Now, if I went around this room,
I was thinking about this in my study this morning. If I went
around this room and I asked each person here, how would you want to be treated?
How would you like others to treat you? And I have no doubt
that we would say, With kindness, I want to be treated with kindness.
With respect, you know that's what most employees, that's one
of the things they want in their workplace, just treat us with
respect. With love, treat us with love. Treat me
with love, you would say the same, treat me with love. And
treat me like a brother. Treat me like a sister. I believe
he would say those things. Well, to be treated like that,
to get that kind of treatment, you have to treat others that
way. That's the way you have to treat others. You know, mean people cannot
figure out why everyone else seems so mean. They just can't
get it. Why is everyone else so mean?
We attract what we are. We attract what we are. And this, I tell you what, this
Sermon on the Mount, I was thinking about this this morning, I was
looking back over these scriptures. It's like a well-balanced meal,
isn't it? I never saw it that way before,
but after reading this, past week and all day yesterday, and
then thinking about the message that I've preached from this
last two chapters for the last two or three weeks. It's just
like a well-balanced meal, what our Lord has given us. Now, what
He's going to give us in this chapter is judgment, wisdom,
and prayer. We're going to deal with those
three things. Now, our Lord has been teaching
about the difference between true religion. There is a true
religion, and it's of God. And there's a false religion.
There's only one true religion. There's many false religions,
but they can all be summed up as just false religion, and one
false religion. And I know that all men and women
are religious by nature. They are. They're just religious
by nature. They all believe something. They all believe there is a God
or someone that they call God or some superior being. All men,
99.9% believe that. At least by the time they get
ready to die, they believe it. But there's only one true religion,
and it's of God, and it concerns the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's
from the heart. It's from the heart. Now, our
Lord says this in verse 1, Judge not that you be not judged. Now, I know this. There's probably
not a more abused Scripture in the Bible than this. Don't judge. You're not supposed to judge. This world would be turned over
to absolute wickedness if all judgment were set aside. You
couldn't sit on jury duty. I got called up to a grand jury. And they let me off of it because
I told the judge, I have one employee and he has to sit there
until I get back. And so he said, OK. But I would do it once I get
out of that situation with that business. And I think it's my
duty to do it. And to do that, you've got to
make some judgments. You've got to judge somebody.
You have to. Paul says that we are to judge
ourselves. That's where it starts. This
is where it starts. We judge ourselves. Look over in 1 Corinthians 13.
I want to look at a few Scriptures here. We have to give sound judgment
to some things. 2 Corinthians 13. In verse 5, examine yourselves,
judge yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Prove your own
selves. Know you not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates? Look
over at 1 Corinthians 10. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, In verse 15, Paul says this,
let me back up to verse 13. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you
may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved,
flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say. Judge what
I say. The Lord gave a parable over
in Luke 7. Which one would love the most?
The one who is forgiven the most, Peter said. Well, the one forgiven
the most. And the Lord said, thou hast rightly judged. You
have rightly judged. It says over 1 Thessalonians
5.21, prove all things. It says in 1 John 4.1, try the
spirits. Try the spirits, judge them by
the Word of God. Take the Word of God, take what
I'm saying this morning, and try. Take it to the Word of God. Because evil doctrine is to be
condemned. It's to be condemned. Sound judgment
is commended. Here's the lesson. Avoid, and this is what our Lord
is saying, avoid a critical spirit. That's what he's saying. He's
not saying it's just a blanket statement, don't judge. No, he's
saying avoid a critical spirit, a spirit of censorship over just
small and different matters. That's what he's saying. Avoid
that kind of a spirit. Don't use that kind of attitude
and spirit on your brother or your neighbor. A person who is
given to this critical spirit, this is what our Lord is teaching,
reveals an inward problem. It reveals an inward problem.
It reveals a problem of pride, self-love, self-righteousness.
I thought of this this morning. I have never criticized anybody
accidentally. Have you ever criticized anyone
accidentally? No, you did it on purpose. That's
an inward problem. I've never just accidentally
done it. You thought about it, and you said it. And what's said
is said. It can't be taken back. Don't
be given to this thing of fault finding, especially in leaders
and teachers. Well, you cannot be a leader,
a teacher, or an example if you're given to a critical spirit. And a critical spirit is born
from self-righteousness, it's born from pride, and it's born
of love for self. That's where it comes from. Flesh. It's all flesh. It's not of God.
It's flesh. A person has to think more highly
of themselves than they do of others. And we're to do the opposite,
aren't we? We're to think more highly of
others. And you do if you're born of God. Now, we fight these
things. I'm not saying we don't wrestle and struggle with these
things. We do. But we do struggle with them.
We do wrestle and we do fight them. Do not pick at others in this
way of saying, don't pick at others little faults, that little
moat, that little piece of dust that's in somebody's eye. You
know, I've gone to the doctor before hospital to get a little
piece of metal out of my eye, and they have to use a magnifying
glass to see it. That's getting pretty sensuous,
isn't it? If there's a little moat, and
you say, well, here's what happens, you magnify it. That critical
spirit magnifies that little moat, that little piece of dust.
It magnifies it. And he says, don't be given to
this thought finding, this little these little problems and picking
and don't do that. He says don't do that. Now he's
not talking about open flagrant sin. He's talking about these
small things and our little quirks. We all got them. He says don't
be given to that. Now if a brother or sister is
walking disorderly, they are to be rebuked. A pastor is to
deal with the unruly, but avoid, he says, this critical spirit.
Because he says here in verse 2, with what judgment you judge,
with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. It'll come
back to you. That's what you'll get. That's the way your life
will be. It'll come back to you that way. And what measure you
meet, it shall be measured to you again. This is talking about
our everyday life. This is the way you're going
to be treated. This is what's going to come back to you. It's
what you've given out. It's going to come back. You'll
be dealt with by others the same way you deal with others. Isn't
this a well-balanced sermon? A sermon on the mount? Oh, I
thought we ought to go through this at least once a month. Really. You know, Solomon said this,
and I've remembered this since I started reading the Scriptures,
you know, after I heard the Gospel. To have friends, what's he say? You must show yourself friendly.
You must be a friend. You have to do that. To have
friends, you must show yourself friendly. If you criticize others, here's
what's going to happen. Others are going to criticize
you. That's what's going to happen. No one ever wins a spinning contest.
No one. That's a contest you don't want
to get in because there's no winners. We attract what we give
out. We attract what we give out.
And if you dish out the hate, then hate is what you're going
to receive in return. If you dish out love and kindness,
you're going to get that. You're going to get that. That's
what's going to come back. Then he says here, he gives the
example. Why beholdeth the moat in thy brother's eye? But consider
us not. You don't even consider The bean,
the log, this big log that's in your own eye. Hypocrites are
always trying to straighten out others, aren't they? Always. But I tell you what, even believers
can fall into this, because he's teaching his disciples. Even
we can fall into this. Here's the example. A brother
has a small piece of dust in his eye, and we suddenly All
of a sudden we become eye surgeons. We become eye surgeons. We want
to take out the eye. We don't want to just help, we
take it out. That's what a critical spirit does, it takes out the
eye. When just a little eye wash would do. But the real problem is here.
He says you have a beam in your own eye. And the beam, I think this, the
beam in your own eye is that critical spirit. Because he's
speaking here of a critical spirit, an attitude. He's saying you've
got a beam, you've got a much, much bigger problem than the
one you're picking on. Much bigger. I don't know of anything that
can cause more trouble than a critical spirit. And our Lord condemns
this among His children. He's not going to allow it in
His house. You don't allow it in your house when your children
are doing that. You stop it, don't you? You stop
it. And that's what he's doing. He's
not going to allow this in his house. Let your judgment be directed
at yourself first. What's he say? First, cast out
the beam in your own eye. The first thing you do is deal
with yourself. Deal with your problem. And I
bet you when you deal with that, your brother's going to have
one. If you just deal with, if I deal with the one I have, the
beam that's in my eye, my brother won't have one by the time I
look at him, by the time I get that dealt with. And now he starts
a new subject. Let me get back over here. Same
message, same message, just a different subject. That's what that little
sign is in front of that chapter in verse seven. He says, ask,
you've got this little, looks like a back of a P. It's the
start of another paragraph. It's a new subject, same message.
Now he says, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. On down through
here, I'm getting ahead of myself. He said, Ask and it shall be
given to you. Seek and you shall find. Now wait a minute. Go back to verse six. Go back
to verse six. I'm glad I feel comfortable here. I'm getting ahead of myself.
In verse 6, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither
cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under
their feet and turn again and rend you. Don't cast that which
is holy before dogs. Now we are to preach the gospel
to all men, aren't we? And we are not the ones who goes
out and says, well, they're a bunch of dogs, a bunch of swine, they
don't want this gospel. No, we preach the gospel. We
go out into the world and we preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, redemption by Him. We preach His righteousness,
His blood, His person. We preach Christ to all men.
But when men reject it and they despise it and they hate it and
they start to make light of it, fun of it, leave them alone.
Don't keep doing it. That's what our Lord said. He
told the disciples, if they don't receive you in one house, what
did He say? Shake the dust off your feet
against them. Go to another city. Go to another house. He said,
don't keep casting your pearls. And that pearl of great price,
which is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that which is holy is Christ.
He is our holiness. He is our righteousness. Don't
keep casting that to dogs and swine if they hate it and despise
it and reject it and they don't want it. We don't force feed
the gospel. He says, don't do that. Look over in Matthew 15. Matthew 15, look in verse 10. Not that which goeth into the
mouth defiles a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth,
this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, upset,
mad? They're mad at the message. You
upset them after they heard this saying, this message. He answered in verse 13, but
he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath
not planted shall be rooted up. Verse 14, let them alone. Let
them alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch. There is a time. There comes
a time to leave them alone. There comes a time. Don't cast
your pearls before swine. And then, you know, swine don't
care about pearls, do they? You know what they like? Slop.
Slop and mud. That's what swine love. They don't care anything about
pearls. So don't take the pearl of great price, the pearls of
truth. Don't throw that and let people
just keep on trampling on it. Leave them alone. The next place God opens the
door, go preach it. And leave them alone. Now, in verse 7. He encourages us to pray. And there's three things he says
here, gives us here, about prayer. Ask. Just ask. You know, sometimes you get something
just by asking for it. Sometimes you just ask for it.
See? That's when you start looking
for it. You start looking for what you're asking for. And not. Each one seems to be more intense,
doesn't it? You ask first, then you start
seeking. Scripture teaches us to seek
God with all our heart. It would be amazing, I think,
how much more of our prayers would be answered if we did that.
And then he said, knock. Knock. Knock until the door is
open. Knock until the Lord answers. Knock. He encourages this. We
are encouraged to ask for what we need. You know, our Lord said
this, Your heavenly Father knoweth what you have need of. Ask Him
for it. Go ahead and ask Him for it.
You know, salvation is behalf of the asking, isn't it? I say to anyone here that's lost,
ask. Ask the Lord to save you. Peter
said, Lord, help me. You don't have to go through
this ritual or have a certain feeling. Just, Lord, save me. It's just ask. Ask. We ask for forgiveness. We ask for mercy. We ask for
our daily bread. We ask our Father to meet all
our needs. Ask Him. James says this in James
4 too. You have not because you ask
not. And then most of the time you
ask amiss to consume it on the lust of your flesh. But he said
you have not because you ask not. And then seek. With all your heart. With all
your heart. Seek your Heavenly Father. Seeking. Seeking for your need. Whatever
it is. Whatever it is. We all have different needs.
Everybody has a different need, a different heartache. Most of
them I don't even know about. But he knows about every one
of them. And he says, ask. And seek. And knock. Knock. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. You ask and you get tired and
you say, well, it's just not going to happen. Yeah, it's going to
happen. You have no idea how long I've
asked the Lord to do some of that business. And now it's finally
happening. Now it's finally happening. You
keep seeking, keep asking, keep knocking. That's what you do. Look over in Luke 18. And he spake in verse 1, and
he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always
to pray and not to faint, not to give up, not to quit, because
we don't get the answer as soon as we want it, saying there was
in a city a judge. He feared not God, neither regarded
man. Very arrogant judge. And there
was a widow in that city. She came unto him saying, Avenge
me of mine adversaries. They're taking everything I've
got. I'm a widow. I have no one to protect me.
My husband's gone. The provider is gone. She said,
help me, judge. Help me. And this judge says,
I don't fear God or men. And he would not for a while.
He just kept running her off. Get out of here. Get out of here. But afterward, after her persistence,
he said within himself, though I fear not God will regard man
yet, because this widow troubles me. He's given an example here
of persistence, perseverance might be a better word, perseverance
in prayer. He says, this woman is driving
me nuts. She is just every day. There she is. I ran her off yesterday. Here she is today. I ran her
off again. Here she is. She's like a bad habit. She just
keeps coming back. I will avenge her. I will take
care of her problem. Lest by her continual coming
she weary me. Now, we don't weary God, but
He's given us an example here of perseverance. And the Lord
said, hear what the unjust judge said. And shall not God avenge
His own elect? Shall not God do the same with
His only elect, which cry day and night unto Him, who persevere
in prayer, crying unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell
you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when
the Son of Man cometh, shall He find this kind of faith on
earth, this kind of persevering faith? It takes persevering faith
to have persevering prayer, to seek God and to seek Him and
to seek Him and to seek Him. That takes that kind of faith.
Shall I find this kind of faith on the earth when I come? This
persevering? Well, I heard Henry say one time,
he'll find it where he gave it. He'll find it where he gave it. Now he gives us another illustration.
Let me back up here and look in verse 9. He says here in verse
8, let me finish this out. Everyone that asketh, receiveth.
God does answer. He that seeketh, if you truly
seek, if you're truly asking, you'll find. He said he's finding.
And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. You'll get,
you'll get to the answer. Or what man is there of you,
whom if his son asks, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks
a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you, he says, being evil,
Know how to give good things to your sons and daughters. How
much more your heavenly Father? If your son or daughter comes
to you and asks you for some food, are you going to give them
a stone? Are you going to give them a
poisonous snake if they come and ask you? I'll tell you what
you're going to give them, what's necessary. You being evil by nature, That's
what I'm saying. And the Lord knows the evil of
our nature. And He said, you being evil,
that is, evil by nature, and every one of us are by nature,
you know how to do the things that are necessary and give the
things that are necessary to your children. Does not your
Heavenly Father know that? How much more your Heavenly Father? He knows what to give us and
He gives us what we need. He gives us what's necessary.
And that's what you give to your children. You don't give them
the whole candy dish. You may give them a piece of
candy out of it, but you've got enough sense. You being evil,
we have enough sense to give out what they need. We know that.
We've been educated and taught. We've grown up. We've learned
some things. We know what's necessary. Well, how much more our Heavenly
Father? He'll give us what's necessary. Ask, seek, and knock,
and He'll give you what's necessary. Leave the answer to Him. He will
give us what's necessary. He's given us what's necessary
in Christ, hasn't He? He's given us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption. We have all that in Christ. We
provide none of that. He's given us all those things
and He'll give us all these other things. Just ask. Seek and knock. And then He sums up this whole
matter of what He's been saying. This verse 12 sums up the whole
thing. This is what most people call
the golden Therefore, all things whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to them. For this is the law of the prophets.
It's the fulfilling of the second table of the law. Treat others. This is coming
from the Lord of glory. Treat others like you want to
be treated. Just the way you want to be treated,
that's the way you treat others. Someone asked a man one time
why he gave a certain amount to a certain person. He replied,
because I would like it if someone gave it to me. When God saves a sinner, these
things begin to show up. Now we have to grow up before
a lot of it shows up. But these things begin to show
up. Our Lord started in chapter 5
giving us the character of a believer. And this is the teaching that
he's given to his believers, to his children. And these are
the things that start to show up in his children. Kindness,
love, joy. The fruit of the Spirit. The
fruit of the Spirit. And I know that every believer
In this room, I know your desire is, Lord, give me this. Give
me this heart. Give me the heart not to be critical.
Give me this. I felt that last night when I
was studying this all over again. When I got to the end of this,
I thought, Lord, that was my prayer. Lord, give me this. Give
me this spirit and attitude. Give it to me. I thought he said, ask. He said,
ask. And he'll give it to you. Not
seeking, knocking. He'll give you this. He'll give
it to you. Give me this heart. Give me a
heart to do this, not to be critical, to be long-suffering, patient.
Give me a heart to seek Thy face in everything. Give me a heart. Lord, give me a heart.