Sermon on the mount
Dogs, and pigs and pearls???
What is Jesus talking about?
Matthew 7:6
Lets recap
·
The sermon was Jesus teaching his followers about
the law
·
The sermon was
Jesus setting the course of His ministry
·
The sermon is as
relevant today as ever
o Some believe its not
o If your not convinced that the Sermon on the Mount is relevant
for us today, you can be sure you will not desire or make an effort to live as
Jesus taught.
·
IT takes the help
of the holy spirit to do what Jesus is asking us to do
o Such a righteousness—which includes blessing and loving
our enemies—is possible, yes, but only by the Holy Spirit
·
The sermon
happened over several days
What is the Sermon on the Mount for??
·
The purpose of the
Sermon on the Mount is to demonstrate the kind of teaching—and the kind of
living with regard to character and conduct—that should govern the people of
God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
o It show us we cant rely on our selves
o We have to trust and rely on Jesus
o We need the holy spirit to live in us
o We need God to live this life like Jesus
§ With out him it is impossible
Matthew 7:1–6 (ESV)
1“Judge not, that you be not judged.
2For with the judgment you pronounce you will
be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
3Why do you see the speck that is in your
brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me
take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?
5You hypocrite, first take the log out of
your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your
brother’s eye.
6“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not
throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to
attack you.
So what have we learned so far??? (7:1-5)
·
We have seen
that we are not allowed to play God by judging others.
o This is His sole right.
·
We have also
understood that judging is best defined as uncalled-for criticism.
o If you dish out uncalled-for criticism, you will get
it back.
o God Himself will even turn on you for the moment.
·
So it is in our
best interest to practice Jesus’ teaching—that if we judge we will get it back,
and if we don’t judge, we won’t be judged
·
The plank in us
magnifies and blinds: It magnifies the other person’s fault and blinds us to
our own problems (sins).
·
We can get
involved but with great caution and only after we make sure we aren’t
personally involved!
6“Do not give
dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample
them underfoot and turn to attack you.
Michael Eaton considers
that this is “the most searching, challenging and humbling part” of the Sermon
on the Mount
Wow what a verse? Dogs
and pigs and pearls oh my! Trample under foot and attack you?!?! Could be a
scene from the wizard of OZ! This is one confusing verse and if you’re like me
some times we just blow by these kinds of verses because, well, they’re kinda
hard to understand! You need to break out the study bible and commentaries and
study these to really try and figure theses out!
So with that said, lets
dig in and sees what Jesus is talking about!
First of all it’s a figure of speech!
·
You know
o You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him
drink
o Crooked as a dogs hind leg
o This thing weighs a ton!
·
Using a figure
of speech (referring to dogs, pearls), Jesus shows we do need to discriminate.
So what is this all about?
First
·
So we don’t take
the previous section to extremes and never offer any judgment.
·
The assumption
here is that we can and must make judgments.
·
It is not a
case of pointing the finger but knowing when not to speak, when to speak and to
whom.
·
This verse
shows, moreover, that there is a place for Church discipline and also a time
when false teaching must be exposed.
Second
·
It teaches us
that we may be right in our judgment about a person but wrong as to when and
how we apply it.
·
For example, we
may see clearly that a person is dead wrong in what he or she does, says or in
his or her attitude. But if we don’t act with great caution, all we say will
backfire on us.
·
It would mean
we violated this verse.
·
This verse is
primarily a call for wisdom.
Third
·
As we proceed
through the Sermon on the Mount, we all need to be reminded of the teaching how
not to grieve the Holy Spirit.
·
How many of us
have grieved the Spirit accidentally, because we did not exercise the kind of
wisdom implied in this most unusual verse?
·
Forth,
·
It teaches us
that we often must make a quick but silent judgment of the people we are with.
·
It calls for
shrewd, godly discernment.
·
Jesus assumes
we should be able to do this.
·
It also means
we must exercise control regarding our words and deeds.
·
This verse is
about controlling the tongue. As in the previous verses, it means we must be
swift to hear, slow to speak (James 1:19).
Matthew 7:6 is given to us, so we will not misjudge the previous
section on judging—and that we don’t misjudge people in our relationships.
Although all people have sinned, not all people are the same. Actually, every
single person we meet is in a sense unique.
So lets take this from here on in two parts.
·
Part one “pearls to Pigs” “trampled under foot”.
·
Part two Giving holy things to dogs” “gets you
attacked”.
Part one “pearls
to Pigs” “trampled under foot”
“the weak”
Biblical Verse of casting Pearls
This verse relates to what we reveal about ourselves
in a testing situation—but don’t realize at first we are being tested.
1.
Take Hezekiah, a godly
king, one of the undoubted best in the Old Testament. But he did something
foolish. Hezekiah received envoys from Babylon and showed them what was in his
storehouses—the silver, gold, spices, fine oil, indeed, “his entire armory and
everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all
his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them” (Isaiah 39:2).
2.
Solomon made a similar
mistake, giving the queen of Sheba “all she desired and asked for” (1 Kings 10:13). Keep in mind that Solomon’s greatest
gift was his wisdom.
Theses are classic cases of casting your pearls to
Pigs!
It shows how the wisest people on earth have weak
and blind spots, that they can be trapped and do stupid things!
Being all things to all people
1 Corinthians
9:21–23 (NLT)
21When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the
Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I
do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.
22When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness,
for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with
everyone, doing everything I can to save some.
23I do everything to spread the Good News and share in
its blessings.
·
We must never
forget that people have feelings.
·
Some have
tender consciences.
·
We don’t want
to hurt them unnecessarily.
·
Not all can
cope with what is new and different to the same degree.
·
We must reach
people where they are and not assume they should be stronger or more
experienced than they are.
·
“Accept him
whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s
faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats
only vegetables” (Romans 14:1–2).
·
There is no
good reason to lead a weaker Christian to anger, not to mention discouragement.
·
We have to be
careful not to push a new follower away by being over zealous in our
accountability of them
·
We must have
discernment when dealing with folks
Be careful not to cause anyone to stray because of
your walk
1 Corinthians
8:9 (NLT)
9But you must be careful so that your freedom does
not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.
·
Never assume
that all those Christians around you have the same maturity, background,
knowledge or culture.
·
Matthew 7:6
relates precisely to this sort of issue.
·
We must not
only accept people as they are but avoid trying to change them by casting our
pearls.
·
They may not be
“pigs” tomorrow, but they could well be today!
·
The last thing
we want to do is destroy them while they are unseasoned in doctrine or
practice.
Be careful whom you confide in!
John 16:12
(NLT)
12“There is so much more I want to tell you,
but you can’t bear it now.
·
This verse is
also important with regard to whom you confide in.
·
Many a deep
hurt has taken place because we confided in someone who couldn’t cope with the
information given to them.
·
You must be
sure that this person not only can be trusted with what you share, but also
able to cope with it.
·
Remember, too,
that we have all been swine or dogs at one time or another.
·
A verse such as
Matthew 7:6 should help us not to judge people around us who are yet unable to
bear what we can cope with.
·
We need to be
patient with them, watching carefully our words and actions.
·
I myself
have violated this verse more often than I care to think about.
We
are talking about WEAK Christians
·
Weak Christians
are those who must be treated like children.
·
Perhaps they
are like those in Corinth who never move beyond a diet of milk.
·
But among the
weak are those who are hypersensitive—easily hurt and unable to cope with
needful criticism or suggestions.
·
The weak can
include those who are jealous—they can’t cope with your success or financial
status.
·
The weak could
even include those who are not highly intelligent.
·
They include
those who are immature in their understanding.
·
If you aren’t
careful, they will turn on you.
Do not be angry with people like this.
We will always have them. Some of us were once like that! We may still be like
that in some ways. The irony of Matthew 7:6 is that Jesus is talking about all
of us.
Part two Giving holy things to dogs” “gets you
attacked”.
The Wicked!
Matthew Henry
“But the reference is to
such as they found obstinate after the gospel was preached to them, such as
blasphemed it, and persecuted the
preachers of it; let them not spend much time among such, for it would be
lost labour, but let them turn to others”
·
Sometimes we
spend to much time with folks that just don’t want help
·
They want your
labor
·
They want your
money
·
But they are
unwilling to change
·
We must be
careful to not waste all of our time on folks that just don’t want your help
·
I have found
myself in this position to much for my liking
o Try and help only to get trampled! And attacked!
“As a rule to all in
giving reproof. Our zeal against sin must be guided by discretion, and we must not go about to give instructions, counsels, and rebukes, much less comforts, to hardened
scorners, to whom it will certainly do
no good, but who will be exasperated and enraged at us. Throw a pearl to a
swine, and he will resent it, as if you threw a stone at him!”
·
We have to have
discernment as to who we spend time and energy on
·
We have to
consider there life and if they are truly trying to change
·
We have
consider if they only want what we can give, or are truly trying to become
followers of Jesus
·
This goes back
to my thinking that helping is good, enabling is bad, and spending time on
folks who don’t or wont follow Jesus teaching is a waste of our resources!
·
And those
people who wont take direction or correction are those people!
“Among the generation of
the wicked, there are some that have arrived at such a pitch of wickedness, that they are looked upon
as dogs and swine; they are impudently and notoriously vile; they have so long walked
in the way of sinners, that they have sat down in the seat of the scornful; they professedly hate and despise instruction, and set it at defiance,
so that they are irrecoverably and irreclaimably wicked”
·
You know who
you are and we have all dealt with them
·
Every time you
lovingly give them instruction or council its always someone else fault
·
They are always
angry with you for it
One can expect no other
than that they will trample the reproofs under their feet, in scorn of them,
and rage against them; for they are impatient of control and contradiction; and
they will turn again and attack the reprovers; tearing apart their good names
with their accusations, return them wounding words for their healing ones; and
attack them with persecution
·
Has this happened
to you?
·
Have you done
this to someone that was just trying to help you see your sin?
The wicked are the
lost who don’t want to know. They remain unteachable. There comes a time you
may have to give up on certain people. Some folks (apostates) hang around to
disturb, to draw attention to themselves and cause division. Theses folks take
your time, and sap your strength.
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