Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. The title. Treat others as you want to be
treated. But as I was sitting. There. I thought as I read my title. I thought the better title, Treat
Others As You Would Have God Treat You. How would you have
the Lord to treat you? That's how you treat others.
You know, I've preached from this scripture several times, and it doesn't get old. A lot
of the scriptures I've preached from, I've preached from them
several times over the last, you know, I've been preaching, at least I think I've been preaching,
I hope I've been preaching, 40 years. And I've preached from several
portions of scripture. But every time I look at it,
look at each scripture that I'm preaching from, I get something
different out of it. It's not a different message,
but I get more insight. And as I began to look at this
again, the one thing that struck me
so strongly was the one giving it. listening to the God of heaven
and earth, Almighty God. If you went out on the street
and you asked someone, if God came into this world, what would
be the first thing he'd preach? Well, you know, some would say
this and some would say that. Well, right here we have in this
sermon on the mount, God Almighty, has come into this world, and
this is the first sermon he preaches. And in this sermon, he gives
the character of his children. If you had asked back in that
day who were the children of God, they would have pointed
to the Pharisees, wouldn't they? They wouldn't have pointed to
the publicans and the harlots. They would not have pointed to
them. They would have pointed to those Pharisees. They would
not have pointed to the poor in spirit. Those who mourn, they
wouldn't point to them. Those who mourn, the spiritual
mourning, no, they wouldn't do that. And if you wanted to talk
about true worship, why, they would point to the Pharisees
again. There could be nobody more serious in worship. And
they are the very ones that the Lord said, you're of your father,
the devil. And he teaches us there in chapter six about true
worship. Don't do your alms before men,
enter into your closet when you pray. He teaches us something
about heart worship. And here we have what has been
called the golden rule there in verse 12 on how to treat others. This is how we treat each other.
And this is how we treat everyone. It doesn't matter if they believe
or not believe. This is how we treat them. But one of the things that really
stood out to me, as I looked at this again, is this. What the Lord is giving
us is a real look into his own character. This is God. This is the character
of God. This is God telling us, his children,
his disciples, how to act. He doesn't give us something
that he's not. He does not tell us to do something that he doesn't.
He gives us a real look into his own character. Now he says
here in verse one, judge not that you be not judged. Now here is where it's so important
to rightly divide the word of truth. We can't just go off on
a tangent here and make up our own doctrine or our own scripture. We've got to stay with the word
of truth. You know, people will say, well, you're not supposed
to judge. Well, if that were so, we wouldn't have prisons,
would we? Criminals would get off on everything,
wouldn't they? A criminal would get off on doing
everything if you were not supposed to judge. You couldn't sit on
jury duty. Well, I can't sit on jury duty,
I'm not supposed to judge. No, that's not so. Listen to
these scriptures, and let's establish everything we say by the word
of God. 2 Corinthians 13.5, Paul says, examine yourselves, judge
yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves.
Know you're not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you,
except you be reprobate. Look unto yourself, you be your
own judges. 1 Corinthians 10, 15, I speak
as to wise men, judge ye what I say. Luke 7, 43, Simon answered and
said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most, the Lord said,
who do you think would love most? Those to whom much has been forgiven
or least? And he said, well, I suppose
that those who've been forgiven most. And the Lord said, you
have rightly judged. You have rightly judged. 1 Thessalonians
5.21 Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good.
1 John 4.1 Try the spirits. Judge the spirits by the word
of God. Judge them. We must rightly divide the word
of truth. That's why in my prayer I ask
the Lord to enable me to rightly divide the word of truth. Not
go off on some tangent. Not give you just my opinion
which I have arrived at by human logic. No, you take the word
of truth. Listen, the scripture interprets
scripture. I don't. That's when we get in
trouble, when you and I try to interpret scriptures. The word
of God interprets the word of God. You know, I don't go to a commentary
first thing and try to see what that means. You read the scriptures. They interpret the scripture
just as I gave you there. Now he says here, now he says,
judge not that you be not judged. Now what is he saying? Now that's
what I want to know, because I asked this question to my Lord
when I studied to come out here and preach. What are you saying?
What's the meaning of this? Because it's a closed book until
he gives me an understanding. He opens it up. He tells us here
to avoid a critical, censurous spirit on others. We are not
the judge. He didn't set me up as a judge.
He set me up as a pastor, a preacher, but not a judge. Not to have
a critical, censurous spirit. Where this spirit is, you can
be sure the spirit of grace is absent. Isn't that right? The
spirit of grace is absent if it was a critical, censurous
type spirit. Someone said this, we never criticize
accidentally. I've never accidentally criticized
anybody. No, when we do, we mean to. And the Lord said, don't have
this kind of spirit among his children, it's not to be so.
Don't be given to finding fault in everyone that comes around.
The first thing you do is look for a fault. You look for a fault.
I tell you, you don't have to look long. You're gonna find
them. We're flawed. Sin has flawed us. Even in the
most, I'm gonna say the most strongest believer here, if you're
looking for a fault, you can find it. You can find it. And this kind of spirit comes
from self-righteousness. It does. It comes from an elevated
view of yourself. I worked for a man one time in
a company. I ran his company. And he was
giving me an illustration of people that worked for us, for
him. He said, it's like having a bunch
of crabs in a bucket. He said one gets to the top and
then another crab reaches up and gets it by the leg and pulls
it down. He said another one gets to the top and another crab
gets it by the leg trying to pull itself up and it does so
and then what does it do? It pulls it down. That's what
a critical spirit does. It keeps pulling people down.
You never get out of the bucket. You never get out of it. And
our Lord is condemning, He's condemning this critical, fault-finding,
picky type of spirit in His children. He says, don't do that. For with
what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with what
measure you meet, it will be measured to you again. In other
words, we will get back what we dish out. You know, what our
Lord is giving us here is very, it's very critical. He wouldn't
give it if it wasn't. He would not give this to us.
And another reason he gives it to us, you know why? Because
it's in us. It's in us. By nature, we still
have it. You being evil know how to give
good gifts to your children. And he's putting a check on it
here. So he's saying here, you get
back what you dish out. How we deal with others is exactly
the way people are going to deal with us. Solomon said this, to
have friends, you must show yourself friendly. You must be friendly. If you're going to have friends,
we attract what we are. And I know this, I know this,
if a person, if a person really doesn't like people, You can
mark this down. People really don't like that
person. You can mark it down. If you
don't like people, they don't like you either. They ain't probably
gonna tell you to your face probably, but they don't like you either. And our Lord says here in verse
three, and why? What's the purpose? What's the
point? What do you get out of this?
What are you getting out of this? Why do you behold, that's behold,
you're staring, you're looking, you're examining, you got the
microscope out, you got the binoculars on. When you walk into the room,
you got your binoculars on. And he says, why do you behold
the splinter, the little speck that's in your brother's eye? How would you even know it's
there? If it's such a little speck, unless you're examining
awful close. What's the point of beholding,
looking at the splinter in your brother's eye, but you don't
even consider for a minute, you don't even consider for a second
that the real problem in the room is you. Isn't that something? That's a new way of looking at
things. You don't consider. You don't
consider not the beam that is a log, a big log, is in your
eye. Why make such a big deal out
of this splinter and turn yourself into an eye
surgeon? You say, let me get that out.
It'd be better if a real eye surgeon got it out, wouldn't
it? I got some fiberglass in my eye once. I didn't ask Vicky
to get it out. I didn't say, can you get this
fiberglass out of my eye? I had enough sense not to do
that. I called the doctor and went to the doctor, and I let
him get that fiberglass out. I let someone that knew what
they were doing. And that's why he's saying here,
our Lord is saying, why do you do that? Because you don't know
what you're doing. You're trying to get a little
speck out. And the real problem is you. The beam in our eye that
he's talking about here is the critical spirit. This causes
more division than anything else. You know that? You know, in a
home, in a home, nothing will divide a home faster than a critical
spirit. Picking at each other. Don't
do that. If you want a happy home, don't
pick at each other. Because we all have so many flaws.
I mean, good night, we could shoot each other to death. Don't
pick at each other. That causes division faster than
anything else. And our Lord condemned this in
His church. We don't pick at each other here. You know, we condemn that in
our children, don't we? I know the last time I was at home at
Jeremy's here about a week ago, Madison got upset. She called
Cole stupid. And she said, stupid? And boy,
Vicky jumped all over her. Don't you ever call him stupid.
That's your brother. Don't you ever do that. And, of course, Madison was a
little embarrassed. She said, well, he is stupid.
That's what she said. It don't matter if it's true.
You don't have to say it. You don't have to point it out. That's true. You condemn that
in your family. You condemn that among your children.
You don't speak to one another like that. And that's what our
Lord is telling them this because why? It's in us to do it. And if he doesn't put it in check,
it'll grow. I'm glad she said, stop that.
Don't you do that. Don't you do that. Put a stop
to that. I'll tell you what we do. Let's
do this first. Before we, when you feel that
urge to pick on somebody, you know, when that urge starts to
come, pick on yourself first. Get in front of a mirror. Get
in, stand in front of a mirror, see if you can see that same
flaw in you. Oh, I bet you can. If the Lord gives you eyes to
see. Judge, we should judge ourselves first. And it'll keep this kind
of spirit from growing. This is so necessary for us.
This is necessary for me. I read this Summer on the Mount
often. I do. I read it often. Now, how can you help your brother
when you have a bigger problem than your brother? That's a good question. Look
in verse four, or how will you say to your brother, how wilt
thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the, pull out the
mote, the splinter, the speck out of thine eye, and behold,
a beam's in your own eye. How you gonna see? If you got
a beam, if you got a big old beam here in front of your eye,
how you gonna see to look into his eye? If you got the bigger
problem, how you gonna deal with that little problem? You got
the bigger problem. That's what he's saying. How you gonna help
him? And notice what our Lord calls
this person. He says, you hypocrite. You hypocrite. You're playing
a part. That's what a hypocrite does.
A hypocrite plays a part. Here's the first thing you and
I do. Cast out the beam of our own.
I deal with our problem. Listen, I got so many problems,
I don't have time to deal with anybody else's. But we do it
anyway, don't we? I got so many problems I don't
have time. He said, you hypocrite, take care of your own problem
first and then, listen, if you take care of your problem first,
then you'll be able to help your brothers and sisters. Then you'll
be a real help to them. And you won't be poking them
in the eye. No, no, no. Take care of yourself
first, then you'll be able to help others. Now, our Lord in
verse six, he goes to another subject. You see that mark, it's
in verse six, and you got this mark, look at that, looks like
a back of a P, that means another subject. Here's another subject, but it's
the same message, but same Lord giving the same message, but
a different subject. And he says here, give not, give not. Because once you hear
the gospel, you wanna spread it, don't you? If God has made
the gospel known to you, he's made his son known to you, you
wanna spread that gospel, you wanna tell everyone. And I lived,
verse six, I lived it. I know what he's talking about
here. Give not that which is holy. Well, who is holy? God. God. He began to speak of God. He
said, don't give that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast
your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their
feet, and turn again and wring you. Now we do preach the gospel
to everyone who comes in this room. But if someone comes here and
they say, I don't like it, I don't want to hear it, I'm not going
to keep forcing that on them. And the reason I say I experienced
this I experienced it two times, especially. When I first heard
the gospel and the Lord saved me, the church I was going to,
or the place I was going to, I was, I'm telling you, I was
excited. I had some good news. I heard the gospel. You see,
I kept telling this one person, something's missing and I don't
know what it is. You know what was missing? The Lord. Christ
was missing. He wasn't in the man's message. He wasn't in that congregation.
The Lord was missing. And I heard the gospel, and I
started to tell it, and they got mad. I started talking about
God's sovereignty, Christ's redemptive work, how He accomplished His
redemptive work. He redeemed a people. He did
redeem a multitude of sinners. Don't make a number. They got
mad at me. They even called me out. They
had a revival. Now they have their annual revivals. And I
was sitting there and there was a man standing in the pulpit
that's supposed to be preaching that. And he said, I hear there's
a Calvinist in our midst. I go back now, I'd like to say,
sir, you got a believer in your midst. That's what you got. That's
what you got. You got somebody that believes
God. And this is the gospel. And what you're doing is lying
to these people. And I was only 22 years old. And they were mad. They were
mad. I had a meeting with a man, with
the pastor of that church. And he said to me, he said, Christ
died for Judas. He died for his sins as well
as Peter's. I said, oh no, he didn't. I said, if he did, Judas
wouldn't be in hell. I'm not gonna try to explain
the mystery of God. I said, but I know this, the
one hanging on that cross is God Almighty in the flesh. And
he accomplished what he came to do. He said in Isaiah 42,
my servant shall not fail. He'll not fail. Now, if anybody
perished, he failed. Did he? That's the truth. He
failed. If anyone perished, if he died for my sins, there's
nothing to condemn me with. They're gone. He said, well,
he died for all of them but unbelief. No. No. And he died for me. All my sins
were future. I wasn't born. That was 2,000
years ago. He satisfied God's law. That's
what he did on Calvary's tree. He satisfied God's law. Now,
if God's law is satisfied, he can't condemn me. He said, well,
then who did he die for? Sinners, the ungodly. And I tell you what, God's gonna
save sinners. God's gonna save sinners. I can tell you how you find out.
I can say there's none good, no, not one. And those who, even
though they'll claim to be a sinner, they'll say, well, I know some
good people, I ain't that bad. No, you're a lot worse than you
think you are. Every one of us, every one of
us is a lot worse than we think we are. We can't go, we can't
plumb the depth of depravity, can we? You cannot plumb the
depth of human depravity. Will a mother, the Lord said
in Isaiah, will a mother forget her sucking child? You know what
the answer was, or is? Yes, she will. They have found
them in trash cans. They have found them cast out
on the street. Yes, she will. We can't plumb
the depth of human depravity. And when my Lord died on that
cross for my sins, he put them away. And now, listen, now God
can call me by his grace, unmerited favor, and save me in a just
way. He said, I am a just God and
a savior. And it's in that order. God has
to save me in a very just way. And the only just way He can
is through Jesus Christ being my substitute, dying in my place. Dying in my place. Not dying and making it impossible,
but dying and making it a certainty. You know what's interesting?
That nobody gets upset about a Savior not being provided for
the devils, do they? Nobody gets upset about the elect
angels. My buddy, you talk about God's
sovereignty in my house, your house, until God saves us, that's
upsetting. Because we won't be God. We think
we know better than Him. Nobody would be saved if He hadn't
done that. Nobody. And so anyway, That man, that
pastor, he said that I was wrong, and
I told him this, and that's the last time I was there, I told
him this. Because Henry told me, he said, you'll probably
have to leave. But, you know, he let me make that decision. But anyway, I told him, I said,
I'll tell you what, I said, I'll stand in the day of judgment
on Christ dying for sinners, redeeming them. I said, I'll
stand on what I, the gospel I believe now. And I told him, I said,
the day of judgment will determine which one of us is right and
which one of us is wrong. Because both of us can't be right.
Both can't be right. And I said, the day of judgment,
I told this to him and I'd been there several years. I said the
day of judgment will determine which one of us is right and
which one is wrong. And I left and I never went back.
Never went back. Another time I had a man laughing
at me. I was talking to him about being saved. I didn't tell him
to get saved. I talked to him about being saved
and how the Lord saved me. And he started laughing and making
fun of me out loud at work going down walking down the aisle where
we worked, and he was making fun of me about this word saved. I need saved. I need to be saved.
I never spoke to that man again about it. I never spoke to him. And as far as I know, because
I went to school with him. I went to school together. As far as
I know, he's never, he's never heard the gospel or had anything
to do with the gospel. But I tell you this, one day
he'll remember that conversation. He'll remember it. And so don't
you cast your pearls before swine. Somebody makes fun of it and
ridicules you and makes light of it. Do what the Lord said
to His disciples. When they said, Lord, don't you
know you offended the Pharisees? He said, leave them alone. Now
listen, there comes a time, there comes a time when you leave them
alone. We don't force the gospel on
anyone. And then he says here, he gives, in verse seven and
eight, there's another subject. It's on prayer. Ask and it shall
be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth.
And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. These are signs
of faith and signs of life, but he's telling us here, he's teaching
us here, perseverance in prayer. how important prayer is. I can't
put it into words. But ask. That's how prayer starts. It starts by asking. Ask God
to save you. Ask Him for growth in grace.
Ask Him for growth in grace and in knowledge of Jesus Christ.
But now listen, seek. You see, you ask him to save
you, ask him to give you more understanding, ask him to give
you growth and grace and the knowledge of Christ. But now
seek him in his word. Don't just ask and just like
wait and see if lightning hits you. No, you ask and then you go seek
for what you ask for. Look for it. Open the word of
God. Don't ask for an increase of
faith and not read the word of God or hardly ever show up and
hear the gospel preach. It ain't gonna happen. It's not
gonna happen. You see, the Lord knows the sincerity
of the heart. I heard someone here the other
day saying, I just wanna know God's purpose for me. I just
wanna know God's purpose for me. I don't know how many times this
person said this to this other person. I want to know his purpose. How about, are you married? Be the best husband or wife you
can be. Be the best you can be where he puts you. That's his
purpose. Your father or mother, be the
best parent you can be. We are, you're the light of the
world. You're the salt of the earth. Wherever God's put me,
his purpose is already being done. Quit looking for, I know
what they're looking. They're wanting to climb the
Mount Kilimanjaro of faith and, you know, get recognized like
the Abraham or something. How about just being where, what
you're supposed to be, where God puts you? That's what you
do. My purpose right now is to stand
in this pulpit and preach to you. My purpose is to be the best
husband to Vicki and to be your pastor. That's
my purpose. I'm not out here, whoa, what's
my purpose? If you're constantly looking
for your, here's the problem, here's the problem. People are
looking for their purpose and not looking for Him. Once you
find Him, you'll understand your purpose. You'll understand it. Your purpose is doing what you're
doing right now, and you be the best at it. You be the best at
it. Your teacher, be the best teacher.
Employer, be the best employer. Worker, wherever it is, be the
best at it. You're the light. You're all they're going to see.
Now, where am I at? Seek and you shall find. You
know all these are promises. These are promises. Knock, knock,
and it shall be open to you. Knock. It's just like you're
not, you know, when you ask, it starts by asking, then you
seek. You seek the Lord and His word
and the gospel. You seek His will. And then you knock. And you're
not going to stop knocking until they answer the door. You're
not going to stop knocking like that woman with that unjust judge.
You keep knocking. Jacob said this, and this is
probably the best way to explain it. Jacob said, I will not let
you go until you bless me. I think we're very lazy in prayer
when it comes to it most of the time. I think we're lazy in it. And then our Lord gives an illustration.
I'm going to wind this down. Verse 9 through 11. Well, what
man is there of you whom if his son asks bread, will he give
him a stone? If he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent? If
you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more, how much more on an infinite level shall your
father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask
him? Now, if your son or daughter comes to you and they're hungry
and they want to know what's for supper, you going to put
a rock on the table? or you're gonna give him a poisonous
serpent. If you being evil by nature,
and this is why he's saying, you have, you and I were born
with an evil nature. Weren't we? That's what he said. I didn't say, I didn't write
this, he did. The one who knows this wrote this. if you being
evil know how to take care of your children if you know how
to give them good things not everything that's not impossible
but you know how to give them good things things they need
how much more your heavenly father have confidence in that have
confidence that when you go to your father he's going to give
you good things therefore now listen therefore
All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do
you even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.
What you would have people to do to you, how you would have
them treat you. Now, Lord, burn this into my
heart. Burn this into my heart. Well,
they don't treat me good. What's that got to do with it?
What's that got to do with it? A man said to me one time, we
was working together, and he was talking about somebody over
there loafing. They're not doing a job, and
he was talking about, you know, we'd have to work longer because
they're not doing their job. And he was complaining to me
about it, and I said, what's that got to do with anything? I've got
eight hours here to work. It doesn't matter if I'm here
by myself doing this, or 10 men sitting over there in a corner.
It doesn't matter to me. I've got my time that I'm here
until I leave and I got a job to do. I don't care if everybody
else goes to the break room. I got a job to do. If we would
work as unto the Lord, it wouldn't matter if everybody in the building
is a loafer. You're not going to be because
you're working in your father's vineyard. You're just not working
for a plant or in a plant or in a school. You're not working.
You're not just working there. You're working in your father's
vineyard. That's where you're working. That's where I'm working. I listened to Henry before coming
out here on this sermon. And I never, turn over to Galatians. This is good to end with. He
ended with this. And I thought, boy, that was
good to end with. In Galatians chapter five, There's no better way to end
any message than to end with the scriptures. In Galatians chapter 5, in verse 22, now this explains how
we treat others and this is exactly how we want to be treated. But
the fruit of the spirit is love. That's how you treat others.
You go over in 1 Corinthians 13 and read about love, the character
of love. Joy. Treat them with joy. Peace. Greet one another in peace and
with joy. Do you like to be greeted with
a grumbler? How was your day? Well, you don't
want to hear about my day. No, not really now, don't. When you answer that, I don't
want to hear about it. You'll make my day bad. Long-suffering. You and I always say things that
are off kilter, but be long-suffering. We should always think, and I'm
telling you, because it's hard to do, we should always think,
they didn't mean that. Not the way I took it. Not the
way I, even if I did, I should think, they didn't mean that
the way I took it. Man, if I could do that, it would make my day
better. Not only does it make that person's
day better, it makes your day better to think like this, doesn't
it? Gentleness, handle one another
with gentleness. not rough in your face, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. How do you want to be treated?
Well, I'll tell you what I did. I went back here to Matthew 7
and I wrote Galatians 5.22. I wrote that by that verse. So
I'll remember this is how to treat others and this is how
I want to be treated. And this is how, listen, this
is how every person in this room wants to be treated by God. I
want to be treated by Him in love and kindness and joy and
peace. I want that. This is just, I
thought of this, this is just good spiritual manners. You know,
it dawned on me after I read this part. This is just our Lord
giving us good spiritual manners. You know, when you're just a
baby, especially when you're a two-year-old, especially when
you're two, you start to socialize, get socialized at two years of
age because you're a brat. And you start to get socialized.
And you start to have manners. Respect your elders. You know,
get up and let an elder have your seat and speak respectfully.
This is what our Lord's just given us, spiritual manners.
Use them. That's what he's saying, just
use them. Lord, burn us into our hearts, not just my head.
All right.