Mat. 7:11
If Ye then Being Evil, Part 1
In "If Ye then Being Evil, Part 1," Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds Matthew 7:11, focusing on Christ's affirmation of humanity's inherent evil nature. He argues that understanding this biblical truth is essential for saving Christianity, for comprehending the interconnected system of biblical doctrine, and for fostering genuine worship, praise, and evangelism. Martin challenges listeners to confront their own sinfulness as revealed by the Holy Spirit, urging both unbelievers to pray for eyes to see their true condition and believers to resolve any controversy with Christ's teaching on man's depravity.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 6 sections · 39 min
- The Context of Christ's Teaching on Righteousness 0:05
- Christ's Affirmation of Humanity's Basic Sinfulness 4:19
- The Necessity of Understanding Man's Exceeding Sinfulness 8:39
- Sin's Impact on Understanding Biblical Truth 13:24
- Sin's Impact on Worship, Praise, and Evangelism 22:45
- A Call to Self-Examination and Prayer 33:04
Key Quotes
“And in that little phrase, if ye being evil, our Lord affirms the basic sinfulness of all humanity. If ye being evil.”
“He didn't say if ye then doing evil. He said ye are evil. Your very nature is evil.”
“a right knowledge of sin lies in the knowledge of sin. It lies at the root of all saving Christianity. Such terms as conversion, regeneration, and sanctification are but words and names until we begin to understand the exceeding sinfulness of man.”
“The truth of God is of one continuous thread into a fabric that one of the reasons to extract it from the whole, you know, what will happen is you'll have absolutely nothing left because the truth of God is vitally interrelated.”
“once you begin to see what you are the only thing you know it's right for God to do is to damn them that's the only thing you're convinced that God has a right to do is to damn them and if he does anything else to anybody he'll be all afraid”
“the only thing I know I deserve is God's judgment and I can come on a Sunday morning conscious that the only reason I'm not in hell is that God in mercy and grace has moved out to me it's fairly easy to worship then isn't it”
“all the gimmicks and gadgets and trappings of modern evangelism have a theological basis and that theological basis among other things is a dismal that's the view of how bad man is that's the basis of it”
“for Jesus said to whom little is forgiven he loveth me but to whom much is forgiven what he would you have your love for Jesus Christ be something more than a little bit of sentimental who you've got to be willing to face what the Bible says you are”
Applications
All listeners
- Do not rise up against Jesus as a prophet and refuse to receive his word concerning the exceeding sinfulness of men.
- Pray that God will give you eyes to see yourself as He sees you, recognizing your nature as a dead, blind, rebel, hell-deserving sinner.
- Turn to passages like Romans chapter 3 and Mark chapter 7, which God has ordained to be His means of showing you what you are.
- Pray that if you have any controversy with what the Lord says about how bad men are, that He would dispose your heart to have that controversy done with.
- Be willing to make any adjustment in your thinking and understanding in the light of Christ's precious words, especially concerning "if ye being evil."
A full transcript is available on the tab. 40 paragraphs, roughly 39 minutes.
The Context of Christ's Teaching on Righteousness
Expanding the statements made in chapter 5, verse 20, when he said, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And from that point on, he has been, in a greater or lesser degree, expanding those words. What is that practical godliness which is to be the earmark of the true children of God? Well, it's a godliness marked by keeping not just the external letter of the law, but by entering into the breadth of the spirit of the law, which touches motivation and thought life and all of these other aspects, such as we saw in the last part of chapter 5. Then it's a righteousness that, in all its religious exercises, giving, praying, fasting, it's not concerned about the eye of men, as were the Pharisees, but it's continually concerned about the eye of God, your Father who seeth in secret. That's the concern of the true Christian. And then it's a righteousness that in the press and stress of the work-a-day world, what am I going to eat? What am I going to drink?
How shall I be clothed? It's a righteousness that knows something of that release of spirit from sinful anxiety and is able to trust the God who provides for lily and for sparrow to provide for his own blood-bought children. Then we saw that it's a righteousness that is delivered, chapter 7, from a spirit of hyper-criticism, going around, plucking out moats while there are beans in our own...
and yet a righteousness, on the other hand, that is free of a sinful gullibility. They're just going to swallow everything and never discern. Our Lord says we must not give that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast our pearls before swine. Then we saw last week that when we've honestly faced that standard of life, if we've at all understood it, we'd have to throw our hands up in despair, and say, who can live that kind of life?
Who can live a life free from sinful anxiety?
Who can walk in the light of the spiritual content of God's law, which says that the very thought of lust is adultery, and the very motions of hatred are murder? Who can be free from these things? And it's as though the one who heard our Lord speak threw up his hands in despair and said, It can't be done! And the Lord says, Here's the promise as, And it shall be given you.
Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you, for every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. And then that wonderful promise illustrated by the Father Heart who gives good things to his children. Now you remember last week in our study of that section, so full of such gracious promises, promises to the children of God, that if they ask for grace to be the men and women God wants them to be, grace is available and grace will be given.
That's the theme of verses 7 to 11. And you remember in verse 11, we noticed that our Lord made a little side reference toward what we are, and I want us to expand that reference this morning. I told you last week, we didn't have time to do it. In verse 11, our Lord said, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Christ's Affirmation of Humanity's Basic Sinfulness
And we want to take just this little phrase, which is a sermon in itself, yea, a series of sermons. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts. And in that little phrase, if ye being evil, our Lord affirms the basic sinfulness of all humanity. If ye being evil.
And that's going to be the area of our study this morning. The confirmation or the affirmation of Christ concerning the basic sinfulness of all humanity. The Lord Jesus said in John 13, Ye call me Teacher and Lord, and so I am. If you're a Christian, Jesus Christ is not only your Savior, the one whom you are trusting to take away your sin, but he is also your Teacher and your Lord.
He is your Prophet and your King. Now it's possible for a Christian to have a controversy with the kingship of Christ. Practically speaking, that's simply saying it's possible for a Christian to begin to kick against some aspect of God's will. God says, do this or don't do that.
And as a child of God, it's possible for us, though we are basically subject to him as our King, to have a controversy with him in some particular area. And if you belong to the Lord, he's going to spank you. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. In the same way, it's possible for a Christian to have a controversy with Christ as his priest, the one who forgives us and intercedes for us.
It's possible for a Christian to have an area of self-righteousness where he feels he's not so bad in that area as to need either the cleansing of Christ or the keeping power of Christ. And if that's so, why, the Lord will just let you see that in that very area where you thought you didn't need to be, you didn't need the covering of his blood and the keeping power of his spirit, he'll let you fall and bend your nose until you realize you need him as your priest to forgive you in that area and as your high priest to keep you by his intercession. Now it's also possible for a Christian to have a controversy with Christ as his prophet, to have an area where the Lord Jesus declares the truth and be unwilling to receive it. And if there is, one area in which I find God's people most reluctant to truly listen to the words of their Lord, it's in this area of the exceeding sinfulness of all humanity. I find people who are basically subject to Christ as a king in the areas that they're aware, as a priest, as a prophet, until comes to take, taking seriously what Jesus Christ said
by his own lips and through his inspired apostles and prophets about the exceeding depths of man's sinfulness. And at that point, I'm Christians, people whom I have no reason to doubt are Christians, suddenly rise up against Jesus as a prophet and refuse to receive his word concerning the exceeding sinfulness of men. And so I want us this morning, and I doubt we shall have time to conclude our study and so possibly carrying on into next Lord's Day, to notice our Lord's affirmation of the basic sinfulness of all humanity. He says in this little phrase, if ye then being evil. He didn't say if ye then doing evil. He said ye are evil. Your very nature is evil.
The Necessity of Understanding Man's Exceeding Sinfulness
And he was talking to those who were the children of God through faith in himself and affirming that man's nature is evil. Now to think our way through this subject, this morning we want to consider first of all the necessity of understanding the biblical teaching on the exceeding sinfulness of men. Why is it necessary to understand this biblical truth? Then if we have time, we'll begin to consider, the substance of the teaching of our Lord about the exceeding sinfulness of men.
And then I doubt we'll get to our third point this morning. We'll consider the practical results of understanding and believing what our Lord meant when he said, if ye then being evil. First of all then, why is it necessary to take seriously what the Lord Jesus says about the exceeding sinfulness, sinfulness of all humanity? May I suggest three very important reasons.
Number one, there is no saving Christianity without this understanding.
Now you may have the form of Christianity either in a great deal of ritual and ceremony or not too much ritual and ceremony. It may be informal or formal religion, but listen, there will be, there will be no saving Christianity until we understand what our Lord says about the exceeding sinfulness of human nature. Bishop Ryle in his classic book called Fooliness starts in the first chapter of that book to lay a foundation for all that follows and he says these words, a right knowledge of sin lies in the knowledge of sin. It lies at the root of all saving Christianity. Such terms as conversion, regeneration, and sanctification are but words and names until we begin to understand the exceeding sinfulness of man.
Now what is salvation in its biblical sense? Without getting technical, isn't salvation that mighty work of God? By which he delivers sinful men from the penalty and practice and presence of their sin or to change the phraseology, isn't salvation that mighty work of God by which he has moved forth to deliver men from sin and its consequences? Isn't that what salvation's all about?
Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. He bore our sins in his own body on the cross. He was raised for our justification. All of this is just a lot of religious talk and all of salvation is just so much religious gibberish until we have faced biblically and personally the deep problem which salvation has come to be the solution of.
And so, as we consider the importance or the necessity of understanding the biblical teaching on the sinfulness of humanity, it's for the simple reason that there is no saving Christianity without it. If we would build high in our understanding of divine truth, we've got to dig deep into that area of God's word which teaches us how bad we are. Now, the second reason why such an understanding is necessary is that we'll never understand the system of Bible truth unless we face what the Bible teaches about sin. Now, the Bible deals with many truths that far transcend the ability of the human mind to understand. I can understand if my son comes to me with two apples in one hand and two in the other and he puts them on the table and says, Daddy, how many apples are there? I can take two or two and four and my mind can encompass that little mathematical proposition two plus two equals four.
Sin's Impact on Understanding Biblical Truth
And I can comprehend that. Now, the Bible deals with many truths that go far beyond in their breadth the ability of the human mind to encompass. My Bible teaches, as we're studying in our Sunday school catechetical instruction, that there is but one God, but that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. So we have one God in three and three in one.
Now, I can take those propositions and understand them, but I cannot understand how three can be one and one can be three. My little mind can't stretch out broad enough to encompass that. But I can understand what the Bible teaches about it.
Now, this is true of the Bible's faithfulness to itself and its consistency with itself. The Bible sets forth a system of truth in which one thought and doctrine is vitally related to another and this one to another and this to another and so on. Let me illustrate. Most of you have clothes on this morning that are made of material that was woven on some kind of a mechanical loom and then cut and sewed together.
So if you're walking home today and you should go buy a chair that has a lot of material, that has a little splinter sticking out and you catch a snag, as it pulls one thread out, you still have the whole fabric or the whole garment. It may not look quite as presentable and you might have to wear it just around the house instead of to a Sunday morning service, but you still have the whole fabric even though one of the strings has been pulled out or one of the threads. Now, if you have a sweater that has been knit of one continuous strand of yarn, one of your friends, one of your children should happen to get hold of that sweater and somehow get one of the stitches to pull loose and they continue to pull and pull and pull and pull and pull and pull you've got no garment left. The whole fabric is gone. Now the truth is a kind of fabric that has been sewn together so that you can pull out one thread of truth and still have the whole intact. No, no.
The truth of God is of one continuous thread into a fabric that one of the reasons to extract it from the whole, you know, what will happen is you'll have absolutely nothing left because the truth of God is vitally interrelated. Now this is true. Our Lord's teaching on the exceeding sinfulness of man. When people begin to pull away of the Bible teaching on the exceeding sinfulness of man and pull long enough, they will pull away the basic and foundational teaching of the Word of God. Everyone. I'm convinced in my own mind after some years of observation of what our problems in our own generation. I'm convinced that this is one of the most basic topics.
Orthodoxy and Christian churches the dropped Bible doctrine of man's sinfulness has been pulled at and pulled at until now there's a readiness even on the part of so-called evangelical Christians to relinquish truth after truth after sin that system of Bible truth set in the Scriptures unless we are willing to think as bad as the Lord says we are we need a divine Savior the Holy Spirit we just need to have God there as sort of a little buddy to nudge us in the direction we're already if we can choose the Lord and repent without some direct operation of the Holy Spirit upon us if we're not so bad as the Bible seems to say we are then we need direct operation of the Holy Spirit we just need to have a nice little climate where everything's made just right and man will sort of
fall in with the God then the two of them together will work out a salvation but if we take seriously what the Bible teaches about man's sinfulness what sin is done in dulling faculties of perception concerning God and to the devil of Christ you'll know I became a man and stood among us and lived you won't need to be convinced that you need a direct operation of the Holy Spirit upon your heart you'll know that if God never made the first move in turning it to himself you would have run headlong into the pit of hell with a bit in your mouth you'll know that you'll know that if God was the deciding factor you wouldn't have chosen him you'll know that when once you begin to take seriously what the Bible teaches about
your sinfulness you'll know that there's need for a direct operation of the Holy Spirit you'll know that you're kept only as the one who loved you and gave himself for you pleads with you and prays that you'll be kept and in answer to his prayer the Spirit who began with good work in you carries it on until the day of salvation you see all those basic truths that are set forth in that system of doctrine taught in the Bible rest down upon an honest acceptance of what that Bible teaches about our sinfulness and if we won't face that we'll have problems with every other aspect of the truth of God's word when I find people wanting to hedge and back off and say well God does 98% of it but we've got to do 2% I know something's wrong in their concept of sin I find people who want to object and say well God can't do this and God can't do this it wouldn't be right for God to do this or God to do that I know they've never seen what they are because once you begin to see what you are the only thing you know it's right for God to do is to damn them that's the only thing you're convinced
that God has a right to do is to damn them and if he does anything else to anybody he'll be all afraid and so the second reason why we must take seriously what the Bible teaches about man's evil nature is that we'll never understand the system of truth set forth in the scriptures until we do then the third reason and this is so vital and practical to us as a church this morning you visitors as well who come among us it's important that we accept at face value and regard seriously the words of Christ about man's sinfulness for the third reason follow me closely now it will be one of the great governing principles in our whole Christian experience individually and as a church let me illustrate did you find it hard to say this morning praise God from whom all blessings flow did you find it hard to sing that did you find it hard to let your spirit move out in supplication when we pray Holy Ghost with light divine shine upon this heart of mine you see our worship will rise no higher than our appreciation of the infinite
Sin's Impact on Worship, Praise, and Evangelism
gap that we reach between God holiness positivity and our sinfulness and influence when we take seriously what the Bible says about how bad we are and realize that this God has moved to us in grace why it's an easy thing to worship and to praise him is it not when you praise a God you feel sort of owed your salvation anyway I can't praise a man who's borrowed five dollars from me finally gets around to come and pay it back to me I don't praise him I just say thank you and did what was right if I had a debt of ten million dollars to that man and he came around and said I freely forgive I praise him to my dying day and if in the back of our minds we have this idea that I'm convinced many people have even in our fundamental churches that well I was sort of involved in something that somebody named Adam did way back hundreds of years ago and it really wasn't my fault anyway and so I don't need to get too concerned because God must agree with me because he said Jesus will die for everybody in the same way and offers out salvation anybody will take it when they get good and ready so I'm really not too concerned so God kind of owed me salvation since I had nothing to do with what happened in the garden when Adam sinned and I'm sort of
an unwilling victim of that then I just sort of think maybe God owed it to me to get me off the hook and send Jesus I believe that's the prevailing climate of many in our generation when I see that when God dealt with the whole human race when our first fathers sinned and in a way I cannot understand but the Bible states that by one man's sin entered into the world and all men came under condemnation of that sin and that God was right and just in passing sentence upon all humanity and that I have as it were put my amen to the sin of the first father by the multitudes of my own sins when I realize that I am a guilty rebel against God and his government and his rule and his rule and his rule and his laws the only thing I know I deserve is God's judgment and I can come on a Sunday morning conscious that the only reason I'm not in hell is that God in mercy and grace has moved out to me it's fairly easy to worship then isn't it fairly easy to worship then isn't it why is it we have so little real abandonment in our worship why so little of the glow of God upon our countenance could it be that we haven't taken seriously what the Bible says how about that we are could it be
this is the root of our failure in praise and make a tremendous difference in our evangelism this is what Mr. Dittmar was driving at this morning how bad are boys who come to Camp Tuscar when you say well if you go down to the slums why they'll be worse than the ones you get from North Colva no might not have quite so much civility and decency as far as manners but in the eye of God nice boys from North Colwell are no different from bad boys from the lower east side of New York why because every boy and every girl is a rebel against almighty God a sinner blind to the glory of God in Christ so blind that unless the spirit of God opens his or her eyes they will see absolutely nothing in Christ that will capture their hearts and bring them into that place where only one thing matters in life knowing Christ and doing his will they'll come right through our Sunday school and sit right through this church and sit under this ministry week after week and the world will have a greater glitter than the face of Christ they'll follow the glitter and the tensile of the world unless almighty
God performs a miracle that be just his glory and the glory as if we had someone sitting in this church this morning who had no optic nerves or whose optic nerves were dead and were stone blind if suddenly they should shout out in the middle of the service I see you Pastor Martin I see you I see you oh he struck a miracle beloved it's a miracle just as great braver yet than someone who's been able to hear about somebody called Jesus all his life somebody who hung on a cross somebody who went into a tomb somebody who came out of a tomb somebody who went back to heaven and suddenly they see a glowing in his face that captures the heart and that young person that teenager comes he says Pastor I want to tell you something's happened I've seen something in Christ that's caused me to gladly say with call Lord what wilt thou have me to do I want you to know Pastor I have no ambition in life but to know it could do his will to serve him no matter what it costs that's a miracle that's a miracle of some good psychological pleasure to get him to see glory in the face of Christ that captures his heart for time and eternity
that's a miracle when we believe that will that make a difference in how we evangelize it sure will it sure will that sends you down on your knees calling on God the only God to give sight to the blind then it gets you off your knees and on your feet to plead tenderly and earnestly with men to reason with them to seek to persuade them and then when you're done to shut them up to the only God who can do the miracle and then leave your pulpit go back on your face and call on the God who alone can give light you see all the gimmicks and gadgets and trappings of modern evangelism have a theological basis and that theological basis among other things is a dismal that's the view of how bad man is that's the basis of it it's not a matter of well one man feels at home having this kind of a method and another one has this kind of a method it's a matter of coming to the Bible and saying what does the Bible say about man is he blind is he deaf is he dead is he a rebel is God the only one who can open his eyes don't stop his ears
and subdue his will then I come reverently to the book and I say God I believe that now God what means have you chosen to accomplish that mighty work that miracle of salvation and we'll see that God will bring us back again and again to that two pronged simple method that he himself has ordained prayer and preaching whether that preaching is over a back fence to a neighbor whether it's getting a track whether it's sitting with a boy out on a rock at Camp Susquehanna it's communicating the message and that it's going down on one's knees calling upon God to make that message effective to the bringing of faith in repentance oh but that's so unglamorous yes it is but until almighty God rescinds the collection book that's the God ordained message and that's what God will own when he finds some people just plain foolish enough to mind that they do God's work and then when it's done he gets all the good certainly the man who stood and preached words on deaf ears can never pat himself on the back that people heard all he can do is look back on his face and say Lord thank you you opened up the deaf ears you opened up
the blind eye isn't that the full end of all that God does whether in evangelism or creation for of him and through him and unto him he holy forever so this has some tremendous practical implications and I'm convinced we'll not return to the climate of biblical evangelism praise or worship until we return to biblical concepts of sin if ye be evil I only got through the first point this morning that's as far as we're going to go but I want to ask you to do something this morning you've listened now I want to ask you to do something now trust you listen carefully you're here this morning you know you know whether or not the Holy Spirit has ever made real to you that by nature you were a dead blind rebel hell deserving sinner when God makes that real to you you know it you know it a person who stood out on Bloomfield Avenue thinking he was dressed in his Sunday best and some who showed him that it was only because of a twist in his mind they thought that he was actually standing there simply in his underwear or his pajamas he'll never forget
A Call to Self-Examination and Prayer
the experience came of it standing there thinking he was presentable to all who passed by and suddenly he realized I've been deluded I'm standing here making a fool of myself he wouldn't forget that experience and no man forgets the experience of thinking he stands before a holy God all right God shows him the only reason he thinks that is because he's blind he can't even rightly evaluate himself because his eyes are clouded by sin the Holy Spirit shows him that he stands before a holy God not only naked but full of putrefying sores and uncleanness with in and without you won't forget that my friend the Holy Spirit shows you that that's what you are for ye be evil has God shown you that that's what you are they should be evil has he if he hasn't I would ask you to do something before God will you pray that God will give you eyes to see you see yourself if he sees you you'll know nothing of saving Christianity until you do Christ came not to call the righteous to sinners isn't that what he said and then turn to those passages which God
has ordained to be his means of showing you what you are Romans chapter 3 Mark chapter 7 some of the passages that we'll look at the Lord will and next Lord say more and will you pray that God will show you what he knows you to be say I'm afraid to do that yes I know you know why the Bible has the answer it says men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil neither will they come to the light but my friend your eternal salvation depends on whether or not you're willing to come to light you reject light and refuse to come to light then there's no place for you but out of darkness for those of you who can say yes by the grace of God I know what it is to be stripped and shown to be what I really am and I fled to Christ alone for mercy and grace will you as a child of God pray that if you have any controversy with what the Lord says about how bad men are that he would dispose your heart to have that controversy done with will you pray as a Christian Lord you're my teacher as well as my Lord and my Savior and any place Lord where I've got a controversy with what you mean when you say if ye being evil
Lord I want you to show me that and I'm willing to make any adjustment in my thinking in my understanding in the light of your own precious now that's a fair enough thing to ask of you because without this understanding there's no saving Christianity without this understanding it's doubtful that we'll ever come to grips with that harmonious system of the truth of God so wonderfully set forth and so wonderfully set forth in the words we'll be like someone holding a bunch of yarn but we won't be holding a beautiful sweater you see the difference that's what some people got they've got a bunch of Bible verses hung together like just a big bunch of snarly yarn now thank God that's better than nothing that's better than nothing but if we're to see the truth in this beautiful interrelationship we've got to face honestly what God says about you exceeding sins and then we will never have that climate of worship and and praise and evangelism that somehow will seem at least remotely akin to the climate of the word of God unless we're having our mind speak in this truth uttered by our Lord well you say pastor aren't you supposed to preach Christ yet but I'm to preach him
as the Savior and he's never more precious than when he's embraced against the back of the ugliness of my own for Jesus said to whom little is forgiven he loveth me but to whom much is forgiven what he would you have your love for Jesus Christ be something more than a little bit of sentimental who you've got to be willing to face what the Bible says you are and the more you understand that the more you're going to realize all that he's done moving out to you in grace and the more you can make God grant that this will be our experience in the days ahead let us unite our hearts in prayer
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This verse, specifically the phrase "If ye then, being evil," is the textual hook for the entire sermon, serving as Christ's affirmation of humanity's inherent sinfulness.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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