Chapter 7

The category of the human race known as believers is divided into two parts, those who are spiritual [filled with the Holy Spirit] and those who are “carnal” [out of fellowship]. The third category of the human race is the unbeliever. This passage deals with the worst of all types of carnality, the sins of the tongue. It is divided into three parts. The first part is Matthew 7:1-5 — the carnal believer judges; Matthew 7:6-12 — the spiritual believer understands doctrine; Matthew 7:13-27 — the unbeliever rejects salvation.

The action of the carnal believer: verses 1-5. The type of carnality which is mentioned is vicious, evil, prevalent, and is excused, condoned, and encouraged in the average local church. Reason: ignorance on the part of the pastor, failure to emphasise what the Word of God emphasises, or it may be that the pastor just doesn’t have any courage. “Judge not,” present active imperative. The imperative mood says this is an order, judging others is forbidden; active voice: you must not judge. To judge means to gossip, to malign, to try to run someone else’s life and to do so verbally. If you feel called upon to try to handle the affairs of other people this is an absolute guarantee that you will be miserable as long as you live. The most miserable people are those who are always trying to run someone else’s life. This word “judge not” has to do with verbal criticism, maligning, bullying verbally. It includes all of the sins of the tongue and it is parallel to such passages as Romans 2:1 — “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou judgest thyself; for thou that judgest doeth the same things.” Romans 14:4 says: “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.” That passage says that each believer is accountable to the Lord, he is not accountable to you.

“that” introduces a purpose clause. There is a reason why you shouldn’t judge others. This is a special type of sin that carries a double load of discipline: “ye be not judged,” aorist passive subjunctive. The aorist tense means in a point of time when you judge another believer you are out of fellowship and therefore under divine discipline. The moment you judge someone else you are out of fellowship and this immediately receives double discipline. Passive voice: “that you receive not judgement", literally; subjunctive mood: the discipline is potential depending upon whether you commit this sin or not. First of all you have self-induced discipline, and secondly you have divinely originated discipline. So you have two kinds: you make your own misery when you start to judge others, and then of course God adds to it. When God adds to it He adds double discipline, so the divinely induced discipline is again twofold: you are disciplined for the sin of judging someone else, and then whatever sin you mention in connection with it (regardless of whether the sin is true or not with regard to the other person) you receive the divine discipline that goes with that particular sin. In other words, whatever penalty is assessed to the sin that you mention, you get that too.

Verse 2 — amplification of the doctrine of double discipline. The Greek says: “For by which judgement you judge, you shall be judged.” The judgement is the sin that you actually mention in connection with someone else. So “you judge” is your sin in judging someone else, and judgement is the sin you mention in connection with someone else.

To whom was this directed? To the disciples. So it was directed to those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Six points on how to get out of the (mouth) trap

1. Rebound — 1 John 1:9. We have to realise that the doctrine of the long proboscis is a sin which you must name to get back in fellowship — 1 Corinthians 11:31.

2. The result of rebound is mental attitude love and/or the filling of the Spirit. So the first thing that happens when you get back in fellowship is a relaxed mental attitude.

3. At this point we have a system of discipline which must be developed. At this point you must become aware of the fact of the dangers of this particular sin and learn to mind your own business. You have to learn to live your own life before the Lord and stay out of the lives of others.

4. The next solution is one for maturity, and it is occupation with Christ. It is impossible to be occupied with Christ and at the same time running down other people. Occupation with Christ is taught in Hebrews 12:2.

5. Thorough knowledge of the Biblical doctrine of sin (hamartiology) e.g. Proverbs 6:16-19. In other words, you need to understand what the Bible teaches about sin.

6. Orientation to the grace of God as declared in 2 Peter 3:18.

“and by which measure ye mete [measure], it shall be measured to you.” The measure was a method of weighing out things in the ancient world. “By which measure” means by whatever sin you attach to another believer, through gossip, through maligning, through criticism. This immediately sets up an automatic system for discipline, the only one which exists, and you yourself actually set up the measure — “it shall be measured.” In other words, this is the way that God is going to give it to you, a logical progression future tense. It is a logical progression that God will measure back to you exactly what you measure out to someone else.

Do not try to evaluate the work of another believer

1. Leave evaluation and discipline in the hands of the Lord. Evaluation is a judgement of their work, production, and that will be the judgement seat of Christ and whatever the Lord wants to do by blessing them now, but discipline has to do with judgement of their sins.

2. If another believer has wronged you place the matter of retribution in the Lord’s hands — 1 Peter 5:7; Psalm 55:22; Romans 12:19.

3. The believer has enough to be concerned about in his own life without meddling in the lives of others — Romans 14:4.

4. The legalist is always prone to judge the grace man — Galatians 4:29, but this prerogative belongs to the Lord.

5. The legalist is in no condition to judge anyone. His own self-righteousness plus his energy of the flesh operation is in itself blasphemy. So this point is simply to add the phrase: “Look who is talking!”

There are some exceptions to this principle

1. The first is where a believer with doctrine is applying this doctrine to a person, an organisation, a situation which is detrimental to either the cause of Christ or the safety and security of his national entity.

2. The pastor of a local church has the authority to judge under certain conditions — but it is difficult because you cannot judge unless you know all of the facts.

3. As the member of a nominating committee you must be thoroughly discerning. You have to evaluate as a member of a nominating committee.

4. You must be very careful about writing a recommendation for another person.

5. Do not give a credit reference on another believer unless you know the facts.

Verse 3 — “And why beholdest thou the moat which is in thy brother’s eye.” The word “moat” is a splinter. This is the illustration of a self-righteous, hypocritical and legalistic believer judging someone else. The word “behold” means to make a superficial observation but with great scrutiny. In other words, if you were making a superficial and yet scrutinising observation, all of a sudden you see a toothpick in someone else’s eye.

“but considerest not” — katanoew, a compound [kata refers to a norm or a standard; noew refers to thinking. Thinking according to a norm or standard]. The words “considerest not” is not a good translation. Here it means to evaluate your own life by the norm or standard of the Word of God. In other words, here you are trying to pull the splinter out of someone else’s eye when according to the norm or the standard of the Word of God you have a log in your own eye.

The doctrine of the long proboscis [nose]

1. Nosy and critical persons are generally miserable because of the mental attitude sins.

2. Nosy and critical person usually have a deep-seated approbation or ego lust. In other words, they want to be recognised and they can’t be recognised in the normal channels of life so they have to be maligners in order to get attention.

3. While ruining their own lives through legalism they are generally bullies trying to impose their false standards on others.

4. Such believers are easily recognised. They are never relaxed and generally they are trouble makers.

5. Such believers are always running after some experience by which they can either sublimate or contend that they are better than others. In other words, the contend that they are better than others on the basis of an experience.

6. There must be separation from such believers, and the command separation from these believers is found in Romans 16:17,18.

Verse 4 — the illustration of the hypocritical, self-righteous legalist. He is a believer and he is trying to straighten out everyone else’s life. “Or how wilt thou say to thy brother” — here is the business of spiritual bullying. He not only has spotted the splinter in your eye and has told everyone about it but now he is going to come and help you out. He is going to offer to take the splinter out of your eye; “and, behold, he has a log in his own eye” — the long proboscis.

So now we have the question of how we handle our own problems

Every believer must handle his own sin nature, not the problems of another sin nature. How? 1. Knowledge of doctrine, especially the doctrine of sin [hamartiology].

2. Knowing the doctrine of spirituality, including how to rebound, of course.

3. Understanding and applying retroactive positional truth [that your sins were judged at the cross and can never be judged again under the law of double jeopardy, and that human good is rejected at the cross, and understanding the dangers of human good].

4. There must be continual growth through knowledge of doctrine, through orientation to grace. This results in stability and maximum production. In other words, you have to move toward maturity.

5. You must avoid the pattern of 1 Timothy 5:13, “And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not to speak”.

By way of review we have a description of three men in chapter seven. The carnal believer, verses 1-5; the spiritual believer, verses 6-12; the unbeliever, verses 13-27. The action of the carnal believer in verses 1-5 is judging, maligning and gossiping.

Verse 5 — “Thou hypocrite.” The judging-type believer is said to be a hypocrite. Jesus made it very clear that there is double discipline for throwing stones at others; “cast out the beam [log] that is in thine own eye.” The mechanics of casting this out: it is an aorist active imperative, which means you can do it, and the only way you can do it, of course, is through rebound (1 John 1:9). When you get a log out of your own eye then you can see clearly — diablepw. Dia means through and blepw means to see or to glance through. In other words, if you have cleared the log jamb in your own life then you can clearly see the lives of others. Of course the clear perspective is that you mind your own business. The people who are inclined to mind their own business are the people who have cleared the log jambs from their own life. Believers who are self-righteous can never get out of the misery bracket. When it says “thou shalt see clearly” it means that you have the ability to discern, to see through the matter. In other words, you can see through your own failure “to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” In other words, to see clearly enough to leave it alone. Self-righteousness is a terrible enemy and it is one of those things that makes the unbeliever run the other way. If a diablepw type Christian will turn around and avoid a self-righteous person what do you suppose an unbeliever will do? The unbeliever will be long gone and you will never have any impact for Christ and you cannot properly represent Him to the unbelieving world with this phoney facade of self-righteousness.

In verses 6-12 we have the spiritual believer at the end of the Age of Israel. He had certain characteristics which will be developed in this passage. Jesus begins in verse six with the discernment of the spiritual believer. The word “spiritual” is used here in a sense of both a believer in fellowship and a believer who is mature, not spiritual in the sense of the filling of the Spirit because in Jesus’ day the filling of the Spirit did not exist. The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified. So when Jesus gave the sermon on the mount there was no universal indwelling of the Spirit and there was no filling of the Spirit. There was an Old Testament system whereby the Holy Spirit endued or empowered a few people but this was a very rare thing. So first of all a spiritual believer must be discerning and he has to learn to keep his mouth shut because there are some things that you do not give to the unbelieving world.

Verse 6 — operation discernment. “Give not,” aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense deals with a point of time when you are talking to an unbeliever — that which is called “holy” here. So that is the aorist tense plus the negative. The active voice: you have to do it and you have to have sense to do this. Then we have the subjunctive mood which recognises that you have free will and recognises that you cannot really obey this command unless you have a little moxy in the frontal lobe. There are some things that you never discuss with an unbeliever and that is what this is actually saying. “Give not that which is holy unto dogs” — “dogs” and “swine”: dogs are Gentile unbelievers (an Old Testament title for them), cf.. Psalm 22:16; Mark 7:28; Revelation 22:15, “swine” are Jewish unbelievers, religious self-righteous types, cf. 2 Peter 2:22. So we are dealing in this passage with what you do not give to unbelievers. What you do not give them is described here as “holy” and later on as “pearls” and refers to Bible doctrine for phase two. Phase two Bible doctrine deals primarily with the Christian way of life. You do not put the cart before the horse; you do not teach Bible doctrine when you are dealing with an unbeliever, you give him the gospel. The only issue to the unbeliever is the gospel and you do not give him anything but the gospel. The gospel centres around the person of Christ and if you want to ruin the operation just make an issue out of a person’s bad habits and sins, nag them about their drinking or something of that sort. That which is holy and the pearls happen to deal with Bible doctrine and to the unbeliever you do not make an issue out of such things as whether the Bible is the Word of God, for example. The unbeliever may make an issue out of it but you don’t, you just fire in the message and you make an issue out of Christ. If you are going to witness for the Lord Jesus Christ then you must make the issue clear and the issue is the work of Christ. And remember that it is not your job to force a decision, that is the work of the Holy Spirit so don’t get in His way by pressurising people. You fire in the information and let the Spirit take it from there.

“lest” is a result clause [with the result that] — “they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” They trample the pearls and this is what religion always seeks to do, obscure truth. The word “rend” means to lacerate, to slash in pieces. Religion and legalism always lacerate, slash in pieces, both the believer and his doctrine. So the religious unbeliever needs the gospel like anyone else.

Verse 7-10, the threefold emphasis of the spiritual believer at that time, in the previous dispensation: prayer, doctrine, technique or mechanics. All theses are important and especially in the case of the last one it is amazing how many people do not know the mechanics. Illustration: Just as with flying an aircraft you can learn all the principles and theory but still not be able to fly. You have to learn the mechanics of flying.

Verse 7 — Prayer: “Ask, and it shall be given you” — present active imperative. There is no case for volition here, you just get with it. This is a command in the present tense and it should be translated: “You keep on praying.” “It shall be given you” is the future tense, which is logical progression. The future tense is very rarely future in time, ninety per cent of the time it is used for logical progression, and that is the way it is used all the way through the rest of this chapter. So, ask and it is logical that if you are on praying ground that you are going to be given what you are asking for. The passive voice indicates that you cannot earn it or deserve it and no believer ever earns of deserves an answer to prayer, it is strictly a matter of grace. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that prayers are answered — “and it shall be given you,” dative of advantage, it shall be given for your advantage. If you are even asking for someone else it is still to your advantage.

Doctrine: “seek and ye shall find.” Seeking is Bible study, searching the Word, digging out doctrines. Again, it is a present active imperative and it means to keep on seeking, don’t go by fits and starts as some people do. Doctrine has to be your life or you have no life as a believer. Doctrine has to be learned and so you have to seek it. The word in the Greek was used for seeking something of value. If you are out looking for something valuable then your heart’s really in it. The future tense again is logical progression; if you really go after doctrine you’ll get doctrine. Notice this time that it is future active. The active voice means that you yourself are going to do the finding and it means that you have to learn it. Perception comes from volition is the principle of the active voice.

Another logical progression: You keep on seeking doctrine, and you may have a hard time at first. You shall find it, it says. This time it is an active voice which means that you volition is involved in learning. Once you find doctrine you find it because your own mental attitude is involved. Your life is going to be different, wonderful, no matter how many difficulties you have in life. This has always been true since the beginning of time and one of the things common to believers in every dispensation is prayer and doctrine. The word “find” means to discover something you are interested in, something you want.

Techniques (mechanics): “knock” — knock is actually comparable to the faith-rest technique. Again, it is present active imperative, which means keep on using the faith-rest technique. When you use the faith-rest technique everything opens up: “it shall be opened.” We go back to the future passive again. Future tense is logical progression and the passive voice means you don’t earn it, the faith-rest technique is a non-meritorious operation.

So in these three logical progressions: the first one was future passive, the second one was future active, the third was again future passive. The two passive voices indicate the grace of God, orientation to the grace of God, and the one active voice indicates mental attitude in learning doctrine.

Verse 8 — the blessing from this pattern. “For everyone [every believer]” — this pattern is for the believer only. Only the believer can pray, only the believer can learn doctrine, only the believer can use the techniques; they are designed for the believer in phase two; “that asketh” — present active participle, indicating that prayer should be a habit; “receiveth.” Here is the blessing that comes from prayer, receiving. Doctrine: “he that seeketh,” present active participle; “findeth” is present active indicative. Mechanics: “to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” The three habitual factors, asketh, seeketh, and knocketh, are present active participles which all indicate habitual activities in phase two, and the active voice means that your volition is involved in these activities. The blessing column in each one of these — receiveth, findeth, opened — is where we get the emphasis. “Everyone that asketh receiveth” and the principle of receiveth is that it is a present active indicative, and the indicative mood indicates that the participle goes with it and it happens every time, it is a reality, and there will never be an exception; when you ask you will receive. Of course, this means to be on praying ground. We understand that it is possible to pray as a believer and not be heard — if we are not on praying ground — we understand that. This is simply taking up the principle of prayer and in taking up the principle of prayer it is taking up a prayer that will be answered. The indicative mood indicates the reality of this. Then we have the same thing again: the one who seeks, finds. Again you have present active indicative. You change from the participle to the indicative to indicate the reality of getting doctrine in the frontal lobe and it simply says: Yes, you really will get doctrine in the frontal lobe, no question about it. Now you have established a pattern because you have two doing the same thing — present active participle, present active indicative; present active participle, present active indicative. So you go right on with the third one and when you do obviously you are establishing a parallelism and all of a sudden you break that parallelism up with a fantastic emphasis: you go to future passive indicative, and when you do this you emphasise the last one, you underline it. So this future passive indicative shouts at us. And actually it says this: “It shall be opened” — future tense, logical progression, passive voice, it is opened by God, He does the work [grace], indicative mood [the reality of it], and the principle is this: Where there is a modus operandi it brings results. Bible study is a modus operandi and it loads up your frontal lobe, but action in the Christian life [phase two] is based on knowing and using techniques. This is where the action is. If you don’t know it, you can’t do it. It is fantastic when God opens doors and here is the whole door opening process — prayer, Bible study, cognisance of techniques, utilisation of same. It is possible to know a lot, to pray a lot, and to be put in neutral as far as the Christian life is concerned, simply because of failure to utilise the techniques. So don’t stop with seeking, do a little knocking and the doors will open.

Verses 9-10, the illustration. In verse 9 the illustration has to do with divine institution #3, parenthood. “Or what man” — the word “man” isn’t man, it is homo sapien [person], the generic term for the human race and can be man or woman; “among you, whom if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone?” This is not a prayer promise, this is an illustration of the whole principle — prayer, doctrine, techniques — and actually it illustrates the door being opened. The principle here is parental love; providing for the child. God is now our Father, we are in His family, and therefore using this process results in this fantastic thing. God isn’t going to give us a stone, he is going to open the door. And so giving the bread is opening the door.

Verse 10 — second illustration. “Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent [venomous snake]?” Again the answer is no, He will provide. The illustration emphasises that God does the giving. Our volition is involved in learning doctrine, in praying, in learning how to utilise these techniques and actually using them. But in this pattern the provision comes from God and the basis of it is a relationship: parents-children. You give to your children whether you are happy with them or mad at them. You provide for your children because of relationship, because of the love that exist in the relationship, but you don’t take food and clothing and other necessities away from that child just because you are angry with him, and you don’t give him these things just because you are glad or pleased with the child. We are the children in this illustration and as the children of God sometimes we please Him and sometimes we disappoint Him, grieve Him, but His attitude toward us never changes and under these techniques He never deviates. For example, you commit a sin and you confess that sin He forgives you no matter what kind of sin you have committed. This is grace and His grace keeps coming regardless of who or what we are or what we do because His grace depends on His character. The parent is the best illustration of this. The parent continues to give to the children, not because they are good or bad but because of the character of the parents and because of the love that is there. The Lord is always gracious to us. We may change every hour on the hour but He will not. So this makes a wonderful illustration of the principle of grace which underlies the whole thing.

Verse 11 — grace orientation of the spiritual believer. “If” — first class condition: if and it is true. If you are a parent and you have an old sin nature; “ye then being evil” — present active participle to indicate that there is no such thing as a perfect parent because all parents have old sin natures. But if, with an old sin nature, you can give to your children when they are out of line (you feed them, etc.), what do you think God who is perfect is going to do? There is a tremendous principle here. Here is where you can relax in the grace of God. He never changes, His attitude toward us remains constant, and you can’t commit a sin that will change His attitude and you can’t do something wonderful that will bring you blessing. It all depends on Him.

The word to “know” is perfect tense used for a present tense for inherent knowledge. You do this instinctively, in other words. If you know how to give instinctively and you are imperfect God can do this consistently because He is perfect. If parents can do it in a limited way God can do it in a maximum way.

“good gifts” — good of intrinsic value, things that children need to survive and to grow up in life; “how much more shall your Father in heaven give” — the key here is the word “give.” It is again in the future tense because it is a logical progression. So here is orientation to the grace of God. “Good things” refer to what we have had in context. He gives us the principle of prayer, He gives us Bible doctrine, He gives us techniques. It also has another concept — the Holy Spirit in Luke 11:9-13, given for power in a few cases. But good things refer to the provision of grace and it is God’s responsibility to provide for us, we are here to represent Him. We are here because we are His ambassadors, therefore who provides for the ambassador? The nation which he represents; who provides for us as ambassadors? The One whom we represent — Jesus Christ.

Verse 12 — there is an alternative to the grace principle. This is not grace anymore. “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” This is obviously the so-called golden rule. “All things” — modus operandi for life; “ye would” is literally a desire based on emotion; “do ye” — present active imperative [keep on doing to them]. “This is the law,” and that is exactly what it is. It is the Old Testament dispensation of which the ministry of Christ was a part. This is about as high as you could go in the Mosaic law; this is a system which, in effect, is legalism. In other words, you treat others as you would like to have them treat you.

Principles

1. The so-called golden rule (and the Bible doesn’t call it the golden rule) summarises the attitude of the Mosaic law.

2. However, we are not under the Mosaic law.

3. The golden rule of grace is do unto others as Christ has done unto you — Colossians 3:13. This is going from naturalism — the so-called golden rule is something any unbeliever can do — to supernaturalism. Only the Spirit-filled believer can do this, it requires the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

4. In grace God gives on the basis of His character, therefore the believer does not earn or deserve anything from God.

5. In grace the believer must give and do on the basis of love, filling of the Spirit. Therefore the believer does not give to others on the basis of their merit but on the basis of his own character.

6. Remember that the disciples at the time this was given are still under the law. During this crash program the disciples are told to ask for the Holy Spirit and will not ask for the Holy Spirit. And if [in the Age of Israel, you do not ask for the Holy Spirit in the Church Age] you will not ask for the Holy Spirit what happens to you? You are stuck with the so-called golden rule, you are stuck with the law — Luke 11:9ff, Jesus wants them to rise above the law. He wants them to get away from a legalistic golden rule to a grace golden rule.

7. Under the power of the Holy Spirit the disciples could operate under a higher law. That higher law, of course, is coming in the Church Age, Romans 8:2-4, the law of the Holy Spirit.

8. But their refusal to ask for the Holy Spirit places the disciples under the summary principle of the law.

9. Once Christ fulfils the law — principle of Matthew 5:17 — believers will no longer live under the law — Romans 10:4 — at all but under the power of the Holy Spirit — Romans 8:2-4.

10. In the meantime, during the crash program of our Lord’s three-year ministry, the so-called golden rule of legalism is as far as they can go unless they will ask for the Spirit. which they did not.

Verse 13 — the action of the unbeliever. The sermon on the mount concludes with a gospel message. This message was primarily for Judas Iscariot and for those people who have now been able to trace Jesus Christ and to trail Him into the mountains and catch up with Him. We have the dissertation on two gates and finally conclude with two foundations.

“Enter ye in at the straight gate” — “enter ye” is an aorist imperative addressed to the human race. Since Jesus Christ died on the cross for every member of the human race the command is for all members of the human race to be saved. The aorist tense is the point of time when the person hears the gospel. You can’t enter the gate until you hear the gospel and the mechanics behind this are twofold: as a member of the human race you have to reach the point of God-consciousness [awareness of the existence of God]. At that point you have volition, a desire to have fellowship with Him or negative volition, no further interest. If you go on positive volition then God is responsible to provide information on which a decision can be made; there is gospel hearing and at this point volition is on the line again; you have information, and positive volition expresses itself by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, faith being a non-meritorious operation. Negative volition is rejection of Christ and therefore standing on human good. All of this is encompassed in the word “enter” — entering a gate. Entering is aorist tense, the point of time when you are actually hearing the gospel. It is active voice: the individual must believe in Christ for himself, God never violates divine institution #1, which is volition, though the human race is always doing it. Every person must make the decision for himself just as every person must decide his own life. The principle is quite obvious. If you are going to be a relaxed believer you are going to have to mind your own business, live your own life before the Lord and, above all, respect the volition of other people. The active voice: the individual must believe for himself and God is not going to make anyone believe in Christ. So when you pray for unbelievers you pray that they might get the gospel, that they might understand the issue, but you cannot get God to make someone believe in Christ. The imperative mood is a command based on the fact that Christ died for the whole human race; “straight gate” — this isn’t the straight-laced gate! It is literally the narrow gate, this is what the Greek says. This gate isn’t so narrow that you can’t get through. That isn’t the point. The point is that there is only one gate. The narrow gate means that there is only one way to go to heaven. All roads don’t lead to Rome, as the saying goes. There is just one gate that goes into heaven and that gate is Jesus Christ dying on the cross.

The narrow gate

— “enter ye through the narrow gate,” literally. The beautiful thing about the narrow gate is that it happens to be anywhere you are. The first time you hear the gospel the gate is standing right in front of you and the narrow gate is the cross.

1. The genitive plus the preposition dia is not translated “at” ever. Dia plus the genitive case should be translated “through,” never “at” .And the word does not mean “straight” but narrow.

2. The narrow gate is the way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ — John 14:6; Acts 4:12.

3. This command is addressed specifically to one person amongst the disciples and he is an unbeliever. Judas was a disciple and he was unsaved. He was also an apostle to Israel, an unsaved apostle to Israel. So don’t fall for this “discipleship” malarkey that is rampant amongst fundamentalism today — following Jesus and giving up this and giving up that, and turning into a goody goody, and believing that somehow this is great. Another thing: Jesus Christ is Lord at the moment of salvation because the word “Lord” is a Greek word for deity, and no man can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 12:3. Jesus Christ will never be any more Lord to you than He was at the moment of salvation because you are in union with Christ then, and you share everything that Christ has. He is your Lord then and He always will be your Lord whether you are carnal or spiritual, whether you are a moron or spiritual idiot, or whether you are a mature believer. This “Lordship” business is a cover-up for ignorance of the techniques and failure to understand a principle of rebound.

4. While Judas was an apostle to Israel, Matthew 10:1-4, he was not saved, John 6:66-71.

5. Therefore this last section on the sermon on the mount is not only an appeal to Judas but to anyone else who has arrived in the crowd.

6. There are many ways of illustrating or depicting faith in the Bible, but do not use an illustration for anything but an illustration. (When you are dealing with a lost soul talk to them about faith in Christ)

a. Eating. Good people, bad people, immoral, moral, non-religious, religious, all kinds of people eat. Eating is something that is common to the human race and no matter what kind of a person you are you can eat.

b. Drinking. All kinds of people are drinking.

c. Opening the eyes — Revelation 3. Everyone can open their eyes.

d. Buying gold — Revelation again.

e. Entering the narrow gate — one gate, the gate of salvation.

“for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction” — the wide gate is rejection of Jesus Christ, resulting of course in dependence upon human good. This is the gate of unbelief and it is wide enough to include all religions, all brotherhoods, all works systems, all international organisations. So you see it has to be a wide gate. All of the religions of the world can line up side by side and get through this gate.

The doctrine of human good — the wide gate is based upon human good.

1. Human good is identified as dead works — Hebrews 6:1.

2. Human good will not save mankind — Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8,9.

3. Human good is never acceptable to God — Isaiah 64:6; Romans 8:8.

4. Human good is judged. The unbeliever’s human good is judged at the last judgement — Ecclesiastes 12:14; the believer’s human good is judged at the judgement seat of Christ — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16.

5. Human good is the basis of indictment at the last judgement — Revelation 20:12-15.

“Enter ye” — aorist active imperative, meaning to believe in Jesus Christ; “through the narrow gate.” Entering the narrow gate is believing in Jesus Christ, it is divine good; “for wide the gate, and broad the highway, that leadeth to destruction.” Destruction is a word for eternal judgement of the unbeliever; “and many (including Judas Iscariot) there be which go in through it (literally).” Every normal member of the human race goes through one or the other gates.

Verse 14 — amplifies. “Because narrow is the gate and narrow is the way” — the gate is the only way of salvation, Jesus Christ; the way is divine good, grace — “which leadeth unto life [eternal life, 1 John 5:11,12], and few there be that find it.” The finding has to do with the whole mechanics of God-consciousness and gospel hearing. Why are there few? The biggest answer to this is religion. Religion is man’s greatest enemy, so in verses 15-23 we have the hindrance to the gospel, or why people pass up the narrow gate — salvation. This is a dissertation on those who disseminate religious information: false teachers.

Verse 15 — “Beware of false prophets.” “Beware” is a present active imperative which means that you have you constantly be on your alert, be on guard with regard to false prophets; “which come to you in sheep’s clothing.” This is one interesting thing about the false prophet, they always try to get into some sheep’s skin and come in with sweetness and light brotherhood, etc., and there are always enough people around to fall for this simply because they do not have doctrine in the frontal lobe.

Sheep’s clothing — the counterfeit of religion

How can you tell whether it is a sheep or a wolf?

l. You have to know doctrine. There is counterfeit doctrine. 1 Timothy 4:1 tells us that there is such a thing as doctrines of demons, so the devil has doctrine and his doctrine is being passed out today by many people who are “wolves” .

2. There is a counterfeit ritual (communion table) — 1 Corinthians 10:20,21.

3. There are counterfeit ministers — 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. (Social gospel, social reform, internationalism, etc.)

3. There is a counterfeit gospel — 2 Corinthians 11:3,4 (social gospel). That is not the answer. The answer to man’s problems is regeneration, never reformation, never improved environment. The Bible teaches that if your environment is improved you must do it yourself, and no government agency can come along and give you some crutches and tell you to hobble in to the golden age. It can’t be done. Improved environment is not the solution to man’s problems but regeneration is. His solution is personal and individual, never collective, and this will be demonstrated in the 1000 years of the personal reign of Jesus Christ in the future where He will provide perfect environment. At the end of that 1000 years Satan will be loosed and there will be a tremendous revolt against perfect environment, proving that perfect environment is not the solution to man’s problems.

4. There is a counterfeit spirituality — Galatians 3:2,3. This is always “do good", the do-gooders.

5. There is a counterfeit righteousness — Matthew 19:16-28.

6. There is a counterfeit power — 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10. (This includes speaking in tongues) Religion puts on a big front which is a counterfeit power. Satan empowers, he has a system for duplicating and using tongues, healing, miracles, and all of the things that impress the ignorant.

7. There are counterfeit gods — 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4.

8. There is a counterfeit righteousness with a religious front — Matthew 23.

Verses 16-23, production of false teachers.

Verse 16 — “Ey shall know.” You have to know a false teacher; you have to be able to discern true from false. You do this by the Word, by Bible doctrine; “them by their fruits [production].” Jesus is talking before the Word is completed; He is talking to His disciples and showing them how they will be able to discern the true from the false. He illustrates. “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles [cactus]?”

Verse 17 — “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit [production].” The word “good” is good of intrinsic value or divine good. Divine good can only produce divine good and that is why we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; “but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit,” it is not acceptable to God. The corrupt tree is a reference to the religious leaders, the false prophets and, of course, Judas Iscariot. Evil fruit is literally spoiled fruit.

Verse 18 — the application. “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.” This is a principle, not a way of life because if you are out of fellowship you will bring forth spoiled fruit; “neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” This is the application and the principle is that the religious leaders in Israel at that time cannot produce anything that is glorifying to God. Therefore …

Verse 19 — we have a condemnation of human good. “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is cut down, and cast into fire.” Actually there are two kinds of fire involved here. There is first of all the fire of eternal judgement — the lake of fire in Revelation 20:12-15. The lake of fire is for unbelievers only and in that lake of fire we have burning one each unbeliever plus all of his human good — both burn together. This fire also has an application to the believer a the judgement seat of Christ where a fire is built to take care of the believer’s human good [the fire will destroy the works which are done in the energy of the flesh, but not the believer]. Here of course, by interpretation, in this verse this is an unbeliever tree, the religious leader in Israel at that time. The tree is cut down and cast into the lake of fire at the last judgement and his human good is the basis for that production.

Verse 20 — repetition of the principle given in verse 16. “Wherefore by their fruits [production] ye shall know [recognise, identify] them.” Identification is important and we have to be able to identify the false teacher. Today we have doctrine, then it was “by their production ye shall know them.”

Verses 21-23 — the judgement of false teachers.

Verse 21 — “Not everyone that saith unto me. Lord, Lord.” This “Lord, Lord” is uttered in eternity. It is the religious type who stands before the judgement and the first thing he does is what all religious characters do, he is going to call Jesus Christ “Lord.” Lord is the Greek word kurioj and the word for deity. They don’t do it in time because you don’t do it without the Spirit but they are going to utter it in eternity, they are going to recognise Him as God, but it is too late. The principle is that if you die without accepting Christ as saviour you’ve had it, and so it is with this religious type.

“shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” So how are you going to do it then?; “but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Now what is the will of the Father? Go back to verse 13, the first two words: “Enter ye,” is an aorist active imperative. So the will of the Father is to believe in Jesus Christ. Cf. 1 John 3:23. Notice: It is not the will of God for the unbeliever to reform, to change his behaviour pattern, to join a church, to be baptised, to go through some emotional experience. It is the will of the Father for the unbeliever to do one thing: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Once a person is saved the will of the Father is for the believer to be filled with the Spirit.

Verse 22 — “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,” — this is the religious crowd who want to say that they did this and that in the name of the Lord; “have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have we not cast out devils? (and this includes Judas Iscariot who cast out demons — Matthew 10) and in thy name done many wonderful works?” And yet these things were done in the power of Satan — 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10.

Verse 23 — “And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” — iniquity here is the practice of religion. Religion operates outside of the law of God which is divine good.

The issue of salvation is repeated at the close of the chapter for Judas Iscariot.

Verse 24 — “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine [the gospel], and doeth them [to believe in Christ]. I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house upon rock [the rock is the Lord Jesus Christ].”

And here is an analogy to judgement — Verse 25: “it was founded” is a perfect tense in the Greek, it was founded in the past — the moment of salvation — with the result that it stands on that foundation forever. The perfect tense is eternal security; the passive voice indicates we receive this salvation, we do not earn it or deserve it; the indicative mood is the reality of salvation in the analogy. So the saved person is on the rock, he can never get off it. Later on he will be in the rock, Christ Jesus, but this occasion was before the Church Age.

Verse 26 — the unbeliever. His foundation is sand. Verse 27 — the judgement of the unbeliever.

The conclusion, verses 28, 29, of the sermon on the mount.

Verse 28 — “when Jesus had ended these things” — chapters 5,6,7, the content of the sermon on the mount; “that the people were astonished at his doctrine.” This means they were shocked. Notice that from the sermon on the mount there were no converts. This is where the liberal spends all of his life, on the sermon on the mount, and yet Jesus gave this sermon and didn’t even have one convert. They were shocked at his doctrine, they weren’t converted. Some of them were already saved — the eleven disciples.

Verse 29 — one thing really got them, and this is always the way it is with the unbeliever or the person who resists the truth of God’s Word. “For he kept on teaching them [or, He repeatedly taught them] as one who always had authority’ — He taught with authority, He taught dogmatically, and religion then and religion now hates dogmatism. They wanted it to be “it could be this and it could be that.” Human opinion is meaningless; the doctrine of the Word of God is exact, specific, categorical and dogmatic. It comes from God and God is not wishy-washy, therefore His Word is absolute — “not as the scribes [the Jewish theologians].”

The reaction of Judas Iscariot

1. After this message the life of Judas Iscariot was unchanged by the salvation message. He remained an unbeliever and a thief — John 12:4-6.

2. Materialism lust caused him to betray Jesus to the Sanhedrin — Matthew 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11.

3. Satan actually entered Judas to do this job — Luke 22:34; John 13:26,27.

4. Satan possession would have been impossible had Judas been a believer. Question: What did Satan desire to do to Peter? Sift. He couldn’t indwell Peter who was a believer, he just wanted to shake him up — Luke 22:31.

5. Judas died an unbeliever — Matthew 27:3-10; Acts 1:16-20.