Discovering the Father’s Will

Matthew 7:15-23 (BSB)

Last week, we looked at some misconceptions people have about what it takes to go to Heaven when we die. We saw that simply repeating words, performing religious actions, or even acknowledging that Jesus exists does not gain us entry into Heaven. As Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

According to that verse, simply saying “Lord, Lord” does not guarantee our entry into Heaven—we must do the will of the Father. Since Jesus has said this, we should probably pay special attention to this verse, don’t you agree? How do we do the will of the Father? What is the will of the Father? Well, those are the questions we will be answering today.

But before we do, let me just say that this verse is a prime example of why we need to keep all of Scripture in mind whenever we study a particular verse. As the saying goes, “Scripture interprets Scripture.” If we don’t let Scripture explain this verse, then we could end up with a false theology that thinks doing good works is how we earn our way into Heaven. We know from reading the rest of the Bible that good works do not save us; we can’t earn our way into Heaven—salvation is a gift from God given to us when we are born again. So, to understand what Jesus is speaking about here, let’s begin by reading this verse in context.

Matthew 7:13-23 (BSB) says:

13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

14 But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.

15 Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 

16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 

17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 

18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 

20 So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.

21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 

22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

It is very important that we understand this section of Matthew’s Gospel account. Jesus is giving us an example of people who will not be allowed to enter Heaven, and He’s showing us how we can avoid being like them. He’s telling us how we can enter the kingdom of heaven—how we can go to Heaven when we die. And to do that, He’s telling His disciples three things.

The first is, “Enter through the narrow gate.”

Jesus said in verses 13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

This is so important because it tells us that many people are trying to take the broad and easy road to Heaven. They want it to be as simple as repeating some words or being baptized. They don’t want to take the narrow way that leads to Heaven or walk that narrow path that follows, because it would require them to change their ways.

But the Bible is not unclear about this: to be admitted into Heaven, there is only one path. John 10:9 says, “I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture.” And in John 14:6, Jesus says again, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Luke 13:23-27 also records Jesus speaking about the narrow door. It says:

 “Lord,” someone asked Him, “will only a few people be saved?” 

Jesus answered, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’

But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’

Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

And he will answer, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’

There is only one way to reach Heaven, and that is through the narrow gate which is Jesus Christ, and once we enter through Jesus, the path He leads us on is narrow and costly. That is why so many people hope to get to Heaven by some other path, but all other paths lead to destruction. If people don’t go through the door of Jesus, then after they die, even if they want to enter Heaven, it will be too late. As Barnes’ Notes on the Bible warns, “The day of mercy will be ended, and death will come, and the doors of heaven barred against them. How important, then, to strive to enter in while we have opportunity, and before it shall be too late!”

That is why it is so vital that we “make every effort to enter through the narrow door.” We must strive to do this, other translations say. No one will get to the Father except through Jesus. As Barnes’ also says, “So Jesus says that we should strive to enter in; and he means by it that we should be diligent, be active, be earnest; that we should make it our first and chief business to overcome our sinful propensities, and to endeavor to enter into heaven.”

The second thing Jesus tells us in this passage is, “Beware of false prophets.”

We need to beware of false prophets for many reasons, but primarily because false prophets will tell us that there are many paths to the Father. They will tell people that all paths lead to heaven. That is why we must beware of people who claim to be followers of Jesus, but who are not.

I think people who claim to follow Jesus but are faking it are the most dangerous people we can meet. They are dangerous because sometimes they are really difficult to spot. They are really, really good at deceiving people. As Jesus warns in verse 15, “They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”

These people not only look like Christians and say they are Christians, but they claim to speak for God. That’s what a false prophet is: someone who claims to be a mouthpiece for God.

These days, I don’t know of very many people who call themselves “prophet,” but there are many people who act as prophets. They have platforms or positions of influence, and they look at what’s going on in the world and make public declarations, claiming to speak for God. They offer their interpretation of select Bible verses and, usually wildly out of context, make a public statement telling Christians what to think.

But I think if we examined these public mouthpieces, we’d discover that many of them are wolves in sheep's clothing. How can we know? Jesus tells us in verse 16, He says, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” All we have to do is examine their fruit.

But Jesus points out that sometimes this is tricky, because He says in verse 22, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’”

That tells us that these wolves in sheep’s clothing are incredibly convincing on the outside! Just because someone claims to speak for God, even casts out demons in Jesus’ name or can seem to perform a miracle does not mean that person is a Christian.

But what does all of this have to do with discovering and following God’s will? Well, just because someone is doing a lot of things that look good on the outside, it doesn’t mean that person is following God’s will. A person could technically “do” a lot of things for God but not be allowed into Heaven.

That goes along with everything we’ve been studying these past few weeks, doesn’t it? In Psalm 50, we saw that the people whom God refers to as “wicked” weren’t just occasionally showing up at the temple. God says that they quoted His laws and claimed to be partakers in a covenant with Him. They wanted all the benefits of being members of God’s family of believers, and yet they did not live according to God’s law. Even though they could recite His statutes, and even though they said yes to God’s covenant agreement, they were breaking the very laws they claimed to follow. But God was not fooled. He saw through their hypocrisy. Their religious actions were meaningless to God. They did not produce any fruit.

This is what Paul is speaking about in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 when he says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

Charisma or popularity is not evidence of fruit. Fruit is seen by someone’s character. Are they Christ-like? Do they have the Fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? Are they submitted to Scripture? Or are they deceiving people, telling people that the gate to Heaven is wide and the road is easy? A “good tree” doesn’t produce “bad fruit.” A sheep has to act like a sheep. If a sheep is eating meat, it’s not a sheep—it’s a wolf in disguise. We can judge prophets by their character. If someone has a relationship with Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit will grow in them, and they will obey Him and follow His ways.

And the first fruit of the Spirit is love. Without love for Christ, all the statements we make or works we do will not matter at all to God. That’s why Jesus says in verse 21, ” Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

Which is the third thing Jesus is telling the disciples: “do the will of My Father in heaven.”

You might be wondering, how do we discover what the will of the Father is if it’s not just doing good works like those “wolves” are doing?

Jesus tells us what the Father’s will is in John 6:40. He says, “For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” So, the first step in obeying the Father’s will is that we enter through the narrow gate who is Jesus. Jesus’ death and resurrection opened the door for all who will believe in Him to enter in.

Then after we believe in Jesus, the Father’s will is that we be holy. Back in Leviticus 20:26, it says, “You are to be holy to Me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.” And that has not changed. Jesus just states it in another way. In Matthew 5:48, He says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is also repeated many times. For just two examples, 1 Peter 1:15 says, “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” And in 2 Corinthians 6:17, which says, “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

The Father’s will is that we believe in Jesus and be sanctified. That’s a theological word that simply means “be made holy.” The Father’s will is that we walk the path of holiness that He has laid out for us to follow.

Someone who is truly following Jesus along that narrow path won’t be comfortable for long, walking on the path that leads to destruction. That’s why, in the last verse of this section, Jesus explains, “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”

This brings us back to last week’s message: to gain entrance into Heaven, we must believe in Jesus and love Him. We must be born again. When we are born again, we are changed. We become a new person. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” Once we believe in Jesus, the way we know we have been born again is that we see evidence that our faith in Jesus has changed us.

But there are many false prophets who tell us that sin doesn’t matter. They say that because of grace we don’t need to strive to follow God’s ways. But that doesn’t line up with the Bible. We must walk the narrow path; the path that leads away from destruction. If we stray from God’s path, we must repent and leave that wide path and return to walking on the narrow way.

As we saw last week, if we truly believe and love Jesus, then we will obey His Word and keep His commandments. Proof that we love Him is that we put the words of God into practice. Which, if we keep reading in Matthew 7, is exactly what Jesus says next. Verses 24-27 say:

24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 

25 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.

26 But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 

27 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”

If we truly believe in Jesus and love Him, then we will do what God’s Word tells us to do. It’s not enough to call ourselves Christian or even state that Jesus is Lord. He has to know us. We have to have repented of our sins and received His forgiveness. We have to go through the gate of faith and follow Him, obeying the will of God.

In Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on Matthew 7, he writes: “Christ here shows that it will not be enough to own [Jesus] for our Master, only in word and tongue. It is necessary that we believe in Christ, that we repent of sin, that we live a holy life, that we love one another. This is his will, even our sanctification. Let us take heed of resting in outward privileges and doings, lest we deceive ourselves, and perish eternally, as multitudes do, with a lie in our right hand. Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from all sin. There are others, whose religion rests in bare hearing, and it goes no further; their heads are filled with empty notions. These two sorts of hearers are represented as two builders. This parable teaches us to hear and do the sayings of the Lord Jesus: some may seem hard to flesh and blood, but they must be done. Christ is laid for a foundation, and everything besides Christ is sand…May the Lord make us wise builders for eternity. Then nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ Jesus.”

After I was born again, I think the number one thing I prayed was for God to tell me what He wanted me to do. I would pray, “Please Lord, show me Your will for my life.” It’s taken me many years to realize that I already know what God’s will is for me. His will is that I become more like Jesus. His will is that I obey His Word. His will is that I strive to stay on the narrow path that leads to everlasting life with Him.

All the other details we need to know will be revealed to us as we need to know them. Our primary purpose in our lives is to do the will of the Father. Because as Jesus said in Matthew 12:50, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” That means our primary purpose in life is to believe and love Jesus by striving to obey His commands, so He can make us holy, set apart for Him.

To do the Father’s will and be holy, we must stay on the narrow path, being mindful of the false prophets that would lead us astray. As Jesus warns in Matthew 24:12-13 when speaking of the end times, “Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.” So let us not grow cold. Let us continue to love Jesus and stay on the path that leads to everlasting life, persevering in our faith so we can be saved.

If you have strayed from His path, it is not too late. While it is still today, repent and turn back to Him, and receive His forgiveness and mercy. Do not stay on the path of destruction. Confess your sins so God can forgive you and welcome you back before it is too late.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for making a way for us to come to You. Thank You for sending Jesus to be the gate to You. Please continue to grow the Fruit of the Spirit within us so we can look more like Jesus. Help us to obey You and follow all Your ways so we stay on the path that leads to everlasting life with You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.