Latest / Admonition Podcast / Let Your Light Shine - Justin Evergarden - April 08, 2026
Transcript
- 0:00We're not used to having none of the students here and none of Aaron here and none of the boys here.
- 0:04So we had to scramble to get everything done.
- 0:07It is wonderful to see everybody again this evening.
- 0:09Let's go ahead before we begin the class and we'll start with a word of prayer.
- 0:13If you'll bow with me.
- 0:16Dear Lord, our Almighty God, our King, our Savior, our Father in heaven, all glory and honor to you forever.
- 0:25We come before your throne at this time praying that you'd be with us during this class period of Bible study.
- 0:32May we take what we learn this evening and apply it to our daily lives.
- 0:36May it nourish our minds and our souls alike so that we can spread your light to all those around us throughout the world.
- 0:43We pray for the safety and health of all those that are ailing from ailments, hurting in the hospitals.
- 0:50uh We pray for our
- 0:54political leaders as well, Lord, that they can lead the country in a manner that's well pleasing and eyesight.
- 0:59We pray for all those that live throughout this world that they may have an opportunity in the future to obey your word, that they may come in contact with your guidance and
- 1:12eventually have a home in heaven with you.
- 1:15And so we pray to thee in Jesus' name, amen.
- 1:19Alright, so for this evening, uh last class we had, we were going through the book of Matthew and I was giving you a lot of the notes that I had been going through.
- 1:30So we're going to pick up where we left off.
- 1:32If you would turn your Bibles over to Matthew chapter 5.
- 1:35It's been, I guess about two months now since we've been in Matthew, been a little bit.
- 1:46We jump over here.
- 1:58Matthew chapter 5.
- 2:01Now, previously we had seen the miracles that Jesus had been doing, He had begun His Galilean ministry, and now we come to chapter 5.
- 2:10For those of you that are taking notes for the class this evening, we do have key verses, you know I like to add context at the beginning, I typically like to put these notes on
- 2:21top of my title chapters.
- 2:22or my chapter subtitles.
- 2:24So the key verse is going to be Matthew 5 and verse 20.
- 2:28So feel free to circle that verse if you will and we'll come to that here in a little bit.
- 2:33We're probably not going to make it through all of Matthew chapter 5 this evening.
- 2:38There's a lot to go through.
- 2:39uh Another key verse, I was kind of torn between the two on this one, was also verse 48 and you'll see kind of why.
- 2:47uh Our key word for this chapter
- 2:51is going to be the word righteousness.
- 2:54It is not necessarily like most chapters where the word is repeated many times over throughout the chapter, but the key idea of righteousness kind of strings everything
- 3:05together.
- 3:05uh And the key lesson is let your light shine.
- 3:10So, Matthew chapter five opens with what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
- 3:15uh From the material that has been preserved for us in scripture,
- 3:20We can assume that the Sermon on the Mount would have taken roughly 15 to 20 minutes to deliver if reading straight.
- 3:28Yet, even though it would have only been 20 minutes, this one sermon changed the course of the world forever.
- 3:35It reached many, many souls and it covers a wide range of topics.
- 3:39uh The one thread running through all of it, again, is that idea of righteousness.
- 3:45This chapter is all about um outward morality.
- 3:51following from inward character.
- 3:54Okay, so Jesus isn't just merely giving rules.
- 3:58He describes the kind of heart and life that belongs to someone that's going to live and belong inside of the kingdom of heaven.
- 4:07He's teaching his disciples what true righteousness looks like, not the shallow righteousness that we get from the Judaizers and the others that are going throughout in
- 4:19that time period.
- 4:21specifically the Pharisees.
- 4:22ah But he's talking about a deeper righteousness that begins in the heart and because of it beginning in the heart, the outward actions reflect the light that is within that.
- 4:34So before we get into the details, I want to give you an outline for the chapter.
- 4:38ah Verses one, we're going to split this actually into three different sections.
- 4:43So first we have the Beatitudes, as most people have heard about the Beatitudes, that is Matthew chapter five.
- 4:501 through 12 is the Beatitudes.
- 4:53Then, for your notes, I like to put brackets around verses 13 through 16, and that's going to be what we call the section of influence there.
- 5:03We'll probably make it through these two, and hopefully next time we can get to the third.
- 5:08At least that's the plan.
- 5:09We'll see how far we get.
- 5:11But the last section is going to be called Righteousness, and that will be going from verse 17 through the end of the chapter, verse 48.
- 5:20This is where Jesus explains that true righteousness goes deeper than external rule keeping, i.e.
- 5:25the Pharisees, and it touches topics like anger, lust, marriage, honesty, revenge, and ultimately love.
- 5:34So, let's go ahead and back up uh with section one, the Beatitudes.
- 5:40Does anyone know where we get the phrase Beatitudes?
- 5:45We've all heard the phrase, but it actually comes from the Latin word Beatus.
- 5:50meaning blessedness or blessedness.
- 5:54So verse one, actually let's go ahead and have, we'll go ahead and read verses one through 12.
- 6:01Let's have someone read that if they would.
- 6:41Blessed are the peacemakers, for they should be called sons of God.
- 6:46Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- 6:52Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely for my sake.
- 7:00Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- 7:10Okay, so we see the word blessed, blessed, blessed over and over and over again.
- 7:16So starting with verse one, he talks about the multitudes and he went up into the mountain.
- 7:21Jesus sees the multitudes.
- 7:23Why would they have been there?
- 7:26Would they have known through word of mouth who Jesus was?
- 7:30specifically some of the miracles that he would have performed.
- 7:32They would have had to have if we have entire multitudes gathering there.
- 7:36It's fairly reasonable to assume they would have heard about him.
- 7:40Many of those souls were looking for things like hope, truth.
- 7:44Many went to him calling him rabbi so they would have been looking for teaching and ultimately happiness.
- 7:49In that sense, it reminds us of Isaiah chapter two and verse three, and I'll go ahead and I've got it right here.
- 7:56Isaiah two and three said, and many people shall go and say, come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways and
- 8:08we will walk in his paths.
- 8:11This is exactly what we're seeing transpire right here.
- 8:14The multitudes are going up to the mountain that Christ had went to and they're looking for His teaching.
- 8:18They're looking for His guidance.
- 8:20People are coming to hear the Lord Christ teach.
- 8:24And so, verse two, He opens His mouth and taught them saying, So Jesus begins to teach, but there's something very specific we can actually note from this.
- 8:33He does not stand up and simply open His mouth and talk, does He?
- 8:39You're like, yeah, that makes sense.
- 8:41Absolutely.
- 8:42He teaches with purpose.
- 8:44He teaches with substance.
- 8:45He teaches with authority.
- 8:48Most of all, everything Christ says has authority backing behind it.
- 8:52And I think that this verse is a needed reminder today.
- 8:56How many denominational preachers, if you ever watch the viewings of them, stand up, open their mouth and do a whole lot of talking, but don't say a whole lot.
- 9:08lot of them, unfortunately.
- 9:10There's a lot of talking going on in the world today, but not a whole lot of teaching, especially from people that have authority.
- 9:17If you're going to get up before people and teach the law of Christ, we need to get ourselves out of the way as preachers and allow Christ to talk, allow the gospel to talk.
- 9:26You need to have more Bible in your sermon, as it were, than your own self.
- 9:32And I think that's a problem that many preachers are dealing with today.
- 9:36Many speakers can talk for a long time and say very, very little.
- 9:40However, Jesus can teach truth in very little words that's so effective that it changes souls lives for all eternity.
- 9:50Doesn't he?
- 9:51Yeah.
- 9:52So we continue to verse three.
- 9:56are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.
- 10:01What does he mean by poor of spirit here?
- 10:04Any ideas?
- 10:10core here, in my assumption, would carry the idea of spiritual bankruptcy.
- 10:18Not necessarily physical bankruptcy.
- 10:21The Greek idea is that one has been reduced to needing something.
- 10:26If you're financially bankrupt, you're in need of money, right?
- 10:31It ceases to be a want, and now it's something you actively are seeking out because you need this.
- 10:39It's the situation where a soul comes to the knowledge that he finally cannot save himself.
- 10:46Eventually you get into so much physical debt sometimes you need someone else to bail you out or to help you.
- 10:54You cannot do it by yourself without help.
- 10:57This is the opposite.
- 10:58Spiritually speaking, going back to the poor of a spiritual nature, it's the opposite of a hard conscience, one that's
- 11:08doubles down on the fact of, I'll get myself out.
- 11:11I'll just work harder.
- 11:12I can go uphill.
- 11:13I know I can do it.
- 11:14Some people have become spiritually hardened, especially during this time and even today.
- 11:20Who else do we know that was spiritually hardened in the Bible?
- 11:23Does anyone come to mind?
- 11:30Pharaoh?
- 11:30Absolutely.
- 11:32Did you get my notes beforehand?
- 11:34No, she's just that good.
- 11:36So turn our Bibles over to Exodus chapter 7 and I'd like someone to read Exodus chapter 7 verses 13 and 14.
- 12:02And he hardened Pharaoh's heart.
- 12:04Now does this mean that God reached out and turned his heart to stone, physically hardening it?
- 12:10No.
- 12:10Does it mean that he spiritually hardened it?
- 12:12Did he do it on purpose?
- 12:15Yes and no.
- 12:17It's not necessarily that God reached out and forced him to feel this way, but God's actions led to him feeling that way.
- 12:27Because of God's teachings, because of what was going through uh Moses and the people there about let my people go, it hardened Pharaoh's heart naturally.
- 12:38Pharaoh never lost uh free will, as it were.
- 12:43God has never taken free will from any man and has always given them the choice.
- 12:47So when it says he hardened Pharaoh's heart and he harken not into them, it's not that Christ made him do that.
- 12:54When you discipline a child and the child gets angry at you, did you make the child get angry at you?
- 13:01In a sense, but you didn't reach out and say, you're going to be angry at me right now as a command and they just follow suit.
- 13:09That's not how children work.
- 13:11Less so adults.
- 13:13There are other people like in John chapter 12 and verse 40 that we read as well.
- 13:19has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, it says.
- 13:24Now did he physically strike them blind in John?
- 13:28Not in this instance.
- 13:31When you look at something that you really don't want to learn about, do you tend to avert your eyes?
- 13:37Do you kind of blind yourself to it?
- 13:41Sometimes people don't like to face the facts.
- 13:43This is what's happening here.
- 13:45Turn over to Ephesians chapter four and let's get someone get 17 through 19 as another illustration.
- 14:25themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness.
- 14:30Who being past feeling they're tired of this grandpa.
- 14:35They want to get over this.
- 14:37They are so beyond it they are choosing less avianess.
- 14:41They are choosing sin for themselves.
- 14:43They still have free will.
- 14:45The poor in spirit in this verse in Matthew going back to Matthew chapter 5 are not hardened of heart.
- 14:52These are people who have softened up to the fact of, need Christ, I need God's help.
- 14:59They know they need God because there's no other way they're going to get out of their present situation.
- 15:04And rightly so, none of us can overcome sin without Christ's help.
- 15:09Not a single one of us.
- 15:11So we move forward.
- 15:12Verse four, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.
- 15:20Blessed are they that mourn.
- 15:21so if I'm sad I'm happy well that's a contradiction right we can close the Bible we can all go home finally found it years of searching yea or nay
- 15:33Nay, it's not a contradiction.
- 15:36In a sense, Jesus is saying, happy are the unhappy.
- 15:40Now, what do I mean by that?
- 15:42It sounds like a contradiction until we understand what he's meaning.
- 15:47Can someone define the word comfort?
- 15:53Okay, give it a shot.
- 15:55How would you define comfort in layman's terms?
- 16:00Feeling good.
- 16:01Feeling good.
- 16:02I would call that more happiness.
- 16:04ah Comfort.
- 16:07Let me ask this.
- 16:08Can you have comfort where there is no pain?
- 16:14What are you comforted from then?
- 16:17No, no, no, not comfortable comfort, receiving comfort.
- 16:20uh You cannot have comfort without pain.
- 16:25You cannot be comforted without some form of grief.
- 16:29It's the basic definition of the word to have one, you must have the other.
- 16:35Comfort by definition is the easing of pain or distress by Oxford dictionary.
- 16:42If nothing hurts, what are we going to be comforted by?
- 16:45Yes, we can be comfortable, yes, but the idea of receiving comfort is no longer there because now everything is just so-so.
- 16:56Everything is just grand all the time.
- 16:58There's no need for comfortable or comfort, but you may be comfortable.
- 17:03So, spiritual mourning ah includes things like sorrow over sin.
- 17:08Let's have someone get 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 10.
- 17:19Why is it good that we're grieving or sad?
- 17:22What does he mean by happy or the unhappy?
- 17:262 Corinthians 7.10.
- 17:37For godly sorrow worketh repentance.
- 17:40Now if we have earthly sorrow, it's fairly safe to assume that you are sorry you got caught.
- 17:52Right?
- 17:53Yes.
- 17:54Godly sorrow is a totally different idea.
- 17:57It's on the total opposite end of the spectrum.
- 17:59And it's the idea of I'm sorry I ever committed it.
- 18:04You see the difference, the difference between I'm sorry I got caught earthly and I'm sorry I did it being spiritual or godly.
- 18:13That is a salvation not to be repented of because you've repented of having ever done said thing.
- 18:21But for sorrow of the world, work at death, it says.
- 18:24All right, so let's move forward to 2nd Timothy 2 and verse 12.
- 18:29It says, we suffer, we shall also reign with him.
- 18:34Now, let me be fair.
- 18:36The blessing is not in the pain itself.
- 18:40That's not what it's saying.
- 18:45The blessing is what God does with the pain.
- 18:50God's strength, His forgiveness is seen most powerful at our lowest moments.
- 18:59Take a look at Saul.
- 19:01Saul was blinded at the road to Damascus.
- 19:05He was, and this was after he was killing Christians, hunting them down.
- 19:09He was the lowest of the low.
- 19:13He thought he was beyond.
- 19:15saving when he learned the truth and yet he obeyed and he became Paul and he wrote many of the books of the New Testament.
- 19:23That's a very powerful thing and it seems more powerful than someone who slipped up maybe once or twice in their entire life.
- 19:34You can see God's strength for forgiveness in the weakness of man.
- 19:40So those who grieve rightly can be comforted rightly.
- 19:45That's why he means happy are the unhappy.
- 19:49The pain and grief that causes us to be unhappy is the same pain and grief that we can take solace in because our God has the ability to forgive, to help us through those hard
- 20:01times.
- 20:03So we move forward to verse five, the meek.
- 20:06Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
- 20:11What is the word meek?
- 20:17Strength under control.
- 20:18Absolutely.
- 20:18It's not weakness.
- 20:20Humility, being gentle, a submission to God's will and restraint from self-assertion, right?
- 20:28The vengeful anger uh that is inherent in humanity.
- 20:34It's a trusting heart that leaves justice to the hands of God.
- 20:39God says, vengeance is whose?
- 20:42Mine.
- 20:43That's what he says.
- 20:45Jesus says here that the meek shall inherit the earth.
- 20:49The thought is not that Christians are going to own a vast property right now.
- 20:54So let's get that out of the way.
- 20:55We're not talking pre-millennialism or anything like that.
- 21:01but that those content with God will inherit more than they ever imagined, more than we could ever possess here on earth.
- 21:09Why?
- 21:10Not because it's going to be given to us.
- 21:12We may not own a single acre here, but will we be able to enjoy God's world in the one that's to come?
- 21:22We get to spend eternity in heaven with Him.
- 21:25I'm always reminded of Christ saying as He leaves, and lo, I am with you always.
- 21:31even until the end of the world.
- 21:32think it's a beautiful symbolism that we have here because Christ says, you're here on earth.
- 21:39I will always be with you.
- 21:42Now, let's say that we live until the end of time.
- 21:45Judgment day comes.
- 21:46He says, I will be with you until the end of the earth.
- 21:50OK, the end of the earth comes.
- 21:51What now?
- 21:53He's not there.
- 21:54Why?
- 21:55This is the beautiful part.
- 21:57I'm going to give you is the opposite.
- 21:59You've heard me say this before, probably.
- 22:01It's the opposite.
- 22:02And what a beautiful picture he paints because now if we are a Christian, if we have heard, believed, repented, confessed, be baptized and we have lived faithfully, he is just
- 22:12a forgiveness of our sins and we get to be with him forever, not just until the end of the world.
- 22:19It's a beautiful picture that he paints here.
- 22:22Second Corinthians six and verse ten, let's have someone get that.
- 22:39as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possibly all things, but possessing all things.
- 22:50So we're not possessing all things earthly, but as Christians, as those that have been saved by Christ, those that are in a saved state, as long as we don't fall away.
- 22:59Let me preface this right.
- 23:01Do we have inheritance laid up in heaven forever?
- 23:06Yeah.
- 23:07It's way more than this entire universe could offer us.
- 23:11And it's going to last forever.
- 23:12The elements here, as it says, are going to be burned up with a fervent heat.
- 23:17They are going to melt and pass away.
- 23:21We often sing the song, ah this world I'm just passing through.
- 23:27My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
- 23:30It's true.
- 23:31It's another beautiful song.
- 23:33I also like I've got a side note here that says Revelation 21 6 through 7.
- 23:39So I pulled it up.
- 23:41And he said unto me, it is done.
- 23:44I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
- 23:49I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of water of life freely.
- 23:54He that overcomeeth shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son.
- 24:04We get to be part of God's family when we enter into Christ through baptism.
- 24:09We get an inheritance beyond anything that of kings on earth would ever gain.
- 24:18Let's move on to verse six.
- 24:21Because he promises here and we have a nice transition, he says he's going to give them that are a thirst of the fountain of water of life freely in Revelation 21 six.
- 24:32So let's use that.
- 24:34Who is him that's a thirst?
- 24:35Verse six tells us blaster they which do hunger and thirst after what?
- 24:41Righteousness, not a steak from outback steakhouse.
- 24:47for they shall be filled.
- 24:50There are many kinds of hunger in life.
- 24:53There are many kinds of thirsts in life.
- 24:55You can wake up in the middle of the night and if you're anything like my wife, you want McDonald's french fries, you're hungry for it.
- 25:03Sometimes you go to the restaurant and you really are thirsty for that Coca-Cola, but you know what, all they have is Pepsi.
- 25:10But there's other hunger.
- 25:11Mankind, I believe, have three...
- 25:15central hungers.
- 25:16And I have this in my notes.
- 25:18We have a hunger for food.
- 25:21We have a hunger for love, be that from above or from our fellow man.
- 25:27And whether they admit it or not, all of mankind has a hunger for God.
- 25:33We see this all throughout history because where there is an absence of the teachings of God, people make up their own.
- 25:42And even those that claim to be atheists who say there is no God, they instead worship themselves, promoting themselves to Godhood.
- 25:52Do they not?
- 25:54So you see a hungering for God, for a ruler, a creator throughout all of mankind's history.
- 26:02Most people understand physical hunger very well.
- 26:06Me especially, because I'm on a diet right
- 26:11What needs to be stronger?
- 26:12Our hunger for food or our hunger for God?
- 26:16Our hunger for God.
- 26:17Let me ask, if a person, if everyone in this room took a challenge from me tonight and went the next week without food, would it change the way you feel about some things?
- 26:29Would you feel bad?
- 26:31Would you feel really hungry?
- 26:34Yeah, really hungry, right?
- 26:37In the same way,
- 26:39A soul that is not fed on the Word of God is going to starve far more than what your body will starve going a week without food.
- 26:49And yet, how many times throughout our lives do we sometimes go entire months without cracking our Bible?
- 26:55Now, I'm not accusing anyone in here, but I'm saying in general, there's lots of people in the world who haven't cracked the Bible open in years.
- 27:02These people are spiritually starving.
- 27:08If someone says I don't really hunger for God...
- 27:13It's not necessarily that they're lying.
- 27:16I've met, I've met people like that.
- 27:18They haven't said that exact phrase to me, but I think that they've already been filled their stomachs to follow the illustration have been filled probably with self instead of
- 27:31God.
- 27:33It's the equivalent between getting something wholesome and nutritious and eating a ton of crappy junk food, right?
- 27:43The thirst here in this verse is intense.
- 27:46This is not just saying you're a little thirsty for a drop here or there.
- 27:50And it's not saying a thirst for money, for power, for comfort, for success.
- 27:56You're not hungry for popularity.
- 27:59The list goes on and on, but it's he's saying a hunger and thirst for righteousness, the word of God.
- 28:05And Jesus says those who hunger and thirst for right, the right thing are going to be what?
- 28:12Now, why is that?
- 28:13How are we going to be filled?
- 28:16Tell me, if you open up your Bible,
- 28:20There are scholars who have spent the better parts of their lives, some 80 plus years if they've lived up to their hundreds, studying the Bible almost every day.
- 28:30Have they ever gotten to a full understanding of everything in that book?
- 28:34Do you think if we took all the preachers at the Memphis School of Preaching and Aaron and myself and Kennedy and we all put our heads together, we could finally figure out
- 28:44everything that's in that book?
- 28:46No.
- 28:47But just as deep as those waters are,
- 28:50It's very easy to understand.
- 28:52You can wade through the top.
- 28:54You can find salvation.
- 28:56You can see the plan of salvation laid out very easily.
- 28:59God does not make it hard to understand.
- 29:03However, if you delve deeper, if you look deeper, if you take the time to really look into it, there is a infinite wealth of knowledge.
- 29:12We haven't even scratched the surface of one book and his knowledge goes far beyond that if the book
- 29:19was equal to one grain of sand in all the world's beaches.
- 29:25His infinite knowledge is infinite.
- 29:27It says that whenever he and I don't remember the verse right off hand, I'm kind of shooting from the hip, but he says that when he came up with the plan of redemption, even
- 29:36the angels marveled.
- 29:40These are people.
- 29:41These are creatures or people that were here long before we were created.
- 29:46And yet even they marveled.
- 29:49at the plan of redemption.
- 29:52The Word of God is an endless wealth of knowledge and we have only scratched the surface.
- 29:58So can we be filled by it?
- 30:01Absolutely.
- 30:02It's an all-you-can-eat buffet.
- 30:06but we'll move on to verse seven.
- 30:15What is mercy by definition?
- 30:21It is forgiveness, forgiveness specifically, though, to those that do not deserve it.
- 30:28Do we deserve to be forgiven by our Savior?
- 30:34No, no, no, we can never deserve God's forgiveness.
- 30:40That would say that we would have to earn it to some degree and we know we can never earn it.
- 30:47The merciful are forgiving.
- 30:50They are people who are patient.
- 30:52They are people who are compassionate.
- 30:55Those that understand that you need something.
- 30:58Someone get Colossians 3 and verse 13.
- 31:16Yes, 313.
- 31:20Bearing with one another and forgiving one another.
- 31:31even as Christ forgave you.
- 31:35I got $100 for anybody that can list a single sin that you can commit that God or Christ will not forgive you of.
- 31:44$100 right now.
- 31:48There's not.
- 31:50What does this verse say?
- 31:53Just as Christ forgave us, so also do ye.
- 31:59So if one comes before us asking for our forgiveness, should we be willing to give it?
- 32:06Yes, we should, because how dare we not forgive someone when we have done something far worse by hanging Christ on the cross.
- 32:17How can we expect His forgiveness if we ourselves are not willing to forgive?
- 32:23And God says when He forgives, He tosses it over His shoulder into the deep.
- 32:27It's like it never happened.
- 32:29We have to be willing to forgive those.
- 32:32But be careful.
- 32:34Does Christ forgive anyone who does not?
- 32:36seek His forgiveness?
- 32:39No, He does not.
- 32:42Christ demands repentance and He demands confession as well.
- 32:47Can we forgive those who sin against us or do something horrible?
- 32:52We'll just say for the sake of argument and illustration here, murder, right?
- 32:57And I know I'm going to an extreme, but the, you know, it applies all across the board.
- 33:02If they do not ask for forgiveness,
- 33:05Can we take it upon ourselves to do something that Christ Himself will not?
- 33:11No, we shouldn't.
- 33:13We have to follow His guidance.
- 33:15Someone get Luke chapter 6 verse 37.
- 33:33Judge not and you shall not be judged.
- 33:36Condemn not and you shall not be condemned.
- 33:38Forgive and you will be forgiven.
- 33:43Forgive and you will be forgiven.
- 33:45That's a promise to each and every Christian out there.
- 33:49If you are willing to forgive, you will be forgiven.
- 33:53But the world likes to stop at judge not and you shall not be judged, right?
- 33:57They love to stop there, but they never read the rest of the verse.
- 34:01Move over one page to John chapter 7 verse 24.
- 34:05When he says judge not, does he mean judge not at all?
- 34:10Absolutely not.
- 34:11He does not mean judge not at all.
- 34:13As a Christian, it is our job to judge a very specific judgment, however.
- 34:20So John chapter 7 verse 24 says, judge not according to the appearance, but judge what kind of judgment?
- 34:28Righteous judgment.
- 34:29do we get righteous judgment?
- 34:35Well, not just revelation.
- 34:36You're close.
- 34:38We get it from God.
- 34:39Where do we get God's Word?
- 34:42from the scripture, right?
- 34:43So if we are going to judge righteous judgment, what do we have to measure someone up against?
- 34:50The Bible.
- 34:51Absolutely.
- 34:52It's the same way as the builders that built this thing right here, this wall.
- 34:56Typically in times of old, you would have had something called a plumb line.
- 34:59It's a weight on a string that would have held it straight up and down.
- 35:03Our plumb line, as it were, is the word of God, is the gospel, is the good news.
- 35:10It's all the letters that we have from all the apostles, from John, from Peter, from all of them.
- 35:15But we have to use that as our measuring stick.
- 35:19That's our law book.
- 35:21That's our New Testament, right?
- 35:24We're not under the old law.
- 35:25We're not judging people by that per se, but the principles there, even Christ called them the Old Testament, what?
- 35:33Scripture.
- 35:34He calls it scripture.
- 35:38James 5, 9, however, takes it a little deeper.
- 35:43He says not only forgive, but take a look at James chapter 5 and verse 9.
- 35:50grudge not one against another brethren lest ye be condemned how many times do we hear people say well i forgive you but man i'm just you're not ever coming over here again do
- 36:06we hold grudges we shouldn't is god going to hold a grudge against us on the day of judgment he said well i'll forgive you i'll let you into heaven but you're gonna have to
- 36:15sit in the back
- 36:18No, of course not.
- 36:20He says, do not hold grudges.
- 36:21If someone comes to you meaningfully, heartfully, lovingly, sometimes in tears, asking for your forgiveness, what should we do?
- 36:30Do we do it completely?
- 36:32Do we hold grudges?
- 36:34No, we don't hold grudges.
- 36:37You're on a roll, but in the wrong way tonight.
- 36:42It's necessary.
- 36:50not just because.
- 36:51Now, we are taught in the Bible that if you have fought against your brother, you what?
- 36:56You go to them.
- 36:57If someone has hurt you, that doesn't mean you have to sit here and wait for them to approach you.
- 37:03Sometimes that's the right thing to do.
- 37:07Other times it is necessary for us to go to the brother and make our grievances heard.
- 37:13If they're repented at that time, absolutely.
- 37:15Unfortunately, sometimes we get the door shut in our face, don't we?
- 37:19It's not a good feeling because we want to reconcile with that brother.
- 37:26we're going to continue.
- 37:27Can we hold that thought for a second because it applies to verse 9 and we're getting to verse 9.
- 37:34So we're gonna move on to verse eight and I will come back to that is the pure in heart.
- 37:39It says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
- 37:43Now the pure of heart here would be undivided devotion to God.
- 37:48Those that want God, those that have learned to love God to the sense of yes, we are to fear God, absolutely.
- 37:59But eventually as we learn more about God,
- 38:02Our love should outgrow the fear.
- 38:06Our want to follow God is out of love instead of out of fear of going to hell.
- 38:12That's how Christians grow.
- 38:13I'm running out of time.
- 38:16It's sincerity without hypocrisy, guile or hidden motives.
- 38:21That would be pure of heart.
- 38:22It goes beyond outward morality and goes back to what we said at the beginning.
- 38:26It's inward integrity.
- 38:28God has always cared about the heart.
- 38:30and Jesus is teaching that what is hidden inside matters more than what's displayed.
- 38:36That being said, if your heart is right, what's going to be displayed?
- 38:41The right thing.
- 38:43So we move on to verse nine, cause I'm running out of time.
- 38:45Peacemakers.
- 38:46Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
- 38:51Notice Jesus says peacemakers, not peacekeepers and not troublemakers.
- 39:01A peacemaker works to bring reconciliation.
- 39:05You actively pursue that.
- 39:07You want whatever problem to go on to cease going on and reconcile with your brother or sister.
- 39:14It's pursuing them at the door, like you said.
- 39:17However, Christ Himself was the ultimate peacemaker, was He not?
- 39:22Yes.
- 39:23Ephesians 2, 14, and I'll get it because of time, says, for He is our peace, who hath made
- 39:30both one and have broken down the middle of wall of partition between us.
- 39:35Does peace take work?
- 39:37Yes.
- 39:38And sometimes, unfortunately, peace has to come in the form of silence.
- 39:46If you go to the person at the door and they slam it in your face and they don't want anything to do with you or they're simply yelling out of anger,
- 39:56Are you creating peace by removing yourself from the situation sometimes?
- 40:01Now that's not ideal.
- 40:03We want to reconcile that, but sometimes that's unfortunately not possible in this world because everyone has free will.
- 40:11It's not passive cowardice to have silence, but it's the wisdom not to fight every single battle.
- 40:23And that's something that I've had to teach myself recently too.
- 40:26There are some times where peace has to come by simply stepping back.
- 40:31You cannot force someone to like you.
- 40:34cannot force someone to love you, unfortunately.
- 40:39Well, we wouldn't want to force them anyway, but some things are simply outside our control.
- 40:44And if they are outside of our control, they need to be outside of our minds from time to time.
- 40:51We cannot fix everything.
- 40:52We are not the great physician, but who is?
- 40:55God.
- 40:57And that'll wrap up the class.
- 40:58I've noted that we got to verse 10.
- 41:02I thought we'd get through section two, but we'll save that for next time.
- 41:05Thank you all very much.