Have you ever been in a flood? When my wife and I were first married we lived in an apartment that had a fairly large lake above it and a stream running through the complex. Our apartment was down by the stream. When we moved there we didn’t think much about the consequences of living by a stream because it was beautiful.
One stormy night the rain descended, the damn was topped, and the floods came. We lived on the first story but as the water quickly rose we moved up to the next level. As we stood on the balcony of the upper story we watched the water taking the brick off the walls of the complex and my wife turned to me and said: “I can’t swim.” I told her not to worry because it wasn’t going to make any difference. We stood close to God’s creation (a tree) in case we needed to climb up. Luckily, we didn’t have to do that. “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34 just before our study in chapter 7)
Christ could see that flood coming. “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: [I would like to insert by a stream] And the rain descended, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:26-27)
Sometimes we read the bible and the chapters and verses (created by a man) don’t seem to start and end properly. We have to begin before the chapter and end after the chapter, etc. In my opinion, Matthew chapter 7 is a great exception. I feel it started “just right” in verse 1 because of the experience of living: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”
Why did Christ say this? We make judgements about everything all the time (people, places, and things). We might look out and decide it is going to rain and pick up an umbrella to take with us. That may be good judgement on our part but wrong. It’s not wrong to use the good judgement even if we are wrong about the rain coming.
The words of Christ, in Matthew 7, come with various promises. Here’s one starting in verse 20: “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
That kind of promise will shock us won’t it? Kind of like the shock of the Apostle Peter. “Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.” (Matthew 26:33-35)
How many of these people went to the cross with our Lord or were even standing at the foot of the cross watching with him and praying for him? “And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth [KJV] thee. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.” (Matthew 26:73-75)
Jesus has a sight or understanding that we just don’t have and he has judgement that we don’t have now or ever will have. He can look into the heart and see the man just as clearly as he looks into your eyes standing in front of him. That was a real problem for some of his enemies while he was on earth. Christ knew he was going to his death alone (save the two sinners hanging next to him). He even felt forsaken by God.
We often sing the song of Matthew 7 about standing on Christ the solid rock: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand. When Darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. His oath, his covenant, his blood supports me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in him be found! Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne!”
Next promise in Matthew 7, at verse 24: “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”
Are you founded on something other than Jesus Christ? Have you been buried in the flood (baptism)? Perhaps you are founded on your smarts and the fact that you always seem to have it together just like Peter did? Are you founded upon Michael the Archangel? The most powerful angel in the universe told you: “You’re OK or you are not.”
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39) Who else will you stand on if you are not standing on the rock?
“And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?” (John 8:3-5) As you probably know, this was a trick question. The Romans had taken away the Jews ability to administer capital punishment even though the law of Moses said to stone her to death. It was against Roman law for Christ to stone anyone to death without authority. These people didn’t care about this woman at all and she didn’t mean a thing to them. How’s this expert “our people are following” going to get out of this one? It wasn’t a very difficult test for the “righteous judge.”
“This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” (John 8:6-11) The rain descended and the floods came and this woman was standing on the rock. Christ stopped the rain because he had defeated their trick question and their poor judgement.
Sometimes I feel we can miss some points of this little story about the woman taken in adultery. We might think it was the ability of Christ to ask the right question or give the right answer from scripture, etc. We might have ideas about what he was writing on the ground that convicted them of their sin. You know, if we just had all the “right answers” like Jesus Christ we could have done this too.
Really? I am confident that if I had stooped down to the ground and began to write saying, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” they might have stoned her to death. I can’t look into a man’s heart. Have you ever heard of some woman in a Muslim country being stoned to death for this or even a lesser crime? I sure have.
What’s different about standing on the rock? Christ looked into their hearts (with righteous judgement) and perceived their being. He already knew they wouldn’t stone her to death and that they would walk away when he looked into their heart. Not only did he perceive this about them I suspect he saw some evil things they had committed themselves. Perhaps it wasn’t that difficult to convict them of their sins? After all, they were godly men and she was just a whore. I suspect there are often psychopaths that would not have any problem stoning a woman to death if it fit their evil purpose. As they say in the corporate world, “You would kill your mother for a buck.”
I have no doubt in my mind (not being a righteous judge of the heart) that if I tried what Christ did she might be laying there quite dead. That’s not very positive to say is it? No, I just look at people like Peter and how positive they are: “Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.”
“Judge not that ye be not judged.” Why? The flood is coming. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory…. Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” (Matthew 25, at verse 31)
If Jesus doesn’t send a flood in our lifetime he might just send it in the day of judgement. The rains descended and the floods came.
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