Come Follow Me LDS - Matthew 6-7 Part 2
Feb 21, 2019
'Wolves, Fruits & A Rock'
- Being in the minority is good - Wolves in Wool!
- Fruits and Practical Knowledge - Words as 'Triggers'
- The Rock! Not Dwayne Johnson!
Raw Transcript
and then in verse 13 we have another
temple reference where it says enter ye
in at the strait gate for wide is the
gate and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction and many there be which
go in thereat like because Strait is the
gate again STR AIT meaning narrow strait
is the gate and narrow is the way which
leadeth unto life that's eternal life
and few there be that find it there's a
couple of well there's a one very
important principle I think here that we
learn and that is if we are following if
we're trying to work our way through the
strait gate and we're on the right path
we are a minority we need to keep that
in mind we will always be a minority if
we are doing that and not just at a
level of in the church and out of the
church I don't think that's right I
don't think that's fair but somewhat but
actually within the church as well right
there are there are conditions there
this is a a we can think about
parallelism this is a universal truth
that it may be sometimes within the
church that you might be a little bit of
a minority in the church in your
thoughts in certain things even if
you're doing the right thing and so I
think that's an important principle to
understand that you may have a lot of
opposition when you are hanging on to
the iron rod and having the idea and
knowing upfront that you're probably
going to be in the minority or sometimes
you're in the minority when you're doing
that that's that's okay that that is
going to happen and somehow you need to
kind of toughen up
a little bit and understand that that's
sometimes gonna be the position that
you're in
and then in 15 another universal
principle that he gives it it's
something specific but again when we
look at these scriptures they are
principles and so it's not just a matter
of kind of a churchy thing it's
practical knowledge this is stuff that
happens with us every day in many
different ways verse 15 says beware of
false prophets so are we thinking just
someone who's telling us how to get into
heaven and a different way to get there
or how to do what is right
I don't think so the second half of that
verse says which come to you in sheep's
clothing but inwardly they are ravening
wolves that's such a great imagery isn't
it it's such a great imagery so beware
of that that doesn't mean just in the
idea of the church I think that's in
every facet of life there are people
that are going to have views on things
and their main agenda for whatever
reason it seems that human nature works
like this for whatever reason it's very
important to them that you follow what
they believe and if they've got that
agenda and that's up at the top of their
values hierarchy they're going to push
it and they are going to try and
convince you and they are going to shame
you perhaps they're going to argue and
debate with you to try and have you
shift your values hierarchy and that
could be something that has to do with
politics that could have something to do
with church that could have something to
do with your job that could have
something to do with your role as a
parent or as a sibling but there's a lot
of ideas out there a lot of ideology but
it seems that these ideologies are
getting stronger and stronger and have
more and more of an appeal or a some
type of strength to them a almost a
gravity pull to them today
and it looks to me like they're just
gonna get stronger so we watch out for
wolves that are in sheep's clothing and
then in verse 16 is something that's
very kind of near and dear to me and
that is you know the name of this
podcast is quick media culture and
practical theology and I believe that
our theology our that that our belief
that the gospel is very practical and I
try to point that out as much as I can
and right here I see a truth that lines
right up with that and it says here in
verse 16 ye shall know them by their
fruits do men gather grapes of thorns or
figs of thistles in other words that's
how you know if something is true or not
more than anything else I think is you
hash it out you take a look at what are
the results you can listen to someone
and they can be very flowery they can be
very convincing with something but what
are the results of this what are the
fruits that have happened from this
that's how I think you ought to look at
things think about ideologies today and
we're seeing that the in politically the
left and the right so if we look back
and we look at Marxism with with Lenin
and then later with Stalin and Mao and
Pol Pot and etc Venezuela right now we
see an ideology there that people seem
to want to continue to return to over
and over again because up front you have
the sheep's clothing it is this is
empathetic this is fair for everybody
but what are the fruits of this ideology
to me there's a ravenous wolf behind it
and the same goes on the other eye
end of the political spectrum when we
when we focus too much on nationalism or
we focus too much on a fundamental view
of judgment and order even too much and
there's no we don't give an
li-huei two things then there's a lot of
things in sheep's clothing that you
could say hayward taking care of things
so that you don't need to or we are
making things right or yes you need to
be judgemental against somebody who does
something wrong but behind that what are
the fruits of that are people hurt
because of that or are do people suffer
because of that is there what happens to
you when you adopt that as a person into
your heart and so these ideologies can
go out there and the fruits of these
things that we look at in anything in
life and just politically here I'm just
giving an example but anything in life
we can look at the fruits to get a much
better idea of what is the truth of
something an idea the words that are
coming from someone I think that's what
matters the most words are very much
secondary they're important they're
important but moving into this trigger
culture that we're going into where
we're offended by what everybody says
let's look at what the what the meat is
behind it I think we look there first
and and then we talk about speech and he
follows up with a phrase that says
wherefore by their fruits ye shall know
them I think that's a really good
principle to follow a very practical
principle to follow and then he says
something going back to the speech part
important but secondary he says not
everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven
but he that doeth the will of my father
which is in heaven so the speech is
important but it matters pretty much to
nothing if there isn't any meat behind
it if there isn't any practical use
behind it if you are if you are pure
theory if you are pure words but there
is no meat behind it then watch out then
there is a problem you could we see
examples of this people sitting in ivory
towers
where this happens or they are made up
is white simple curse as Jesus says
later on and it reminds me a little bit
of Joseph Smith history where he's in
the first vision and he's being told
look there's a lot of people that are
gonna honor me with their lips right but
they're I'm paraphrasing here but their
hearts are far from me I think it is
where their minds or hearts are far from
me and that's a great example of exactly
what Jesus is saying here not everybody
who says Lord Lord is going to enter
into the kingdom of God but the people
that do the will of the Father and that
kind of brings us back up to those two
things that he was talking about the
kingdom of heaven is at hand and the
will of the Father
those are the two things that he really
focuses a lot on throughout the Gospels
and then he finishes up the Sermon on
the Mount was something really
interesting and that is he starts here
in verse 24 and he says therefore
whosoever heareth these sayings so he's
wrapping up these sayings of mine and
doeth them I will liken him unto a wise
man which built his house upon a rock
well again going through the geography
of the temple the rock would be at the
base of the holy of holies I guess even
said that they were there's probably a
cut in the rock on the Mount where the
Jerusalem Temple was but King Solomon's
Temple was and in this cut which has cut
exactly proportionately to the Ark of
the Covenant the Ark of the Covenant
sits down inside of it not that deep but
somewhat deep and then the throne of God
is behind that and the Ark of the
Covenant acts as the footstool to the
throne and so here as you move through
this ritual with Jesus eventually you
end up at the rock you end up at the the
pinnacle at the Holy of Holies at the
throne of God the representation of the
king of Jehovah there at the end and
then he says that and the rain descended
and the floods came
and the winds blew and beat upon that
house and it fell not you can say your
own house your own life you could even
talk about the temple here that house of
the house of the Lord for it was founded
upon a rock so are we founded upon that
rock
what rock is he referring to while being
specific he's talking about I think
seems to me that he's talking about the
rock of the temple he's talking about
the rock in the holy of Holy's are we
are we based on Christ where he is
sitting on his throne there on the rock
at the center of our lives and if we're
not at that rock if it's not built if
our lives our house our bodies our
Spirit is not built on that rock he is
the rock then it's like building our
house on sand again going back to the
values hierarchy if he's not at the top
then something else is and then our
entire level our entire totem pole of
values hierarchy is suspect and it's
like it's in Tolliver tis built on sand
because it's not focused on an eternal
principle and an eternal end and I also
think about the temple specifically
again with this because he says here in
verse 27 and the rain descended and the
floods came and the winds blew and beat
upon that house and he's talking now
about the house built on sand and it
fell and great was the fall of it and so
going back to Lehigh's time where I
believe from my research I believe that
at Jerusalem they took Christ out of
their theology or lowered him
significantly in their values hierarchy
and that was why Lehi had to leave
because he was preaching about Christ
and how important Christ was and yet
then after he leaves
of course Babylon comes King
Nebuchadnezzar comes and destroys the
temple and so the fall of it was great
and then of course about
forty-five years probably or so after
Christ here is saying this the second
temple falls to the Romans as well and
so he could specifically also be using
this as a foreshadowing of what's about
to happen with the second temple here
and of course what had happened to the
Temple of Solomon with the Babylonians
as well but the principle here is what
are we built on are we built on Christ
or not and I don't know what the reason
is for Peter being called Peter remember
he's Simon Peter so he was Simon and
apparently Jesus gave him the name Peter
which really means Rock and and so here
you have Peter as a rock who is at the
at the Holy of Holies he's going to be
the prophet and he calls him the rock in
a sense as well Peter think of the the
city may be of Petra if you know of the
city Petra in Jordan I think that's
where the third Indiana Jones was filmed
with Sean Connery and they go into that
that city built in the hills built in
the rock where they have to cross the
the invisible bridge that's Petra in
Jordan I believe that's where it was
filmed and so it means rock or petrified
it means you know something that has
been has been formed into rock and so I
wonder if that's where maybe the thought
is of Peter is being called Peter I
don't know that but again at the end
here the people are astonished at
Jesus's doctrine and what he's teaching
them and again wrapping up what is he
teaching he is saying that the lower law
is not enough that we have a higher law
the kingdom of God is at hand
and all these things that are happening
around you where people are showing
themselves as being righteous are not
righteous at all and they are they are
limited in their capacity because they
are simply part of a lower law the
higher law teaches us that it's about
our hearts in our minds and about how we
change and that fasting and prayer
and our alms and all that we do is to
try and grow and progress while we serve
others and serve God and this is a
message that they have not received in a
very very long time inside of mainstream
at least Judaism at the time and this
isn't something new we need to remember
that Jesus is not here teaching
something new there I'm sure there's a
few things here that he's revealing but
he's restoring what has been lost this
had existed previously it has always
existed when the people are willing to
accept it it existed with Adam it
existed with Enoch it existed with Noah
and Abraham these are all Melchizedek
priests these are all prophets that had
the fullness of the gospel and taught
the fullness of the gospel but like
everything in the world here things
break down and get corrupted and it
takes a massive effort a dispensational
effort to bring them back up and focus
things on heavenly things because as is
with as nibbly would say with the second
law of thermodynamics everything breaks
down water runs downhill and it requires
a restoration from time to time till it
to lift them back up so in the end the
Lord's Prayer the Golden Rule and the
Platinum rule if you will and Peter and
all of these teachings that Jesus packs
in here in the Sermon on the Mount are
about living a higher law the law of the
gospel of Jesus Christ and restoring
these things to the Kingdom of Jerusalem
and to mankind in general
and with this sermon or ritual that he
has now gone through he now after
already announcing himself as the
Messiah he basically announces over all
the doctrine that he is going to be
teaching throughout the rest of the New
Testament and you'll see that as we go
through the New Testament thank you for
your time we'll talk to you again next
time
Come Follow Me New Testament
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