Please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 7. We will begin with verse 1.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.
Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.
For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.
Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy name cast out demons, and by Thy name do many mighty works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.
Every one therefore that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock:
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock.
And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand:
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.
And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were astonished at His teaching:
for He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee once again for gathering us together here this morning. We thank Thee for Thy amazing love towards us—the love that loves us to the very end.
We praise and thank Thee for giving us Thy own life, and Thou dost desire that we should have it abundantly. We come to Thee this morning hungry for Thy words of life and spirit.
So we humbly ask Thee to give us understanding, give us vision, and give us revelation, that we may be brought into the reality of Thy Word; that Thy Word truly will become our very living; that Thou mayest be glorified.
Lord, we do desire that Thy will be done in us, as it is in heaven.
We do want to thank the Lord for bringing us together again this morning. I do feel that the Lord really loves us, that He will not let us go, and that He wants to bring us to where He is.
Now, this time our burden is on the so-called Sermon on the Mount. The Bible tells us that when the crowds came to the Lord, our Lord Jesus went up to a mountain. By this very action, He is trying to tell us that we have to go to a higher thing.
Then He sat down, and the disciples came to Him. He began to open His mouth and teach His disciples.
To me, I feel that as our Lord sat down, it indicates to us that what He is going to say is based upon His finished work. You do not sit down until your work is done. What He is going to say to us is on the foundation of His finished work of redemption.
He addresses Himself to His own disciples. Notice here that this is not only believers. Of course, they are believers, but it is more than merely believing in the Lord as their Saviour. These believers are disciples.
That is to say, they answered the call of our Lord Jesus. They followed the Lord. They put themselves under the lordship of Christ Jesus, and they came to the Lord to learn of Him.
What the Lord is saying to them is intended to train them as His disciples. The purpose is that they may be as He is.
Dear brothers and sisters, here we find that the Sermon on the Mount is not a new law. It is not like Moses giving the law to the children of Israel: if they kept the law, they would be God’s people, and God would be their God.
Neither is the Sermon on the Mount a higher law that we must keep in order to become sons of the kingdom of heaven. Nor is it merely a proclamation of Christian ethics, as if our Lord Jesus were giving us a higher moral standard for us to imitate.
It is not so. We believe that the Sermon on the Mount is of grace. He has already given us His own life, and He is trying to tell us what that life really is.
He tells us that all the potential is in us. It is all there, and it needs to be expressed. It needs to be released.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is the kingdom of heaven? The kingdom of heaven has its geographical and historical side, but basically the kingdom of heaven is a spiritual reality.
The kingdom of heaven is none other than the kingship of our Lord Jesus. He has His kingship over His own people. The kingdom of heaven is what our Lord Jesus Himself is.
The kingdom of heaven is where His people are being transformed to be like Him. This is the reality of the kingdom of heaven.
What grace the Lord has poured forth! He has not only given us His kingly life, but He wants that kingly life to be developed into a kingly character. When that character is manifested, there is the kingdom of heaven.
Our Lord Jesus began His word to us with the Beatitudes. As we have already said, the emphasis is on being, not on doing.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
When you manifest poverty of spirit, you are in the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of heaven is yours. His life is already kingly, but His character needs to be developed as kingly, in order that the kingdom of heaven may become a reality to us.
We say again that the words in the Sermon on the Mount are a description of our Lord Jesus. That is what He is. While He was on earth, He lived such a kingly life. He lived the life of heaven upon this earth, and this is the way that He wants us to live.
Our Lord Jesus came not to destroy the law and the prophets; He came to fulfil them. That is to say, to fill them to the full.
The law may demand certain things, but grace brings us far above what the law demands. The law can only touch the outward appearance, but our Lord, His life, and His grace will touch our inward life.
That is why our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Their righteousness was all external. They might be outwardly correct, and yet there was no inward reality. They might keep the letter of the law, but violate the very spirit of the law.
We remember our Lord Jesus said:
Seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Now, how do you seek the kingdom of God? What does it mean to seek the kingdom of heaven? Seeking the kingdom of heaven simply means that you want to be like He is.
You are not satisfied merely with having His life in you. You are not content simply with going to heaven. You want to be what He is. You want to have His character in your life.
This is what is meant by seeking the kingdom of heaven. If you really want to be what He is, and you want to deny yourself and allow His life to take hold of you, then naturally His righteousness will follow.
First of all is the being; then comes the doing. If you are like Him, then you will act like Him. Your action will not be something put on; it will be the overflow of life.
Brothers and sisters, we have been sharing together many times that the Christian life, or kingdom life, has its secret part—its hidden part.
Because we are living the heavenly life upon this earth, there is a heavenly hidden part. That is the very source of our life upon this earth.
On this earth, you find there are three dimensions: a relationship with the world and with man, a relationship with God, and a relationship with our own self.
In giving alms, or in whatever area it may be, you find that our motive is toward God. It is not merely toward man. When we are giving alms, we should do it in secret. It is for God to see, not for man to see, and our reward is in heaven, not upon this earth.
Christian life is not lived for man. Our Christian life is lived unto God. Therefore, we must cultivate a hidden life. We should live a life that is face to face with God.
If we have that hidden life, then we find that our life toward men will glorify God.
The same is true with prayer. Prayer is unto God. Prayer is seeking the will of God. Prayer is to glorify God. Therefore, when we pray, we should go into the closet, close the door, and pray to the Father who is in secret. Our Father who is in secret will hear us, and He will reward us.
When we pray, we should pray first for the kingdom of God and for His will. Then we should pray for our needs, whether our needs are spiritual or physical.
When we fast, we should not try to draw the attention of people. To live the kingdom life, there must be a hidden life.
The stronger the hidden life, the stronger will be our testimony on this earth. All who live in the kingdom of heaven live a life of faith.
The life of faith is not merely for a chosen special few. The life of faith is required of all of us, because we are a heavenly people upon the earth. We are strangers and sojourners. The world is not our home; we are just passing through.
Therefore, our life on earth should be symbolised by living in tents. We do not get our roots deep into this earth.
In order to deliver us from being earthly, the Lord says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth,” but lay up treasures in heaven. On earth there will be moth, rust, and thieves; but in heaven there is no moth, no rust, and no thief.
What are our treasures? They include everything that means life to your soul—something that you regard as most precious, something that you really depend on, something that you will not let go.
Whether it is riches, position, or people, brothers and sisters, the Lord wants to set us free. He wants us to lay these treasures in heaven. In other words, to give ourselves and all that we consider treasures to Him, and let Him have the right over these treasures.
We are on earth as stewards of His gifts, to be faithful to whatever He wants. That is the way we are delivered from serving mammon, because we serve the Lord Jesus. He alone is the One.
If we live such a life of faith, then we do not need to worry about what we should eat, what we should drink, or what we should be clothed with, because we know our heavenly Father knows everything.
If we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto us.
Now, this morning we will go into chapter 7. As a matter of fact, Matthew 7 gives us the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount.
The first impression chapter 7 gives us is that the Lord touches upon a number of matters that seem unrelated. Reading Matthew 7 can give you the feeling that you are reading Proverbs: here a little, there a little; here a precept, there a precept.
But as you really study it, you find that there is a theme running through it. The Lord wants His disciples to live a disciplined and obedient life. If we live such a life, the consequence is the reward of the kingdom of heaven.
It begins with this:
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.
We all are tempted to judge. So far as our natural man is concerned, we like to judge, because in judging it gives us a feeling that we are superior.
What is meant by “Judge not”? It does not mean that we should not discern. We need to have the spirit of discernment. If you cannot discern, you cannot choose. If you cannot discern, you do not know which way to go. If you do not discern, you are not able to help anybody. There will be no ministry at all.
But judgment and discernment are two different things. If you turn to Luke 6, you will find that it continues with, “Condemn not.” Thus, the judging here is condemning people.
This has a judgmental spirit. It is critical. It looks down upon people, and in a sense it is an arrogant spirit.
One brother said that when you are saying something about people, you should ask, “What is your inward feeling?” If you say something bad about someone, is your inward feeling mournful, or is your feeling joyful?
When you are judging a person, are you trying to criticise him, or are you trying to restore him? It depends upon our inward state.
If we judge our brother or sister with a bad feeling, we are criticising them and looking down upon them. If we judge in this manner, the Lord said, “You will be judged.”
Not only will our Lord judge you, but He will allow other people to judge you likewise. With what measure you mete to others, it will be measured unto you. According to Luke 6, when they measure it back to you, you will receive an even worse judgment.
You remember the scribes and Pharisees in John 8. One morning they brought to the Lord a woman caught in adultery. They asked the Lord, “What should we do to her? According to the law of Moses, she should be stoned to death.”
They tempted our Lord Jesus. They knew that our Lord Jesus is love, and they wanted to challenge Him. If the Lord said, “Let her go,” they would say that He violated the law of Moses. If He said, “Stone her to death,” they would say that He had no love and compassion.
When they brought that woman to the Lord, they put her to public shame. What was the reaction of our Lord? He bowed Himself down. He would not even look at the woman. He would not say a word, but He used His finger and wrote on the ground.
We do not know what He wrote. They pressed Him, asking, “What do You say we should do to her?”
Then our Lord said:
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
He would not even look at these men. Then our Lord raised Himself up and asked, “Is there no one condemning you?” The Lord said, “Neither do I condemn thee.”
In doing that, He was thinking of Calvary. Here you find our Lord Jesus, how full of mercy He is. He will not condemn. But we, who are sinners, how quickly we judge and condemn.
The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:3-5:
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.
For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the Lord.
Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, Who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God.
Actually, Paul uses the word examine, which is a little lighter than the word judge. Examination is the first step; after you examine, then you judge.
Paul says it is a very small thing for him to be examined by anybody or by man’s day. He does not even examine himself. Why? Because the One who really examines him is the Lord.
Do not try to judge, because there are many hidden things—things of the heart—that we do not know. We have to wait until the Lord reveals these things.
When we come to the judgment seat of Christ, every hidden thing of the heart will be exposed, and each will receive his praise from God.
We can only see the outward appearance. Only God knows the heart. Therefore, our judgment will not be accurate. Judgment is God’s government. It is God who judges, and only His judgment is just.
This does not mean that we should not know where we are. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11 that if we examined ourselves, we would not be judged. Is there any contradiction here? Not at all.
There is a self-examination that is introspection. If we try to examine ourselves by ourselves, such examination is futile, because we do not even know our own heart.
Self-introspection is unprofitable. It will come to either result: it will press you down so that you become negative, or it can elate you and make you proud of yourself.
Because only in His light do we see light. Psalm 36 says:
In Thy light shall we see light.
We should bring ourselves into His light, not try to examine ourselves by our own light, because our light is darkness itself. He is the light of life. As we bring ourselves to His light of life, then in that light we begin to see light. This will be helpful to us.
Brothers and sisters, we need to be careful not to judge others, because God loves mercy, not judgment.
There is another reason. If we judge other people, we are actually playing hypocrites.
The Lord tells us that if you see, or profess to see, the mote in the eye of your brother, and you do not see the beam in your own eye, then you tell your brother, “Let me cast out the mote from your eye.” Are you not playing the hypocrite?
You have the beam in your eye. How can you see clearly? Perhaps the mote in your brother’s eye is a reflection of your own beam.
You are not only playing the hypocrite; you have no way to help your brother. You are the one who needs help.
Every time you see something in your brother, the first thing you should do is go to God and ask the Lord whether there is a beam in your own eye. Probably what you see in your brother is only a tiny reflection of what you really are.
You may be much worse than your brother, and you are the one who needs to repent and ask the Lord to remove the beam from your eye.
When the beam is removed, then you can see clearly. That is the time when you are able to minister to your brother. That is where discernment comes.
Spiritual discernment is an important thing in our Christian life. It does not come from mental knowledge. It comes from your own experience, because you have experienced it yourself, you have been dealt with by the Lord, and you have been delivered from it.
Then your eye is clear. You can see very clearly, and you are able to help your brother. That is where ministry comes.
What the Lord addresses here is individual believers. As individual believers, we should never try to judge people.
But this does not apply in the same way to the church, because the Bible tells us very clearly that the church is to judge evil in its midst. There is a governmental side there.
Nevertheless, the Lord is trying to deliver us from the judgmental spirit. This requires discipline. We need His discipline.
We know that discipline is not a popular word today, especially among the young generation. But without discipline, we will never grow up. We will never be mature, and the character of Christ will never be formed in us.
It is very important that we, as disciples, be disciplined. If we are not disciplined, how can we say that we are His disciples?
Then this is followed by another statement:
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.
This tells us of discernment. We should not judge, but we must discern.
What are the holy things? The holy things are the words that our Lord has spoken to us. The whole Sermon on the Mount is a holy thing, because by these words we are being sanctified. We are being separated from the world, delivered from the earth, and made wholly for God and for heaven.
Do not give the holy thing to the dogs. The dogs here represent those people in the world—the unbelievers—because they are unclean.
If you try to share with them the Sermon on the Mount, will they appreciate it? Probably they will take advantage of it. What the world needs is the gospel of grace—pure grace.
If you come to the Lord, you will be forgiven. This is the gospel they can understand. In another way, what they need is the Gospel according to Luke, because in Luke we tell them of the forgiveness of their sins, that through the gospel their sins may be remitted.
If you try to share with them the gospel of the kingdom as Matthew teaches it, you find that the natural man, the man of flesh and blood, will not understand it. They may consider it foolish and take hold of it in order to attack you.
Therefore, you need discernment when you are sharing with people. You need to know exactly what kind of things they can understand—what will help them.
What are the pearls? Pearls represent spiritual experience. A pearl is formed through the experience of an oyster when a grain of sand enters into its being and cannot be removed. The oyster begins to secrete something to cover it, layer upon layer, and out of its pain a pearl is formed.
Thus, the pearl speaks of spiritual experience—experience of the Sermon on the Mount.
Do not cast it before swine. According to Leviticus, swine have cloven hoofs, but do not chew the cud.
Swine here probably represent professing Christians, or carnal Christians. They have cloven hoofs, but they do not chew the cud.
When you share with a carnal Christian your experience of the Sermon on the Mount, they may not be able to accept it. You need discernment, because if you do not discern, not only will they fail to appreciate it, but they may turn back and attack you.
You see the balance between judging not and having discernment. That is very difficult.
That is the reason this is followed by:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
You remember our Lord Jesus, after He used five loaves and two fishes to feed the five thousand. People tried to follow Him, and the Lord began to tell them, “I am the bread of life. Eat My flesh and drink My blood, and ye shall have life in yourselves.”
Not only the crowds, but many of His disciples said, “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” They left and followed Him no more.
Then the Lord turned to the twelve and said, “Would ye also go away?” The Lord never forces anybody.
Thank God for Simon Peter. Simon Peter said:
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
And we have believed and know that Thou art the Holy One of God.
Brothers and sisters, when you listen to the words of the Sermon on the Mount, will you not have the same reaction? Will you say, “This is a hard saying. Who can do it?” Will you also depart?
You need to ask, and it shall be given to you, because to you it is impossible. The Lord is not requiring you to do it in your own strength. He will do it. If you just ask, He will give it. Keep on asking and keep on knocking.
If your child comes and asks for bread, would you give him a stone? If your child asks for fish, would you give him a serpent? You who are evil know how to give good things to your children. Your heavenly Father will give good things.
In Luke 11, we are told what these good things are: the Holy Spirit. He will give the Holy Spirit to you.
In other words, the Lord knows you are not able to do these things. He does not require these things from you. He is seeking these things from Himself, and He is well able to do them.
Only let the Holy Spirit work in your life. Let the Holy Spirit arrange the circumstances to discipline you. The Holy Spirit is responsible to transform you and conform you to Christ.
Just let the Holy Spirit do His job, and then you will be all right. Everything is grace. He is well able to keep you to the very end and to present you glorious with joy to Himself.
This is again followed by an exhortation. Exhortation includes two meanings: on the one hand, encouragement; and on the other hand, warning.
Whenever you find biblical exhortation, you find both the encouraging part and the warning part. The Lord uses two parables for encouragement: one is entering through the narrow gate, and the other is building your house upon the rock.
Having heard these words, the Lord says:
Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.
For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.
Why does the Lord encourage us to enter through the narrow gate? It is a gate that few find, and yet the Lord encourages us to enter into it.
You remember our Lord Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to enter through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom.
Whether this is literal or symbolic, the meaning is the same. If you try to put a small thread through the eye of a needle, it is difficult. For a camel to enter through it is absolutely impossible.
Some people say the needle’s eye was a small gate within a city gate. When the large city gate was closed, the small door might still be open. For a camel to get through that small door, it would have to be stripped of all its loads. Then it could be pushed and pulled through with difficulty.
What is meant here is very simple: we have to be stripped of all our loads and enter through the narrow gate.
Brothers and sisters, to enter into the kingdom, you have to do violence to yourself. In Matthew, we are told that from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and men of violence take it by force.
It does not mean that you do violence to other people. It means that you do violence to yourself. That is to deny yourself.
We usually love ourselves, and here the Lord says that you have to do violence to yourself. You have to deny yourself, stripped of everything that is of yourself. Then you are able to enter through the narrow gate.
You cannot enter through the narrow gate carrying all your loads with you. When you enter through the gate of the kingdom of heaven, you are stripped of yourself, and only the life of the Lord goes through.
Until you enter through the narrow gate, you find there is a straitened way. In other words, you bear your cross and follow the Lord.
The way of the world has a broad gate and a broad way. Many are travelling in it, but it leads to destruction.
The life and destruction here do not refer to eternal life or eternal death, because that is already settled. Matthew does not deal with that issue.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we receive His eternal life. Eternal life is eternal. We will never lose it, because it is a gift of God. God is not like man, that He should repent. What He has given, He will never take back.
Therefore, the life and destruction here are within the scope of the kingdom of heaven. One day, when the kingdom of heaven shall publicly appear upon this earth, those who enter through the narrow gate and walk on the straitened way will reign with Christ for a thousand years. That is enjoying life.
But those who do not enter through the narrow gate and walk on the straitened way, but choose to walk in the way of the world, will experience destruction. This does not refer to eternal destruction. It is to be kept out of the life of the kingdom.
Just as the five wise virgins enter into the marriage feast, the foolish virgins are kept out. This is for a thousand years, until the kingdom of heaven publicly appears on this earth and comes to an end.
When eternity comes, all those who are saved will be there in the universal kingdom. But if we allow the words of the kingdom of heaven to work in our lives, then when the kingdom of heaven publicly appears on earth, we will enjoy life with our Lord Jesus.
The same is true with building upon the rock. The rock is the Word. If we keep it—that is, if we obey it, not by our own strength but by His grace—then when the rain comes, when the floods come, and when the winds blow, our house will stand.
These two parables refer to encouragement.
There are two other parables, and they speak of warning. In the kingdom of heaven, there will be people who are like false prophets. They will put on sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
They will come in and try to teach something different from what our Lord has said. They will say something that tries to please our flesh.
They may say, “You can have both worlds. You can believe in the Lord Jesus, and you need not follow the Lord.” Yet they themselves do not seek the will of God or follow God’s will.
The Lord says that these are workers of lawlessness. When the Lord says, “I never knew you,” it means, “I do not approve of you.” When He says, “Depart from Me,” it means that they will have no part in the coming kingdom of heaven.
What is important is that the Lord is not expecting us to do something for Him in our own strength. The Lord wants us to submit to His will. If we submit to His will, then He will reward us with the kingdom.
As our Lord finished speaking, the people who heard Him said that He spoke differently from the scribes, because He spoke with authority. He is the personification of His own words. His Word has authority.
Let us trust in His Word and yield ourselves to His Word.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for Thy grace. Thou dost not require anything from us, but Thou dost require Thyself in us. Thou dost desire to express Thy life.
Teach us how to yield ourselves to Thee, to be taught of Thee, that we may be brought to the place where Thou dost want us to be, and that Thy will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Bring us into that precious day.