Jesus continues his sermon on the mount and talks about what it means to be saved, what it means to judge others, and how many will be saved.

Judging Others

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

⁶ “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Is Jesus saying here that we can’t judge anyone at all? No. I’m sure you have heard it said many times “Well, Jesus said that you shouldn’t judge others. So don’t judge me!” or “Well, I know what they are doing is wrong, but I don’t want to judge others because that is wrong”. Both views are wrong and unhelpful. This passage isn’t about not judging others, it’s about not being a hypocrite. Do not judge or you will be judged. By what? By the same standard you use to judge others. So, if you are not living in sin, and you judge and condemn someone who is living in sin, is that wrong? No. It’s actually what we should be doing.

Jesus clarifies this at the end of the teaching. He says that after you take the plank out of your own eye you SHOULD then help your neighbor with their speck. If we couldn’t judge, we couldn’t even take the speck out. You need to be able to see clearly to remove something from someone’s eye without hurting them. When we judge, we must judge from a position of integrity and truth. We are commanded to do so. Jesus didn’t say to leave your neighbor with the speck still in their eye but to remove it. To help them out of their sin by letting them know what they are doing is wrong.

If we aren’t being hypocrites, then we are right in judging others about it. We can use a good measure to see and judge sin.

Pigs?

Verse 6 goes talks about what to do with someone who is hostile to the gospel. The sacred in that analogy is the gospel message. Christ’s death and salvation. Do not give it to those who would tear it to shreds and do give what is holy to pigs because they will just stomp on it and cover it with their poop and filth. It is foolish to pursue someone who is spiritually dead to the point where they hate God.

Does this mean that we should never spread the gospel? No. What it does mean is that you should be careful what you give of yourself to others. If you are in a relationship of any kind with someone who is hostile to the word, that will seep into you. Guard your heart. Do not let yourself fall into the same lies and sin that they live in.

Also, if someone is in open hostility to God, love them, tell them the truth, and trust in the lord to help them down the line. Dust off your clothing, shake out your shoes, and wash your hands of them, just as Jesus told his disciples during their missionary work. The picture was to make yourself purified of even the dust of such unbelieving people. Do not let their sin or doubt into you. It is better sometimes to love someone and be the light of Jesus to them rather than preaching to them. There are those who will not be saved by choice. Use wisdom and listen for guidance from God.

Prayer and Trust

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

God is a good father, and he will always answer prayers. Sometimes the answer will be “no” because he is a good father. If I ask for poison from my father, would he give it to me? If God who is good and knows more than my earthly father, then he would surely answer “no” to my prayers that are harmful or destructive or counteractive to the will of God.

If what you have been praying for for years is not happening, is it because it’s not in God’s will for you to have that? Maybe. It could just be that the season or time for that to happen in your life is not yet ready. God’s timing and God’s plan for us is better than we can make. I make an example of salvation like trusting a parachute often in the bible study that I lead. I believe prayer is in a similar category. You can try and make your own life with whatever you find around and hope that what you made is good. Or you can trust in the master craftsman to make it for you. Walking in faith.

Even so, we should continually ask, seek, and knock and try to remain in God’s will through it all. We can pray in the spirit to accomplish this (in tongues), or we can pray, fast, and listen for the answer. The more you pray and read the word, the more you will be in the will of God since you will be overflowing with his presence. If I am always by my father’s side, I see what he does and can hear him and his will for my life. The same is true with Yahweh.

There is a contradiction I want to clear up from my Matthew 6 post, there are those who claim that Matthew 6:7 and 7:7 contradict each other. Since one says to pray continually and the other to pray very little. This is silly. They have very different contexts. Matthew 6:7 is talking about using mantras and set prayers for everything in general.

Matthew 7:7 is talking about earnestly seeking God in a private and personal way. As you would your own father. Going before him and asking a specific thing of him even if you have to ask multiple times. There are times where my son has to ask me 5 or 6 times something before, I am able to give him my attention or it is the right time for him to have it. When I am finishing up another work for him or when he is not ready for something. He has to wait. BUT, that doesn’t mean he should stop asking for what is good from me.

The Narrow and Wide Gates

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

You could make a case for verses 13 onward to refer to all the false churches that have come out (Catholicism, Mormons, JW’s, etc.). I believe that those who Jesus says he never knew are professing Christians that are just not born again (not actually saved). They have not entered the narrow gate of faith but are relying on the board road of good works for salvation. The rest of the sermon is about who is and who is not actually saved and how we can tell.

Salvation

True and False Prophets

¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

This is the test on how you can tell if someone (or yourself) is saved. Do you produce good fruit out of the abundance of their heart. This gets into the James 2 passage about salvation as well. Does this mean you need to do good deeds (works) to be saved? No. That is not what this or James is saying. The way you can tell if someone is saved is if they are producing good works because of their faith. It is the byproduct of the seed of salvation that was planted in them, which over time grew into a tree that is capable of producing fruit. If the fruit of your life is good, then the tree which grew them is good. If the fruit of your life is bad, then the tree is bad.

Fruit is a very good analogy here (shocker that God came up with something good, I know). Fruit is only created after years of pouring into the tree. You start as a seed which needs the proper soil, water, and food to grow into a sapling. From there you need constant sunlight (God’s presence), water (the Word), and nutrients (God’s provision) to grow into a tree. Once you are a tree, you need to become mature enough to actually produce fruit. When you are a mature Christian, you should naturally create fruit for the kingdom.

If you are producing bad fruit, then you are not born again. You have the same seed of sin and death which you planted when you participated in the original sin (Romans 7:7-12) and lost your innocence. If you claim to be a Christian but live in unrepentant, habitual sin. Then you are deceiving yourself. You are not a real Christian. You do not have saving faith just as James says. You are trusting in your works, or you just don’t really believe what you think you do. You do not have the relationship with God which will save you.

I never knew you

True and False Disciples

²¹ “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 who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

In the Hebrew you would repeat words to emphasize importance. So, for them to say “lord, lord” would mean these are people who are in Christianity but not real born-again Christians. We know its Christians because they perform the signs of a Christian in the name of Jesus. Yet they are not saved.

The narrow gate also implies this reality (as does the parable of the 10 virgins, Matthew 25 1:13). Not everyone who claims to be Christian or follows Jesus will be saved. So, if not everyone who professes Jesus will be saved, how much more are the ones who don’t will be condemned (Buddhists, Muslims, etc.). Those who do not have good fruit will also be in this category. You grew up in church, spent your entire life being a Luke-warm Christian without serving in the kingdom, and then at judgement day you will have the surprised Pikachu face when Jesus says to get away from him. Jesus never knew you even if you say you knew him.

Another one I see a lot is false Christians who think they deserve heaven. This is another telltale sign that someone isn’t really saved. No one deserves heaven. If you think you do, you need to analyze the sin in your life and how dirty and evil you are. You deserve Hell and the only reason you don’t go there is the blood of the lamb covering your sin. Repent and trust in Christ for faith realizing that you can’t get there by yourself.

So, how can we tell if we are saved? If we are saved by grace and we don’t require works for salvation, why do we need good fruit? You don’t need good fruit to be saved. You can tell if someone is saved by their fruit. The thief on the cross had no good works. He deserved his crucifixion. Yet, he was saved. You only need real faith and trust in Jesus and a relationship with him. This comes with repentance and after enough time, good works. It is the byproduct of the salvation you already received when you were baptized by the spirit and born again.

The Wise and Foolish Builders

²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

“Rock” here is petran. It is the same word as Matthew 16 where Jesus says on this rock I will build my church. Referring to himself as we also see in 1 Peter 2:4-8. Those who make Jesus their foundation and builds their lives around him will be saved. We have a firm foundation that can withstand all attacks from the enemy and give us joy and peace in all situations. This life is fleeting. Jesus is eternal and our life with him will be forever.

²⁸ When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹ because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

The people were amazed at the way Jesus taught because the Jewish leaders would teach in a weak way. They would give their teaching and then ask the people “Amen?” to see if the people agreed with their teaching. If the people agreed, they would respond with “Amen” to acknowledge that the teaching was true.

Jesus on the other hand starts his statements with “amen, amen I tell you”, which shows an authority equal to scripture that Jesus is speaking in. This would have been very radical and different from what they were used to. I imagine they also could feel the power and authority of God in Jesus when he spoke.

As I mentioned in my Matthew 5 post, verse 28 shows that Jesus was speaking to everyone and not just his inner disciples. There were crowds. This isn’t super relevant, but I have seen some people with wacky beliefs try to say that this sermon was only applicable to the apostles and Christians don’t have to follow the teaching. So, I thought I would mention it here as a reference.