God, I just pray that you would speak to every heart and my own include in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Now, here we are in Matthew chapter 7. This is the third in a series here called the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus goes up into a mountain.
He goes away from the multitude, his disciples come to him, and he stands up and preaches this great sermon
called the Sermon on the Mount by many people, and it's chapters 5, 6, and 7.
Now, right at the beginning here you see him say,
Judge not that ye be not judged. That's a very commonly quoted verse.
I remember when I was just a little kid, probably Solomon or Isaac's age, I knew exactly where to find that verse in my Bible.
I knew that it was in Matthew chapter 7 when I could barely even read, because this is a verse that's quoted so often.
Unfortunately, it's usually quoted by people who want to disobey God's commandments,
and they want to do whatever they want, they want to live however they want, and then they want to say,
Well, hey, look. Judge not that ye be not judged. Don't judge me. You can't tell me that that's a sin.
And it's an often misquoted verse. Now, judge not that ye be not judged. What is God saying here?
Well, first of all, he's talking to hypocrites. We'll notice in verse number 5 at the beginning there.
He's talking to a hypocrite who is living in sin himself and yet judging other people that are, yes, sinning,
but not even to the degree that they're sinning. You will find that the most judgmental people in the world are people who are living in sin.
People who are guilty of something themselves are usually the ones who will jump to condemn someone else because they're guilty themselves.
And so you'll find that the liberal crowd, the new evangelical crowd, they're the most judgmental crowd there is,
because they will just be more than ready to point the finger at somebody who's a preacher who preaches against sin and criticize him and judge him.
And see, this thing has to be a two-way street. And many times the person who is saying, Well, don't judge,
even by saying that, they're judging the person that they just heard preach. He's so judgmental. Listen to the way he preaches.
It's like you just judged him because, you know, it's dumb. I mean, it goes in a circle. So let's see what this is really talking about.
He says, Judge not that you be not judged, for with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again.
He says, Be careful that before you go trying to correct someone else, you yourself are right before you begin to try to help somebody and correct someone else.
Now, if you'll notice, it says, How wilt thou then say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye.
You see, if you have the beam in your own eye, he's saying it's going to make you incapable of removing the mote, because you're not going to be able to see clearly.
That's why in verse number five, it says, First cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
He's saying the goal is not for you to stop judging. The goal is for you to get the beam out of your eye so that you can see clearly to help someone else.
So the goal is not to stay in verse number one and just never judge anybody. The goal is to move to verse number five, where you have cleaned up your own act, and now you're ready to help other people grow also.
And it's not so you can beat somebody over the head. The whole point here, it's a man trying to help his brother.
Now look, if you have something in your eye, do you want somebody to help you get it out, or do you want to just keep it in your eye?
I mean, think about it. I remember when I worked on alarms in California, and I was working at Liberty Bell Alarm, I would get pieces of wood in my eyes for three, four, five hours at a time.
I'd be drilling, and I'd be careless, and I'd get a little splinter in my eye, and boy, there's nothing more excruciating, there's nothing more irritating.
You get this piece of wood in your eye, and then even once you get it out, it still feels like it's there, and you don't know whether it's gone, and it's just extreme pain.
And if somebody could have come to me at that point and said, Steve, let me help you. I can see the piece of wood in your eye. Let me help you remove that.
I would have been more than happy to allow them to do so. I would have been thrilled.
But see, the point is, nobody wants to have a piece of wood in their eye, and so you ought to get the beam out of your own eye so that you can see clearly to help your brother get the mold out of his eye.
But notice here the emphasis on the eye. God, you know, obviously this is a metaphor, just talking about any kind of sin, talking about any kind of wickedness that's in somebody's life.
But I noticed, just as I was reading the Sermon on the Mount, how many times this comes up. Flip back a few pages, if you would, to Matthew chapter 5, and look at verse number 28.
Actually, look at verse 27. It says, You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
You see, your eye is a powerful part of your body, God's saying here. He's saying that some people will not get saved. Some people will actually go to hell because of their eye.
Well, how can that be? Because the Bible talks about people who are choked. They hear the word of God preached, but they don't quite understand it. They're not quite ready to get saved, but they're contemplating getting saved.
This is in the parable of the sower. And then what happens is the Bible says that the cares of this world come in and choke out the word so that it's unfruitful.
What happens is they hear the word of God preached. The seed is sown that maybe they would get saved, but what happens is they just get so busy, they get so interested in the cares of this world, they love sin so much that they're just so involved with that.
Going to church and reading the Bible or getting around the things of God or listening to some soul winner at their door is just the furthest thing from their mind because they have to go get in the car and go to the movies and go see the new skin flick that's out.
And that's the way people are, and that's why your eye can damn you to hell if you're not saved and you let that rule you.
But then I notice in chapter number 6, and this is an interesting verse, in verse number 22, look at chapter 6 verse 22, it says,
The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? So in chapter 5 we saw a person could actually be damned to hell because their eyes are out of control.
And in chapter 6 we see that a Christian can have their light totally darkened. That the light in the Gospel, getting people saved, or just the light of life as the Bible talks about, can be totally darkened just because they have an evil eye.
What am I talking about? Well, think about the sins of the eye. Well, the one that Jesus brought up is lust. It's something that's probably a little more common to man, but men lusting after women.
It's everywhere we go. We drive down the freeway, there's billboards with pornographic images. You go into a grocery store and there's pornographic magazines right there on the rack.
You go to anywhere. I mean, you get on the airplane and they're flashing TV screens. There's a magazine in front of you right there with all kinds of dirty pictures in it.
And everywhere you look, there's just the lust of the flesh. The Hollywood crowd, Madison Avenue with their advertising, knows how to appeal to the modern man is through the lust of the eyes.
And so they put out all this filth, and God says if you don't watch out, and as a man, if you don't let that overcome you, he says it could destroy your entire life.
He says if you're not just constantly keeping your eye single, keeping your eye just straight ahead as the Bible says, don't look to the left hand or the right, just look straight ahead.
Don't look at the filth that's put out there. He says if you don't, your life that's in you is going to become darkness. You're going to live a life of darkness and an evil life.
And obviously we've seen evidence of that just in life of just people that we know who've been consumed by this thing.
But even as ladies, there's another problem. It's called covetousness. And it's the same thing. It's not as men coveting another man's wife as the Bible talks about.
That's what the lust of the eyes is, coveting some woman that doesn't belong to him.
But women struggle with the lust of the eyes also, covetousness. That's your home shopping network. That's the JCPenney catalog.
And I'm not saying those things are necessarily wrong. Well the home shopping network's wrong because you should have took a baseball bat to your television a long time ago.
But the lust of the eyes can deal with women too because they covet things. And this is a sin that's not often talked about, but it's one of the Ten Commandments.
It's the tenth of the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not covet. And a lot of people, I think if you took a survey of a lot of people, they may not even know what the word covet means.
Because it's kind of an old word. Covet is used synonymously in the Bible with another word, desire.
And covet means when you want something that belongs to someone else. That's covetousness.
When I see somebody else's car and say, I wish that that car was my car. That's coveting yourself.
You're not being content with such things as you have and you're looking at your neighbor's things and saying, I wish I had his things.
Or worse yet, I wish I had his wife. I wish I had his children. No, God says, be content with such things as you have.
And so women also have to control their eyes and not just constantly looking for something new.
Honey, this is directed right at my wife tonight. But don't always just be looking for something new.
Be content with such things as you have. And having food and arraignment, let us be there with content.
And don't always have to get some magazine and some catalog and some advertisement and some brochure and some TV ad and look for the next thing to covet on.
He says, no. He says, you need to control your eyes or it's going to destroy your husband's bank account.
And it'll destroy your life also. But then he gets into chapter seven and he brings it up again about the eyes.
He says, listen, the biggest problem that you need to correct about yourself and the biggest problem that you need to correct about somebody else involves their eyes.
That's why the television is so dangerous because it involves your eyes.
Because it's you opening your eyes and letting the devil and the people who control the television who are just serving the devil to just put into your eyes whatever you want.
And God is saying, look, this eye, he says, if your eye is single, your whole body is going to be full of light.
And if your eye is evil, he says, your whole body is going to be full of darkness.
He says, everything about your life is determined by what goes into your eyes. Boy, that's a pretty extreme statement.
He's saying, your life, you're either going to be good or evil based on what comes into your eyes.
So are you going to pick up this book and put this book into your eyes?
Are you going to put all the lusts and the Madison Avenue and the Hollywood and Broadway into your eyes?
And that's the choice. And so we need to think about how important it is to control what goes into our eyes.
Now look at verse number six. That's the first five verses.
Verse number six says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you.
Now this verse just fits in exactly with the five verses that we just read.
Because we just talked about helping someone else get some kind of a sin out of their life.
Now look what it says though. It says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you.
He's saying, look, if you take pearls and something extremely valuable and you give it to pigs, you throw it to the pigs, it says, this is what they're going to do.
Number one, they're going to just trample it under their feet in the mud. They're not going to understand the value of what you're giving them.
And then they're going to turn and rend you. That means they're going to tear you apart. That's what rend means, to tear something.
He says, they're going to attack you. And so he's saying, be careful who you correct.
That's what we talked about in verse number one through five in chapter seven.
He says, don't waste your time correcting somebody who's a pig and a dog. He's saying, is the metaphor that he's using, but he's saying, don't go to somebody who is a fool and try to correct them and tell them what they're doing wrong.
Because he says, they're not going to understand it, they're not going to get it, and they're just going to turn around and attack you.
The Bible says that if you rebuke a wise man, rebuke is when you tell somebody that they're wrong.
If you rebuke a wise man, he'll love thee, the Bible says. But see, if you rebuke a fool, he's going to hate you, the Bible says.
And so you can't correct people that are unspiritual. And so you could take this also, if you know how to take correction, that means that you're very spiritual.
If you don't know how to take correction, then you're not spiritual. And so being able to take correction is important, and also use discernment who you try to correct.
I never, first of all, I rarely try to correct anybody. I mean, I just preach the truth, and that's it.
But if I did try to correct somebody, it's usually going to be somebody that I can recognize, this person's a very wise person, this is a very smart person, this is a godly person.
And so if I help them get this moat out of their eye, they're going to thank me for it, they're going to be thrilled, and we're both going to be happy, and everything's going to be great.
But when it's somebody who's just obviously not interested in doing right and in the things of God, I'm not going to waste my time.
Here's another application. Not only does it apply to verses one through five, but also, think about outsole winning.
It says, cast not your pearls before swine. When you go outsole winning and somebody just is not interested in what you're saying at all,
they don't want anything to do with what you're saying, don't spend an hour at that door.
Because there's a whole lot of other doors of people that want to get saved.
Let me read a verse for you in the book of Titus, Titus chapter three, the Bible says, a man that is an heretic, that's somebody who does not believe that Jesus is God,
you know, it's somebody who just does not believe the doctrines of the faith at all.
It's somebody that you run into outsole winning that believes you have to work your way to heaven.
It believes that Jesus is not God like the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. It's somebody who doesn't believe the Bible is the word of God.
It says, a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition, reject.
Knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
It says, look, when you're outsole winning and you start showing somebody the plan of salvation, you know, you're going through the gospel with them, you show them that they're a sinner.
You're showing them that Jesus died on the cross for them. You're showing them that they deserve to go to hell, but that God loves them.
And you're going through the whole thing with them. And they start arguing with you like they say, well, no, it's not eternal.
You know, you can lose your salvation. And then you show them, you say, well, no, look here, this verse right here says, I give unto them eternal life and no man shall pluck them out of my hand.
And they say, well, no, no, no, no, blah, blah, blah. And then you say, well, look, let me show you another verse.
It says right here, depart from me. I never knew you. See, if you go to hell, it's because God never knew you. Not he used to know you.
Once you get saved, you have everlasting life. And then, and if they don't, if you tell them once and tell them twice and they won't receive it, then you just, I just hand them the train and say, well, here, look through this when you get a chance. See you later. Bye.
Because why would I waste my time? Why would I waste my time with some heretic when the Bible said, look, admonish him once, admonish him twice, and then just reject him.
And it says he's subverted. He's condemned of himself. He doesn't want to hear it. Hey, look, maybe down the road someday something will happen and he'll be a little more receptive to the gospel and get him saved.
But God says don't waste your time casting your pearls before swine. You go out soul winning and you admonish him once, admonish him twice, and then move on and get to the guy who's going to get saved.
So many times you can fall into the trap of just arguing with people out of soul winning. And you can't argue somebody into getting saved. It's never going to happen.
You can prove people wrong intellectually from the Bible, but that's not going to get them saved. The only way they're going to get saved is when they get their heart right and say, I choose to believe what the book says.
Because if they don't believe the book and you prove them from the book that they're wrong, what does that accomplish? The problem is not an understanding. It's a faith problem.
Every problem why somebody's not saved is because they don't have the faith to be saved. They don't have the faith. You show them a verse from the Bible, they don't have the faith to believe it.
It's not an intellectual problem. It's a faith problem. And so you reject them after twice because that's what God said to do because he doesn't want you to waste your time.
He wants you to keep what's valuable. And when you go out and give the gospel, that's valuable what you're giving people. You're giving people something of extreme value.
Well, don't waste it on somebody like that. Move on to the next person. Look at verse number seven in Matthew chapter seven. It says,
Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Now, first of all, I want to point out verse number seven. Ask, seek, and knock spell ask. And obviously, nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental.
And so if it says ask, seek, knock, you take the first letter and it spells ask. It's kind of interesting. But notice the extreme statement. Everyone that asketh receiveth.
Now, a lot of people say they have a hard time understanding this verse. Well, I don't think they have a hard time understanding it as much as they have a hard time believing it.
Because that's clearly what he's saying. He's saying, look, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh shall be opened.
You see, the Bible says here that if you pray and you ask God for something, he will do it.
Now, there are some qualifiers that God gives, that Jesus gives when he's preaching other places. He says, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatsoever you will and it shall be done unto you.
So he says, if you have my word inside you, I'll definitely do what you want me to do.
Look at 1st John. Turn in the Bible to 1st John because I want to show you some things about this subject. Look at 1st John chapter 5 verse 14.
1st John 5, 14. 1st John chapter 5, verse number 14. And the Bible reads here, and this is the confidence that we have in him.
That if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And look at verse 15. And if we know that he heareth whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
You see, God has promised to answer our prayers. Now that's a huge promise. He says, if you ask according to my will, he says, I'll do it.
Now, there are certain things that we ask God for sometimes that are not within his power. You say, wait a minute, can't God do anything? Well, no, God can't do anything.
Because God can't lie. It says in Titus 1, 2. And not only that, but God cannot control human beings.
You see, sometimes we'll pray, oh God, save so and so. God can't do that because God already died on the cross for him.
He already shed his blood. He already sprinkled it on the mercy seat. He already rose from the dead. He already paid the price for their sin.
He already said, whosoever will may come, and they have to decide whether they're going to go to heaven or not.
Now look, if I pray, God, would you save so and so? God is incapable of doing that because it's not God's decision whether people go to heaven or hell.
God doesn't decide whether anybody goes to heaven or hell. Nobody on the face of this earth does God have the power to decide whether they go to heaven or hell.
Because the Bible says God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And so if it was up to God, everybody would be saved, or else why is God playing favorites?
Making sure that some people get saved, but not that other people get saved.
So who decides whether people get saved? Well, two people decide whether people get saved.
Number one, we decide whether people get saved because we decide whether we're going to go preach the gospel to them.
God's not going to go preach the gospel to them. He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
The Bible says II Corinthians 5. And so we decide whether people go to heaven or hell.
And number two, people decide for themselves whether they're going to receive the gospel once we give it to them.
So those are the two people that decide, because see, actually there's three people that decide.
There's God, there's us, and there's the people we're talking to, but see, God already decided.
So that's not really, it doesn't even really make sense to even talk about that because God already decided yes.
Yes for him, and yes for him, and yes for him. Now we have to decide, and now they have to decide.
See, there's three parties involved here. God votes yes every time.
I wonder how we're voting with the people that we're supposed to talk to, and then how they're voting.
That's up to them. And plus we can talk to them one time or two times or three times.
We're increasing their opportunity to get saved.
So sometimes we pray for things that are not in God's power, like when we pray for people to get saved.
When I pray for somebody to get saved, I pray for God to do certain things in their life that will make them more likely to get saved.
Because I know that God can't just save people, otherwise he'd save everybody because he's such a loving, merciful, kind God.
He'd save everybody if he could, but he can't because he's limited himself in this book right here.
Because he has told us what he is capable of and what he's incapable of.
God cannot lie. He can't sin. He can't break his word. I'm glad that God can't do anything, because God can't send me to hell.
Praise the Lord, because I'm saved. And so I couldn't go to hell if I wanted to.
And so God cannot save people, but here's what I pray for people to get saved.
I say, God, and I pray this for people that God saved. I'm talking about hard cases.
I prayed and fasted and said, God, would you please not let this person sleep at all tonight?
And just any verse that I gave them in the Bible when I witnessed them, would you just let that verse just ring in their ears, they just can't get it out of their head?
Would you convict them? God, would you please help this person to know that they're on their way to hell?
And I created a list, and a preacher told me to do this, I created a list of things to pray for people that are not saved.
Just that God would make things happen in their life that would open their eyes, that he'd send a car crash if he had to,
that he'd send sickness if he had to, that he would cause them to be awake at night if he had to,
that every verse that they ever heard would just ring in their ears and they couldn't get it out of their head,
that he would remove just things in their life that are keeping them from getting saved,
whatever it is that's distracting them or keeping them from getting saved, just get it out of the way.
And if you get creative, you can think of a lot of things to pray for people.
It sounds kind of negative, but anyway, you could really think of a lot of things and be creative and sit down and think.
You say, well, how do you pray for an hour? Well, obviously, you don't just chant over and over.
Please save so-and-so, please save so-and-so. You make a list of things that you want God to do.
Now, let me ask you something. If you make the list, and you have God's Word inside you,
and you are abiding in Christ, and you say, I'm going to pray according to the will of God,
is God going to do what's on your list? Yes, he will, because God will answer prayer.
Now, let me show you an interesting story, though. Look at Daniel chapter 10.
The book of Daniel, Old Testament, toward the end of the Old Testament, Daniel chapter 10.
Now, look, either it's true or it's not. He said, Ask and it shall be given you for everyone.
See, the everyone is saying, look, God doesn't play favorites. Everyone that asks gets received.
He says, it doesn't matter who you are. I don't play favorites. If you're my child,
and that's one of the qualifiers also, he goes on to say in the next few verses,
if you're my child, I don't love you so little and love someone else so much that if you ask for something good,
I'm not going to give it to you, but if someone else asks, oh, well, Pastor Anderson, I'm going to have him pray because his prayers get answered.
No, everyone that asks gets received. It has nothing to do with who you are, nothing at all to do with who you are.
It has to do with whether you have God's word inside you and whether you're praying according to his will,
and then you get it every time if it's within his power, of course.
Look at Daniel chapter 10. This is a very interesting story.
Look at verse number two. Well, actually, we'll read verse number one.
In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar.
And the thing was true, but the time appointed was long, and he understood the thing and had an understanding of the vision.
In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread.
Neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth. Neither did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled.
So here's Daniel. He's praying. He's weeping. He's upset. He's perplexed because he's seen some things in the Bible that are confusing him.
He doesn't know where things are going. He's in captivity with his people there in Babylon, and it's been almost 70 years,
and he doesn't know what the future of his people is. He doesn't know what the answer is.
He doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing with his life. And so for three weeks, he eats bread and water.
That's all he ate, just bread and water for three weeks. He didn't anoint himself at all.
I mean, he didn't, I don't know, it sounds like he didn't really bathe and clean himself and get dressed.
He's just so upset. He's probably in sackcloth or something. And he's just eating bread and water. He's upset.
He's mourning for three whole weeks. It even says that word, three whole weeks at the end of verse three.
It says, in the fourth and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of that great river, which is Hiddekel,
then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Eufas.
Now, if you read this description here, this is Jesus Christ that he's looking at, if you look at verse number six.
And it's the exact same description given in Daniel chapter seven, in Revelation chapter one, and so forth, of Jesus Christ.
So he looks, Jesus Christ himself appears to Daniel here.
Then, it says in verse, and I'm just blowing through this for the sake of time, this is a great story, you know, you can analyze it another time,
but look at verse number eight. Therefore I was left alone. Okay, so now Jesus is gone.
That was Jesus that he was talking to a couple of verses ago.
Then it says in verse number nine, or I'm sorry, verse number ten, and behold, a hand touched me. This is somebody different.
And behold, a hand touched me, this is Daniel ten, ten, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.
So he's laying on his face, and this hand picks him up and puts him on his hands and knees.
And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee and stand upright,
for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.
So he's scared to death, he's shaking, he just saw God. He just saw Jesus Christ, and now this hand picks him up and stands him up and is talking to him and shaking.
Then it said unto me, verse number twelve, fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand
and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days, there's your three weeks right there, one and twenty days.
But little Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days, for yet the vision is for many days.
And when he had spoken, let me turn my page in my Bible here, when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground and I became dumb.
And behold, one like unto the similitude of the sons of men, so there's different people he's dealing with here, but on and on in the story.
Here's the point of the story. He gets on his face, he's upset, he's mourning, weeping before God for three full weeks.
He's depriving himself, he's chastening himself, I mean he's disciplining himself for three weeks, and when the answer comes, this angel comes,
he tells him, he says, look, the very first day when you just open your mouth and just pray to God, I mean the first day, before you even went through all the fasting,
before you went through all the chastening, he says from the first day when you just got on your face and just said,
God, would you please show me what I need to do here. Then what happened? This angel was coming with the answer to Daniel's prayer.
But it took him 21 days to get there, because it says that he was withstood by the prince of Persia, which is some kind of a demonic, some kind of a demon,
some kind of a devil, that was, it's really weird, you know, if you read the book of Daniel, it talks about these different demonic powers that are controlling these different evil nations at the time.
Controlling, they were really behind these evil kings and this, you know, it's complicated, but the point is, he was withstood, there was a spiritual battle going on.
There was a spiritual battle between this angel and Michael the archangel, and these demons and devils of hell, and there was this battle going on, and it took him 21 days to get the answer to Daniel's prayer to him.
So maybe your prayer is answered immediately, but that doesn't mean that you're going to get the answer immediately, that doesn't mean you're going to see it immediately,
because there's other things going on that you and I don't understand. And so you can't just give up on something and say, well, I prayed and nothing happened.
Well, Daniel could have said, well, I prayed and nothing happened, but it did happen immediately, but it just didn't, the answer didn't get there, he just didn't see it for three weeks.
And so anyway, we can go on and on with this, that's a whole other lesson of itself. But back to Matthew chapter 7, the point that you need to learn from what's being said here is just the power of prayer, that God does answer prayer.
God will answer your prayers, maybe not in the exact way that you expect, maybe he'll do it according to his will and it'll be a little bit different than what you asked for, but he will give you your petition.
He will answer your prayer, every time. And so we need to know that, because then we'll maybe pray more if we realize the power of prayer, and that maybe the answers are coming way down the road, but they are coming.
Look at this, verse number 9, it says, For what man is there of you, whom if his son asked bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asked a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If he then be evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophecy.
That's the golden rule, of course, straight out of the Bible. Usually they change the words around a little bit and don't give credit to the author who made that statement up.
Century 21, Realty. This is their motto, but they don't put the verse by it and they don't put where it came from, and they actually say, All things whatsoever ye would, that others should do to you.
So they just change men to others. All things whatsoever you would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.
And it says in that exact wording, the King James English, century 21, they use that for their motto. It's straight out of the Bible, which is fine.
I mean, they should have left men in there and said others, they shouldn't tamper with God's word, but that's a very common statement.
It's something that people live by and everything, but it's straight out of the Bible, as many sayings are.
But notice what he's saying here. He says, Look, an earthly parent gives to their child what they want and what they need.
He says if they want bread, they give it to them. If they want food, they give it to them. If they want something that's good, they give it to them.
And he says God's going to give good things to those that ask Him also. Now look, let me talk about parenting for a few minutes.
Think about this. Parents are afraid of spoiling their children, right? And they say, Well, I don't want to give my kid nice things because then they're going to get spoiled.
Or, I want to make sure that I don't give them everything that they want because they're going to be spoiled.
Now look, obviously you need to say no to your kids. But a lot of times parents will deprive their kids of good things as a substitute for the punishment that they really need to be giving them, which is spanking.
Now look, if you spank your kids like you should, and if you discipline them and are strict with them, then it's not going to hurt them if you give them nice things.
Nowhere in the Bible does God talk about you withholding good things from your children as a form of punishment. And it's not the right way to punish your kids.
Give them what they want. You know, I try as much as I can, and there are many times when I say no to my wife about money and how she wants money for this and that.
Hey, there are times when I say no. There are times when my kids want things, and I say no. But as much as my power, I do everything I can to accommodate my wife, and I do everything I can to accommodate my children.
And just in life, I just try to give people what they want. I mean, seriously, if somebody asks me for something, if there's any way I can give it to them, I'm going to give it to them.
I mean, if I'm out working on the job and somebody says, hey, can I borrow such-and-such a screwdriver, I'm sure. Because I want to give to him that asketh me, and from him that would borrow of me turn not thou away, as it said in Matthew 5.
See, withholding good things from people is not the way to go. It's not the way to train your kids. Spanking is the way that you discipline your kids. Your kids will not be spoiled if you spank them.
You can give them nice things. You can provide them nice things. God's all for giving your kids nice things.
And see, a lot of times people try to be in the middle of the road. They don't want to spank too much, but they don't want to be too nice to their kids.
No, I try to be as nice as I can to my kids to that extreme, and I try to spank them as much as I can to that extreme.
Well, you know what I mean. I mean, be strict with them as much as I can. I spank them every chance I get.
No, but you know what I mean. I try to go as strict as I can and just as kind and loving and give them as much as I can.
Hey, do you want to go to the Panda Bear restaurant again? Let's go. Do you want to have another In-N-Out Burger? Hey, let's do it.
I try to give them what they want, but there are times when I say no, and then if they say,
But Dad, he got a look.
Then that's when they get the spanking. So I can say yes to them nine times, and then the tenth time I say no, and then they'll get spanking if they don't know how to take the no.
That's where the spoiled comes in is where they can't learn how to say no, but that's accomplished through spanking, not by training them to get used to just always hearing no, no, no, no, no.
Because look, when I ask God, and that's why right after that he says,
Because hey, I don't want to go to God and have him say no, no, no every time I want something.
When I want something from God, I want him to say yes every time.
Every time I ask for something good, because he's telling me I'm giving them good things, not stupid things, not wrong things.
If I ask God for something good, I want him to give it to me.
So when my kids ask me for something good, I'm going to give it to them if it's within my power.
But they have to learn how to take a no, just like I have to learn how to take no from God with no explanation.
Okay, let's move on from that though. Look at verse number 13.
Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate.
Straight, of course, means small.
Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Now listen, I'm not a preacher that likes to tell a lot of stories.
I'm not one of these guys that gets up and jokes around and tells a bunch of stories.
But I just have to tell this story, and this is just a little comic relief.
When I was out of town just now, I was in L.A., and it was 10 o'clock at night,
and I was working in a Mervyn's store. I was just finishing up the fire alarm,
and it was 10 o'clock at night, and, boy, the night before I went to this hotel,
and they were trying to charge, it was like a Super 8 hotel, and they were trying to charge 75 bucks for the room,
for one person. And I said, is that the corporate discount? Is that the business rate?
They're like, yep, that's it, 75 dollars.
And I'm just like, good, I'm not going to pay 75 dollars for a hotel room.
So I was just thinking, you know what, I'm just going to sleep in my car at the rest area.
I'm only sleeping for a few hours anyway, because I've got to get up early and work and so forth.
So it's like 10 o'clock at Mervyn's. This is on Tuesday night.
So I'm in Mervyn's, and I see these trunks, these swim trunks, and I see some towels,
and they were all on sale, 60 percent off.
So I bought myself a pair of trunks, and I bought myself a towel, and I figured, hey, I'm right by the Pacific Ocean.
I'm going to go swimming in the ocean, and that's going to get me all cleaned up. I won't even need a shower.
I got my shaver, and I'm all set to go.
So I drive over to Highway 1, which is the one that goes right along the coast,
and I was following the signs, and I don't know how this happened, but all of a sudden I'm driving up Highway 1,
and I'm looking on my right side, because I was supposed to be heading south,
because I was supposed to be in San Diego the next day.
I was supposed to be heading south, and I kept looking to the right, and there was just no water.
And I was thinking to myself, boy, on the map, Highway 1 is just right by the water.
And so I'm looking, and there's just no water, no water, no water.
So I thought, maybe I'll look to my left, and then of course there's the water.
So I've been driving the wrong way for about just 15, 20 minutes, something like that.
So I'm driving the wrong way. There's the water, because it's so dark, it's hard to see the water anyway.
So I see some water. Okay, there's the water, and I've been heading north,
when I should have been heading south, just by accident.
So I see a sign that says Vista Point.
So I'm like, okay, you know, maybe let's get down to the water and jump into the Pacific Ocean.
This is like about 1045 at night by now.
So I pull off to this Vista Point. I walk out to the balcony, and I look out, and it's just a clip.
I mean, it's just a giant clip down to the water.
And I'm thinking, no, you know, this isn't going to work.
But I look over to the right, and just a perfect sandy beach.
And then I look over to the left, perfect sandy beaches.
But here's the thing. It's all these rich people's houses that are backed up to it,
and then just a giant expansive beach.
But there's no beach access, because these houses just form an uninterrupted wall to the beach.
So that pretty much they're the only ones that are going to be able to use it.
And this giant beach is huge.
And so I'm looking at just these perfect beaches, just thinking, that's where I need to be right now.
But I can't get there because of this cliff.
So I pull out, and I'm thinking, I've got to find a way to get there.
So I pull out, and I drive just about 100 feet down.
And I thought, this is about where that beach was, a couple hundred feet down.
And I see a street. It's called Cliff Drive.
And I'm thinking, this is a decoy. There's not really a cliff there.
I saw that sandy beach. I saw the cliff.
So I turned on Cliff Drive.
And I drive down Cliff Drive, and I'm driving, of course.
It's just these giant three-story houses and mansions.
They look like castles from the Middle Ages.
I was in Laguna Beach, California.
And this was just a very expensive area.
I've never seen anything like this.
And these people were living right up against the ocean.
And I'm driving along, and there it was, the chink in the armor.
I look, and there's a house that's under construction. It was being built.
So it's a construction site.
So it's just uninterrupted walls and mansions and everything.
And then just boom, there's this construction site.
And I just thought to myself, I just said, glory to God, hallelujah.
So I pull over by the road about 100 feet away or so, something like that, pull over.
I've got my trunks on. I've got my towel. I'm ready to go.
I walk down the street, and I climb through this job site.
I was climbing over ropes. I was climbing over concrete rebar.
I went down into a ditch and then had to climb out.
I come out the other side, and there's just this perfect little walkway down to this perfect sandy beach, just empty.
So I go down there to this beach, put down my towel, and just ran and jumped into the ocean.
It was about 60 degrees outside, but the water was just perfect.
And usually I thought the water was cool at this time, but I think God was just blessing me because it was just very nice.
And so I just jump in, and this was high tide.
I mean, this was like surfs up, dude. The waves are just huge, crashing down.
So I just dive into these waves, and it was like just getting a power wash.
I mean, it got me clean.
And so I'm swimming out in the ocean, but then I thought, well, I don't want to be here too long because I don't want to get in trouble or something.
So I swim out of the water, get out, dry off, get changed, and moved on.
Here's the point of the story. Yes, there is a point. Yes, it does have something to do with the sermon.
Enter ye in at the straight gate.
Because, see, look, here was the wall. There was no way I was going to get in.
I mean, good night. Think about it.
The whole state of California has this beautiful beach all along the edge.
You can't go anywhere in California, and I know because I've driven the whole thing pretty much.
You can't go anywhere that's not barred off and gated off and chained off.
And they're saying, you know, give me $10, give me $8, the park service to get in.
And it's closed at dusk, and it's locked up, and the gate's shut, the bar's shut, it's locked.
The patrolman's driving around making sure nobody's there.
Or somebody's house is just right up against it, blocking it.
There's no way, my friend, that at 11 o'clock at night you're going to go swimming in the Pacific Ocean just because you feel like it.
I'm just telling you that right now.
But God led me to go the wrong way and to turn on Cliff Drive, and I found the perfect opportunity.
Now, look, it was a narrow way. Let's face it.
Not everybody was willing to climb through those hurdles.
Let's face it. Not everybody's going to find that exact street where the house is under construction,
and they've just left the big gap in the armor.
And let me get down to their little private beach that they hold so dear.
And so it's the same way with salvation, unfortunately.
God says it's a very narrow way, and it's not going to be found by the will of man.
It's not going to be found by the flesh.
Look at the verse right here where it says, let me find...
See, verses 13 and 14 talk about it, but you've got to skip to verse 21 and it gets back into it.
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
God's saying, look, not everybody who tries to go to heaven is going to get to heaven.
I have to take the time to turn here.
We're running out of time, but we might just have to end the sermon after this, but I want to show you this.
Turn, if you would, to Luke, chapter number 13, verse 23.
This is important. I want you to see this.
Luke, chapter number 13, verse number 23.
It says in Luke 13, 23, Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?
Now, I love that, and I love questions like this in the Bible.
Only a few times in the Bible do we get to actually get an answer from God
where somebody just walks up to God or walks up to the man of God and just asks just a straightforward, clear question.
This reminds me of when he says, what must I do to be saved? I love it.
I love just the clear cut question and the clear answer.
Listen to what he's saying. Are there few that be saved?
I mean, come on, is it true or not?
Are a lot of people going to heaven or are few people going to heaven?
It's a good question, isn't it? Look what he says.
Are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive.
What does strive mean? It means try. It means you need to make sure that you try and do this.
Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able.
He says there are people that want to go to heaven, that are trying to get to heaven,
but they will not be able to get to heaven. Why? Well, the answer was in Matthew 7 where we just read it.
He said, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.
He's saying, if you are going to go to heaven, you're going to go God's way.
God has a way that he's designed. He says, I don't want to let the will means what he wants.
Someone's will is what they want. He says, I don't want people to go to heaven on their own merit,
because that would devalue the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that he made on the cross where he paid it all.
He says, I want people to go to heaven by placing their faith in him.
That's why I say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
He says, that's what I want. And if you don't go my way, then you're not going to go at all, is what he's saying.
And he says, there are people who want to go to heaven, and they're trying to go to heaven.
They're trying to live their good life. They're trying to join their religion and do the best they can.
But he says, they're trying, but they're not going to be able to go to heaven.
And see, look what he says here. Many. Now remember, it's few that are saved, we found out in Luke chapter 13.
It's few people that are saved. Few there be that find it.
But he says, many, that's the opposite of few by the way, is many.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
He's saying, we preached sermons about you, Jesus, we preached about you.
He says, in thy name we cast out devils. And look, here's the big one, in thy name done many wonderful works.
They're saying, look, I lived a good life. He said, many people are going to say this.
Now look, which one's more, many or few? Which one's more? Many.
So look, he's saying there are going to be more people standing in front of Jesus Christ saying,
Lord, we did wonderful works for you. How can you not let us into heaven?
Look what we've done. There are going to be more people that say, this is what we've done Jesus,
let us into heaven than there are that are even saved.
Now look, yes there are people who are atheists who say, I want nothing to do with Jesus Christ
and I believe we're in hell right now and I don't believe in God and I don't believe in heaven and all this garbage.
And there are people that are Islamic and there are people that are Hindu and Buddhist and they don't believe in Jesus at all.
But there are more people who claim to believe in Jesus and say, our good works are going to get us to heaven
than there are that are really saved. There are more people who claim that they know Jesus Christ
but are saying, look at all the works we've done God, you must let us into heaven,
than are actually getting into heaven by entering in at the straight gate by going through the blood of Jesus Christ
and putting their faith in him to get them to heaven.
So yes, there are a few that are saved. Yes, most of Christianity is going to hell, that's what the Bible says.
Most of Christianity is trusting in work, salvation, I know that and you know that because we go soul-wetting
and we talk to people and they say, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person, you can't live however you want and so forth.
And then look what he says here, right after it says, and I named them and he went to four works, verse 23,
and then while I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity.
He says, look, you're a sinner, you're going to hell. I don't know you. I don't know you, you're a liar, you're a sinner, go to hell.
Because see, everybody's a sinner and if God doesn't know you, you're not going to heaven.
And the only way to be known of God, the only way to be in God's family, the only way to be child of God
is to be born again, to be born of the Spirit, to be born again by the incorruptible seed,
the word of God which liveth and abideth forever, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death to life.
See, to be known of God, you've got to hear God's word and believe on Jesus Christ.
You'll be saved and then God knows you and then he'll let you into heaven and that's the only way you'll get into heaven.
See, a lot of times we think of, sometimes people will use this kind of nomenclature, they'll say,
he doesn't know the Lord, like he knows the Lord and somebody's saved, but that's not right
because the Bible never talks about you knowing God as being salvation.
God knowing you is salvation.
You see, long before John, my son John here, he's what, a year and a half old now?
John is just right at a year and a half old.
Long before he knew me, I knew him.
I mean, let's face it, he didn't really know me.
I mean, how well did he know me the day he was born?
How well did he know me when he was in the womb?
How well does he even know me right now?
I know him because he's my son and whether he knows me or not, I know him.
It's the same thing with God.
When you get born into God's family, that's when God knows you.
That's when God recognizes you.
Okay, yeah, you're part of my family.
You're in the family.
You're a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
You're my son.
Well, knowing God, on the other hand, comes later.
That's why the Bible says, and I don't really have time to go into all this,
but I'm just going to blow through this real quick.
In Galatians 4, 9, it talks about how rather, because he says about knowing God,
but he says, well, rather to be known of God.
He says, you used to serve these other gods.
You used to be into idolatry and false religion.
But he says, now that you know God, he says, well, actually now that you're known of God, rather.
That's a better way of putting it, he says.
So once we're known of God, once we're saved, then comes our responsibility to get to know God.
That comes later.
Let me read just a few verses on this subject, and then we'll close.
1 John, I'm going to turn there and just read you a few verses here.
The Bible says in 1 John, chapter number 2,
and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
One way to know if you know God or not is whether you keep his commandments.
Look at chapter 2, verse 4.
He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
See, whether you're saved or not, you don't know God unless you keep his commandments.
The way to know God is to keep his commandments.
That's how you get to know God.
That's why the Bible says blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
And so you don't know God unless you keep his commandments, and if you say you do, then you're a liar.
So the best way to get to know God is to read the Bible and obey the Bible.
That's how you get to know God.
Then in chapter number 4, 1 John, the Bible says in verse number 7,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God,
and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
He says in order for you to love yourself, in order for you to love God, in order for you to love other people,
in order for you to have real love, not like the world has love that's shallow,
he says you've got to be born of God, you've got to be saved, and you've got to know God.
Those are the two things.
That's why the Bible says, and this whole book is about that 1 John,
but that's why it says in chapter number 5,
everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that has begotten of him,
by this we know that we love the children of God.
When we love God and keep his commandments, he says,
the only way that I can love other people is when I love God and keep his commandments.
That makes me love other people.
And so that's a whole other subject.
I wish I had time to get into all that because it's so profound,
but if you read 1 John, you'll find out that the way to love other people,
the way to love your brother in Christ, the way to love unsaved people,
is to get to know God and God will rub off on you and get to know God's word
and obey God's word, keep his commandments, you'll know God.
That's why in verses number 24 through 27 of Matthew 7,
which is what we're not having time to get into,
it talks about hearing God's commandments and doing them because it's the same subject.
Then let me just repeat the last verse of the chapter.
Matthew 7, 29, the Bible says,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
Boy, I get so sick and tired of hearing preaching that's not authoritative.
You know, you hear preachers get up and they say,
well, you know, some people believe this,
and I've known a lot of other great men that believe this,
and the Bible's not really clear on that,
and boy, that kind of preaching just makes me sick.
It's boring.
It just leaves me scratching my head.
Or like, you know, the preachers that will apologize when they preach and say,
well, you know, I'm preaching tonight, and I probably need this more than you do.
I'm preaching to myself tonight.
And if you've been in church for a long time, you hear preachers say that all the time.
I'm preaching to myself tonight, and I probably need this more than you do,
and I'm preaching on the sin of homosexuality.
I'm just joking, but they'll say these disclaimers and stuff.
But what we need, nobody's perfect.
I'm not perfect.
I don't practice everything that I preach 100 percent because I'm not perfect,
because I'm a sinner like you are.
But don't preach like the scribes, like some sissy.
Get up.
God's saying, look, preach with authority because the Bible's authoritative,
and you're preaching the Bible.
And so authoritative preaching says, thus saith the Lord.
That's the way it is.
It's not up for debate. It's not my opinion.
It's what the Bible says.
God said it. It's true. We believe it. Amen.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Dear God, thank you so much for church.