Matthew chapter 7. We are still looking at the Sermon
on the Mount. It is so full of instruction,
so full of wisdom. It's one of those portion of
scriptures that we need to read often. In this sermon, our Lord
has given us the character of believers, the believer's character
and conduct in chapter five. He's given us the character of
true worship and to trust him to provide and to seek the kingdom
of God first above all else, but nothing above that, but nothing
above him, but to seek him. And here he tells us, judge not, judge not that you be not judged. Now this scripture, without doubt,
is one of the most misused scriptures in the word of God. Start to say something about
something and don't judge, you're not supposed to judge. You know,
judge not, that's what it says. Yeah, but do you know what it
means? Knowing what something says and knowing what it means
is two different things. Two different things. This world
be turned over to absolute wickedness if all judgment were set aside.
You couldn't even sit on jury duty if that were the case. If you take this to the extreme,
we have to have some spiritual common sense here. You know,
it's important, and I think you hear me pray often in my prayers
here, that God would enable me to rightly divide the word of
truth. It's so important. And I realize
this. It's so important. It's of the
utmost importance that I rightly divide the word of truth. I'm
not here to give you my opinion. You know, truth is not an opinion.
Truth is not an opinion. Truth is truth. It's just the
way it is. And I'm here to give you the
truth. And it does not mean that we're not to judge anything.
Paul said this over in 2 Corinthians. He said, Examine yourselves whether
you be in the faith. Judge yourselves. Examine yourselves. Prove yourselves. That's what
he says. He says over in 1 Corinthians
10 and 15, Judge what I say. Judge what I say. And this morning,
you take your Bibles, take the Word of God, and judge what I
say this morning, whether it's according to the Scriptures or
not. Our Lord was talking to a young
man one time and asking him which is the greatest commandment,
and the man answered him correctly, and the Lord said, Thou hast
rightly judged. You've rightly judged. Paul wrote
over in 1 Thessalonians 5.21, prove all things. Prove all things. Now how can you prove all things
without judgment? How can you do that? You can't. You can't. You've got to pass
some kind of judgment on it. You have to. Look over in 1 John
chapter 4. Over here in 1 John, chapter 4, listen here to what
John writes. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
believe not every preacher that stands in a pulpit, opens a Bible,
and claims to preach the gospel. But what? Try the spirits. Try
the spirits where they are of God. And the way we try the spirits,
the way we judge a man's message, that's what he's talking about,
the way we judge a man's message is by the Word of God. We take
the Word of God. You know, I can remember so clearly
when I heard Henry preach the gospel for the first time. I told Henry this, I said, for
the first time, What you were saying matched what I was reading. It was like a puzzle that came
together. It matched what I was reading. That's why I say here,
try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false
prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit
of God. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that
confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God." Now, you have to pass some kind of judgment on that, and
the judgment we pass on is according to the Word of God. Evil doctrine is to be judged,
to be condemned. It's so important that we find
the meaning of what our Lord is teaching here, as well as
throughout the whole Word of God. Sound judgment is commended. Do you sound judgment? Here's
the lesson. Here's what our Lord is saying.
Avoid a critical, scrutinizing spirit. a spirit of censorship
on your brother or your neighbor. Saying a person is lost because
they don't do certain things or, you know, we got to be careful
with that. A man don't stand or fall before
his own master. Now, I know no one believes in
false gospel. I know that. You know that. But
he's saying here, avoid a critical spirit of your brother. Your
sister. Avoid that kind of spirit. Avoid
that kind of scrutinizing. Who am I? Who am I? You know, there's one thing I've
learned about critics. They can't enjoy anything. A
critic can't enjoy anything. Was it that Siskel and Ebert,
they criticized movies every time they'd watch movies. And
I told Vicki once, I said, man, I hate to be a critic. You can't
enjoy a movie. You can't even enjoy, you can't sit down and
enjoy it. You have to be a critic all the time. A critical spirit reveals an
inward problem of pride. I'm setting myself up as a judge,
as a judge. And there's one thing I know
about criticism. We never criticize accidentally,
do we? Have you ever accidentally criticized
somebody? No. Every time I've ever done
it, you've ever done it, we've done it on purpose. And our Lord says, avoid that.
God's children are to avoid, don't be given, He's saying,
don't be given to fault finding. And especially deadly in leaders,
to be given to fault finding. A critical spirit is born from
a self-righteous nature. It's love of self. Usually if
I'm taking somebody down, it's so I can build myself up. That's
exactly what it is. I can build myself up by knocking
somebody else down. That's why the Lord, we're told
in the scriptures to consider one another before we consider
ourselves. To prefer one another before we prefer ourselves, before
ourselves. A person has to think more highly
of himself than he thinks of others. I have to think more
highly of myself than I think of you, to have a critical spirit. Don't pick at others, and here's
what he's saying, we'll see this here in a minute. Don't pick
at others' little faults, their little faults, which mean nothing. when I've got a beam, a log in
my own eye. If a brother or a sister is walking
disorderly, they are to be rebuked. They are. The Scripture teaches
us that. A pastor is to deal with real problems in the congregation. If something crops up, he's to
deal with it. He has to. But avoid a critical
spirit. Setting myself up as God, Setting myself up as the one
who has all the answers. I don't. I don't. And listen,
with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And here's
a principle. This is what our Lord is saying
in this sermon. Here's a principle. With the same judgment you pass
on others is exactly the same judgment God's gonna pass on
you and me. With the same spirit that I use
against you, God's gonna use against me. That's what he said. That's the principle of what
he's giving. With what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. With what measure you meet, it
shall be measured to you again. You'll be dealt with by God,
and others the same way you deal with others. Solomon said this, Solomon said,
to have friends, you must show yourself friendly. You must show
yourself friendly. If you're going to have friends,
you've got to be a friendly person. You get back, you and I get back
exactly, it's what our Lord's teaching, we get back exactly
what we deal out. We get back. If I criticize others,
if that's me, if I criticize others, I can assure you, others
are gonna criticize me. They're gonna criticize me because
I won't get what I give out. We attract what we dish out.
If you and I dish out hate, hate is what we're going to get back.
If you dish out love, love is what you're going to get back.
You dish out kindness and love, that's what you're going to receive.
That's a principle. That's a principle he's giving
us here. That's what I want. I want to
be dealt with in love and kindness." Well, then deal that way. Deal
that way. Now, he shows us here what this
problem is. In verses 3 and 5, he said, the moat in thy brother's eye.
Why do you behold, why do you behold, looking under a microscope,
like you've taken a microscope and you're looking at this speck
of dust, this dust, this little splinter, this little dust in
your brother's eye, but you're not even considering the being,
the log that's in your own eye. Remember, the Lord of glory has
given us this sermon. He's given us this message. And
what he's saying here is hypocrites are always trying to straighten
out somebody else. And even believers can fall into
this. It's sad, but it's so. But even believers can fall into
this critical type of spirit. A brother has a small piece of
dust in his eye, and we suddenly become eye surgeons. We suddenly
become eye surgeons. Let me operate on that. Let me
take care of that problem. I can take care of that problem
for you. No, you'll make it a bigger problem. You'll make it a bigger
problem. Yeah, we want to take out his
eye when just a little eye wash will do. You know, just a little,
put a little eye wash in there. No, let me, let me do surgery
on it. That's why he says don't, don't get into that kind of spirit
and attitude. It causes more problems. The problem is, it's not that
my brother has a speck of dust in his eye, but I've got a beam
in my eye. I've got a beam in my eye. I'm
the one that needs eye surgery. And the beam in my eye, you know
what the beam in my eye is? It's that critical spirit. That's
what he's talking about. Your brother has a dust in his
eye, you got a beam in your eye. You got a critical spirit about
you. And he says, don't let that develop. Don't let that develop. I don't know of anything that
causes more division in a congregation, in a family, than a critical
spirit. Do you? I don't know of any.
And our Lord condemned this among His children. Just like your
children at home, you don't want them to criticize each other.
You don't want them to do that. How much more God's children? You're the light of the world. Our Lord won't allow it in his
house. Let our judgment be directed
at ourselves first. Let it be directed at ourselves.
That's what our Lord's teaching. Examine yourselves first. Look
in the mirror first. He says there, first, in I believe
it's verse five here. Thou hypocrite, first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye. First, take care of your problem. You know what's amazing? If we
do this first, it's amazing how clear our brother's eye will
look. If we cast out the beam in our own eye first, if we pass
judgment on ourselves first, it'll be amazing how clear their
vision is, their eyes. If we take care of that first. And then he goes to this subject
in verse six. Give not that which is holy.
And I believe he's speaking here of the gospel. unto dogs. Give not that which
is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine."
Now this goes back to where in the first verse he said, Judge
not that ye be not judged, and I said we have to have an understanding
of what he's talking about because how can you judge what a dog
is? or a swine is if you don't pass judgment. So you have to
have a correct judgment. And here he says, when you identify
a dog or a swine, don't cast that which is holy before them,
to the dogs or to the swine that'll trample them underfoot. Now,
I know this. We are to preach the gospel to
all men. We do. We want to preach the gospel
to all men. But when a person or a people openly defy the gospel and they
hate the gospel we preach, our Lord says, leave them alone.
That's what He's saying. Leave Him alone. That's what
He said one time to the disciples over in Matthew. Look over in
Matthew 15. Just turn over a few pages there. In Matthew 15, in verse 10, it says, And He called
the multitude and said unto them, Hear and understand, Not that
which goes into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh
out of the mouth, this defiles a man. Then came his disciples
and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended? After they heard this saying,
they are mad, they're upset, they absolutely hate what you
just said. They despise it. But he answered
and said, every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted
shall be rooted up. Let them alone. You go on now. You go on to the next place and
you preach. You go to the next house and you preach. In one
place he said, if that house receive you, peace be to that
house. But if they don't, you shake
the dust off your feet against that house. And you leave it. And you leave it. And that's why he's saying here,
if a person ridicules me over the gospel and despises it, and wants nothing to do with it,
the Lord said, leave him alone. Leave him alone. He says, don't
cast your pearls. We have the pearl of great price
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's precious. He's precious. Now don't you
take that and just throw it out there like it's nothing. Like
it's nothing. Don't cast your pearl before
swine to be trodden under their feet in the mire and in the mud. There truly is a time to leave
someone alone. Look over in Acts chapter 13.
In Acts 13, look in verse 45. In
verse 45, Acts 13. But when the Jews saw the multitudes,
they were filled with envy and spake against those things which
were spoken by Paul. See, they're speaking against
it, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, Lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have sent thee to be a light of the Gentiles,
that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. They were glad
and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. But the Jews saw, when they saw
the multitudes, it says they were envious, and they spake
against those things. They spake against it. And Paul said, seeing that you've
judged yourselves unworthy, we turn to the Gentiles. We're leaving
you alone. We're leaving you alone. We do not force-feed the Gospel
to anyone. We don't force-feed it to anyone.
Our Lord doesn't force Himself upon anyone. Thy people shall
be made willing in the day of thy power. We are willing servants. We willingly bow to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He doesn't force Himself upon
people. So we don't force the gospel
upon people. We preach the gospel. And those who don't want it,
we move on. We move on. Then he encourages
us here in verse seven to pray. Ask. He's given us some principles
here by which we are to spiritually operate. Ask, and it shall be
given you. Do you believe that? Do you believe God would actually
give you what you're asking for? If it's according to His will,
I guarantee you you're gonna get it. Ask and it shall be given 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. Our Lord here is encouraging
us to ask for what we need. to not be backward. I mean, here
the God of heaven and earth has come into this world, and He's
saying to all those who believe on Him, ask me. Ask me. He's encouraging us to ask for
what we need. Our Father knows what we have
need of, so ask Him for it. That's what He's saying. You
need forgiveness? Ask for it. You need mercy? Ask for it. You need to be saved? Have you ever asked God, have
you ever just asked God to save you? Lord, that's what Peter,
remember when Peter was going down in the water? He said, Lord,
if it's you, command me to come out. And he said, well, come
on, come on out. And Peter stepped out on the water. And he took a few steps walking
on water. And then he began to sink. And he prayed probably
one of the best prayers anyone could ever pray. He said, Lord,
save me. It's that simple. Lord, save
me. Ask and you'll receive it, he
said. Ask for mercy. Ask for your daily bread. Ask
for whatever the deed is. James said, you have not because
you ask not. And when you do ask, you ask
for the wrong reason. He said, to consume it on your
lust. But whatever you sincerely need, mercy, forgiveness, your
daily bread, ask for it. And seek it, he said, with all
your heart. When the Scriptures tells us to seek, when the Lord
tells us in the Scriptures to seek, that's not just kind of
kicking things around, you know, looking around, Well, you know,
I don't see it. No, it means throw your heart
into it. As Solomon said, whatsoever your hands find to do, do it
with all your might. Do it with all your might. I
was out hunting one time with my bird dog. And I'm telling
you to watch her work was exhausting. She would just, I mean, it was
every, she didn't leave a leaf unturned looking for a bird.
I mean, it was like, I mean, for hours like this. And I said
one time, I said, man, if I would do my job like she does hers,
I'd be a zillionaire. If I work like she was working
for that, finding that bird. Can you imagine seeking the Lord
like that? Can you imagine seeking his face, seeking his mercy and
his grace, and seeking to know him? Can you imagine seeking
to know the Lord with that kind of intensity? Well, he says,
do it and you'll find. The scriptures say, he that seeks
me with all his heart shall find me, shall find me. Now, if I don't find the Lord,
if I don't find him, you know what? I wasn't really seeking
him. I wasn't really seeking him.
Just a little curiosity going on. Knock. Keep on knocking. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. You see, he's not like, he's
not like us. You know, your kid keeps asking,
you say, shut up. I told you no, forget it, no." He says,
keep on asking, keep on knocking. And he gives us an example of
that unjust judge. You remember that in the scriptures?
He said that woman came and she was knocking and it says he didn't
fear God or man, but because she kept knocking and aggravating
him and pestering him, he finally got up, opened the door and said,
okay, what do you want? He gives that as an example,
as a parable. An example of the parable is this. The teaching
is this. Keep asking. You know what that shows? If
you keep asking, if you keep seeking, you know what that shows? Faith. You wouldn't do it if
you didn't believe. You'll quit. If you don't really
believe, you'll quit. You'll quit. You'll give it up.
But if you really believe God, you'll keep asking, you'll keep
seeking, you'll keep knocking. And he gives us a promise here
that he says that it shall be open to you. It'll be open to
you. And it gives us an illustration
here. In verse eight, for everyone that
asketh, that keeps on asking, receiveth, and he that seeketh
findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. What man
is there of you, if his son asked bread, would he give him a stone? If I go to God and I'm asking
for mercy and forgiveness, if I'm asking for my daily need,
is he going to be mean about it and give me a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he
give him a serpent, a poisonous snake? Now listen, verse 11 really got
my attention. If you then being evil, if you have an evil nature, if
you who have an evil nature, if you then being evil know how
to give good gifts unto your children, When they ask you,
if they ask you for bread, just like we was back at Ashland here
a couple days ago and grandkids said, I'm hungry. Of course, Ma Ma gets up and
she goes and fixes spaghetti. She knows they like spaghetti.
Her spaghetti anyway. But they like her spaghetti.
And so she goes and fixes spaghetti and they just clean that plate
just like they were famished. She didn't bring rocks on a plate
to them. She didn't pull a trick on them.
She gave them what she knew they loved and what they needed. And
how much more your heavenly Father, which is in heaven, give good
things to them that actually ought to have a higher opinion
of God. We ought to have higher opinion of our Father than we
do. We do, we should. We should have a much higher
opinion. Look what He's done for us. And look at what He's
given us in this life. We're not in hell, are we? I tell you, we have much to be
thankful for. Much to be thankful for. How
much more your Heavenly Father Our Father is holy, our Father
is good, and He'll give us what is good. No good thing will the
Lord withhold from you. He will not withhold one good
thing from you. And then we get to this, what
they call the golden rule, and I'll close. Therefore, after all that's been
said now, after all we've covered here, therefore, All things,
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."
Whatever you want someone to do to you, the way you want to
be treated, that's the way you treat others. If you want to know how to really
handle a situation with someone, Just ask a question. How would
I want them to handle me? How would I want that to handle
me? If I went around this room and
I asked each person here, how do you want to be treated? I
guarantee you, you're going to say, some of you are going to
say, with kindness. You're going to say, with respect. With respect. With love, like a brother or
a sister. Treat me like a brother or sister.
Treat me with love. Treat me with kindness. Treat
me with respect. Then treat others that way. And
that's the way you'll be treated. That goes right back to the first
verse. First part of this lesson here. Judge not that you be not
judged. What measure you meet it with,
it shall be measured to you again. Treat others, and this is just
not a, just a good saying, this is so. This is so. This is a principle here. Treat
others the way you want to be treated, and that's the way you'll
be treated. Mean people, mean people, cannot
figure out why everyone else seems so mean. They just can't
figure it out. Why everyone else is so mean.
It's like stupid people. Probably shouldn't call them
that, but... You know why stupid people get
caught? Because they think everyone else
is stupid. And they get caught. And mean people can't figure
out why everyone else is so mean to them. It's because they're
mean. It's because they're me. We attract what we are. We really
attract what we are. This Sermon on the Mount is like
eating a well-balanced meal, isn't it? It's like eating a
well-balanced meal. It's what it's like. All right.