Matthew 7: The Sermon on the Mount: Live toward Life’s End (5)

Pray Psalm 140.6-8.
I said to the LORD: “You are my God;
Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.
O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation,
You have covered my head in the day of battle.
Do not grant, O LORD, the desires of the wicked;
Do not further his wicked scheme,
Lest they be exalted.

Sing Psalm 140.6-8.
(Old Rockingham: O Lord, Most High, with All My Heart)
You are my God, O God, my Lord!
Give ear, show mercy to my pleas!
Salvation grant by Your strong Word.
Grant not their wicked, evil schemes.

Read Matthew 7.1-23; meditate on verse 21-23.

Prepare.
1. What does Jesus mean by “that day”? To which “day” is He referring? What happens on “that day”?

2. Who are described as those “who practice lawlessness”?

Meditate.
My good friend and colleague Mike Slay says this is the scariest passage in the Bible. I do not doubt but that this is so. It would be difficult to overemphasize the importance of this passage, much less to bring out its full meaning and significance in a few short paragraphs. Nevertheless, let’s have a look.

Here, at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus advises His hearers to focus on the end of their lives, and the end of all things. A day is coming – “that day” (v. 22) – when, according to Jesus, an accounting will be given for how we have spent the minutes, hours, days, and years of our lives. The prize for those who pass muster is full and final entrance into the Kingdom they have been seeking all their lives (v. 21). These are they who have done the will of the heavenly Father (v. 21): they have sought His Kingdom and righteousness, labored to increase in His perfections, nurtured a deep and vital inward relationship with Him, and have hung on every Word that proceeds from His mouth and the mouth of Jesus. The result is that they know Jesus Christ. They know Him personally and intimately, truly and lovingly; and what’s even better than that, Jesus Christ knows them (v. 23)!

Another way of saying this is that those who know Jesus can be recognized by their having followed His example of loving, delighting in, contemplating, and fulfilling the Law of God – increasing in love for God and neighbor, and thus always increasing in Kingdom greatness (Matt. 5.17-19).

Those, on the other hand, who account for their lives in terms of works they have done – works which they intend to hold forth before the eternal Judge as somehow deserving of His approval and earning them a place in His Kingdom – such people will be sorely disappointed. Because it will be seen that all their many and impressive works had but one end: to commend them to Jesus as having earned a place with Him (v. 22).

But their works were not according to God’s Law, but were lawless, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. They were done to satisfy themselves and impress others; they were done as manifestations of self-love, and for self-serving ends. Jesus knows – loves, communes with, receives, delights in – none who practice lawlessness, who think that somehow their good works, even works done in Jesus’ Name, merit them some eternal place in His presence. They do not.

We must pass the days of this life with an eye on the end, when we will stand before Jesus to give an account of ourselves. On that day, let us be seen as loyal and obedient servants, who have faithfully, albeit haltingly, sought the Kingdom and righteousness of God in all our ways, and who plead not our faithfulness, but that of Jesus, Whom we know, and Whom we know knows us.

Finally, let us not fail to notice in this passage how Jesus teaches us to relate to Him: “Lord, Lord” (v. 21). He is our Redeemer and Savior, but He is also our Lord. Let us live the reality of this in all our minutes, hours, days, and years.

Reflect.
1. Why did Jesus reject the works proudly held forth by the “Many”?

2. How would you explain to an unbelieving friend what is necessary to enter the Kingdom of heaven?

3. What does it mean for you to live toward the end of all things?

Christ again summons hypocrites to his judgment-seat, as we showed a little ago from Luke. So long as they hold a place in his Church, they both flatter themselves and deceive others. He therefore declares, that a day is coming, when he will cleanse his barn, and separate the chaff and straw from the pure wheat. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Matthew 7.22

Show me Your will, Lord Jesus, so that today I…

Pray Psalm 140.1-5, 9-13.
Pray that God will keep you in His path today, that He will guard you from all evil and through every temptation, and that He will keep you focused on your eternal dwelling place with Him.

Sing Psalm 140.1-5, 9-13.
Psalm 140.1-5, 9-13 (Old Rockingham: O Lord, Most High, with All My Heart)
From evil, violent men, I pray,
deliver me, preserve me, Lord!
Their hearts they bend to evil ways,
and serpent’s venom is their word.

Guard me, O Lord, from wicked hands,
from violent men preserve my life!
They sow my path with wicked plans,
with nets and snares and cords of strife.

As for the head of all my foes,
let all their evil bring them down.
Let burning coals and endless woes
on all their sland’rous words abound.

The Lord, I know, my cause shall take,
and justice for me surely do;
The righteous will thanksgiving make,
the upright e’er shall dwell with You.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).