There are parallels between the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments. Jesus said, “You have heard it said, you shall not murder, but I say unto you…” And He adds to that commandment that it is not just about murder, but about what is happening in the heart.
In the similar way, you have several “Thou Shalts..” in the Ten Commandments, and you also have several, “Thou Shalt nots..”
In the Sermon on the Mount, there are also several “Thou shalts…” So you have the Beatitudes, “O how happy are those…” “Blessed are the poor in spirit…blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake..” positive statements for the child of the Kingdom of God. There are also “Thou shalt not’s” for the child of the Kingdom.
We will look at Five Thou Shalt Not’s from Matthew 6:19-7:6
1. Do not settle for earthly treasures
2. Do not worry
3. Do not judge
4. Do not give sacred things to dogs
5. Do not give pearls to pigs
We will focus more on the first three.
1. Do not settle for earthly treasures – Matthew 6:19 -24
ILLUSTRATION:
A man really liked nice things. Everyone who wanted to look good had this special watch on them. This man got a Rolex watch and he was drawing attention through it. He felt he needed a car to match his watch. He was eyeing the Mercedes, C 220. When he got enough money, he got one of these Mercedes.
One day, he was driving a little too fast on the Bangalore-Mysore road and went over the speed bump, which he did not notice. He simply flew over the speed bump, and his car did some flips and was thrown out of the car. The police arrived on the team and a medical team tried to get him on the ambulance.
They were asking him if he was doing okay?
He said, “Yes.”
They said that he was in an accident.
He said, “I was in an accident? What happened to my car?”
The police officer said that his car was destroyed. And this man cried, “Ah, my Mercedes!”
The police officer said, “Sir, why are you so worried about your Mercedes? In the accident you lost your arm!”
And he said, “My arm? Which arm?”
The police said, “Your left arm.”
And he said, “My Rolex…my Rolex.”
Sometimes, we are so focused on physical, earthly things; these things of the world- really just come and go.
Recently I was in a hospital with someone going through treatment. He had to go through surgery. We were talking to the doctor, and were trying to find out how much it would cost. This person, who was the patient, said, “You know, money comes and goes. Money does not matter. Life is here and that is the important thing.” That is a good perspective for us to have. Life is more valuable than these pieces of paper we carry around in our wallets.
In those days, many people literally wore their wealth. Clothing could be very expensive. One of the ways people would demonstrate that they are financially well off were they would wear something fancy. Clothing was made of cotton or wool, and you leave them for a while, moths get in and they just eat it up.
Most people did not have banks, so if they had trinkets of jewellery, they would have a hole in the wall and stick their precious thing in there and put the stone back. Treasures were literally hidden. If a thief came, he had to break the wall to find the treasure. So moth and rust can consume your wealth and thieves can break in and steal.
Jesus is telling here, where your treasure is that is where one’s heart is also. And one cannot store treasures in heaven and on earth at the same time. If you are going to store up treasures in heaven, you will have to distribute your treasures on earth. That is the way God has designed it to be. This does not mean we neglect financial responsibility, as Scripture does not teach us that.
Have you ever watched a bird stand up on the telephone wire and hold its mouth open, and wait for God to drop food in? I have never seen it happen. Nor do we see birds begging for food. They peck, dig, find the worm and eat it. So we see here that God feeds them and they also take their responsibility. Some Christians just keep their mouths open waiting for God to fill them up – no – we need to keep busy, working and God will work through it to take care of our needs. But if that is all you are working for, you are working for the wrong thing.
In the previous part of the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus said, in the case of adultery it is not just the act, but looking at a woman with lust is committing adultery.
What we look at will determine what we will do.
It is the same with all other sins as well. If what you are looking at is your income or property or home or vehicle or watch, then your eyes are darkened. But if your eyes are focused on being a person who is glorifying God, seeing His kingdom established; if that is where your eyes are, that is where your heart will be too and it will be full of light.
A Christian focused only on physical, earthly things; always busy only about the flesh, that person will lose the light in his eyes. Even a person in Christ can be a person filled with darkness. Although they are the light of the world, they are darkened because they are so focused only on the things of the world.
No one can serve two masters. The King James Version says Mammon, it was a metaphor for money. It is like in this culture, you serve Lakshmi and God. You cannot serve the god of prosperity and wealth and serve the God of the Bible at the same time. Some Christians think when you follow God and you have faith, God is like Lakshmi, you say the right words and you are going to have wealth.
In the book of Luke, Jesus said, blessed are the poor. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a Gospel of health and wealth on this earth. It is the Gospel of eternal health, eternal wealth, eternal prosperity that will never end or no one can take away from you forever!
Then, all these thoughts are connected.
2. Do not worry – Matthew 6:25 - 34
If you are focused on the things of this world, you will be worried.
A cubit is about 16 to 18 inches, about a foot and a half. If I were a foot and a half taller, I would be worried that I would bump my head each time I go out of the door. I would be 8 ft tall. Everyone might want me in the basketball team and might be tempted to leave the ministry.
By worrying you cannot add that kind of stature and if you are too tall, you cannot make yourself shorter, although you might shorten your life. Research shows that if we are too worried, there can be all kinds of damage to our body. Heart disease, Cancer, many immune system break downs are associated with worry. Jesus said do not worry.
Worry and faith cannot occupy the same heart at the same time.
Jesus is saying worry is unproductive. Jesus knew that worry changes your body chemistry and has a multitude of negative effects on your health and mentality. Animals seem stress free. They do not seem to be stressed out about what they are going to wear, or where they are going to live. But you are more valuable than they are. We are made in the image of God. Jesus did not die that the animals can have eternal salvation. This does not mean that we can mistreat animals. So, they are not worried, why are we worried?
ILLUSTRATION
There was one time my pastor in California was talking about the earlier days of ministry when the finances were very sparse. They had a bill that had to be paid and if they did not pay they would be in trouble. He was praying and crying out to the Lord. That day, a mail man came and the envelope had exactly the amount what they needed to take care of the bill. He was so excited that he literally jumped up and down. He said the Lord spoke to him that day, “You know, you were recently reading, “The Lord will supply all your needs. Why did you not jump up and down at that time?”
We have God’s promises and they are true! We have so much of reason to rejoice because of the promises of God. You seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He will take care of the rest.
Only one thing is repeated three times here in the passage, “Do not worry.” Let us stop worrying.
3. Do not judge - Matthew 7:1-5
Like mercy and forgiveness, judgment will be meted out to us like how we judge others.
There is a connection between how we treat others to how we are going to be treated by God.
You judge others they are going to judge you. If you constantly take the measuring rod and see that they do not measure up, they are going to be doing that to you.
Paul said, correct yourself and you will not be corrected by others. If we focus on our areas of weakness and resolve to work through them, our entire understanding of other human beings will change. Jesus says, “Why do you look at the saw dust in others’ eyes, and you do not notice that there is a beam in your own eye?” You judge others, you will be judged by them. Look at yourself and correct yourself. It will be a fulltime job if that is what you are focused on. We then have the ability to help another through a problem, because we ourselves have worked through that problem. And we will much less likely to judge another.
If we judge others, we stop seeing our own faults. And because of that we stop the process of improvement that God desires us to have. God desires us to learn and to grow and develop.
When I point finger at others, we have 3 fingers pointing back at us. That is really dangerous. We become self-righteous then. When we judge others, they become defensive, and they will find it very difficult to receive any kind of instruction from us. If you look at them with acceptance and love, wherever they are at, they will love to come to you for advice and help. We have all heard the old saying:
“People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
Illustration:
I used to go this very large church in California. It was one of the cutting edge churches ministering to hippies. The guys really had long hair and would sometimes come to church wearing shorts and a T-shirt, carrying a big Bible. They will be sitting next to someone who was in a suit and a tie.
I was once sitting next to a hippie, and his Bible was all marked up. You could tell that they were really into the Bible with highlights, notes, all marked up and messy because they made good use of it and it made an impact on them.
One pastor’s bible studies that I used to go to said that there was a time when he really looked down on these hippies when they first started coming to church. He said that God convicted him of this. During the construction project people would actually come to build buildings. He saw these hippies, walking barefoot, hammering nails and got their hands bloody. Seeing their heart, this pastor really wept and repented before God.
When we begin to judge people based on outward appearance, it changes the way we look at everything.
Jesus goes on to say:
4. Do not give sacred things to dogs - Matthew 7:6
5. Do not give pearls to pigs - Matthew 7:6
Jesus is not talking about dogs or pigs here! He is talking metaphorically about people, who act like dogs and pigs.
If you are not judging, how are you going to say that person is a dog or a pig?
In the Greek “judge” can sometimes be used to translate as “condemn.” It is the same word in Greek. Jesus has called us to be discerning, but not judge. We need wisdom to deal with people. If you recognize that when you teach somebody the truth, they will simply not receive it, then they are probably better off that you do not teach them, because it will end up being destructive to you.
At the same time, if you know that is the condition of the person, you do not judge them. You still reach out to the person in love and not judge the person’s motives, because how do you know that that person is going to hell? Only God knows that.
Illustration:
In the early 1970s and late 1960s, if you were old enough you would remember, there were protests in the US against the Vietnam War. So men would take their draft cards and throw them into the fire as a sign of protest. People did not want to go to fight.
In the early 1970’s, there was a similar kind of protest movement. The ERA, Equal Rights Amendment was an amendment to take care that women got equal pay for equal work. It was designed for a good thing. Ladies felt that just like the men who did not want to go to the war were taking out their draft cards and throwing in the fire; these ladies were taking off their bras and throwing them into the fire. Yes, it really happened! Some of these ladies were coming to church, and their bras were still in the fire. So some men came to the church and told the pastor, “Some of these ladies are causing some of our brothers to stumble. You need to do something about it.” The pastor very wisely said, “No, what they need to do is they need to come to Jesus. If you look at how they are coming in appearance, and you try to correct them before they come to Christ, they will have this image of Christ that He is concerned about outward things. Instead let them come to Christ and let the Holy Spirit convict them. We will not make rules about dress codes, because it is not the place to judge them. When they come to Christ, God will deal with them.”
Do you know what happened later? The Lord dealt with the ladies. When they came to Christ, they changed the way they dressed and they did not have to be told.
God help us to have this kind of attitude.
