Love People - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You're going to see twice, these are the two of the most misunderstood passages in the New Testament. I don't know of too many other places where even in our culture, we misinterpret what these passages say.

You see, we just make up another thing. It's as though we jump out of an airplane and parachute on the verse. And everything Jesus said before doesn't matter. I'm just going to look at this verse. No, it does matter because this is the context in which Jesus is speaking. I'll give you today's interpretation of that.

Who are you to judge me? Jesus said you're not to judge people. Is that what Jesus said?

See, is there a context to this? Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. As Christians, we often find as we read the New Testament that there's a theme in the New Testament that seems to be repeated over and over for us. And that is based on the words that Jesus said, that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. And by and large, I think we really try to do that. But we often just ignore the second part. We just ignore it completely. And love your neighbor as yourself. We're not too good at that. And the reason is, if you think about it, it's a lot easier to love God than it is to love you. I mean, it's perfect. And shockingly, you're not.

You know, this becomes hard for us. So what we find here that I find so interesting is that Jesus, what I call disturbing Sermon on the Mount, and I mean disturbing in this sense, I don't think anybody liked what he said, except a few people. The words that he said were not like anything any of them had ever heard before. And while he was preaching, he knew something about a group that none of the people did. He knew that the scribes and the Pharisees had no righteousness at all.

None. In fact, he actually says in the beginning of the sermon, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you'll not see the kingdom of God. And I said at that time, I think people gasp. I think people were befuddled.

I think people are like, that's impossible. We all know that the scribes and Pharisees are the most righteous people we know. And here's a guy that says, if you don't surpass him, you're not going to go to heaven.

It's just that simple. And so what's interesting about it is that he knew that, by and large, the scribes and Pharisees had affected Israel so much that almost everybody believed that if I would go through enough religious activity, I'd be fine with God. And that really was tragedy for Jesus.

He didn't like anything about it. Everything about the scribes and Pharisees from Jesus' point of view was wrong, just flat out wrong. And so he starts out with the Beatitudes. And if you remember, he talked about, because his view was scribes and Pharisees only emphasize outward religiosity.

See, that's what they did. He said, that'll never get you in a relationship with God. So he starts out with the Beatitudes and says, you have to be blessed are the poor in spirit who are spiritually bankrupt before God. Blessed are those who mourn over their own sin. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God's righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the peacemakers. Everything the Pharisees weren't, and it's all inside.

None of it's outside. And so when Jesus finished that part of it, it's interesting, he must have stopped. And he has a few of his disciples there.

They're not all there yet. And these guys are fishermen. And he turns to them and says, you're the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Now, imagine what the crowd thought. Who are those guys? Who are they? I think there's some fishermen. I think there's some, what? He said they're the salt of the earth, these guys, and they're the light of the world?

Yeah. Then Jesus goes right back on theme again. And he said, look, let me explain something to you.

It's always what's going on on the inside, never on the outside. He said, whenever you give, whenever you pray, and whenever you fast, make it as private as possible. You see, when you do any of those things, give, pray, fast, make it as private as possible between you and God. Well, this is the exact opposite of the Pharisees. You see, this is exact, everything they did, they not only gave with public display, but they prayed on street corners out loud so everyone could hear them and think they're righteous. When they fasted, they charcoal their cheekbones and under their eyes, put on their old clothes and just stood around like this. Jesus said, none of that will work. That won't work at all. And so he told them that. And then what he ends up doing right after that is he says, look, let me get to the heart of this. You can't worship God and money.

And I think most of their people thought just like most of you think. I think I can. I think I can do it.

I can. I can do both. And Jesus said, no, you can't do both.

Jesus said, in fact, let me go even further. You'll love one and you'll hate the other. You got that choice.

So if I love money, I hate God. That he said, you can't do that. So he said, now I know what you're thinking. I can handle it.

I'm good with it. So said, no, let me give you the test. Here's the test. Have you ever worried? About sustenance, have you ever worried about getting your needs met?

Have you ever worried about money? Now, you know, wait a minute, that sounds like me. He said, yeah, that's the test. That tells me you put trust in money that you don't put in me. So he talks about the birds, the flowers. He goes, look, I'll take care of you. I've already told you that.

You see, you've got to learn to trust me. And then what he ends up doing is what I think is interesting is that he now goes to this whole idea of what I call the horizontal plan. Jesus wants to get to the point of the second point. Love the Lord, your God, love your neighbor as yourself. And do you love people? That's the question.

Do you love people? And now, in order to understand how this works in Matthew 7, you can open your Bibles to Matthew 7. Let me read these first two verses and then hold your place and we'll go to another verse that explains this. Matthew 7, verses one and two. Do not judge so that you will not be judged, for in the way that you judge, you will be judged.

And by your standard of measure, it's going to be measured to you. Do not judge anyone or you're going to get judged and you'll be judged on your standard. Now, he's speaking here to a specific group. The scribes and Pharisees, especially the Pharisees, they made their living. They, every day of their life, they judged people. That's what made them feel so self-righteous. Now, hold your place and go with me once again.

We looked at this earlier. Luke 18. Luke 18 and verse 9. It says, And he also told this parable to some people, now notice who these people are, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and they viewed others with contempt. That's the Pharisees.

They trusted in themselves and they viewed other people with contempt. He says, Two men went into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Thank you, God. I'm not like these people. Now, I could paraphrase that and give you a shorter version. God, I thank you that I'm not like these other people, sinners.

That's what he's thanking God for. I'm not like them. It's swindler. Wow. He said, Let me let me impress you. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of everything I get. Oh, there's a godly man, right? That's a really godly man. He said the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift his eyes to heaven, was beating his breast and he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner.

I tell you, this man went away to his house justified rather than the other. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted. That's the context of Matthew 7. That's how the Pharisees saw everybody. I'm better than all of you. You people are all sinners.

Not like me. Now, remember, Jesus was so upset by this that he, earlier in the sermon, said, Look, you say that it is written, Thou shall not commit adultery. But I say, if you ever looked at a woman with lust in your eyes, you're an adulterer. You said, Thou shall not murder.

But I say, if you've ever been angry, you're a murderer. And Jesus took the sin world away from what you do on the outside to what you think on the inside. They had to understand they all had sinned. See, and one thing that the tax collector, who was considered the lowest form of life in Israel, if you were a tax collector, most Jews viewed you as lower than a prostitute because you were a traitor against your people.

You became rich with Roman taxes. And you betrayed your brothers and sisters who were Jews. And he just said, Have mercy on me, the sinner. That's the sinner's prayer.

So now back to this. Matthew 7 says, Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For in the way that you judge, you will be judged.

And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Now, today we're going to see twice. These are the two of the most misunderstood passages in the New Testament. I don't know of too many other places where even in our culture, we misinterpret what these passages say.

You see, we just make up another thing. It's as though we jump out of an airplane and parachute on the verse. And everything Jesus said before doesn't matter. I'm just going to look at this verse. It does matter because this is the context in which Jesus is speaking.

I'll give you today's interpretation of that. Who are you to judge me? Who are you to judge me?

We hear that all the time. Who are you to judge me? Jesus said, You're not to judge people. Is that what Jesus said?

See, is there a context to this? See, you can't judge me for what I believe. You have to accept anything I believe you can't judge me on. That's the words of our culture. You accept everybody's belief as though it's fine. And anybody's behavior as though it's fine.

It's gone so far in America that it's amazing to me that we have people in America who have behavior that is incredibly licentious from a sensual or sexual point of view. They not only want me to accept it, they want me to celebrate it. You have to celebrate this with me. Why? Why would I celebrate sin? See, why would I do that? Well, you can't judge me.

Well, I mean, let's think about that for just a moment. Just ahead in chapter 7, starting in verse 15, Jesus said, Beware of the false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing.

Inwardly they're ravenous wolves. He says, You will know them, verse 16, he said, by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles. Every good tree that bears fruit but the bad trees bear bad fruit. He said, A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, so then you will know them by their fruits. Isn't that judging? Isn't that judging? Didn't Jesus just tell us to judge them?

He said, You got to what? Judge their fruits. See if they're of God or not. Jesus, in the same context, is telling us to judge them. Think of every prophet who ever showed up in the Old Testament. Did they ever judge anybody?

I mean, come on. What's a prophet do? Do they judge the behavior of the people? Yes. Do they judge the beliefs of the people?

Yes. That's why everyone hated them. You see, they judged everybody. Think of Paul, the great apostle. In Acts chapter 20, Paul was giving a final goodbye to the elders at Ephesus, the leaders. And it's a very emotional chapter. There's a lot of crying and hugging between Paul and these elders from Ephesus.

And it's interesting, when Paul ends up speaking to them, one of the things he says is amazing. He said, You remember when I was with you in Ephesus, I did not cease from admonishing each of you with tears. What's admonishing mean? Judging, correcting us.

These are the elders. He said, You know that. I did that with all of you. And when I did it with you, I had tears.

Why would he have tears? Because he saw himself just like them. See, just what the Pharisees can't do. Remember, the apostle Paul said, I am the chief of sinners.

That didn't stop him from admonishing. The Bible was full of this idea that we stand for the truth. Jesus said, I'm the way and the truth and the life. It's the truth. So we are to be judging. But only things that we can judge or only things that God has spoken to.

What the Pharisee did is he judged everybody as inferior to him based on his activity. So he said, I thank God I'm not like these people. Of course you are.

Everybody is. So he goes on and he says this then. He said, Why do you look at the speck that's in your brother's eye but you do not notice the log in your own eye? Now that really is a hyperbole there. Pretty hard to get a log in your eye.

Jesus did intentionally. And it's not a splinter. It's a log. So he's making his point. The word kronos, this word in Greek is the speck means something really tiny.

So something pretty small. And have you ever had a speck in your eye? Is it irritating?

It is, right? And then you know that. You have your eye open. Someone has a Kleenex. I don't see anything.

It's there. I'm telling you. We do all this. Just imagine doing that with a log in yours. I mean it's just a ridiculous statement that he's making. The question is what makes the person who's judging have a log in their eye? Judging. That's a sin in itself. That's a compound sin over your regular sin. When you judge other people like this, that's your sin.

So he goes on after he says that and he makes it real clear. Number five, you hypocrite. By the way, it's Jesus' favorite word to describe all Pharisees. Scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. Jesus just calls them that over and over again. What are these men? These are hypocrites. Remember, he said you're blind leaders of the blind. You're whitewashed sepulchers. You're beautiful on the outside.

You're dead inside. Jesus had nothing good to say about him ever. Now think of how Jesus spoke to a prostitute. Kindly. Tax collector, kindly. Woman at the well, kindly.

Woman caught in adultery, kindly. Pharisees, you brood of vipers. You see, that is their public enemy number one.

Why? They have built a religious wall around a relationship with God. They will never have a relationship with God. And worse, Jesus said, you stole the kingdom of God for the nation.

The Pharisees had so much influence that they had countless other people who would never come to Christ because they believed religion was the way to go. So Jesus had nothing good to say. He called them a hypocrite. He said, 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. And then sort of out of nowhere, he says something the first time I read it, it shocked me to try to put it in this context.

Do not give what is holy to dogs, do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and they'll turn and tear you to pieces. I thought we were talking about judging. That's his conclusion. His conclusion has to deal with this.

What does he mean by this? Now, let me say before I make some comments here, I've had dogs our whole lives. Okay, we've had as many as four at a time. I like dogs. Okay, but the Bible has virtually nothing good to say about dogs.

Nothing. There's nothing good in the Bible about dogs. The reason is people didn't have pet dogs. You could have a guard dog once in a while outside, but mostly shepherds use dogs. But most of the time they were not pets. They were wild dogs. And so when you see dog in the Bible, it's never usually a kind word about it.

And he's talking about these pack animals who are scavengers, probably disease carrying and all that. And notice what he says, he said, do not give what is holy to dogs. What is holy?

Well, think of this. I go and I make a sacrifice at the temple. I make a sacrifice.

Some of it is burned. Some of it's given to the priest and the rest is given to me. The priest will eat it and so why? This is an offering, you see, an offering that I have and an offering that is called holy. Every time once it's offered, it's holy. So I now have some holy meat. You know, I have a holy ribeye.

I have, you know, something holy. Now, would it make sense to take what's holy and then find a pack of wild dogs and give it to them? You see, from their point of view, that'd be nuts.

That'd be crazy. You don't give what's holy to dogs. He's making his point as he goes on here. Then he goes to the next section and he says, do not throw pearls before swine. Now, please understand, for you pork lovers, in the Bible, it's forbidden in the Old Testament. If you wanted to say what is unbelievably unclean to a Jew, what would he say? Swine. Porks.

We're not allowed to eat it. Remember when Jesus took the legion of demons out of the man, the Gerizines? He took all the demons on him. He exercised them and he put them all in the swine and the swine ran off the cliff and into the lake. It was killing two birds with one stone.

You see, what these guys in the Gerizines were doing is they were bootleggers. They raised pigs and then they'd sneak the pigs into Israel and the people in Israel buy the pork. So Jesus just got rid of the demons, but he got rid of the pigs. You see, that's the whole thing behind a swine. Here in America, for the first time, we're starting to learn how dangerous wild pigs are.

It's interesting to watch on the TV. I think Texas has a bounty on them. You can go and hunt them.

It's amazing why. They destroy your crops. They're dangerous.

They're smart. But he said, would you give one a pearl? What would a pig do with a pearl? Now, knowing a pig, you'd probably eat it inadvertently. But the point is, what would you do with that? You wouldn't do that. He said it just trampled under the feet.

And then if you think of a big boar, he'd just turn and attack you. Who's he talking about here? Pharisees. Don't waste time with these people. Don't waste your time. These are not perspective groups in that way.

If they're adamant enough to be against you, leave them. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .