Mat 7:6; Don’t Give Steak to Dogs; Enjoy It Yourself.

Thursday October 3, 2024

Are there holy things in your life that you are not enjoying?

Are you treating any holy thing as vain or empty, ritual, just going through the motions (prayer, giving, Bible reading, love of another, love from another, singing in church, hearing Bible teaching, serving the needy whom God has put in your path)?

Mat 7:6

God is holy. He did not allow just anyone to enter the holy places. The holy of holies could only be entered with blood, once a year by only the high priest. Holy things are for good trees who treat them holy.

If we are not to judge, how are we to determine the dogs, pigs, and wolves? When you have moved from the realm of the hidden to the known, you are no longer judging but observing what God Himself sees - a bad tree or a good tree.

The commandment is that once you know someone is a bad tree, do not give them what is holy.

One of the wonderful lessons for us from this commandment is that holy things are for God’s good trees - the believers who produce fruit. Why? They keep holy things holy. They do not desecrate or belittle or treat as vain the holy things of God.

So what about the bad trees? They are always going to be around.

The dogs and pigs are associated with the false prophets / teachers of Mat 7:15-23; 2Pe 2:21-22.

2Pe 2 is a scathing chapter about false teachers, 2Pe 2:1-2.

They are described by the same terms dog and sow, 2Pe 2:21-22.

Peter in this chapter clearly describes their fruit: sensuality, greed, lies, falsehood, corrupt desires, despise authority, arrogant, self-willed, ignorant, adultery, sinful, vanity, slaves of corruption (know some people who fit that?).

We are to beware of them rather than give them what is holy, Phi 3:2.

Pseudoprophetes: Who are the false prophets today?

Peddlers of God’s word for profit, leaders who use the name of Jesus and Christianity to their own ends. Scientists who proclaim origins and destinies without God. Religious leaders to preach salvation other than Jesus or another Jesus. Mat 24:9-13, 23-28.

Paul’s encounter with Bar-Jesus on his first stop on his first missionary trip. It was a sign of things to come that would try to hinder him throughout his ministry, Act 13:4-12.

2Ti 3

The description has much in it like 2Pe 2.

The last days Paul speaks of could be the times when these kind are in greater numbers (vs. 13).

Theme of the Bible is God’s people facing falsehood and standing at a crossroads with God’s Word in hand. Paul uses Moses as an example when the magicians of Egypt opposed him (Exo 7:11) they were able to make a serpent, but Moses’ serpent ate theirs.

Application: Enjoy what is holy. Don’t share them with bad trees. They were given to you by the Holy one for you to enjoy.

Are there holy things in your life that you are not enjoying?

You should enjoy the Word of God; enjoy the teaching of the Lord’s Sermon in Mat 5-7; enjoy the ways you worship, both alone and in the church, enjoy reading, praying, meditating, living with the Lord.

Are you hearing this Sermon as the Lord was teaching it to you and not as a source of biblical knowledge?

Homework: I want you to introspectively and prayerfully find at least one holy thing in your life that you are not treating as holy as you should be. One or more, write a list and keep it handy, talk to God about it.