"A BETTER UNDERSTANDING"



Matthew 7:1-7


Have you ever noticed that passages of liturature you think you understand and then come to understand that you don't understand, can become the most difficult to come to understand.

For example, for those of you who know the Robert Frost poem the "Mending Wall" know that there is a phrase in that poem that says, "good fences make good neighbors". People who quote that are usually isolationist who want to build walls between themselves and other people. And they feel that Robert Frost is indorsing what they do.

But if you look at the poem closely, you'll discover that is not the poet's sentiment at all. Those are the words of a next door neighbor, a kind of a borish lout who hasn't had an orignal thought in his life and he's quoting what someone else has told him. And he says; "good fences make good neighbors".

So when you go back to read that poem, if you know that line, it can confuse you. Because when you think you understand something and then discover you don't understand it, it can get a lot harder to understand.

We come to that with some of the sentences that Jesus spoke. Especially one of them that is in the heart of the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter , verse 5 Jesus says, "Do not give dogs what is sacred," and verse 6, "and do not throw your pearls to pigs, for if you do, they may trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces."

Now that is a tough sentence to understand. I would never think of feeding Charlie something sacred. In fact, I don't even know what something sacred is that you could give to a dog. I just give Charlie some Purina Puppy Chow.

I want never in a thousand years think of taking Louise's pearls, if she had any, and feed them to pigs. So I read the sentence and I am not really sure what Jesus is talking about. And then to make matters worse, this thing about sacred things & dogs and pigs and pearls is stuck right in the middle of a passage that follows "do not judge or you to will be judged, in the same way you judge others you will be judged, with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye. How can you say to your brother let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye. You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye and then you'll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Then you've got the piece about the dogs and the pigs and then following that you have the section that says, "ask and it will be given unto you, seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be open unto you,"

Well, it isn't too hard to understand, on the surface at least, what Jesus is saying. When Jesus talks about dogs, He is not talking about puppy dogs that jump up in your laps and lick your face and wag their tail. He is talking about first century dogs in the ancient near east. Those dogs were scavingers. They ran around in packs, they were mangy and had filty fur. There were burrs in their coats and their long red tongues hand out. And they frightened people.

When Jesus talks about not giving what is sacred to dogs, He's talking about the meat that was offered in the chapel to God. The worshiper brought a sacrifice, some of the sacrifice was given back to the worshiper and another part of the sacrifice was given to the priest, but the rest of it was placed on the altar and it was burned with fire, but at the end of the day, the meat was not completely comsumed and so the priest, who ran a kind of sacred slatter house, at the end of the day had this charred meat to do something with.

If a farmer had a cow that was killed by lightning he could drag the carcus out to the edge of town and a pack of hungry dogs would come and make a meal out of it. But it didn't seem quite right to do that with the meat that had been offered to God.

Same kind of problem I have with old Bibles. I have a bunch of them in my study, I've used them over the years. They are worn out now, but I don't know what to do with them. Doesn't seem right to take them down to the furnace and burn them. And I don't feel like I ought to bury them and I certainly wouldn't want to throw it in the garbage. Those book have ment too much to me. So there they sit on my shelf, like old soldiers in a retirement home. I suspect I'll keep them till the day I die and let my children worry about them.

Jesus talks about giving pearls to pigs. I don't know that much about pigs, but from I do know they seem to be always hungry and grunt a lot, and snort and whyne and push. So the farmer goes out to feed them some grain but if for some reason he was to get ahold of some pearls and he was to throw those in front of those pigs, those pearls would look like grain and the pigs would look at them and then realize that it was not the real thing and as precious as they were, they would stump them into the mud.

The pigs of the first century came from the bores that were imported from Euorope, they were still half savage animals and if that pig became frustrated and felt that it had been fooled, it would attack the farmer and tear him apart.

You go to Yellowstone Park you see a sign that says, "Don't Feed the Bears!" You can feed the chipmunks, you can feed the squirrels, you can feed the coyote, if you can find one, you can feed the racoon, but you can't feed the bears.

You see, if you feed a bear and the bear doesn't like the menu, he'll tear you apart. That's just the way it is with wild animals and wild pigs.

So it's clear in the eye of Jesus and His listeners, dogs and pigs did not have a high place in the picking order.

Jesus is obviously saying, "Don't take what is sacred and give it to a dog and don't take what is precious and give it to a pig.

But having said that, we are not quite sure what He is referring to. One thing that we suspect is that He is not talking about animals. He is not talking about dogs or pigs, He's talking about people. And when you go thru the Bible you discover that when the Bible refers to dogs and pigs it is not complementary.

For and example in the 22nd Psalm, verse 16, the psalmist says, "The dogs have surrounded me" then he explains the reference by saying, "a band of evil men have encompassed me". These were those who turned upon the righteous and wanted to tear them apart.

Or Paul in Philippians chapter 3 verse 2 says, "beware of the dogs" and then he says, "they are the men who do evil". "They are the mutilators of the flesh" So in that reference the dogs are those who oppose the Gospel of the Grace of God.

Or in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 22, Peter has been talking about false teachers, about men who offer cream but really end up giving people stricnine. He says of them, "they are like prodical pigs, or as a dog returns to its vomit, as a sow that is washed returns to wallow in the mud. So these false teachers have natures that have not been changed."

So that makes it a little clearer doesn't it. Don't give what is sacred to dogs and what is precious to pigs less they trample pearls under foot and tear you apart. He is obviously referring to unrighteous people. We are not to give them what is valueble and sacred.

Still the question is, "What is Jesus referring to in this passage from the Sermon on the Mount?" Well, Christians have had a number of views, from the earliest of times people thought that Jesus was talking about evangelism. What He was saying is "Don't take what is sacred and give it to those who are basphemious, don't take what is precious and give it to the enemies of the truth." There is some biblical support for that.

But I don't know what it would have to do with the Sermon on the Mount. Then at the end of the chapter Jesus tells His followers to go into all the world and spread the Gospel. That doesn't sound like One who is restricting the Gospel to those who will appreciate it.

There were others, who in the early church felt that these words applied to the Lord's table. When Christians gathered in those early days they gathered around the Supper of the Lord. And an Elder would begin the service by saying, "Holy things are for holy people" In an early book of church order it says, "Let no one eat or drink of the Eucurast except those baptized into the Name of the Lord, for as regards to this the Lord said, give not that which is holy unto dogs."

So the early Christians wanted to fence off the Lord's table so that the pigs and dogs would not be invited to eat. It wasn't that they were against evangelism, but the wanted despeately to preserve the purity of the church and they knew that if they did not take stern measures the church would be swamped by the sea of pagenism.

Now that was their application, but I question weather or not that is what Jesus meant. I see nothing about the Lord's table in the Sermon on the Mount. And I cannot imagine that He would throw in this one verse in the middle of the sermon and somehow be talking about the Lord's Table.

The question is, "What does Jesus mean by this, do not give dogs what is sacred, do not throw your pearls to pigs, for if you do they may trample them under their feet and turn and rend you to pieces" I think that the answer comes, if you will back up into chapter 6 of Matthew and you will see that in the first part of that chapter Jesus is talking about worship. About the gifts that we give and the prayers that we make and about fasting and then in the heart of the section about prayer in verse 9 of chapter 6 He says, "When you pray this is how you should pray" and He gives what is sometimes called the Lord's prayer.

Now if you'll look at the Lord's prayer you'll see that it is divided into 2 parts. The first part we are to talk to the Father about the Father. We are to say, "Father, hollow it be Thy name". In other words what you are saying is that when you are praying in your prayers in your life, you want God to be God to you. You want to honor His Person. Then you are to pray for God's program, for the time His kingdom will come, then you are to pray for His purposes to be worked out in the world. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven".

That section of the Lord's Prayer is commented on beginning in verse 19 thru verse 24 and Jesus is going to comment on that first major petition. That if your business in life is to honor God's name, to advance God's kingdom, and to see that God's will is done on earth, Then you are not going to store up for yourself treasurers on earth were moths and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. You're going to store up treasurers in heaven.

And what's more, He says in verse 22 you're going to have an eye that is single. You are not going to have double vision. And in addition in verse 24 you will have decided the biggest question in life, that is who will master you. Either you will be mastered by God and God's kingdom and God's glory or you'll be mastered by money and things of earth. All of that is a commentary on the first part of the prayer.

But having told us that we are to Pray to the Father about the Father, then having done that, we are to pray to the Father about the family. We can ask, "Give us this day our daily bread". We can ask God for provisions. And beginning at verse 25 Jesus comments on that petition in the Lord's prayer. He says, "If you are doing God's business and you are about glorifying God's name, then you can be sure that if your interest is to take care of God, God's interest is to take care of you. So you don't have to worry about life, what you'll eat or drink or about your body, what you'll wear. God will supply the bread and the thread you'll need in order to get along.

You're not going to be taken up with those things because that's the kind of thing the Gentile has taken up with, they are the ones who have their affections set on things on earth. If you have to worry, then worry about God's kingdom. As He says in verse 35, "Seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness and all these things [what you'll wear & what you'll eat, what you'll drink] all these things will be given you as well. That whole section is a comment on that petition.

You not only ask God for the provisions for the family, you ask God for pardon. "Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors." That's so important that in verse 14 Jesus commented on that, He says, "If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heaven Father will also forgive you. But if you don't forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

In chapter 7 verse 1-5 Jesus makes another comment. He says, "Don't judge or you too will be judged, the same way you judge others, you'll be judged, with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of saw dust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank that is in your own eye." When you really pray "Forgive us our sins" and you really mean forgive me my sins, what you have done is to revise your estimate of yourself downward. You admit that you are a sinful person.

You recognize all of the tretsurey that is in your life. So when you see a brother who has sinned, if you know your own sin and the tretsurey of your own heart, then you are not going to come to your brother as a critic and a judge. If someone has a splinter in his eye it is an act of mercy to take it out and a splinter in your eye hurts. But if someone comes with some kind of Judgmental attitude, and says, "I'm going to help you get that splinter out" You would rather go blind.

But if you know what it is to be a sinful person and you know God's forgiveness, that changes your attitude completely. You don't come as a critic, you come as a friend.

But the last petition for the family ask for protection. "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one" The truth is if it weren't here in the Bible we wouldn't pray that. Most of us are pretty fond of temptation. It's the consciences of our sin that we don't like. The temptation, that's fun. If it weren't attractive, it wouldn't be temptation. It's kind of nice to be tempted. It gets the fire going in your bones. That's the reason we watch the television programs we watch. That's the reason we read some of the magazines we read.

Someone said, don't pray, "lead us not into temptation" God might answer your prayer and spoil all of the fun. But Jesus reminds us that behind the temptation there is the tempter. Behind the lie there is the liar. Behind the trap there is the hunter. Behind the temptation is the enemy of your soul.

And so in verse 6 Jesus comments on that, "Do not give dogs what is sacred, do not throw your pearls to pigs, if you do they will trample them under their feet and turn and rend you to pieces."

You see, Satan is not out to make you a naughty boy or girl. Satan is out to separate you from God. He is out to get you to honor your own name, to build your own kingdoms, to do your own will, to bake your own bread. And not give a rip about forgiveness. No, Satan is out to separate you from God. And what is precious to God and is sacred to God is your discipleship, is your commitment. What is sacred to God, and precious to God is the Gospel His people preach.

If Satan lures you away from the Father, he has won a great victory because he has been able to attack what is precious & sacred to God. You would think, wouldn't you, that when a man turns his back upon his commitment, when he sacrifices upon some wayside altar and goes back to the way of the world, the people out there would welcome him home. Not so. They dispise you also. They attack you like dogs after the sacred meat. Like pigs seeing something precious, they will grind it into the mud. They will tear you apart.

A few years ago one of the Dallas Cowboys gave his heart to Jesus. It was so outstanding that it made the newspapers, local and national. When the Cowboys were on their next road trip a couple of his buddies paid a call girl $50 and said if you can get him into bed you can keep the $50 and whatever he gives you. He hear about it and did not fall because he knew if he had he would have been the brunt of their jokes and they would have tore him apart like wild animals.

They would have taken his testimony and trampled it into the mud. They would have torn him apart.

You see, Christians want to forgive. When they see a man overtaken in a fault they want to restore him. When Satan catches you in a trap like that, ......he has not mercy. He turns the dogs loose, the wild pigs trample what is precious under foot. They tear you apart.

If your commitment as a disciple is sacred to God, your commitment to Jesus Christ is precious to Him, satan takes keen delight in destroying you and turning the pack loose. Go back on your discipleship, sometime you'll find that the thing you held most sacred is defiled. And what you felt was most precious, the blood of Jesus Christ, like pearls to a pig were trampled into the mud.

The question is, how do you keep that from happening? The answer in the context is only by prayer. This section begins with the Lord's prayer and it ends by Jesus saying, "Ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." You know it's keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

There isn't a man or woman in the sanctuary, who cannot go the way of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker. Don't kid yourself that that's something that only happens to other people. I know full well the tretsurery of my own soul. I know the weakness that I have and I know that I can't stand up against the wilds of trickery of the evil one.

I happen to know that behind the trap there is the hunter, behind the lie there is the liar, and I need to pray, "O God, lead me not into temptation but deliver me from the evil one. If you fail to pray that and you fail to come before God and you fail to avail yourself of His power and it is easy to do that and go it on your own. You may discover that the pack of dogs are howling outside the door of your life. The pigs are ready to trample you and your life into the mud and tear you to pieces.

That's just reality. That's not preacher talk. Thaty's just straight talk from a man who knows full well the evil in his life and the dangers that are on every hand.

Martin Luther understood it. That great national anthem of the reformation, he said "a mighty fortress is our God, a bul-work never failing, Our helper He amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing, for still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great. and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal. Did we in our own stength confide, our striving would be losing. Were not the right Man on our side, the man of God's own choosing: Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He; Lord Sabaoth His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle."

Keep asking and it will be given you, keep seeking and you'll find, keep knocking and it will be open unto you. The stakes are high! Don't give to dogs what is sacred, don't throw your pearls to pigs, for if you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces That's what Jesus says, and He knew the enemy better than we do.

Shall we pray: Father I am a sinful man, You know that better than I do. And I know it better than anyone sitting in this sanctuary this morning, forgive me my sins, may I minister with a pure heart and clean hands in Jesus name I pray. Amen


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