Slander

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00:03
Well, good morning.
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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles turn to James chapter 4 James chapter 4 Yeah, I know we still been Hey, you gonna learn one thing with me is I? Can I can stick to a text I? Ain't no use in Russian We're all gonna die one day and then The series will stop My church does tease me though because Last year I said I was going to do the whole book of first Corinthians in one year I was well over a year ago, and I'm in chapter 14, so I did I did not make I did not make my My prediction and at this point.
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There's no reason to rush because I didn't make it anyway I Yeah We're gonna read verses in chapter Four we're gonna read verse 11 12 now We looked at these last week But I but I sort of had to cut off before we got to this point because of time so I and I was thinking about going on to verse 13, but I Woke up this morning with just an urge to preach 11 and 12, and I've got some things on it I want to say that I didn't get to say last week, so we look at verse 11 and 12 Do not speak evil against one another brothers The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law But if you judge the law you're not a doer of the law but a judge There's only one lawgiver and Judge he who is able to save and to destroy But who are you to judge your neighbor? All right father in heaven.
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I thank you for your word Lord God as we seek to examine these words today and and and discern their meaning and apply that meaning and encourage one another to obey Father I pray first and foremost that you would keep me from error The Lord I am a fallible man capable of preaching error, and I don't want to for the sake of these men For the sake of my conscience and for the sake of your great name My father as we examine this word today look at the subject of slander Look at the subject of being unrighteous in our judges judgments Lord I pray that you would impress upon us the necessity of watching How we speak? both to and of one another I Pray this in Jesus name Amen All right gentlemen well We're going to talk about slander and we're going to talk about judgment That is the subject of this text And it builds itself on a context that we began a few weeks ago Which starts back at the beginning of chapter 4? Where Paul talks about what causes quarrels and and and fights among you it's your passions that war within you we talked about that last week and Even further back we can go back to chapter 3 and the subject of taming the tongue James has talked about how our tongue is dangerous it's like a little rudder on a big boat the little tongue in your mouth has the ability to control everything because That's what people most know about you is how you speak and what you say And so your tongue has this great influence over your life, and so when he gets to chapter 4 He's talking about how we ought not to fight with one another we ought not to To to be harsh with one another that we ought to mourn over our sins We see this back in verse 9 be wretched and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you so there's this great call to humility And then he says in verse 11 do not speak evil against one another So If you think of the context of chapter 10 or verse 10 humble yourselves Before the Lord and then the next command is do not speak evil against one another there's really a tie between those two Because why would you ever speak evil against someone else? Because in that moment you think you are somehow better than that Whether it's you think you're right, and they're wrong Whether it's you think you're righteous, and they're wicked whether it's you think you're up here, and they're down here You have refused to humble yourself if your language is that of the attack if your language is that of the? aggressive Abuse of another person and the word here for speak evil is the word where we would take the word slander So you could simply translate this do not slander one another fact does anybody have a translation Maybe you have a new living or something does anybody have a translation that says anything? Substantially different then do not speak evil against one another Do not criticize okay Verse 11 Well what's interesting about the word criticize there is criticize is Just think about that word It's it's actually based on the word for judgment Yeah, critique is also based.
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It's all based on the Greek word crema Crema is the word for judge right so we see that that's not the word used here though Kata lalaite is the Greek here and that simply means to speak evil of someone but criticize he goes on to say the one who judges Is the one who speaks evil judges so so the word cream crema is there crema crema there? There are a couple of them that all rest on the same root, so we see this word coming up comes up Here in verse 11, and it's and it comes up again in verse 12, so we are told not to be ones who slander Criticize is there another word does anybody else have another word in their Bible that is Yes Okay, speak against All right, not no else.
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They're all pretty much the same.
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Okay.
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Well, that's I don't get to read every translation So when I come into a mixed group everybody's got different translations sometimes.
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I like to hear the way yes, sir, okay So If you if you see You know your brother Sinning yep, and you and you and another brother Say there's a situation between Them two.
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Yeah, but you can actually as a as an outside individual you can see behavior.
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That's Does not line up with the Word of God in that person sure and you're talking about it Are you slandering your life not only like I can understand if you walk around saying hey, you know, you're gossiping about it But if you see something and you're just speaking the truth, is it slander? That's a good question.
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Actually, you're you're you're getting a little ahead of me Because I want to walk through the various texts of the New Testament that refer to judgment Criticism gossip and slander and see what the differences are Because there isn't it is a good question that you're asking because this is the first question that everybody asks When we say we should not gossip.
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They say what constitutes gossip? All right My wife and I have a daughter's 21 years old if my daughter's doing something wrong and my wife and I are talking about it with each other Is that gossip? No, I know but what I'm saying though is is is that you know So you have to start building from there, right? And you were talking about two Christian brothers and there's a third Christian brother and and are these two guys? I don't know because it depends on the situation depends on the motivation, right? so there are some things that we have to consider in that because oftentimes what people talk what people use for prayer requests is Gossip.
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Yeah.
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Hey, I want you know to pray for this lady.
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Her daughter's pregnant She's so excited to tell you about her indiscretion.
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Yes, sir Yeah, I would say That's true.
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I think again not to Not to keep coming to the board but just for words because what you're saying is my word is motivation What motivates me to say what I say? Am I motivated to tear the person down or build the person up? Right so that so and that's what you said is it heartfelt that's what you mean Are you motivated by they're good? Are you motivated by they're bad in general when we talk about somebody we're motivated by they're bad We love to talk about that.
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We love to tell how bad somebody is.
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Yes, sir Now You guys are preaching the sermon for me because this is all the stuff So we get defensive and push that and we'll say negative to block whatever we need to be receiving, you know what I mean? Well think about the story of the prophet Nathan going to David Do you remember that when David had cheated with Uriah's wife? You know, it's interesting about that.
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She's always called the wife of Uriah even after he dies It's never called David's wife always called the wife of Uriah It's just an important reminder of that indiscretion She's the wife of Uriah that you've taken because Nathan comes to him and he says, okay I want to I want to ask you great king if there was a man who had a sheep and another man came along and Stole his sheep and put it in and he had everything and he stole this rich man stole.
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What would you do? Well, you bring him to me and I'll see that he was punished and that prophets finger said you are the man Right That's what you're talking about when mama points her finger at you and says you have done thus and so That's hard to hear But David fell under conviction of God repented, you know and all those things He'd already had Uriah killed which means he couldn't he couldn't he couldn't have retributive justice.
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He couldn't fix it Yeah Yeah, yeah, but he couldn't he couldn't he couldn't solve that sometimes we've gone too far we can't go back and fix it We just got to move forward.
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All right, and that's what he had to do.
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He had to repent and move forward.
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So Today again, we're going to talk about the different types of judgment, but I think at the beginning The question is a question of motivation Even in James here when he says do not speak evil against one another.
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What is the implied? Statement there is that what you're doing is intending for evil your motivation is evil and there's some evil motivations whether it's the motivation to build ourselves up or the motivation to tear someone else down and oftentimes that's Both one in the same.
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It's like the world is like a teeter-totter, right? If I feel like if I can push you down it'll push me up If I feel like I can get you to go this way It'll make me go this way Right and the teeter-totter is us trying to make ourselves better And so James says do not speak evil against one another And he goes on to say the one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the Law well, what is that referring to that is referring to the fact that whenever we set ourselves up as the judge We're Displacing God's judgment because it goes on to say in the next verse that there's only one Lawgiver and one judge and that's God.
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It's not you So when you set yourself up as the standard when you set yourself up as the judge, you're telling God Hey get out of that seat.
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I want to sit there There's a throne.
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There's God sitting on his throne and you tell God come on down I'm better suited to sit on that seat You see now what it means when it says you're speaking against the law you're you're you're attacking the law you're attacking the lawgiver you're attacking him Yes, sir You kind of just I Couldn't argue that a little bit by once you have faith in your Savior.
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You have the Holy Spirit working in you and like same as whenever Someone preaching a sermon or something, you know, that's God working through them Okay, you're all of you guys are rushing ahead of me.
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I promise I'm gonna get to these things I want to try to establish what James is saying first Before we start asking the question because what you're asking sort of the same is is well, what about this scenario? Right.
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Can I make a judgment? The answer is yes In fact, I'm going to tell you this you have to make judgments and you're going to make judgments You have to discern truth from error right from wrong.
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You have to make discernments and that's absolutely true The issue here again is motivation.
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Let's say you I don't know you very well.
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We've known each other for several weeks, right? I come in and I and I see you and I and I have a bad opinion of you I don't but let's say I do and so everything you say annoys me.
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It doesn't but let's say it does Right, and so I begin to I begin to to kind of resent you and then the next thing, you know I'm over here talking to my brother here about you say man.
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I hate it when he's in class.
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I really don't I hope you This is not about you, but I'm saying if that became my motivation It's just I don't like you and so I'm gonna talk evil of you There's nothing righteous in that would you agree? That's that that's what James is dealing with.
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There is righteous judgment.
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There are times where we have to make solid Decisions and all of that is true.
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But the problem is we are motivated to self-justification and the justification that we try to make is Whatever judgment we make is the right judgment Even though it's the wrong judgment, it's motivated by the wrong thing.
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So we want we want to find the loophole So rather than immediately looking for the loophole Let us first just say this if our judgments against each other are motivated by evil intentions pride lack of humility Hatred any of those things then they're automatically wrong Even if what the person's doing is wrong if I'm motivated by hatred for that person, then it doesn't matter if I'm right Hear that again if I'm motivated by hatred for the person it doesn't matter if I'm right.
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Yes, sir What do I mean Self-justification is when I try to justify Something that I'm doing that's wrong So let's say I steal something and I say well I needed it so I'm justifying why I did it Rather than saying it was wrong and I shouldn't have done it I steal something and I say even though it was wrong.
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I'm right because I needed it That's self-justification that happens all the time.
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You got a guy I've had men come to me and they said pastor I've cheated on my wife, but she wasn't treating me, right? I don't care if your wife's hitting you in the face with a frying pan.
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You're gonna write cheat on her I mean seriously Block, you know ducking cover, but don't cheat Right.
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You do not have a right to cheat on your wife.
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I don't care what well this other woman treats me better I Don't care That is not justification, but people justify people come to counsel with me and man that the things they will try to justify Misuse people misuse money misuse things misuse their spouse misuse all kinds of things and yet They'll justify themselves That's what I mean, and that's why I say we talk about somebody else but then we justify it by saying all that was a prayer request or We talk about somebody else we justify and say well, I was just trying to get some wisdom from the Lord Sure self-justification is the most it's it's again.
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It's what Adam did I Always point this out when Adam sinned and God saw Adam.
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What did Adam say? Now he didn't he said the woman whom thou hast given me He pointed the finger at God the woman You gave me It's your fault God.
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I didn't ask for her You put me to sleep, and I woke up and she was there It's your fault That's right all of this Adam sought to justify himself by blaming God And how many of us do that well if God just wouldn't let me get with that woman If God wouldn't put that person in my life that was selling drugs If God wouldn't put me in a situation where I had a father who beat me or a mother who didn't love me if God wouldn't Put me in this situation or that situation.
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I wouldn't be who I am and we blame everyone except ourselves.
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It's self-justification That's right Yeah, we we never look at ourselves honestly Always and that and that and that is across the board I I deal with a lot of different people in a lot of different walks of life And I find the one thing that is universal among men if they're doing it.
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They'll justify it If they're not doing it they'll condemn it Say it again if they're doing it Meaning if they are doing something they'll say it's right because it's what I'm doing, but if they won't do it Then it's wrong if you're doing it It's It's it's it's pride It's selfishness.
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It's that idea that I'm up here and what I do is right, and I'm the standard It's a dangerous way to live and so James tells us Do not speak evil against one another the slander And by the way, I want to show you another text really quick on this Just turn over to Romans 1 Yeah, my favorite text.
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I know he's going to Romans 1 No, not 18.
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Yeah, it's a little further down.
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I got a I'm not sure what the number is I got to look it up real quick This is not my Bible.
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I borrowed this Bible some this is a I wanted the Greek text so Johnny let me borrow his so it's a little nicer than mine.
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I'm afraid.
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I don't want to mess it up You know I'm being careful being genteel with the text here But it Romans 1 beginning of verse 18.
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He's talking about God's wrath on unrighteousness, but later in the text.
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He gives a listing of sins We call this a vice list Yeah, yeah, and so it talks about all manner of unrighteousness verse 29 It says they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, and then he gives the list evil covetousness malice full of envy murder strife Deceit Maliciousness now.
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Here's here.
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Here.
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It is.
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It's a part.
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They are gossips Slanderers by the way, that's the same word that James uses for speak evil over here Caught the little a-tay in the in verse 11 It's the same word for slander in verse 30 here in Romans 1 in the Greek sometimes English can confuse us because they use different Words to translate, but it's the same Greek.
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He says slanderers haters of God Insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil just stop right there Probably the worst problem.
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I've had to deal with as a pastor 13 years in the ministry the part of the worst issue I've had to deal with is gossip and I don't mean to impugn the fairer sex, but oftentimes.
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It's gossip among ladies Men are bad too, so I'm not letting guys off the hook, but I am saying it's oftentimes this sort of just this this this this mean speech Gossipy speech they love to talk and I try to point out the fact that when you consider Slander and gossip they are right next to hatred of God in The list and I know proximity in the list doesn't mean everything, but I think it means something He said when he's defining evil.
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He says you got slander and gossip and hatred of God Why? Well, I'm gonna give you my opinion and my opinion is worth what you pay for it that and a nickel get you a cup Of coffee, but I'll tell you what my opinion is on this text Why is gossip and slander next to hatred of God? Because when we saw you want to go ahead brother Yes, that's exactly what I was gonna say by the image of God he made man, that's why murder is a capital offense Genesis chapter 9 Noah comes off the ark and what does God say if a man takes the life of another man? So to saw a man by his life be taken It is a command that if you kill another person you have so offended God by striking down someone who bears his image That you become worthy of having your life taken from you That's why capital punishment exists because God Instituted it when Noah came off the ark and so here we have this text which puts slander and gossip Next to hatred of God because when you slander and gossip against someone else You are speaking against someone who bears the image of God.
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Amen That's the problem You're failing to recognize in that person their inherent worth Now I'm Reformed so I talk a lot about total depravity, which means I think men are pretty bad and they are dead and sin But I will never deny That though man is dead in sin.
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He does have an inherent worth Because he's made in the image of God This is why I hate abortion so much Because even though that baby is real real little It's still an image bearer of God in the womb of that woman and when we go in with Saline solution and other kinds of chemicals to destroy that life We are attacking the very image of God When we wait till that baby's almost fully born and we stick a needle in his head and destroy its brains and pull it out We're murdering the image of God and so that by itself is worthy of Condemnation So too When we use our words to attack a person It's not the same But it's of the same quality Because that person is in the image of God and we are seeking to destroy them with our words Now do we get the idea of James? Now we get what he's saying Because I wanted to establish that before we look at the exceptions and when I say exceptions, there is no exception to evil But there are exceptions to the subject of how do we judge because we have to judge So now go with me to Matthew chapter 7 Probably the most well-known verse of the Bible Everybody thinks the most well-known verse is John 3 16 go out and witness with me and you'll hear people immediately say don't judge Thou shalt not judge Matthew 7 1 that's the most known scripture in the Bible is not John 3 16 In fact, what was it Tupac only God can judge me? Is that him the one in rappers said only God let me tell you something.
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That is not a good thing Good people say only God can judge me.
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Yeah, and he's gonna so be careful with running that mouth Yes, God can and will judge you But Matthew 7 Jesus is speaking This is the middle of the Sermon on the Mount a few years ago.
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I preached in the Sermon on the Mount There's so much context here that I don't have the time to outline.
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I just want to Just want to look at the first verse here, but then I want to show you how Jesus doesn't stop Everybody knows this judge not that you be not judged and that's what everybody says, right? In fact, there's t-shirts judge not lest you be judged judge not so that you be not judged people say that and then you say Okay, is that all Jesus said? They don't even know it's in the Sermon on the Mount.
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They don't know where it came from They don't even often know Jesus said it But here's what he does say He says judge not that you be not judged For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured To you so right there Jesus makes a point He tells you what not to do don't judge and then he says why he says because when you judge others you're setting up a standard for yourself You're making yourself a standard and now when you make that judgment, you're going to be judged by that same standard Now he goes on why do you see the speck in your brother's eye? But do not notice the log in your own eye Or how can you say to your brother? Let me take the speck out of your eye When there is a log in your own eye So right there it's amazing because if you think back to the time of Christ in this context of this Jesus is preaching to a multitude of people.
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There are certainly Pharisees that are hearing this scribes who are hearing this These are men who have laid burdens on people too heavy for them to carry right and the text says that he says that they have been they have been overburdened by the Pharisees and that Pharisees have been heaping upon them additions and Subtractions from the law of God to make their own little kingdom and the Pharisees were judgmental In fact, the Bible says that when Jesus talked to them, he called them whitewashed tombs Know what that means? Think of like this think of like a tomb that is a dead person in but it's clean on the outside It's been whitewashed on the outside like a nice pretty headstone.
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What's underneath the headstone? bones rotten flesh That's what Jesus said.
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That's what the Pharisees are on the outside.
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They look good They're whitewashed on the outside, but inside they are dead inside.
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They are Their worms, they're they're rotten They're ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing So this is the context of which Jesus is speaking here because he's saying look You've got a problem with yourself.
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You've got a log You know, I got two by four sticking out of your eye and you're over here trying to fix somebody else First take the two by four out of your eye And that's what he goes on to say.
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This is the verse that most people leave out verse 5 He says you hypocrite.
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Oh by the way hypocrite I Sometimes I get off on these little thing.
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I love words and words have meaning and Words are important the word hypocrite hoopoe creases Remember the word cream cream on cream on that that word creases It's all the same root.
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The idea is judgment hoopoe creases means to be under Judgment what it means is this it was it was actually the word that was used for actors on a stage Because they did what they were doing Because they were under the judgment of the audience or under the under the watchful eye of the audience So the person acts a certain way when they're on stage, but they don't act that way when they're offstage That was what the Pharisees were they did what they did when they were under judgment or when they were being watched So you understand that's what he's saying You hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brothers I Notice Jesus doesn't say not to help your brother But he says first you got to check yourself He doesn't say don't help the person get the speck out of their eye But he does say before you do that.
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You need to check your own self.
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You need to check your heart You need to check your motivation.
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You need to check your eye because while you might be trying to flick a Speck out of their eye you might be sitting there with a 2x4 hanging out of your forehead You need to check yourself before you try to help someone else and if you're motivated by selfish pride if you're motivated by ambition and Raising up yourself and lowering someone else then you're motivated by the wrong thing Your judgment is ungodly Your actions are ungodly.
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Yeah, brother.
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Yes I heard, I don't know how true this is, but it seems true in my life That when you look at something that frustrates you and somebody else a lot of times.
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It's something that it's that you have If you're dealing with I think that's a that's a truism I don't know that it's always the case But it's certainly I know for me the people I like the least of the people that act like me.
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Yeah, I Didn't get an amen I should have got a people the people that honestly I Find myself at odds with people that act like me sometimes because I see in my I see in them the things I don't like about myself So yeah, I think that's a truism.
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I don't I don't know that that's necessarily I can't think of a text Yeah That is but but this one as good as any just says that before I go trying to fix him I need to think about me Before I try to apply any type of correction to you.
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I need to make sure that that in my life Now this doesn't mean though that I can never help you Because if I come here and preach every week Sometimes I preach on things that I got a good handle on sometimes I preach on things that I'm struggling with But I still got to preach.
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This is the burden of preaching verse by verse.
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I don't just jump around I got to go right to the next text.
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You'll know if I skip something you'd be like, hey Hey, why'd you skip that thing on that thing? Well, it's good.
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I don't want to deal with that thing That'd be a little unfair, right? This is the burden of the preacher who preaches verse by verse got to preach it all or they're going to figure that out And so here I am and there are things that I deal with and things I struggle with and I have to be honest About that, but that doesn't mean I can't preach it Because when I'm preaching I'm saying I'm preaching to all of us.
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There's nothing I've said today that doesn't apply to me.
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I deal with pride I deal with Anger when somebody when somebody makes me mad.
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I want to talk about it.
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That's the worst thing in the world I got to shut myself up all the time Because I'm a talker Yeah, and I just want to talk about it but in doing so I'm often doing so at their expense Trying to build up my case while leveling theirs I Want to show you now that we've got the idea It's not Jesus is not saying that we cannot make judgments and that we cannot help someone What he is saying though is before we do that We have to check ourselves take the log out of your eye check yourself.
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Look at your motivations if you're motivated by evil Stop Repent Even if what they've done is wrong.
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If your motivation is wrong.
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You are Adding to the wrong.
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You're not solving the problem.
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It's just becoming more wrong I know it's a cliche, but it's true two wrongs.
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Don't make a right It's the absolute truth you taking what they're doing wrong and adding your wrong Action to it doesn't it's not like two negatives make a positive.
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It doesn't So you have to consider your motivation now I want to deal with the exceptions and the things that we've discussed right because are there times when we have to make a judgment I Would say all the time every time somebody comes here to preach you got to judge what is said Who were the most noble of all the people that Paul preached to? The Bereans, thank you The Bereans were called noble because they searched the scriptures to see if what Paul was saying was correct That's the Apostle Paul and yet they still Searched the scriptures to see if what he was saying was correct.
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And so we have to be Berean in our Attitude when someone comes to teach You know, huh? Berean is where they were from Berea was a city.
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So Jesus when Paul went into Berea It says they were more noble than those in Thessalonica because when they heard Paul preach They searched the scriptures to see if what he said was correct And so in that we call the the Bereans the noble Bereans because the scripture says they were more noble than those from other cities So the call When you listen to someone teach is to discern what they're saying listen To see if it's true.
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Now that doesn't mean that you have to be picky Annie And I want to say that you know, that means right Knit picky the Bible actually talks about pickers of knits People that are just critical of everything.
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Yes, sir That's right, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying, but let's say I Sit under a preacher and he's preaching the gospel and he's preaching the truth But maybe he says something little thing I disagree with I'm not going to freak out over that I I know that not everybody's gonna see everything exactly how I see it and Not everybody's gonna understand the text exactly how I do Where we have to understand the difference between the essentials and the non essentials, right? I mean, dr RC Sproul was my hero I Was blessed in my life to have had an opportunity to meet him to talk with him and to thank him for all that he Did in my life and RC Sproul is the person that I try to model my preaching after as best is it not? I don't try to model after any one person, but he's somebody that has influenced me as far as his delivery and methodology But RC Sproul was a Presbyterian.
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I am NOT that means he baptized infants and I do not and so I have to look at All of his preaching and teaching and say there's a glaring issue that he and I would disagree about But yet he's still a preacher of the gospel He's still a true man of God and he's now with the Lord And so I can sit and listen to him while at the same time discerning that there may be some things we don't always agree on All right, but is it is it essential? That's the question, right? Is it the gospel? Do we have an it do we have an essential agreement on the gospel? I'm sure that the guys who mark brings here to set free are not all going to agree with me on everything But do we have an essential unity in the gospel? I think so I don't think they'd be coming if we didn't right st.
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Augustine in the fourth century said this he said in essentials We must have unity and in non-essentials.
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We must have Liberty, but in all things we must have charity And the word for charity means love So he said in all in essentials there must be unity and in non-essentials there must be Liberty But in all things there must be love or charity and So even if I disagree with somebody on an essential I can still love them and pray for them and hope that they would repent Of that false teacher.
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I pray for false teachers.
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I do I pray that they would repent and turn to the Lord and Change their ways because the ways that they're going or some of them are leading them to hell and others too So Essentially essentially ESSEN T IAL LY all right, so Moving on we're going to go to now first Corinthians 5 and this is where we're going to draw to a close Because first Corinthians 5 deals with probably the most important case study on the subject of judgment In the Bible, and I wish we had time to break down the whole chapter, but time is fleeting So so we're going to we're going to simply address the issue and show how Paul deals with it because honestly if we take the world's View of judgment that's never judged anything for any and you've heard that don't ever judge anything people people can be crazy Dog, you know people thinking they're dogs and cats and men thinking they're women and women thinking they're children all kinds of crazy stuff And we're said never make a judgment that's just Dangerous we have to discern truth from error If a man tells me to call him a woman because that's the way he feels I Don't want to offend him, but I'm not going to lie to him either We're going to have a conversation about the fact that God created man and woman And he created the male and female and we're going to have that conversation And it may cause him to hate me But I don't want him to hate me But I want him to know the truth if I agree with his sin and agree with his situation And don't try to talk to him about it.
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Then essentially what I'm doing is just is just encouraging him in his path to hell So there are times when we have to stand up for truth even if it's hard and here's a situation when that happens Paul is Paul is He's received a letter from Corinth and he's writing a letter in response and this way says it's reported that there is sexual immorality among you and Of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans for a man has his father's wife Now we don't know exactly what's happening here, but I think that it's stepmother Situation I don't think it's his mom because it doesn't say his mom it says his father's wife by means mom's dead or they're divorced and the father's remarried and now the son has come in and Taken dad's wife now dad may be dead too But even if dad is dead this would have been considered an incestuous relationship even in this time in history Taking a stepmother would still have been considered incest So it's still wrong Just just to clarify for the law's sake it would not have been right even if the father was still alive But then we don't have enough information to make all the judgments We just know that this is a wrong situation and it's got to do with a man Who has his father's wife in a sexual way? That's the implied here is that they're they're in a sexual relationship Verse 2 and you are arrogant ought you not rather to mourn Which means they were probably not mourning they were probably pretty pleased with themselves you say, how do you know that? Well, we read 1st Corinthians and we see that they they had a lot of issues with dealing with sin and things One of the things that we understand about them is they were glorifying in things that were wrong And they were celebrating their own tolerance Doesn't doesn't the world do that today Celebrate tolerance, right? We'll tolerate anything Even the most crazy nonsense will tolerate at all.
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He says ought you rather to mourn rather than tolerate evil Let him who has done this be removed from among you by the way, that is an expression of church discipline meaning Let him be excommunicated Matthew 18 Jesus said that he said if a person sins against you go to them and tell them privately and if they repent you've won Your brother nobody else needs to know about it.
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That's the answer by the way If I have somebody who's sinning against me, I should go to them first rather than someone else and that's hard But that is what we should do That is hard sometimes and sometimes they're not believers and then and I think that we have to sometimes Rest in the fact that God is going to judge and do what he's going to do Sometimes they're not going to repent and we've got to be we have to stand ready to forgive them Sort of like the father in the story of the prodigal son He was he saw his son afar off which means he was looking for him So if that person does come back and ask for forgiveness, we're ready and willing to forgive them Yeah, so we stand ready to forgive it should Your translation Yeah Ethnosyn is the Greek there ethne means the nation's Go you go you into all the world and preach the gospel to all nations That's ethne that it just simply means that the nation's at any time in Jewish context if they were talking about the nation's It's often the Gentile nation.
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So that's probably why they translated it that way it but but that's the ethnic You've heard the word ethnic.
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It's where we get that word ethne.
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It's so that's it can be translated in multiple ways Paul goes on to say I'm not there, but I've already judged this person When you're assembled in the name of the Lord put this person out Excommunicate him he's done something that's sinful and he's not repenting put him out You say that's a that's a harsh thing to do Yeah But that's the command of Christ Christ said if you send somebody if somebody goes to somebody in their sinning and they call them to Repentance they refuse Go take two or three witnesses if they still refuse take that person before the church and if they still refuse you are to treat Them as a tax collector or a sinner meaning you put them out of the assembly sin in the church It's like a cancer If sin is allowed to continue in the church without being responded to without being dealt with it is like cancer It eats the church from the inside So sin has to be dealt with hopefully by calling the person to repentance they'll respond in repentance But as you said doesn't always happen That's right, and that's exactly the leaven of sin comes in works its way in and hurts everybody I got it.
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I got it.
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I got a rush to the end here Jump down with me to the bottom of this chapter Because he starts talking about in verse 10 Or verse verse 9 he says I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral immoral people Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy or swindlers idolaters since you would need to go out of the world But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality Or greed or an idolater a reviler drunkard or swindler not even to eat with such a one For what have I to do with judging outsiders it is not those inside the church whom you are to judge Let's hear that again.
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Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside Purge the evil person from among you, so what's what's Paul saying Paul saying this in the church? There is a standard way in the church There's a standard for behavior And if somebody bears the name of Christ as a brother and that person is living in habitual Continual unrepentant sin after having been called to repentance By one person then by two persons then by the whole church if that person continues to live in sin Then that person has to be removed from the church.
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That's called church discipline our church practices it It's a it's a sad day when it happens But here's the thing It's a sadder day when it doesn't happen Sadder still that a church would not call a person to repentance and stand on the Word of God But here's the thing it has to be motivated by love I've sat in rooms with people young girl She's got a boyfriend her and her boyfriend are engaging in Illicit behavior, and I say to her I say Baby, he doesn't he doesn't Care for you like you think he does if he's not willing to Forgo this if he's not willing to stop this because she told me she said if I stop having sex with him He's gonna leave me.
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I said baby let him go if You can verbalize that if you can say that he if I stop he's gonna leave I said let him leave He does not love you he loves what you're doing for him I Can honestly say I was not judging her or him maybe him but I was both it was out of love I Wanted to see them repent.
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I didn't want to see them leave Unfortunately she did leave she wasn't a member of our church anyway, so she was able to simply just disappear But it was a sad day because I wanted to see her repent my heart for her was to see her repent and If she said pastor, I need help.
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I would have helped her if she said pastor.
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I need somebody to walk with me I would have gotten my wife my wife was in the room when we were talking I would have my wife walk with her If she said I need somebody to talk to my boyfriend I would have went and talked to him, and I would have appealed to him in love you're hurting this woman this girl Because that's what motivates us not slander not gossip not hatred But looking at that person as a person made in the image of God Seeing the direction they're going and calling them back as a person walking towards a cliff is about to fall over and you're appealing to Them to come back.
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You're not judging them.