Matt 7

Date: 12 January 2009
Bible (NT/OT):

Matt 7

Judging Others

7 "Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
6 "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Ask, and It Will Be Given

7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

The Golden Rule

12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
13 "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
A Tree and Its Fruit
15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

I Never Knew You

21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

Build Your House on the Rock

24 "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

The Authority of Jesus

28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Ps 8:3-4

3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

Sun Tzu:

Leadership is a matter of Intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and sternness. A general should have these five virtues
1. Intelligence involves ability to plan and to know when to change effectively.
2. Trustworthiness means to make people sure of punishment or reward.
3. Humaneness means love and compassion for people, being aware of their toils.
4. Courage means to seize opportunities to make certain of victory without vacillation.
5. Sternness means to establish discipline in the ranks by strict punishments.
Reliance on intelligence alone results in rebelliousness. Exercise of humaneness alone results in weakness. Fixation on trust results in folly. Dependence on strength of courage results in violence. Excessive sternness of command results in cruelty. When one has all five virtues together, each appropriate to its function, then one can be a military leader.

The Intellectual Devotion (Kidder, D. & Oppenheim N. The Intellectual Devotion, Rodale. NY, NY 2006)

Eratosthenes (276-194BC), besides being creating the concepts of longitude, latitude, musical scales and prime numbers, is best known for measuring the circumference (size) of the world. Eratosthenes knew of a well in Syene, Egypt where at noon on June 21’st (the longest day) the sun would shine all the way to the bottom. This meant that the sun was directly over head (no shadows). Eratosthenes also realized that if the earth was round, then at the same moment the sun’s rays must be hitting Alexandria, Greece at an angle and casting a shadow. The following year, Eratosthenes went to Greece and measured the angle the shadow cast on 21 June. Eratosthenes knew that the angle of the shadow was equivalent to the angle formed by the two cities and the center of the earth. He then divided the angle by 360 degrees and determined the fraction that separated the cities. He realized that 1/50th of the earth separated the two cities. So all he then had to do was measure the distance between the two cities . When Eratosthenes had the distance between the two cities he simply multiplied by 50 and came up with 24,700 miles (actual measurement is 24,902miles).

Events:

Yesterday, I got up read and wrote then went to Church at Redeemer Presbyterian. We had an amazing guest speaker, the president of Covenant Theological Seminary, one of the PCA Seminaries. He preached on Daniel 7 and how Christian fits into God’s “big plan” of redemption. He presented an interesting concept that I had never heard of (that I will have to explore much more), that the Thrones (pleural) in Daniel 7 refers not only to those of God the Father and Christ, but also correlates to 1st Corinthians 6:2-4 which reads “2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.” Meaning that the Saints would in effect sit with God in the Judgment of the world??? Have to really think about that one. After Church, I finished up my work on “Are we a Stench to the Culture.” Went to Palates with Marla and finally came up with a title for the blog and started to register it. “From East to West,” a play on both Psalms 103: “and I will separate them from their sin’s as far as the east is from the west”, and also that the entire purpose of the blog is keep me connected with my family from the east (Iraq) to the west (USA)

Thoughts:

Bible:

1. 7 "Judge not, that you be not judged. How silly we must look with our self-righteous judgment when compared to the perfect judgment of God. God not only has upheld the standard (thereby giving him the right to be the judge) but he has also the perfect knowledge with which to judge. We judge with the plank in our eye of our own sin. We know in part both our neighbors actions and know not at all our neighbors heart. So why would we go out on a limb and venture a guess about the “rightness” of our neighbors action? I have great comfort when I am wronged. I know that if the person that wronged me is or will become a Christian, then in the end when we both sit in heaven, he will realize his actions and be truly sorry for them. Sorrier than he could ever be for them while on earth with a plank in his eye. I also know that if the person that wrongs me in not and never does become a Christian then the wrong they committed against me will be added to the long list of transgressions that ultimately condemn the unrepentant to an eternity of, “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” A punishment far more severe than I could ever deal on earth and a punishment that ultimately breaks my heart for my aggressor and far short of judging my offender out of anger, now I am feeling sorry for him that he committed this atrocity to me. Judgment belongs to the lord for good reason.

2. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. This verse if very reassuring. That we have a heavenly father who loves us better than any worldly father ever could and is prepared to give us all good things. We must of course remember yesterday’s promise that the father also “knows what we need before we ask,” and realize that a good father does not give his child a poisonous snake even if his child asks. In God’s wisdom, he ultamitly know what will encourage our faith and sanctification and what will discourage our faith and sanctification. This text is used in to terrible ways:
1) As a proof text for the Gospel of Wealth. Let’s do an experiment, right now pray for 1 million dollars to appear on your front door. Now get up and walk over to the door and collect your money. I’m waiting, still waiting. I bet you did not even get up. Why didn’t you get up? Is 1 million dollars not worth the walk? Though the televangelist would say that you must not have really believed your prayer, or maybe you just have to donate some money to him to actually collect your money from god, I would say this verse is not referring to worldly possession that will ultimately lead us away from our God. God is not in the habit of giving us serpents even when we pray “hard” for them. Well what’s a serpent, how about the healing of a disease that is bringing you closer to God and closer to Heaven? How about more money or worldly possession so that you can continue to enjoy “your best life now” and forget about your sin, depravity, need for salvation and future glory. I hope you get the point. God did not leave the money not because he is not there, or because he does not love you, or because he is not trustworthy but because he loves you too much to give your serpents.
2)As a proof text for the Armianian (semi-pelagian) who is determined that we have the power in and of ourselves to ask, seek and knock thus meriting salvation by our own good sense. We must bounce this verse off what Christ says later…“No one can come to me unlesss the Father who sent me draws him. (Jn 6:44).” I love the quote, “Human will is really real, it’s just not really free.” It is entirely true that all who ask, seek and knock find God, but it is also entirely true that no one does this without being first being prompted by the holy spirit. In Calvinism we distinguish regeneration and repentance. God works behind the scenes to regenerate our heart, to create in us a conviction of sin and a love for him, we then and only then willingly ask, seek and find. I could talk about this all day but I don’t have time now. Believe me it will come up again.

3. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Nuff said, we could all write 11 pages on this. I think this one line is why Jesus is considered a “great teacher” by all the other religions. Forget about what comes before and after it J.

4. 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. This is the purpose of works in the gospel. The entire catholic religion goes wrong right here. Good works do not produce salvation, the demonstrate salvation. We are not saved by our good works, rather we are saved (our tree is good) so good works flow. Do believers still sin? All the time but, no true believer can continue very long in unrepentant sin, the Holy Spirit won’t allow it. They will be absolutely miserable.

5. 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' This is a humbling admonition to put our faith into action. By our actions we will see the faith. Is it possible for even the most “spiritual,” those who seem to be performing miraculous signs and wonders (Pentecostals, Benny Hinn’s) to still be unbelievers? Yes. Salvation is not dependant, nor is proven (as Pentecostals would have you believe) by miraculous signs and wonders.

6. "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. On Christ we will build our worldview. As we see the world through the bible’s glasses, the world makes sense. We understand the current troubles, we can cope with the never ending disaster, we will no longer fear man’s assaults or even death, we can truly forgive and serve our neighbor, we can live a joyful and successful life (though not always monetarily) in the looking forward to the promise of future reward.

7. Psalms, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? When we consider that the Holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, creator of the Universe knows and loves us intimately, how could we ever again need worldly affirmation? How could we ever again have self-esteem problems? When the almighty Lord’s love for your is the source of your esteem, you have an esteem that no earthly father, mother, wife, son, daughter, accomplishment, victory, self-help novel or talk show host can ever give… or take away.

Intellectual Devotion:

It is amazing how simple nearly all amazing scientific discoveries seem in retrospect. Amazing achievements can be accomplished by putting together fairly simple concepts. Discovery does not so much depend on building up bigger and bigger ideas as it does breaking down what we observe in the world into the simple concepts we learned in school. I wear a long white coat and let me be the first to say that it does not take someone with a long white coat to figure this stuff out! Use whatever concepts you know and objectively evaluate the world, you’ll be amazed at what you discover.