In chapters 7, 1 through 6, Matthew's
Gospel, our Lord is speaking, Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet it, it shall
be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam
that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother,
Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam
is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly
to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Give not that
which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearl before
swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again
and rend you." Now, verse 6, as I said, ultimately will become
our point of focus and of study. Give not that which is holy to
the dogs, and cast not your pearl before swine." Well, let's work
our way up to that. We know that this part of the
Scripture, this part of Matthew's Gospel, is a part of the Lord's
so-called Sermon on the Mount, in which in this sermon Our Lord
sets forth the standard of conduct of those who would be subjects
of the kingdom of Christ. In the mythics, it was in A. W. Pink that I read, he called
this the manifesto of his kingdom. And if I mistake not, it is the
longest of all of the Lord's public session that he delivered
while in his ministry upon the earth. And this sermon overall
gives many great details concerning the way of the life of a disciple
and how he is to live who is to follow after the Lord or be
subject of Christ or of his kingdom. Now concerning our chosen verse
this morning, verse 6, I was reading the commentaries, of
course, And there is not agreement among the expositors as to whether
this verse stands alone, that is, verse 6, or whether it attaches
itself under the context and the flow of thought, and whether
it ought to be considered as sort of a conclusion to verses
1 through 5 of the chapter, or by itself, or by what follows. other words that are attached
under this one. Words like verse 1 through verse
6, toward those I believe, directed toward those of the fair-setting
persuasion and teaching and belief and practice, because you notice
he calls them hypocrites down in the fifth verse, or whether
it is directed toward the disciple of the Lord in dealing with those
that are without, those that are of no confession. Some say that the verse even
is not in its proper place and that it ought to be in some other
place in the gospel. We reject that by the power of
inspiration. Now, pardon me this morning if
we run around the house two or three times before we enter in
at the door and dwell there. We meet a very hard saying in
verse 1 if we really look at it and take it seriously. Judge not, then he adds, Judge
not that you be not judged. Judge not. Not only are they
sober, somber words of the Holy Scripture, but they are words
that are possibly to be misunderstood and have been misunderstood by
many who name the name of Christ, and they will be or they might
be unless they are rightly divided and taken in their proper context
and place. Such a text can be misapplied,
and it can be misapplied in at least two ways. that I can think
of right offhand. Number one, that statement, judge
not that ye be not judged, and what is said about judging and
those who judge harshly in this passage of the Scripture can
be taken in a wrong way by well-meaning Christians with a weak or a tender
conscience. When they hear those words of
our Lord, judge not, and some take it in various latitudes,
some as if it forbid all judgment of others and of their action
altogether. These might be heard to say something
like this, it is not up to us to judge. We must leave the judgment
into the hands of our God. I seem to remember a quote not
long ago, from the new Pope in which he said concerning the
sodomite priests in the Catholic Church that he would not judge
them, that he would not become their judge. So some understand
verse 1 to forbid judging the action and the behavior and the
beliefs of others. And their philosophy is, go along
to get along. Keep the peace at all price,
at any cost. Anything for a quiet and a peaceable
life. Avoid extremes. Be tolerant. Be middle of the road. Stay in
the middle of the road. Now, to that Christian, I would
pose this question. How shall they then understand
and obey the command in verse 6 of our text this morning? If
all judging is out, How shall they be obedient and understand
verse 6? But secondly, there are others
who would use the words, judge not, and they do frequently,
who live in their sin and they would deflect any criticism of
their lifestyle. And they can be heard quoting
the Scripture, judge not. They are very adamant in their
position. You have no right to judge me. Or they might even declare, God
is my judge. I stand before Him. He will judge
me, which is right, of course. And God's judgment, we must remember,
is right and righteous. He will bring every work into
judgment. But some who would do as they
please Use the words, judge not, as a shield for them to hide
behind so that none can criticize or be critical of them for their
sin and that they might gain an immunity from criticism. Needless to say, scripture abounds,
particularly in the New Testament with instructions to make judgment. Scriptures abound. They admonish
us that we are to make judgment. For example, John chapter 7 and
verse 24, judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous
judgment. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, chapter
5 and verse 3, had already judged or determined, he said, concerning
the incestuous man at Corinth. I have judged already, he said,
what is to be done. And in Hebrews chapter 5 and
verse 14, the apostle commends those who, quote, by reason of
use have their senses exercised to discern, that is, to distinguish,
to separate, to discriminate, to judge, to make a judicial
estimation of this or of that. between good and evil. Are you not to make a judgment
between good and evil? Now, not to get off of our main
emphasis, but as John Brown wrote in a commentary, quote, if we
do not form judgments as to what is true and what is false, how
can we embrace the one and avoid the other? Unquote. Now, I agree
with those expositors who think that the words here, judge not,
are directed towards those who are censurous and self-righteous
Pharisees in that day and time. And they trusted in themselves
that they were righteous, and they despised others, Luke chapter
18 and verse 9 tells of. And they, the Pharisees, sought
to act as lords over the consciences of others who were among them. And this kind of people are with
us yet. They are still with us and still
in the churches. And some there are who seem willing
to usurp the privilege of God to judge the salvation of the
souls of men and to act as a judge of the servant of another. When to his own master he stands
or falls, Paul says in Romans 4, And verse 14, they assume
to judge that which belongs unto God only and become the judges
of others, even of the salvation of others. Now, the reason for
the injunction here against the censurous, unlawful, harsh, hypocritical
judgment is given in the end of verse 1. Judge not, lest you
be judged. And let's look at the second
verse again. For with what judgment you judge,
you shall be judged, and with what measure you meet it, it
shall be measured unto you again. Now, at first reading of this,
we are apt to understand this to mean that if you are yourself
a very judgmental person, if you are very quick to censor
others, passing rash and harsh judgment upon others, putting
deeds of others and the acts of others in the very worst of
life, perhaps even judging to the point of their salvation,
then beware, then look out. For when you stumble, when you
fall, judgment of the same severity will be heaped upon your head
again. And the word hypocrite might
come to mind. We've heard of preachers who
preach against this or against that and are caught in the very
same sin themselves. And how harshly does the judgment
of others come on their head. Now I say that this is a truth,
but it is not all of the truth that is to be gleaned from this
text or this passage of the Scripture, for it includes the judgment
of God against hypocrisy. And if you look at Romans chapter
2, verses 1 and 3, You will see two things are true of our nature,
of our habit, of our practice, and of our attitude. Number one,
of course, comes as no surprise, and that is we are prone to be
judgmental. We are that by nature. It comes natural. And this was
especially true of the Jew. You read it in Romans chapter
2, 17 through 24. There is a passage there rebuking
them. And it is true also of many who
hold themselves to be orthodox and scriptural. Number two, While
we like to mete out judgment, we are free with our judgment
and we freely and quickly judge others. We, on the other hand,
very highly resent being judged by others. We do not take censors
well at all. We react to it like the Hebrews
reacted to Moses down in Egypt. written up in Exodus 2 and 14. They said when Moses intervened
and rebuked the one that was in the wrong, they said unto
him, quote, Who made thee a judge and a prince over us? As the
saying goes, who died and left you in charge, as we sometimes
say. Then look at Matthew 7 and verse
3 through 5. Such one-sided judgment is clearly
brought into focus by the use of a metaphorical picture that
our eyes can clearly see in verses 3 through verse 5. In the contrast
they are made, in the King James it is by the moat and by the
beam. When the Lord said in Matthew
23 and verse 24, He likened the Pharisees unto one that strains at a gnat and swallows
a camel. He strains a little gnat out
of his drink and yet swallows down a camel and as Spurgeon
said, hump and all. A mote is a very small little
particle. A mote is a very small little
dried particle. of wood, the gnat a very small
insect, while the beam is a board, or a log, or a tubifore, and
a camel among the largest animals to be found on the earth. The
application being, some who censor others for minor offenses are
themselves guilty of more heinous crime. And such the Lord pronounces
to be hypocrisy. as if an adulterer censured another
for not reading their Bible every day, or a thief condemned another
for not tithing to the very penny of their income. Now, at long
last, we have come to verse 6. And aside from the question of
whether it stands alone is the fact that this verse is a very
fascinating, interesting verse in the scripture and that it
has shock value when we read it at the first. It may come
as a surprise unto many and they know not what to make of it or
how to interpret it. that holy things and spiritual
pearls, pearls of great price, are to be withheld from those
who display a strong contempt for the Word of God and the person
of Christ and of the gospel when it is brought to their focus
or attention. We might liken them to those
in Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 25. They have said it not all
of my counsel and would none of my reproof. But again, I'm
running ahead. We have here in this two sorts
of corresponding words in this verse. First of all, we have
dogs and swine, or pigs or hogs, if you will, in modern lingo. Now these separate people of
bad character and of bad behavior. They're not actual beasts that
our Lord is talking about. We'll have more on this shortly. And then secondly, that which
is holy and your pearls, down in verse 6. Hence the admonition. Give not holy things to the dog,
neither cast your pearl before swine. Now, concerning the image
used, dogs and swine, we already know the scripture account of
them. There are two things to consider
about them. A, scripture often uses the characteristic
and the viciousness, the filth, the habit, the instinct of beasts
in order that it might portray human action and the habits of
people. For example, to prove that point. False prophets are likened to
ravening wolves in the Scripture, are they not? Ezekiel 22, 27,
Matthew 7, and verse 15. They're also likened unto grievous
wolves by Paul in Acts chapter 20 and 29. He's not talking about
four-legged wolves, but he's talking about men. Again, some
are called serpents and vipers by John the Baptist, Matthew
3 and verse 9, by the Lord Himself in Matthew 23 and 33, and again
in Psalm 22, which is a messianic psalm, we
hear the Savior crying out about the bulls of Basin that have
compassed him about, and a ravening, roaring lion round about him. In Romans 3.13, the poison of
asp is under their lip. In Luke 13 and 32, the Lord referred
to King Herod as that fox, F-O-X. And we use like expressions all
the time. You can hear, that dirty dog,
or he eats like a pig, or he's dumb as a chicken, he's bull-headed,
or he's slow as a snail. We use metaphors like that all
the time. But secondly, and more importantly,
the two species mentioned, dog and swine, were both reckoned
unclean under the ceremonial law of Moses. They were neither
fit for food, nor that where they fit for the sacrificial
offer. In Deuteronomy 23, verse 18,
no Jew could use the price of a dog to pay his vow in the temple
of the Lord because it was put in the same category as the hire
of a harlot, as you read in that scripture. No woman could bring
the hire of her whoredom and give it or make a vow or pay
a vow with it. in the temple of the Lord. In
Exodus 22 and verse 31, the dogs were to be fed that which was
spoiled and rotten and unfit for human consumption. And one more. The term dead dog
we find frequently in the Old Testament, and it is applied
there in the Old Testament to those that might be considered
worthless characters, sometimes even using it of themselves. 1 Samuel 24, 14. 2 Samuel 9,
verse 8. You remember what Mephibosheth said? What is thy servant that thou
should look upon such a dead dog as I? 2 Samuel 16, verse
9. Unworthy. Now, in the New Testament,
the term dog is often used in reference unto people. As when
the Lord told the woman of Canaan, you remember, it's not good to
take the children's bread and cast it unto the dog when she
asked a favor of the Lord. And she understood that metaphor
and said, yes, Lord, but the dogs do eat of the crumbs. Listen to Paul in Philippians
3. And verse 2, beware of dogs,
he said. Now, not four-legged kind that
bark and wag their tail and such like. Look to dogs. And Roberson said that there
is an article here. Look to the dogs. And that they
understood it as well as they understood Paul saying, look
to the concision dogs and the circumciser. It bears repeating. In those times, the epithet dog
was a term of reproach. Edi called it of extreme contempt. And such people would be looked
upon and called outcasts, worthless characters, dogs. And the Jews
pinned that name upon the Gentiles. They referred to them as dogs. Now, all of this was before the
arrival of political correctness. You understand that right off
bat. And in these times, they roamed
the country. Wild dogs roamed the country. And the streets and the alleys
ravaging the garbage, killing domestic animals, attacking people
and such things as that. So with that in our mind, let's
go back to Matthew 7 and verse 6 and consider the exhortation
of our Lord. not to give what is holy to the
dogs or to cast our pearl before swine. First of all, let's remember
another place in the Scripture where these two are mentioned
together. And that, of course, would be
2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 22, where the apostle is describing
apostates. And he writes this, it happened
unto them according to the true proverb The dog is turned again
to its own vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing
in the mire. The proverb is found in Proverbs
chapter 26 and verse 11. Now, the part about the dog returning
unto its vomit. So does a fool return unto his
folly. The dog does not just return
to the vomit. But he licks it up again, and
it is one of the most disgusting things that you might ever see. Does this shock you? Well, it
is meant to. That a fool returning to his
folly is like a dog going and eating again its own vomit. Now
concerning the swine, it loves the mud puddle. It loves a mud
puddle, and the dirtier, and the wetter, and the muddier,
the better. And you can take that pig, and
you can wash it, and you can put perfume behind its ears,
You can put a ribbon on it, you can turn it loose, and it will
go straight to the mud and lie in it and lay there and grunt
continually. I've seen a menu one in my childhood. But back to chapter 7 and verse
6. We see the image. And how do
we put the injunction then into practice? How do we practice
what is enjoined here in this verse? Who are the dogs and the
swine? That is, who answers to them
among the sons of men? For it is certain that they represent
a certain type of persons and their reaction or attitude to
the things of God. They are men of certain character
who, as they are, shall never receive the truth as it is in
Christ Jesus. nor shall they enter into the
kingdom of God. For as dogs snarl and tear and
kill, and swine trample pearl, and rend the sower of the pearl,
so do these characters gnarle and snarle at the holy gospel
and the word of God, and they trod underfoot the only Son of
God, and have counted the blood of the covenant as an unholy
thing, and done despite to the Spirit of grace." You'll find
that in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 29, an awful condemnation
of the apostate. But now to get at this verse,
consider the titles, if you will, to the chapters of the commentators
on the Sermon on the Mount by such men as Arthur W. Pink and
Martin Lloyd-Jones. Pink deals with verse 1 through
5 under the heading, Unlawful Judgment. That covers 1 through
5. And with verse 6, the title of that chapter is Unlawful Liberality. in Pink's commentary. And Lloyd-Jones
explains verse 6, the chapter under the title, Spiritual Judgment,
verse 6, and discrimination. And I would suggest to you that
those who err on the teaching of judgment would also likely
err and be offenders when it comes to the sixth verse and
applying it. That is, one who refrains from
exercising righteous judgment about good and evil and about
the things of God, John 7, 24, would be more likely to give the children's bread
to the dog and cast their pearl under the feet of the filthy
swine." Now, the best way for us to get an understanding of
the sentiment of this verse and how to practice it is to study
the example and the practice of both the Lord and the apostles
in ministering the things of God to various people in their
day. How did they avoid giving the
children's bread to the dog and casting their pearl before swine. How was it decided? How was it
practiced by the Lord and the apostles of our Savior? And before we pursue this, let's
make an observation. And that is, go to almost any
church this morning that you would, and you will hear the
preacher telling the congregation indiscriminately, God loves you
and everybody in the world, and Christ has died for you and for
everyone in the human family. no matter their final end, whatever
it might be, even if they never in their lifetime turn unto God,
even if they remain enemies of God to the end of their life
and were to use their last breath to blaspheme and to curse God,
yet are they told, God loves you and Christ has died for you. Now, let's look at the Lord first
of all. Let's look at the Lord and then
at the Apostle. Not one time Is it written of
either the Lord or of any of the apostles that any of them
ever told a public gathering of sinners, God loves each and
every one of you and Christ has died for each and every one of
you? For example, consider the Book
of Acts. Now, the Book of Acts contains
many of the sermons of the apostles, and here is where we might expect
to find. the word love is not one time
in the book of Acts, not in all of their preaching and in all
of their teaching. Then, as A. W. Pink wrote, in
the epistles it is that the love of God is fully open and declared
for the comfort and the assurance and the consumption of the saints
of God, that Christ loved his own and he gave himself to save
them, and that nothing can separate them from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans chapter 8 and the end
of the chapter. Spurgeon wrote this on Matthew
chapter 7 and verse 6, and I'm quoting, Holy things are not
for the profane, And Calvin wrote that we're not to prostitute
heavenly jewels before profane scorners of God. He wrote this
again, quote, it is a blatant profanation of the mysteries
of God if we subject them to the mockery of the godless, unquote. When the Lord was taken before
Herod, old, godless Herod the king, and Herod's morbid curiosity
was in action, he wanted to see some sign or some miracle from
our Lord. The Bible said the Lord answered
him nothing. You'll find that in Luke 23 and
verse 9. In Matthew 21, And verse 27,
he would not respond to the chief priests and elders as to his
authority to teach, and that ended the discussion. On occasions
he pronounced very serious woes upon the hypocritical and the
self-righteous Pharisees, but he never spoke to them about
God loving them, or about God having a wonderful plan for their
life. And in Matthew 15 and verse 22
and 23, Jesus answered not the woman of Cana when she first
came crying out, for the help of our Lord. And when the Lord
sent the disciples out to preach, He forbid them to preach the
Word of God to the Gentile and to the Samaritan. And you find
that in Matthew 10, verse 5. Again in Matthew 10, verse 6-15,
also Mark 6, 7-11, and Luke 9, 1-5. Let's turn, if we might,
and read from Matthew 10. It is verse 7-15 that I'm interested in. Matthew chapter
7, verse 10 and verse 7 through 15. Our Lord is sending out His
disciples to preach. And verse 7, as you go, preach,
saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse
the leper, raise the dead, cast out devils. You have received
freely a gift. Provide neither gold, nor silver,
nor brass in your purses, nor script for journey, neither two
coats, neither shoes, nor yet stave, for the workman is worthy
of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town
you enter, inquire who is worthy, and there abide till you go thence. And when you come in into an
house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let
your peace be upon it. But if it be not worthy, let
your peace return unto you. And whosoever shall not receive
you, nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house,
shake off the dust of your feet. And listen to this. it shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the
day of judgment than for that city." Verse 15 again, a worse
judgment upon them than upon Sodom or the gay community. Now, we see this practice also
by the Apostle Paul in regard unto the Jew in Acts chapter
13. You read part of it. When he
preached them the gospel, and they turned against him, and
that with a vengeance, he said to them, Lo, I go unto the Gentiles. In Acts 19 and verse 9, Paul
is in the city of Ephesus in the Jewish synagogue." But when divers, that is some
of them, were being hardened and, believe not, being disobedient
unto the word, he departed from them and separated the disciples
and taught them. In Acts 18, verse 6, you will
find him at Corinth. When they opposed themselves
and blasphemed, Paul shook his raiment and declared their blood
to be upon their own head and turned unto the Gentile with
a gospel. Now, the lesson here is, as one
said, we must learn to discern the difference in people. We must learn that lesson in
dealing with people and the things of God. We must catch them where
they are spiritually. We must learn to discriminate
between them. You see how Paul took a very
different course with the philosophers in the city of Athens in Acts
chapter 17 than he did with the Jew and the proselyte in the
synagogue. To them he took the Word of God,
the Old Testament prophets, but not with those in Athens. For example, you would not preach
Christ to a professing atheist would you? They do not believe
in God or that Christ is God. Nor would you tell the most open,
vile sinner that God loves him. Is that how you would deal with
him? You would speak to him of the guilt of sin and of the terror
and of the wrath of Almighty God. On the other hand, you would
point a seeker unto Christ, before you appoint Him to the baptistry,
or before you invite Him into the membership of the church,
you would point Him unto Christ, like the Philippian jailer, for
example. Now, if you'll pardon personal
experiences, I would like to use a couple of them in the end
of our study in illustrating this text that we have taken
this morning. Years and years and years ago,
probably in the 1960s, yes, in the 1960s, we used to go to the
Star of Hope mission downtown. I was the mission chairman
of the church, and I think every two weeks we had a night at Star
Hope Mission. One of us would go and would
bring a message down at the Star of Hope. And usually our audience
was wall-to-wall drunks in those days at the Star of Hope Mission. Every single night a different
church would come in and would tell them, God loves you, has
a wonderful plan for your life, Jesus died for you. And then
they would stop and say, men, it's testimony time. And a guy
as drunk as a skunk would stand up and testify what Jesus meant
unto him. Pardon an extra minute, I will
never Forget the night. Brother John Holock was bringing
the message. And he was reading from the rich
man and Lazarus. And in his brogue he read, send
Lazarus there that he may dip his finger in water and cool
my tongue for I'm tormented in this place. And a drunk stood
up right there and said, give him a drink. Really. I mean, that's how it was. And
we were casting our pearl before swine. Let me tell you one more.
When I came to be pastor of the church, there was a man who lived
across the back fence in a run-down dump of a house junkie. You never
saw it. His name was Don, and he never
drew a sober breath. He was drunk every time you saw
him. We visited him Thursday night
visitation. I couldn't tell you how many
times. We read the Scripture. We witnessed to Him. We begged
Him to accept Jesus. And we begged Him to come to
church. One day He came to church. He sat there and mumbled and
talked and grumbled and giggled the whole time. that I was preaching
that Sunday morning. So you see, one great shortcoming
of the Arminian is they have one-size-fits-all salvation evangelical
approach. They deal with all people in
exactly the same way, what they call the plan of salvation, and
they end up giving holy things to the dog and casting pearl
before swine. They take the sentimental approach. God loves you. Jesus died for
you. Because they are cowards to proclaim
the true case of the depravity of man, God is angry with the
wicked every day and the wrath of God abides upon those who
believe not. So, we understand, I believe,
the injunction of our Lord, give not the children's holy thing
to the dog or cash pearl before swine.