What a beautiful song. Thank you, John and choir. That is what God wants. That every tongue would rejoice in God and would make His loving kindness and His glories known abroad. The problem is that there are many people who are simply not able to do that. And I'm going to ask you and invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 7, where Jesus talks about those people today. In what is one of Jesus' hard sayings, certain things that Christ says in the Bible that are hard for us. They're hard because they're difficult to understand and sometimes they're hard because they're hard to accept. Sometimes they're hard because Jesus sounds harsh when He says certain things. These hard sayings are complicated and I'm not so sure that we always in the church even to this day understand everything Jesus was saying and what He intended by these statements. But there are times when Jesus speaks to people and what appears to be almost an insulting manner. I remember the story of the wedding of Kena in Galilee. I came from a wedding yesterday and this particular wedding that Jesus was in, they ran out of wine. And Jesus was asked by His mother. She said, you know, they've run out of wine and He said, woman, what does that have to do with me? I used to correct my sons when they were little when they got upset with their mother. They'd say, woman, I'd say, well, you say that to your wife, but not to mine. Sometimes Jesus says even more things that are difficult than that. I mean, things that are even more difficult than that. The story of a woman who comes and she's from Sire of Phoenicia. She's a Kena Knight. Her daughter is possessed by a demon and she asked Jesus to come and heal her daughter and Jesus says it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Now, he heals the woman's child. But every time I read it, I say, you know, Jesus, there might be an easier way to tell her that this was an abnormal request that she was making. Now, we have one of those statements here in Matthew, chapter 7, verse 6, Jesus has just told us in the five preceding verses of Matthew that we are not the judge, less we be judge, we're not to be harsh and sensorious and hypocritical and fixing a blame to people. And then he says, do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs unless they trample them under foot and turn to attack you. Here Jesus refers to people as dogs and pigs, something that I sense that even us in the most irritable moments would not say to someone else. James Montgomery boy says it is characteristic of the Christian religion that most of its doctrines are totally unacceptable to most men or to put it another way that most of what the Bible teaches is offensive. In Matthew, chapter 7, verse 6, there was a teaching that is particularly offensive even to some Christians. In the previous verses, Jesus has been talking about judgment and why Christians must not judge each other hypocritically. And then he adds as if to correct the possible impression that a follower of his is barred from judging at all these words, do not give dogs what is sacred and do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces. To most persons, this person simply implies the worst kind of intolerance and prejudice. Now we know this, folks. We know that Jesus Christ is not an intolerant person. He's not prejudice against anything except sin. And Jesus Christ never says things that are unkind or crude. So what he is saying to be honest with you brothers and sisters is not 100% clear. But let's begin by analyzing first of all why he would pick the metaphor of dogs and pigs in the first place. These are not by the way, these dogs. You are domesticated, well groomed, veterinarian cared for little happy pets. These are wild dogs, the street muts who lived in the streets and fed off the trash dump and were violent, violent and dangerous. They were undemesticated and wild and unpredictable. And one commentator says, in brief they were contemptible. They were like ravenous wolves. And when people saw them, they would avoid them because they were dangerous. And pigs, we know that according to Leviticus and Deuteronomy, that is the one sort of meat that the Jews were absolutely forbidden to eat because it was dangerous for them in their health and it was ceremonially unclean. Jesus probably is referring to a popular proverb in his day that Peter, the apostle, refers to later on in his second letter where he says, what the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit and the sound to after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire. So there's some kind of proverb about dogs living in filth and pigs returning after they've been cleansed to wallow in muck and Jesus has this in mind. Now, in order to interpret this, we always have to interpret a verse by two simple rules. First rule, rule number one, you never lift never. This is an absolute, you never lift a verse out of its context. So what is the context of chapter 7, verse 6? Well, it fits in the middle of chapter 7, verses 1 to 12, which has to do with personal relationships. And it's bracketed by a paragraph that says we're not the judge people in a way that would alienate them from us. The paragraph after it verses 7 through 11 says we're to pray for these people and it ends in this culminating climactic statement of the golden rule that in verse 12 were to do unto others what we would want them to do to us. You say, well, pastor, I wouldn't want somebody to call me a dog or a pig and I would neither. But here's the second rule of hermeneutics of interpreting that the simple always interprets the complex and that what is clear interprets that which is not. And the clearer statement is Peter's statement. He's speaking out of a proverb and that proverb tells us that dogs sometimes return to their own filth and pigs will return to wallow in the mire. It's hard to domesticate them, to clean them up, to get them to behave themselves. Seen in this light, then chapter 7 verse 6 takes on a shaded meeting that we seldom think. Listen to one commentator, James Bryan Smith in his book, The Good and Beautiful Life, which is about the sermon on the mountain. Listen to what he says. I believe that all of the passages we are studying in this chapter 7 fall under the category of judging others but others see them as dealing with separate issues. I may be wrong but I asked you to open your mind to the possibility of seeing the interrelationship of these teachings. Many think that Matthew 7-6 is disconnected to the previous section on judging but I believe that it follows logically. And so do I. I don't believe that these four little paragraphs in this chapter 7 verses 1 through 12 are random thoughts by Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus Christ is asking us to be very wise and judicious and humble in our approach to other people so that we don't judge them, that we pray for them, that we treat them by the golden rule. And that we understand that there are two kinds of people we deal with. Some people who simply refuse to respond to the gospel and some people who are not able to respond to the gospel. Basically what I'm presenting to you loved ones is the two opinions about this verse. One opinion the first one and probably the majority of you says that Jesus is talking about people who are unworthy to receive the gospel or spiritual wisdom or biblical teaching. And the minority opinion says no this is not a matter of being unworthy but being unable. These dogs and pigs that Jesus are referring to are simply not able to understand the holy things of the Lord and the pearls of wisdom from the scripture. It's not that they don't want to it's that they can't appreciate these things and I would suggest you that in this hard saying of Jesus these two opinions are not diametrically opposed. So let's look at them one after the other first the majority of you that we are not to share spiritual things with unworthy people do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs. Unless they trample them under foot and turn and attack you this is the majority of you and it's even found its way into American proverb don't cast your pearls before swine meaning don't waste your wisdom your billions your sacred things on stupid souls unworthy of the blessing. And that's a possibility that is one of the ways that the early church interpreted this in an old historical document called the dedicate the teaching of the 12 apostles was not written by the 12 apostles was written after they had all gone the talks about life and liturgy and the local church in the early days of Christianity says let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist but they who have been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for concerning this also the Lord has said give not that which is holy to dogs. Now this is the majority opinion. Sinclair Ferguson says that we are not to be insensitively indiscriminating when we share spiritual things with people. John stop makes the comment that what Jesus is going for here is a healthy balance we're not to judge people but at the same time we're not to accept everybody the same way. We're not to be judgmental but he says saints are not simpletons and some people once the beam is removed from our eyes and we see them for who they are and we tell them are not going to receive the truth about their life in their soul. Martin what Joan says that the first meaning of this is that we must recognize the different types of persons and learn to discriminate between them as the Lord Jesus Christ did. Simply put that a Christian must accurately and honestly assess the audience to whom he or she is speaking and not according to his preconceived notions about them the receptivity of the receptiveness of people of the gospel message can be vastly surprising and different from what we think. They can be hostile like dogs wild dogs when we share the truth of them and they lash back at us we've all had that experience. We make a simple comment to somebody and say something you know brother that's difficult I'll pray for you don't I don't need your prayers keep your religion to yourself you narrow minded holder I don't need your piety right now and will folks you just got bitten by a spiritual dog and there are times when we want to share something with somebody but they are so perverted and so profane that as soon as we lay out this holy thing this spiritual pearl of wisdom they drag it down to the muck and filth of their own soul and their own life. So there are times when we are very cautious about whom we share with I believe if we take this perspective this first few which is a legitimate one then there are seven things that are practical importance to them. Seven applications let me give them to you first as Martin Lloyd-Jones says the best way to approach this problem is to look at it first in the light of our Lord's own practice with people. How did Jesus Christ treat people like this? Well the first thing is he held people responsible for their actions and in particular for their responses to the gospel and the law of God into biblical wisdom. Jesus Christ treated all people for what they were. They were morally responsible.