Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. We're going
to be looking at the first 14 verses. And I'm going to take
these verses in their subject order. And to each of these subjects,
I'm going to address either a single word which kind of announces
that subject or a group of words. And we'll continue on through
our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. If you'll read with me here in
Matthew chapter 7, we'll read the first five verses. Judge
not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge,
ye shall be judged. And with what measure you meet,
it shall be measured to you again. That is, if you set the standards,
that'll be the standard for you. These Pharisees, they gave standards
that nobody could keep, including themselves. And if that's the
standard you set, that's the standard, he said, you'll be
judged with 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 shalt thou see clearly
to cast out the mote of thy brother's eye." Now, religion has long
used these terms, at least the ones that I'm familiar with.
I'll put it that way. They've long used these terms
to teach that it's wrong to make any kind of a judgment. You can't
make any kind of a judgment, or preach any kind of dogmatic
doctrine, or condemn any kind of religious practice or preaching. Judge not. Ain't that what they
tell you? Judge not when they disagree
with you. Well, these verses don't teach
what they say it teaches. That's not what he's talking
about here. The Lord Himself condemned error, didn't He? He told His disciples, beware
of the living of the Pharisees. Now, the Pharisees at that time
and the Jews were the most accepted The only Christian religion in
the world at that time. The only biblical religion in
the world. Everything else was just gross
idolatry. And the Lord took the one, the
only one, He took them and condemned them and told His disciples,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Over and over and over He told
them, don't follow their ways. Don't follow their ways. So these
verses don't teach that. And the Lord Himself condemned
error, and He warned men of the consequences, and He exposed
the false prophets, and plainly told those who followed them
the end of their actions. If the blind, they'd be blind
leaders of the blind, He said. That's a pretty harsh statement
to say toward these men that everybody looked up to. He said
they'd be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead
the blind, they're both going to fall in the ditch. And then
also his apostles. Paul said, if I or an angel from
heaven come preaching any other gospel other than what I preached
unto you, let him be accursed. John said, if any come unto you
and bring not the doctrine of Christ, don't invite him into
your home. Don't even bid him good day.
Don't bid him God's feed. Don't say, well, the Lord bless
you. Don't even tell him that. Just leave him alone. And then
I know this for a fact, all true preaching is dogmatic. It has
to be dogmatic. It's the nature of the gospel
to be dogmatic. If it weren't dogmatic, there
could be no distinction between truth and error. Could there? There'd be no basis of a judgment.
What would be the basis of judgment if anybody can interpret things
any way they want to, and all of these things be true, what
would be the basis of judgment? It's the very nature of preaching
to be dogmatic. Paul said this to Timothy. He
told him that the Word of God was inspired. Inspired of God. It was to be believed. Wasn't
complicated to read. You can read it. It uses simple
terms. And it's inspired of God. What
it says is what God says on the subject. Not what men say it
says. what it says. And he said, the
Word of God, inspired of God, is profitable for doctrine. That
is, profitable for what you believe concerning these things. It is
profitable for doctrine and it is profitable for reproof and
correction and instruction in righteousness. So whatever these
verses are talking about, they are not teaching that we are
forbidden to condemn error or publicly speak out against hypocrisy
and deceit. What these verses are teaching
is a fault-finding spirit, an attitude and readiness to blame
others for trifling things and matters of indifference. Always
quick to put the finger out. Always quick to lay blame. And
usually, they're over these little trifling matters, these matters
of indifference. They're talking about a hastiness
to pass rash judgments and magnify the errors of others as though
that same error was not common in ourselves. We were real quick
to point out pride in others, but real slow to see it in ourselves.
That's what the Lord's teaching. You got a beam in your eye, and
you're over here picking at the moat. Let me get that out of
there. Well, how can you see? You got
a beam in your eye. Paul told Timothy, He said, the
servant of the Lord must not strive. He must not strive, but
be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, and patient. Be patient. Brethren, your very experience
of the grace of God, it ought to teach us to be patient. We
didn't learn this thing in a day. That's just a flat-out lie, what
that is. You didn't learn this in a day.
And usually those things that when we got that finger out pointing
to people, usually those things are things that you learned over
30, 40 years, 20 years, a long period of time. And we're talking
to somebody who's only been in this thing for a week or two,
and we're telling them how it is. Be careful. Be careful. Be gentle. Be patient. In meekness, that's 2 Timothy
2.25, in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves
if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of
the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." So the first
word that I see being taught here is kindness. Kindness. This is what the Lord is talking
about here. Kindness and consideration. And this love, he tells us, this
is about kindness and love. You see, that's what distinguishes
true believers from the rest of the world. They have in them,
and he tells us that in the very first part of his Sermon on the
Mount, that they have a blessed attitude, a blessed spirit. And what sets that apart from
all the rest of the world primarily is kindness and love. Kindness
and love. And this love, he tells us in
1 Corinthians 13, verse 4, suffereth long. That's how you know something
about this love of God. It suffereth long and is kind. Can you tell what he says? Kind. It envieth not. It vaunteth not
itself. It's not puffed up. Does not
behave unseemly. seeketh not her own, is not easily
provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but in truth. And it beareth all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things." Believers
are people who are sympathetic to the lost. You know why? Because they were lost. That's
right. They were lost. They remember.
where God found them. They're reminded of it daily,
aren't they? Where God found them. Because they themselves
were once lost, they're compassionate to sinners. And they know this,
they're sinners themselves. Now if any man says he has no
sin, he's a liar. That's what John said. He's a
liar. You don't want to listen to him.
But they're compassionate to sinners because they know themselves
are still sinners. And they're kind and they're
understanding concerning the ignorant and deceived, having
experienced that kindness for the same reasons toward them.
They were ignorant. They were rebellious. They were
deceived. And this principle applies in
our dealings with all men, but it goes double in our dealings
with the brethren, with those who also believe. Listen to this,
Ephesians 4 verse 31. Paul said, let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice. Put it away. Get rid of it. Don't
keep agging it on. Don't keep stirring it up. Get
rid of it. Recognize it for what it is and
cut it out. Quit doing it. Quit practicing.
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." It's not hard for a man who's
been forgiven to forgive. He can forgive. He remembers. He remembers. And I tell you
this, unless you can point to a specific text and give specific
instructions regarding a matter, we don't even have a right to
form an opinion, much less hold a man in judgment. You don't
even have a right to form an opinion about it. If you can't
call up text and verse of which you're convinced is the truth,
then you don't even have a right to form an opinion. A much more profitable exercise
might be to pray for both them and ourselves that the Holy Spirit
will be pleased to teach us wisdom. Give us some wisdom. Pray for
them. Pray for ourselves. Lord, give
us some wisdom and give us the grace we need to walk according
to the will of God and be at peace with one another. And as
Paul said, as best we can with all men. We're exhorted to walk,
he said, with all lowliness. We have to learn that. That's
not common to a man born of Adam. We've got to learn this. This
is something put in us, worked in us by God Himself. We're to
walk in all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing
one another. You know what that word means?
Putting up with. That's what that means. Putting
up with. Put up with one another in love. Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Then the second word I
see here in verse 6 of Matthew chapter 7 is wisdom. Wisdom. Give not that which is
holy unto dogs. Neither cast ye your pearls before
swine, lest they trample them under feet, and turn again, and
rend you." Now, dogs and swine, those are two terms you find.
Those are scriptural terms. And each time you find these
terms, they're used in the scripture to describe and identify reprobates
and false prophets. Beware of dogs, Paul said. And
swine. And as believers, We must make
a decision concerning those that we talk to, those that we witness
to. This is where wisdom comes in.
Wisdom. And we've got to make a decision. We've got to get some wisdom
from God whether to continue to witness to them or shake the
dust off our feet. We're told both things in the
Scriptures. And these two things are not
contrary to one another, but there's wisdom involved. We need
to ask God for wisdom. There's a time to witness and
there's a time to shut up and walk away. In Matthew chapter
10, we'll get there before too much longer, but in Matthew chapter
10 verse 14, the Lord tells His disciples, Whosoever shall not
receive you, nor hear your words. Now these men had no words except
the words of the Scripture. That's what they had. And those
to whom they speak would not receive those words. They wouldn't
have them. They wouldn't have them. They
wanted to say, well, according to my Bible, or they'd say, well,
it seems to me, or our church believes, they won't take the
Word of God. They won't just shut up and say,
okay, let's look at it. Let's see what the Word of God
has to say on the matter and let that be the final thing.
Let that answer the thing. If they will not receive you
nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or out
of that city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto
you, it will be more tolerable in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah
in the day of judgment than for that city. If that man, if that
house, if that city, that you preach to and deliver to them
in sincerity of heart the Word of God, the Gospel of God's sovereign
grace. If they won't receive that, leave
them alone. Leave them alone. Acts chapter
18 verse 5, listen to this. When Silas and Timotheus were
come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the Spirit and testified
to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. That's what he told them. He
took the Word of God, and he showed them the Old Testament
prophecies concerning the Christ, and then he witnessed to them.
He told them that Jesus was the Christ. That's what he told them.
Told them who He was, what He did, where He's at. Told them
their involvement in it. Told them all those things. And
when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed God, He shook his raiment and said
unto them, Your blood be on your own heads, I am clean. And from
henceforth, he said, I go to the Gentiles. He didn't go back
to the Jews. In Titus chapter 3 verse 10,
it said, A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition,
reject. You've been to him once and told
him of the matter. You went to him twice. Perhaps
brought some of the brethren with you and talked to him, explained
the matter, showed him in the Word of God what it said. He
bowed up and won't have it. It said, reject him, knowing
that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, being condemned
of himself. He's not listening. He's not
going to hear you. Now, a heretic is a man who makes
and holds to an opinion that's contrary to the plain teaching
of the scripture and that which is preached and taught by the
church throughout all ages. He rejects that. He's also a
man who forms a party or an alliance with himself as the head. He's always the head of it. And
then he goes about to divide and cause dissension in the church.
And he's always a man whose aim is to make divisions in the church,
not promote unity. He never promotes unity. You
never hear him even speak on the subject. It always has to
do with division. Romans 16, verse 17. He said, Mark them which cause
divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have
learned, and avoid them. Leave them alone. Leave them
alone. And men to whom you witness,
throw the sweet things of Christ back in your face and trample
them underfoot. Leave them alone. That's what
the Lord said. Leave them alone. Well, you offended those Pharisees.
Leave them alone. He said they'd be blind leaders
of the blind. That's what they are. That's
what they are. And what's appetizing to the
sheep, it just don't have the same appeal to dogs and swine. They have a different appetite.
We should never be reluctant to confess Christ to men. But
there's men and women that you just flat can't talk to. You
can't talk to. You see, before you can be taught,
God has to bring you down. He has to shut you up to the
Word of God. You'll go on arguing, well, I'm
not really as bad as all that. I don't see where you get that.
I don't see where you get that men are dead. I don't see where
you get that men can't learn. I don't see where you get that
from. I get it from the Word of God. When He brings you down
and shuts you up to the Word of God, where you see that your
opinion don't count and your traditions don't count, that
let every man be a liar and God be true, He'll shut you up to
this book. And when He does, you'll find out what you are
by nature. Those who believe God will, Those pharisaical dogs, that's
what Paul called them, constantly nipped at the Lord's heels. And
he said, leave them alone. You can't reason with anyone
who will not submit himself to the Word of God alone. You're
better off just to close the discussion. Just close the discussion. You can't reason with them. And
I tell you this, you can't reason with a man who believes he's
called to preach who's not. He's a false prophet. He's been
given over to believe a lie. You can't talk to him. You just
can't talk to him. He hangs on to that decision.
He hangs on to that experience. He hangs on to those old traditions. He hangs on to the church he
was raised in and all of their influence on him and all their
repute that they've given to him and the laying on of hands
and all those things, they've got him convinced that he is
a man who represents God and he goes out and he says things
and you try to talk to him and man, he'll cut you off just like
that. And I don't care how many scriptures, you can pile scripture
up around him like cordwood, it won't do a bit of good. Wisdom. We need wisdom when we
witness to men. I don't know any more difficult
thing than that, to witness to men. And then thirdly, here's
another word for you. In verses 7 through 11, and this
word here is grace. Grace. He says in verse 7, Ask,
and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it will be opened unto you. Now listen to this. Everyone that asketh, receiveth. Huh? Everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth. Well, I sought him, but I couldn't
find him. Well, you're a liar. This says all that seek him find
him. Well, I asked, but he wouldn't
do anything for me. No, you didn't ask. All that
asketh, ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall
find. Knock, it will be opened unto you. Everyone that asketh
receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh,
it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you,
whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he
give him a snake? Will he give him a serpent? If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven,
give good things to them that ask Him? I cannot imagine a man
sincerely seeking the Lord and the Lord handing him a snake,
sending him to a false prophet. He is not going to do it. The Lord points us to our Heavenly
Father and says, ask. I'm telling you this from my
own experience. The first thing a child learns
is who can take care of his needs. At first, you get this little
baby born to you. First thing it learns is where
it gets its meals. Who changes its diaper? Who sees
to its needs? And I tell you, that's where
them hands go, isn't it? Huh? Why? Because they know who
can take care of their needs. And the same thing goes for the
child of God. He knows who takes care of his
needs, and that's where his hands go. That's where his heart goes. And as the Spirit of the living
God confirms His true Son, He awakens him. He gives him his
first grace of life and faith and repentance. He cries, Abba,
Father. He knows who gave it to him.
And he looks to him and cries to him. And our God is a willing
Father. He's willing. Now, we're not
saved of our free will. We're saved of the free will
of God. There's where free will is. He's
free to save or pass you by. He's just either way. And that's
what the believer, the true believer, the true Son of God, chosen and
put in Christ, those whom the Fathers loved from all eternity,
that's the first thing they learn is God's willingness, His willingness
to save their sinful soul. The believer in the sweet experience
of grace discovers the willingness of God, to save a sinner like
him. And he discovers that willingness
in his ancient counsels of grace. He begins to see from the Scriptures
that God loved him. John was an everlasting love.
He didn't love him because of something that happened in time. He didn't love him because of
something Christ did. He loved him and therefore sent
his son into this world. It was His love for them that
appropriated Him, that gave Him His offices and gave Him to the
incarnation and caused Him to appear and give His life and
His obedience. He discovers that willingness
in all God's counsels of grace and His covenants of mercy. And
He discovers that willingness in the preservation of the world
after the fall of man. Why didn't God just wipe this
place out? Because He had a people He loved. That's right. He discovers that willingness.
God not willing that any should perish of His children. You go
over there in the book of Peter and you can read it for yourself.
He said, I'm not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come unto repentance. Every one of them are. He discovers that willingness
in the good providence of grace that brings Him to here who gives
him a heart and mind to understand and believe and to rejoice in
the things of Christ. And he discovers that willingness
in God's preservation and continual presence with him. God doesn't
leave him in spite of what he is. All that ask, receive. And all
who knock, find an open door. And all that seek him, find him.
And if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children,
how much more the Father of all goodness is willing and able
to give to His children good things. He that spared not His
own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things? And then fourthly,
the golden rule. Look at it here in verse 12.
Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto
you, do you even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." If there is such a thing, this
is the Lord's summary of all that He teaches in this Sermon
on the Mount. And let this be the measure of
our judgment and reproof. Let this be the rule of our daily
affairs. This is, in fact, the very essence. It's the very essence of all
that is taught in the Word of God concerning our conduct with
others. This is the rule of grace. This is the rule of grace. Do
unto others as you'd have them do unto you. We make things so complicated,
don't we? If we do that, we get along with one another. If you can do that. The straight gate, verses 13
and 14. Enter ye at the straight gate,
for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is
the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and
few there be that find it." Now, the straight gate is Christ.
That's Christ. And Christ alone. He is the door. He is the way. He is the truth,
the life, the resurrection. And it's by Christ alone that
we have righteousness and acceptance with God. What's he saying here? What's he talking about, the
straight gate? Well, the straight gate is only
as wide as Christ. That's what He's telling you. Anything that you add to that
makes the broad way. The broad way He's talking about
is anything past and beyond Christ. Anything added to Christ. They
broaden that way. They broaden that way. The broad
way is any and all ways that are beyond and not included in
Christ. The things not included in Him,
He Himself is the way. He said, I am the way. That's the narrow way. And it's
the Christ set forth in the Word of God, exactly as He set forth. You can't go beyond that. That's
why I insist on these doctrines and preach them dogmatically.
Anything beyond that, you're going into the broad way. And
this gate is only as wide as the Savior. He's the way. He said, I'm the door, the sheepfold.
Isn't that what He said? I'm the way. I'm the life. I'm
the vine. It's all Him as He set forth
in the Word of God. And all those who call upon Him
will be saved. But you have to call upon Him
as He set forth in the Word of God. You have to believe on Him
as He set forth in the Word of God. You can't just believe on
Jesus. That's what the world teaches.
Who don't know Him. They don't know Him. All those
Jews said they knew the Christ, didn't they? They were looking
for the Christ. They didn't know the Christ. The Christ stood
there and looked them in the eye and preached to them and
they didn't know Him. You've got to know Him. And to know
Him is to know Him as He's set forth in this book. Next week
we'll pick up with this word and this subject, false prophets.