The verse that we're gonna look
at is verse six, where the Lord says, give not that which is
holy unto the dogs, neither cast you your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them under their foot and turn again and
rend or tear you. And what a verse that is. That's,
you know, It seems a little harsh, doesn't it? Who's he talking
about when he says dogs and swine and all of that? We're going
to look at that. But as I said, a lot of commentators, they kind
of think, well, that verse is kind of out of place or whatever,
but it's not. You have to understand what he concluded. We're in the
last section of the Sermon on the Mount. And what the Lord
is talking about in this last section is the ministry of the
gospel to the world. We preach the gospel. He starts
off with the issue of judgment. Judge not that you be not judged.
Why is that? Well, the gospel ministry is
in itself, by its very nature, according to the truth of it,
is a judgment upon the world. And I think we referred to it,
or I had it in your lesson if I didn't read it last time, talking
about judge not, to judge or not to judge. Hebrews chapter
11, where it's talking about Noah, I think it's verse seven,
verse six or seven, I can't remember, I think seven. But it says Noah,
by faith Noah built the ark. And he preached, by faith he
did this, by the promise of God in Christ, and he preached the
righteousness of faith, and it says this, it says, by which
he condemned the world. Now the reason that that is spoken
is because when we preach the gospel, we're telling people
this, there's only one way of salvation, and there is no other. If you're not a participant By
the grace and power of God in this one way of salvation, what
are you? You are condemned under the court
of God's law and justice. That's condemnation. But I'm
telling you in the gospel ministry, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who are washed in his blood,
cleansed from their sin, clothed in his righteousness imputed.
And how do I know that I'm washed in his blood? How do I know that
I'm clothed in his righteousness? Because by the power of the Holy
Spirit, I have heard and believe the gospel. The gospel which
shows how God justifies the ungodly. How God makes right those who
are by nature wrong based upon the one righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, everybody else is condemned.
You say, well, that's so judgmental. Yes, it is, but it's righteous
judgment because it's God's judgment. And that's the nature of the
gospel ministry. You see, the nature of a gospel
ministry is not gathering crowds by telling people what they want
to hear. That's what ministry is, you
know, people, evangelists, pastors, they wanna fill their churches,
okay, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to have as many
in your building as you can get. I'd love to see, I've said it
a thousand times, I'd love to see this building full. I'd love
to see us be in a situation where we had to go buy a bigger building
or build a bigger building. I'd love that. But I can't do
anything that goes beyond the scriptures to make that happen. But preachers do. And they'll
start programs and they'll say things and they won't preach
what they call judgmental sermons because that doesn't tickle people's
ears. And they get them in. But that's not a gospel ministry.
That's not the nature of a gospel ministry. The nature of a gospel
ministry is righteous judgment according to God's word concerning
how He saves sinners and why sinners are condemned by nature.
And this is what it's saying. Now, there's to be no self-righteous
judgment, and that's what we do by nature. We're not to make
our judgments of these things of salvation. of justification,
of a right relationship with God, based upon wrong, self-righteous,
self-serving standards. And that's what he forbids there,
you remember. He says, he says, thou hypocrite, verse five, first
cast out the beam of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see
clearly to cast out the mote of thy brother's eye. In other
words, you, listen, can you cure the problem of your own sin? And the answer's no. then what
makes you think you could cure anybody else's problem? You heard the old saying about
doctors, physician, heal thyself. If you can't cure the sin problem
of others, of yourself, then don't be self-righteous and think
you can cure anybody else's problem. I can't cure your problem, I
can't cure my problem. Now I know who can. The Lord
God of all grace. Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
He cleanses us from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ. And
when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. Now that's the nature of the
gospel ministry. What are we telling sinners?
Flee to Christ. Let's not listen. I love to talk
about the love of God, but I'll never by the grace of God, talk
about his love outside of Christ. I'm not gonna look at people
and say, now God loves you, Christ died for you and wants a better
life for you. I don't know that that's true,
but I know this, God's love is in Christ and the better life
is in Christ. Flee to Christ. That's what we
tell sinners. That's the nature of a gospel
ministry. I'm not here to tickle your ears to get you here and
to get you to stay here. I would love for you to be here,
I would love for you to stay here. But the nature of a gospel
ministry is God bringing his people, in the book of Acts it
says the Lord added unto his church. Not the preacher, not
the evangelism committee, not the visitation committee, the
Lord added to his church. Sure we invite people to church,
that's okay. And if they come, they come.
And when they come here, somebody says, well, what do you do for,
somebody asked me one time, what do you do for the children at
your church? We preach the gospel to them. Because that's what
they need. Now they'll have some fun things
too, that's okay, nothing wrong with that. But our main focus
is not just to get them off the streets. I don't want them out
on the streets, don't get me wrong. I don't want them consorting
with the drug crowd and all of that. But our main focus is the
salvation of the souls. That's what the church is here
on earth for. So with that in mind, look at verse six again.
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast you your
pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet
and turn again and rend you. Now, first of all, we gotta ask
this question. Do we have anything that can
truly be described as holy and as valuable as pearls to give
to anybody? Do we have that? And the answer
is yes. We have the gospel. And my friend,
it's the greatest, most precious, most valuable thing that we have. It's the holiest thing we have.
The gospel, the good news, Think about it. If you're diagnosed
with cancer, what's the greatest news you can hear physically?
There's a cure. If you lose all your money, what's
the greatest news you can hear financially? That you won the
lottery or something like that. But if you're a sinner, who deserves
nothing but death and hell. What's the greatest news you
can hear eternally? The gospel of Jesus Christ. How God can be just. The gospel
is holy. That's what we've got. Now understand,
and I always make this distinction when I talk about holiness, a
lot of people have a wrong view of holiness. Most people, when
they think of holy, they think of moral perfection. And certainly I'll be the first
to tell you, if you find anybody who is morally perfect, which
you won't find anybody that way, other than the Lord Jesus himself,
that person certainly is holy. But the word holy and sanctified,
they both mean separate, distinct. And so they are unique, set apart. God is holy. Now, God certainly
is morally perfect. There's no sin with God. But
that sets him apart from anything and everything, see? Now, what
sets us apart? Is it the fact that I don't sin?
Well, if it is, I'm just lying to myself. What sets us apart? The gospel. I look at you and
I ask you, what is your hope of salvation and eternal life?
Somebody says, well, I joined the church when I was 12 and
made a profession, I got baptized. That doesn't set you apart from
the world. Unbelievers do that. False profession. People, thousands of people do
it under the preaching of a false gospel, don't they? But what sets God's people apart
and makes us whole? You know, he calls us holy brethren.
That doesn't mean we stop being sinners now. We're still sinners,
but we're saved by grace. And our hope is Jesus Christ,
the Lord, our righteousness. That sets us apart. That's what
we have that's holy, our message of salvation. There's nothing
like it. I mean, it is so unique. It's
not of man, Paul said, the gospel of God. I didn't receive it of
man, but by revelation of God. It speaks of a holy God who cannot
fail to punish sin. It speaks of a just God who must
be just in all that he does, no matter what he does. If he
condemns the guilty, he must be just. If he saves the sinner,
he must be just. If he justifies a sinner like
me, he's got to do so in a way that is just. His judgments are always according
to truth. You know, human judges, they
make judgments based upon what they know or think to be true,
but they can be wrong, can't they? They can be wrong. Juries
can be wrong. But our God cannot be wrong.
Let God be true and every man a liar. That's holiness, see? That's our message. You know,
when preachers get up and they preach a God that's trying to
save you but can't unless you let him, or when they preach
the death of Christ as not securing the salvation of those for whom
he died, they're removing all holiness from the message. We've got a holy God. We preach
a holy person. Salvation is wrapped up, founded
upon, centered around, A holy person, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is God in human flesh without sin. Who is my surety. That's my surety. He's my surety. See, people talk about standing
before God at the judgment and giving account. Well, here's
what our account is. Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness. That's my account. He put away
my sins fully. on the cross as my surety and
substitute. He brought forth an everlasting
righteousness of infinite value, whereby God can remain holy,
be just, and justify me. That's the message we have. And
that message is the pearl. It's that which is holy, and
it's the pearl. Cast your pearls now. The pearl
in the Bible, as you know, is a metaphor for that which is
highly, infinitely valuable. You remember the parable of the
pearl of great price? Now, the merchant there, I believe,
is Christ. And the pearl is his church.
That's what I believe. I'll go back, I'll preach on
that sometime. But what it is, is it's not that we had an inherent
value. The value of the pearl there,
the church, the salvation is in the glory of God in our salvation. But it's something valuable.
Well, what do we have that's eternally valuable? The gospel.
The message of salvation. Eternal life and glory through
Christ and based on his righteousness alone. That's what we have. It's
called the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And then
remember what Paul said after that in verse seven of second
Corinthians four, he said, but we have this, what treasure and
earthen vessels were the earthen vessels. The treasure is the
gospel that reveals the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But then that amazing though, that a week old vessel, like,
like us, we go vessels like us can have such a treasure. All
right, so that's what that which is holy is the gospel that reveals
how God, a holy God, can save sinners through the Lord Jesus
Christ, that holy person, as our surety and substitute, and
bring forth a holiness, a righteousness, that answers the demands of His
law and justice. That's the pearl, all right?
The gospel. All right, here's the second
thing. He says, give it, give not. What
do you mean give? Well, it's preaching the gospel.
Preaching the gospel. What am I doing up here? I'm
giving you the message, that which is holy, the pearl. Now,
somebody says, well, you've got to receive the gift. Well, if
the Holy Spirit gives you eyes to see and ears to hear, you
will receive it. But I always tell people, I said,
now look, here's a couple of things you gotta realize about
this gift. It's not wrapped and hidden from
view as far as just natural sight is going. It's not something
that, here, I've just told you what the gift is. It's salvation. by God's free and sovereign grace,
based upon the righteousness of another, and your works are
totally excluded. Totally excluded. That's the
gift. And the problem is, is that when
man hears that, when I give it to the natural man, he doesn't
want it. It's a gift that people by nature
don't want. I told you the story about a
brother who was talking to a man about the gospel. And the man,
who had never heard it before, he said, well, he said, I don't
know about all that doctrine. He said, here's how I've got
it figured out. He said, I believe that salvation is like a big
chocolate cake, and anybody who wants a piece can have it. And
the brother said, well, let's take that analogy further and
make it biblical. Everybody hates chocolate cake. Now that's what the Bible teaches.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them, for they are what to him? Foolishness
to him. There are some who receive the
gift, and there are some who receive not the gift. What's
the difference? Well, look at John chapter 1. He tells us plainly what the
difference is. John chapter 1, verse 11. He, that is Christ, came unto
his own, and his own received him not. Now his own there, most
commentators say he's referring to the nation of Israel. He was
a Jew in his humanity. But look at verse 12. But as
many as received him, to them gave he power, the word power
there is right, The word power is the word right. It's not the
word ability. It's another word. The word ability
is used in other places, a Greek word, but this Greek word means
the right. In other words, those who received
him, to them gave he the right to become or to be called the
sons of God, even in that believe on him, his name, verse 13, which
were born, not of blood, not of the natural generation, Nor
the will of the flesh, that's the works of the flesh. Nor the
will of man, that's the will. Somebody said, well, you know,
God's done everything he can do, now you make the difference.
No, it's not of the will of man, but of God. There's your difference. Those who receive the gift. You don't have to open the package,
it's right there. But by nature, we don't want
it. And if we do want it, then what do we do? We glorify God. Thank you, Lord, for giving me
eyes to see and ears to hear. All right. So this giving is
preaching. Well, here's the second thing.
Go back to Matthew 7, 6. Give not that which is holy unto dogs.
Let me ask this question positively first. To whom are we to preach
and witness the gospel? And here's the short answer.
We're to preach and witness the gospel to anybody and everybody
who'll listen. That's it. Wherever God gives an open door,
an opportunity, we're to preach the gospel, we're to tell sinners,
anyone who'll listen, doesn't matter who it is. Somebody said,
well, what if they're not elect? That's not your business. That's
not my business. That's God's business. Now, don't
try to play God. Anybody who'll listen, we'll
preach to. We'll witness to. We'll tell them about salvation.
We'll tell them about the sinfulness of man, the holiness of God,
the justice of God, the righteousness of Christ. Now, we recognize
that not everybody who's going to listen to us will believe
it, will receive it. That's not our business either.
You see, if I preach the gospel, the true gospel now, or if I
witness the true gospel and somebody doesn't receive it, it's wrong
for me to look at myself and say, now what can I do to get
them to believe what I'm telling them? That's not my business. You say,
well, what if they want to hear more? Well, tell them more. I'll
go through the scriptures with them. I'll tell them this is
the proof. This is God's word, not man's.
See? So we preach to anybody. That's
the Great Commission. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Whenever God gives us an open
door. Over in 2 Corinthians 2, you don't have to turn there.
I have it cited in your lesson. Paul says that whenever we get
an opportunity to preach and witness the gospel, we are victorious. Somebody says, well, what if
nobody believes it that you're talking to? Well, to some, it's
the savor of death unto death. That's sad. And I pray for them,
I do. But to others, we're the savor
of life unto life. Now, one thing I know about me.
I don't have the ability to give life. I don't have that ability. I know who does, only God. So if I'm preaching to you and
it becomes a saver of death unto death, that's sad and I pray
God will give you life and bring you to believe it and receive
it and to run to Christ. But if I preach to you and witness
to you and you believe it, I don't have anything to brag about.
Oh, I'm such a great preacher. Oh, that preacher has the ability
to save so. No, he doesn't. Christ is the
Savior. I'm just the announcer. I'm just
the voice. I'm just the signpost. I used
to tell you the story about when we take Aaron and Nathan and
Debbie and we go back up to Kentucky, and you know how the kids are,
are we there yet, are we there? And I said, well, we've got six
legs to go on here, and I tell them when we pass the first leg
and the second leg, on that last leg, we'd see a sign, Ashland,
Kentucky. But you know what? We didn't
stop at the sign and congregate around the sign and hug the sign. and glorify the sign. We went
on to the destination where our family was, our earthly family.
And that's it. We're just, preachers are just
messenger boys. That's all we are. We're just
telling, Brother Mahan used to say, it's one beggar telling
another beggar where to find food, where to find shelter. That's what it is. So we preach,
and the results are up to God. Now here's the third thing. Then
who are these dogs? Don't give this to dogs. And
who are the swine? Don't give it to swine. Well,
here's who they are. What he's talking about here
is people who have absolutely no interest and no desire to
hear what we say. That's what he's talking about.
You tell somebody, I want to tell you about my Lord. I want
to tell you my God. I don't want to hear what you had to say.
I had a man tell me one time, he said, I was sitting in his
home and he said, he said, look, and we were talking about it.
And he said, look, I respect what you believe. I don't believe
it. When you come to my house, let's not talk about that. That's
it. We're never to try to force people
to do that. And let me show you a couple
of scriptures here. Turn to Matthew 10, the closest one, just over
a few pages. Matthew 10, look at verse seven. This is where Christ was sending
his disciples out. And Matthew 10, he says, and
he told them to go out and preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And I don't wanna read a lot of verses here. He says, verse
11, yeah, look at verse 11, Matthew 10. He says, and into whatsoever
city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy,
and there abide till you go thence. And when you come into a house,
salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon
it, but if it not be worthy, let your peace return to you.
What is he talking about worthy? Well, he's talking about those
who receive the message, who are worthy in Christ. through
the glory of God. And look at verse 14. And whosoever
shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out
of that city or out of that house or city, shake off the dust of
your feet. In other words, move on. Verily
I say in you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. What's he
telling them? Go preach. Knock on the door. If they let you in, they want
to hear what you say and they receive it. That's what worthiness
is. They're sinners saved by grace.
But if they don't want to hear you and cast you out or even
get hostile, that's possible, isn't it? Move on. Don't do anything else. You can
pray for them. Now, That's the dogs, that's the swine.
You know, dogs there was a common Jewish word that the Jews used
for the Gentiles who were alienated from God and idolaters. Paul
turns that back on them in Philippians 3 when he says, beware of the
dogs. He's talking about Jews there
who are trying to bring believers under works. Swine, you know
about the dietary laws under the old covenant. Pigs were considered
unclean animals. Unclean. And that's what he's
saying here. Those who have no interest in
hearing what you have to say, they're like dogs. They're alienated
from God. They're idolaters. They're condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already. He said they're like swine, they're unclean in God's
sight because they have sin in them and sin charged to them.
The only cleansing is found in the blood of Christ and they
don't want any part of it. And so he says, don't give that
which is holy unto them. Another issue of that, let me
say this. One time, I was talking about this verse with another
person, and they asked, well, why did Stephen, now remember
Stephen in Acts chapter seven? Why did Stephen preach to that
crowd that turned on him and trampled him? Well, and here's
what I told them, and I've got a little section here in your
lesson on that. First of all, the crowd did listen to Stephen's
message. They heard his whole message.
It was only afterward that they got angry. And that can happen. But you know something? God overruled
that crowd, and out of that message that Stephen preached, and maybe
others, some of God's chosen people were saved. I know one
man who was there, who was one of God's Christ's sheep. His
name was Saul of Tarsus. He heard the gospel that day.
And he probably heard it before. But yes, they did turn on Stephen
and they did trample him underfoot, but they did listen. What this
is talking about is people who say, I just don't want to hear
anything you have to say. Now, you all know people like
that, don't you? I do too. Don't want to hear anything you
have to say. Well, don't give that which is holy unto dogs.
And I, you know, I, I'm certainly not going to look at him and
say, well, you dog or you pig or anything like that. That's
not what, what the Lord is saying here. I mean, we, we've got to
be wise as serpents and harmless as does, but we just recognize
the fact that if, if this person has no interest in what we have
to say, we're going to move on. We're going to move on. And if
God gives us an opportunity, we'll take it. Well, lastly,
one of the things that I believe is being taught here is that
we are never, never, never to try to force ourselves and our
message on anybody. In the history of false Christianity,
and I emphasize false, there have been people in groups and
denominations who have tried to force people to confess Christ
and of course theirs was a false Christ. And that's not what Christ
is saying here. We're never to try to force ourselves. We're never to try to force people
to believe. We're never to try to force confessions
out of them by torture and physical means. You know the Crusades
in history was of the devil. The Spanish Inquisition. And
you can think of others. I mean, there's other, even Protestant. In the early part of this country,
some of the pilgrims and the Puritans, they either force people
to believe what they're, they cast them out. We're never to
do that. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Spiritual, it's
the gospel. Read in Ephesians chapter six,
you can turn there and read it on your own, where he talks about
the warfare and putting on the whole armor of God. You realize
there is not a physical armor, it's a spiritual armor, every
piece of it. So that's one thing we need to
keep in mind. Give not that which is holy unto
dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine. All right.