The Bible often uses an analogy comparing two ways people can take in their spiritual journeys. God is always bringing His people to the proverbial fork in the road, the moment of decision, the parting of the ways. Today we turn again to the Sermon on the Mount. Here, Jesus presents us with the two ways, the way of the Pharisees versus the way of Jesus.
Stay with us. From Chicago, welcome to The Moody Church Hour with Pastor Phillip Miller. In a moment, a time of worship and teaching as we continue a series on the upside-down kingdom.
From the Sermon on the Mount, we'll learn about the two ways. Here now is Pastor Phillip, along with worship leader Tim Stafford and assistant pastor Josue Reyes. Well, good morning and welcome to The Moody Church. We're near the end of the Sermon on the Mount today and we're going to look at two ways to live as Jesus draws a sharp distinction between His way of righteousness and the way of the Pharisees. Would you stand wherever you are and let's pray as we begin our service. Heavenly Father, we give You ourselves today as we gather in Your name. We pray that we might lift You high as we worship. We pray that You might make us new as we sit under Your Word proclaimed. We pray that we might walk in obedience as Jesus shows us the way to live.
Father, by the power of Your Spirit, come and change us and make us new and send us out to walk in obedience each and every day of our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen. Amen. Amen. This song talks about all creation. Praise to the Lord.
Let's do it. We His people sing by grace. We bow our eyes and we bring our praise to us. We believe in Him for His sake. So in everything we are and in everything we have, we pour out our offerings.
And if and we should bear, the rocks will rise up and burn in our deeper needs. He bends our hearts. He bends our hearts. He keeps our ways.
He lights our nights and He leads our days. All for His glory, for His sake. There's nothing greater than to be His, to bring Him glory and to fully live for the reign of Jesus, for His sake. So in everything we are and in everything we have, we pour out our offerings. And if and we should bear, the rocks will rise up and burn in our deeper needs. So in everything we are and in everything we have, we pour out our offerings. And if and we should bear, the rocks will rise up and burn in our deeper needs. So in everything we are and in everything we have, we pour out our offerings. And if and we should bear, the rocks will rise up and burn in our deeper needs. Praise the Lord.
Amen. My soul finds rest in God alone, my rock and my salvation, a fortress strong against my foes, and I will not be shaken. Though the lips may bless and hearts may curse, and cries like arrows pierce me, I'll face my heart on righteousness, I'll look to Him who hears me. Oh, praise Him, hallelujah, my Delight and my reward, everlasting, never failing, my Redeemer, my God.
I'll set my gaze on God alone, and trust in Him completely, with every day pour out my soul, and He will prove His mercy. Though a life is tired of fleeting breath, a sigh to breathe to measure, my heat has crushed the curse of death, and I am His forever. Oh, praise Him, hallelujah, my Delight and my reward, everlasting, never failing, my Redeemer, my God. Oh, praise Him, hallelujah, my Delight and my reward, everlasting, never failing, my Redeemer, my Delight and my reward, everlasting, never failing, my Redeemer, my Delight and my reward. Oh, praise Him, hallelujah, hallelujah, oh praise Him, hallelujah, my Delight and my reward, everlasting, never failing, my Redeemer, my God. Oh, praise Him, hallelujah, my Delight and my reward, everlasting, never failing, my Redeemer, my God. We praise You, Jesus, our Redeemer, our God. God, we come before You this morning to worship Your holy name.
None other are worthy. Lord, we are honored and privileged to be able to be in Your presence. Speak to our hearts, our Holy Spirit. Thank You, Lord, because You call us to be part of what You're doing, and before Your eyes, we all are valuable, and You long for us to be worshippers of You. As a church, we praise You for what You've done, and we pray, plead with You that You will continue to use us to expand Your kingdom. It is in the blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, that we ask this. Amen.
Amen. Thank you, Pastor. Would you stand as we read God's holy word together? This is a passage from John 12, and I have to say, this is going to challenge us today.
This is for us to hear, not somebody else. John was there when Jesus was speaking to the people, and he saw this happening. He could see the hardness of hearts on the people, and this is what he wrote about that. So the crowd answered him to Jesus, We have heard from the law that Christ remains forever, so how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?
Who is this Son of Man? So Jesus said to them, The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you.
The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Therefore they could not believe. For again, the prophet Isaiah said, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them. Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. And Jesus cried out and said, Whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me, and whoever sees me sees him who sent me.
I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. Do you believe that even the lips of those who praise the Lord may not know him? Do you know that the hardness of our hearts is still before us, even if we can sing songs of praise? Let's pray that God would transform our hearts today. Our hearts need to be softened. We need to hear the word of the Lord. Prepare our hearts, O God.
Help us to receive it. Break the hard and smelly ground. Help our unbelief. Plant your word down deep in us, cause it to bear fruit. Open up our ears to hear.
Leave us in your tomb. Show us Christ. Show us Christ. O God, reveal your glory through the preaching of your word.
Until every heart confesses, Christ is Lord. Here's my heart, Lord. Here's my heart, Lord. Here's my heart, Lord. Speak what is true.
Speak what is true. Here's my heart, Lord. Here's my heart, Lord. Here's my heart, Lord. Speak what is true.
Speak what is true. Here's my heart, Lord. Here's my heart, Lord.
Here's my heart, Lord. Speak what is true. Speak what is true. Speak what is true. Here are our hearts, Lord. Soften that stony ground today.
Help us hear what you're saying. In Jesus' name. Amen. In the Garden of Eden, God presented Adam and Eve with two ways, two trees. One tree that's fruit was life and another tree that's fruit was death. At the end of Deuteronomy, Moses presented Israel with two ways. See, before you I have set life and death good and evil. Joshua, having led the people of Israel into the land of promise, presented the people with two ways, to serve foreign gods or the true living God.
As for me and my house, he said, we will serve the Lord. In the Proverbs, we are again presented with two ways, the way of folly and the way of wisdom. It seems like God is always bringing his people to the proverbial fork in the road.
The moment of decision, the parting of the ways. And here at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus once again presents the people of God with two ways. Grab your Bibles. We're going to be in Matthew 7 verses 13 down to 29 this morning.
You'll find today's reading on page 812 in the pew Bible there. We're going to organize our thoughts this morning around three questions. Most of our time will relate to the first two questions and we'll quickly hit the third, but here they are. What are the two ways? What tells them apart and what is at stake? What are the two ways?
What tells them apart and what is at stake? Let's bow our heads. Let's pray and we'll jump in. Father, there are moments in our lives where we can go one way or the other. Our hinge point moments, pivotal moments, watershed moments, and having heard and digested and marinated in the Sermon on the Mount of the last few weeks and even months. Father, the moment has come. The moment to decide. The two ways are before us. Help us, we pray, for Christ's sake. Amen.
Amen. So first of all, what are the two ways? What are the two ways? In this masterful conclusion, Jesus presents the two ways by means of five pictures.
Let's walk through each of them just to kind of orient ourselves to the material. Matthew chapter 7 verse 13, enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few.
So the first picture here is about two gates. Imagine, if you will, that you're in a strange city, another city, not Chicago, but you're in an unfamiliar city and you're going to a sporting event, for example, and when you get there, parking's difficult and you have to pick a lot you weren't planning on and you're not really sure where you are, which end is up and how to get to the stadium. And you see two ways, two opportunities. You see a broad street with good paving, no potholes, clean sidewalks and masses of people going up the street. And you see over here a little back alley with holes in it, potholes along the way and just a few stragglers going along. Which way do you go? That's the picture.
One way looks better than the other. Jesus is saying like there's two gates, like two gates in a city wall with two roads leading out and you can't see what's on the other side of the gate, you just see the gates and one is attractive, it's wide, it's easy, it's popular and the other one looks unattractive. It looks narrow and hard and unpopular, but it turns out that the attractive, popular route ends in destruction and the narrow, hard, unpopular route leads to life. The good looking gate is a death trap.
The bad looking gate is life giving. That's the first picture. Jesus continues, verse 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. So the second picture is of a herd of sheep, a bunch of sheep milling about. They all look like sheep, but some of them are secretly wolves underneath. You can't tell by looking, but they can't be trusted.
They're only here to kill, steal and destroy. They're false prophets. They're false religious teachers.
They're untrustworthy guides. They're predators in disguise. So you have two kinds of sheep, two kinds of religious guides. One looks like sheep and is a sheep.
It's an authentic sheep and so you can get close to them and trust them and follow them and others look like sheep, but are actually wolves in secret and you don't dare hang around them because they'll eat you for dinner. The next picture, verse 16, you will recognize them by their fruits and with the word fruit, Jesus now shifts to a horticultural image. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, thus you will recognize them by their fruits. So in this third horticultural picture, you have two trees, each of them bearing fruit in keeping with its nature. One tree is healthy and bears good fruit. If you eat it, you will live. One tree is diseased and bears bad fruit and if you eat it, you will die.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Remember back in the Garden of Eden, two trees, two trees, the tree of life, eat of that tree and you'll live. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, eat of that tree, you die. So both of these trees have fruit. Both of the fruit look appealing and appetizing, but when you take a bite of it, you'll know which tree is healthy and which tree is diseased.
For one tree is rotten, their fruit is rotten as death and the other tree, the fruit is sweet as life. Then Jesus keeps going, verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 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 mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
So now we have a fourth picture. It's judgment day and everyone is gathered before the judgment seat of Christ. You have two groups of people, both want to get into the kingdom of heaven. One group is understated, but have quietly done the will of the Father and are welcomed in. The other group is verbose and gives us their religious resume.
And you would think these people would get in, right? But Jesus says, I never knew you and they are left out. So two groups, one is welcomed into the kingdom and the other is cast out. And now the final picture, verse 24. Everyone who hears these words of mine, it does them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.
And everyone who hears these words of mine, it does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. So now in the last picture, we have two houses. Both look good from the outside. They're well designed. They're freshly painted.
They have great curb appeal, if you will. But as in all real estate, it comes down to location, location, location. And underneath their foundations are radically different. One is built on the rock, the other is built on sand. And it's only when the storms come that you can tell which is which. The storm reveals the foundation of the house. So here we have, we've got two gates, two sheep, two trees, two groups of people, and two houses, pairs all the way down.
And in each pairing, we have the same kind of dynamic at play. Something looks really good from the outside, but it is revealed over time to be fake on the inside. So you've got a good-looking gate, but it leads to destruction. You've got a good-looking sheep, but it's secretly a wolf. You've got a good-looking tree, but its fruit is poison.
You've got a good-looking resume, but you won't get in. You've got a good-looking house, but there's no foundation. You see? And in each case, we have a better alternative. We've got a gate that leads to life. We've got a sheep that we can follow. We've got a tree that's fruit is life-giving. We've got a welcome into the kingdom of heaven.
We've got a house that is built on a rock. Now, so what are the two ways? That's the question. We've got the metaphors, the analogies, but what are the two ways? Before I studied this passage in earnest and in context, I had always assumed that these two ways were the way of the unrighteous versus the way of the righteous.
That's what I grew up understanding. I thought that the wide, easy, popular gate that leads to destruction, that that must be the way of the world. You know, these are the unrighteous people just living it up on their way to destruction. They're the unhealthy trees. Theirs is the bad fruit. They're the fools with their houses built on sand. Unrighteous people. And Jesus' point here is don't be like those unrighteous people.
Be righteous because the righteous people take the narrow gate. They're the healthy trees. They have good fruit.
They wisely build their houses on rock. That's what I thought. I'd always assumed that, but it turns out I was wrong.
Very wrong. Because in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is not contrasting the way of the unrighteous with the way of the righteous. That's not the contrast throughout the sermon. He's contrasting the way of the Pharisees versus the way of Jesus. That's the contrast throughout the Sermon on the Mount. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have heard it said, but I say to you, don't you be like those hypocrites when they give and pray and fast so that others would see them?
When you pray, give and fast, you do it in secret because your Father who sees in secret will reward you. The way of the Pharisees, the way of Jesus. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been pitting himself against the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. Here in the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, he is still drawing that distinction.
If you look carefully, you can see that. If the contrast, for example, is between the unrighteous and the righteous, then the language here of false prophets doesn't make any sense. The false prophets and sheep clothing.
Prophets are those who claim to speak for God. The wolves in sheep's clothing are people who are teaching the word of God. They're religious leaders.
They claim to speak for God, but they're false guides. They're using the sheep for their own selves. And in the judgment day scene, you'll notice that the people who are cast out are not cast out for being worldly. They're not cast out for being worldly. They're actually really religious people, aren't they? All the things they're doing.
They've done lots of good. They've built a lot of their religious resume, but they don't know Jesus. And these are the Pharisees, you see. Look at Matthew's summary of the Sermon as he wraps it up in verse 28. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not like the scribes.
So even in the close, Matthew says, this is how you're supposed to read this. Jesus versus the scribes and Pharisees. So we have the way of Jesus and the way of the Pharisees. The way of the Pharisees, the way of Jesus. The wide, easy, popular gate that leads to destruction is the way of the scribes and Pharisees. The Pharisees are the wolves in sheep's clothing. They are the diseased tree with the bad fruit. They're the ones with the religious resumes who will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
They're the ones with the good looking house built on sand that cannot withstand the storms of life. But the narrow, hard, unpopular way, that gate that leads to life, that's the way of Jesus. He's the authentic sheep, the true prophet of God. You can trust him.
You can follow him and get close to him. He's the good tree with the good fruit that gives life. And on judgment day, if you are known to him, the gates of heaven will open wide to you.
And if you build your life on his word, you will have a house that is built on the rock. You see the distinction, the two ways, the way of the Pharisees, the way of Jesus. Now, what tells them apart?
What tells them apart? Let's walk back through this passage and look for clues, okay? Verse 13, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. So the way of the Pharisees is wide, it's easy, it's hugely popular. The way of Jesus is narrow, it's hard, it's less popular. The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day were very popular.
They had all the power, they ran all the synagogues and they taught that if you would just be good enough, God would bless you with a good life. So here's the rules, keep them and God will be happy with you and he'll give you a good life because good people get good lives. That's the message of the Pharisees. Good people get good lives.
So shape up, clean up, get in line. This is the way to earn God's favor and to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Friends, this is the message of religious moralism, religious moralism. Just be good, act right, go to church, love people, give to the poor, do good because God will see your religious moral efforts and reward you with the blessings of a good life. And in Jesus' day as well as ours, this is the way most people relate to God.
It has broad appeal, it's easily understood, it is the way most popular religion works. But the way of Jesus is altogether different because Jesus tells us you'll never be good enough, you'll never be good enough. That's why I will come and be your substitute. I have come to exchange my life for yours. I will take your sin and bear your death and I will give you my own perfect righteousness so that you might live forever clothed in my righteousness, accepted by God as children forever. I will make you right with God by grace through faith as you entrust yourself to me. My friends, that is good news. That is what the gospel means.
It means good news. Religious moralism offers good advice. Here's what you've got to do. It's the way of the Pharisees. The gospel offers good news. This is what Jesus has done. This is the way of Jesus. It's the narrow gate, friends. It's the hard path.
It's the less popular route, but it is the way to life, the abundant life of the kingdom of heaven. Verse 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. In other words, they're wearing a disguise. Where have we seen that imagery in the Sermon on the Mount of wearing masks or disguise?
The hypocrites, the actors, the mask wearers, the Pharisees. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. A healthy tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire, thus you will recognize them by their fruits. So the Pharisees with their religious moralism are diseased on the inside. That's what this metaphor is showing us. The Pharisees live in behavior modification and sin management.
They look good on the outside. They're upstanding and moral citizens, but on the inside, their hearts are full of disease. Because if you're a Pharisee, there's only two ways that you can actually be good. You can use fear and pride to make yourself good. You know, be good. You don't want to get caught. Fear. Be good.
People are watching. Pride. And notice what you're doing is you're being good, not for God or even for goodness sake, you're being good for yourself. You're leveraging your own self interest to try to modify your behavior. And when you do good, it ends up feeding your pride and you go, look at me, I'm on a roll. Thank God I'm not like those sinners. And when you mess up and sin, it feeds your fear.
What if people found out who I really am? And friends, religion is a burden because you're never good enough. And friends, the bitter fruit of religious moralism is a life of fear and pride.
It is a disease that eats away at our hearts. But the gospel of Jesus is altogether different. The gospel slays our pride because all of our righteousness is like filthy rags. And we are far more sinful than we ever dared realize. And then the gospel relieves our fears because we're fully accepted by grace, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.
And so we are far more loved than we ever dared hope. And having been so loved, it melts our hearts and makes us want to love God in return and do what pleases him. And so we start obeying him from acceptance instead of obeying God for acceptance.
Do you see the difference? Religious moralism obeys God for acceptance. A gospel person obeys God from acceptance. Imagine with me if you have two people, you have a religious moralist son who's not sure if his father loves him.
He's trying really hard to prove himself. And so he comes home, he sees the lawn is unmowed and goes, I know I'm going to mow the lawn and prove to my father that I'm worthy of his love. And so you mow the lawn. And a gospel son comes home and knows that they are loved by their father, wakes up in that love, sees the unmowed yard and says, you know what? I know how I'm going to say I love you today.
I'm going to mow the yard. Both mow the yard, both do the good behaviors, but it comes from totally different hearts. The religiously moral heart is totally different than the gospel centered heart. Friends, the sweet fruit of the gospel is a life of love. That's the healthy heart at the core of a gospel life. The heart that is full of religious moralism cannot help but bear the fruit of fear and pride. I know I lived many years of my life in this, but a gospel heart, the tree that is full of the gospel will always bear the fruit of love.
It makes all the difference in the world. Jesus says, you will recognize them by their fruits. And it all comes out in the end. That's what Jesus says. Verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. 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 mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Where did this group of people go wrong? They have good theology, Lord, Lord, call Jesus, Lord, good theology. They're earnest and sincere.
Lord, Lord, when you repeat in Hebrew culture, it's to show earnestness and emphasis. They mean well, Lord, Lord, and they're doing all the right things. They've got impressive religious resumes. They've spoken the words of God. They've wielded spiritual authority. They've done mighty works in Jesus name. You see, they're poster children for religious moralism. They've done it all.
They're the best of the best. Their resume is on the top of the pile, and yet they're cast out. Where did they go wrong? You see, their problem is their religious moralism. That's their problem.
They are bringing their own righteousness to the bar of judgment. Look what we did. We were so good, Jesus. We did so much. We're enough.
Let us in. Their faith isn't in Jesus, you see. It's in themselves. They're resting not in his perfect righteousness, but in their own filthy righteousness. They're standing not in grace, but on their own merits. And Jesus says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
All your righteousness is unlawful to the core. If you'd come to me, I would have known you. If you have believed in me, I would be enough for you.
If you had fallen on my mercy, I would hold you fast. For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6 40. And notice, friends, that those who are welcomed into the kingdom of heaven, they don't even say a word, do they? They don't even say a word. They don't plead their case.
Because what case is there to plead? They know they are great sinners, and their righteousness is filthy rags. And so they have nothing to say for themselves. All they can do is look to Jesus. And Christ opens the door for his own.
Do you see this? And they walk into the kingdom of heaven, clothed with a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. Because by grace through faith in Christ, they have been clothed in the righteousness of God himself, and they enter into the kingdom of heaven because they belong to Jesus. Not only is the gospel life at the very end of time, it is life here and now, which is where Jesus ends. Verse 24, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the wind blew and beat on that house and it did not fall because it had been founded on a rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell.
And great was the fall of it. Friends, when the storms of life come and beat against the life of a religious moralist, their world collapses. Religious moralist cannot handle the storms of life.
Think about it. If you've got this transactional thing going with God, where you're good and then he blesses you. You bring your goodness and then he brings his blessings.
It's a transaction. The moment the storms of life hit you and you get sick or you go through a breakup or you lose some income or you face rejection, as soon as the blessings aren't coming, there are only two explanations for the situation. Either God broke his end of the deal, right? You've been good and he's not blessing you. He's dropping the ball, in which case you have a theological crisis or you've broken your end of the deal.
And apparently there's something wrong with you. And you wouldn't be suffering like this unless you had done something really bad. And so it puts you into a personal crisis of faith. And either way, your religious moralism stops working.
Your formula doesn't account for the data. The foundation of your life gives way. You see that? But when the storms of life come and beat on a gospel person, it's a radically different experience. I may get sick and that's tough, but I know that Jesus has already healed me of the ultimate sickness and disease of sin and death.
And I am forever secure in his arms. I may go through a breakup and that hurts, but I know that I have the everlasting love of a God who will never let me go. I may lose income and that's painful, but I can take refuge in the reality that I have an inheritance waiting for me that will never perish, spoil or fade that is kept in heaven for me.
I may face rejection, which hurts tremendously, but I can run to the reality that the one person whose opinion matters most in the universe has already accepted me and he calls me friend. You see what a difference it makes? When the storms of life come, a gospel person drives the pylons of their foundation even deeper into the rock which holds them fast through the storms of life. The hardships and pressures of life serve to actually anchor and tether us increasingly to the person of Jesus who is our only hope in life and death.
Amen? It's radically different. Religious moralism versus the gospel of Jesus, radically different. It's running all the way through this conclusion.
Do you see it, this contrast? Religious moralism and the gospel of Jesus. Now, finally and quickly, what's at stake? What's at stake? What difference does it make? The way of the Pharisees versus the way of Jesus.
Religious moralism versus the gospel of Jesus. One way looks broad and easy, but it ends in destruction. You get eaten alive.
The fruit is rotten. There's no kingdom in the end and the storms of life will wipe you out. Or this hard narrow way leads to life and there's a guide you can follow and the fruit is life-giving and the kingdom of heaven opens wide and the storms of life will secure your soul even more deeply. Friends, in the end, it's the difference between an impermanent life and an indestructible life.
An impermanent life and an indestructible life. Here at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents us with the two ways. Which gate will you choose? Which guide will you follow? Which fruit will you eat? Which righteousness will you pursue? Which foundation will you build? There's two ways to live.
Which one will you take? Let's pray. Father, one of the greatest dangers to church-going people is that we can read the same scriptures, say the same prayers, serve on the same committees, act in the same way, sit in the same chairs, and have hearts that are utterly different. The religiously moral heart can hide a long time in the walls of the church.
But there's no life. Father, teach us to live in the gospel of grace. Teach us to cling to Jesus and His righteousness alone. Teach us to lay down our deadly goodness and cling to the only righteousness that matters in the end. Teach us to fall by grace through faith on Jesus and Jesus alone. He is our only hope. May we cling to Him, change our hearts, and make us new. Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
In Jesus' matchless name we pray, amen. So our benediction for today are these wonderfully beautiful words from Jesus in Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 down to 30. Because Jesus knows that religion, moralistic religion, is a burden.
It's a weight. You're never good enough, and He comes to lift that burden. Listen to these words. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. This is the love of our Jesus. Because we are loved more than we know. And now Moody Church, it's time to go and be the church.
Have a great week. On today's Moody Church Hour, we heard Pastor Phillip Miller telling us about the two ways. This has been the 23rd in a 24-part series from the Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew. Life is learned, and we're all learning how to live from someone. At the end of the day, we'll live our lives in one of three ways, by default, by drift, or by design. Next time, we conclude our series from the Sermon on the Mount with a look at the only way to live that actually works.
Life Built on the Rock. The Moody Church Hour is a listener-supported ministry. We count on the ongoing financial support of listeners like you. Together, we share solid biblical teaching that transforms lives across America and around the world. You can call us at 1-800-215-5001. Online, you'll find us at moodychurchhour.com. Or write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.
