Abide In The Vine (Bill Wiebe)

Good morning everyone. You know, as I was thinking

about the last time I prepared a sermon and preached, I have

always found it very difficult that when I go up to preach,

even no matter how much time I spend in prayer and think I'm

ready to to present the message, those steps are very hard to

climb. And that is no different this

morning. So my my prayer has been for the

message this week. My prayer has also been that

that that God will use me to speak to you in a very powerful

way. And as we near this is now the

last sermon of, of the sermon of the Mount, which this is one of

the most difficult passages that that I've preached.

I've preached on this passage before and I have found it very

difficult to, to, to, to be encouraged by this at sometimes

because I always feel like I, I'm, I'm, it's never enough like

that. I fail.

I always fail even with my best intentions.

So my prayer this morning and as we dive into this, we want to go

through the Sermon of the Mount and we are now in the last, this

is the last message for the Sermon of the Mount.

And so we're going to dive right in.

And I so appreciate the way Jesus started this sermon in

chapter 5 and I want to start it the same way.

Chapter 5 verses 3 through 12. And it says this.

And this is the way he starts it off.

He says blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the

Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for

they will be comforted in. Blessed are the meek, for they

will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and

thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy, and

blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of

God, and blessed are those who are persecuted because of

righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and

falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me, but

rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven

for the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before

you. Now that is the way Jesus

introduced the Sermon of the Mount.

I want to just quickly recap a few of the chapters as we lead

up to the last sermon today, just to kind of bring us all up

to speed as to where we're at. So in chapter 5, verse 16, just

I'm just summarizing this just to kind of give you an idea.

Jesus tells us to let our light shine.

And in five Matthew 5, chapter 73 through 20, Jesus is telling

us that we are to keep his commandments.

And in 521 through 26 to deal with anger and resolve conflict.

And in 527 through 32 to to maintain proper marital

relationships. And in five verses 34 through

37, to speak honestly and let your yes be yes and your no be

no. And in five chapter 30, chapter

5, verses 38 through 48, to act in generous and loving ways,

even towards our enemies. And in chapter 6, verses one

through 6, to help the needy and pray in secret.

In chapter 6, verses 14 through 15, we are to forgive the people

that have harmed us or to hurt us.

And in chapter 6, verses 24 through 34, to seek first the

Kingdom of heaven. And in Chapter 7, verses one

through 5, we are to refrain from judgement.

And as I was preparing for this message, I came across a

commentator and he referenced CS Lewis.

And this is a quote by CS Lewis. And when I read this, it just

hit me between the eyes. And I, I trust it will.

It will you as well. CS Lewis was asked about the

Sermon of the Mount. And this is what CS Lewis said,

he says. And this is what the commentator

writes. CS Lewis was once criticized for

not caring for the Sermon on the Mount.

He replied as to caring for the Sermon of the Mount, If caring

here means liking or enjoying I, I suppose no one cares for it

who can like being knocked flat on his face by a sledgehammer.

I can hardly imagine a more deadly spiritual condition

spiritual condition than that of a man who can read these

passages with tranquil pleasure meaning where it does not even

affect them. Lewis was right.

Studying the Sermon of the Mount can be, can be a devastating

experience. It exposes the depth of our sin

and the shallowness of our commitment.

But the pain in it, the pain that it inflicts, is meant to

heal, not to destroy. In fact, the Sermon on the Mount

could be called a Christian's job description.

It is the most complete summary we have of Jesus's ethical

expectations for his followers. That to me was heavy.

Oswald Chambers also writes this about the Sermon of the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations.

It is a picture of life that we live when the Holy Spirit is

having his unhindered way with us.

What can we be that moldable that the Holy Spirit will have

his way in US? And with that, I want to turn to

today's text. And if you have your Bibles with

you, turn with me to Matthew Chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

And we're going to be reading the last verses of this chapter,

verses 21 through 29. And it says this.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter into the

Kingdom of heaven, heaven, but only the one who does the will

of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day,

Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name?

And did we not drive, O demons in your name and perform many

miracles? Then I will say, I will tell

them plainly, I never knew you away from me, you evil doers.

Therefore everyone who has, everyone who hears these words

of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who

built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams

rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house.

Yet it did not fall because it had built.

It had been built on a foundation of rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put

them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house

on the sand. The rain came down, the streams

rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and a

fell with a great crash. When Jesus had finished saying

these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching because

He had taught as one with authority and not of the

teachers of the law. Let's pray before we begin.

Father in Heaven, we come before you again this morning.

And Lord, thank you for the songs that have already been

sung. And my prayer this morning is

that our hearts may be open to receive your word.

And Lord, we invite you here this morning.

I pray, Lord God, that you will fill every corner, every room,

and our thoughts with your spirit.

Lord, I pray that what the people here today will not be

for me, but will be only from you.

And Lord, I pray that as I preach this message, if there

are, if there is something else that you would want me to say or

to lead me into, I pray, Lord God, that you will just take

over and speak. Lord, Lord, may our hearts be

here. May our hearts and ears be

attentive to you this morning. Be with us all in Jesus name I

pray, Amen. I'm, I've broken this path, this

message up in three different parts.

The first part here is in verses 21 through 23.

And I want to read them again because I find these very heavy.

After all that Jesus has said up until this point.

This is how he concludes the Sermon of the Mount 21 through

23 says again, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will

enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who

does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy

in your name, in your name, Dr. O demons, and in your name

perform many miracles that I will tell them plainly, I never

knew you away from me, you evil doers.

One thing that really that stands out as you read these

verses here is that the people here as they respond to Jesus's

words, not everyone who calls me Lord Lord will enter into the

Kingdom of heaven. These people who hear these

words are shocked and they say, did we not do all these things

in your name? Have we not been busy for the

Kingdom? Have we not done all these

things in honor of you if that's what what they're saying here.

But we, we quickly find out that Jesus points them, points that

he points us out to them that this is not done with the right

heart, not with the right attitude.

If you were to look at anyone in this church, no matter who it is

and you see them somewhere out in the street and they're

casting out demons or they are, you know, healing the sick.

They, you see somebody who is a paralegic and you see somebody

make this person walk these miracles.

These are the kind of miracles that these people are talking

about that they were doing in Jesus name.

Would you not think and and say those people are of God, those

people are serving Christ and what does Jesus say about all of

that? Here A depart from me.

I never knew you away from me, you evil doers is what he is

saying. Think about what that would feel

like. The question that comes to mind

is what is the condition of our heart?

In Matthew 7 just before we read or the the scripture verse for

today it says this. Just as you can Ida tree by its

fruit, you can ID the fruit of our actions.

You see they did not do these things with the right motive and

with the right heart. We have seen, we people have

done this in the past as well, that you do things for your own

self gain, for recognition, all these things when, if, if this

is the reason, if this is the condition of a heart and This is

why we are doing things. These are the words that we will

hear from Jesus away from you. I never knew you.

Our desire should be to follow and to do the will of the Father

and to do those things in His name.

No matter what we do on our own without the Holy Spirit, it

means nothing. And Isaiah 64 tells this about

our best intentions. No matter what your intentions

are, if they are not driven and and and guided by the Holy

Spirit, it means nothing. Isaiah 64 says this.

All of us have, all of us have become like one who is unclean

and all our righteous acts that means with your best intentions

are like filthy rags. They mean nothing.

They will shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our

sins sweep us away. This powerful metaphor

illustrates that even our best human efforts and good deeds are

tainted by sin and fall short of God's perfect holiness.

The point here is not the point. The point is not here that what

we are sorry. The point here is not what they

were doing, but what they lacked.

They did not have a relationship with Jesus and we see in these

same verses this Jesus that is talking.

This will be the judge that we will stand before one day and be

and give an account for what we have done.

Jesus here will be our judge. Verse 21 I want to highlight

that now where it just where it says this not not everyone who

hears The Who says to me Lord Lord will be entered the Kingdom

of heaven. But it says this, but only those

that do the will of my Father. That's the key.

Only those that do the will of my Father.

And what that means is, first of all, do we have a personal

relationship with Jesus? Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 10

Ephesians 2:4–10

says this. Because of His great love for

us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even

when we were dead in our transgressions.

It is by grace that you have been saved, and God raised up

Christ and seated Him at the heavenly realms in Jesus Christ,

in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable

riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Jesus

Christ. For it is by grace that you have

been saved through faith, and this is not from ourselves.

It is the gift of God, not by works, so that you can boast.

For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do

good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So what is the will of the Father?

John 639 through 40 says this. And this is the will of him who

sent me, that I shall lose none of those who have been given to

me, but raise them up on the last day.

For my Father's will is that everyone who looks at the sun

and believes in me shall have eternal life, and I will raise

them up on the last day. Jesus died for our sins.

He rose and he stands in the presence of God as our advocate

when we mess up and when we do things wrong and we confess our

sins, our Jesus is there as the advocate, as our personal

advocate to say to the to to say to God that I have paid for

those sins. And then with that, when we

confess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and we accept them as

our Lord and Savior, Jesus then sends the helper to help us.

And we never, and we see this. The probably the best place to

see the Holy Spirit in action is when we see that after Jesus

rose from the dead and was ascended into heaven, he tells

his disciples, go and wait for me.

Go and wait until I send the Holy Spirit to help her.

And we see that the Jesus disciples, they sent, they are

off waiting, praying. And then Jesus sends or God

sends the Holy Spirit. And it is only until then that

they were told then that that they were empowered to preach.

And there Peter preaches a sermon and on while he was

preaching, it says that 3000 souls were saved.

And as a result of that, even that says that God would add to

the to the number daily. Had Peter preached without the

Spirit, what would have happened?

They needed, he needed the Holy Spirit, God's power and the

Spirit's power to be able to, to preach this message in a way

that took everything out like the sin away from us and allowed

us to be, to be presentable through the Spirit.

What God did for us is what makes it acceptable through the

Spirit. Jesus said forgive.

And one thing I want to back up just here a little bit is that

not only does he prepare and empower us, but we are to be, to

bear fruit and be obedient to reflect Jesus and her action and

their attitude. We see this also present when

Jesus was with his disciples and they were, they were, they were

taking in the Lord's Supper. It says there that the disciples

were arguing among themselves, who would be the greatest?

And here Jesus, who is God in the flesh, he puts on a robe or

a garment and he washes his disciples feet.

This is the type of attitude and action that we are to have.

And I will never, ever, ever understand this, how this works.

And I I understand that it's only through the Spirit.

But when Jesus was being nailed to the cross, and I want you to

picture that Jesus being nailed to the cross while being nailed

to the cross, Jesus prays. Father, forgive them for they

know not what they do. Who prays like that?

Who prays like that? Last week, Mr. Hebert was here

and he was talking about how they had been driving somewhere

and while he was driving somebody cut off in front of

them and they were both not happy.

How easily are we offended and hurt?

And here Jesus, who had every right in my eyes to to be angry,

to be upset, and to be in pain, is praying for on behalf of the

people that are persecuting him. That is what the Spirit does in

us when we have Him, when the Spirit is leading and guiding

us. Matthew 724 through 27 says this

continuing on here, it says, therefore everyone who hears

these words of mine and puts them into practice, it's like a

wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and

beat against the house, yet it did not fall because it had its

foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these

words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a

foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain came down and the streams rose, and the winds blew

and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

As we're reading here, it is describing 2 houses that are

being built here at the same time and I'm sure some of us

have driven down some of these subdivisions where you just see

like these cooker cookie cutter houses that are being built.

You drive by, they all look exactly the same and that is

what's being described here as well as the believer and the non

believer. We can come to church here on a

Sunday morning and we may all look the same.

We put our best effort. We look the Christian part, but

we have an inspector that inspects her heart.

Just as a building inspector will know the difference between

a house that is built on a solid foundation or as a foundation

that's built on stand as being described on here.

Jesus sees right into her heart. Jesus knows exactly what our

motive is and why we are here. God is our inspector.

Jesus's true followers not only hear his words, but act on them,

allowing His message to make a difference in our lives.

In his teaching, Jesus explained that a true follower, by acting

on his words, is like a person who builds a house on solid

rock. The one who builds on rock is

hearing and responding. That's the key part here.

What Jesus is teaching us here in the Sermon of the Mount we

are to apply into our daily life.

Practicing obedience builds the rock on a solid foundation of

Jesus's words to weather the storms of life.

Rain, waters, floods, winds, their foundation, their

foundation on solid rock will be unaffected.

And when we read the last part of this verse here again it

talks about the rain came down and the streams rose and the

winds blew and it beat against the house and it fell with a

great crash. Often times this verse is

referenced to the storms of life we talk about, you know, we, we

lost a loved one or we've been someone was diagnosed with

cancer or all these heavy things that are true.

They are storms of life. They are storms in our life.

But the way this is described here in verse 27, it fell with

the great crash. It all came down.

There was nothing left and I, I, I think this also speaks to the

coming judgement of Christ. When we stand before God, what

will what will our actions where out of what heart did?

Did we did we do what we did? Sorry, that was a bit of a

tongue twister there. We are to apply what Jesus has

taught not only in the Sermon of the Mount.

We have the commandments as well.

We build our life on those commandments and we build our

life on those teachings and we put them into practice.

Verse 27 and 28 or 29 say this. When Jesus had finished saying

these things, the crowds were amazed at the teaching because

He had taught as one who had authority and not as their

teachers of the law. See how up until this point,

when Jesus was Jesus was preaching, they had already seen

that Jesus had driven out demons and in fact that's why He was

popular or what the people had heard about that and they were

now coming to listen to Him and speak.

But they make this claim that Jesus had that had was teaching

with authority. And they they're right about

that because later on, many of these people will still be

around. We will see also.

And we have the New Testament here as a witness of what Jesus

did. And we know that he had

authority because we know that when Jesus was with his

disciples in the boat and the storm was there, that Jesus calm

the storm, the winds and the waves obeyed Jesus.

That's authority. And we know that Jesus also rose

people from the dead. The little girl in that talks

about in the Gospels as well, Jesus rose her from the dead.

Again, the authority of Christ. And we also see that in multiple

times, and they have not seen this yet, but we have the

account that two times that Jesus fed the multitudes where

thousands of people were fed with just a little food.

And we also read that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

And we also get to see a little side of Jesus's compassion for

the dead. Even though, no, even though

Jesus knew that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, yet

he wept. We see the, the, the, the, the

heart, the love that he had for his people as he wept.

And we again we see the authority that Jesus had when he

when he was crucified and he rose on the third day defeating

death. Jesus said to Jesus said to him,

I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except for me.

This is John 14 through 6. The question I have for us today

is not do you know Jesus? The question I have for you

today is does Jesus know you? That to me, when I was preparing

for this sermon, it just goes, it's a reflection of why have I

done what I have done up until this point.

Apparently all these people, when we read the beginning of

these passages here, were serving God at some capacity.

And we're convinced, they were convinced that they were doing

this for God. Those words were heavy.

I never knew you'd depart from me.

So does Jesus know you? And I know that as if you're a

believer and you are someone who has given their life to Christ,

that sometimes as life goes on and you know, when you're, when

you first become a believer, everything is new and fresh and

you're excited and all these things are like you, You absorb

everything. As time goes on, sometimes

things become a little bit mundane.

We kind of lose focus. And I liken that to a story that

you find in the Gospels and Luke, and it's about Peter.

And, you know, Peter here is with Christ and they are near

the end of Jesus's ministry. And Jesus is telling the people

that now this is what's going to be happening.

You know, I'm going to be arrested.

I'm going to be brought before the people and I will be

crucified. And Peter will just not have

this. Peter is saying, no, this will

never happen. And if it means if this is

what's going to happen, I will follow you to the end.

And then Jesus confronts Peter and he says, Peter, before day

breaks, you will have denied me three times.

So my question to us is here as believers who have maybe become,

you know, maybe not asleep, but maybe tired, have we denied

Christ, maybe not with words, but with their actions, not in

maybe not in a very physical way, not in a very, you know,

bright or like a loud way. But has the Holy Spirit prompted

you And we have somehow dismissed that?

This is a question that I, I want you to ask yourself and you

have to be brutally honest with yourself.

Where am I at in my relationship with Christ?

I have given him as he is my Lord and Savior.

But Jesus says we will be known by our fruit, and we know that

once after Jesus was crucified, or just before Jesus was

crucified, it was bitten. It was known to Peter that he

heard that rooster crow and Jesus and Peter realized right

away what Jesus had told him. And it says that Peter went away

and he wept bitterly. And that is what we are to do

when when we deny or when we have denied the Spirit, that we

confess, that we bring that before God and we ask God to

forgive us. And then there is also another

beautiful story of this. When we read what we read about

Peter is after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, he is

again with his disciples and Peter is there.

And Peter, I wonder how Peter must have felt at that time,

being there with Jesus, knowing what Jesus said that he would do

and he was right where Peter had denied him.

What does Jesus do when we confess our sins?

Jesus restores you. And Jesus tells Peter three

times, Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me?

Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me, feed my

sheep. This is a powerful illustration

of of what it looks like when we have denied the Spirit and when

we have confessed that and brought that before Christ and

asked for forgiveness, we continue on.

We don't do things perfectly. In fact, we, we mess things up

more often than we than we do things right.

But with the Spirit in US, it makes it acceptable for God.

There's also for those of you that, or maybe there's some of

you who today that have not confessed Jesus as Lord and

Savior. And this is the, the point of

the message here today is that I want this to be clear.

You are not saved by your works, but you are saved by the grace

of God. It is only when we are saved by

the grace of God and we have the Spirit that we are able to live

out the character of God through the Spirit, empowered by the

Spirit. And we see this, that it's only

by grace that you've been saved. In the on the story or in the

story of the thief on the cross, Jesus is now hanging on the

cross dying, and he's in between two other thieves.

And as Jesus is hanging there, one of the thieves looks at him

and he recognizes Jesus for who he is and he confesses Jesus as

and he tells the other thief that we deserve what we've got.

But this man is innocent and he all he says to Jesus is Remember

Me when you enter into your into your Kingdom.

And at that point he hears these words that I'm sure just saying

deep into the soul. Today you will be with me in

heaven. Today you will be with me in

paradise. What words?

We are not saved by works, but believing that Jesus came and

died for our sins, that he was raised from the dead and when we

confess our sins we accept him as Lord and Savior and we become

children of God. We are not saved by works, but

we are expected to bear fruit and reflect Christ in our in our

life by obeying his commandments and living out the sermon of the

Mount. In our day-to-day life, we don't

do this perfectly, but by the power of the Holy Spirit in us,

making it acceptable before God the Father.

My challenge to you today is that you do an inventory and

reflect. Where is your life?

Have we gotten tired? Are we just kind of going

through the motions? Today's a new day.

We can confess that before Christ, before God and Jesus

will restore us. And this may happen more often

than you think because we all fall short, but God is there to

forgive us when we bring up before him.

And I want to leave you with this final verse.

That's the from John chapter 15, verses 4 through 5.

John 15:4–5

It says this remain in me as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself.

It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit

unless you remain in me. I am the vine and you are the

branches. If you remain in me and I in

you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do

nothing. Let's pray, Lord God, we come

before you, Lord, with a thankful heart.

And Lord, we are so grateful that when we mess up and we do

things with the wrong motives, and when we recognize that, we

can bring that before you and we can confess that, and you are

quick to forgive. And my prayer for all of us here

this morning is that we will do an inventory of our heart.

Where are we at with our relationship with you?

Lord, I pray that you will rekindle our spirit, renew our

spirit. Lord, give us again a zeal and a

hunger for you. Lord, I pray that we will be

diligent in seeking you out as well through prayer and

meditation and scripture and fellowship.

Lord, may you be with us as we journey on.

Lord, may you give us the strength to carry on, and Lord,

I pray that the promise that you give us through your word that

we will cling to those. I pray this all in Jesus name,

Amen.