Sermon On The Mount

Judgment and Action

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 17-25

Genre:

Track: 17

Dictation Name: Sermon on the Mount – 17

Location/Venue:

Year: 1980

Oh Lord our God we live in a time indeed when the heathen rage and take counsel and conspire against thee and Thine anointed. And we see all around us their plans to overthrow Thy rule and break Thy bands asunder. But according to Thy word oh Lord Thou who sittest in the circle of the heavens dost laugh, Thou dost hold them in derision. Teach us oh Lord to be mindful at all times that Thou art on the throne, to share in Thy holy laughter at the plannings of men and with a holy boldness to be more than conquerors as we face these, the enemies of Thy kingdom. Bless us now as we give ourselves to the study of Thy word, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our scripture is from Matthew 7:1-12 as we continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount. Our subject today of course in view of these verses is Judgment. Judgment and Action. Matthew 7:1-12.

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5 Thou hypocrite, 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.

6 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.

7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

11 If ye then, being 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?

12 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.”

One of our problems sometimes as we read the bible is that we fail to see continuity where it plainly exists. The Bible was divided in the Christian era into chapters and verses, this was a very sound decision because since people constantly use and refer to specific passages it made it easier for them to be located, imagine what it would be like if I were here with a bible without chapter and verse divisions and told you I was going to speak on such a such a passage. You would have to thumb through all of Matthew to locate the passage. This is a matter of convenience, but while the chapter and verse divisions are generally very sound what we fail to see is that they involve not a division that gives you a new subject but a different section of the same thing. As a result in order to understand what our Lord is talking about here we need to remember what He was talking about in the previous verse. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, that sums up what He was saying previously. So now our Lord goes on to concern Himself with how we as His followers are to deal with evil. We live in a world of evil, how are we going to cope with it. Well, in Judea in our Lord’s day there were Pharisees and the attitude of the Pharisees was to look down his nose at everybody else, I thank Thee Lord that I am not as one of these. His perspective was holier than thou. He enjoyed calling attention to the faults of people because the more faults he could find in someone else the better he looked by comparison which is a cheap way to gain virtue. On the other hand you had a large segment of the population that while hating the Romans and the Greeks none the less were very much given to liking their way of life.

The Romans ruled the area, the Greeks had sometime previously and the culture both was very much there, as a matter of fact, the language of commerce, the language between the various races that came and went was Greek, business Greek which is the Greek of the New Testament and that part of the world then and now people normally spoke and in many areas still speak at least two languages. We have the luxury of being confined to one language because we live in a large country with no major foreign groups coming and going constantly. If people have a problem we expect them to learn English but not so then. Thus the culture of these foreigners had been picked up and the Roman baths with everything that went with it and the Greek culture and everything that went with the Greek culture, very much appealed to a sizable segment of the Jews. Many commonly had two names, we encounter that even among the disciples, Thomas was also Didymus. You had one language giving you one name that you used in your business world and your contact with foreigners and another language that you used among your own people, and another name. Paul almost certainly had a triple Roman name, the last part of which was Paulus. This was commonplace. As a result you had on the one hand your Pharisees with your holier than thou attitude and on the other hand you had the infection of the culture of the Empire which had already been subjected to a sexual revolution which had already taken a very liberal attitude toward homosexuality, which was very much given to accepting anything and everything, anything goes. What’s a little sin between friends.

So our Lord had both these kinds of people to deal with just as we do today, just as we do today. We have it right now in the fact that because some groups like Moral Majority, Christian Voice and others took a stand as for the registration of great numbers of Christians to help win the elections which they did but they neglected the state level. So across the country we have a sorry picture on the state level although an improved one on the federal level. This impotence on the part of some Christians led others to go the other direction so we have a great number across the country who have done nothing in recent months but criticize those who went out and voted and got involved in the social gospel. They will say it’s a sin to vote for ungodly men and all we have running for office is ungodly men so that anyone who votes is a compromiser and a sinful man. There are a very great number like that. As a matter of fact I’ve been denounced by a couple such lately. So you see we have the extremes, those who are moving into Phariseeism of the worst sort and on the other extreme those who want total toleration of everything. So our Lord here was dealing with a reality that confronts us today, he begins with a verse which is one of the most abused verses in scripture:

““Judge not, that ye be not judged.”

You hear this constantly, for a while I was collecting, before we moved up here, letters to various periodicals and then I gave up on it, there was just too much of this, by various people who wrote savagely and harshly against somebody who said something they didn’t like and they would say ‘judge not lest ye be judged, what a hate monger you are, etc., etc., a nasty character because you judged where I didn’t want judgment. Now of course all such usage is out of context, after all our Lord says in John 7:24

“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

Do not make judgments in terms of the looks of things, the length of a person’s nose or whether you like that kind of person or not but in terms of God’s justice.

Our Lord here is speaking to the Pharisees.

“For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

Well the imagery is ridiculous, deliberately so. Wherever our Lord went the Pharisees were there to keep an eye on Him. No one could mistake what the reference was and to whom and no doubt everybody laughed at the idea of a speck of dust in somebody else’s eye being criticized by a Pharisee who had a beam, a plank in his own eye.

“5 Thou hypocrite, 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.”

So our Lord very definitely makes clear to the Pharisees the fallacy of this false righteousness. A flase righteousness that takes a holier than thou attitude, I’m better than everybody else because I judge more people than everybody else, I can see faults where other people don’t. But on the other hands you have people who are totally tolerant. I know one prominent pastor who by the way was a guest pastor here a few years ago in this county and I met him to renew old acquaintances, not friendship, and he was very unhappy to see me. But when someone spoke about joining the church and said he didn’t know whether he should, he like the fellowship but he didn’t know whether he believed anything, the pastor said well we’re all confused so join us. A church of unholy confusion, perhaps should have been the name. in other words, let anybody and everybody in, have no discrimination. Also people who with their love bit are ready to say anything and everything is acceptable. Our Lord says:

“6 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.”

This passage is not a popular one with religious liberals. Just think of it, our Lord called a certain class of people that they want tolerated dogs and swine. That’s not very loving and we’re supposed to love everybody and see the good in everybody which means overlook the bad. So our Lord here is very clearly speaking out against all those who gain a false righteousness by being harsh, by being ruling out most people and saying we are the frozen chosen or the holly elite. And those who refuse to judge righteous judgment, you have to call murder, murder, adultery, adultery, theft, theft. Now that’s righteous judgment and the bible says you have to call it that when it is your own son who perpetuates it. There can be no exemption because you judge in terms of God’s judgment. In New York about ten, twelve years ago when I was there as a matter of the board of the Christian Freedom Foundation for the annual meeting there were a couple of speakers, one was Dr. [unknown], the Romanian Jew who became a Christian and a pastor and was sentenced to prison and when he was able to get to this country subsequently spoke before Congress and described very clearly what was going on under Marxism. He got up and criticized the above ground church which is run by the KJB, the secret police in the Soviet Union and he said the real church of Jesus Christ is underground, in the prisons, meeting secretly.

The other man who was a liberal got up with the love bit and said well, how could we criticize these men and he mentioned [unknown] for one of the Russian church and what a fine gentleman he was and how could we condemn him when we did not know how we might under the same circumstances be led to compromise and we too might surrender to the KJB and be willing to be their tool under the threat of torture. So he said since we don’t know whether we would stand or not we would have no right to condemn him. At that point Dr. [unknown] jumped to his feet in protest and he said it is possible that tonight you and I may commit adultery and it is possible that every one of us here may at one time in our lifetime may commit adultery but that does not mean we refuse to condemn adultery and say that it is a sin because we cannot judge in terms of what we might or might not do but what God requires, now that’s what it means to judge righteous judgment. This is what our Lord requires. Then he goes on to say:

“7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

And so our Lord says alright, you have a problem as you face evil and as you face it in the form of total toleration as well as open violation, how are we going to face such a world, with toleration or self-righteous judgment, no. We have to face it in the power of God and to bring about a change in men and in nations and how do we do it? We ask, we seek, we knock in the confidence that God will hear and answer prayers.

Then our Lord makes it very blunt:

“9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, …”

You are not going to give him a stone or a snake for a fish.

“…how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”

Our Lord has told us what asking means, ask, seek, knock. It means being determined, wanting it with all our heart, mind and being, not just saying Lord I think it would be nice if you could do thus and so for me and for my family or my children or grandchildren, no. You ask, you seek, you knock, because this is what you want.

“12 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.”

Here we have the golden rule. Few things have been more misunderstood and more abused and we are told that we find it in China and we find it in India and in a number of places all over the world. Well, we do and we don’t. First of all no one ahs bothered to investigate the fact that did they borrow this from the Bible, we first encounter it in Leviticus in the days of Moses when God gives it in the law and there is reason to believe that it is borrowed, but even more in every other religion it appears in negative form. Do not do unto others, do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you. It means something radically different! Here it means that you apply the law of God to others and to yourself, you respect their right to life, you shall not kill, the sanctity of their home, thou shalt not commit adultery, their property, thou shalt not steal, their reputation, thou shalt not bear false witness and you do not covet or try to obtain by fraud anything that is thy neighbors. But what does it mean in other religions?

Why in China and in India for example it means that you don’t do a thing for them. Why? If you have a bad karma you need to work it out, so if you are suffering it’s probably because in your previous reincarnation you were a [unknown] therefore if you try to help this man who was suffering or undergoing torture or is lying there by the side of the road you are going to interfere with his karma. So it is a sin in India and in China to help somebody, it’s a sin! It’s one of the few sins they have. So you do nothing for them. IS that the golden rule that we know, far from it. So anyone who tells you that the golden rule is common to all religions tell them it is not. What they mean by it is something radically different, in fact you can find in some of these religions the plain statement that if you rescue or save another man who is in trouble you are cursing him. You are cursing him. The golden rule therefore has a meaning that varies from culture to culture, from religion to religion and we cannot confuse it with what the bible teaches. What the bible teaches is in conformity with the law of God. Let us bow our heads now in prayer.

Our Lord and our God we thank Thee for the plain speaking of Thy word. Give us grace to understand it, to apply it and to rejoice in it. Bless us this day in our fellowship and watch over us and our loved ones, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our study? Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes, in other words I’ve been told by missionaries who in the old days before red China worked in China that if somebody fell overboard on a riverboat and you insisted on the boat stopping and had the prestige whereby you could do it you were responsible for them for the rest of your life, for their care and their support and the person you rescued felt the same way. You saved my miserable life, life is nothing but misery, well you now take care of me. So it was a real problem to save a person’s life, you then had a welfare person on your hands for life who believed and the entire community believed you had to care for. Now we look on life as a good gift from God, in fact, the scripture speaks of husband and wife as heirs together of the grace of life, life is a gift from God, a grace, but in other religions it is very commonly regarded as a curse. So when you give the gift of life to somebody you are only giving a curse.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Exactly.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. This is why there is no such thing as charity in the religions of the Far East, it is non-existent. Any other questions, yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] The law is a term, Torah, which is often used to apply to the whole of the bible. So sometimes the law will refer to something that was said by a prophet. At other times you have the term the law and the prophets and when it is so used it refers to the books of Moses and then to all the other books of the bible as the prophets, including the historical writings and the prophets are seen then as people who called for the faithful application of the law and rebuked those in high places who departed from the law. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Same person keeps talking]

[Rushdoony] That’s right. Well, you are right in that since World War II the eastern religions have become exceedingly popular in this country, very popular. Now it’s a very ominous fact in that before the fall of Greece and then before the fall of Rome the eastern religions became very prevalent in both cultures. They are suicidal. They have been called religions of world and life negation whereas Christianity is called a world and life affirming faith. In other words we feel the world is good and life is good even though sin and the fall have brought harm. But to the eastern religions the salvation is deliverance from life, deliverance from this world. It is world and life negation that is at the heart of their faith. So it’s a harbinger of collapse, humanism is dying all around us, that’s why it’s resorting to that kind of faith. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. Because you have the extremes, you see, that existed then and exist now between the Pharisee and the person who wants no judgment and therefore no judgment is a form of judgment, really, because when you make no judgment and you want a total toleration of everything you are saying let evil triumph, let good surrender. If you are going to be kind to a murderer and think about his life you are going to have contempt for the life of the murdered. So it involves a fearful kind of judgment, a particularly evil one. Does that help make it clear?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes, it means that definitely also. You don’t make a witness where a witness is inappropriate.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes, yes. Don’t try to set somebody straight when there isn’t any intention on their part of paying any attention to you.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes a good question. Now what you would have to say is that I don’t agree with their methodology, I’ll have to preface my remark with that. None the less what they are saying is that we are speaking not to everybody but in the chance that there is one there that may hear. This is the way they justify their activity and they do get a limited amount of results from that kind of street preaching. I believe there are more effectual ways of accomplishing the same thing because the amount of energy that is expended in that type of activity much more could be accomplished. Any other questions or comments?

Well, let us adjourn now and the ladies will have our dinner ready for us shortly.