Sermon on the Mount - Part 18 — David Servant

Welcome to the beautiful land of Israel. Here we are once again on Mount Arbel in Galilee, enjoying the morning sunrise and thinking about what the Lord Jesus Christ taught us in his Sermon on the Mount, which he originally spoke not far from where I'm sitting.

In fact, who knows? He may have been sitting on this very rock, for all we know. It doesn't make any difference where he gave the sermon. The question is, is this sermon in our hearts? Is this something that we're applying to our lives?

True Discipleship and Obedience to Christ

And I submit to you that as we examine contemporary Christianity, much of it in light of what Christ spoke here, we can only conclude that true discipleship and true followers of Christ are all too rare because there are so few who seemingly are taking what Christ said in this sermon very seriously at all.

Well, I hope that you're not one of them. And we're supposed to be examining our lives as we look through this. In our previous broadcast, we covered the last part of Matthew chapter six. And so we're going to begin today in just a moment in Matthew chapter seven.

Trusting God Instead of Worrying About Provision

But in the end of Matthew chapter six, just as a reminder now, Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow. And of course, if we're not to worry about tomorrow, well, let me say it more specifically, not to worry about having what we need tomorrow, taking one day at a time.

Well, if we're not to worry about what we need tomorrow, then we don't need to worry about next week, next month, or next year. Amen. Because why? We can trust God. And so that's why we don't have to lay up treasures on this earth and we can lay them up in heaven because we know the Lord's going to take care of our needs.

Of course, if we've repented of greed and we've learned to be content with little, as Jesus told us, if we can just be content with food and covering, then we can get by on very, very, very little. And there's very little to worry about then.

The reason that we worry oftentimes is because we're so disobedient to these very plain and simple commandments. We're going deep into debt in order to purchase things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like, as one guy said one time.

And we're all worried, what if I lose my job? How will I make my payments? Well, why are you making any payments, is a better question. Why are you going into debt? Why can't you be content with less?

Faith as the Cure for Anxiety

And instead of wasting your money, wasting God's money on interest and making somebody else rich, why don't you meet the needs of others and learn to be content with less? Jesus said, and here's the whole problem, in verse number 30 of Matthew six, but if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow and is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more do so for you?

Now listen to this, oh men of little faith. That's why people worry, because that's why we worry, let's include myself and all of us in this, that's why we worry, because we don't have faith. Because worry is fear and fear is the opposite of faith.

If you have faith in God, you won't have fear. And so that's always the cure for anxiety. That's always the cure for fear and worry, is faith in God. How do you get faith in God? Faith comes by hearing, the Bible says.

And in order to not worry about tomorrow, you just have to have faith in what Jesus said right here. Not going to worry about tomorrow. Peter wrote very similarly, cast your cares upon the Lord, because he cares for you.

So knowing that God loves you, knowing that he cares about you, then there's no need to have a worry about the future. And one indication that we are worried about the future is the piling up of treasures.

That's very clear from what Christ said here. People who are piling up treasures don't have faith in God in two different ways. Number one, they don't have faith in God because they're afraid he won't provide for them, and so they've got to store it up for themselves.

And number two, they don't have faith in God because Christ commanded, the Lord Jesus commanded us not to lay up treasures upon this earth. And so if they just had faith in him, the Lord Jesus Christ, they wouldn't be disobeying his commandment.

And so that's another aspect that reveals their lack of faith. And so these guys who are always telling us, teaching us about faith and prosperity and how you can have more for yourself and be rich like them and look how much faith they have.

They applied their own sermons and look how much wealth they have. And they're just charlatans because they're telling you that you can get what they've got, but yet you can't stand up in front of people and deceive them like they do every week and take up a collection for yourself.

Now, can you? Well, that's how they get their money, right? All right, so it's time to turn off your TV sets and stop supporting these guys. But again, there will always be greedy people who will believe their get rich quick schemes and so forth if it's based upon scripture taken out of context.

And so that's why their popularity just continues to grow by leaps and bounds because they appeal to greedy people who aren't content, who aren't true followers of Jesus Christ. And I'm saying it boldly because it needs to be said so boldly to wake people up from their slumber.

Rejecting Prosperity Teaching and Embracing Sacrificial Giving

This is a farce what is being passed off as Christianity. Show me in the teaching of the apostles, teaching about how you can get rich and have more for yourself. No, they taught just the opposite of that.

It was how to give more, how to sacrifice, how to deny yourself. Amen. Yes, there's teaching that God will return what you give, but it's not so you can disobey God and lay up treasures for yourself. It's not a scheme that appeals to greedy people.

It's a promise that appeals to people who love to give because they love God and they love their neighbor as themselves. But how the gospel has changed, how the gospel has changed. I already mentioned to you when John the Baptist was preaching on this earth, he brought conviction to his ears and they said, what must we do?

What should we do to show our repentance? And he said, whoever has two tunics or two coats, let him share with him who has no tunic. So if you've got two, that means you've got one more than what you need.

You can only wear one coat at a time. And if someone else doesn't have any coat, that means they have one less than they need. Well, if you're going to obey the most fundamental commandment, the second most important commandment, love your neighbor as yourself, what will you do with that second coat?

You'll repent of your selfishness, keeping two for yourself while your brother goes without any. You're warm and he's cold. You'll repent of disobeying the second most important commandment and you will give one of those coats away.

And John said, whoever has food, let him do likewise. So if you've got more food than what you need, you'll share it with him who has no food. That's just a simple application of loving your neighbor as yourself.

The Distortion of the Gospel by Greed

Now the gospel's changed. Today the gospel is something like this. Oh, you poor American, you only have five coats. You're living in poverty. Look at me, I'm driving a Rolls Royce and I can buy the most expensive suits.

Look at my tie, it's worth $200 and you only have five coats and several of them are kind of shabby. Come to Jesus and send me an offering and Jesus will make you rich and you can have 10 coats. See, they're appealing.

They're not telling people to repent of their greed. They're fueling the greed of people using the scripture, turning scriptures out of their context. What do you think is going to be the reward for people that do that when they stand before Jesus?

You see, the true sheep are characterized by those who met the pressing needs of those they love, their spiritual family, because they love Jesus. Remember, John said, whoever has two coats, share with him who has none.

Whoever has food, do likewise. Why? Because John had some idea of what true Christianity is all about. He recognized that one day everyone would stand before Jesus and he would say to some of them, I was naked and you clothed me.

That is, I didn't have a coat, you had two, you gave me one. I was hungry and you fed me. See, John and Jesus' message were completely consistent together, because we know we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.

If we don't love the brethren, we have no assurance that we've passed from death to life. If we don't the pressing needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are naked and homeless and needing food and clothing and so forth, well then we prove that we don't really love Jesus.

We actually prove that we're lovers of money. Now, I know this sounds so radical. Why are so few people saying this when it's so plain in the Bible? Well, one reason is because they're afraid to say it.

Because pastors know this does not build a big church in America. Why? Here's why. Because Americans, most of them, money is their God. They're chasing after money. That's the primary motivation of their life.

Get as much as you can, grab all the gusto you can in life, pile up treasures, enjoy them as much as you can for yourself. Yeah, throw a little money occasionally at the poor just to salve your conscience and keep yourself deceived that you think you're okay.

Retire as quickly as possible. Live out your days as a testimony to your atheism as you ignore the clear, specific, fundamental commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ in relationship to stewardship. We're afraid to preach that.

It doesn't build big churches, but I'll tell you what it does. It appeals to the true disciples of Jesus Christ because they want to obey him. They don't just have a thin veneer of Christianity, keeping whatever commandments are easy and convenient for them to keep and fit right in with the culture.

No, true disciples, they're pure in heart, as we've already read. Blessed are the pure in heart. They will see God. Jesus one time asked the question, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do what I say?

See, people back in his day, just like there are people today. Oh, I love the Lord. Don't you just love the Lord? Yeah. Let's go spend some more money on ourselves and ignore the plight of the poor. Let's forget about those who are waiting to hear the gospel.

We profess to believe that people who don't believe the gospel go to hell, but why spend our money trying to reach people and keep them out of hell? Let's indulge ourselves a little bit more because we're king's kids.

All these justifications that are such a perversion of the scripture. Oh, I'm sure it's breaking God's heart. And the only reason I'm harping on this is because it just seems like so few are saying it, it needs to be emphasized so much.

So please, I beg you, if you don't believe what I'm saying, just read it for yourself. Take what Jesus says literally. He commanded us, don't lay up treasures on this earth. Okay. All right. Well, we're going to get into chapter seven in the next segment and move on to a different subject.

Stay right there. We'll be right back. Hey, I'm sitting along one of the most well-preserved streets in the ancient Roman empire here in Ephesus. And along this street, there's markings that indicate that this was the house of prostitution, a brothel.

We think the world is always getting worse and worse, and it is, but there's always been immorality. And the words of the apostle Paul written to the Ephesians 2000 years ago are still just as true. He said, let no one deceive you with empty words.

This you know with certainty, no immoral or impure person who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. All righty. Welcome back. I want you to open your Bible, if you would, as we continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount to Matthew chapter seven.

And so technically we're two thirds of the way now through this sermon, and we're now into the third of three chapters, Matthew seven. Here is a very well-known statement by Jesus, do not judge lest you be judged yourselves.

Understanding “Do Not Judge” in Context

That's in verse number one. And people are always quoting that, but as is often the case in so much of what is quoted from Jesus, it's quoted out of context and therefore then it is misunderstood and misapplied.

And many folks say that this means that we shouldn't examine anybody or do an appraisal of anybody because Jesus said, don't judge. It's often caught tied in with the statement, we don't know what's in people's hearts and so therefore we can't judge.

Well, that is somewhat true. We certainly don't know what's in people's hearts like God knows what's in people's hearts. But to understand that God does not know what's in our hearts by virtue of the fact that he uses some kind of x-ray vision.

He puts on his x-ray glasses and he goes, and he looks deep into our hearts and he sees greed there or lust there or whatever. There's no need for God to do that. God looks at our actions and that reveals plainly where our hearts are at.

We've already read this, for example, Jesus said, wherever you put your treasure, that's where your heart is. Jesus one time said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak. And so actions reveal what is in our hearts.

And so we too can appraise what is in people's hearts in some cases to a degree now, don't take this too far, by looking at their hearts. If a person commits adultery, we know what's in their heart, adultery.

If a person steals or is a swindler, we know what's in their heart, greed, thievery, swindling. That's very clear. Now, Jesus is not saying here clearly that we should not ever appraise anybody. And I'll tell you why we know that, because in the same section, for example, if we just skip over momentarily the first few verses and go to verse number six, Jesus says, do not give what is holy to dogs and do not cast your pearls before the swine.

Well, he's not talking about literal dogs and literal pigs. He's talking about people who don't appreciate or value what you're giving to them, spiritual truth, naturally. And so in order to obey Christ in this, we have to make a judgment.

Who are the dogs that we are not to give holy things? Who are the pigs that we are not to cast our pearls before? If we keep on reading, just minutes later, maybe just a minute or two later, Jesus, he tells us to beware of the false prophets and teachers.

And he tells us how we can know if they're false. He said, you'll know them by their fruits. So again, you have to make an appraisal, looking at someone's actions to determine whether or not they are a false prophet or a false teacher.

Okay? So let us, first of all, cast out the idea that what Jesus means when he says, do not judge, that we are never to appraise anybody or make a judgment about their character by looking at their lives.

Okay? Now certainly, we would never want to make a false judgment in that we make an assumption based upon insufficient evidence. Right? Okay. Jesus one time said, it was a commandment. Speaking of how people had misjudged him, he said, judge with righteous judgment.

And so that requires a looking at all the facts and making sure that we're not making a misjudgment. All right. Now, specifically, what does Christ mean? Do not judge, lest you be judged yourselves. For in the way you judge, you will be judged.

And by your standard of measure, it shall be measured to you. So that's a warning. Okay? There's consequences to doing what Jesus said not to do here. If we judge others, then we are in danger of ourselves being judged.

And I think by implication, being judged by God, he's going to hold us to the same standard of measure, the same standard that we hold others to. All right. Keep on looking, reading now. Verse number three of chapter seven.

This tells us more specifically what Christ is condemning here. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? And then he elaborates. Uh, how can you say to your brother, let me take that speck out of your eye and behold, the log is in your own eye.

You hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to take the speck out of your brother's eye. And so the sin which Christ is condemning here specifically is the sin of finding fault with a brother and particularly finding fault with a brother when you yourself are guilty of a greater transgression.

Okay. Now this of course is a subtle, but for those who have studied the scripture, you know that Jesus is suddenly condemning the Pharisees here because goodness, Pharisees were very fault finding, were they not?

They found fault with Jesus. Yet they themselves were so much more guilty in God's eyes. They were the proverbial guys with the log hanging out of their own eyes. And so Jesus says, don't be like them.

The first person to examine and to judge is yourself. Look at yourself. And that's what we're doing in this series. We're looking at ourselves in light of the commandments of Christ and making adjustments so that we line up with him so that we're pleasing to him.

And not being fault finders, looking to see what's wrong with everybody else, particularly those within the body of Christ. We don't need those types of people. However, now notice that's not all Christ said.

He said, first, take that log out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly enough to take the speck out of your brother's eye. And so there's nothing wrong with pointing out the speck in your brother's eye, of course, from a motivation of love.

You want him to be holy. You want him to be pleasing to God. But of course, it's not right for you to be finding specks with him when you have a log in your eye. Once you have the log out of your eye, then and only then is it right to point out the speck in your brother's eye.

Now again, Christ is talking here about specifically going to a brother, a specific person. Preachers, we're holiness preachers, preachers of righteousness, of which every true man of God is a holiness preacher.

Because Jesus said, go teach them to obey all that I've commanded you. So we're going to preach Christ's commandments. If you're not teaching Christ's commandments, you're not doing what he wants you to do as a preacher or a teacher.

We are pointing out the faults within Christians. But again, in my case, speaking in general terms, not saying, well, let me call this person's name out. I'm not going to specific people and saying, here's your fault.

You're preaching and conviction falls where it should in the congregation or in the audience. But even then, it's not right for a preacher to preach anything that he himself is not practicing. I'm preaching a lot these days on stewardship, but I always begin by telling my own testimony of my own horrible stewardship as a professing Christian and how I was completely ignoring the commandments of Christ, practically completely ignoring the commandments of Christ relative to this subject.

And so I feel in this case, I've taken the log out of my own eye. And so now that gives me a right to teach what Jesus taught on this subject. And we don't want to use the excuse, say, well, I can't teach on stewardship because I'm not practicing it yet.

Well, then you need to get out of the ministry. Because once you realize you're not pleasing to God, you either need to repent or stop being a spiritual leader because you have no right to be a spiritual leader who is practicing what you know is wrong in God's eyes.

When I recognized as a pastor, what I was doing was wrong in God's eyes, I confessed it in front of my congregation and they began to watch me. Visibly, they can see the changes in my life as I repented.

One of the first things I did was I went to my board of my church and I said, I want to reduce my salary by $20 ,000. And I want that money to be used for missions. And I'd like to begin to go teach pastors, more pastors overseas and print books and so forth to help leaders in the developing world.

And they went with that. And of course, they knew that there was major changes going on in my life. When my congregation saw me sell the house of my dreams, which we had just built on 10 acres in the country, and scale down in that regard, they knew something was happening.

And I felt that I have a right to say something to them. Here's why I'm doing this, because this is what Jesus said we should do. And we should not be laying up treasures on this earth and so forth. So I'm just trying to give you the principles here.

Discerning Spiritual Dogs, Swine, and False Leaders

We should be judging certain people as Christ commanded us. And we're going to read this in our very next program and talk about it more specifically. We should be judging everyone in this sense, whether or not they are a spiritual dog or a spiritual swine.

Therefore, we will know then not to cast our pearls before them or give them what is holy. That fits right in with what Christ said about if you go into a city and they don't receive you, just shake the dust off your feet and go to the next city.

See, those people are swine and dogs. They don't appreciate the pearls. You're bringing them the gospel, they don't want to hear it. Don't waste your time. Go to someone else who would appreciate it. Well, how can you tell if a person is a spiritual dog or a spiritual swine?

You got to throw them one pearl. Throw them one pearl, see what they do with that pearl. If they step on it like a pig into the mud, have no interest whatsoever, your obligation is over. You don't need to worry any longer.

Just keep on looking for someone who's spiritually hungry. And we should be judging, according to Christ, and we'll read this in our next program. We should be judging every spiritual leader. Sometimes these spiritual leaders say, oh, do not judge, do not touch the Lord's anointed.

You should not be criticizing those of us in the ministry. Baloney, baloney. Christ commanded us to judge every spiritual leader by his or her fruits. That is, are they obeying the commandments of Christ?

Because that's what they're supposed to be doing, is leading us into holiness. And if they're not holy, how are they going to lead us into holiness? Right, right. Okay, so you know them by the fruits.

So we should be examining them all. When Christ speaks here about do not judge, if we keep reading the next verses as we have done now, you see very plainly the kind of judging he's condemning, finding a speck in your brother's eye, particularly when you've got a log in your own eye.

Okay. Hey, thank you. We're making progress. Hope to see you next time. Until then, keep following Jesus with all your heart. God bless you. Hey, there's a whole lot more happening through the ministry of Heaven's Family than just this teaching broadcast.

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