doe has beaten and cheated

10:42 on his wife, right?

10:43 So I believe all of us at this table would have some very strong opinions about that

10:47 type of an action, right?

10:49 But if you're comparing yourself to that version of him, you will always be superior, right?

10:55 Or at least, you know, for most of us, like we would always be superior, but it's the

10:58 humility that you're talking about, Zach, where it's like, if you don't approach someone

11:02 else, your, your brother and their ailments from a place of humility, you will compare.

11:07 And so it's just like the same thing is like, yeah, if when women compare their lives to

11:10 what their other friends are posting on Instagram, it's that same nefarious, you know, comparison

11:15 spirit.

11:16 And then we get back, Matt, I know you've mentioned on other forging tables, James two and the

11:18 sin of partiality.

11:19 And it's like, that's all wrapped up in, in the same thing, but it all comes from the

11:23 state of superiority.

11:25 I'm better than this person.

11:26 Yeah, I've made some mistakes, but that guy over there, he's worse than rotten.

11:31 He used to hit his, did you know he hit his wife and so we can feel really, really puffed

11:35 up with all that.

11:36 Is there anything else on that before we move off of it?

11:38 Because that's it.

11:39 We could spend the hour talking about that, but there's still so much good stuff in Matthew

11:42 seven.

11:43 I, I, I think it's, I wrote this down second Samuel 12 when David, this is a perfect, perfect

11:50 example of that.

11:51 David is blind to do his own sin.

11:52 And as Samuels telling him the story, he has rightful outrage and it's like, Hey man,

11:57 that's you.

11:58 Oh, you got me, you got me.

12:01 And so I think, I think that's a good thing to remember of like, we have to come, like

12:06 Zach said, come from the right place.

12:07 We're judging against what God says is holy, not what I say.

12:10 So yeah, and the only thing I'd add on there is, um, there are two types of scales is the

12:14 measure of mercy and the measure of judgment.

12:16 And the question is, which one do you want to be measured more heavily by?

12:21 We all have versions of that for us and versions that we want for other people, like we always

12:25 want them to get judgment and for us to get grace is how that works out.

12:28 But before we move on, I didn't want to take a quick second here.

12:30 So this is our little commercial.

12:32 So those of you watching on YouTube or rumble, you might have noticed a stack of books at

12:35 the end of the table.

12:36 It's never been there.

12:37 Well, our great friends across way that we've mentioned their products here and we've

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12:53 That's the real answer.

12:54 And for those of you that are wanting to go a little bit deeper, we brainstorm here as

12:58 forging tableers and with crossway, what are the books that could get somebody wanting

13:02 to start something like this off on the right foot?

13:05 And it's that stack right there.

13:07 So we're just going to call that the forging table starter set.

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13:11 And they're not paying us to do this guys like this is not a paid commercial.

13:14 This is literally just for your value.

13:17 Those five books, if you order them all through the crossway website, you will get 50% off

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13:23 Okay.

13:24 You really can't get a better deal anywhere else.

13:26 If you piecemeal all those together and use whatever, you know, thing you use on Google

13:30 Chrome to find the best deal across the internet, you will still not be able to find that stack

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13:34 So I want to go through the list of these and in the future, I won't mention it in this

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13:38 But since we're just bringing it out there at the bottom is the ESV men's study Bible.

13:42 So this is a study Bible that is targeted at men and it uses some of the same commentary

13:46 from their best selling Bible, which is the ESV study Bible.

13:50 And so the ESV study Bible, it's typically it's got the orange, black and white cover

13:54 and all that.

13:55 It's their best selling Bible, but it's the men's version of that.

13:57 It just came out this year and you can get any version of it.

14:00 That's just the regular hardback one, but they got three different leather versions.

14:03 You can get any one of the ones you want.

14:05 Then in the middle there is the book of Romans scripture journal study set.

14:08 So as I've told you guys about a million times, I use these scripture journals.

14:11 So it's the ESV.

14:12 And so it's the scripture on the left side.

14:14 And then it's note pages on the right.

14:16 Okay.

14:17 So it's something about writing in Bibles that make me feel funny.

14:18 This is more like a journal.

14:20 But what that one is is it actually gives you the commentary notes on the bottom of the

14:25 page.

14:26 So you've got the scripture on the left, you've got the commentary notes, and you've got

14:29 the notes section.

14:30 So it's a book of Romans.

14:31 So that might give you a hint as to something we might study in the next couple of years.

14:35 Then we've got a book by Paul David trip.

14:37 It's actually a devotional called new morning mercies.

14:40 And so and I think you've actually done this one before rounding.

14:42 Haven't you haven't you done that devotional or you've got it?

14:44 Yep, we've got it.

14:45 Yeah, absolutely.

14:46 Fantastic.

14:47 So what like have you gone through some of the devotionals?

14:48 Because I haven't had a chance to really go through this was just one that cross I was

14:51 like, dude, you absolutely have to have this one put in there as a devotional.

14:53 Yeah, it's it's on the nightstand next to her bed.

14:56 Very good.

14:57 Man, I'm so glad I had no idea that you actually had that, but I was like, I think he said

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15:10 This is to help you understand that the entire Bible is full of different categories of

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15:16 Okay.

15:17 There's wisdom literature.

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15:19 There's apocalyptic literature.

15:21 There's what there's gospels, there's all kinds of categories.

15:25 And so you can't read the Bible all the same, okay?

15:28 You can't read the song of Solomon, like you're reading the book of acts, you know, as an

15:31 example, or it might be fun.

15:33 Yeah, I mean, whoever know, I don't know why those are the first two I can mind.

15:36 We can just move past that.

15:37 But that is a great resource for you guys that'll help you really read the Bible better.

15:41 And the last one is family shepherds.

15:43 So family shepherds is a book by Vody Bockham.

15:45 And so this is a book that's not one of his more well known books like fault lines or something

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15:50 But if you were a dad that is trying to be serious about being the spiritual thermostat

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15:59 that off.

16:00 So again, I know it's taken a little bit, but this first time I'm doing it, it's a three

16:03 step process, super easy to get that stack of books for half off.

16:06 You go to crossway.org, this will all be in the show notes crossway.org and you create

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16:13 There's no like, oh, it's free for the first three months and then they're going to charge

16:16 you 50 bucks a month.

16:17 No, it's just a free account.

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16:19 Make sure you actually register your account as well.

16:22 Again, that that link will be in the show notes.

16:23 So that's step one crossway.org, create your crossway plus account, then put all of the

16:28 individual books in your cart.

16:30 The links to the individual books are also going to be in the show notes.

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16:46 at checkout guys.

16:47 I know that took forever.

16:48 Anybody got anything to say about any of those books before we move back into Matthew

16:51 seven?

16:52 I've got the Romans study journal.

16:53 It's great.

16:54 The fact that that thing is pretty thin, but the fact that they get as many study notes

16:57 in there along with full pages for journaling is pretty incredible.

17:01 So yeah, it's a good, it's a good stack of books right there.

17:03 Right.

17:04 Bible devotional, kind of like a, almost like a text book, you know, kind of teaching.

17:11 You've got a journal.

17:12 You've got kind of just a nonfiction book, but Zach, you're going to say something as

17:15 well.

17:16 I was just going to say the Bible that you have there, like you mentioned, as part of

17:18 the ESV study Bible.

17:19 And I think it's also a combination of their old men's devotional Bible.

17:23 So there's lots of different sort of one page studies from Alistair bag and all these various

17:29 people that really entice you and pull you in and they're, they're in all the right positions

17:33 in the Bible as you're going through it.

17:35 Absolutely.

17:36 It's a, it's a great Bible.

17:37 And again, guys, I just want to reiterate, this is for you again, Crossway didn't come

17:42 up with this idea.

17:43 We came up with the idea and they loved the idea.

17:46 Obviously they want to sell books.

17:47 This is not a paid ad.

17:48 This is just, I keep getting guys asking me what type of stuff should I buy?

17:52 You know, yeah, you've got your 100 books every monitor, Christian man should read this,

17:55 but I'm just for the forging table.

17:57 That's it right there.

17:58 Check it out.

17:59 It will be in the show notes.

18:00 In my mind reading Matthew seven, let's go seven through 11, please ask and it will be

18:06 given to you.

18:07 Seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives

18:12 and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks it will be opened or which one of

18:17 you if his son asks him for bread will give him a stone or if he asks for a fish will

18:23 give him a serpent.

18:25 If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more

18:30 will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

18:35 Yeah, I don't want to give anything in Matthew seven short shrift to these next few sections.

18:40 Oh, we have to be somewhat brief, but I mean, I feel like Jesus is throwing haymakers in

18:47 Matthew seven.

18:48 The things that are recorded here are just haymakers.

18:50 He's not feeling that this isn't the feeling out process.

18:53 This isn't getting your footwork squared away.

18:54 Like these are just haymakers and the one thing I did write down the first note I wrote

18:58 down in this section is prosperity gospel people have to love this section because they

19:02 don't have to read it correctly.

19:04 They just have to read it in the way that they want and they're just like, wait a minute.

19:07 If I just ask, it will be given to me.

19:10 This is great.

19:11 Well, I would like to bless this ministry and ask that it be returned to me in the form

19:15 of private jets or whatever.

19:17 So that's kind of my skepticism coming out or my cynicism, if you will, but what are

19:21 some other things from this section here?

19:23 Because it's so rich, but what are some other things that y'all thought would be valuable

19:26 to discuss?

19:27 I think this speaks towards persistence and prayer.

19:31 I wrote down Colossians 4-2, where Paul talks about continuous steadfastly in prayer, which

19:38 is kind of a, you should be doing this at all times.

19:41 And so if you're seeking God in prayer, it's not a, like you said, it's not a, oh, I want

19:47 a jet.

19:48 So I'll ask God for a jet.

19:49 And Matthew, Jesus says, if I ask, God's going to give it to me, so I should just ask

19:53 for whatever I want.

19:54 Is this, this call to come alongside and seek out what is holy because God wants to give

20:02 us what is holy and what's the, what's the greatest thing that we can get is salvation?

20:08 And I love the argument.

20:10 It's, it's, it's called the, how much more argument?

20:12 And that's what I wrote down in there.

20:13 So I love this line, if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how

20:19 much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him, man,

20:24 I think that speaks towards depravity.

20:26 We are sinners in need of, well, that's in verse 11.

20:30 If you then who are evil?

20:32 Yeah.

20:33 He's talking about y'all and us talking about us.

20:34 We are evil and can still discern, oh, I should, you know, I should give my children good things.

20:41 How much more than this does your father in heaven give those things to you?

20:45 I love that.

20:46 Well, and I think the prosperity gospel folks probably do not like then the verse later

20:50 on in James that says you ask and do not receive because you ask to spend what you get on your

20:56 own pleasure.

20:57 That's a really good point.

20:58 I wrote down James, echoes a lot of things within the sermon on the mount.

21:04 James three 12 asks asking God for good things.

21:08 He's got God, the good gift giver.

21:10 Um, I mean, he, he echoes almost this entirely and you can go through the book of James and

21:16 go back to something that's in the sermon on the mount that James is then saying and repeating

21:22 and giving, giving some more insight into.

21:25 It's pretty incredible.

21:26 Well, that's actually really interesting because in the last year, our church that three of

21:30 the four of us go to faith Bible has gone through the book of James, expositorially verse by

21:34 verse.

21:35 Joby Martin has done that.

21:36 I think I forget they did like three months on the book of James or whatever.

21:40 James is like kind of a no nonsense guy, right?

21:42 As you read through the stuff that he's saying, but I never really thought about that until

21:46 y'all said this, the book of James is a great, I guess side by side, a partner to the sermon

21:54 on the mount.

21:55 100%.

21:56 And I just never really connected.

21:57 I guess you could say that, you know, tangentially about anything in the gospels.

21:59 The book of James kind of goes with it, but specifically with the stuff that Jesus is talking

22:03 about and the sermon on the mount.

22:04 I mean, James is like, yep, the, the nails already hammered in, but I'm going to go ahead

22:07 and hammer it some more.

22:08 Yeah.

22:09 Um, go ahead.

22:10 I was just going to say, I, the Matthew is obviously laying out a case for Jesus's authority

22:16 here and, and the sermon on the mount, he is, he is saying he is, he's speaking authoritatively

22:22 on these things.

22:23 Um, and I just, I just love that he, you know, puts it out there and he's talking about all

22:30 of these things because this is his kingdom and he's talking about I am the king and my

22:36 authority is here and let me tell you some of these things about how you should be acting

22:41 towards others with yourself towards your heavenly father.

22:45 And I just, man, it's, you're right.

22:48 He pulls no punches and it's, it's good.

22:50 I love it.

22:51 Go ahead.

22:52 I think too.

22:53 When you're just talking about, you know, father's perspective here, I mean, these are

22:56 obvious things, but you mentioned prosperity gospel.

22:58 I mean, the other day in academy, my son came up with a machete asking me if I could buy

23:02 it for him.

23:03 Right.

23:04 So I think to make it personal, I think back through many things that I prayed for in my

23:13 past, you know, big decisions, big things that I wanted, you know, etc.

23:18 And it didn't happen.

23:19 And now in hindsight, it's like that country song, right?

23:22 I think, you know, thank goodness I didn't marry that girl or do this or whatever.

23:25 So so many truths.

23:26 Yeah.

23:27 Those words.

23:28 I think it's one thing that we can do that's really helpful is to think through your life

23:31 about the things that you prayed for that you didn't get that ultimately end up being,

23:34 you know, just great blessings in your life for where you are today.

23:37 Well, it's funny because it's 90s country.

23:39 You know, I thank God for unanswered prayers like it's, it's easy to sing and it makes,

23:42 you know, a catchy tune, but doesn't it speak to maturity though?

23:46 Because all of us were 16 at one point.

23:48 We were heartbroken from our first girlfriend or whatever the thing was.

23:52 And we never thought that we would get over that, that pain or we were cut from the team

23:56 where we got JV and we thought we should have got varsity.

23:59 We didn't get the scholarship or whatever the thing is that as a parent, you see your

24:02 teenager going through that and you're just like, okay, yeah, okay, you're, you're not

24:07 going to die, but you can't convince the kid that they're not going to die.

24:10 This is the worst thing that's ever happened to them because it's the worst thing that's

24:13 ever happened to them.

24:14 But then you as an adult, you will still experience stuff like that where you're so flipping,

24:19 frustrated at something that didn't happen.

24:22 And then five years goes by and you're just like, Oh my God, my life would have sucked

24:25 so much worse.

24:26 How'd I gotten that?

24:27 And I definitely wanted that promotion, but that promotion was not only going to come

24:30 with, you know, an extra 20% in salary, it was going to come with an extra 50% of travel,

24:36 which was going to decrease the amount of time I get to spend with my family by 50%.

24:39 And then all of a sudden your entire life's out of whack.

24:42 If you had gotten the thing that your heart most desired in that moment, it's a great

24:45 point.

24:46 I think understanding time in context to our lives, like when you're 16, the book of your

24:50 life is really short and it has 16 chapters in it.

24:53 When you're 55 years old, your high school years, probably you're half of a chapter.

24:58 And in the context and the grand scheme of your life, that's, I mean, I think that is

25:03 why Paul is saying in Timothy, like new believers and young people really should be cautious

25:09 about being pastors because they've not experienced something like a 20 year old guy who's like,

25:14 I'm a pastor now.

25:15 He's my panic when somebody brings something like that to his desk and you go, Oh my God,

25:19 I don't know what to do here.

25:20 A guy who's 55, man, I've been through that three times myself.

25:24 No biggie.

25:25 That's not a big deal.

25:26 Okay.

25:27 So I've, I've ripped Craig Rochelle quite a bit on this show and he's deserved it, but

25:30 I'm going to give him, I'm going to give him some praise here.

25:33 One of the things that he's done has allowed people to do exactly what you just said, Matt,

25:37 and his first book was called Kazone.

25:39 That's like God's purpose for your life.

25:41 Why used to teach Kazone classes where I would teach people how to figure out their Kazone.

25:45 One of the things that they had to do is they had to put their life into chapters, right?

25:51 And wouldn't you know it?

25:52 The 22 year old newly married guy working his first job, his five chapters.

25:56 What were those before school, elementary school, middle school, high school, college,

26:02 like those were his chapters, but then you have the retiree who school is like chapter

26:07 one.

26:08 And then they've got four other chapters after that.

26:10 And that, that has helped so many people get perspective that when I used to help people

26:14 with their Kazones, I was kind of helped, I was able to get their whole life into one

26:17 sentence.

26:18 That was something I was able to help them with, but also the chapter saying it's like, dude,

26:21 this is like worth the entire price of admission here, even though this was free.

26:25 Like put your life into five chapters and then it'll help you not sweat the small stuff.

26:29 Like my dad wasn't another country song, fill us another country song, but like my dad wasn't

26:33 like a philosopher, you didn't grow up reading a bunch of books, but one thing he told me

26:36 over and over and over, Kyle don't sweat the small stuff.

26:39 Like this is, this is small stuff.

26:40 Don't sweat it.

26:41 And it's like, but at the time, you can't really put that into perspective.

26:44 And as I'm looking at the clock, we are never going to get through math or seven if we stick

26:48 here.

26:49 So we need to go to the golden rule.

26:50 So Matt, with your golden pipes, could you read verses 12 through 14?

26:53 Oh, this is my, this is probably one of my favorite.

26:56 All right, let's get it.

26:57 Let's go.

26:58 So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them for this is the law

27:02 and the profits, enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that

27:07 leads to destruction.

27:08 And those who enter by it are many, but the gate is narrow in the way is hard that leads

27:12 to life.

27:13 And those who find it are few.

27:15 So my argument is that Matthew seven verse 12 is the most famous verse in all of scripture.

27:20 Most people would say John three, 16.

27:22 But if you ask people to say John three, 16, if they have no theology, they can't explain

27:26 why that is such a significant verse, everybody can explain the golden rule and everybody can

27:31 at least tangentially, you know, be related to the golden rule, whether or not they can

27:35 quote it directly from Matthew seven verse 12, but now you said this is probably your

27:38 favorite part of Matthew seven.

27:40 So get after it.

27:41 So like right here, it's a basically a summer, it's his summarization of his entire sermon.

27:47 And he's, he's flipping the script because if we talk about context and the context of

27:52 the ancient Jewish world, everybody knew you shouldn't, if you don't want something done

27:57 to you, you shouldn't do it to somebody else.

27:59 So there, there was this adage of the negative of that.

28:03 If I don't want somebody to kill me, I shouldn't kill somebody else.

28:06 But Jesus, like he does with so many things, says the positive inverse of that, what you

28:11 want done to you, you should do to others.

28:13 So if I want someone to be nice to me, I should be nice to them.

28:18 And it's a positive flipping of that.

28:22 And I said it's, it's, it's a reversal of that old adage.

28:25 It is a positive command.

28:27 Yeah.

28:28 And I, and I just, I would add, I had the exact same thing written down.

28:31 And I just said that it's an active versus a passive type of thing.

28:35 So we're not, we're not just waiting around or just, we're not, we're not waiting for

28:40 something bad to not happen.

28:42 We're actually going, okay, this is the good that we should do and we're going and doing

28:44 it for that person.

28:47 And I, I saved this, this quote from Spurgeon.

28:49 I really like what he says here.

28:50 He's talking about specifically verse 12, he says, oh, that all men acted on it.

28:55 And there would be no slavery, no war, no swearing, no striking, no lying, no robbing.

29:00 But all who would be, or all would be justice and love, what kingdom is this, which has

29:04 such a law?

29:06 He just had a way.

29:07 He's an Indian.

29:08 He got away with words.

29:09 Did he not?

29:10 Reading his words out loud.

29:11 Just makes you smarter, I think, like, cause it's, it's got a little bit of an old English

29:14 to it.

29:15 You're like, you're like frothing your shirt like yes.

29:17 Yes.

29:18 Yes.

29:19 This is perfect.

29:20 Week year cigar.

29:21 Yeah.

29:22 Oh, yeah.

29:23 The spurge guys.

29:24 I'm just telling you, we're going to release another cigar called the spurge.

29:25 Get ready.

29:26 It will be now goodness gracious guys, we're coming up with all kinds of entrepreneurial

29:32 ventures.

29:33 We also have time shares that if anybody's interested, we can, we can hook you up.

29:36 No, here, here's the one thing that I wanted to kind of talk about as well, because again,

29:39 we've got so much more Matthew seven to talk about.

29:41 But in verse 14, for the gate is narrow and a lot of people want to talk about the narrow

29:44 gate.

29:45 I guess we could if y'all want to, but it's, and the way is hard.

29:49 And I wrote in my, my notes, do hard things because we typically don't.

29:54 And that is true across the board.

29:57 Men don't read books.

29:58 Why?

29:59 Because it's hard, right?

30:00 Men don't work out.

30:01 It's hard.

30:02 Like the number one hardest thing to do physically is to get into shape.

30:05 The number two hardest thing to do is to stay in shape, right?

30:08 But I would rather stay in shape than to ever get out of shape and then have to re get

30:12 into it because that's even harder.

30:14 But we just, I guess churches make, make being a Christian seem easy and seem peachy.

30:21 But I'm just reminded of, um, oh gosh, Alfred Lansing endurance, uh, Shackleton.

30:26 So when Shackleton was trying to get people together for his venture to the South Pole,

30:32 right?

30:33 You all remember the ad?

30:34 I'm going to butcher it.

30:35 Yeah.

30:36 Yeah.

30:37 So what was some of the things that he put in the newspaper?

30:38 You're all just all I remember it was, it was like, you know, possible fame, probable

30:43 death.

30:44 Right?

30:45 Yeah.

30:46 And then everybody signed up.

30:47 Yeah.

30:48 All right.

30:49 So like, why would anybody, uh, actually say this?

30:52 Okay.

30:53 Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness,

30:58 um, constant danger, safe return, doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success.

31:03 Ernest Shackleton.

31:04 Right.

31:05 And some people were like, Oh, we didn't actually do that.

31:07 I will just say he did for the story because it makes me sound smarter.

31:09 But like that's, that's the thing about this is like he had people lined up around.

31:13 He had to tell people, no, right?

31:15 He had to kind of whittle it down.

31:17 But at church, we try to make it seem like, ah, being a Christian is like so easy and

31:20 you'll, you'll, you know, have a better life and you'll be better at life.

31:24 And this will just be great.

31:25 And it's just like, no, you're not guaranteed that.

31:27 And we see that throughout even the next few chapters of Matthew, like you're not guaranteed

31:31 anything other than hardship, you know, when he calls the disciples here in a couple of

31:36 chapters, like he's not saying, Hey guys, uh, riches and hoes.

31:40 That's what you're, that's what you got, you know, coming down the pipe for you.

31:42 No, that's not what you're going to get.

31:44 I wrote down Psalm one, two and three, if you want to picture the gospel, go read Psalm

31:48 one, two and three in order.

31:50 It is the gospel.

31:51 Psalm one talks about the way, the righteous and the way the wicked.

31:54 The wicked.

31:55 Psalm two talks about God is the king.

31:57 He is on his throne.

31:58 It literally ends with, um, kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way.

32:03 The way is talking about the way of the wickedness from Psalm, from Psalm one, where his wrath,

32:08 his wrath is wath, his wrath is quickly wath.

32:12 But it, it literally ends with the, the greatest news that you could ever hear, blessed are

32:17 all who take refuge in him.

32:19 And then three is talking, Psalm three is talking about, like God saved me.

32:22 And so if you want the gospel, read those three Psalms together is beautiful, it will,

32:25 it will enrich your life, but like when it talks about the way is narrow, I think people

32:30 like in the garden, Adam and Eve, we focus on the negative prohibition that God gives

32:36 us.

32:37 Don't eat of that fruit.

32:38 And people go, man, why could, how could somebody, like the way is narrow, like, come

32:43 on, man, I thought everybody got to heaven.

32:45 But it's, it's not, it's on purpose that Jesus starts the sentence by saying enter.

32:50 The fact that he has invited us to enter at all, we should be thankful for that.

32:55 And it, yes, it's a narrow game, but that's just the starting point.

33:01 And we can, we can harp on all that, like, okay, there's not going to be very many in

33:06 there, but just like the prodigal son, the fact that he invites us to come in at all,

33:11 we should be eternally thankful for, and we should not miss that.

33:14 And we should sit in that and be, and be grateful towards that.

33:19 Every time we drive to Durango for, we go there every, every fall for vacation, we,

33:30 we pass invariably, someone I 40 out near Amarillo, the cattle farms.

33:35 Oh my gosh.

33:36 Anybody from this area knows exactly what you're talking about.

33:38 Oh, yeah.

33:39 Just might as well just hold your breath for about two minutes as you go through there.

33:42 But I got really interested.

33:43 I mean, as important as that smell is, I was like, well, I mean, what goes on out there?

33:47 And, you know, they just herds and I mean, thousands of these cattle are out there.

33:51 And when they're ready to, to slaughter them, they start funneling them, you know, and up

33:58 a raceway.

33:59 And then they do something called stunning, which I guess there's like four different ways

34:03 of stunning an animal, the humanely.

34:07 And then, of course, they bleed them and do what they do after that, then it shows up

34:11 on our dinner table.

34:12 But I was thinking about that as the wide gate, you know, I, I don't know what these

34:15 cattle think when they show up there, but I'm imagining if it were me and I was a person

34:19 in a cattle's body or whatever, being like, Hey, it's like an awesome, huge party.

34:22 This is amazing.

34:23 You know, you know, out there and you're like, well, it's kind of stinky and why you keep

34:26 running into me?

34:27 And this is kind of weird.

34:28 But everybody's like, well, yeah, we get to go up this, this really cool place later on

34:31 and we'll all kind of like go up there together.

34:33 And then sure enough, we come, we come that time and you kind of start following up the

34:36 raceway and then meet your end.

34:38 I feel like that's how most of these people are going to be.

34:40 It's like it's like a huge party through the wide gate, but they don't realize it gets

34:43 more narrow as I go and then they all get slaughtered in the end.

34:47 Emotionally, it's, it's hard to, to do what he's saying.

34:50 I mean, hard specifically talking about your word, what I like about essentially treat others

34:55 as you wish to be treated is it's almost mathematical and it's precision, like it's self-governing.

35:00 Think about the most difficult circumstance.

35:02 I was in a conversation before we came here about the prodigal son and somebody had a

35:07 lot of issues with the way the older son was thinking about the younger son and you just

35:12 have to think, well, you've been forgiven period.

35:15 So in what position are you in a judge is no different than the thief on the cross, right?

35:20 But it puts you in that position where you think about how hard that is, especially if

35:23 you think you deserve something.

35:24 So it's funny you bring up the prodigal son because I was not expecting a lot from the sermon

35:29 this morning at church and I'll just leave it at that because then when they're like,

35:33 okay, we're gonna talk about prodigal son.

35:34 It's like, okay, I can turn my brain off because we've heard this a thousand times and the

35:38 guy that gave the sermon this morning, even said that he's like, I'm not gonna say anything

35:41 y'all haven't heard before.

35:42 And then he proceeded to say a bunch of stuff I had never heard before about this story.

35:46 But something, and I know this kind of makes me dumb, guys, something clicked for me this

35:50 morning with the story that prodigal son because I've always hated that story because I'm with

35:53 the older brother.

35:54 I'm like screw that freaking idiot brother of yours.

35:57 He should have stayed with the pigs like that's what he that's what he gets like I'm a justice

36:00 guy.

36:01 I want people to get their justice.

36:03 But he's like, look, the older brother is just as lost as the as the younger brother.

36:08 He's just as lost, but he's lost because he thinks I'm gonna work and work and work and

36:12 work and someday this is gonna pay off.

36:15 Why is it gonna pay off?

36:16 Not because the father is good, but because I am and I was just like, yep, I finally get

36:21 it.

36:22 It finally like clicked through that emotion, intellect barrier in my brain and soul.

36:29 And it was just like, yeah, the brother's a turd.

36:31 He's just a better turd like in terms of like how the world looks at it, you know, the

36:35 parable of what is it, the king that's forgiving his servant of his debts, then that servant

36:40 turns around and throws somebody in jail for their debts or whatever.

36:43 It's the same thing.

36:44 Yeah, it's like, it's the same, but who's house do they both get to live in and who who

36:50 says they can live there, the father who is God in that story, is the one who says both

36:55 of y'all get to live here, right?

36:57 In the, if y'all are invited in and it's not as if there's no consequences for the young

37:00 man.

37:01 He doesn't really get his inheritance.

37:02 His inheritance is gone.

37:03 And so he's probably gonna have to be a lowly servant in his father's house for the remainder

37:09 of his days, right?

37:11 But you know, what is it?

37:12 The, you know, it's better one day in your courts and a thousand elsewhere.

37:15 It's like you'd rather be in the father's house broke than to have riches outside the

37:19 father's house.

37:20 Right?

37:21 Because the riches will wane, you know, after time.

37:23 So, and here we go, going all, going all off and see, I knew this was going to happen

37:27 with Matthew seven.

37:28 We just need to kind of embrace it.

37:29 Anything else on the golden rule before we move on?

37:32 I know.

37:33 Why did I ask that?

37:34 I know the answer is yes.

37:35 So we're just going to skip on.

37:36 I'm going to be the bad guy.

37:37 Browning, if you could do 15 through, what are we doing, 15 through 20, please.

37:42 Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, a ravenous

37:47 wolves.

37:48 You will recognize them by their fruits.

37:50 Are grapes gathered for thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

37:55 So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

37:59 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

38:04 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, thus

38:08 you will recognize them by their fruits.

38:11 So the thing with false prophets is they are impersonating shepherds.

38:17 And some of them are doing it on purpose and some of them have just ended up there.

38:20 And I'm not going to name any by name, you know, Andy Stanley or anything like that.

38:23 But it's like people that maybe started out good.

38:26 And then now it's like they're saying things and standing up for things that are literally

38:30 contrary to what the Bible says.

38:32 And that is definitely what a heretic does.

38:35 Whatever your established church tradition or faith tradition says about a subject matter.

38:40 If you preach and proselytize things that are opposite to that, that makes you a heretic.

38:45 But the warning here at the end is the trees that do not bear good fruit will be cut down

38:52 and thrown into the fire.

38:54 Yikes.

38:55 Like if you're one of those false teachers or false shepherds and some of them are doing

39:00 it on purpose, some people just are believing wrongly and then spreading that to people

39:05 and they're going to pay for that someday, but they're not doing it too.

39:08 But even especially for the ones that are enough feriously raising money off of impressionable

39:12 people, foolish people, like you don't have a great future laid ahead for you.

39:18 Like you are going to get your comeuppance at some point.

39:21 Agree.

39:23 Other thoughts.

39:25 Did I just nail the section?

39:26 Do we need to move on to the next session?

39:27 No, I didn't nail it.

39:28 Y'all have thoughts.

39:29 Let's go.

39:30 Well, I just wrote down a few things.

39:31 I put that, you know, fruit is life producing.

39:33 So if we're looking, you know, when you say, well, know them by their fruit, you know,

39:38 we want to when we look at someone, we look and see see whether what they're doing is

39:43 producing life.

39:45 If it's leaving you empty or wanting more, maybe it's not fruit, maybe it's entertainment.

39:50 Obviously, if it's not consistent with God's word, then it's fruitless.

39:57 And I put on here, you cannot recognize how truths and deviations from the word unless

40:01 you are in the word consistently.

40:04 And so we've probably said that on here before, but like if you were going to try to figure

40:08 out whether there are yellow red red flags in a situation, you know, how are you going

40:13 to know?

40:14 It's like, well, if you know, if you know what the truth is, then when non-truth comes

40:17 long, then it becomes a lot easier to recognize those yellow red flags and stuff.

40:21 Recognize a crooked line.

40:22 If you know what a straight one looks like, well, let's actually talk about that a little

40:25 bit more because verse 20, thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

40:29 And I brought this up before and there's no sarcasm here, like no funny business.

40:32 How?

40:34 How do you judge someone's fruit?

40:36 Because I've said this before, this is my biggest hang up with John MacArthur and like,

40:40 shut up, man.

40:41 Well, this is my biggest hang up with him is I know because you have gone back and forth

40:45 on this and you've tried to help me and then you realize at one point, I might just be

40:48 a swine.

40:49 I'm just too dumb to understand what you're trying to share with me.

40:51 But if you've listened to John MacArthur for very long, if you've read any of his writings,

40:56 right?

40:57 And I've got a book over there on the shelf called Salvation or Without a Doubt or something

41:01 like that to where it's like, here's 200 pages on assurance of salvation and you get

41:05 into the book and you're just like, I'm pretty sure I'm going to hell.

41:08 Like there's there's like a zero point that is before no one is less sure of their salvation

41:12 than someone listening to John MacArthur talk about the assurance of salvation.

41:15 Right.

41:16 And specifically fruit because when you listen to him talk about fruit, it's just like,

41:20 I don't know that I know someone whose fruit is sweet enough, like to meet the standards

41:26 that John MacArthur would put out there, not that it shouldn't be a high standard, but

41:30 it's confusing to me when I look at you guys and I'm judging your fruit as weird as that

41:36 sounds now that it's come out of, out of my mouth, but we'll, we'll just move past that.

41:40 But like, as it's, it's, we've already talked about song and Solomon.

41:43 So here we are.

41:44 But it's like, I'm trying to judge other people's fruit because I'm trying to compare like,

41:48 what is the fruit of my Christian walk versus Zach's or Matt's or Eric's?

41:52 And it's just like, wait a minute.

41:54 If I use John MacArthur's rubric, nobody has sweet enough fruit.

41:59 And that's like, that's hard for me to kind of think through.

42:02 I don't know what to do with that.

42:04 Well, the best we can do, you know, is, you know, like filthy rags.

42:08 So I mean, it's like we, you know, even our best is not, does not meet God standard if

42:13 that makes sense.

42:15 So there is something always wanting because we live in the flesh and have not been made

42:19 perfect.

42:20 I just, I just sit there and think about like, I mean, John MacArthur does not know my heart.

42:25 It's impossible for him to know my heart.

42:28 So he can only speak at it from an external, I think, point of view in some respects.

42:33 And I don't know, I haven't listened to him deep on all that stuff.

42:37 But, but that's just what I was thinking is like, I knew my heart.

42:41 And I, and honestly, in studying some of this stuff, even over the last week or two, I've

42:46 had moments when I'm really challenged and like, Oh gosh, Lord, sometimes I wonder, you

42:52 know, in the same thing in this, in this section, just sometimes I feel like a complete turd,

42:57 you know, and the fruit today did not exist.

43:00 You know, maybe it did yesterday.

43:01 Maybe it will tomorrow.

43:02 I think looking at, at MacArthur in context of what he's trying, he's trying to shepherd

43:06 his flock.

43:08 And if we take that in our immediate responses to say we should judge others by their fruit

43:13 before we can look inward and judge ourselves by our own fruit, I think we would be an air.

43:19 And so I think the heart of his message is to say, take this internally.

43:26 And what are your fruits?

43:28 These are the fruits that, I mean, the Bible lays them out.

43:31 Does your life bear these fruits?

43:35 And I should first look inward before I get, I mean, back to the start of chapter seven,

43:41 Jesus is talking about judging.

43:43 I should first look inward before I look to anybody else, but I guess the question that

43:48 would be so love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, like, but the list goes on and on.

43:53 Like we all vacillate on between good and bad on all those categories.

43:58 Some of those categories were naturally good at others were terrible at, but we kind of

44:02 like have this.

44:03 We're always between one and 10 and we're never out of 10 or whatever at one.

44:07 But I think the difference from, I agree with you.

44:10 I think the difference for me is probably before I gave my life to Christ, my perspective

44:15 on why those things are important was totally different.

44:18 What do you mean?

44:19 So I pray with my son every night, right?

44:21 And we talk about things like that because he'll mention stuff he's struggling with and

44:24 we talk about fruits of the spirit and prayer for help with those things.

44:28 And, and I really appreciate and have a thirst to want to see those things manifest in my

44:33 life and in his life and others around me.

44:36 There that thirst did not exist previously.

44:40 There was sort of a false ambition where I may have wanted to have some of those things

44:45 come across, but it wasn't like this deep sense that that's where I'm headed.

44:50 That's where I want to go for a whole different set of reasons.

44:53 So I think maybe one indication for me would be the gospel and Christ and the spirit can

44:59 truly change people from the inside out.

45:02 And I think you, there's a lot of skeptics out there.

45:04 I know you count yourself as a skeptic in a lot of cases that say people never change.

45:08 Well, with this people do change and I think the desire to want to have those things is

45:13 a fundamental shift inside of people that you can start to sense with real Christians

45:16 and that fruit.

45:17 You know, yeah, I mean, like, what is my motive?

45:20 Every rep that comes into our office is a nice person because they want to sell me something

45:26 right?

45:27 I mean, that is the motivation for their fruit, so to speak, because they want to sell something.

45:31 But, you know, I mean, what you said, I mean, when your motivation changes, this is, I do

45:37 this for the glory of God.

45:38 I don't do this for myself.

45:39 I think that's why Jesus calls it out because it can be confusing because if we're looking

45:43 at what we might consider a false teacher, like there, there are probably are some fruits.

45:48 Like, man, my ministry is given away millions of dollars to help people.

45:54 And such and such ministry, they give over half their profit away to homeless shelters.

46:01 Those things are good, but is the fruit of self-interest, which is what I wrote down,

46:07 like we can judge people by it.

46:09 Are they doing things out of self-interest?

46:11 A lot of times it's hard to understand their heart, but like, Jesus, I think that's why

46:16 Jesus is speaking to that.

46:18 We should be grounded in the Word and we should know what that looks like so we can call out

46:24 a counterfeit because we know the true authentic version, but...

46:29 When I think it also applies to what you're saying as well, Zach, it's like, okay, so let's

46:33 say you're non-Christian and you're wanting to be patient with your wife, okay?

46:39 Because when you're impatient with your wife, she gets mad at you and then she won't have

46:43 sex with you, right?

46:44 Okay, so your motivation is, you know, I want the house to, you know, be fine and I want

46:48 to have sex tonight, probably.

46:50 The difference is then you become a Christian, it's like, I'm going to be patient with my

46:53 wife because God is patient with me.

46:56 And so even if she's impatient with me, that doesn't matter.

46:59 Like this isn't a comparison of ledgers, right?

47:03 Like my motivation is I'm going to please God.

47:05 It's kind of similar and I don't mean to pat myself on the back here, but early on, like

47:09 first 10, 12, 50, 100, 150 episodes of this podcast, we're well over 500 now, like when

47:16 we had like no listeners, I worked just as hard on those episodes as I do on the ones

47:21 that we release now because I was like, well, I'm trying to honor God here, right?

47:25 I'm not trying to honor sponsors at that time.

47:27 I'm not trying to honor anybody because I'm like, no one's listening to this.

47:30 But it's like, I'm going to listen to it and God heard it and he was there before I even

47:35 said it.

47:36 And so it's like my motivation is not, it's not been tainted because we've had success

47:41 or because people are listening now with the thought of, you know, trying to sell via our

47:45 show or something like that.

47:47 It's like, so that, that's actually a really good point.

47:49 Like you, you get a different motivation and your fruit will be defined by how that motivation

47:53 isn't it interesting that it's right after a seek and you shall find knock in the door

47:58 will be open.

47:59 Right.

48:00 We just skipped over that.

48:01 Yeah.

48:02 We're talking about false prophets, like right after that, he's talking about false prophets

48:06 and a lot of false prophets today and throughout all time is prosperity, like they can say

48:12 a lot of Christianese things.

48:15 God wants you to be rich, like look at, look at Matthew seven.

48:19 God wants you to be rich asking you, you shall receive.

48:22 But Jesus, I think is calling back when he talks about these treat, these trees being

48:26 cut down and thrown into the fire, John puts it so, so brilliantly, and this should, this

48:32 should be a warning.

48:33 And I know that this has been covered previously, but I baptize you with water for repentance,

48:39 but he who is coming after me is mightier than I who sandals, I'm not worthy to carry.

48:44 He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire his winnowing fork is in his hand.

48:51 And he will clear that his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the

48:55 shaft he will burn with uncoenchable fire.

48:58 The axe is laid at the root of the tree, man, he's, he's coming.

49:02 And there's a warning to those who would who would dress as sheep and try to shepherd flocks,

49:07 but really be wolves.

49:08 So.

49:09 And do we, do we find in the gospels in these warnings from Jesus, do we find warnings for

49:14 the sheep?

49:15 The warnings for the sheep is that they will never find the shepherd, but to all those listening

49:19 right now, because I know there's a lot of pastors that listen to this, if you lead your

49:22 flock astray, that is worse than a member of your flock being led astray, because they're

49:28 a sheep.

49:29 What is a sheep?

49:30 The dumbest animal in the animal kingdom, right?

49:32 And so that's, that's the warning is I'm not going to have to give an account someday

49:36 for how I followed you, but you are going to have to give an account for how you led me,

49:41 right?

49:42 And how you led the rest of your flock.

49:43 Now guys, we're about 50 minutes in at this point, and we have just now gotten to the

49:47 section that I've wanted to talk about more than any of the other sections, but I didn't

49:51 want to start there and then have to go back or whatever.

49:54 So Eric, if you will read Matthew seven of verses 21 through 23, I'm already terrified

49:59 to hear this read out loud, but let's go.

50:02 Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who

50:07 does the will of my father who is in heaven.

50:11 On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, do we not prophecy in your name and cast out

50:15 demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

50:20 And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

50:26 It's just like literally like, okay, in Matthew seven, we have the most misuse verse, maybe

50:33 in all scripture about judgment.

50:35 We have the most famous verse, the golden rule, and then we have literally perhaps the most

50:40 terrifying section of scripture, two or three scriptures, possible, right?

50:46 And I literally don't even know where to start with this because of how terrifying it is,

50:52 but like for someone like me, I'm technically a professional Christian.

50:55 I know I always get pastors, you know, crap for that when they come on my show.

50:58 And I'm like, yeah, you're a professional Christian, what does that mean?

51:00 But like, that's kind of what I'm doing.

51:02 And I'm like, wait a minute, like two degree, I am prophesying, right?

51:06 In your name, I'm calling into culture and, you know, put trying to push back darkness.

51:11 And I just read this.

51:12 And I think back on the last thing I heard John MacArthur say, and then I'm just like,

51:16 Oh my God, I'm definitely going to hell.

51:18 Like, like, I just again, I'm kind of talking out of my rear end here because I read this

51:22 section and it's like, I've heard people talk about it.

51:25 I've heard pastors talk about it.

51:27 And I every time I hear someone explain it, it makes me more scared, right?

51:31 That my salvation is not secured because it's like, dude, I feel like my fruits fine.

51:35 But what if I'm, what if I'm too dumb to evaluate my own fruit?

51:39 Like, and I'm one of these people that's being described here.

51:41 Does that make sense?

51:42 I think about it a lot, but I think when I detach and try to process through it, you

51:47 have a conscience and you have a spirit inside of you.

51:52 And I think you're going to know, I think, I think you'll be crossing some line would

51:56 be my guess.

51:57 And you'll know that this is going to be your position.

52:00 I just imagine, you know, back in these times, somebody standing on a street quarter, making

52:05 all of these big, you know, public displays of faith and then privately, not adhering

52:11 to any of them.

52:12 Yeah.

52:13 And I immediately thought of Psalms 139, 23 and 24.

52:18 And just this idea that when I pray, it's, it's fine to talk.

52:22 It's fine to ask it's, it's fine to pray for others.

52:26 But there are also times where it's just like, what the verse says, search me God and know

52:30 my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there's any grievous way in me and lead

52:34 me in the way of her lasting where it's just like Lord, is there something I need to know

52:39 about myself?

52:40 Am I, am I exploiting you for my benefit, you know, in my ministry?

52:46 Is my religious activity what I'm counting is enough to get me to heaven?

52:51 You know, it, I think there's, there's moments where we just allow the Lord to reveal himself

52:58 to us.

52:59 If we do have grievous things towards him, that is terrifying.

53:04 I mean, you're not wrong, like reading those words should terrify anyone, even red letter

53:10 Christians, you know, who just, who just want to take the words of Jesus, man, he's got

53:15 some pretty harsh things to say here.

53:17 And that should terrify us.

53:19 But he is going to go on to talk about like how you can apply these things and what happens

53:25 to those who do seek shelter in him.

53:30 And it's, it's, it's not about the works.

53:32 It's not about what you're doing and I mean, in context, this is a call out of the Pharisees

53:37 who are doing works for people to see them and they're fasting for people to see them.

53:42 They're doing things.

53:43 They're following the law very publicly.

53:47 They would have been the people that said, but Jesus, we did all of these things.

53:52 We were obedient to the ceremonial laws and the civil laws and the moral laws.

53:59 But you only did it for this temporal material thing that you got.

54:04 They sound like the older brother.

54:05 Yeah.

54:06 They sound like the older brother.

54:07 And I think we would be wise and we'll get into this in chapter eight and nine and sure

54:12 we'll come back to this.

54:13 We would be wise to not separate the Savior from salvation.

54:18 We shouldn't seek Jesus for salvation.

54:21 We should seek the Savior who is salvation.

54:24 That's what he is.

54:25 So let's just take that out and let's talk more about fruit because one thing I wrote

54:29 down is you read verses 21, 22 and 23 and then you go back to verse 20, thus you will recognize

54:35 them by their fruit.

54:37 Well, in 21 through 23, it's like, Hey, here's all this fruit that you thought was good.

54:42 Nah, play it's not like it's not that's not going to save you.

54:45 And then you go back to 20.

54:46 It's like, but we'll recognize them by their fruit and I'm like, Oh, I'm confused again.

54:49 It's like, you know, again, I get so jammed up because it's like, I know the limitations

54:54 of my intellect.

54:55 And this is just throw me for a complete loop.

54:57 Let me jump in.

54:58 Let's go.

54:59 So allister bag.

55:00 The man gangsta.

55:01 What was his one of your most favorite sermons man on the middle cross said I could come.

55:05 Yep.

55:06 Okay.

55:07 So what is he recommend is the only thing that you should say when you end up hopefully

55:10 in heaven or because he because of he.

55:12 Yeah.

55:13 And what does this say?

55:14 I.

55:15 Yeah, because I.

55:16 Yeah.

55:17 So it's not the fruits that get you in.

55:18 It's your belief in your heart position.

55:20 Mm.

55:21 The bag.

55:22 Yeah.

55:23 Yeah.

55:24 That's the same person.

55:25 No, that was.

55:26 Auster Todd.

55:27 I mean, it's true, right?

55:28 It's two different things.

55:29 Yeah.

55:30 Yeah.

55:31 Yeah.

55:32 I mean, because I wrote down, you know, miracles prove nothing.

55:34 Right.

55:35 Religious activity doesn't prove anything in the name of Jesus doesn't prove anything.

55:39 It's like the older brother again.

55:41 Look at all the ways that I've worked day after day after day.

55:44 And he comes back and you just give him the ring and bring him back to the house.

55:47 I, I, Christ did 100% of it.

55:53 And I think you just believe him.

55:54 I think that's a fantastic point, Zach.

55:57 And I, I guess the other thing that I would, I would warn pastors listening to this or

56:01 people that are in charge of ministries is you can orally confess Jesus, but have an

56:08 unrepentant heart.

56:09 Yeah.

56:10 And that's almost scarier than this section of Scripture.

56:13 That's what this is.

56:14 Right.

56:15 I mean, it's exactly what it is.

56:16 But demons know that Christ is Lord.

56:18 So so I've had that discussion before with, with Joby.

56:21 We haven't had a sorry, Joby yet on this particular, Oh, wait, you said prophecy instead

56:25 of prophesy, prophesy in your name.

56:27 Yeah.

56:28 Sorry.

56:29 Sorry, Joby.

56:30 Yeah.

56:31 We finally got there, took us out an hour, but we got one, but I've talked to him about

56:34 that to where it's just like, wait a minute, when you have somebody at your church that,

56:38 you know, at the end of the service, you just gave a blistering sermon and then they raise

56:41 their hand, right?

56:43 And you count that as a salvation, like take me through that.

56:46 Cause surely not all those people are actually saved, regardless of the rubric that you used

56:51 to judge.

56:52 Right?

56:53 Whether you're hyper Calvinist or hyper Armenian or whatever, like however you decide, like

56:56 you can't really say that he's like, look, we're counting that.

57:00 I'm paraphrasing what he said, obviously we're counting that as somebody moving towards an

57:06 expression of salvation.

57:08 And even as their pastor, I can't judge in that moment, whether or not it's sincere.

57:13 And I could spend the next year every single day for an hour talking to them and not be

57:17 able to officially judge, I can give my opinion as to whether or not they have truly put their

57:23 faith in Christ for their propitiation of their sins.

57:26 But I can't know that, but we're going to count it and we are going to celebrate it.

57:30 And we, when we baptize people, we do it on the beach and we throw up party.

57:34 And when we pray over people, we annoying people and we put it on people and we believe

57:38 what the word says.

57:39 And we believe that people will be healed and it's like, okay, I can at least get down

57:43 with that.

57:44 And it's always been wary of these mega churches that put the number of salvations in their

57:48 annual report.

57:49 And I'm just like, oh, man, now it's a, it's a metric.

57:53 And I'm like, you can't even quantify that metric, but to a degree, no one can because

57:57 we can't know, which is why it's important to constantly be preaching the gospel to ourselves

58:02 but as pastors, we should be preaching the gospels because because even our, our church

58:06 members who we would say, if we had to guess our 100% saved, the gospel is something that

58:14 we should never forget and that we should always be preaching because we, we don't know.

58:18 But it is our command to preach the gospel all the time, the full gospel.

58:24 Absolutely.

58:25 Well, guys, we've spent the last several episodes of this really digging into the sermon on the

58:31 mount.

58:32 Now we need to wrap up the sermon on the mount.

58:34 So Zach, if you could go ahead and close out Matthew seven, read a read verses 24 through

58:38 28, please everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise

58:43 man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds

58:48 blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock

58:54 and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish

58:59 man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds

59:05 blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it and go and read

59:11 through 29, I said 20, but yeah, 29.

59:15 And when Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching

59:19 for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.

59:25 So again, Matthew's writing his gospel to a mainly Jewish audience, trying to kind of

59:31 give them an idea of what to expect and kind of speaking their language a little bit.

59:35 And there's a lot that you can talk about here as he kind of puts the final, final pieces

59:40 to the sermon on the mount, but what captured me was verse 24 and everyone who hears these

59:45 words of mine and does them.

59:48 Okay, we have to be doers.

59:51 There's a lot of listeners, right?

59:53 Because now it's super popular to be into podcast.

59:55 That's like a thing.

59:56 Oh, yeah, I'm into podcast and you have these people that will listen to these maybe they're

1:00:00 listening to sermons or they're listening to leadership podcasts or business podcasts

1:00:03 or entrepreneurs and podcasts or, you know, prayer, podcast or meditation, whatever fitness.

1:00:08 But then it's like, how much of the stuff are you doing, right?

1:00:12 Kyle, I love that, you know, beginning of every year you do that, how to not be a crappy

1:00:15 man that you're like, okay, well, how many of those things are you implementing in your

1:00:18 life?

1:00:19 Well, you know, I'm like thinking through some of those, oh, you could have just said none

1:00:23 of them.

1:00:24 Like, and it's kind of saved me all this nonsense that I have to sift through now.

1:00:27 But that's the thing is we hear these words, we read these words and then we don't do them.

1:00:32 We're not doers, we're consumers, but it's like, it's just useless if you hear them and

1:00:37 do nothing with them.

1:00:39 Absolutely useless.

1:00:40 Well, you know, not necessarily the flip side, but just another way of looking at it too.

1:00:43 I mean, it appears that two different kinds of people built their homes.

1:00:48 It's just that one built it on the rock and one built it on sand.

1:00:53 And when the bad things came and the rains hit and hail and thunderstorms and tornadoes,

1:01:01 it was just, it was the one that was on sand that did not stand, did not make it through.

1:01:07 Where is that?

1:01:08 Isn't it an Abu Dhabi?

1:01:09 Is that right?

1:01:10 Where did they build all of those sand, like, like sucked all the water out of the sand

1:01:15 and built these islands and then put hotels on them?

1:01:18 See their Abu Dhabi or uh, uh, Dubai.

1:01:21 Dubai.

1:01:22 Yeah.

1:01:23 Golly.

1:01:24 I watch a special on that.

1:01:25 And it's incredible to look at the machinery and the engineering that went into creating

1:01:30 those.

1:01:31 And I'm still just like, yeah, give it like 30 years as kind of sink back into the show.

1:01:36 Both the houses in this picture looked great.

1:01:39 I'm sure they did.

1:01:40 First built.

1:01:41 Yeah.

1:01:42 Oh, yeah.

1:01:43 They both look the same.

1:01:44 Cool.

1:01:45 But they're not.

1:01:46 No.

1:01:47 And then they ran into resistance.

1:01:48 Like you can think of the storm or the rain as resistance and it's like you don't.

1:01:52 Same thing with a person.

1:01:53 You don't know how strong someone's faith is until their faith is tested.

1:01:56 Like when you've got the job, your wife's smoking hot, kids are actually behaving.

1:02:00 The dog's not crapping in the house.

1:02:01 Like everything's good and going great.

1:02:04 It's like, oh man.

1:02:05 Yeah.

1:02:06 Super blessed.

1:02:07 But if your wife just got a bad diagnosis, if you've got a wayward kid and another kid

1:02:11 that just got suspended and your dog can't be trusted in the house alone, like, and things

1:02:16 are just falling or down around you.

1:02:18 The business deal that you made or the move that you made isn't working out.

1:02:22 Are you still blessed?

1:02:23 Yeah.

1:02:24 Joe.

1:02:25 I mean, Satan says to God, he like, have you considered my servant, Joe?

1:02:28 God says to Satan.

1:02:29 He says, well, he only praises your name because you've given him good things and then what

1:02:34 happens to Joe.

1:02:35 Rough.

1:02:36 Rough, for sure.

1:02:38 But it's those people and I got to be honest, I struggle with that.

1:02:41 So when people do have just horrible thing, after horrible thing, after horrible thing,

1:02:46 or hey, they beat cancer, right?

1:02:49 And then they get hit by a car and they're paralyzed now or they survived six tours to

1:02:55 Afghanistan, they come home and they get shot and killed thinking of Chris Kyle.

1:03:00 Yeah.

1:03:01 Like, are they equally as blessed in all those circumstances?

1:03:04 Is this just the randomness of sin?

1:03:07 Don't worry.

1:03:08 Is this just the problem?

1:03:09 Don't worry about why the tower fell on them.

1:03:10 Yeah.

1:03:11 Right.

1:03:12 I mean, that's what he says.

1:03:13 Yeah.

1:03:14 I think it's, I think it's one of these things where you've got to internalize it.

1:03:17 And one, one thing I thought was interesting is the authority piece.

1:03:21 If you think about mentions the scribes, you know, he was speaking as if something, you

1:03:26 know, in a way that they had never heard before.

1:03:28 And as we went through this study of Matthew in total, that became really clear to me,

1:03:32 how this must have been so different for them.

1:03:34 We've read this quite a bit, but he's, he's teaching from a position of absolute authority.

1:03:40 Yeah.

1:03:41 Yeah.

1:03:42 The scribes knew the word like they wrote it every day so they could grow it and they

1:03:46 knew it.

1:03:47 But this is new content.

1:03:48 Yeah.

1:03:49 He not only knows the law and the word, like he calls us to model it and then we're about

1:03:54 to see him model it.

1:03:55 Yeah.

1:03:56 He's like, do these things and then watch, I'm going to put my money where my mouth is

1:04:01 and I'm going to do it.

1:04:02 And we in Matthew seven with a declaration of the authority of Jesus again, guys, it's

1:04:06 kind of easy to get lost, especially if you only piecemeal your, your study of the Bible,

1:04:11 you kind of come in and out of different parts of the gospel.

1:04:13 The disciples haven't even been called yet at this point, like whenever he's delivering

1:04:18 the sermon on the mount, like that's in terms of the trajectory of the book of Matthew,

1:04:22 the timeline, we haven't even got to some of these big important things.

1:04:26 And we already have people basically like, wait a minute.

1:04:28 Who is this dude?

1:04:29 And why is he speaking with such authority?

1:04:31 And this is after miracles before miracles were right in the middle of all that.

1:04:35 And I just got to be honest with you.

1:04:36 This is one of my favorite individual chapters that we've covered here on this show.

1:04:40 Like, you know, I loved, you know, Nehemiah for, I loved when we got into that discussion.

1:04:45 At this specific chapter, I thought, uh, how in the world are we going to do this?

1:04:49 But I got to say, I'm pleased, I'm fairly pleased, like evaluating this right after

1:04:53 we've done it.

1:04:54 And guys, there's certainly more that can be said about Matthew seven, but we're going

1:04:56 to have to leave it there.

1:04:57 But come back here next Sunday, where we're going to dig into Matthew eight, make sure

1:05:01 that you guys read through Matthew eight, so that you're prepared for next week.

1:05:05 Before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost.

1:05:07 Add on to life.

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1:06:04 to info@undonton.life.

1:06:06 That's I N F O at undonton.life.

1:06:09 Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for everything else

1:06:12 including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way.

1:06:15 Just go to www.undonton.life and also we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing us

1:06:20 to use their music for our content.

1:06:22 The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua, which is off their self-titled debut album

1:06:27 on Face Down Records.

1:06:28 The links are in the description.

1:06:30 I'm your host Kyle Thompson.

1:06:32 Remember keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience.

1:06:38 Seeking the Lion of Judah.

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