The Worlds Life Verse

We have an interesting thing in our culture, our evangelical culture, and it's called life verses.

People have life verses. How many people here have a life verse? This is my favorite verse. This is my life verse.

Some will say something like maybe 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. I don't think it's my life verse, but when you bury me, put that on my tombstone.

John MacArthur's life verse is 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18. Matter of fact, when he was here signing books in 1999,

I believe Mr. Scott Farah went to John and said, could you please sign the study Bible, give a little autograph, and by the way,

I have an odd request, and MacArthur said, well, what's that request? And he said, well, my pastor affectionately calls you

Big Dog behind your back, and would you please sign your

Bible, John Big Dog MacArthur, and then give your life verse. John looked up at Scott and then did it.

The world has its life verse. It has a verse that's replaced John 3 .16,

that's for sure. Whenever it needs like a gunslinger in the old days to quick get off the spot, to get underneath, out of someone's thumbprint, don't judge lest you be what?

Judged. That is the world's life verse. They love to throw that out.

Gay marriage, don't judge lest you be judged. You're a sinner, don't judge lest you be judged.

What does this passage say? What does Jesus mean when he said, judge not lest you be judged?

Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 7 and begin to find out today what

Jesus meant when he said, judge not lest you be judged. That's one of my favorite texts, and I think our problem congregation this morning will be this.

We're going to be so desirous to take this verse away from the world that we're not going to let the

Spirit of God apply it to our lives. We're going to say, you can't use that against us improperly, and that will be true.

But we may not be as fast to say, Lord, would you take this verse like a spotlight and shine it on me, and make sure you do your business in my heart because I want to act like a kingdom citizen.

I don't want to be harshly judgmental. I don't want to be some kind of censorious critic over everyone else.

So we'll do two things today. We'll take it away from the world's arsenal, but then we want the

Spirit of God to shine it on our hearts so we're different. I don't know if you like to be hypercritical or judgmental, but I don't like it.

And certainly in the kingdom of God, Jesus comes and says there's a righteousness that needs to be lived out, and it has nothing to do with judgmentalism.

And so we're in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where here

Matthew begins to tell us about Jesus the King. The King has arrived, and the

King says, this is how you live in my kingdom. Chapter five, don't pay attention to the hypocrites, what they say or what they do, but instead follow what

God says. The outline this morning will be simple.

I'm going to give you a series of fact or fiction statements. It's going to be your job to figure out if my statement is fact or fiction, true or false.

And by using this fact or fiction outline, I will teach you the passage, its context, and what

God wants you to learn. Matthew chapter seven, verses one through six will be our passage, and we'll probably finish it up not this week, but next week.

We want to understand what the text really says and really means, and then we want to have a desire to say,

God, change me. And again, I'll say it one more time for emphasis. Too many of us were going to say,

I don't want the world to take this verse, judge not lest you be judged. And I want to take this verse back for the kingdom.

That's good, but that's only step A. I want us also to say, this truth needs to bore its truth into my heart.

Some of you know, a couple of weeks ago, I was working on an old generator that I received as a gift for the electrical outage.

Thank you. Thank you, Peter. That was good. Judge not lest you be judged.

And I needed to put some wheels on it because it was too heavy, and it was kind of on some steel areas, and I had the wrong drill bit and the wrong drill, and I'm just trying to do it kind of, you know, my father would be saying, get your goggles on, get the right drill bit, son, go to the store, get the steel drill bit, but I just had to get it done.

It starts getting darker. I'm holding the wheels like this and drilling, kind of pushing harder and harder, and I'm drilling like this.

The drill bit breaks, flies off, and the drill bit that's still in the chuck, while I still have my finger on the trigger, drills all the way through my thumb in this side and out that side.

And it was hot. It was like shrapnel. The good news, it was like cauterizing all the blood, I thought, until I looked at it, and there's this blood everywhere.

And I just thought, it's time to go to the ER, get your driver's license, and off you go. And I thought, you know, you don't forget that.

You don't forget that. Ray emailed me and said, you know, here's a certain ministry,

Mike, thumbs up or thumbs down. So I was telling him, I'm in the, what do you mean, thumbs up or thumbs down? I've got my thumb bored off.

Then you go home and look in the chuck, and what do you see? That's another story. To use the analogy and to make it complete, if it wasn't for the fact of justification by faith alone,

Martin Lloyd -Jones says, this text obliterates the Christian. There's no way out.

It pushes you up against a corner and you think, I can't live like that. I can't pray like Jesus wants me to pray in chapter six, and I can't be less judgmental than I am.

I'm sinful. I'm fallen. And I critique people. I judge people. Thankfully, we have

Christ Jesus and his righteousness, and we are declared perfect in God's eyes as Christians, not based on our obedience to this passage.

But since we are made righteous and counted righteous by Christ's perfect work, then we want to live this truth out.

And so the only way we can approach this passage is by grace. God, give me the grace to act in such a way that from the heart

I obey your son. Factor fiction, number one. Whereas chapter six focused on the fatherhood of God, chapter seven highlights

God as judge. Factor fiction, number one. Chapter six seems to highlight the fatherhood of God, whereas chapter seven highlights

God as judge. What would you say? Factor fiction. Say it out loud. Fact.

It is a fact. Whereas chapter six talks about father by name, you'll see it more implied in chapter seven,

God as judge. Chapter six, if you just do a little eyesight scan, scanning the middle of your verses, you can find father over and over and over.

And remember, it was a new concept for the Jews and the Gentiles to think of God as father.

You've got mother as a very pagan idea back in those days, mother's birth, mother earth.

And here we have God as father. God creates out of nothing. And we have

God placed up against the hypocrites, and the hypocrites live like they have no father.

They live like they're orphaned. And here, Jesus, the God man says, live in the light of God as father.

That's pretty much chapter six. Whether you give, fast, pray, act like you have a father, because if you're a

Christian, you do. And you act like you're dependent. You act like you trust him. You act like you love him.

You obey him. But now moving to chapter seven, although God isn't called judge by name, everything about this chapter speaks of God as judge.

And if God is judged, we certainly are not the judge. We aren't to judge because there's only one judge, chapter seven, one to five.

There's a judgment that the judge asks us to do when it comes to false teachers. We are judged by Christ's words in verses 24 and following.

Listen to Sinclair Ferguson. He says this, quote, chapter six emphasizes the fatherhood of God and the freedom the knowledge of it gives us.

Chapter seven emphasizes the judgment of God and the impact this makes on the way we live.

God is father. Oh, we're dependent on you, father, and we love you and we want to obey you. Chapter seven, if God is judge, it will change the way you live.

It will increase your holy living. Not that God will judge you to eternal hell if you're a Christian. Sins have already been paid for.

But just living in light of God as father, we can't forget that God is also judge.

Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Peter 1. Keep your finger in Matthew 6. Just a quick deviation to show you we have to keep these two truths that sometimes seem full of tension, we have to keep them together.

1 Peter 1, a marvelous passage that reminds us that God is more than a close father.

And we need to remember who this God is. 1

Peter 1 has been talking in verse 15 about this holy God.

Call him the holy one, Peter. He says, I want you to be holy yourselves in all your behavior.

Verse 16 of 1 Peter 1, you shall be holy for I am holy. And then almost an incongruous verse.

It almost doesn't seem to make sense, but of course it does because God isn't father alone. Verse 17, if you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear.

You say God's my father, yes, but live in this reverence and awe and righteous fear of God.

Don't just say he's my dad, but he's your father and he's also the king of the universe.

So that's what he's saying. And back to Matthew chapter 7, God the father is a loving father, but he's also a righteous judge and live on this world,

Christian, like there's a judge that you'll be held accountable to, maybe not for sins, but for rewards.

That's for sure. Factor fiction number one, chapter seven highlights God as judge.

Factor fiction number two, Christians can go so overboard with righteous living that they can fall into sinful judgmentalism.

Factor fiction number two, Christians can go overboard with righteous living and slip into sinful judgmentalism.

Factor fiction, it's a fact. They might not all be facts, but you got to pay attention. Pendulums, sometimes we can go overboard.

It happens in history all the time. Show me a culture of Christianity where it's hyper -intellectualism, the next generation or two of people will swing over to mysticism, subjectivism, charismatic movement.

Show me a highly feeling -oriented culture of evangelicals, the next generation is going to swing back this way.

Now for context, think about this. There's a kingdom where righteousness has to be fleshed out.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 20, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you can't even, to use

John's words, see the kingdom. When we're now in the kingdom, not by our own goodness, not by our own righteousness, but now when we're in the kingdom, if we're not careful, we're going to look at other people who are around and say, you know what, we're in, we're here, we've done this, and we've sinfully judged them, and Jesus is going to say, don't do that.

When there's a demand for perfection, you will see a breeding ground for judgmentalism,

D .A. Carson says. Put yourself in the pressure cooker of living for this holy

God, the judge, and you're going to start looking at other people who don't seem to measure up, and you're going to say sinful things.

Look at the passage. Let's just read it to get our context. Like most things in the

Bible, if we have a problem, the problem is solved by the little phrase, keep reading.

Do not judge, Matthew 7 .1, 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 and do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

How can you say to your brother, let me take that speck out of your eye? And behold, the log is in your eye.

You hypocrite, first take out the log of your own eye, and then you will clearly see to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

We as human beings, fallen and finite, have the capacity to be self -deceived.

Would you believe that? We trick ourselves and we start looking at people in ways that we ought not to.

Jesus is not saying, be blind to everybody else. He's saying this, don't forget as you receive mercy, be merciful to everybody else.

You don't receive mercy and then exact justice. I can think of parables that talk about that.

Pritchard said, you lose your temper, I have righteous anger. You're a jerk,

I'm having a bad day. You have a critical spirit, I bluntly tell the truth.

You gossip, I share prayer requests. You curse and swear,

I let off steam. You're pushy, I'm goal -oriented. You're greedy,

I'm simply taking care of business. And the last one, he kind of gives a little more humor. You're a hypochondriac, but I'm really sick.

In this passage, you can see Jesus explicitly say, we have it in us to swing the pendulum too far the other way.

If biblical truth is at 6 p .m. on the clock, and we were far from 6 p .m.

as unbelievers living unrighteous lives, when we get saved, God brings us back to 6 o 'clock, but our own flesh and our own sinfulness can swing us too far.

And so, Jesus is basically saying, don't forget, you can be tricked, you can fall into this error. I can fall into this error.

Fact or fiction is fact. We can slip into sinful judgmentalism even as Christians.

Number three, fact or fiction number three. And again, I'm taking an odd outline today just for the sake of teaching so we can understand this passage in its context.

Fact or fiction number three, Christians can often be influenced by the culture.

Well, that's obvious, that's a fact. We can be influenced and misled by the culture.

Here's what I mean. We'll get to the spiritual in just a moment. We live in a world that is full of art critics, social critics, food critics, movie critics, literary critics, and probably critic critics.

Find a blog, critics, critics, blog spot. They influence us not to analyze but to be sinfully judgmental.

Now, let's think about New Testament times. You live in a day and age where the leaders, the leaders were hypocrites.

Translation, Pharisees, what did Jesus often say to them? Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees.

And then what did he call them? Apposition, Pharisee. No, hypocrite.

Jesus is saying, beloved, you are going to be influenced by the religious culture that runs around and says, we'll do it on the outside but not on the inside.

You notice even in verse 5, he says, you hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye.

This is exactly the attitude that the Pharisees were manifesting, one of hypocrisy. It's like the

Pharisee in Luke 11 that stood and was praying to himself, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer.

So, so far, what I'm trying to do is to let you see the context from far away before we look at the minutiae to say,

I can be influenced by the culture. I can be hypercritical. I can judge other people with a judgment

I don't want to have placed on myself. Now, let's really come to the text. That's all kind of context figuring out where we are.

Now, we come to the text, but we'll call it Factor Fiction number 4. There's no difference between judgment and judgmentalism.

There's no difference between judging and judgmentalism. Factor Fiction. Fiction, there is a difference between judging someone and being judgmental.

Now, let's find out with this passage. Just look at the first three words, Matthew 7 .1, do not judge.

Oh, I guess there goes all the opportunities for those of you who are lawyers who would like to be a magistrate someday.

Don't judge. Can't be a judge anymore because Jesus said, don't judge.

Is that what he's saying? Don't judge. You get put on a jury. Sorry, it's going to have to...

I can't judge. Can't decide. Here's the problem.

The problem is context determines the meaning of a word. And this word can mean to discern, to judge, to examine, or it can mean to be judgmental.

So the context has to give us the meaning. And by the way, the word in Greek is where we get our word critic.

Do not be a critic. What does he not mean?

He doesn't mean put your head in the proverbial sand. Look at chapter 7, verse 6.

He's not saying don't discern. Obviously, verse 6, don't give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine.

I've got to figure out what a dog is and what a hog is or I can't discern, can I? I must discern.

I must use my mind. How about verse 15? It can't mean don't judge because he says in verse 15 of the same chapter, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but are inwardly ravenous wolves.

They look like a teacher of the Bible, but they're not. How do I know? I don't know. Judge not lest you be judged.

He's not talking about that. It must be judgmentalism. Look in verse 18, excuse me, chapter 18 of Matthew.

I guess we can't do church discipline anymore because how could we ever judge if a person was ready to go to the next step?

Is that what he's saying? Obviously not. He's not saying you can't discern. First Thessalonians 5 says we are commanded to discern.

But in the context of Matthew 7, he's saying don't be sinfully, self -righteously judgmental.

Matthew 18, 15, if your brother sins against you, I don't know if it's a sin or not because it's judge not lest you be judged.

Go and show him his fault. What fault? I can't determine if it's a fault or not a fault because I can't look. Of course, this is just ludicrous.

If he listens to you, you've won the brother. How about Matthew chapter 23? Even in the book of Matthew, Jesus goes on to say many times you have to use good judgment.

But he doesn't say be judgmental, sinfully. Matthew chapter 23 verses 25 and 28.

Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. Here's what they do. I could read all kinds of verses that Jesus basically says don't be judgmental.

But here he's saying judge. Let me show you the crown of all these judgment verses.

John chapter 7. We'll skip over Matthew 23. That's for another day.

John chapter 7. Let me show you a verse where Jesus says you are to judge.

It's found, yes, in Matthew 7, but now we're going to John 7. There is a righteous kind of judgment that each and every person in this congregation must use.

You have to be a judge. You may not be the jury. You may not be the executioner.

But you need to be a proper discerner or an examiner. John chapter 7 verse 19.

Did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you carries out the law? Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answered.

Can you imagine John 7 20? You have a demon who seeks to kill you.

Jesus answered, I did one deed and you all marvel. For this reason, Moses has given you circumcision.

Not because it's from Moses, but from the fathers. And on the Sabbath, you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the

Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the

Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but what? Judge with righteous judgment.

Are you to judge with righteous judgment? Someone says, judge not lest you be judged. I think our new slogan should be, judge with righteous judgment.

Maybe you can change your email signatures and put that on there. John 7 24.

Every time you hit reply, it just says, judge with righteous judgment. Back to Matthew chapter 7.

Jesus doesn't want his kingdom disciples to be judgmental and sinfully self -righteous.

That's all he's saying. No rash judgmentalism, no unlovely judgmentalism, no uncharitable judgmentalism.

He's basically saying this. Remember when you were an unbeliever, how did you act?

I acted judgmentally. I had one standard for others and another standard for moi.

Sometimes laughing comes in the strangest places. Don't act like you did when you were unconverted.

Don't act like you did when you were not a kingdom citizen. You aren't what you used to be. You used to kind of be a motive reader and interpret the hearts and intentions of other people, but we don't do that now.

This verse in Matthew chapter 7 cannot mean do not discern. The Bereans were commended for their discernment.

Fact or fiction number five as we begin to dissect this truth. Fact or fiction number five, acting like God is normal and natural for the

Christian. I guess if you said it's normal for sinners to act that way, but what

I'm after is this. It is wrong for Christians to act like God.

We have an erroneous view of God when we play God and look what Jesus says in chapter 7, verse 1 and 2.

Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged by the

Father, of course, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

There is a higher judge when you start to look at people and have sinful judgmentalism.

This is kind of a wonderful little proverb most people think. Very, very similar to Matthew chapter 6, verse 14.

Remember? Look back at chapter 6, verse 14. If you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly

Father will also forgive you. If you do not forgive, verse 15, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

Jesus doesn't say in chapter 6, you know, your forgiveness is based on if you forgive others. Your forgiveness is based on something besides grace.

You forgive others, then I'll forgive you. Jesus is not saying that. Jesus is saying this, forgiven people forgive, yes?

People that have received mercy, chapter 5, like to give mercy. People that have been given grace and mercy at the expense of someone else should no longer be judgmental.

They should be righteous in their discerning. That's all he's saying. Or else you're going to be judged by God.

One rabbi said, do not assume the place of God by deciding you have the right to stand in judgment over all.

Do not do it. I say do not do it in order to avoid being called to account by God, whose place you assert.

True or false? Judgment is God's prerogative alone. God says, do this.

You're going to be judged. If you walk around, let's see if I can give a good illustration. Have you ever seen those vanity mirrors that have like a 12X on them?

We were talking about jeweler's loops last week. There's a vanity mirror and it's got like a 12X on this side and you flip it over and it's got kind of a 6X on this side or something like that.

And if you push a button, sometimes there's a little brim around there and it's got the light. And you look at your face and you go, man,

I'm glad she said I do 20 years ago, wow. So you run around and you look at everybody through this 12X aluminum thing and that's how you judge.

Every little pockmark on the skin, every little skewed hair, I see that. But then for you, you turn it off, smash the thing and go out and try to look at some ripple in the brook and go, that's how

I judge myself. You look at somebody and you say, oh, they've got an earring on.

It's a guy and he's got an earring on. You've got one of those big mouth things that they put in, the guy's got an earring.

And you're laughing and I'm glad because in the next verse, we're going to see Jesus with probably the most humorous thing that he's ever said that's recorded in scripture.

If we didn't do this, why would he devote these five verses to it? We do it.

It's natural. It shouldn't be supernatural. It's not the fruit of the spirit, but it's still fruit of that fallen, sinful hangover that we have that we just judge.

Somebody says something, does something. I mean, we're just quick to hold up those cards, 8, 10, 12. No fallen creature is qualified to judge the heart of anyone else.

We impute motives falsely. We pretend that we can read people's hearts wrongly.

Turn with me to James 4 and let's focus for a little while on the idea that there's only one judge and we don't want to be judged by God while we're judging and being judgmental towards someone else.

We can't say, oh, by the way, I didn't know the rules. Of course we know the rules. We're acting like a judge with sinful, unrighteous judgment.

This passage here in James, I have to imagine Jesus teaching

James, his half brother, this sermon on the mount. These ideas found in Matthew chapter 7.

This just kind of lays it low. This is, you know, we're all living as high grass that hasn't been cut all summer.

Here comes the mower. It just mows it down. We need this. Out of God's love and kindness, he doesn't want us to live like we used to live.

James chapter 4, you can see the judgmentalism come through. You can see the usurping of God as the ultimate judge in here and we want to run from that.

He says in chapter 4 verse 11, do not speak against one another.

Literally, don't speak down. Stop it. It's an imperative. This kind of sinful judgmentalism that manifests itself with speech, any kind of speaking against a person, even if it's true, but it comes from harshness and self -righteousness and judgmentalism that's sinful, don't.

It could be an accusation. It could be the repetition of needless details. It could be the talking of real faults, defamation, judgmentalism.

Don't do it. One man called it carping criticism, putting people down.

I call it spiritual Don Rickles, bulldozing other people down with our words because we're judging them with a self -righteous way, acting like God.

And he says, don't do it for four reasons. Number one, your brothers, you're in the same family. Verse 11, do not speak against one another.

Brethren, don't you see it's inconsistent? It's like water and oil, judgmentalism towards your family.

Brother, brother, brother, three times. You see it in that verse? Brethren, brother, brother.

Don't, you don't do that with your family. Closer than familiar family. Christians, you also don't do this kind of judgmentalism fault -finding because it goes on to say in verse 11, you're judging the law itself.

Look at that. Look at it. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law.

If you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. This royal law.

You say, you know, when I talk about somebody kind of in a judgmental way, it's not that big a deal.

No big deal. Sticks and stones. One man said, we might think that to speak evil of our neighbor is not a very serious sin, but scripture would say that it's one of the worst of all because it is a breach of God's royal law and an infringement of the rights of God.

I don't care about your law, God. I'll judge anyway because I'm the judge, God. I'm your judge.

You can imagine as a bird just kind of hops to the highest perch for safety, just kind of hopping up over God in our mind saying, here's your law,

God. It's a royal law. I'm to love my neighbors myself. I'm to speak well of people and I'm going to just hop over you.

Who are you, God? And then we aren't doers of the law, we're judges of the law.

He goes on to say also, don't be so sinfully judgmental, fault -finding, speaking evil because why?

Verse 12, God himself gives the law. He reiterates it. There is only one law giver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.

Can you save people? Can you destroy people? Not in the way God can. I have a question for all the people in the congregation.

Certainly, I'm under this as well, but I have a question for you. When did you give the law at Mount Sinai?

Well, I dreamt about it maybe. God who can enforce the law, it's proven that he can enforce the law because he can save and he can destroy.

And then he says, and this is the one that's, oh, don't be a sinful fault -finder and someone who speaks evil against other people, especially

Christians, sinfully judgmental because we're not capable to judge. Look at verse 12. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

What's the answer? What's the implication? I'm nobody.

I can't judge. Oh, yeah, but you don't know who I am. You don't know how much is in my bank account.

You don't know who my relatives are. You don't know my position with work. No. We cannot see the hearts of other people.

We cannot look at people and judge what's in their heart. We can't even hear what they say necessarily and judge what's in their heart.

We have to say, with the measure of judgment that God has given me, I give to other people. 1884, man died, and the parents wanted to establish a memorial fund.

So they went to Charles Elliott, Harvard University president. They were plain people, soft -spoken.

We'd like to give some money for our son for a scholarship, maybe some kind of memorial. Oh, I think that might be good.

No, you know what? Maybe something more substantial than that. Maybe we're thinking perhaps you could build a building for him and his name.

He said, no, too expensive. And they were so offended that they left.

Well, next year, Elliott, from Harvard University, learned that this plain pair had gone elsewhere to establish a $26 million memorial fund named

Leland Stanford Junior University, today known as Stanford. You can't see what's inside of someone.

You can't know. We can't play God. Back to Matthew chapter 7.

Back to Matthew chapter 7. Fact or fiction? This one's going to have to be quick. I might get myself in trouble here, but that's why some of you came.

Just kidding, just kidding. What incendiary thing is going to be said today?

Someone said to me before the service, true story. We hope you're really enthusiastic today and energetic because we're really, really tired from yesterday.

You know what I wanted to say? I hope you're really enthusiastic because I'm really tired from yesterday.

Fact or fiction number 6, what goes around comes around. If you say fact, you're thinking the way

I'm thinking. I'm not thinking karma. I'm not thinking about deeds actively shaping past, present, and future experiences in some kind of Hindu way.

I'm just saying one of the reasons why we ought not to judge, certainly because God will judge us, 2

Corinthians 5 judgment. But also, it's just the way other people treat you. And here's what

I mean. Look at verse 2, for in the way you judge, you'll be judged. Again, the focus there is

God, the divine passive God judging. And by your standard of measure, it would be measured to you. But I think a wonderful application, along with many commentators who think this as well, when you are a judgmental person, if anybody wants to hang out with you, they're probably going to be judgmental anyway.

You reap what you sow. When you're this kind of person, not many want to be around you, but those that do, they'll be very judgmental towards you.

It's true when the man said, for some reason, it's easier to jump to negative conclusions about people than to assume the best about them.

We think we're superior and then others start doing the same thing. Thomas Adams says, many men are like barbers.

They trim all men but themselves. Number seven, we've got to speed up.

Self -love blinds, fact or fiction? And the answer is fact. Look at Matthew 7, verses 3, 4, and 5.

This is not slapstick. This is not Laurel and Hardy. But it is possibly the funniest thing that Jesus ever said.

It's supposed to be funny. It's supposed to be humorous. I don't know if anybody guffawed or cackled.

We've read it so many times, we don't really get it. But you can imagine reading this the first time.

Jesus is walking through this and you read. I'll read it again. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye?

Do not notice the steel girder that's in your eye. Amplified version.

How can you say to your brother? Notice brother. How can you say to your brother?

And behold, the log is in your own eye. And then it doesn't turn so funny.

You hypocrite. First take out the log of your own eye and then you will clearly see to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

What a wonderful illustration from not just the son of a carpenter, but according to Mark chapter 6, the carpenter.

Jesus was a carpenter. You did what your dad did. He was a son of a carpenter. And then Mark says that he was a carpenter.

And he uses a carpenter illustration. John Makarowski, when he comes to Iwana, he uses plumbing illustrations.

That's odd. No, it's just normal, especially if you know John. No, that's not what

I meant. Right here, it's his trade. Jesus' trade was wood, carpentry.

And here he talks about small minuscule things like a speck of sawdust, something very small, and then something large, some kind of girder.

I don't know if you can see those things that go up to that fan right there. They're all, they've got, what do they have over it now?

Sheet rock is over them. I think Charlie's been on top of that, by the way. I was glad it was after he was saved versus before he was saved.

If you're going to do dangerous things, make sure you're regenerate. Those girders.

That was actually a wrong statement. Because if you are elect but not saved, the world cannot do anything to you before God will save you in his perfect time.

Every unregenerate elect stays alive long enough to receive the gospel of Christ and to have the spirit of God open their eyes.

Aren't you glad? He will get his men and women. Back to the point.

What is the point? Those kind of big girders will be our illustration for today.

Not just some little four by four, two by four, something like that. But in the language of Jesus, he's using small and large.

And he says, what? Very colorfully, he gives this example. And I think probably right away these guys are thinking about David, Bathsheba, Uriah, little lambs.

We might have to wait until next week. Don't look at the speck. Let's just analyze this for a minute. Speck could mean the

Greek word carphas, a little speck of sawdust, kind of something maybe light or like a little piece of grain or the stuff that's on the outside of grain.

Not as small as a piece of dust, but some dried little wood, dried little splinter. Enough that it gets in there.

You could notice it if it's in the other person's eye. And then he says, why do you look at the speck that's in your brother's eyes, but do not...

There's a different word. Do you see it? Notice. You don't look at the speck that's in your own eye, but instead you notice the log.

Instead of kind of doing it the other way around, you do it this way. The word notice means to look carefully, cautiously, observantly.

Your mind is locked in to try to figure it out. Why are you having these verbs switched around?

And there's this plank or this log or this beam, square timber in your own eye. I mean, really, if you think about how this kind of probably is going to make it walk on all fours, but I've been in many operating rooms where they do a surgery on people's eyes.

I used to sell a little machine and it would cauterize part of the eye and it was for cataracts.

And so it's very interesting to see the eye doctor. I don't know why people let people do things to their eyes, but I guess some do.

I won't mention any names. But the person's down there, their eyes are out like this.

And then the doctor comes on, he's got this thing over his head and the nurse comes over and puts down these big kind of glasses and things like that.

And you just kind of watch and you think, he's poking things in their eyes. What would you think if you walked in the operating room and I just walk in, and all of a sudden you watch the doctor get ready to go up to the patient who's laying there, and here he's got this kind of big girder, this big kind of steel girder in his eye and he's trying to figure out how to do that.

And you're like, excuse me, doctor, I'd like to talk to you about my new cautery machine that seems to really speed up performance.

And he's kind of looking around and you're going, this is just ludicrous. This is stupid. This is insane.

Nobody walks around and says, you know, it's time for the little speck ectomy here while I've got the girder.

I want you to laugh. I'm just trying to figure out how to make you laugh because it's stupid. It's ludicrous.

And here we say to ourselves, we have our own sin. We should be judging people with God's judgment instead of wandering around looking for specks.

Here's what I can say. What we need at this church is another pastor, full -time ministering. We'd love to have the funds for that.

But what we don't need at this church are associate speck ministers. We don't need to kind of have some youth speck minister.

And their job is to go around with two different sets of standards, one that they like and another that they use for other people, examining all these things.

This is like some bad B Godzilla movie, really. How can you say it's incredulous that you can say, take that speck out of your eye.

Oh, that person is unfit to do that. And behold, the log is in your own eye. Something worse than a bad ophthalmologist, and that's a blind ophthalmologist.

And with that girder there, that person is blind. You hypocrite, Jesus says, and I think all the smiles stop right there when he's talking to the people.

First, take out the log that's in your own eye. And then with gracious, righteous, non -self -judgmentalism, judge the other person, critique them righteously, judge them thoughtfully according to the

Bible, and then help them deal with their sin. You can't say this means never to judge someone else because Jesus says, don't judge sinfully, but after you've taken care of yourself, then judge, doesn't he?

Then go and do it. Then take the speck out of your brother's eye. What's triage?

You know what triage is, don't you? You have all kinds of bodies in some kind of war or an emergency, and you go through and you prioritize the patients.

These aren't going to make it. We'll just kind of comfort them. These will probably make it if they get attention right now.

And you just kind of categorize it. These people will make it even if we don't touch them. And you go for the ones that you can save. This is basically

Jesus with spiritual triage. You prioritize and you say, first, it's me, then it's the other people.

Hypocrites say, I'm very concerned about you, but they're pretending that, they're feigning that.

First, amend your own faults, get the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see straightly.

Hendrickson said, who is this would -be eye doctor? Answer, he has a name,

Dr. Hypocrite. Don't we need to walk around saying, there but for the grace of God go

I? Absolutely. Fault -finding is not a spiritual gift in this church.

Our hearts are deceitful, desperately wicked. And Jesus says, with the judgment that you've received, with the kindness and goodness and grace that I've given you, you give to other people.

One man called fault -finding as the venom of the soul. This week

I found out what thing in the universe sees the best, created thing. Great horned owls have the best eyesight in the world.

I don't know how they determine these things, but I'll leave that for them. If you were a great horned owl, you could read every single word of a piece of paper 50 yards away in the dark.

We don't want to have great horned owl vision for other people. We want to look at ourselves first.

And then when they're caught in sin and we need to help, it's Galatians chapter 6. If anyone's caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual, you who are already dealt with your own sin and take your own girder out of your own eye, then you restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

Each one look into yourself so that you too will not be tempted. This is a hard saying.

I like to criticize. You like to criticize. I am judgmental. You are judgmental.

So Jesus comes along and says, but not in my kingdom. You've been freed from that. You have the power of the spirit of God not to do that.

I mean, what we want to be careful of even in our own church, well, these people over here, they don't do what

I do. These people over here think, well, let's just pick a topic. When it comes to birth control, they believe in the sovereignty of God.

Well, I don't agree with that, so we're going to somehow impose some standards. It can happen with other things.

It could happen with homeschooling, public schooling, private schooling, couldn't it? Friends, I have a rule here, and here's the rule.

Everybody has to get along. Everybody has to get along. And please don't say, well,

I went to public school and I turned out fine, because that doesn't matter. You went to public school, but you turned out fine because God's grace saved you.

And also, on the other hand, don't say, Jesus was a homeschooler, because I'm going to slap you silly if you say something like that with that girder up there.

If you and your house want to do something, you do it, and we don't sit over here and go, look at them.

Wow, what are their motives? I wonder what they're doing. That girl back there in the nursery, she feeds her kid every time it cries.

That person over there is a Democrat. What do you mean?

Boo! Who in Massachusetts isn't a Democrat? I can tell this is going nowhere fast, so turn with me to Romans chapter 14, quickly.

Romans 14. Instead of being judgmental, let's think about the positive before we get to the dogs and hogs verse next week.

Romans chapter 14, it talks about accepting. Instead of being judging congregation, now we're stepping out of Matthew 7's box, and I'm putting you in Romans 14 box.

We are to accept other sinners. Some are more mature than you, some are less mature, but we love one another.

We have been loved while we were sinners, now let's love other saints. Instead of being judgmental and cynical and critical all the time, and they do this and they do that, and I can't believe they're using that long distance provider,

I can't believe they have satellite TV, I can't believe they've seen an R -rated movie,

I can't believe they don't do anything on Sunday, the Lord's Day, except sit around and indulge in the sin of gluttony. I just can't believe they do all those things.

Oh, by the way, but if anybody doesn't come to the campfire tonight, we're all going to sit around and judge all of you who have not.

They're not very spiritual. The positive side, and again, it's not from Matthew 7, but it is the quarreling.

Now accept the one who is weak in faith. Accept him.

I want you as a congregation to put a welcome mat out in front of the person, a proverbial welcome mat that says, you know, we disagree on schooling, we disagree on birth control, we disagree on what to do on the

Lord's Day, we disagree if our kids can be in Boy Scouts or Iwana or both, or we disagree about if you're in a gun organization or you're in the

NRA or not in the NRA and all those things. I'm going to put a welcome mat on there and say, you know, you're a sinner saved by the grace of God and you are welcome,

A, in my life, and B, in my home. I love you. If everybody comes to your house, the only people that come to your house are public schoolers because you're in public school, friends, you don't get it.

If you're a homeschooler and your life is only eat, drink, and live homeschool, and the only people that ever enter your door, you've got to wipe your feet and say,

I wipe public school off my feet, and then you're left in the house. Friends, enjoy.

I've done all three, so I have an equal opportunity basher. I've done private school, homeschool, public school.

Jesus was in private school, so I've settled that. Friends, accept.

That's what we're to do. We're to accept the one who is weak in faith. If you're really right and they're wrong, they're weak, accept them.

By the way, it's usually the other way around. It's usually the ones who are weak in faith that say,

I only associate with my own. By the way, when you accept them, the accepting is not for the game of judgment.

You don't say, I'll let these people into my home, because when they leave, my wife and I are going to have a field day. It's going to be so much fun.

We don't need the TV tonight. We're going to invite them over, and then we're going to get hoots all night after they go.

What does the text say? But not for the purpose of passing judgment. That's not why you accept them.

You accept them to love them. That Jesus died for them. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.

Verse 3, Romans 14, let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let him who does not eat judge him who eats.

Four, what's the reason? God has accepted him. You accept people into your fellowship based on this.

Has God accepted them into his fellowship? If God has accepted the person in his fellowship, you accept them into your fellowship.

Don't despise, don't disregard. Herod did that to Jesus. We don't want to do that to other

Christians. For God has received him. Who are you, verse 4, to judge the servant of another?

To his own master he stands or falls. And stand he will, for the

Lord is able to make him stand. Friends, isn't that freeing? Isn't that wonderful we don't have to go around and do that anymore?

I think we could spend our time doing something much better than that. Let's pray.

Lord God, it is good to be in your house. It is good to be underneath the magnifying glass of Scripture.

And Lord, you have taught us that it's good for the Spirit of God, even if it hurts while we get pruned, to apply these truths.

Lord, I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church. From the nursery workers to the elder board, that we would be a church known not for blind lack of discernment, but we would be known as a church for many things, including today, accepting other

Christians, being kind to other Christians. Father, would you help us to be generous to them, that you would help us not to impute motives and imply, get implications of things that aren't true?

Or would you help us to deal with our own sins first so that we could look at other Christians and then help them?

Well, we're thankful for Christ Jesus. We're thankful that we are accepted in the beloved, and now help us accept other people since you have.