Study of Matthew |
||
Matthew Chapter 7
This is vital that we get this into our spirit. First of all we can remind ourselves that if we walked in perfect love, "Thy neighbor as thyself" these things would work out. What is perfect love? Does it pat people on the back and say your okay when in reality they are not and their soul is headed into eternity without God? Is it telling the truth in meekness considering thyself lest we also suffer the same temptation? Love will tell the truth. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. In saying that though we need to be very careful. Some people say things out of spite, anger, envy, being judgmental, and with a motive that wants to hurt, not edify. We do not have to purposely hurt anyone in malice in a spirit that causes destruction. That is where perfect love comes in. If we love people as ourselves, things would work out. If our own soul was on its way to a burning hell, wouldn't we want someone to love us enough to present the gospel that will save our souls? Yet we would not want someone constantly tearing us down to exercise control over us and beat us up with unkind words either. Balance and motive comes into play. Judge not that ye be not judged Jesus says here. In another place Jesus says:
The Pharisees were constantly finding fault and judging the things Jesus did, looking for an excuse to accuse Him. They were more concerned with the letter of the law than seeing a person delivered from a disease or saved from sin. They missed the whole point of the law and judged things according to appearance instead of by the spirit and the deeper meaning of the law. They missed the intent of the law and only saw details that were misinterpreted. Jesus knew the law better than they and probably helped inspire Moses to write it down. There are righteous judgments that we all have to make. For instance if we hear someone speaking; is the person speaking truth or teaching false doctrine? We have to make judgments in some cases. However, we don't judge the person, attack their character and consign them to hell. If someone commits a crime that is harmful to innocent people, they have to be judged in order to have law and order in the land where we live, but we can't judge the state of their soul for eternity. God has to do that. Our part is to present the gospel and the word of God. The Holy Spirit convicts of sins and draws a person to Christ for salvation. We can't force that on anyone. We can't judge someone's motives or their conscience. We can only judge the words of their mouth and their actions. We can't make assumptions though but make righteous judgments. Paul speaks of judging in Romans chapter 2. Neither Jesus or Paul are throwing out all types of judgments for Paul also says that saints shall judge the world and we need to set in judgment over our brothers and sisters in cases where there is a dispute so that they do not go to law against one another with lawsuits and such. There is a place for righteous judgment. What Paul and Jesus warns against mainly is judging people for things we ourselves do also. It could be something a little different but equal to the same sin we judge someone else for. For instance if we judged someone for committing idolatry and we are so covetous that our wants are equal to idolatry, that is judging people for the same things we ourselves commit. I will interject something here. This is not teaching us to excuse or gloss over sin. Sin needs to be forsaken when we start following Christ. Jesus doesn't just save us from sin and then turn around and expect us to go ahead and sin because we are covered by His blood. If we saved out of something, we don't go right back in it. For instance I could throw a life preserver to a drowning person and save their life but I wouldn't expect them to go jump back into the water they were saved from. It would be stupid. Yet sometimes we think since Jesus saved us from sin, we can now go back and enjoy our sin knowing we are covered by our faith in Him. I don't believe that is true salvation. Peter said, repent and believe. Jesus said, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Part of salvation is turning around and going the other way. The way towards God. Just because we are not to judge each other when do the same thing ourselves does not make the sin right. Another wrong type of judgment would be making assumptions about people that we have no proof of. Many people have been wrongly executed by those that just made assumptions. Every thought we think is not the Holy Spirit. We may have discernment and we should have but there are times when we can hear from the accuser of the brethren and get it wrong. That is why as I heard Carter Conlon say once, "Have discernment but with the heart of God." Pray about things first, make sure that what we say is truth and not assumptions. We must not jump to conclusions and make unrighteous judgments. The Lord doesn't tell us not to make any judgments here for He goes on to say that we should make sure the beam is out of our own eye before we attempt to get the mote out of a brother's eye. Examining our motive is a must. Is our opinion because we desire to puff up self as we condemn or judge someone else? This is not a passage that excuses sin but asks that we examine our motives and ourselves before judging someone else. False teaching is a sin that may cause a soul to be lost, crimes that endanger the innocent have to be judged. Assumptions, false accusations, suspicions, and such need to be held in check. Remember though that the commandment to love one's neighbor as thyself is the key to getting this passage and most passages right.
There are treasures in the bible that are deep and holy. One is the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the same Spirit, the presence of God when we pray, the in depth study of God's holy word. This cannot be given to those that are not yet saved from sin. They need to first hear the gospel that will save the soul. If they reject the gospel and cast it from them, we never should attempt to speak of Holy Spirit baptism and holy things that we learn after we come to Christ. It would be like throwing an expensive jewel down in a pen of hogs. They wouldn't know what to do with that pearl or diamond. People who are haters of God or who reject the gospel would not know what to do with holy things of God. They would just trample over them and turn against us.
In the book of Luke there is another thought that is added to this teaching that Matthew seems to leave out but it is important that we include it here because it shows us exactly the type of things Jesus wants us to ask and seek for. We are not to seek to get rich in material goods in this passage. Remember the Lord's prayer, "Give us our daily bread." There are times when we need material things and it is okay to ask for them but the spiritual bread is needed first and then we trust God to supply daily needs as we require them.
Luke mentions the Holy Spirit and how we should ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus is referring to seeking God for spiritual things needed to keep us strong in faith and save those that may hear our message. This is not a passage given to ask for things that we just lust after and desire to have, like selfish things. This is not a passage that encourages selfishness and having an abundance of wealth. Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS and all these things shall be added unto you. We are to seek holy things and then trust God for the needful things as food, shelter and clothing. We seek Him first and He promised to care for us. Another commandment that Jesus gave just before He gave the one about love toward one's neighbor, was "Thou shalt love the Lord God with all thine heart, with all thines soul and all thy mind." If we did that one, we would seek the right things and not the things of this world as James speaks of:
See how different parts of the bible help us to understand and interpret what is said rightly. That is why we are to study to show ourselves approved of God.
Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened. It is easy to discern that Jesus is speaking of the holy things of God and that which is good for the soul and spirit. In fact those holy things He gives is not worthy to be compared to the temporal things of this world that we can't take with us when we die. Our treasure is to be in heaven not on the earth.
That sums up loving the neighbor as one's self. Be careful not to misinterpret this verse as some have done. I've heard people quote this and say, "Do unto others as they do unto you," but that is not what it says. It says to do to others what you would like for them to do unto you. We do not want anyone to treat us badly so we should not treat them badly either. This is equal to the law and the prophets. The ten commandments, the whole law and the words of the prophets can be summed up in two commandments. Loving the Lord God with all the heart and our neighbor as ourselves. This of course is impossible to do without the Holy Spirit that sheds the love of God within us. We can't receive the Holy Spirit without faith in Jesus Christ which is why the Lord tells us to ask for the Holy Spirit. We can't keep the commandments without the Holy Spirit. During the Middle Ages and even after the Middle Ages ended, so-called Christians were able to burn people to the stake for what they thought was heresy. I believe it is because by that time, they were not being born again by God's spirit and they were not filled with the Holy Spirit. They let the Holy Spirit die out among them. No one was being genuinely saved. They substituted the doctrines and commandments of men in place of the gospel. Why? The people stopped being genuinely born again by God's spirit and they had no Holy Spirit to shed the love of God in their souls so they began to think the Lord delays His coming. They got the Kingdom now thinking, married church and state and beat up their fellow servants instead of waiting for the Lord to return and set up His own kingdom. This my brothers and sisters in the Lord, is happening again right before our eyes. Have you ever heard of Kingdom now? Dominion theology? or Replacement theology? There is nothing new under the sun. It is happening again. They have not got to the killing part yet but if people stop being truly born again and saved from sin, they will start killing if they got the power over the government. A true Christian is one that lives it, not one that just claims the name. Other religions that get power over governments also do the same things. Even those the do not believe in God will try to force this on everyone if they got power over the government. The government must remain neutral but yet allow free exercise of our faith. The only thing the church is permitted to do is spread the gospel and teach the word. We have not been given any permission to set up God's kingdom on earth and take over governments. We have no permission to put anyone to death that rejects our message. We are to be harmless as doves yet wise as serpents. We are never to beat up our fellow servants. If we do anything to harm someone that disagrees with our message and it is not self defense or defending our nation in war, we are not born again by God's spirit. Jesus says to even love our enemies. Those that break the law by stealing, killing and such have to be stopped by the government in control. Law and order has to be in place to protect the innocent but when it comes to the gospel, it is to be preached but it can never be forced upon anyone. The change that takes place when one is born again by God's spirit is supernatural. God does it when they exercise faith in Jesus Christ. There is no way to force someone to accept Christianity. It is stupid to try. How can we change someone God has not changed by His spirit? They did those things because they were not saved themselves. They were not born again and they did not have the Holy Spirit within them. They only had religion that they called Christianity. There is a difference. If you are a Christian and hate the Pentecostals, hate the Baptists, hate the Mormons, hate the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Catholics, then you are not who you claim to be. I'm not saying that you adopt any false doctrines and compromise truth to join all these groups together. That would be false unity and that is what occurred during the Middle Ages that started all that stuff, but we are never to hate any group that believes different. That does not mean that we accept what they teach and refuse to correct it. The main goal of any true believer is Christ is to warn and preach the gospel but in love not in hate. If we are rejected we go somewhere else. We never use force. We must have compassion. People tend to believe whatever they are raised to believe. We are not to hate them. On the other hand we are not to sit quietly by and let people go to hell if we know the truth and God has spoken to our spirit and told us to tell them the truth. Do so in meekness and in love. Do it because we love them, not because we want to just hurt them or make them feel like we hate them.
This scripture will keep us from following the crowds. How many of us get fooled by large numbers? They must be doing something right, look how they have grown. Cults grow too. False religion is growing by leaps and bounds. Numbers mean absolutely nothing. It is a sad fact but compared to the population of the whole earth only a few are really saved and find the truth. We can be reminded of Noah and how only eight persons were saved on the ark among probably millions or even billions of people that populated the earth at that time. One of Noah's sons turned out to be evil so his life was saved because his father was righteous. In the days of Lot, the land of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, and only three were saved. Two of the daughters later committed incest and proved to have been influenced by the sin of Sodom. All three lives were spared because of the interceding prayer of Abraham. Speaking of Abraham, he was called out of the land of Ur and no one else except his close family. In the judgment of Jericho, only Rehab and her family were saved out of all those inhabitants. Even in the days that Jesus was in the flesh among men, He had great followings until His teaching became deep and hard to accept. Then many stopped walking with Him. On the day of Pentecost many were saved but they were soon scattered because of persecution. We don't know how many endured till the end. So we can't look at large numbers and assume that they are blessed of God. They may be large because God is in them but it just may be because they hear a gospel that is comfortable and tickle the ears. I pray that all of us do not follow the crowds but study the word and follow the Lord. Notice I say, follow the Lord. The strait and narrow way is not a way of strict man made commandments or man made interpretations of holiness that comes as a result of the verse, "Without holiness no one will see the Lord." That verse is true but true holiness has to start with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the receiving of His Spirit. Jesus said that He was the door. He said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Him." So we see the strait and narrow way is the way of Christ and walking in His love. Jesus said those that do the will of His Father shall enter in. All this starts with Christ.
We start that narrow way, right at that verse. Believe on Him (Jesus) whom God has sent to save us from sin. Jesus said to the Jews who were questioning Him.
The narrow way is to be saved from sin. This is to believe on Jesus to take away the sins and grant eternal life.
It is interesting that in the very same part of scripture that the Lord tells us not to judge, He shows us that there are times when we have to make righteous judgments. Concerning false doctrine we have to be spiritually alert not be deceived. In the days when everyone is trying to make peace and join all churches together into one, we need to take heed that we be not deceived. We cannot compromise on the gospel that saves the soul. Jesus said that we must be born again, we must repent of sin, we must have the Holy Spirit shed abroad in our hearts. We cannot substitute a religious creed of works without that inner change and have people thinking they are saved. Whether that is Calvinism, Catholicism or any ism, that can't save a fly on the wall. We must be born again by the spirit of God or we are not saved. We can't just have a religion. Salvation does not come by joining a church, being baptized in water, having a priest pray over us, keeping the sacraments, going to church, doing good deeds or giving to the poor. It is faith in Christ which accompanies a change in the heart. This is seen by the fruits that we produce over a long period, not a temporary change that resulted in an emotional experience that doesn't bring forth lasting fruit. In saying that I want to make it clear that I'm not against emotion in worship. If God's spirit is present, there is going to be emotion. We will react in some way to the sprit of God. Some may shout, some may cry, some by even fall on their face in agony but there is some kind of reaction when the spirit of God is present in a believer's meeting. It is how we live after the emotion is over, after the crowds leave and we live our daily lives that show whether or not we have the fruits of the spirit or not. The fruits here are not just good deeds. I believe it is the fruits of the spirit, the fruits of righteous living and having love, joy and peace in the Lord. It would be the opposite of hate, envy, strife, and false accusations for instance. Putting people to death because they disagree with us on doctrine is not one of the fruits of the spirit. I realize some will wonder why I bring up the stuff that happened in the Middle Ages and during the Protestant Reformation in many of my studies. It is because it can happen again. In fact I see it happening again. The gospel and politics do not mix yet we try to mix them. We can all get along and work to spread the gospel without joining into on organization and coming under one banner so to speak. We don't have to all be one like that had when the Middle Age Church ruled. Church and state can never again mix until Jesus Christ Himself comes visibly and literally. We cannot be trusted with all that power. They had that power more than once and they failed. I too hate abortion and sexual immorality that is flooding in our country by leaps and bounds but joining together in one big church and taking over the government will not do any good. It may be good for a while but sooner or later we are going to bask in the power (power corrupts) and start to beat our fellow servants again thinking that the Lord is not literally coming. The Kingdom now theology, the Replacement theology is dangerous and we must have no part in it. The church has never replaced Israel, the Kingdom will be set up by none other than Jesus Christ. We can't do it before He comes. Many have tried making cities of God but they have turned into cities of evil instead. Instead we are to preach the gospel of the kingdom bringing the kingdom of God inside a person's soul by being born again by God's spirit. Faith in Jesus to save us from sin and bring us into His family by grace is what causes us to be born again. We can't set up a literal kingdom until Jesus returns to do it for us. The faithful in Christ will rule and reign with Him. Jesus had to come the first time to make the way for all who believe to be saved from sin. We could not save ourselves by just keeping the law. He had to keep the law for us and make the way for us to be saved. We cannot save ourselves and make ourselves born again or what we all "saved." We have to believe, receive and continue to follow the Lord but we could not make ourselves ready for heaven just by being a good person and trying to not sin. We can preach the gospel but we can't make people believe it. It takes the Holy Spirit to draw them to Christ for salvation. The same thing is true when setting up the kingdom. We can't do it. Jesus has to do it Himself at His coming. We are to preach the kingdom that can be now within us, but He will set up the literal kingdom. He does it all. Our part is to trust in Him and allow His Holy Spirit to use us to spread His word. We can't force anyone to receive the word. We can't change any hearts. Only the person and the Holy Spirit can work out their own salvation. We are to teach and allow the Spirit to do the changing.
We must do God's will. First of all His will is that we believe in the one He sends to save us from sin. This is Jesus Christ. This is the first thing we are to do. Then we are to follow Christ and follow His teaching. We cannot judge others and not live the life ourselves. Many use the name of Jesus to do mighty works but in their hearts they do not know Him.
There are people that call on the Lord, talk of the Lord, claim to be Christian but live a life contrary to the teachings of Christ. There were people who claimed to be Christian and threw Jews into ovens during the holocaust in Germany. The real Christians were the ones to stand up against this awful thing at the risk of their own lives. Fruits will follow a true believer. There are some that even heal the sick, cast out devils and prophesy that are false brethren. Be careful not to accuse everyone that does the above things as false brethren. Jesus said that signs will follow them that believe. If signs do not follow us then we simply are not believing. There is no place in God's word that says the gifts of the spirit were for the days of the apostles only because the written word was not yet complete. 1 Corinthians 13 merely explains that the gifts are in vain without that perfect love that is to accompany them. We need the fruits of the spirit to accompany the gifts of the spirit. It grieves me to read on the Internet many who falsely accuse those that speak in tongues as not being "of God" just because so many who claim to speak in tongues do not have the fruit. For every one that does not have the fruit, I can name many who do have the fruit. Let's be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Speaking in tongues is a gift of the spirit. It is a definite sign of the supernatural presence of God.
If we love God, we will love His word. We will want to have His word in the depths of our heart. We will love to keep His word as soon as we find out what His word is. Many use His name as a cloak and do not know who He is. Some may preach and have never been born again by the spirit. Here is what Paul says:
Some may go into the ministry as a vocation without any true calling and do it just for a living. He may not be genuinely saved. He may just claim to have the spirit but does not. In Luke it says this:
Jesus also says to them that He never knew them. Notice Jesus says He never knew them. He doesn't say that He use to know them but they backslid. He says He never knew them. They were not saved in the first place it would seem to me. It is great to wake up in the morning and have the attitude, "What can I do for you today Lord?" We are so caught up in, "What can God do for me?" We choose a church that have things that attract our families instead of picking one that has a need that maybe we can fill. Jesus closes out this sermon on the mount by the message of the House on the rock. We use to sing this as children. That's why I have never forgotten it.
First of all the rock is Christ. He is the foundation of our faith. We build our house upon Him and His teachings. Christ is the word that was made flesh. They are inseparable. We can't claim to believe and follow Christ but not want anything to do with His word. It's like a person who marries a wife but has no interest in hearing anything she has to say or a woman marrying a man and not interested in or having no respect for what he has to say. Soon that kind of marriage falls apart. A person who starts working for an employer is not going to last very long if he or she does not follow the instructions and does not do the job according to the desires of the employer. A true believer will hear the word and try his best to live by the word. He will hide the word in his heart so that it will keep him from sin. He will love the Lord with all His heart and desire to walk in the paths the Lord shines before him. We can read the bible two ways: Either to understand and know more about God or read it to try to find a loophole to do what we want and still make it to heaven.
That is because He did have authority from His heavenly Father to teach all that the Father instructed Him by the Holy Spirit to teach. What Jesus taught was the spirit of the law that was given to Moses many years before. It was what God has been trying to teach us all along. The difference is that we can't live the word by ourselves. We must have a change in the inner man. Our sins need to be forgiven and cleansed, we must turn away from sin and believe in the savior that came to same us; Jesus Christ. We must seek to be filled with the spirit and have His word in our hearts. It is a better way than trying to keep the law on our own strength. We can't do it. He did it for us. When we believe in Him, receive Him, we are covered by His righteousness because we have none on our own. Only by His spirit can we keep His word. DC
|
||
|
HOME |
SITE MAP |
BIBLE STUDY INDEX
|
||