Sermon on the Mount - Part 15 — Duane Troyer

Grace be with you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He rules the world with grace and truth. Very true. I really like the wording of that song. Well, let's stand and we'll pray and get started.

Our Father who art in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come and your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. We are thankful for all that you've done for us. Thank you for this opportunity to come together in your name and to worship you and to seek to know and understand your will better and we just pray Lord now as we look into your words as you would give us understanding and help us to draw closer to you and have a heart like you have and be conformed to your image.

Yours is the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. So, I just invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7 and we'll start going down the home stretch here of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 to 5.

Jesus’ Command Not to Judge Hypocritically

Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge you will be judged and by your standard of measure it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye and behold a log is in your own eye. You hypocrite. First take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

So what do you think? We should be able to breeze right through this one. I labored a lot about this subject and have over the years. This teaching was on my mind before I ever started this series. Because I find it not such an easy subject to understand and explain.

I have a lot of things I'd like to share with you. After I put together what I wanted to share I had to go through and try to weed some things out to not have this too long. But we'll dive in. This is perhaps one of the, this first verse.

Do not judge so that you will not be judged. Judge not, it says in the King James. It's perhaps one of the most misquoted verses. And it is a somewhat puzzling verse. It's become very popular especially in our day of extreme individualism.

Anytime someone wants to justify anything of their behavior they'll pull out this trump card and say judge not, that you be not judged. We get accused of judging. I think all preachers of truth will at some point or another be accused of judging.

Regardless of how gentle they are. And we ought not to just dismiss this accusation. But I don't think that always when one is accused of judging that he has done something wrong. This teaching means something.

We have no reasons whatsoever to take this teaching of Jesus any less serious or any less literal than any of Jesus' other teachings. It is in the Sermon on the Mount. It's in this constitution of laws and morals that Jesus has as the constitution for his new kingdom that he ushered in.

We've had, I think it's safe for me to say that we've had brothers or people leave us. Because they judged us as being too judgmental. I don't say that lightly. It's altogether possible that some of us are too judgmental.

In fact, I tend to think so. But the irony of this whole thing is that no one comes to such a conclusion without some judging. And we all do it. We are all, in some way, we are all judgmental. If you don't think so, then I just want you to think about how you feel about the person that you think is too judgmental.

But this is how it often goes. We're street preaching or something like that and someone says, You're judging us. You're not obeying Jesus because you're judging us. And it leaves you with like, well, what did you just get done doing?

Have you not pronounced some kind of judgment upon me? Have you not assessed me as something? People usually use this verse, when it's misquoted, it's usually used as meaning, Don't judge me. You have no business judging me.

But what Jesus is telling his little flock of followers here is, Take this upon yourself. Don't judge others. One of the things that makes this teaching complicated is that there are other places in the scripture that were instructed to judge.

Discernment and Righteous Judgment in the New Testament

So we have the passage in Corinthians where Paul tells us to judge what is within. You'll find it in 1 Corinthians 5 and on into 6 where he's asking, Is there not a wise man among you who can judge between brothers when there's an issue?

It wasn't just Paul. Jesus himself said that we should judge. In Luke 12, 57 he said, Yes, and why even of yourselves do you not judge what is right? In John 7, 24 he said, Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

And so we're left with this conundrum. How do we judge without judging? Or more realistically, how do we judge rightly without judging wrongly? The word judge has a, and this is part of what makes it a complicated subject.

It has a very, very broad meaning. The word judge can simply mean to form an opinion, to evaluate between two things. It can mean to govern. It can mean to decide between a contest. It can mean to pass a sentence on.

And it can mean to condemn. And the Greek word where this word judge comes from is, I believe it's pronounced krino. It seems to be equally broad in its definition. It gets translated in our English translations.

The translators have translated it sometimes to judge, but sometimes just to determine. Sometimes it's translated as to call into question. Sometimes it's translated as esteem, and sometimes it's translated as condemn.

It gets used in negative senses. It gets used in a positive sense. It gets used in neutral senses. For example, in Acts 15, where the elders and the church comes together to decide to decide what should be required of the Gentiles.

It says there in Acts 15 that after much dispute, James got up, and he gave his sentence or his judgment about the matter. The word is krino. He gave his opinion about the issue at hand. In Acts 16, there's this girl named Lydia, who the apostles came to, and she was the first convert in this area.

She says, if you have judged me faithful, come into my house. The word is krino. If you have judged me to be faithful, come in. This is a positive sense of the word. When you go to somewhere like 2 Thessalonians 2 .12, it says that they all might be damned who believe not the truth.

The word is krino. The word gets used very broadly. As we think about that, we try to get what Jesus is saying. Because we want to take this serious, we don't want to dismiss it because it might be a little tricky or complicated.

I think it's very safe for us to say and to conclude that Jesus is not forbidding us to discern between right and wrong. We've just been going through these teachings of Jesus and he's telling us to discern between right and wrong.

He's telling us to discern between what you have heard of old and what I say unto you. He didn't mean that we should not hold certain moral values and call the opposite immoral. I also don't think that he's saying that we should not ever discriminate against people.

As we're going to go into this next portion of the Sermon on the Mount, we'll find Jesus saying, Beware of false prophets. And by their fruits you shall know them. Examine that. And by their fruits decide whether this is someone to beware of or someone to take in.

The apostles tell us of certain kinds of people to not have much to do with or to put them out of the assembly. Neither is Jesus saying that when we discern a fault in someone that we should just look the other way and not attempt to help him see it.

This passage today in fact ends up with Jesus plainly telling us how we should come to that point where we can clearly see to help a brother pull a speck out of his eye. So these are the ways that we are to judge.

Those are the ways that I think what Jesus means when he says Judge rightly. Don't judge by appearance but judge righteous judgment. It's done with careful consideration. It's done with understanding.

A couple weeks ago when Micaiah was here we were sitting in our living room talking and I can't even remember the context but Micaiah said you know it's easy to judge and it's hard to understand. And that's just the way it is.

We can be quick and easy to make a judgment about something and it takes a long, long time for us, often a long time or a lot of deliberation to understand the situation. Right judgment is not done by outward appearance.

It's done with the help of the Spirit of God. It's done after some very serious self-examination. And here's the really important part. It's done for the purpose of saving the one that's lost. In John 3 .17 Jesus said this.

He said, For God did not send the Son into the world to judge it. It's the word again, krino. He did not send the Son into the world to judge it but that the world might through him be saved. So what do you think?

Did Jesus come into the world? If he was not sent here to judge the world did he come here and not discern between good and evil? Of course he did. Did he come here and not assess the state of affairs and have an opinion about it and proclaim it?

Yes, he did that. Jesus in fact was the only person to be here on the earth who was totally qualified to judge and make a perfect judgment and pronounce a sentence on somebody and it's precisely what he did not do.

He didn't come to condemn. He came to save. He doesn't destroy. He heals. He doesn't accuse. He entreats. And the apostle is not greater than his master. If Jesus wasn't sent to bring an accusing judgment upon others then certainly his followers haven't either.

The Accuser, Condemnation, and the Purpose of Mercy

Who is the accuser of the brethren? It's the devil. And I think this word as I look at what Jesus is trying to tell us not to do when he says judge it's very closely related to accusing. And the accuser of the brethren is the devil.

He is here to oppose us. Remember that story? There's a couple verses in Zechariah somewhere where maybe it's the prophet saying that he saw a man named Joshua coming before God and who was at his side?

It says the devil was at his side to oppose him. He was there to oppose him. Same thing when we see this in this heavenly realm happen with what happened about Job. It was the devil there they're moving around and he comes before God somehow and has an accusation against Job after God has something good to say about him.

He is the accuser of the brethren. So I made up this definition. I made up my own definition for the word judge. What I think I mean I want to leave that broad definition that gets used but this is my definition of what I think Jesus is telling us not to do.

To judge is to malign someone by bringing an accusation against them that deems them worth less than ourselves. And it's when we start looking at this teaching in light of Jesus' other teachings that the real meaning for this teaching starts coming together.

For example if we're angry with our brother we are judging him as worth less than ourselves. If we resist evil with evil we are judging ourselves as superior over the other person. If we don't forgive those who wrong us we judge them as unworthy of any favor from us.

If we're unwilling to suffer the wrongs of another we judge them without understanding how much the Lord has suffered for our wrongdoings. And if we judge others like that we are judging ourselves as greater than our master because our master didn't do those things.

One of the things that is really helpful or has been really helpful to me in understanding this passage is to look at the parallel passage in Luke 6 and I'll read a portion of it. Luke 6 has these very similar teachings that are in the Sermon on the Mount.

He starts in in verse 20 with, you know, blessed are the poor, woe to the rich. He talks about non-resistance. He talks about loving our enemies. All these very similar teachings and I'll start reading here in verse 35 and what you'll see is this teaching we're looking at today is just, it's mixed in with these other teachings that are all meant to be taken together as one, as understanding them to fit together.

Verse 35 he says, but love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and evil man.

Be merciful just as your father is merciful. Do not judge and you will not be judged but you will be pardoned and you will be pardoned. Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure pressed down shaken together and running over for by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.

And he also spoke a parable to them and said a blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit? A pupil is not above his teacher but everyone after he has been fully trained will be like his teacher.

Take out the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye. Or how can you say to your brother, brother let me take out the speck that is in your eye when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?

You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. You see how these are all mixed together? I mean not mixed together but the teaching is combined with Jesus' other teachings about not resisting evil about being merciful and not making this judgment upon something that we don't have we don't have the knowledge nor the righteousness to do.

Here in Luke 6 he adds the word condemn. Now condemn is related to the word judge but it has a harder meaning it means like sentence to death it means to conclude or to give a final verdict it means and this is one of the definitions that I found that I really thought defines it well to put into an unredeemable category.

When we condemn someone we are putting them into an unredeemable category. Jesus Jesus did not come to do that at all. That is what the devil is doing. So in John 8 there is this story where early one morning on the Mount of Olives Jesus was there and people started coming in and he started teaching and here the scribes and Pharisees bring this woman to him and they bring this woman and they say this woman has been caught in adultery in the very act and now Moses says we should stone this woman and Jesus bent over and he took his finger and he started writing some things in the dust there and they kept pressing him tell us what should happen with this woman and he straightened up and he said go ahead whichever one of you is without sin go ahead and pick up the first stones and start stoning and he bent back over and he starts writing and as time goes on it says one by one from the oldest to the least they walked out none of them picked up the stone and Jesus straightened up again and he looked at the woman and he said what happened with these men has no one condemned thee.

And she said no one. And he said neither do I condemn you go and sin no more. Jesus is saying neither do I malign you by bringing an accusation against you that deems you as worth less than me neither do I put you in an unredeemable category go and sin no more.

And the interesting thing is that there was one person standing there who would have had the right to stone her by Jesus' own words. There was a man standing there who was without sin and by his own words he would have had the right to pick up stones and start stoning this woman.

But that's not what he did. That's not what James wrote which I think is also very helpful in understanding how he understood the words of the Lord. So James in chapter 2 he starts in his chapter James says so much and so few words.

And sometimes it's really a blessing. Sometimes it's just hard to know where he's leaving off of one thing or which parts trail to another. But he ends it for you by talking about judging and not judging with partiality not having this one standard of measure for this man who is poor and another one for this man who is well to do.

And then as you get to the end of chapter 2 let's see. No it's not even the end. Just here in verse 8 of chapter 2 he says. If however you judge yourself you are doing well. But if you show partiality you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point he has become guilty of all. For he who said and I have a strong suspicion that James was possibly thinking about this encounter that Jesus had with this woman.

He who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery but you do commit murder you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

For judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy and mercy triumphs over judgment. If in that encounter that woman if the scribes and Pharisees would have stoned this woman because she was guilty of breaking the law because she was caught in the act of adultery they would have been guilty of murder.

Jesus has called us to a greater law a royal law a law of love and mercy. And James called it the law of liberty. And he says we should he says so speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

Our actions and our words should be so as if we realize that we're going to be judged by the law of liberty. And if you just flip a page or two back to James 4 in verse 11 and 12 he says do not speak against another brethren.

He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But a judge of it there is only one law giver and judge the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judge your neighbor.

So he says here do not speak against. I think if you're reading from a King James translation it probably says do not speak evil of your brother. And I think that's okay because this word being used here it's kind of connected to slander.

And yet and yet I think the real meaning is don't speak against which is really close to like an accusation. So he says don't don't bring this accusation against somebody. Or if you take my definition of the word do not malign someone by bringing an accusation against them that deems them as worth less than ourselves.

He who does this against a brother speaks against the law and brings a maligning accusation against the law. If we judge and accuse the law remember this is the law of liberty. If we if we accuse the law of liberty we are not doers of it.

We're condemning it. We're condemning that law. The law that that we're condemning we've broken because we consider ourselves the judge of our brother. If we were doing the law instead of judging it we'd be instrumental in saving this brother not in bringing not in putting him into some unredeemable category but to bring him out of an unredeemable category.

You see Jesus Jesus Jesus has been given all authority and he will come back someday and he will judge everything and he will set everything right. But the reason he's been given that the reason he's been given that authority is because he's he's proved himself as a savior.

He's proved himself as one who was willing to suffer who was willing to to take the whole brunt of evil that men could put on somebody. He was willing to absorb that all even unto death and into the grave and into Hades.

Why? Because he cared. He was more concerned he could have called ten legions of angels to spare him from all of that. But he was more concerned about saving us. And that's what we see in Romans chapter 1 and 2.

God’s Mercy and the Call to Repentance

So Romans chapter 1 I don't think there should be a chapter break here where Romans 2 starts by the way it starts in by saying therefore, remember what I told you last time about that. Ok, so in Romans chapter 1 Paul is writing about in verse 18 it says.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men the truth in unrighteousness. And verse 19 says because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them.

So Paul is talking is about ready to open up a subject of a whole bunch of evils. And he says the people know this. They know, within themselves they know that the wrath of God is knows the wrath of God about these things.

And and then in verse and even though they knew it they didn't honor him. He goes on to say. And he ends up by saying in verse 32 the last verse there and although they knew the ordinances of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death they not only do the same but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Paul's point here is that this this judgment of God on these kind of wickedness. It talks about homosexuality. It talks about unrighteousness, greed, evil envy, murder, strife, deceit all these things gossip, slanders, haters of God.

And he says though the people knew these things and that the wrath of God was upon them. Paul's point is that he doesn't the people know it's worthy of death. And yet God doesn't bring this immediate death upon it.

He has a desire that even these people could be redeemed. Because look what he goes on to say after he says all that in chapter 2 he says. Therefore you have no excuse every one of you who passes judgment for in that which you judge another you condemn yourselves who judge practice the same thing.

And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. Look Paul is not saying that we can't. That we shouldn't have enough of a moral compass to know that the wrath of God will be poured out on these things.

That's not what he's saying. Okay we should have that we should be able to recognize these things are wrong. And yet he goes on to say. But do you suppose this oh man when you pass judgment when you put these people in an unredeemable category when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself that you will escape the judgment of God.

Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance. The kindness of God leads you to repentance. In the next chapter we'll go on to say things like all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

None of us not a single one of us is not in need of the mercy of God. And if we see this and we do not extend this mercy to our brothers we will not receive it ourselves. And if we don't see it if we don't see the fact that we're in need of the mercy of God we are in no way like our brother.

We will make a miserable bad judgment on our brother if we do not recognize that we ourselves are in great great need of God's mercy. That's the point of what Jesus is saying here today. He's saying you you have big issues big ugly beams or logs in your eyes.

We've got some very serious personal evaluation to do before we qualify to evaluate those specs in our brother's eyes. And our natural tendency from the time we were born. Our natural tendency is to use a different standard of measure for others than we use for ourselves.

We judge others by what we see them do by what we see them what we see them do. And we judge ourselves by what we think that our motives are. So we do something and we do it wrong. We do something wrong but we didn't mean to do something wrong.

And somehow we justify our actions based on what we think. Our motive was. We see someone else do something wrong and we don't know their motive. And we size them up and we judge them by the behavior that we disagree with them.

That is our tendency. It happens on an individual level. It happens on group levels. We tend to do the same thing with those who are not of us. It's an age old problem. It dates way back to Adam who judged that the real fault there was on his wife and his wife judged that the real fault was on the serpent.

None of them neither Adam nor Eve intended to be a bad person. We become masters at making excuses of our own behaviors. It runs deep in our little children. I'm sure our parents have all seen it. We have an arrogance toward others and an ignorance toward ourselves.

And Jesus has come to turn this all upside down or right side up depending on which kingdom you stand. He came to totally reshuffle how we would evaluate ourselves and others. He's been as we've seen through this sermon that he's given.

He's been striking the axe at the root of the tree. And the deeper he strikes the more and more it comes into our personal lives. And he gets real personal and it comes really down to our hearts as he strikes that axe so deep and so personal.

Our motives that we thought were good need a rebirth. They need to be rethought and reconsidered. Further back here as Paul wrote in Romans in chapter 12. In verse 2 and 3 he says. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

This is where we get to the point where we realize what we think and why we would do things even that needs to be renewed the renewing of our minds so that you may prove what the will of God is and that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

For through grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think but to think so as to have sound judgment. He will not think too highly of himself and he will think with sound judgment.

Peter says it well when he says judgment begins in the house of God. So there is this Jesus. Either this happened or Jesus told this story. I can't remember right now where a Pharisee and a tax collector went to the temple to pray and the Pharisee had this prayer.

Lord I thank you that I'm not like other people that I'm not like this first maybe he said I fast twice a week he gave his credentials for being a right man. He says I thank you that I'm not like other people.

Like the, I'm not sure what. But he ends up saying and like this tax collector he judged that tax collector as worth less than himself. And in his arrogance he certainly felt that God would feel the same way.

It seemed like he was basically trying to call God's attention to notice this. There was no thought in his mind that God might not think that way. He just wanted God to notice that he is worth more than this tax collector.

God hates this critical spirit this spirit that strains at gnats in other people and somehow I don't know if it's altogether inevitable but it is the common thing that when you strain out the gnats in other people you will swallow camels.

I think it's in the prophet of Isaiah where God is or Isaiah is talking about these people who were doing wicked things but they were setting themselves apart and they were saying to these people you stay over there we're holier than you.

And God says I smoke in my nostrils all day long. We make God out to be like us. We end up creating him in our image. You know was there ever. I tried to think of this this morning. Was there ever a single incident which someone came to Jesus and wanted him to like judge a matter for them or to approve their assessment of something that Jesus agreed with them when they saw them.

I can't think of a single time we have the woman in adultery that the Pharisees had a perspective of Jesus had a different perspective. We have the time that the sons of thunder wanted to rain down fire upon these Samaritans and burn them all up and Jesus had a totally different perspective of it.

There was there was that time when the people suspected that someone was guilty of sin and Jesus had a different perspective of it. There was the time that Martha wanted Mary to help her serve and Jesus had a different perspective of it.

There was the time that John's disciples thought that Jesus' disciples should be fasting and Jesus had a different perspective of it. There was the time that the disciples considered the children to be too burdensome to come to Jesus when Martha anointed Jesus' feet with that costly spikenard and the disciples were indignant about it.

This was a waste. Jesus had a totally different perspective about it. There was that time when the laborers considered that they should be worth more because they worked longer than the others and Jesus had a different perspective about it.

And there was that time when Jesus expressed this was after the resurrection how his life from here out and how his death was going to be. And Peter looked around and he saw John and he said well how is it going to be for him.

And Jesus said that's none of your business you just come and follow me. I've met people who in my perspective reasoned and judged things with such hard logic and with such mathematical stringency that I was sure that that's not how God sees things.

And in my perspective reasoned with such poetic and flowery and fluid thinking that I'm sure that Jesus that God doesn't think that way. But of course I think I have the right balance. God made people different and our perspectives are affected by it.

And we are fools to think that we know the judgments of God in the end of Romans 12 there toward the end of Romans 12 there Paul says something like he's talking about not returning evil for evil. And he says take not your own vengeance for vengeance is mine saith the Lord I will repay.

And I think it's safe to interpret that to say do not judge someone as worthy of the wrath of God but leave room for God to do that. Our knowledge is so limited. Our vision is so in part and darkly. We never have all the details to why someone has done what he did.

Don't get me wrong. Sin is always sin no matter what the circumstances. But when God judges it it flows out of omniscience. He knows every detail. We never know the treacherous path the psychic past the heartaches and the foot sores and the complications to arrive to the place where we now look in his eyes.

And we think we can we think we can pull that out of his eye. But the Lord knows these things. He sees it clearly and someday he'll set it all straight. But for now he wants us to follow his example that he left for us when he was here.

Cyprian wrote he who shall judge is judged. He's talking about Jesus. He says he who shall judge is judged. And the word of God is led silently to the slaughter. Irenaeus wrote the Lord said judge not that you be not judged.

For with what judgment you shall judge you shall be judged. The meaning is not certainly that we should not find fault with sinners nor that we should consent to those who act wickedly but the dispensations of God inasmuch as he has himself made provisions that all things shall turn for good turn out for good in a way consistent with justice.

In other words this thing called judging as Irenaeus says not just to discern between good and evil and have opinions and moral compasses and so forth. But this thing called judging is something that we best leave to God.

This this thing called putting someone in this unredeemable category. That's not for us it is not for us to shut the door on someone. So I want to I want to talk about I want to look at a story in the Old Testament that I think is really really fitting to this subject.

David, Shimei, and the Opportunity for Repentance

It's in it's in 2 Samuel. It's in chapter 16 and it's David. David is going through a hard time. He's supposed to be king and there were still the sons of Benjamin were still upset that the kingdom went from Saul to David.