Are you ultimately and eternally wise according to Jesus? Find out!

Hi welcome to today’s little lesson. Yet another special Lake Erie edition here in Ohio. So glad that you’ve joined me. If you’re a regular viewer you know that we’re working our way through the sermon on the mount and we’re getting close to the end.

Jesus is giving us some summarizing statements one of which is a very clear warning against false prophets and teachers. He said you’ll know them by their fruits even if they’re working miracles. If they’re lawless, you don’t wanna follow them. They’re going to be like the bad tree that doesn’t have any good fruit and is cut down and thrown into the fire. Jesus has said that actually twice now because he said I’m going to say to many on that day depart from me you who practice lawlessness.

Holiness in spite of what so many people say is a part of the salvation equation. It’s not a means to salvation. It’s a result of true salvation. We’re not talking about salvation by works. We’re talking about salvation that works. Because James said faith without works is dead. Okay.

Jesus is going to reiterate that message one more time because it’s so important as he winds this sermon down and he makes another comparison between the ultimate wise person and the ultimate fool. And you can be wise, worldly wise and it can benefit you. But you can be worldly wise and spiritually stupid. Spiritually foolish if you’re of course not focused on eternity.

Because we’re all heading that direction. Right? Take a look in the mirror. God loves you and that’s why he’s helping you to slowly realize that you’re gonna die one day every time you look in the mirror you’re getting a little bit older. That’s a message from the Lord. And as the Psalm has said, Lord teach me or teach us to number our days that we might present to you a heart of wisdom.

So Jesus says now in verse number 24, Matthew chapter 7, therefore everyone who hears these words of mine. What words? Well the sermon of the mount to start and of course everything that Jesus says. If they hear the words of Jesus and not just hear them but act on them or one translation says does them. Obeys them. Maybe compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded on the rock.

You know, this little passage description about the wise man building on the rock and so forth I’ve heard sermon’s where this passage it utilized as an administration to apply biblical principals so that when the winds and the storms and the trials of life come that you can still stand. And usually the biblical wisdom that they’re talking about is one of their prosperity principles or something like that. And that’s not what Jesus is saying here. That’s not what Jesus is saying here at all.

He’s not talking about the storms of life and the little trials, the winds and the storms that come our way in life. He’s talking about ultimate salvation or damnation. The house that stands is the house that keeps standing eternally and the house that falls is the house that doesn’t go off into eternity that is destroyed. Cause he had just warned about life verses destruction in the verses ahead of this.

So the contrast of that is everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them or does not do them he’ll be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell the floods came the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and great was it’s fall.

So Jesus is not just giving little practical tips on leading a successful life here during the storms and trials of life. He’s talking about salvation. Will you live forever or will you face destruction?

Will your house keep standing when the wrath of God falls? Or will it stand? Will you have enteral life or eternal death and destruction?

I think it’s pretty clear which of those two people we outta be striving to be like. And it’s very simple. How you build your house on the rock by hearing and obeying the words of Jesus.

Kind of a neat illustration cause I’m sitting right here on the beach. And in fact this beach right behind me I used to come up to this beach when I was a kid. And I’m telling you what, this beach was much wider than what it is now. You can see all these little concrete blocks that the residents along here have paid to put in to try to preserve their beach from being washed away. And it hasn’t really worked all that well. And this beach used to come all the way out there. It’s not because it’s high tide. This is Lake Erie. Tides don’t effect lakes but just a couple of centimeters right? Okay.

So anyone who built their house back there would have been sorry at this point in time because it would’ve been washed away and destroyed. Good illustration Jesus. Way to go. Okay.

And people living in Jesus day who had any association with the floods and the rains. He’s not even talking about the ocean or a lake even. Just flooding in general can wash away anything when it’s built on the sand.

Alright so let me encourage you build your house on the rock by obeying what Jesus said to do. When Jesus had finished these words, Matthew writes the crowds were amazed at his teaching. Now why were they amazed? Matthew tells us for, because, in verse number 29, he was teaching them as one having authority. And not as their scribes.

Now, I’m gonna close with this one little observation as we finish this sermon on the mount in today’s episode. I don’t think that what Matthew is saying there is that the scribes were not teaching as one’s having authority. No they were claiming to have authority. They were the teachers. They were the leaders. They were saying listen to us. Do what we say. They were the instruction givers. So they were pretending.

But they were the wolves in sheep’s clothing that Jesus was warning his followers about. They were the ones building their house on the sand. They were the ones who maybe even had some casting out of demons and some prophecy going on. But their lies were characterized by lawlessness.

But still they were claiming to be sitting in the seat of Moses and disseminating the truth to the people of Israel. So I think what Jesus is saying is, Jesus was first of all he was teaching as one having authority in contradicting what the scribes and Pharisees were saying and not as their scribes. That is contradicting. Authoritatively contradicting what the scribes and Pharisees were teaching.

And I think if you missed that in this sermon, if you don’t see that that’s really what this sermon is all about, a correction, a contradiction, an authoritative contradiction of the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees you’re missing out a lot. You’re liable to wind up believing a false premise for example that Jesus was radically changing morality and this was a radical, something that people had never heard before.

Yet as I’ve pointed out over and over again, everything Jesus talked about, every moral principle, you can find it in the Law of Moses. And you can find it in your own conscious if you just listen. Okay.

So that’s what was going on in the Sermon on the Mount.

Hey thank you so much for joining me on this little lesson on Lake Erie. Hope to see you next time. God bless.

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How do you spot a false teacher? What should you be on the lookout for?

Hi, welcome to today’s little lesson. Thank you so much for joining me on this, another special Lake Erie edition. Jesus told us to beware of false prophets, and so everyone who is claiming to be a teacher or a preacher of the Word of God should be scrutinized, and they should be evaluated by the criteria that Jesus gave us.

As a teacher, I would never consider myself to be someone who shouldn’t be scrutinized, because I’m within a group of lots of people who are teaching the Word of God — pastors, teachers, so-called evangelists, and some are even calling themselves prophets and apostles — and so we need to be very, very cautious.

So, as we’ve been working our way through the Sermon on the Mount, we’re coming now to the final verses of it, and I try to emphasize throughout this sermon that it’s very clear that Jesus was doing a lot of correction in this sermon. You remember right at the beginning, He said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,” that is, your spiritual leaders that you’ve been listening to all your lives. That’s who He was talking to in the Sermon on the Mount, people who’d been under the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees all their lives. Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds them, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” That is, “Your spiritual leaders are all going to hell.”

And if you study the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees and then study the Sermon on the Mount, it becomes very clear that there’s a lot of specific correction going on here that’s targeting the false teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.

And so, if there was anyone who fit’s Jesus’ description of a false prophet, the scribes and Pharisees fit the description. So, as Jesus has now done all this correction, and He’s warned His listeners to enter by the narrow way, He starts off in verse number 15 of chapter 7 saying, “Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

So, that is, they give a façade, there’s an appearance there, but on the inside is … There’s something wrong. They’re not one of the sheep, they’re out to exploit the sheep, to take advantage of the sheep, to gain something from the sheep. They look at the flock just like wolves look at flocks of sheep: “There’s dinner.”

Okay? And, you know, goodness, it seems like there are a lot of these folks today, because their ministries are a business, and they’re getting wealthy off of their ministries. It’s mostly those prosperity guys. They’re the biggest criminals in this area, and it’s amazing that so many people are misled by them. Well, let’s talk about that a little bit more. “You will know them,” Jesus said, “by their fruits.”

Now, in this sermon, Jesus said, you know, “Don’t lay up your treasures on this earth, but lay them up in heaven, because where your treasures, there your heart will be also,” and we’ve got these guys on TV, and on the radio, and in their books and everything, telling us to lay up treasure on this earth, and they’re the biggest example of it, flying around in their private jets, and living in their mansions, and with their Rolex watches and their lavish lifestyles and so forth.

Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits,” so it’s easy to spot a false prophet who’s living a life of luxury and making his money off of the proceeds of his quote-unquote “ministry.” “You’ll know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

And so there’s the warning of the end of these false teachers and false prophets who don’t bear good fruit because they’re not a good … They’re not the real McCoy, they’re not the real deal. They’re just thorn bushes and thistles, and that’s why that’s what they’re actually producing. There’s the end: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

And there’s one more of so many affirmations that Jesus gives in this Sermon on the Mount that makes it very clear that part of the package of salvation is transformation. You know, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of those who repent and believe in Jesus, and He doesn’t just come to hitchhike; He comes to transform us and to make us holy. And He does that progressively, it doesn’t all happen instantaneously, but “He that began a good work in you promises to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

As you consider whether or not someone is a false teacher, you have to look at that person’s fruits. Now, it’s so hard to look at people’s fruits in this day of media ministry, when people like me are making videos. You don’t have any idea how I live, what my lifestyle looks like, what I am like when I’m not on the camera, and so forth.

You know, you’re not watching my daily life, you don’t know how I treat my wife, you don’t know how I treat my kids, you don’t know how I treat other people, and so forth, and so it is extremely difficult, and so you should be extra, extra, extra cautious. Of course, if you judge everything that’s being taught from the Word of God, then that itself, too, is a great litmus test, and you don’t want to listen to anybody that’s not backing up what they say with Scripture.

One tiny advantage that I guess that I have as a teacher is that I do more than just video teachings, and I’m so honored and blessed to lead a ministry called Heaven’s Family. You can look us up on the Internet, look at our website, and so forth, and see the kind of fruit that is being produced by the ministry of Heaven’s Family.

Now, I’m not the only person, there’s over 30 people who are on our staff, but there’s so many good, fine, fruitful people that are part of the ministry of Heaven’s Family, and I’m so honored and blessed to be a part of that whole family, of that staff of people that are serving the least of these around the world.

And I’m blessed in that regard, and I’m not saying that every teacher should be directing a ministry like Heaven’s Family, I’m not saying that at all. No, if you’re called to be strictly a teacher, then that’s probably what you’re going to do.

But you still ought to be involved in doing something to care for the least of these, right? Not to be leading a ministry that’s caring for the least of these, but personally, if you’re a God-called teacher, God-called preacher, God-called evangelist, God-called whatever, if you’re not caring for the least of these on some personal level, well then, we’ll know you by your fruits. You’re not the real deal, you’re in the wolf category, not in the sheep category. Okay?

So, that’s something you could always ask, if you can meet a teacher of the Word of God personally. But again, through the media ministry, again, it’s just so difficult, so beware. Beware.

Okay? You’ll know them by their fruits. Thank you, Jesus, for giving us that bit of guidance, and there’s more guidance to come that’s actually almost shocking, what we’ll talk about in our next little lesson. Hope to see you then. Bye-bye.

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What is the one thing we should remember if we want to be holy? Jesus answers this question towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

Hi, welcome to today’s little lesson. This is another special Lake Erie edition. Thanks so much for joining me. If you’ve been a regular viewer, you know we’re working our way through the Sermon on the Mount, asking and answering some questions along the way, and here we are getting kind of close to the end in Matthew Chapter Seven.

Today we’re going to read verse number 12, which this is really a critical verse. And I think when you read the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety, this one kind of stands out for a number of reasons. One, it stands out because it just seems out of place until you think about it and you realize, oh, I see how that fits now. A lot of folks I don’t think I’ve seen that yet, so I’m going to try to help you see that.

Okay, so let’s read it and then we’ll talk about it some more. This is Matthew Chapter Seven and verse number 12. “Jesus says in everything, therefore,” and let me just stop and say it, anytime you see the word “therefore” you need to ask what it’s there for, and it’s always there for this reason.

What is about to be said is related to what has just been said. It could be a summarizing statement, or building on something that was already said. So, that’s what it’s there for in this case. “Jesus says in everything therefore,” So what I’m about to say is based on what I’ve been saying, “treat people the same way you want them to treat you for this is the law and the prophets.”

Alright? So, that’s obviously a summarizing statement, but how does it fit in to what Jesus has just been saying?

He’s just been talking to … given us some wonderful prayer promises. He’s been “ask and it shall be given, seek and you will find” and so forth. We read this on our previous little lesson. He warns about casting your pearls before the swine and giving what is holy to dogs before that. How does that fit into “therefore treat others like you want to be treated for this is the and the prophets”?

Well, here’s how I think it fits in. I don’t think it’s a summarizing statement for just what immediately proceeded. I think it’s kind of a summarizing statement for the whole sermon, right? Because the whole sermon has been about how you treat other people, because the second greatest commandment relates to how we treat other people. Love your neighbor as yourself, and Jesus has been specifically talking about different aspects of loving our neighbors as he works his way through this sermon.

Early on in the sermon, he also mentioned the law and the prophets. He said “Don’t think I came to abolish the law and the prophets, but I came to fulfill the law and the prophets.” Not just fulfill the messianic prophecies, but fulfill them, and in every sense.

In fact, the Sermon on the Mount is somewhat of a fulfillment of the law and the prophets. That is, he’s filling to the full the understanding of the law and the prophets that has been lost through the perverse teaching of the scribes and Pharisees, and we’ve talked about that as we’ve worked our way through this. And so Jesus is saying …

Here’s a summarizing statement, if you want to make your walk with God simple, if you want to know what to do in every situation as you relate to other people, you want to know how you can obey the second greatest commandment. Here it is in a nutshell.

Just said another way, what’s become known as the golden rule. Treat others just like you want to be treated. Okay? If you do that, you’ll keep all the other moral commandments as well. I like that. I like when things are simplified and they’re not so complex.

In every situation, how do I want to be treated? That’s how I should treat others. And if I do that, I’m fulfilling the law and the prophets because the law and the prophets are full of moral messages, that is instructions, admonitions, and rebukes, and so forth relative to the treatment or the mistreatment of other people. Right? Right.

It’s just so, so, so, so simple. As a summarizing statement, I think Jesus is preparing us now for the winding up of this entire sermon as he’s going to kind of generalize now, and make application to everything he said, bringing the point home, and how important these things are that he said. Because in the very next verse, verse number 13, he relates how all of this relates to salvation, ultimate salvation.

I know that there are lots of folks who are always repeating the mantra that our works have nothing to do with our salvation. Well, I think that’s, again, an example of taking some verses out of their context and ignoring some very significant things that the Bible has to say about how works are part of the equation of salvation.

Here in this very next verse, Jesus says “Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life.” So contrasted here, our life with destruction, that’s obviously talking about eternal life and damnation, and Jesus says there are few who find it.

So, in the context of the whole sermon on the mount, what must be the narrow way? What must be the narrow way? The narrow way must be the way of obeying the commandments of Jesus Christ. Treating others like you want to be treated.

You say, “Are you saying, David, that we’re not saved by grace through faith?” Oh no, I’m not saying that, because all of us are guilty of not treating others like we want to be treated until we come under conviction by the Holy Spirit and finally turn from our sins, and repent, and submit ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we begin a life that’s characterized much more by obedience and treating our neighbors as we want to be treated than before.

I’m not talking about a salvation that doesn’t need grace. You can’t be saved without grace. We’re sinners. You have to have grace if you’re going to be saved, and it’s of course by faith because it’s too late to be saved by your works, you can’t possibly earn your salvation. That’s why Jesus had to die on the cross.

However, within the package of authentic salvation is transformation and it’s part and parcel of what God does for us. It’s not just him putting the stamp of forgiveness on our forehead and saying, “Okay, now you’re a forgiven sinner continuing your sin.”

No, it’s like Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “I’m not condemning you. I’m showing you grace now, now, now at this point from here on, go and sin no more, and don’t be committing adultery, Mrs. Adulterous, because if you love your neighbor as yourself, if you treat others like you want to be treated, that’s the end of adultery for you.”

See, so all of that is summed up in the one commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. It’s part of the Gospel. It’s the narrow way. Want to know what the narrow is? Read the Sermon on the Mount, read the rest of the Bible, it’s all in there from cover to cover. It’s pretty much the same moral message.

Okay? Thank you so much for joining me on this special edition of the lessons. Hope to see you next time. God bless you.

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Is it possible that Matthew 7:7 is the most encouraging verse in the Bible?

Hi, welcome to today’s little lesson, and I’m so blessed to be with you once again as I’m sitting here along the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio on this beautiful, cloudy and calm afternoon. Thanks so much for joining me.

If you have been joining me we’re working our way through the Sermon on the Mount, asking and trying to answer some questions along the way and we’re now in Matthew chapter seven. We happen to be in verse number seven.

I know that Jesus did not give the Sermon on the Mount in chapters and verses, but there’s something about that number seven, and here we are in chapter seven and verse number seven. And boy, is it a good one. Oh my goodness. Is it a good one. And so if nothing else, just let this verse soak in to your heart and mind.

This is Jesus. This is God speaking, and he’s talking about getting your prayers answered, how much God wants to bless you and help you. And boy, do we all like to hear that kind of stuff. It’s encouraging.

That’s why I asked, is Matthew 7:7 the most encouraging verse in the entire Bible? Maybe yes. Here it is. Matthew 7:7. Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be open.”

Now, those are two very encouraging verses I kept reading down through verse number eight. And so if nothing else, if nothing else, what we get from these verses is God’s desire, his willingness, his openness to wanting to answer our prayers, our asking, our seeking, and our knocking.

I’m understanding that the verb tenses in all of those cases, it would actually be perhaps translated, “ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking.” And so it’s just, don’t stop. Don’t ever think that you’re too blessed. Don’t ever think that you’ve bothered God. Don’t ever think he doesn’t want to hear your request. Don’t ever think that. He’s a good, good God and he is our father.

In fact, Jesus can’t resist reminding us of that in the very next couple of verses because he talks about the father and son relationship here, and he says in verse number nine, “Or what man is there among you, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?” So this is an encouragement. Again, you have a father and son, a father and child relationship with God and just like an earthly father, the son asks him for a loaf, he doesn’t give him a stone.

He repeats it again in verse number 10, a little different example. “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?” Well, no, no, and then just to elaborate even more, Jesus says in verse number 11 … Maybe this is the most encouraging verse in the entire Bible … “If you then,” speaking to his disciples, “being evil,” that is, you’re basically selfish, “know how to give good gifts to your children,” so if evil people, if they have enough goodness in them, and I’m telling you some of the worst incorrigible characters in the world still give gifts to their own children, right?

So Jesus said, “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father,” who’s infinitely good, who’s not evil at all, “how much more will your father who is in Heaven give what is good to those who ask him.”

And so there you have it. There you and I have it, some of the most encouraging verses. To encourage us to ask, not stop asking, to seek and knock, to believe that what we’re asking for, that’s what we will receive. And it’s an encourager. It’s a big encourager.

Now we know from other verses that Jesus said, for example, “Everything you ask for in prayer, believing you shall receive.” Matthew 21 and verse number 22. And James talked about, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men generously and without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect he will receive anything from God being unstable in all his ways.”

There you have it. You just can’t take one verse here and say, well, that’s the only verse. No, no, no. Take all the verses. Obviously faith is a component in getting our prayers answered, but this is Jesus speaking, right? We need to remind ourselves. This is God speaking, God who cannot lie. It’s impossible, the Bible says, for God to lie. So our faith ought to be built up and encouraged and activated just when we read verses like these. Oh my goodness.

Now one other key, I think that maybe we’re missing, Jesus says, “How much more will your heavenly father give what is good to those who ask him?” We want to make sure we’re asking for what is good. And I think we should think of a little bit of historical context here because a lot of the things that people ask for today in our modern culture and society, modern world, didn’t even exist. Nobody was asking for an iPhone back in Jesus’s day.

And there’s another verse in Luke, I think it’s Luke 11 and verse number 13. Jesus says something very similar to this, he says, “if you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him?”

So there is something, well we know is good, the Holy Spirit. And if we’re thinking again in terms of everything that Christ talked about, he said, “Don’t lay up your treasures on this earth,” for example. And so if you said, “Oh Jesus, I asked for treasures,” what do you think the chances of that prayer being answered are? Jesus would say, that’s not good. Now, if you’re asking for treasure that you can lay up in Heaven, oh, now that’s good.

Oh Lord, I want to help more widows and orphans, so can you please promote me at my job and give me wisdom, so I could obey your commandments, and give me the Holy Spirit so I can be holy. That way I’ll, when I stand before you, I’ll be pure and blameless and I’ll have reward waiting for me when I stand before you.

See, these are all the things that God would define as good, not a fancier this or that or other thing. It’s not really focused on material things. In this very sermon Jesus was telling his disciples, don’t be concerned about food or coverage. That’s the kind of stuff that they were concerned about in that day because they were so poor by comparison to many of us in the modern world. So that’s one reason some prayers don’t get answered.

Another reason, no faith. In some cases you couldn’t have faith because there’s no promise. There’s no revelation that what you’re asking for is God’s will. You can ask for what is good by God’s definition, and you can ask in faith for what God says is good.

All right, thank you so much for joining me on this Lake Erie little lesson, hope to see you next time. God bless you.

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How do you know if somebody is a spiritual pig before whom you should not cast any pearls?

Hi, welcome to today’s Little Lesson. This is another special Sydney, Australia edition of Little Lessons and the dusk is falling here on Sydney behind me, that’s what you’re looking at in the background there.

So if you’ve been listening to Little Lessons for any length of time, you know that recently we’ve been working our way through the sermon on the Mount and we’re currently in the seventh chapter in the Gospel of Matthew, kind of getting closer to the end of the sermon on the Mount.

We come across these words of Jesus and he said, starting in Matthew chapter seven and verse number six, “Do not give what is holy to dogs. Do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.”

Oh my, that’s interesting. Obviously Jesus is not speaking there about literal dogs and literal pigs, swine, but these are symbols for people and people who are animal-like in their nature and specifically characterized by the fact that they don’t value what’s very valuable because obviously, there’s no dog on this planet that values spiritual things and eternal things.

So what Jesus is essentially saying here is that people who don’t value spiritual and eternal things, they’re in the category of dogs and that is a sad commentary on people.

In a typical rabbinic fashion, one point made with two examples, don’t cast your pearls before the swine. Pigs, when you toss a pearl to a pig, never in the history of humanity did a pig go, “Oh, oh, oh a pearl.” And try to somehow daintily pick that pearl up and preserve it because it recognizes its value.

Pigs are completely ignorant of the value of pearls and you throw a pearl to a pig and you might as well throw them a piece of corn or a piece of dirt or a stone, they don’t care, they just step on it.

That is what Jesus compares to those who don’t value what God values. His truth, His word, the gospel and again, it is a sad commentary on people when God looks at them and says, “Really, you’re about as smart as a pig, you’re as stupid as a dog.” But nevertheless, that’s what Jesus said. I didn’t say it, Jesus said it, okay?

So how do you know? How do you know? Well, this might be being a little bit too technical on this but this is what I’ve always thought and this is what I’ve always practiced.

If you throw something that’s holy to a dog and if you don’t know if it’s a dog or not, because we’re looking at human beings here now, you have to watch and see what they’re going to do with that first little holy thing that you throw to them. Pigs, the same way. You throw one pearl and you see what that pig does with that first pearl.

Again, it could be too technical but Jesus … “Don’t cast your pearls before the swine,” and so you could say well he’s not prohibiting one pearl because you got to throw them one pearl to know … you got to identify the character of the individual with whom you’re dealing.

Okay, so Jesus is saying, “It’s a waste of time and don’t waste your time on trying to help people who don’t value the message that you’re bringing and the truth that you’re bringing.”

Let’s face it as I’m saying this, we’re probably all thinking that, “Oh goodness, there’s a lot of people who fall into that category.” This is not the only time that Jesus expressed this spiritual principle.

He told his apostles, when he sent them out to go preach the gospel, he said, “If they don’t receive you in a city, shake the dust off your feet and get to the next city. Don’t waste your time on people who aren’t interested. Get moving to the next city.” He said in one case, “Leave the dead to bury the dead.” So don’t hang around the dead people trying to somehow resurrect them when they don’t want to receive the truth, that’s the only hope for their resurrection.

I think the church has made a huge mistake in this regard. We’ve plowed so many resources, so much effort, into the same people, the same pigs, the same dogs, while the whole world is waiting.

In any case, this is an over-simplification and an exaggeration but so many millions, hundreds of millions and even we could even say billions of people who haven’t had hardly any exposure. In some cases, they’ve had no exposure to the truth so the resources of the church ought to be going primarily to give those people a chance.

I think it was Oswald Smith who first said, “Why should anyone hear the gospel twice until everyone’s heard it once?”

So something to think about on a worldwide level as well as on a personal level. That doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t come back at a later time, sometimes people who are unreceptive become receptive but those people sometimes will come back to you when they become receptive, because they remembered what you said. Maybe they realize, “Oh my goodness, that guy gave me a pearl and that person could give me more pearls,” and so they’ll come back to you.

Again, on an international, worldwide level, this also has application as well. All right?

All right, thank you so much for joining me on today’s Little Lesson. God bless you.

The post How Do You Know If Somebody Is a Spiritual Pig Before Whom You Should Not Cast Any Pearls? appeared first on David Servant.

Is your theology about forgiveness a little bit deficient? Find out in this episode of Little Lessons!

Hi. Welcome to today’s Little Lesson. This is a special Ohio edition of Little Lessons. I’m blessed to be along the shore of Lake Erie here. It’s a beautiful cloudy day, and a nice calm day to do some filming outside.

We’ve been talking about is it okay to take a person to court in our previous two Little Lessons. They were actually filmed in Australia. I could just feel, during my last filming of that last Little Lesson in Sydney, a little bit of negative vibes coming from some viewers. So, I thought, better explore this a little bit more deeply, because we were working our way through the Sermon on the Mount.

We’re here in Matthew 5, where Jesus said, “Do not judge, lest you be judged,” and so forth. Some folks, focusing just on that verse, have come to a conclusion. It’s dangerous coming to conclusions when you focus on one verse. Every verse in the Bible needs to be interpreted in light of all the rest of the verses in the New Testament.

Jesus did not give the Sermon on the Mount in a vacuum. He gave it in the context of the entire Bible and in the context, of course, of the Law of Moses, of which he was the author and through which he set up a court system whereby the children of Israel, if they had a dispute with a fellow Israelite, they could take them to court and be assured that they were going to get justice.

So, for some folks, they’re making the conclusion that somehow God has changed and that’s all changed under the new Covenant and now, in every case, we just turn the other cheek and Jesus talked about forgiving, so we always forgive. Jesus talked about not judging so we would never, ever think about taking anybody to court, and so forth.

I understand where those people are coming from, but I’m totally persuaded that their basic premise is wrong, and that basic premise being that the Sermon on the Mount introduced some radically new themes and variations on fundamental morality, because it just doesn’t fit into the rest of scripture. In fact, that’s not taught anywhere in the New Testament, Epistles, that Jesus brought a radical new morality that all changed at the Sermon on the Mount.

So, let’s read what Jesus said in the context of everything else that Jesus said and not just take verses out of their context.

So, we talked about the fact that God set up a court system, so courts cannot be inherently evil. It can’t be inherently evil to take people to court for good cause, as long as there are other factors, biblical factors, that are followed and come into play.

We have already talked about the fact that Paul strongly reprimanded the Corinthians for taking fellow believers to court before unbelievers, but I tried to point out the fact that he wasn’t saying that courts are inherently evil and that Christians have no place in court. Christians taking other Christians to a court that’s presided over by an unbelieving judge or an unbelieving jury, that’s what Paul was warning against and so grieved over in the Corinthian church.

But he doesn’t say, “Don’t go to court.” He says, “Isn’t there a wise man among you who can decide? Aren’t you able to constitute the smallest of law courts? Gather some folks in the church, for crying out loud,” the people who are one day, Paul says, going to judge angels. Can’t they render it? It’d be okay then to have court amongst the believers when its believers having disputes with believers. Get someone who can arbitrate.

And didn’t Jesus say that when he said when your brother sins against you, go to him. If he doesn’t receive you, get two or three and so forth and if he doesn’t receive you, go to the church. So he’s talking repeatedly there about having court, as it were, in church.

I think that the fundamental problem regarding the question I posed at the beginning of this Little Lesson is your understanding of God’s expectation of forgiveness a little bit deficient. Here’s where I think so many Christians are deficient in their understanding of our obligation to forgive. They completely ignore everything else the Bible has to say, including Jesus about the confrontation that would be expected and, in fact, even commanded prior to getting to the step of forgiveness.

Yeah, sure, in Matthew 18 … Your brother sins against you, go to him. You confront him. If he receives you, you’ve won your brother. And Jesus says, if he doesn’t receive you, get one or two others, confront him again with some help. And of course, if you get two others, they’re going to want to listen to both sides of the story, they’re not just going to jump on your side. They want to judge righteously.

Jesus said if the offender doesn’t receive them, then take them before the church. And if he doesn’t receive them, then let him be to you as a tax collector. Well that doesn’t sound like forgiveness, carte blanche instant forgiveness, as some people preach and advocate. It’s not in there at all.

We want to work towards reconciliation, and the steps to do that are confrontation, repeated confrontation, increasing the pressure of the confrontation until there’s no hope of any further confrontation bringing reconciliation and if that happens, there’s no requirement to offer forgiveness. The person becomes a tax collector or a gentile to you. That is basically … don’t have any obligation to have a relationship with that person at all. There’s no reconciliation, there’s no forgiveness. Okay.

Perhaps another aspect that we just briefly touch on in this is what about Christians taking non-Christians to court. Christians don’t take Christians to court but what if it’s a non-Christian? I would recommend the same exact steps. Go to that non-Christian privately because that’s what love would do and if he doesn’t receive you then say would you mind if we got some help, some arbitrators here.

You know, maybe you pick one, I’ll pick one, and they can both pick one. That’s a standard process on arbitration, you know. And we’ll go before those three and that we can avoid having to go to court ’cause I really don’t want to sue you because I want to continue a relationship with you. I want a fair settlement. I don’t want you to get ripped off, but I don’t want you to rip me off. You see, I just want fairness here because God is a God of fairness, right, right.

If that unbeliever refuses that, then you’ve exhausted your possibilities, then all you can do is take that person to court. And now you’re probably going to go before unbelievers. But you can still be Christ-like in all of this. You can still be considerate and kind and open minded and humble in all of it. But, God is a God of justice.

Now, you say well what happened to the commandment about if he slaps you on the cheek, yeah, yeah, yeah, little tiny things like that … You know, forcing you go a mile, go the extra mile, sue you for your shirt … Come on, it’s almost comical. Suing you for your shirt. Jesus said give him your coat. Mercy shame those kinds of people. But when somebody does something that causes some huge infraction, some significant suffering that’s not a slap on the cheek, that’s not a suing of taking a shirt. Right? Right.

So there’s more to the Bible than just one verse. There’s more to the Bible that just one Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapter 5, 6, and 7. Jesus is speaking to us from Genesis to Revelations, through the law, through the prophets, through the Psalms and the Proverbs, its all inspired by his spirit.

Well, this is a Little Lesson and I’ve done the best I can do and there will be comments, I’m sure, that are negative and so forth but I just want to tell you that I love you because that’s the most important thing and if you disagree, that’s okay. All right. Be at peace.

Okay, thank you so much for joining me on this Little Lesson. Hope to see you next time. God bless you.

The post Is Your Theology About Forgiveness a Little Bit Deficient? appeared first on David Servant.

We ask for the second time, is it okay for Christians to take other people to court?

Hi, welcome to today’s Little Lesson. This is a continuation of our previous Little Lesson where we asked the same question, but we didn’t have time to give a full answer. This is also a special Australian edition of Little Lessons.

There, once again, is the beautiful city of Sydney, Australia behind me as the sun is slowly setting on the city. Here I am blessed in this beautiful high-rise hotel where some of my Australian brothers in Christ have landed me. I’m so thankful for that.

Anyways, what about Christians taking people to court? Without going into a long review, we know that Paul had something to say about this in 1 Corinthians chapter six. I’m going to take a look at that in my Bible here. Just give me a second to get to it.

This is 1 Corinthians chapter six and verse number one. He says, “Does any of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? If you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account to the church? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between the brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?”

Now, can you see what Paul is decrying here in the Corinthian church? Christians were taking Christians to court, brothers against brothers before unbelievers, and letting the unbelievers arbitrate in their controversies. Paul’s saying that’s something you don’t want to do. That’s wrong.

He goes on to say you might as well just be defrauded. It’d be better if you just let it alone and just be defrauded if that’s what’s actually happened than to actually go to court before unbelievers. Is he saying, though, that you should never go to court with a believer? No, not if we take seriously what we just read that he said.

He says you don’t go before the unbelievers, but you do go before believers. Isn’t there a wise person within your church? You guys are going to judge angels. You’re going to judge the world. You know, he asked this question, “Are you not competent to constitute the smallest law court?” Again, the idea of arbitration and going before impartial judges or a jury to amass all the evidence on both sides, to let them make a decision, render a decision on behalf of those who are having the controversy, that’s not a bad thing. That’s a good thing.

Blessed are the peacemakers. These are peacemaking situations, where’s there controversy and difficulty between two Christians. Paul said you ought to have court in church. Get a wise brother or get a few among you.

Remember, Jesus said if your brother has something against you, go to him privately. If he doesn’t receive you, then get a couple others with you. Then, have them hear both sides. You’re having court. You’re just not having court with the unbelievers presiding over it. That’s I think the first thing that I wanted to get across in our understanding of all this.

Is it wrong for Christians to take others to court? Yes, it’s wrong for Christians to take Christians to court. However, now, here’s the next scenario. What about taking non-Christians to court? Is there something inherently evil or wrong about that? No way.

You have to do it in fairness, in righteousness, in humility and in love and in mercy and all those things, but if somebody has wronged you in a significant way and you, perhaps, I hope might be the best thing to try to work it out between you just as if that was a Christian brother, but if they will not, if they refuse to work it out and refuse to repay you the damages that you suffered because of their negligence or their harm or whatever the case might be, well, then, what could possibly be wrong with taking them to court?

Now, I know what some folks are going to say, and say, “Well, we’re supposed to always forgive. If we forgive, then we won’t take them to court.” That’s exactly right. If the transgression, if the offense against you is such that it’s possible to forgive them and just let it go and show them incredible mercy, that could be the best course of action. No doubt about that. There are some cases where, you know, it just doesn’t fit that scenario.

I was talking to a brother recently who has a business. One of his suppliers provided defective materials. As a result, their product was defective. As a result, there had to be recalls. As a result, it caused losses of significant amounts to his company, which hurts his business, which hurts the employees of the business and so forth. You have to lay people off because our company is suffering so much. Well, you know, are we going to love our neighbor as ourself? Are we going to love our employees? Are we going to treat them like we want to be treated? They’re suffering because of someone else’s negligence.

In such a case, I don’t see anything wrong at all with humbly and without malice or hatred going to the offending party, requesting for them to make it up, and, if they refuse to, perhaps suggesting that you go to arbitration as a step before going to court and so forth because it might be a little easier on everybody that way.

To just say carte blanche, that there’s never a situation where a Christian should take someone to court, I think that’s, quite honestly, a little bit unbalanced and unrealistic. I don’t think that it fits the tenor of all of what scripture would tell us. On major infractions, the kind of things that are discussed by Jesus and mention the law, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, people are losing their eyeballs, they’re suffering for the rest of their life. There should be some kind of repayment for that type of thing. That’s why people have insurance. Right? Right.

This is a Little Lesson. There’s a lot more to be said, but I just hope that I could provoke your thinking a little bit anyways to consider that there might be more to think about than sometimes what folks think about. Thank you for joining me in Australia. God bless. See you next time.

The post Is It Okay for Christians to Take People to Court? (Part 2) appeared first on David Servant.

Jesus said, “do not judge,” so is it okay for Christians to take other people to court?

Hi, welcome to today’s Little Lesson. Thank you so much for joining me. This is a very special Australia edition of Little Lessons, and that is the beautiful city of Sydney, Australia behind me.

So blessed to be here for a couple of weeks visiting believers and supporters of the Ministry of Heaven’s Family. Speaking in some churches, as well as in some home groups. Spending time with some wonderful, wonderful people of God whom over the last couple of weeks I’ve just grown to love and appreciate so very much.

This morning, I’ve got to tell you, I was blessed to spend about three hours with a brother in Christ who came to the Lord while he was living in Saudi Arabia. Born and raised a devout Muslim, but began to have some questions because his conscience began to speak to him. And he began to listen to it and he began to seek.

And of course, Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.” It doesn’t matter where you are at in the world, God is able to reach anybody. I was just enthralled by his testimony of how the Lord met him there in a country where there virtually are no other Saudi Christians, for the most part. He came to the Lord and he began telling other people about what had happened to him. It landed him in jail, eventually, with a whole group of people who were classified as terrorists. He looked at it as an opportunity to let his light shine, which he did, and eventually was freed from jail, but put under detention for quite a few years there in Saudi Arabia and ultimately, was able to escape with his family.

So we’re hoping that we can partner with him in order to reach more seeking Saudis in Saudi Arabia, because that is, in fact, the heart of Islam, as you probably know.

Well, anyways, it’s great to be here in Australia. It’s great to be sharing with you. One of our Australia friends put us up in this beautiful hotel overlooking the Darling Harbor. We’ve enjoyed the scenery here, but most of all, the fellowship has been just so rich.

All right. So those of you that have been watching for a while, you know that we’re working our way, currently, through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We just entered into the seventh chapter of Matthew, where Jesus says that, and I’m reading now, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” Some Christians have taken that to mean that you sure would never want to take anyone to court if you are Christian, because in order to take them to court, obviously, you have to pass judgment on anyone you would sue. And you’re hoping that the judge or the jury also passes judgment on that person whom you’ve taken to court, and you hope that their judgment agrees with your judgment and that you get some justice as a result. And so because of that, some believers just decided that you’d never, ever take anyone to court.

I’m hoping to provoke your thinking a little bit on this to consider the context of what we’re reading here in Matthew, chapter seven. Jesus didn’t say these things in a vacuum. Right? He said them within the context of everything he’s been saying prior to that for hundreds and hundreds of years through the law and the prophets and so forth.

We’ve got an entire Bible to help us understand the meaning of these things. It becomes clear that, as we talked about in the last couple of Little Lessons, that Jesus was not telling us to never make a moral appraisal of another person. In fact, in this very sermon, he says, “Don’t cast your pearls before the swine.” Well, you have to make a moral appraisal of people to determine whether or not they’re spiritual swine. Right? Okay. And there are other verses. We’ve talked about all this.

The thing that Jesus is really warning us against is setting a standard that you expect other people to keep when you yourself don’t even keep that same standard. Because that, of course, is hypocrisy. So that’s why he goes onto say, “In the way that you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” And I believe that’s true on the divine and the human level.

When we set a standard, other people expect us to live up to our standards that we set, right, for other people? If we’re pointing the finger at them, we better not be guilty of the very same thing. And of course, God, who knows everything. God, who is pure and holy and true. He’s going to hold us to the same standard that we’re holding others to.

So, like Jesus went on to say, “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye when you got a log in your own eye?” You’re holding them to a higher standard than you’re holding yourself.

So what does he say? Does he say, “Never make a moral appraisal”? No, he says, “Get the log out of your eye, then you’ll see clearly enough to get the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Then it’s okay because you’re living by your own standards.

Now, as we consider whether it’s right or wrong to take someone to court, I think a fundamental question to ask is, “Is there any other information about this in the Bible?” And there sure is, and I could ask you a question I think everybody knows the answer to. Did God or did God not institute a court system, a system of judges whereby Israelites who had controversies could go before them and get justice? Did God do that or did God not do that?

Well, if you read the Law of Moses, you know God did do that. Because God didn’t want anyone taking revenge, because then you have passion involved and it may not be just. So God set up this system, this court system.

It’s my understanding that the court system of Western culture has been patterned quite a bit off of what we find in the Law of Moses. And you go before judges or a group of elders or whatever and they hear the testimonies of witnesses and so forth, and they examine everything carefully. They’re required by the Law of Moses to make sure that they don’t take a bribe and that they don’t show anyone favoritism. They don’t show even favoritism to the poor because they’re poor. They’re required to mete out justice, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and so forth.

So all these things are contained in the Law of Moses. This is a law that we can say Jesus, Jesus, because he’s God, he’s one with the Father, Jesus gave to the people of Israel. And now, Jesus again is coming to the people of Israel and he’s speaking to them. And so for Jesus to say, “You don’t ever go to court,” well, anyone can then rightly say, “Well, Jesus, are you the Messiah? Are you God? Are you contradicting the Law of Moses? Well, then you’re not the Messiah, you’re not God if you’re telling us we should never go to court.”

And, of course, that’s not what Jesus is saying. Courts are good because it provides a way whereby wrongs can be righted and justice can be done and fair recompenses can be determined and made and the law can be enforced. Okay? These are all good things, and good cultures and good societies have these. And to the degree that they follow biblical principles, there’s a blessing involved, okay.

Now, we’re out of time for today’s Little Lessons, so we’ll have to just pick up right here in our next one. I hope to see you next time as we keep answering this question about Christians taking people to court. God bless you.

The post Is It Okay for Christians to Take People to Court? (Part 1) appeared first on David Servant.

Jesus told us, “Do not judge,” but the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians to judge. So who was right? Stay tuned.

Hi, welcome to today’s little lesson. We’re working our way through the Sermon on the Mount. Thanks for joining me on this special farm field edition. And here we are once again in the first verses of Matthew chapter seven, Jesus’ very famous words about, “Do not judge, lest you be judged,” and so forth and warned us about looking for the speck in our brother’s eye when we’ve got a log in our own eye.

Now notice what He said to do. He didn’t say, “Don’t worry about at all about the speck in your brother’s eye.” He said, “First, take the log out of your eye, you hypocrite, and then you’ll see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

So there is a place for finding a speck. You’ve just got to make sure you don’t have the log in your own eye, and that’s the jist, the overriding message of what Jesus is saying in these verses. He’s not saying we should never make a spiritual appraisal, because the fact of the matter is, we have to make spiritual appraisals if we’re going to obey even everything that Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount. We’re going to have to make spiritual appraisals.

He’s about to say, in just a few verses here, “Don’t cast your pearls before swine and don’t give what is valuable to dogs.” Now He’s not talking, obviously, about literal pigs and literal dogs here. He’s talking about people who have, spiritually speaking they’re pigs and dogs, and He says, “Don’t be taking what is valuable and giving that to people who don’t value it.”

Well, you have to make a spiritual appraisal, don’t you, to determine whether a person’s a spiritual pig or a spiritual dog. And I’ll give you a little hint on how to do that. You throw them one pearl. Sure. Throw them one pearl. He just said, “Don’t cast your pearls.”

So if you cast one pearl, that’s not pearls, that’s singular pearl, and then you see. What do they do? Do they appreciate this? Do they value this? Are they interested in spiritual things? Are they interested in Jesus? Are they interested in the Gospel? Do they want to talk about God? Or do they quickly change the subject or come up with some smokescreen and so forth? Well then you know. I cast my pearl and I’m not going to cast any more pearls because I just discovered myself a spiritual pig or a spiritual dog. But my point is, you have to judge them, right? Right.

And there are other passages of Scripture that help to bring a balance to all this, sure. Paul writes to the Corinthians, and there’s a problem in the Corinthian church. There’s a guy there living in an immoral, sexually immoral, relationship apparently with his stepmother. Somebody has his father’s wife, Paul says.

Let me read to you First Corinthians chapter five, verse number one. “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you. An immorality of such a kind does not even exist among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.” This is a gross immorality. This guy posing as a Christian in the church and sleeping with his stepmother. “You have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead,” Paul says, “So that the one who has done this deed should be removed from your midst.”

So Paul’s saying this guy should be gone. He should have already been removed from your midst. You should have judged him. Not misjudged him, but the reports are true. There’s no doubt about it. The evidence is stacked against this guy. This is not a rumor. This is not some kind of an innuendo. This is a fact. The guy is sleeping with his stepmother.

So Paul says in verse number three of First Corinthians five, “For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this as though I were present.” See, so Paul didn’t interpret Jesus’ words, “Do not judge” like a lot of Christians do. Why? Because Paul was not stupid, that’s why, and he realized that what Jesus said was within the context of everything that Jesus said, and Jesus was not saying, no way was He saying, “Don’t make a spiritual appraisal.”

As I’ve already said, He told us to make spiritual appraisals of people. We have to do that. Jesus was talking about being the fault finder, particularly the fault finder who doesn’t have a right to find fault because he or she has the log in their own eye, right, and they’re setting a standard for other people to attain that they themselves don’t even attain to. That’s hypocrisy. Jesus doesn’t want us to be that way.

So, Paul says, “I’ve already judged this guy as though I were present,” and so he gives them instruction. “In the name of the Lord Jesus, when you are assembled and I with you in spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.” So, I’m not sure I fully understand that, but they’re doing some kind of public proclamation.

They’re saying, “We excommunicate this guy from our midst. You can’t be calling yourself a Christian and doing what you’re doing, so we have to disassociate with you. We can’t eat with you any longer. We can’t allow you to come to our gatherings and so forth because you’re misrepresenting Christ. You’re a gross stain on the church. We don’t want people looking at the church and think it’s made up of people like you because it’s not, not the true Church anyways. And so we’ve got to get you out. So we’re delivering you to Satan, but our hope is not that you’ll be damned in the end. Our hope is that you’ll saved. We’re hoping that this will cause you to ponder, cause you to think, realize that you really can’t be a Christian and do what you’re doing, because no immoral person’s going to inherit the kingdom of God. So we’re hoping you come to your senses and repent, and therefore your spirit will be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.”

A couple of verses later, Paul elaborates even more. “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people,” so a previous letter. “I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, with the covetous and with the swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you’d have to go out of the world and you can’t avoid these people. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother. He’s not really a brother if he is an immoral person, like the guy I’m telling you to excommunicate and deliver over to Satan. Or covetous. Or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders,” Paul asks. “Do you not judge those who are within the church?”

So what he is saying, is it’s a rhetorical question. “Come on guys. You’re supposed to be judging people within the church. And if people don’t measure up to the standard that God has set, when God says, “If you do these things, you’re not a Christian.” If you’re not keeping God’s standard, well, you’re failing as a church. You’re failing as a church. Lot of things we could say about this.

“But those who are on the outside, God judges.” So he’s saying the church has the right to be judging its own members. Now, not again, looking for the little specks. We all have plenty of specks. But when somebody has a log in their eye and they’re guilty of sexual immorality and you’re not, because you’re being faithful sexually. You’re not sleeping around. If you’re married, you’re faithful to your spouse and so forth, then you have a right. You don’t have a log in your eye. You’ve cleared the log out of your eye when you came to Jesus if you were sexually immoral. Now you repented of that, and now you have not only the right but the obligation to be looking at those within the church, not with condemnation but with love.

“Oh my goodness, you’re in the church, you think you’re a Christian but you’re sleeping around? I love you. God loves you. You’re deceived. You don’t want to be in that situation, so let me help you understand how God feels about this. We have to send you out of here. You can’t come anymore, until you repent. Then we’ll welcome you back because this is a church or merciful, gracious people who’ve all repented.” Amen.

Okay. Well, more to say about this in our next little lesson. Thank you so much for joining me. It’s been a joy sharing with you out here in this beautiful place this evening. God bless.

The post Who Was Right About Judging, Jesus or Paul? appeared first on David Servant.

Jesus said “Do not judge,” so is there ever a time when it’s okay to judge another person?

Hi. Welcome to this edition of Little Lessons. Thank you so much for joining me. This is another special farm field edition and this is the last day of August and it’s a rather sultry evening, I might add, as I’m recording this Little Lesson. I’m being inundated with little tiny bugs. In some part of the country, they call them no-see-ums because they’re so hard to see and sometimes they bite you and you don’t even see them coming. If you see me battling some bugs tonight, you’ll understand why. We’ve been working our way through the sermon on the mount. So far, we’ve covered Matthew Chapter Five, Matthew Chapter Six, and we’re about to embark on Matthew Chapter Seven.

Which begins with perhaps some of the most famous words of Jesus even nonbelievers often quote this particular passage or at least paraphrase it where Jesus said in Matthew Chapter Seven in verse number one “Do not judge,” that’s usually what most people remember, “so that you will not be judged.” Once again, Jesus is giving us reasons for what we do. He’s not just a dictator who says I’m going to tell you what to do and you better do it and it doesn’t make a difference whether you understand. No. No. Jesus loves us. God loves us. That’s the whole reason he’s giving us commandments because he wants us to be blessed. We don’t want to be judged in the negative sense obviously. Jesus is telling us how to avoid being judged.

“Don’t judge so that you will not be judged,” so there. You can be thinking about yourself, how much you don’t want to be judged, and just think about that for a second and say “Well, Jesus doesn’t want me to be judged either by other people or perhaps by God.” We’ll have to explore exactly what Jesus is talking about as far as avoiding judgment ourselves by not judging others. This is a great commandment. Let’s see if we can figure out what Jesus is trying to say to us so that we can experience the blessing of obedience because there is always an automatic blessing with obedience because all of God’s commandments stem from his love for us. You’ll be seeing that over and over again in the Sermon on the Mount.

I just absolutely love this sermon and I love the guy who gave the sermon, Jesus Christ, the son of God. “Do not judge lest so that you will not be judge.” Here’s how to avoid judgment, don’t judge. Oftentimes when people say don’t judge or don’t judge me, what they really are meaning if you break it down is they’re saying don’t misjudge me because we’d all like to be, I think for the most part, at least if we’re Christians trying to serve the Lord, we like to judged by people as being people who are trying to follow Jesus. I’d like for people to think that about me. Wouldn’t you like people to think that about you? I don’t want people to misjudge me. I don’t want to people to use the expression pass judgment on me, which usually implies that they’re coming to conclusion with really inconclusive evidence.

Misjudging me. Taking maybe some of the facts, but not considering all of the facts and coming to the wrong conclusion. We’re so thankful that God never misjudges us because he knows all the facts, unlike all the rest of us who are making observations and making appraisals and so forth of situations and of people. Now, I don’t think that Jesus was talking here about making appraisals of people. I say that because what Jesus said here was not said in a vacuum. He didn’t just come down from Heaven, say this verse, and beam back up to Heaven. It was said within the context of the entire Sermon on the Mount and it was said within the context of a passage that all the verses are related.

The very next verse we begin to get some insight as to what Jesus is really addressing here. He says “For in the way you judge, you will be judged and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” Now, here’s one reason not to judge. When we hold people to a certain standard, well then, of course, other people hold us to that standard. That’s only right if we’re holding people to a certain standard, it should only be a standard that we ourselves meet because we’re holding ourselves to it. It would be hypocritical to hold other people to a standard to which I don’t hold myself. People intuitively know that. You and I intuitively know that. Of course, God knows that and he’s warning us.

I think this is on every level. Not just the divine, but also on the earthly level. When we hold people to a certain standard, people hold us to that same standard. Same with God. When we hold people to a certain standard, God says “Okay. That’s the standard you’re setting. All right. I guess you’re going to live up to it yourself, so I’ll hold you to that standard.” There’s a good motivation to not be so judgmental as we often talk about where you’re always finding fault with people because you expect them to do better than what they’re doing. You think about so much of the criticism that is leveled is leveled by people who don’t really have a right to level that criticism because they’re guilty of the same things that they condemn others for.

Paul talks about that in the first couple chapters of Roman. You’re self condemned because you judge other people all the time. You say “That’s wrong. That’s wrong. They’re doing wrong,” but, yet, you, yourself are guilty of the same thing. I think perhaps one place where you find that an awful lot, and this is why I can’t indulge in this myself, would be what’s commonly referred to as talk radio. I’m swishing a fly off my screen here. People call in talk radio shows and they just complain and gripe and moan and groan and talk about what’s wrong with this person. The sports shows are perhaps the most interesting because all of these armchair quarterbacks, all of these Monday morning quarterbacks who if you put them on the field, they’d be a pancake within seconds.

They’d be dead within seconds. They are finding fault what the quarterback did wrong, what the coach did wrong. You just think “What team were you coaching? Let’s look at your record,” so that we can be persuaded that you have the right to be condemning others. That’s part of what Jesus is talking about. Then in the very next verse, we get more insight as to what he’s talking about. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eyes, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? That’s what we’ve been talking about, finding fault with people when you have no right. Turn the spotlight on yourself. Anytime that we see something, a shortcoming or a failure or something that we think that we ought to criticize in somebody else, just take a pause and think about what Jesus said here about finding fault and being the judge.

Again, when you go to a judge in court, let’s say you got a traffic violation or something. Let’s say you protest it and you go to court for speeding. I’m just making something out of a hat. Well, if that judge is going to slap a fine on you and uphold the verdict of the policeman who gave you the speeding ticket that you’re objecting to, well, that judge ought not to be speeding home. What right does he have to condemn me when he himself is guilty of the same thing? You follow what I’m saying? Here’s something that’s so common in the human experience, finding fault with other people. Jesus said stop and think about that because other people are going to hold you to the standard that you’re preaching, holding others to.

Guess what? So is God. All right. Well, that’s all the time we have for this Little Lesson. Thank you so much for joining me. God bless you.

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