Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

What should we learn from this chapter?

• “The Way” is a “One Way” Street.

Matthew 7

Do Good to Please God
Do Not Judge

Matthew 7:1 “Judge (condemn) not, that you be not judged.

Matthew 7:2 For with what (Condemnation) judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

Matthew 7:3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

Matthew 7:4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?

Matthew 7:5 Hypocrite! (Literally, Mask Wearer. Actor) First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:8 For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

• There is a “Way” to ask: In Faith for God’s Answer.

• The Narrow Way is “One Way”.

• “The way” is extremely important to God. Their are many ways but only one way will lead to God.
• John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am THE WAY, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
• The Broad place is Freedom. The Narrow Way leads to Freedom
  The Narrow Way leads to the Broad place.
  Moses led the Hebrews through very narrow cliffs to get to a Broad beach head where the waters were parted and the Hebrews were saved, every one of them.
  
• Types of “Ways”
  
  • * Esau’s Way: Genesis 33:16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir (Strong’s defines it as the place of demons)
    
  • * Jacob’s Way: Genesis 35:3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”
    
  • * Baalam’s Way: Numbers 22:32 And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me.
    
  • * God’s Way: Deuteronomy 31:29 For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”

Matthew 7:⁹ Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

Matthew 7:¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?

Matthew 7:¹¹ If you then, being 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!

Matthew 7:¹² Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Matthew 7:14 (How narrow is the gate !) Because narrow is the gate and difficult (confined) is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits

Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 7:16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

Matthew 7:17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Matthew 7:18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Matthew 7:19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 7:20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

I Never Knew You

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

• A “Lord” is a master over his servant.
• During the governments of kings, it would be death if the servant did not obey his lord.
• The kingdom of heaven is the Millennium when Jesus rules in Jerusalem after the seven-year Tribulation. Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. When Jesus rules there will be obedience to God’s will, just as it is in heaven. Jesus will rule with a scepter (rod) of iron.
• If Jesus is not Lord to the servant, then the servant is his own lord and doesn’t belong to Jesus’ kingdom.

Matthew 7:22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’

Matthew 7:23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Matthew 7:24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:

Matthew 7:²⁵ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

Matthew 7:26 “But (the flipside is …) everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does NOT do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: ²⁷ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Matthew 7:28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching,

Matthew 7:29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

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