SERMON ON THE MOUNT continued

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 perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:15-21)

EXPOSITION:

Note, A man may be a preacher, may have gifts for the ministry, and an external call to it, and perhaps some success in it, and yet be a wicked man; may help others to heaven, and yet come short himself.......This should be an awakening word to all Christians. If a preacher, one that cast out devils, and wrought miracles, be disowned of Christ for working iniquity; what will become of us, if we be found such? And if we be such, we shall certainly be found such. At God’s bar, a profession of religion will not bear out any man in the practice and indulgence of sin; therefore let every one that names the name of Christ, depart from all iniquity. (Henry, Matthew, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers) 1997.)

TESTIMONY:

As we saw last week, there are a good number of passages warning about imposters in ministry. Likewise, there are also many ordinary people in the church who proclaim themselves to be followers of Jesus, who really aren't. The tares will be separated from the wheat in due course.

Today's message is a warning. Be careful who you allow to influence your walk with Jesus. Do they truly 'practice what they preach?' If you don't know, it is safer not to follow their leading.

There is a problem with big ministries. Of necessity, the leaders are so far removed from the people, that it is just about impossible to check them out. We see many leaders being exposed at the present time, which comes with tremendous hurt and damage to the people, numbers of whom will never grace a church again, and may well throw away their faith.

Beware of the spiritual 'super salesman', who will likely look good, perhaps with a 'trophy wife', who likes to acquire the good things of the world rather than sacrifice the material in order to seek and find the spiritual. Most prosperity preachers fall into this category.

Secondly, be careful not to confuse anointing with godliness. I say this not from a position of jealousy, but as a caution from one who has been blessed with an anointing. Most times I speak, the Holy Spirit will come in power at some time during a series of meetings. It amazed me the first time it happened and has continued to surprise me ever since, for I do nothing. He simply turns up.

With the criticism I took the first time it happened, I went into depression for several months which killed any more public ministry for several years. When I did start speaking again, I did not know what would happen, but the Spirit again turned up, and I was, through having gone to hell and back (figuratively speaking!), so deepening my relationship with Jesus, better able to handle the situation.

For the past 3 1/2 years I have not done any public speaking, as our efforts have centered around setting up our second hand clothing business, Seekers Megamarts. However, as we become established, I sense that the time may be coming nearer when some speaking will return. Will the Holy Spirit turn up then? I don't know for sure, but feel it highly likely He will. But I take nothing for granted!

You see, anointing is given, and often remains, even when the receiver walks away from the Lord. And the temptations for anointed people to walk away are great, for satan is continually on your case! From personal experience, do not pray to receive anointing unless you are prepared to pay the price! I never did pray to get it, but God still gave it, for I guess He knew me better than I know myself. Like everything in God, the greater the blessing, the greater the cost. We all want the blessings, but are we really prepared to price of receiving them?

But I digress.......

While anointing may be a sign of one to listen to, it may not be, also. Note that I didn't say 'to follow'. For the only one we are to follow is Jesus! We may learn from a person, but we are only to follow Jesus. If our spiritual life is built upon the leadership of a human being, we are not 'walking in The Way'. Our primary relationship must be with Jesus. We are to get to know Him through reading The Word for ourselves until, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Jesus becomes part of us, and we, part of Him. No man, no woman, can be a 'Jesus substitute' in our lives. Yes, we need good mentors. But most of all, we need Jesus!

As leaders, only relationship with Jesus will stop us from going astray. As followers, may we follow Jesus, not a person.

The church age has encouraged us to follow leadership, but in the coming kingdom age, in the final days, our attention and focus is to be upon Jesus. For it is only He who can turn the church into the pure white bride for whom He is to return.

Revelation 19:7-8

SERMON ON THE MOUNT continued

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. (Matthew 7:1-5)

EXPOSITION:

In essence; we are to judge ourselves - but not others. If we do, the standard we use in judging them will be applied to us by the Father!

TESTIMONY:

Sadly, in my Christian experience I have found this to be one of the least observed of all the instructions of Jesus. Christians are so often regarded, not without cause, as being harsh and self-righteous in the manner of the Pharisees that Jesus was specifically criticising in this passage.

It is not easy to take stands about, for example, abortion and homosexuality, without coming across as judgmental to those on the other side of the argument.

In more personal matters too, such as swearing and drinking, retaining personal standards without seeming to be putting down others can, at times, be a challenge.

All these areas are real, practical tests of the love and grace of Jesus in our lives.


However, to me, the greatest application of 'reverse judgment' will be applied to us in our treatment of our brothers and sisters in Christ. That is, in our attitude to other Christians. Sadly, 'judgmentality' between believers is one of satan's prime weapons in his battle to destroy the church! And we let him twist and turn the knife of division in our lives and in our church situations. "My theology is better than your theology!" "Our denomination has the truth!" "We will not mix with you for fear of contamination!" "We are (or are not) Spirit filled!" "We are Traditional....Evangelical..... Pentecostal.....etc. and have the truth!" And so on...... and so on..... and so on......

How sad God must be with the behaviour of His children! For when it comes to dealing with each other, we are indeed more often children than mature believers.

I understand how it happens. The more passionate we become about what we believe, (which is a good thing in many ways) the less tolerant we can so easily become of those whose views are different to our own. So divisions grow. This is particularly true in pentecostal circles where, the '(unholy) spirit' seems to divide and splinter the people rather than bringing us into the promised unity of the Holy Spirit.


Why is this? Passion for Jesus is not enough! For passion must be harnessed with obedience to the will of the Father for our lives, in order to bring unity and maturity to the body of Christ.

Of course, each and every one of us needs to be corrected. But this needs to be done in the love and grace of God rather than the criticism and judgment of our human nature.

Many years ago, early on in my public ministry, I was given an 'ear bashing' after a meeting in which the Holy Spirit turned up. It sent me into depression and stopped me doing public ministry for several years. Of course, the Lord uses these situations to teach and develop us also. But had this situation been handled with love and grace instead of anger, Kathy and my lives may well have taken a different course.

The effects of judgment and ungodly criticism do affect each one of us.

As we will see in next week, these words of Jesus sum up the situation very well.

Luke 6:31


Next time we are about to think or open our mouths in judgment upon someone else, may we remember and apply these words of the man who gave His all for us on that 'awe-full' cross upon Calvary's hill.

Also, on the other hand, by judging ourselves we avoid God's judgment upon us!

1 Corinthians 11:21

Worth thinking about? And acting upon!

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 then turn and tear you to pieces.
(Matthew 7:6)

EXPOSITION:

This may be considered, either, (1.) As a rule to the disciples in preaching the gospel; not that they must not preach it to any one who were wicked and profane (Christ himself preached to publicans and sinners), 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, Acts 13:41. So Dr. Whitby. Or, (2.) 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. (Henry, Matthew, Matt hew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers) 1997.)

TESTIMONY:

While this is generally seen as applying to wisdom in sharing with non believers who are either not interested or downright opposed to the Gospel message, my experience has shown that it applies to sharing with other Christians equally as well.

For we, as believers, are all at different places along the road in our walk with Jesus. What makes sense to a mature Jesus follower may be incomprehensible to a new believer.

This is easily illustrated through the natural growing process of life. We are born a child, then grow through our turbulent teenage years before entering adulthood. Our understanding of the world changes dramatically as we grow older.

So it is also in the Spirit, although maturity has little to do with time, but all to do with commitment and obedience to the will of the Father in our lives. Long time Christians can still be babes while, in other cases, a fully committed new believer can grow spiritually quite rapidly.


Many of the problems in the church today are caused by misunderstandings between people at different stages of spiritual development. As is the case of parents in the natural it is the responsibility of spiritually mature believers to help 'spiritual babes' grow in their faith and spiritual understanding. So what you can share with a spiritual child is different to a teenager, and different again to a mature believer. This calls for great wisdom. It is a reason why it is so difficult to deliver an effective sermon to a disparate group of people, for levels of understanding are so different. Generally we overcome this by aiming at the lowest common denominator. Then we wonder why our people do not grow spiritually. This is a particular problem in larger fellowships.


Our spiritual walk is about discipleship. It has been proven discipleship is best developed on a one to one basis or in small groups. We can use the natural comparison of a school and a family. A school (church service) can impart knowledge and perhaps teach general morality, but it is parents who impart values through an understanding of their child, teaching, correction and personal example. On a personal level we can meet people where they are at. Then we can share the wonder of Jesus at a level they can understand. Over time the amazing depth of relationship with our Lord that is available can be imparted. Wonderful! PTL!

SERMON ON THE MOUNT continued

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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

9 “Which of you, if his 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! (Matthew 7:7-11)

EXPOSITION:

There is a 3 stage process towards getting gifts from God. First we must 'ask'. Many Christians stop there. Secondly we must 'seek'. Do something positive. Push on the doors to see if they will open. And thirdly, we must 'knock' and keep on knocking, which involves perseverance through faith. God is our Father and He will give gifts that are good for us, as He decides, according to our circumstances, as would any good parent.

TESTIMONY:

The area of God answering prayer is one that gives rise to questioning and disappointment, as well as joy when our prayers are answered.

First of all, we need to understand that God is not a big Father Christmas in the sky raining down gifts to satisfy our every whim. Oh dear, how sad! We have all seen the result of parents meeting a child's every desire and understand the consequences in the development of a self centered, greedy, uncaring child - the exact opposite of what we are to be as followers of Jesus!

So let's understand, the Lord is not there to satisfy our every selfish want, nor to make us rich materially, which face it, we would all like to be, a fact which teachers of the prosperity doctrine prey upon to get followers, often in order to enrich themselves. If believing in Jesus was a way to guaranteed riches on earth, 'the world' would flock to the church!

On the other side, I see faithful believers in poor countries who do not have sufficient to eat. 'Why Lord', I ask, for their material needs are so much greater than mine will ever be. The desire to help these people is at the heart of our Seekers Megamarts operations.

As explained in the EXPOSITION, receiving is not simply a function of wanting something and asking for it. We need to seek and knock also, to prove our desire. Generally the effort required sorts out the wheat from the tares in our own life. 'Easy come' and 'easy go' are great bedfellows but certainly not part of God's ways.

New Christians, being spiritual children, may well given what appears to be a frivolous gift by the Lord in order to build their faith. But as we mature in Christ, our ways and prayers are to change to be more in line with His desires and His ways. Our prayers will then ask for the things that are on God's heart as well as our own. When our motivation is pure, as God's motivation is pure, then our prayers will be answered. For like any parent, God wants us to come to maturity and reflect 'the family values' - His values, in our life.

I have had prayers answered, prayers still to be answered, and others that have been answered in the negative, which I now realise, as I grow spiritually, were not in my best interests anyway.

Jesus tagged a very interesting verse onto the end of this section which goes a long way towards explaining His attitude towards our prayers.

May we reflect upon whether our prayer requests are truly glorifying God or are centered upon ourselves.

12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

EXPOSITION:

Our Lord Jesus here presses upon us that righteousness towards men which is an essential branch of true religion, and that religion towards God which is an essential branch of universal righteousness. I. We must make righteousness our rule, and be ruled by it......Fitly is the law of justice subjoined to the law of prayer, for unless we be honest in our conversation, God will not hear our prayers, Isa. 1:15–17; 58:6, 9; Zec. 7:9, 13. We cannot expect to receive good things from God, if we do not fair things, and that which is honest, and lovely, and of good report among men. Henry, Matthew, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers) 1997.


I quoted the above directly from Matthew Henry in case you thought that which follows is just 'David'!

The simple, if harsh, reality is that we cannot expect answers to our prayers when we are not leading godly lives ourselves. It is no accident that Jesus incorporated the 'universal commandment' with His statement on prayer.

As I have learned and experienced more of God I have come to understand that everything of God is conditional. God makes us a promise. Then we need to live it out in some way. But how about salvation, David? Surely salvation is free? Yes it is! But to live, to work out, our salvation, costs us our life! If our life doesn't change when we come to Jesus, our conversion is not a true one. For Jesus is to be not only Saviour but also Lord. One goes with the other. Of course Lordship takes time, a lifetime in fact, to develop. As butter is to bread, making it palatable, so the Lordship of Jesus in our life displays our salvation to the world.

This is not a well promoted truth amongst Christians. We prefer to say come to Jesus for His blessings, without talking about the accompanying sacrifice of ourselves that is also required.

The same principle applies to prayer. If we expect Jesus to answer our prayers, we need to live a godly life to the full extent of our understanding of godliness at the time. None of us is perfect - certainly not me. Yet we are to grow in godliness from glory to glory as Jesus reveals more of Himself to us throughout a lifetime of growing spiritual maturity. A new, 'baby' Christian is not expected to be a spiritual 'adult'. But we are expected to grow up to spiritual maturity. I have been saved, am being saved, and will be saved, as I give up more and more of myself to the Lord.

1 Corinthians 13:11-13

I don't want this word to sound harsh. My desire, both for you and for me, is to see Him face to face. My heart cries out for His people to know Him more. I believe that this is the heart of Jesus also.

As we reach out to know Him more, so we can expect Him to act upon our petitions and prayers, for they will be of His heart, not our own. Selah.

SERMON ON THE MOUNT continued

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. (Matthew 7:1-5)

EXPOSITION:

In essence; we are to judge ourselves - but not others. If we do, the standard we use in judging them will be applied to us by the Father!

TESTIMONY:

Sadly, in my Christian experience I have found this to be one of the least observed of all the instructions of Jesus. Christians are so often regarded, not without cause, as being harsh and self-righteous in the manner of the Pharisees that Jesus was specifically criticising in this passage.

It is not easy to take stands about, for example, abortion and homosexuality, without coming across as judgmental to those on the other side of the argument.

In more personal matters too, such as swearing and drinking, retaining personal standards without seeming to be putting down others can, at times, be a challenge.

All these areas are real, practical tests of the love and grace of Jesus in our lives.


However, to me, the greatest application of 'reverse judgment' will be applied to us in our treatment of our brothers and sisters in Christ. That is, in our attitude to other Christians. Sadly, 'judgmentality' between believers is one of satan's prime weapons in his battle to destroy the church! And we let him twist and turn the knife of division in our lives and in our church situations. "My theology is better than your theology!" "Our denomination has the truth!" "We will not mix with you for fear of contamination!" "We are (or are not) Spirit filled!" "We are Traditional....Evangelical..... Pentecostal.....etc. and have the truth!" And so on...... and so on..... and so on......

How sad God must be with the behaviour of His children! For when it comes to dealing with each other, we are indeed more often children than mature believers.

I understand how it happens. The more passionate we become about what we believe, (which is a good thing in many ways) the less tolerant we can so easily become of those whose views are different to our own. So divisions grow. This is particularly true in pentecostal circles where, the '(unholy) spirit' seems to divide and splinter the people rather than bringing us into the promised unity of the Holy Spirit.

Why is this? Passion for Jesus is not enough! For passion must be harnessed with obedience to the will of the Father for our lives, in order to bring unity and maturity to the body of Christ.

Of course, each and every one of us needs to be corrected. But this needs to be done in the love and grace of God rather than the criticism and judgment of our human nature.

Many years ago, early on in my public ministry, I was given an 'ear bashing' after a meeting in which the Holy Spirit turned up. It sent me into depression and stopped me doing public ministry for several years. Of course, the Lord uses these situations to teach and develop us also. But had this situation been handled with love and grace instead of anger, Kathy and my lives may well have taken a different course.

The effects of judgment and ungodly criticism do affect each one of us.

As we will see in next week, these words of Jesus sum up the situation very well.

Luke 6:31


Next time we are about to think or open our mouths in judgment upon someone else, may we remember and apply these words of the man who gave His all for us on that 'awe-full' cross upon Calvary's hill.

Also, on the other hand, by judging ourselves we avoid God's judgment upon us!

1 Corinthians 11:21


Worth thinking about? And acting upon!

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 then turn and tear you to pieces.
(Matthew 7:6)

EXPOSITION:

This may be considered, either, (1.) As a rule to the disciples in preaching the gospel; not that they must not preach it to any one who were wicked and profane (Christ himself preached to publicans and sinners), 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, Acts 13:41. So Dr. Whitby. Or, (2.) 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. (Henry, Matthew, Matt hew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers) 1997.)

TESTIMONY:

While this is generally seen as applying to wisdom in sharing with non believers who are either not interested or downright opposed to the Gospel message, my experience has shown that it applies to sharing with other Christians equally as well.

For we, as believers, are all at different places along the road in our walk with Jesus. What makes sense to a mature Jesus follower may be incomprehensible to a new believer.

This is easily illustrated through the natural growing process of life. We are born a child, then grow through our turbulent teenage years before entering adulthood. Our understanding of the world changes dramatically as we grow older.

So it is also in the Spirit, although maturity has little to do with time, but all to do with commitment and obedience to the will of the Father in our lives. Long time Christians can still be babes while, in other cases, a fully committed new believer can grow spiritually quite rapidly.


Many of the problems in the church today are caused by misunderstandings between people at different stages of spiritual development. As is the case of parents in the natural it is the responsibility of spiritually mature believers to help 'spiritual babes' grow in their faith and spiritual understanding. So what you can share with a spiritual child is different to a teenager, and different again to a mature believer. This calls for great wisdom. It is a reason why it is so difficult to deliver an effective sermon to a disparate group of people, for levels of understanding are so different. Generally we overcome this by aiming at the lowest common denominator. Then we wonder why our people do not grow spiritually. This is a particular problem in larger fellowships.


Our spiritual walk is about discipleship. It has been proven discipleship is best developed on a one to one basis or in small groups. We can use the natural comparison of a school and a family. A school (church service) can impart knowledge and perhaps teach general morality, but it is parents who impart values through an understanding of their child, teaching, correction and personal example. On a personal level we can meet people where they are at. Then we can share the wonder of Jesus at a level they can understand. Over time the amazing depth of relationship with our Lord that is available can be imparted. Wonderful! PTL!