Real Christianity: Matthew 6-7 (Ep. 51)

[00:00:00] - [Speaker 0]
Good day. Welcome to stories of a faithful god. I'm Dave Whittingham. At the end of the passage we're looking at in this episode, Jesus says some shocking words. In Matthew chapter seven verse 21, he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven.

[00:00:27] - [Speaker 0]
On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Drive out demons in your name and do many miracles in your name? Then I will announce to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers. Isn't that shocking?

[00:00:49] - [Speaker 0]
He's saying there are people who, for all intents and purposes, look like really switched on even maybe powerful Christian people. And Jesus is gonna say to them, get away from me. I never knew you. It's shocking in a bunch of different ways. To a world that says everyone's free to choose their own religion, no one has the monopoly on saying what's right and wrong, how dare Jesus say these people have it wrong?

[00:01:20] - [Speaker 0]
Even in lots of Christian circles, it's offensive to say that some people who call themselves Christians are not really Christians, to say that Jesus doesn't recognize them. Jesus' words can also be shocking and even terrifying personally. You can become really introspective. Am I one of those people? I think I'm following Jesus.

[00:01:44] - [Speaker 0]
What if I get to the last day and he says to me, get away from me. I never knew you. Well, that's terrifying. At one level, Jesus is aiming to inspire the right kind of fear. Throughout the Bible, we're told to fear God.

[00:02:00] - [Speaker 0]
And so we should fear going to hell because hell is being shut out from God. It's being sent away from Jesus. Get away from me. I never knew you forever. It's sensible to fear that.

[00:02:15] - [Speaker 0]
It's the worst possible punishment in the universe. But Jesus is not saying this so that we end up wallowing in fear, wondering whether we're in or we're out, trying to guess at whether we've lived up to God's standard. No. Rather, in the chapters we're looking at, Jesus lays out two ways to live. There's the world's way, the way the world approaches God, the way the world approaches money, the way the world approaches truth, and there's God's way.

[00:02:51] - [Speaker 0]
They're completely opposite in the way they do basically everything, and God's way is so much better. It's a way that leads to hope and joy and certainty and forgiveness and grace and rest and peace. So let's consider the way that leads to this joy as I present to you our next episode of stories of a faithful god. In our last episode, we began looking at what's often called the Sermon on the Mount. Huge crowds had begun following Jesus.

[00:03:52] - [Speaker 0]
It looked like his ministry was a success. If you're looking from a worldly perspective, it's all about numbers, and Jesus has the numbers. But Jesus has taken his smaller group of disciples into a mountainous region, sat them down, and told them what real success looks like. What does the kingdom of heaven really look like? And it looks like nothing that the world expects.

[00:04:21] - [Speaker 0]
In the kingdom of heaven, you're blessed if you're poor in spirit. In the kingdom of heaven, you're blessed if you're persecuted for following Jesus. In the kingdom of heaven, you don't take revenge. You love your enemies. And the reason it's also different to how people normally think is because the life of Jesus' disciples is not meant to be modeled on how the world thinks, but modeled on God.

[00:04:50] - [Speaker 0]
Matthew chapter five had ended with these words, be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. The kingdom of heaven is out of this world, but notice the privilege of being in this kingdom. Jesus isn't telling his disciples to listen to a distant god, to obey a far off deity, or to live up to the whims of a callous divine being who couldn't care less about his subjects. No. If you're in the kingdom of heaven, God is your heavenly father.

[00:05:28] - [Speaker 0]
And he doesn't ask you to do random things that he doesn't really care about. He's saying live like me because God, our heavenly father, loves his enemies. He's patient and controls his anger. He suffers for what's good. Now Jesus tells his disciples more about how to live for our heavenly father.

[00:05:53] - [Speaker 0]
He tells them, it's not about being showy in your righteousness. Don't try to impress people with how good you are. That's how the world operates. For the world, goodness is done publicly in order to win applause. But Jesus talks about secret goodness, secret righteousness, righteousness that can only be seen by your father in heaven.

[00:06:19] - [Speaker 0]
He's the only one we need to please. He's the only one we need a reward from. Jesus applies this principle to giving money. In Matthew six verse one, Jesus says, be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your father in heaven.

[00:06:43] - [Speaker 0]
So whenever you give to the poor, don't sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be applauded by people. Truly, I tell you, they have their reward. But when you give to the poor, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. People love to be known for giving money. They love other people to go, oh, aren't you generous?

[00:07:19] - [Speaker 0]
So often, the giving isn't about the caring of the person they're giving to. It's about the display. It's about what they get from other people by giving. That sort of giving will certainly impress people, but it gives no pleasure to God. When Jesus says they have their reward in full, their reward is the praise of the people they've impressed.

[00:07:44] - [Speaker 0]
Secret giving, on the other hand, is what pleases God. Because secret giving isn't done to win praise from people. It's done out of love love for others and love for God. A helpful phrase I was taught is secrecy safeguards sincerity. Secrecy safeguards sincerity.

[00:08:07] - [Speaker 0]
It can sound a bit at odds with what Jesus said in the last chapter. He told his disciples they're the light of the world. In verse 16 of chapter five, he said, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven. How can you be really secret while letting your light shine before others? I think what's happening is secret righteousness will always be seen eventually in the way that you speak, the way that you love, the way that you care.

[00:08:42] - [Speaker 0]
Your attitude will be so obviously godlike, even if people can't see the specifics of what you're doing. Jesus applies the same secrecy principle to prayer. And just like with money, he tells his disciples not to be like the hypocrites. Hypocrite in the Greek language means actor or pretender. They're experts at seeming.

[00:09:08] - [Speaker 0]
That is, these people seem to be righteous, but they aren't really. They seem to be generous, but they're really acting the part of a generous person. Now Jesus talks about people who seem to be really spiritual by the way they pray, but they're just pretending. They're not really on about speaking to God. They're on about impressing people.

[00:09:33] - [Speaker 0]
In verse five, Jesus says, whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly, I tell you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. Now that doesn't mean there's never a place for praying with others.

[00:10:10] - [Speaker 0]
The prayer Jesus is about to teach is a communal prayer. It doesn't start with the words my father. It starts with our father. We can pray it together. Praying in a group or in public has its place, but it can be dangerous.

[00:10:27] - [Speaker 0]
It can be showy. It can be done to impress the people around you, to show off how you can use big theological words or have lots of emotion or to seem really spiritual. The big question to ask is, are you praying in private? Are you praying secretly? Secrecy safeguards sincerity.

[00:10:52] - [Speaker 0]
Our prayer should be about speaking to God, not impressing the people around us. It should also reflect the reality of who our god is, our father in heaven. He isn't an evil despot who has to be begged or pleaded with. He isn't distance. You don't have to yell to make yourself heard.

[00:11:15] - [Speaker 0]
He doesn't play games with us. We don't have to talk and talk and talk, hoping that he'll finally give in. That's the way the world prays, because they don't understand who God is. But Jesus says in verse seven, when you pray, don't babble like the Gentiles since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words. Don't be like them because your father knows the things you need before you ask him.

[00:11:45] - [Speaker 0]
You can see how that sort of Gentile thinking seeps into churches. Some people think it's really spiritual to pray for hours. Others recite the same prayer over and over again, Prayers like the Lord's Prayer that Jesus is just about to teach. It's almost like people are trying to pump air into a balloon, and they have to keep pumping and pumping and pumping until it's just right. It turns prayer into a a mechanical thing rather than a relationship with God.

[00:12:16] - [Speaker 0]
So Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, and the prayer he gives is a model, not a mantra. It isn't bad to say it word for word occasionally. It's a great model. But don't think God hears you more or appreciates it if you say it over and over again. Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray simple prayers, simple requests, not long winded prayers.

[00:12:46] - [Speaker 0]
The New Testament almost always uses the word prayer to mean make a request. When we're told to give thanks, it just says give thanks. Prayer is asking. It's never, never listening to God. It's us bringing our requests to God.

[00:13:06] - [Speaker 0]
More than that, it's us bringing our requests to our loving heavenly father. We're reminded of that at the start of the prayer. In verse nine, Jesus teaches us to pray, our father in heaven. When you pray, you come to the god who loves you and welcomes you into his family. And what's the first request Jesus teaches?

[00:13:30] - [Speaker 0]
It's not a request about us. It's about our father. We're to ask that his name be considered as holy or hallowed in the more traditional language. Everything wrong with the world stems from the fact that humans chose not to consider God's name as holy, to treat him as an equal or less than an equal. It's so horrible when you consider how holy, how great, how righteous and good and marvelous God is.

[00:14:04] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus, when he prays, prays like this. When he begins his prayer in John chapter 17, he prays, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son so that the son may glorify you. He only wanted to be glorified so everyone could see how great his father is. And if you go back and listen to that episode on John 17, episode 33, you'll see how the father being glorified is actually the best thing for everyone.

[00:14:37] - [Speaker 0]
Our prayers are to be God centric, which is why Jesus goes on to pray in verse 10, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Again, it's a request for God to be treated as the most important in everything because he is, because that's what's best. How much joy is there in heaven because the angels there do his will? How much pain and suffering and evil is on earth because people don't? Next, Jesus turns to our basic needs.

[00:15:18] - [Speaker 0]
Give us today our daily bread. It's a simple request to be provided with what we need each day, like the Israelites in the wilderness when they relied on God to give them manna and quail every day. Jesus is gonna talk a bit later about how we can trust God to make sure we have what we need. Then Jesus tells us to ask for forgiveness. It shows that Jesus isn't expecting that we'll do everything perfectly.

[00:15:47] - [Speaker 0]
We should aim for perfection, but we won't reach at this side of the new creation. And so we keep coming back to our loving heavenly father for forgiveness. It isn't a mathematical thing. It's not like, oh, I've sinned 10 times today, so I need to ask forgiveness 10 times. It's not that we won't be forgiven if we failed to confess one particular sin.

[00:16:11] - [Speaker 0]
Rather, it's an expression of the relationship we have with our father. I teach my kids to ask for forgiveness when they do the wrong thing, but I'm not keeping a record of all the times they have or haven't asked for it. That isn't how love works. Rather, they come when they can and when they see the need knowing that I love them and wanting the relationship to be right. There is one sin, though, that won't be forgiven.

[00:16:43] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus doesn't explain it immediately, but we get a hint of it when he says in verse 12, and forgive us our debts, another way of talking about sin, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. We'll come back to that one. The last two lines of the prayer ask for protection, not from cancer or heart disease, but from something much, much worse, the danger of sin. Verse 13 begins, and do not bring us into temptation. It's not that God tempts us, but it's a request to not even let us get near situations where we will be tempted.

[00:17:27] - [Speaker 0]
Instead of that, Jesus tells us to ask, but deliver us from the evil one. Often, you'll hear deliver us from evil as opposed to the evil one. It can be translated either way, but I think Jesus is saying deliver us from the evil one. Satan is the tempter. We saw him tempting Jesus in the wilderness in chapter four of Matthew's gospel.

[00:17:52] - [Speaker 0]
He tempted Adam and Eve. He's God's enemy, and if we side with God, he's our enemy as well. He wants to kill us by leading us with lies to reject God, and we need the God of power and truth to protect us from his lies. This request isn't that dissimilar to the start of the prayer. Your will be done on earth as in heaven.

[00:18:20] - [Speaker 0]
It starts with a desire to obey our heavenly father and ends with a desire to not disobey him. The whole prayer is soaked with a desire to have God at our center. But what about this line? Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. What if we don't forgive the people who've wronged us?

[00:18:43] - [Speaker 0]
What then? Well, Jesus makes it really clear that that's another level of hypocrisy. If you know the joy and wonder of being forgiven, of receiving that grace, then of course you want to give that same grace to others. It'll be the height of selfishness not to do that. In verse 14, Jesus says, for if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly father will forgive you as well.

[00:19:11] - [Speaker 0]
But if you don't forgive others, your father will not forgive your offenses. Forgiving people is hard. It hurts. It means you carry the pain of their wrong without passing it back onto them, which is exactly what God does for us through Jesus. He himself bore our sins on the cross so we wouldn't have to.

[00:19:42] - [Speaker 0]
How much greater pain was that for Jesus than it is for us? And so the warning is repeated over and over again in the New Testament. You've been forgiven. You must forgive others. For the prayer, that's it.

[00:20:01] - [Speaker 0]
Short, sharp. It isn't flowery. It isn't filled with big theological words. It certainly isn't a complete list of what we can ask God for. There are plenty of examples of praying for other things in the Bible.

[00:20:14] - [Speaker 0]
As we said, it's a model, not a mantra. As a model, it teaches us not to babble on, but to make simple requests. Keep God at the center and trust in the goodness of your heavenly father who hears you and knows you even before you speak. The last way Jesus tells his disciples to not be like the hypocrites is in the way that they fast. I used to think fasting was not eating at all, but often in Christian history, it's meant limiting yourself to very basic food for a time.

[00:20:54] - [Speaker 0]
The aim is to focus on prayer and God's word. It sounds like a great idea. I've never done it. Maybe I'm not disciplined enough or I love food too much. But you get how doing it, or more importantly, being known to do it, can make you look really spiritual, can't it?

[00:21:13] - [Speaker 0]
You can get a lot of praise from people for being that spiritual. So, of course, the hypocrites want everyone to know they're fasting. They don't care about God. They care about getting a reaction from the people around them. And so Jesus applies the same principle we've seen in prayer and giving, that is secrecy safeguards sincerity.

[00:21:39] - [Speaker 0]
He says in verse 16, whenever you fast, don't be gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly, I tell you, they have their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face so that your fasting isn't obvious to others, but to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. In other words, if you're really doing it for God, then God is the only one who needs to know about it.

[00:22:43] - [Speaker 0]
So far in the chapter, Jesus has been teaching his disciples how to have a god focus in their lives, a heaven focus, a focus on their heavenly father. What's the first prayer you pray? May your name, heavenly father, be seen as holy. Why do you do things like giving and fasting? For the pleasure of your heavenly father.

[00:23:06] - [Speaker 0]
Now Jesus uses the same principle to offer some sound investment advice, how to chase the big return, the worthwhile asset acquisition. He makes the contrast with things on earth and things in heaven. He tells us what we all know but we hope isn't true, that everything we have here, everything we own, it's all going to rot and break and be destroyed. That new car you admire so much will one day be in a scrapyard. The house you invest so much time in, it's gonna fall down.

[00:23:46] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus tells his disciples to invest in something so much better. He says in verse 19, don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves don't break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. In other words, you'll treasure what your heart wants. If your heart is earth focused, you're gonna grow treasure here.

[00:24:23] - [Speaker 0]
If your heart is heaven focused, you're gonna grow treasure there. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I think I mentioned this in the last episode, Jesus again shows the absolute lie of prosperity doctrine, the doctrine that says if you love and serve God, he'll make you wealthy on earth. It's a doctrine that pushes you to desire treasure on earth. It's a lie from the evil one. But, of course, that's an easy stone to fling.

[00:24:55] - [Speaker 0]
I could sit here all day and talk about the evil of prosperity doctrine and never mention the evil in my own heart. The reality is, though, I like stuff. I like new stuff. I like stuff I can see and hold and touch and own. And while Jesus is not saying it's wrong for Christians to own things, he is warning us about where our hearts are leading us.

[00:25:22] - [Speaker 0]
Because your focus, where you put your energy and talent and strength, will always be directed towards where your heart is. Or to put it another way, it'll be directed to where your eye is. Jesus talks about how the eye is the lamp of the body, not a lamp shining outwards like a superhero shining light out of their eyes, but shining inwards into the body. If your eye is directed towards heaven, that's going to affect every part of you. If your eye is directed towards earth, that's what the rest of your body is going to desire.

[00:26:01] - [Speaker 0]
So what does all that mean? Should Christians walk around looking up at the sky all the time? There have been lots of wacky cults in the last two thousand years, but I've never heard of one that does that. When I was younger, I used to think storing up treasure in heaven was all about the ministry you do to serve God's mission, the word speaking stuff, like teaching Sunday school or evangelizing friends or being on the prayer roster at church, maybe even running a couple of bible story podcasts. Not that podcasts existed then.

[00:26:35] - [Speaker 0]
All good, important things to do, but it was an attitude that elevated one type of Christian above another. The more speaking stuff you did, the more godly you were. It quite suits a guy who has what you might call the gift of the gab, or perhaps more cynically, a guy who likes the sound of his own voice. It also completely misses what Jesus has been talking about. Every instruction he's given is about what's going on in the heart, how you give, how you pray, how you fast, how you collect treasure.

[00:27:10] - [Speaker 0]
Is your heart focused on heaven or earth? Are you doing it for God or for people and possessions? You can misuse that idea. You can say, I'm doing it for God about anything. I'm playing football for God.

[00:27:25] - [Speaker 0]
I'm a workaholic for God. You can use it to sort of baptize whatever you want and make it sound really spiritual. But if it's really for God, what you do and the way you do it will fit with his priorities, his concerns. You can use the prayer that Jesus just taught to work it out. Are you doing it so that God's name will be seen to be great or so that your name will be seen to be great?

[00:27:51] - [Speaker 0]
Are you doing something in a way that's obedient to God's will, doing it on earth as in heaven? That's not meant to get you all angsty about trying to work out what God's will is. He's already revealed what he wants you to do in the Bible. Love God. Love others.

[00:28:06] - [Speaker 0]
Be a peacemaker. Repent from sin. All of that you can do if you're a butcher or a schoolteacher or a carpenter or a lawyer or a street sweeper or a biomechanical engineer? If you love God and seek to live his way and for his glory according to how he's told us to live, then you're building up treasure in heaven. Not five heavenly televisions or an 18 bedroom house with marble bathrooms in the new creation, but the pleasure of your heavenly father.

[00:28:44] - [Speaker 0]
And a way to test if you treasure what's on earth or what's in heaven is to see whether the pleasure of your heavenly father is something exciting to you or a bit of a letdown. For example, if you give money to the poor or to a gospel cause like missionaries working in a far different country, do you feel like you've lost something, your money, or gained something, more pleasure from your heavenly father? Next, Jesus says something that's easy to quote but much harder to believe, at least for me. I don't know about you. You might be great at this.

[00:29:47] - [Speaker 0]
He says in verse 24, no one can serve two masters since either he will hate one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other. He cannot serve both god and money. My problem is I want to serve both. I want to work hard in service of money or at least what money can get me and serve God. Jesus says that's impossible.

[00:30:18] - [Speaker 0]
You can't serve both. And the reason you can't serve both is because they have completely different aims. If you serve money, it's because money is portable selfishness. If someone gives me a book as a present, they've decided that this book would be good for me. They may be right or they may be wrong.

[00:30:39] - [Speaker 0]
But if they give me money, I can get whatever I want with that money, whatever my heart desires. I'm completely in charge Unless they haven't given me quite enough money to do what I want, then I have to find a way to get more money. Then I can do what my heart desires. Except then that thing isn't quite enough. I can buy the car, but only the base model.

[00:31:04] - [Speaker 0]
Or I'm renovating the kitchen, but the budget doesn't stretch to that really great cabinet set. Or I can't quite afford that holiday, so I need more money. And what will I do to get more money? Chasing the money becomes a lifelong goal. So should Christians not have any money or at least as little of it as possible?

[00:31:30] - [Speaker 0]
There have certainly been people who think that's a super spiritual way to live for Jesus. It's how you end up with people like monks and nuns. The thinking is all this earthly stuff is destructive. Therefore, if we get rid of it and live locked out from society and spend more time praying and in quiet reflection, then we'll be really godly. And all that effort and work that's been expended in the last couple of thousand years completely misses the point because Jesus says it's a matter of the heart.

[00:32:04] - [Speaker 0]
You can't change things outside your body and hope that that'll affect your heart. You need to have your heart going in the right direction, and that'll change how you live outwardly. If you try and do it the wrong way around, you just end up in hypocrisy. So what should we actually do? Well, Jesus says what we shouldn't be doing, and that's worrying.

[00:32:30] - [Speaker 0]
Worrying about what we'll eat and what we'll drink. He's taking it even further than living a life of luxury, storing up as much earthly treasure as he can. Now we're down to basic life stuff, food and water. And he says, don't worry about it. He's not saying, don't have it.

[00:32:48] - [Speaker 0]
You need it. He's talking about a heart issue. Don't worry about it. Where's it gonna come from? How am I gonna survive?

[00:32:57] - [Speaker 0]
Or do I have enough saved up? Jesus gives a few reasons why his disciples shouldn't worry. One, it kinda makes it sound like food and water are the only basics of life, but they're not. Knowing god is absolutely necessary for life. What did Jesus say to Satan in the wilderness?

[00:33:20] - [Speaker 0]
People don't live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. He also reminds them how useless worrying is. He says, can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying? I'm a realist by nature, which is a fancy way of saying I'm a pessimist, which means my tendency is to worry. Unfortunately, that worry makes zero difference to the outcome of whatever I'm worrying about.

[00:33:51] - [Speaker 0]
I say unfortunately because I have spent so much energy doing it. What a waste. But the big reason you don't have to worry is because your heavenly father will make sure that you have what you need. He's faithful to you. I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

[00:34:12] - [Speaker 0]
There's a reason the podcast is called stories of a faithful god. You don't have to worry because you can trust him. He will look after you. When my children were babies and I rocked them to sleep in my arms, They didn't panic that I dropped them. They weren't worried about whether I was gonna feed them tomorrow.

[00:34:38] - [Speaker 0]
They went to sleep. They didn't know or understand all the ways I was gonna look after them. They just knew they were safe in my arms, and we are safe in God's arms. Let me read this larger section from Jesus beginning in verse 25. Therefore, I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body, what you will wear.

[00:35:07] - [Speaker 0]
Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky. They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they? Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying?

[00:35:26] - [Speaker 0]
And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow. They don't labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that's how god clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you, you of little faith?

[00:35:52] - [Speaker 0]
So don't worry saying, what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

[00:36:24] - [Speaker 0]
Consider how incredibly freeing these words from Jesus are. People sometimes speak as though Christianity is a terrible burden. It's not. Just like being a child isn't a burden, the burden falls on the parent. If you trust your heavenly father, if you follow in Jesus' footsteps, you don't have to worry about what everyone else on the planet is worrying about.

[00:36:50] - [Speaker 0]
Am I going to have enough today, tomorrow, in a month or a year, or at retirement? You'll be freed from fear. There isn't enough money in the bank account this month. What do I do? Ask my heavenly father to give me what I need.

[00:37:06] - [Speaker 0]
You're free to take risks. You can be generous with money because God will look after you. He won't necessarily make you rich, but he will make sure you have what you need. You can be free to quit a job that pays really well when the boss asks you to do something really unethical. You can be free to spend on what seems like something completely silly.

[00:37:32] - [Speaker 0]
I knew a couple who built a big room on the back of their house. Why? They were retiring. Their kids were adults and out of the home. They didn't need that space, but they did it so that they could have bible studies and church events in their home.

[00:37:48] - [Speaker 0]
And for the years where our church had no building, we met on Sundays in a school hall, but so many of our smaller events happened in that big room that this couple didn't need for themselves. They built it so that kingdom work could happen. And let me tell you, there was so much joy that came from their generosity, both on earth and in heaven. Chapter seven begins with some words that have become almost a mantra in the modern Western world. Jesus says in chapter two verse one, do not judge.

[00:38:58] - [Speaker 0]
People in the West love that idea, but generally not for the reasons Jesus is talking about. To the non Christian world, the phrase don't judge is something you say to other people. In other words, you don't judge me, and it becomes an excuse to do anything you want. Getting drunk, all sorts of sexual sin, selfishly chasing a dream at the cost of others. Don't you judge me.

[00:39:23] - [Speaker 0]
Let me get on with what I wanna do without any sort of guilt or shame. But when Jesus says it, he's telling his disciples to say it to themselves. I should not judge you. And Jesus is really firm here. It's a bit like when he spoke about forgiveness.

[00:39:42] - [Speaker 0]
You know, if you can't forgive someone else, don't expect God to forgive you. Here, Jesus says, do not judge so that you won't be judged, for you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you'll be measured by the same measure you use. It fits with how Jesus has spoken against hypocrisy. Don't have one standard for yourself and a different standard for other people. Jesus is not saying never recognize or call out wrong behavior in other people.

[00:40:17] - [Speaker 0]
There are plenty of examples in the New Testament where that's exactly what we're called to do, and Jesus hints at it here. Rather, he's talking about our heart problem where we're so quick to see the fault in others and so slow to see the fault in ourselves. We need to spend far more time thinking about and considering our own actions, examining whether we're godly or sinful, repenting where we need to, giving thanks where we see good change. Unfortunately, the sinful heart doesn't want to do that because sin is about making yourself god, which means making yourself ruler and judge. So we look at other people's actions, and we judge whether they're good or bad in our own eyes.

[00:41:05] - [Speaker 0]
We declare in our hearts what's right and wrong in them. We stand over them and assume we're better than them. And it's so quick, isn't it? Sometimes I've judged someone for 10 different things in the time it takes me to say, do not judge so that you won't be judged. Sometimes what others are doing really is wrong, but somehow we make their sin worse than ours.

[00:41:31] - [Speaker 0]
For so long, homosexuality was spoken about as though it was somehow a worse sin than all the others, or at least all the others that we straight people do. No wonder same sex attracted people were so jaded against Christianity. All I could see was hypocrisy. Most of the time, though, when my heart says someone's actions are wrong, it's not because God said it's wrong. It's just a standard in my own head.

[00:42:01] - [Speaker 0]
And Jesus is saying, how would you like to be judged by that standard? Well, that would be horrifying. He gives this great illustration in verse three. He says, why do you look at the splinter in your brother's eye but don't notice the beam of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the splinter out of your eye and look, there's a beam of wood in your own eye.

[00:42:26] - [Speaker 0]
Hypocrite. First, take the beam of wood out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye. See, it isn't that we never call out bad behavior, but we have to do it humbly, checking our own actions and thoughts and motives first. And then if we do it, it's not to put people down or make them seem lesser than us, but always to help them as we've been helped. When you're tempted to judge someone and put them down, just picture yourself walking around with a giant plank of wood in your eye.

[00:43:06] - [Speaker 0]
After giving this great illustration, Jesus says something that kinda sounds like it's jumped out of the book of Proverbs. It's almost like, what's it doing here? It's a single sentence. In verse six, Jesus says, don't give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under your feet and turn and tear you to pieces. On the face of it, its meaning is pretty straightforward.

[00:43:33] - [Speaker 0]
If you've got something really good, don't give it to people who are just gonna trample on it. That makes sense. And as I said, it reads like a wise saying from the book of Proverbs. But what on earth is it doing here? Why does Jesus say it here?

[00:43:50] - [Speaker 0]
Because it's kind of general. People have used it to say all sorts of things over the years. That is they'll say, the pearls means this, and the pigs means those people. It's so general. You can make it say whatever you want.

[00:44:04] - [Speaker 0]
And I was really tempted to just skip over it. But after forcing myself to slow down and do a bit of reading and thinking, I think it actually helps us with a couple of different things. One's big picture, and one's more specific. In the big picture of the sermon, it's worth asking what Jesus is doing across the whole sermon. What's he saying about himself and his own teaching?

[00:44:30] - [Speaker 0]
Earlier, he's taken parts of the Old Testament law and told his disciples how to understand them. They need to understand them in a new way. It isn't inconsistent with the old way, but you never would have got there if you didn't have Jesus saying, hey. Anger's kinda like murder. As well as talking about the law, a lot of the sermon is also very prophetic.

[00:44:54] - [Speaker 0]
That is the Old Testament prophets taught the people to obey God. They also sometimes told them what was gonna happen in the future, and Jesus does both those things. So in this sermon, we've got the law and prophecy. Now the Jews divided the Old Testament up into three sections. They had the law, which is the first five books of the Bible.

[00:45:16] - [Speaker 0]
Then there's the prophets, which includes all the history stuff like Joshua and Judges and so on, and the prophetic books like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Zechariah. Sometimes the Jews would just talk about these two as a summary for the whole, the law and the prophets, but they also include a third section. The third section they call the writings. Today, it's often referred to as wisdom literature, books like Psalms and Song of Songs and Proverbs. Do you see where I'm going?

[00:45:50] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus has brought his disciples up on a mountain, a bit like Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai, but they're not gonna hear a voice from heaven. They get to hear his voice, to hear what he has to say, to give them a radical new understanding that encompasses the law, the prophets, and the writings. In other words, the whole Old Testament. From now on, we have to understand the Old Testament through the lens of how Jesus teaches us because he is the authoritative word of God. People make all sorts of mistakes when they read the Old Testament without reference to Jesus.

[00:46:38] - [Speaker 0]
I also think there's something more specific that Jesus is doing with this verse about pearls and pigs, and it has to do with how wisdom works. If you've ever read the book of Proverbs, you'll probably notice that sometimes it says you should do one thing, and other times, you should do the complete opposite. The most striking example is Proverbs 26 verses four and five. Verse four says, don't answer a fool according to his foolishness, or you'll be like him yourself. And so I think to myself, right.

[00:47:10] - [Speaker 0]
Got it. Don't answer a fool. Waste of time. But then the very next verse says, answer a fool according to his foolishness, or he'll become wise in his own eyes. And I think, well, which is it?

[00:47:25] - [Speaker 0]
Do I answer the fool or don't I? How can both be true? But, actually, wisdom says there are lots of things that have to be decided in the moment. Sometimes it's gonna be really wise to answer a fool. Sometimes it's gonna be best just to keep quiet.

[00:47:44] - [Speaker 0]
And interestingly, you see Jesus do both in the gospels at different times because he's the perfect wise man. So here in the sermon this is a very long time on a verse I was just gonna skip over. Sorry about that. Here, Jesus is giving us some really important wisdom. He's just told us to remove the log from our own eye so that we can see clearly to remove the speck from another person's eye.

[00:48:12] - [Speaker 0]
It's really loving and kind and humble to care for another person like that. But I think Jesus is saying, actually, there are gonna be times where you shouldn't try to help someone with the speck in their eye. Even if you've removed your log, they're not going to appreciate it. They're not gonna understand it. It'll be like throwing pearls to pigs.

[00:48:35] - [Speaker 0]
You can apply that to other parts of the sermon as well, like where Jesus says, if someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to him the other cheek as well. There are times where we absolutely should do that. Wisdom says there are times where that's not the most helpful thing to do. How do you know when to do each one? Well, you have to keep learning wisdom from Jesus.

[00:49:00] - [Speaker 0]
Also, ask your heavenly father, the one who loves you immensely, to make you more wise. Jesus says in verse seven, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds.

[00:49:19] - [Speaker 0]
And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good things to those who ask him? As a parent, I love giving stuff to my kids. Sometimes I see them make mistakes, and I think, ask.

[00:49:48] - [Speaker 0]
Why didn't you ask? I'm right here. It's so precious when they do ask, though, even about simple life things. Like, they get their first job and say, dad, can you explain how tax works? Of course, I don't wanna tell you about all the times where they've asked and I've messed up.

[00:50:07] - [Speaker 0]
I'm a seriously flawed human being just like all the other parents out there. So if someone as flawed as me can give good gifts, how much better is God at it? He loves us to ask for good things like wisdom and joy and love and understanding, and he loves to give them. So Jesus tells his disciples, ask. And then he summarizes a big point he's been trying to get across throughout the sermon.

[00:50:38] - [Speaker 0]
Obviously, he's taught us about how good our heavenly father is, but in verse 12, he says, therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the law and the prophets. There's that shorthand for the Old Testament, the law and the prophets. And Jesus summarizes the whole thing as do to others what you want them to do for you. It's interesting. I was reading how there were rabbis around Jesus' day who had similar sort of summaries of the Old Testament, but with a small and really important difference.

[00:51:17] - [Speaker 0]
They'd put it negatively. Don't do to others what you wouldn't want done to you. It's a really important difference because in that, you don't have to do anything for anyone. You just have to avoid doing bad stuff to them. But Jesus says go out of your way to do good things for people.

[00:51:39] - [Speaker 0]
That takes a lot more work and care and love. How do you know what to do for them? Well, what would you like them to do for you? Do that. If you were lonely, what would you love people to do for you?

[00:51:55] - [Speaker 0]
Go do that for the other lonely people. If someone's just had a baby, what would you love to have someone do for you? Well, do that for them. It still takes wisdom. They may hate what you love.

[00:52:07] - [Speaker 0]
If you're an extrovert and you'd love five people to come around and chat for hours on end, but they're an introvert, then what you love would be an absolute nightmare for them. But it's a good rule of thumb about how to love someone, and it summarizes the law and the prophets. As he nears the end of the sermon, Jesus gives some really big warnings to his disciples, both for how they should respond to his words, but also letting them know how others will respond. First, he makes it really clear that the majority of the world will never accept Jesus and what he teaches even though his way leads to eternal life. Most people would choose to continue on the path that rejects Jesus, rejects the one true God, and will end up in the destruction that comes from it.

[00:53:20] - [Speaker 0]
Not because Jesus is mean, but because if you reject the one who can give you life, then the only other option is death. So Jesus says in verse 13, enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it. Those are sobering words. To be clear, Jesus is not saying that the way to get life is a big secret, and you have to go through all these rituals and initiations to become one of the few special people who'll be allowed in.

[00:54:04] - [Speaker 0]
No. The narrowness of the gate to life comes from the fact that there's only one way in, and it's Jesus. In John fourteen six, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. So Hinduism won't get you there.

[00:54:24] - [Speaker 0]
Buddhism won't get you there. Islam won't get you there. Agnosticism won't get you there. Being a good person in your own eyes won't get you there. It's only Jesus.

[00:54:36] - [Speaker 0]
Faith in him alone, listening to his words alone. Of course, all those examples I've just given come from outside what the world broadly calls Christianity. But Jesus wants his disciples to know that there's a danger inside as well. In verse 15, he says, be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. Notice the particular type of false prophet Jesus is talking about.

[00:55:10] - [Speaker 0]
He's not talking about false prophets who look like false prophets. You can spot them a mile away. The false prophets Jesus is talking about are much harder to recognize because even though they're ravaging wolves, they're dressed up like sheep. They look and sound like the real deal. You can go into a church that loves the Bible.

[00:55:33] - [Speaker 0]
Its doctrinal statement is absolutely biblical. They're recommended by other good churches. Their pastor is a platform speaker at big conferences. They look like one of the sheep. And yet they could be a wolf ready to take your life away.

[00:55:53] - [Speaker 0]
So how do you spot them? Well, Jesus says the same way you spot a fruit tree. You might look at a tree and think it's an apple tree, but then you see it's growing oranges, so it must be an orange tree. You can't look at a person's heart, but you can look at their actions, their way of life, how they speak to people, how they treat people. Do they care for the weak and lost and lonely, or do they take advantage of them?

[00:56:23] - [Speaker 0]
Do they railroad people into getting what they want? How do they respond to criticism or rebuke? In verse 16, Jesus says, you'll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.

[00:56:45] - [Speaker 0]
A good tree can't produce bad fruit. Neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, so you'll recognize them by their fruit. So many churches look for a pastor who'll make their church grow or who preaches really beautifully or who makes friends easily. You'll notice in one Timothy and Titus in the list of things to look for in a church leader, none of those things are mentioned.

[00:57:19] - [Speaker 0]
It's all about their behavior, their way of life, their godliness. We need to be really cautious of people who preach well but who bully the church or who take advantage of the church. There's a really great podcast called the rise and fall of Mars Hill produced by Christianity Today. And if you wanna understand just how seductive and destructive a wolf in sheep's clothing is, I thoroughly recommend it. And the problems came in that church because people didn't look at the fruit of their leader, the rise and fall of Mars Hill.

[00:58:00] - [Speaker 0]
Go check it out. Of course, it's not like these wolves necessarily see their wolfishness in themselves, and so we come to the words we began with. Verse 21, Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father in heaven. He's not saying you're saved by your good works. He's saying, if you're saved, if you've become one of my true disciples, you will do God's will.

[00:58:34] - [Speaker 0]
You will seek to obey Jesus. Not perfectly, remember. A part of doing God's will according to Jesus is asking for forgiveness. But Jesus is saying the hypocrites who are so good at praying publicly in my name but who never pray in private or who make a great show of things like fasting or giving financially but whose private life is the complete opposite. God sees them.

[00:59:00] - [Speaker 0]
He knows that they're only play acting. Jesus says in verse 22, on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name? What's amazing is that in replying to that, Jesus actually doesn't deny their words. They did prophesy in his name. They did drive out demons in his name.

[00:59:29] - [Speaker 0]
They did do miracles in his name. So what? Did they trust and obey Jesus? Did they love him when no one was watching? Don't be fooled by miracles.

[00:59:41] - [Speaker 0]
Remember when God made Aaron's staff turn into a snake in Exodus, the Egyptian priests did exactly the same thing. They certainly didn't trust God. And this isn't just a few people. It's many people, a large number. People sitting in churches right now today.

[00:59:59] - [Speaker 0]
Verse 22 again. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name? Then I will announce to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers. It's worth stopping and examining your life and taking the log out of your eye so you don't end up in that situation.

[01:00:29] - [Speaker 0]
Just to be super clear, though, this is not targeting anxious people who love and trust Jesus and want to obey him, but who feel worried about whether Jesus will accept them. If you've come to Jesus in repentance, you are forgiven. Jesus is your lord and savior. God is your father in heaven. And so what should you do as you hear these warnings from Jesus?

[01:00:57] - [Speaker 0]
Well, be wise. Jesus tells his disciples that the wise person is the one who hears what Jesus is saying and acts on it, who actually cares about what Jesus is teaching here about the heart, about prayer, about loving other people, about trusting God and seeking his kingdom first, about laying up treasure in heaven and says, yes. That's how I wanna live and actually works to do it. It's the opposite to the hypocrites who hear the words, talk about the words, affirm the words, but don't bother to act on them. Jesus says it's like building your house on a solid, unshakable rock.

[01:01:43] - [Speaker 0]
Here are his words in verse 24. He says, therefore, anyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn't collapse because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

[01:02:12] - [Speaker 0]
The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash. You see, the praise of other people will not stand the storm. Treasure on Earth will be washed away in the flood. The self assurance that comes from talking down other people's actions while ignoring your own faults will be blown away in the wind.

[01:02:45] - [Speaker 0]
But a life built on the words of Jesus will last for all eternity. As Jesus finishes his sermon to his disciples, we discover that the crowds have been listening in, and what they've heard astonishes them. Verse 29 tells us they're astonished because he was teaching them like one who had authority and not like their scribes. When I first read that, I thought it meant they were really impressed by Jesus, like he's just given the best TED talk ever. It was so much easier to listen to him than their regular guy at the local synagogue.

[01:03:24] - [Speaker 0]
But that's not it at all. Rather, they're probably quite confused by Jesus' teaching style. If you went to hear a scribe teaching in those days, his sermon would be totally submissive to other human authorities. Say they're talking about David and Goliath. The scribe might say, well, rabbi such and such says the stones David collected mean this, but rabbi so and so says it actually means that.

[01:03:51] - [Speaker 0]
It's very differential preaching. But Jesus hasn't done that at all. In fact, he hasn't even really quoted the Old Testament prophets. The only time he has quoted the Old Testament is to give it a fuller meaning that you never would have got just by reading the Old Testament. So where does the authority lie?

[01:04:13] - [Speaker 0]
It lies in Jesus. He's the speaker of the very word of God. And just in case you're tempted to think, who does Jesus think he is? How can he claim that sort of authority? Remember what happened at his baptism.

[01:04:30] - [Speaker 0]
God the father called out from heaven and said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Jesus isn't just some particularly good teacher. He isn't just a great man from history. He's the one through whom we need to understand the entire word of God, and you'll be wise to build your life on his words. As Jesus heads back down the mountain, the crowds keep following him to see what'll happen, and they're about to see that his authority isn't just empty words.

[01:05:07] - [Speaker 0]
It's demonstrated as his powerful words bring about powerful action. But that's a story for next time. Hi there, everyone. Thanks so much for listening in to the episode. I hope you found it really helpful.

[01:05:36] - [Speaker 0]
If you have found it helpful, it would be great if you could leave a review on your listening platform. It helps other people find the show and click play the first time. A star rating is good. A written review is even better. I wanna give a big shout out to Stacy who's listening in Alabama in The United States.

[01:05:56] - [Speaker 0]
Stacy, it was so great to get your email and hear how the podcast has been helpful for you. Thanks so much for listening and getting in contact. For other people out there, I'd love to hear from you. The hardest thing about podcasting is that I don't get to meet the people I'm talking to. Why not drop me a line and tell me a little bit about yourself?

[01:06:15] - [Speaker 0]
Go to faithfulgod.net/contact and shoot me a message, or just email me, dave@faithfulgod.net. I'd love to hear from you. I need more funding to keep going with the show. Would you consider becoming a financial supporter? You could give once a week or once a month.

[01:06:34] - [Speaker 0]
Just go to faithfulgod.net/donate. That's faithfulgod.net/donate to help me and all the people who listen. Keep trusting Jesus. Bye for now.