Sunday Sermon: Judge Not (Matthew 7:1-6)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. Matthew chapter seven, we'll read verses one through six.

These are the words of our Lord Christ as written by the apostle Matthew. Judge not that you be not judged.

For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure that you use, it will be measured to you.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is a log in your own eye?

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

Do not give dogs what is holy. Do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Let us come to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for the wonderful blessing of grace that you have shown to us through Jesus Christ, our

Savior. And it's in that reconciliation that we have received in Christ that we are gathering together this morning as your people, desiring to hear your word proclaimed, to be fed by this, that we may walk in holiness and uprightness before you.

And I pray that what we see in this is not just convicting to our spirits as it should be, that we may check ourselves and see that we are walking in a holy and an upright way.

But that we also see the responsibility that is laid out here to help one another, correcting and admonishing each other as we are instructed from the scriptures.

I pray that we would examine ourselves and that there be no wrong way in us, that we not partake in this table we're also going to share at in an unworthy manner.

But we remember the body that was broken on the cross for our sins and the blood that was spilled for the forgiveness of sins, that we may be buried with Christ in our sins and risen again in new life, walking in righteousness as Jesus has called us to.

We ask these things in Jesus' name and all God's people said, Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.

Matthew 7, 1. Judge not that you be not judged.

I love, love this passage that we're looking at today.

And there are three reasons why I love this so I'm going to begin with those three reasons.

Number one, I love this section of scripture because of the self -examination that it calls me to.

This is calling me to make sure that I am walking in holiness before God.

That I examine my heart to see that I am doing what

I am supposed to be doing to the praise of God in obedience to Christ.

Now especially I have responsibilities as a pastor, I am to be an example to the church.

That's part of my role. That I might show to the body that has been entrusted to me with the preaching and teaching of God's word, an example of godliness, of walking in uprightness before our

King. So there's certainly that responsibility that is upon me, but also in my own personal walk with Christ.

That I examine my heart to see that there is not any wrong way in me and regularly, daily subjecting myself to Christ, that I might be cleansed of all unrighteousness and be holy in all of my conduct.

Following that instruction that's given to us in Romans 12, 1 that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto the

Lord. And this is our spiritual act of worship. So I am called to holiness. As much as I must encourage others and teach others to walk in holiness,

I must walk in a holy and upright way, lest my charges to you to be holy be done hypocritically, when

I myself am not walking in uprightness. So that's one reason, that's the first reason why

I love this passage. The call to self -examination. The second reason why

I love this section of scripture that we're looking at here today is because of the call to encourage and build up our brothers and sisters in the

Lord. See this is not just telling you to examine yourself, but there's even portions of this passage that are telling us to examine our brothers and sisters in the faith.

That we may help one another walk in holiness. Before I came up here this morning,

I put my jacket on and I hadn't put my jacket on yet this morning, so there was not any dusting off or adjustments or making sure certain threads were hidden or things like that.

So before I came up here on the stage, I looked at Becky and I said, does this look right? Does this look straight? And she said yes.

But of course I was angled at her like this, so she said, I'm only able to see one side of you, but the side that I'm able to see, it looks straight.

See I can't tell. There might be something that looks off. If there's a little white mark or something like that, needs to be dusted off, whatever, that tends to show up on a black jacket.

So she is able to take a look at me and see that there's something that needs to be corrected.

And we have that given to us even here in this passage of scripture. That Jesus says, take the log out of your own eye, so the call to holiness, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

There's even a call and a charge here that we would be our brother's keeper. It's in Genesis chapter four that we read the story of Cain murdering

Abel. His brother Abel rose up in jealousy against Abel and murdered him. The first murder that we have recorded in scripture.

God said to Cain, where is your brother Abel? And what was Cain's reply?

Am I my brother's keeper? Cain was trying to hide the sin that he had committed and trying to shove off the responsibility to care and love for his brother.

But the reality of that question that Cain asked is, the answer is yes.

You are your brother's keeper. And we as brothers and sisters in the faith have a responsibility to one another that we would see each other walk in holiness and uprightness.

And sometimes we're going to need somebody else's help to identify those areas where we still need some work.

So the first reason why I love this passage, the call to self -examination. Second reason why I love this passage, the call to even help our brothers and sisters in their walk of faith.

There's a third reason why I love this passage, and it's not quite as connected with the first and second reason.

The third reason why I love this passage is this verse in particular, Matthew 7 .1.

This will sure help you realize if a person really knows the scriptures well or not.

Because this verse is loved by people. Believers and unbelievers alike, they know

Matthew 7 .1. Whether or not they know the reference, they probably wouldn't even be able to say, well, it's in the book of Matthew or it's in the

Sermon on the Mount. But they sure know these words, judge not, lest ye be judged, amen?

Everybody knows that. Why do they know that? Because they don't want to be judged. And this seems to be for them the passage that trumps all other passages.

Doesn't matter what other references of scripture you make. If you're telling a person that their behavior is sinful and here's why.

God has said that we're supposed to conduct ourselves this way. And you even cite the passage of scripture where it calls us to this kind of holiness and this kind of behavior.

They're going to say, uh -uh, but Matthew 7 .1 says, judge not, lest ye be judged.

And I'm even giving that person way too much credit. They're not going to say Matthew 7 .1 says. They're just going to say, oh, but Jesus said, judge not.

But that's not all that Jesus said. These people will use this verse to say, do not judge me.

But Jesus is not in any way saying here, and maybe you identified it as we read it this morning, he is not saying that we are not to make any moral judgments whatsoever.

Albert Moeller was teaching on this particular section at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and when he was teaching on this passage, he talked about the very first time that he ever appeared on Fox News.

And when he was on Fox News, he got pitted with a couple of other religious figures who represented different beliefs.

I think some of them were probably even pagan, but there was also even a Catholic priest that was in there. And so Albert Moeller represented that section of American evangelicalism.

That was why he was asked to be on this panel. And he mentioned exactly the subject they were talking about, but it escapes me now.

Nevertheless, there was a portion in the discussion when the anchor, whoever was hosting the show, oh, it was

Hannity and Combs, which isn't even on Fox News anymore. But I remember that was the news program now that Albert Moeller was on.

It was Hannity and Combs. So one of the hosts, whether it was Hannity or Combs, had asked

Dr. Moeller a question. Dr. Moeller responded, and he gave a moral biblical answer to the question that was asked of him.

But then one of the hosts turned to one of the other panelists and said, but you don't really believe that, right?

After all, in the Bible, it says, judge not, lest ye be judged.

And then that panelist gave an answer as to how we shouldn't be judgmental of others. And Dr.

Moeller said, most of these interviews that you've seen me do, I tend to be pretty reserved. But on that particular instance,

I lost it a little bit. Because here you have a religious figure, somebody who was even known for, in his role, teaching the

Bible. And yet here he was saying, on this moral issue that we were discussing on this news program, he was saying that I did not have any right to judge anybody.

And in fact, even citing the authority of Jesus to say, judge not. You can't judge anyone.

And Dr. Moeller looked at this person and said, come on, that is absurd. And you yourself don't even practice that with any kind of regularity.

Every single one of us must make moral judgments. It's impossible for you not to make a moral judgment.

Would you let anyone watch your children not knowing who they are?

That's a moral judgment. Would you marry anyone without knowing who they are?

That's making a moral judgment. You're saying, this person is worthy of my love and affection for life till death do us part.

This person is not. And it's perfectly right for you to make that judgment.

If you're an employer, do you hire somebody knowing nothing about their character?

That would be highly irresponsible. To think that you can just hire a person and their character has nothing to do with the job that you are setting before them, the task that they must complete.

Of course, character has to do with that. And you make a judgment as to whether or not that person is even capable of doing that job.

I was just reading an article yesterday. As a matter of fact, this might scare some of you. But this particular article was talking about how data is being mined from our cell phones right now, and is even being handed to people who are employers to determine whether or not you will be responsible for the loan that you're signing up for, or whether or not you will be responsible to do the job that you're being hired for, especially if it's like a massive company that hires thousands of employees, how much time do they have to really assess every single person's character, it's just easier if we can pay for this cell phone data that has been gathered from this device that you use on a daily basis to find if you're really somebody who's reliable enough to do the job that we're asking you to do, that's a moral judgment.

These companies are making moral judgments, and you might think of it as rather cold and heartless, and indeed, yeah, that's one way to look at it.

But nevertheless, they're making a moral judgment call based on data from your cell phone as to whether or not you're responsible to abide by your loan or do the job that they're hiring you for.

We make moral judgments all the time. In fact, it's even a moral judgment to say, judge not, lest ye be judged.

And I get it all the time of saying, the Lord has said this, you must repent, and you must walk in holiness and uprightness.

The number one response that I will get to any time I have that kind of exchange is judge not.

Just recently, I did a video on Stephen Furtick, a clip of a sermon of his that went viral in which he was talking about faith.

And the thing that he was saying about faith was so problematic that if anybody were to follow what he said about faith, which was not at all biblical, it could lead to a whole lot of error and even a person's own destruction.

So I found it is necessary and part of my responsibility and the ministry that I do to highlight this video and what the problems were with it.

So I went through that clip piece by piece and showed here's what

Stephen is saying, here's what the Bible says, and here's why the Bible does not agree with what

Furtick is saying regarding faith. After all, Scripture tells us that it is by grace we are saved through faith.

That's Ephesians 2 .8, Romans 10 .17 says that faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

In Romans 3, we are justified by faith, Romans 5 .1. Therefore, since you have been justified by faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ, faith is something you have to have in order to be saved.

That's why it's so terribly important to understand faith. And so that's what I was highlighting in this particular video.

So I worked on this video. It's about 20 minutes long. I uploaded it to my usual channels. I posted it to Facebook.

One of the first comments that I got when I published this video was a single image.

The person didn't even write any words. All they did was they kind of cropped out an image and they pasted it in the comment section on Facebook.

And the image was a cartoon, a drawn image of a man with a log coming out of his eye.

And it was kind of, like, grotesque, his face is deformed over here with this massive tree trunk sticking out of the side of his face.

And he's pinning down this other guy, and he's got his finger out. It's looking like he's trying to dig the stye or the splinter out of another guy's eye.

That's all it was. Just this video that I had posted, leading the people of God in a right understanding of faith, and somebody in the comment section posting, essentially telling me, take the log out of your own eye before you take the splinter out of your brother's eye.

Now, I responded with a very simple question to this image that had been posted. And I asked this question to which

I got no response. I said, can you tell me what the log is in my eye that I need to remove before I can adequately remove the splinter out of this false teacher's eye?

And I got no response from that. See, what this demonstrated by this person's comment is they actually don't know what

Matthew 7 is saying. All they're saying is, don't judge me.

Or, in the words of Tupac Shakur, only God can judge me, right?

Well, he already has. And he's written it down in the Bible, and he says, you're guilty.

You need Christ. All of us do. Romans 3 .23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 6 .23, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. If you don't know that you have sinned, if you don't know your sin, then you don't know that you need a

Savior. And the Bible tells us that it is like a mirror that is held up to us that we may look into the living word of God and see ourselves.

And what is reflected back at us when we look into the word of God is a sinner who is unable to keep his law.

We have transgressed and broken the law of God at every point. And for this breaking, for this rebellion that we have committed against God's word, what we deserve for this is death.

We deserve the judgment of God. That's what the Bible shows us.

That's what it says to every single person. All have sinned and fallen short of His glory.

But the good news is the reality of that situation is resolved with this wonderful, beautiful message of God's grace and love and mercy as demonstrated to us through His Son, Jesus, whom

He sent to die on the cross for our sins so that all who believe in Jesus will not perish under the judgment of God, but we will have everlasting life.

It is necessary to see your sin so that you may see the Savior who saves you from your sin.

When Jesus says here, judge not, that you be not judged, the right understanding of this passage is not that we should not judge at all.

Because once again, as we look at this passage, there were very clearly statements that Jesus made here that were even encouraging us to make moral judgments.

So it was not a statement of don't make any moral judgments at all. Look at verse 5. You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

There's two statements of judgment there. Number one, you hypocrite.

That's a statement of judgment. Number two, take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

The instruction is actually here for us to make judgments of one another.

But not to do this in some sort of self -righteousness or lording our knowledge and our spiritualness and our piety over somebody else, because who is the person that we are correcting?

Brother. Then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

This is implying love and affection between two people.

And so we correct a brother or a sister in the faith, not because we want to smack them over the head with our

Bibles, not because we want to feel better about ourselves or have some sort of self -righteous superiority.

We do it in love and affection for one another.

Romans 15, 1 says, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak.

Now, those are the words that Paul uses exactly. That's not meant to be demeaning. I'm strong, you are weak, so listen to me.

It's just the reality that there are some of us who are more mature in our faith than others. So we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak.

Paul goes on to say, not to please ourselves, but to benefit our neighbor for his good to build him up.

The teachers that I am the most impressed with, and you probably are too, the teachers that you likely are most impressed with when it comes to teaching the

Word of God, are those that have like these massive degrees and they have that D -R in front of their name, right?

And yet, when they talk to you, you don't feel like they're lording their intelligence over you.

But rather, they just have this wonderful keen ability to reduce the text down to a level that you can understand.

And it's just warm and soothing and encouraging, at times convicting, but you come away from that message or that sermon knowing the truth.

You don't come away from that going, boy, you used a lot of big words there, and I have no idea what those big words mean. I guess that's what you get when you listen to a doctor, right?

But the teachers that you're most impressed with are those that you know, they're just super, super smart, and yet they just have that way of bringing the

Word of God down to a level that you can understand. They're far more mature than you are.

And you, in your immaturity, understand what the Bible says when you listen to them teach.

Now, that's like the broadest example, perhaps, or the widest gap between the most mature and the least mature.

But nevertheless, all of us within this body that are sitting here in this sanctuary today, there are those who have been walking with the

Lord for much longer and have grown in knowledge of His grace, and there are those who have not been with the

Lord as long and do not know those things as well. And those who are more mature have that obligation to help others become more mature.

This is exactly the way that Paul lays out the help in the church, the help that we are to be with one another when we read

Ephesians 4, that we're tightly knit together, that we're encouraging one another in love, that we may all grow together into the head who is

Christ. So when you help your brother or sister grow in sanctification, grow in holiness, walk in righteousness before the

Lord, when you help your brother or sister do that, guess what? That even benefits you. That benefits the whole church, because the whole church is being built up together in love, holding fast to Christ.

It says in Ephesians 4, 11, and 12 that God gave the shepherds and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

The work of ministry is not just limited to those people who have titles in front of their names, like pastor or deacon or doctor or theologian or evangelist or itinerant minister or anything like that, or if your name is

Billy Graham. We're all called to ministry. So God gave some of those that would be those shepherds and teachers to equip the saints, everyone in the body of Christ, for the work of ministry.

You've been called to the work of ministry. The person you are sitting next to is your mission field.

Not just that we would go out sharing the gospel with those who don't know the gospel, that's certainly a mission that we have been called to, but even that we would lift up our brother and sister in love.

And so here we have two judgments that are made in Matthew 7, 5. The judgment that you're a hypocrite, and then even that you are to make judgments, but you're not to make those judgments hypocritically.

Look at verse 6, Matthew 7, 6. Do not give to dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

That's a judgment. There's a moral judgment there. This is Jesus saying, guess what?

There's dogs and pigs in the world. And don't give them the holy things, because they're not going to appreciate it.

They're going to trample it underfoot, and then they're going to turn and attack you. So very clearly,

Jesus is making moral judgments here, and even telling us to make moral judgments. So Matthew 7, 1, judge not that you be not judged, is not a statement of do not judge at all.

In fact, the instruction we find throughout Scripture is that we are supposed to make judgments, but once again, the point of this passage as throughout the

Bible is that we not make these judgments hypocritically. The law,

Genesis through Deuteronomy, given to the children of Israel, calls them to exercise justice among themselves, and they are to do so with equity, not showing greater favoritism toward another and not discriminating against another.

So there's a call to make judgments, but to do it rightly according to how God tells us to make judgments.

Proverbs 27, 5, better is open rebuke than hidden love.

So if you keep all your judgments to yourself, that's actually worse than if you properly obey the instruction that God has given to us to encourage and admonish one another in the word of Christ.

Proverbs 31, 8, and 9, open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.

Open your mouth, judge righteously, defending the rights of the poor and the needy.

We even make judgments on behalf of those who are not treated fairly, those who are looked down upon and discriminated against in our society.

We even have a call to defend them, to make moral judgments in such a way. Matthew 18, 15, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault.

That's moral judgment, right? And once again there, we have the statement regarding doing this in love.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between the two of you. If he listens to you, then you have won your brother.

John 7, 24, Jesus says, do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

So if anybody ever responds to you with Matthew 7, 1, judge not lest you be not judged, you can respond one of two ways.

You can say, twist not scripture that you be not like Satan. You can respond that way.

Or you can say, John 7, 24, do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

Those are the words of Christ. Now, interestingly enough, that particular verse comes just a few verses before John chapter 8.

What do we find in John chapter 8 verses 1 through 11? Well, that's the story of the woman who was caught in adultery, who was brought before Jesus and thrown down before him and the

Pharisees say, now the law of Moses tells us that this woman is supposed to be stoned. So what do you say,

Jesus? They're trying to catch him in this trap. If he says stoner, then he looks unmerciful. And he's also gonna go against the laws in Rome, which did not allow for capital punishment except to be carried out by the

Romans. Or he can say, let her go. And then it looks like he's going against the law of God.

So the Pharisees think that they have him in this trap. But Jesus responds to the Pharisees and says, let he who is without sin be the first to throw the stone at her.

Now what Jesus was saying was, where's the dude? Because if she was caught in adultery, that means she was sleeping with another guy.

Where's the guy that she was in adultery with? Bring him in here. Apparently he's without sin, so let him be the first to throw the stone at her.

That's exactly what Jesus was saying. But many have taken that verse out of context and twisted it to say, you're not without sin, so you can't throw a stone at anybody.

Now, first of all, whenever we make a moral judgment about a person, when we're correcting someone's sin, that they may walk in righteousness and not continue to walk in unrighteousness and potentially to their own judgment.

We're not throwing stones. Throwing stones is execution. We're not executing anybody.

We're wanting to save the person before that happens, amen? So we're not going against what

Jesus said, as far as that instruction goes in John chapter 8. But even a person, how they will misuse that text in John 8 demonstrates that they really don't understand the words of Jesus at all.

They're just twisting scripture for their own benefit as though to say, let me do what I want to do. Don't tell me that I can't do this.

God loves me no matter what. And if we keep those judgments to ourselves, and we truly don't love our brothers and sisters in the

Lord, whom we are to help walk in righteousness, that we may be as Jesus has called us to be.

We read even here in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 548, you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

In Philippians chapter 3, the apostle Paul says, not that I'm already perfect or have become perfect while he's walking in this flesh, but I seek to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

So I'm not yet perfect, but I want to be. I want to be as my savior. And sometimes we need some help knowing what we look like.

And we rely on brothers and sisters in the Lord to aid us in those things. Colossians 3 .16,

teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom. To admonish means to correct with goodwill.

So sometimes we're called to that and the scriptures instruct us to. 1

Corinthians 2 .15, the spiritual person judges all things. 1

Corinthians 5 .12, is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? That's where the apostle

Paul is talking about church. He's talking about church discipline there in 1 Corinthians 5. 2

Timothy 3 .16, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Some translations of that verse will even use the word rebuke. The scriptures are breathed out by God and profitable for rebuke.

Because once again, we look into the precious word of God and we see ourselves and our sin and our need to be cleansed from these things that we may walk in uprightness.

Titus 1 .9, this is a description of a pastor. This is where you find the qualifications of a minister in Titus 1 verses 5 through 9.

Verse 9 says, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it.

So part of my responsibility as a pastor is to hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, not deviating from this, not adding to it, not taking away from the scriptures.

And I must even, as a pastor, rebuke those who contradict this word. Whether you live contrary to this word or some false teacher comes in here and is teaching something contrary to this word,

I must correct that so that people will not walk in error. But we obey

God according to the word that he has given to us. That's a moral judgment.

Sometimes calling out those false teachers is going to require calling them out by name.

Consider this example in 3 John verses 9 through 10. I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.

So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us.

And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to welcome them and puts them out of the church.

So John is writing this letter to them before his coming to that particular church and saying, hey, Diotrephes is acting like a fool.

And I'm going to come deal with him when I get there and I'm going to tell you about all the stuff that he's been doing. Sometimes our calling out of false teachers is going to require that.

That's a moral judgment. This is the instruction that we have in Scripture. And all of these examples that I have given you are not superseded by Jesus saying in Matthew 7, 1, judge not that you be not judged.

That that verse is like the quintessential verse in Scripture and every other text that talks about judgment is immediately squashed by this statement in Matthew 7, 1.

That's simply not the case. Because as we see in context, what Jesus is telling us here is that we must judge, but we must not judge hypocritically.

4, verse 2, with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure that you use, it will be measured to you. The judgments that you issue upon other people are going to be the same judgments that are issued against you.

Are you able to pass the test that you're putting on other people? Are you telling a person not to sin, but in the meantime, you're hiding this sin over here?

You've got it tucked away in a closet somewhere. Same thing that you're telling them not to do. It's just not as public as their sin.

So you're calling them out, and yet you're guilty of the same thing. God is going to judge you with the same measure of judgment that you are leveling to someone else.

One of the things that Jesus demonstrates with this instruction is just how close by the tendency is for us to fall right back into self -righteousness.

It is so easy to do, and it's so easy to want to put somebody else down so that we may feel greater about ourselves.

My friends, it's why the tabloids are still in the checkout line at the grocery store. Of all the advancements that we've been able to come to, in technology, we have not gotten rid of those tabloids.

People are still buying those magazines, or they would not be there. What's on the front of those magazines? All the gossip and stories about all the celebrities, right?

What this person's divorce cost. What this person did to cheat on this person. This person flew off the handle in public, and they acted like this.

What this person said about this person. On and on it goes. It's just gossip. And you buy those tabloids, and you read through them because you want to see how much better you are than these celebrities.

Well, at least I'm not acting like them, right? That's the attraction. That's why they're there.

And it's so easy for us to fall right into that tendency to think that, hey, at least I'm not acting like them.

This is the parable that Jesus gave of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Go up into the temple to pray.

Pharisee stands there before God. God, thank you that I'm awesome.

Thank you that I'm not like other people. I do this, this, and this. God loves me because all the wonderful stuff that I do.

Thank you that I'm not like this tax collector over here. And how does the tax collector behave?

Says the tax collector goes before God, and he falls down on his knees. And he is so ashamed of his sin, he cannot even lift his eyes to heaven.

But he beats his breast, and he says, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

And Jesus says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other one.

We have a responsibility to be before God and ask forgiveness for our sins.

And my friends, we must even desire that those secret sins be understood, that we can be cleansed of those things and be in holiness before God.

May God show us the logs in our eyes that we can be forgiven our sins and be made holy before God.

And then also that we might be a benefit to one another to help each other walk in holiness before God.

Amen. In the Psalms, we see those prayers asking for even those secret sins to come out, that I may be forgiven these things.

Psalm 19, 12, who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

Psalm 69, 5, oh God, you know my folly. The wrongs that I have done are not hidden from you.

Psalm 90, verse 8, you have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

And then, of course, that wonderful, humble Psalm 51, where David prays, created me a clean heart, oh

God, and renew a right spirit within me. Purge me with hyssop that I may be clean.

We have been called to make moral judgments, but my friends, all we can do is make judgments on behavior.

Only God truly knows the heart. We can judge behavioral actions, and we must call to correction where those things are necessary to be corrected.

But we cannot determine a person's heart. Only God knows that. So when Jesus gives this illustration of a log in your eye, but a speck in your brother's eye, why is it that what's in your eye is so much bigger than whatever it is that your brother is doing?

Because the sins that we're talking about here are never going to be more real to you than your own sins.

Because you not only know what you've done, but you even know the intentions and the attitudes of your own heart.

You know the things you haven't done, but the sinful wickedness in your heart that desires to do those things.

So the sins that you're guilty of are always going to be bigger in your eyes than whatever it is your brother is doing.

Because all that you can see is the thing that he has done. That's all you can see. And that's what you have to make a judgment or a determination over.

You can't judge the heart. God is the one who judges the heart. And so what we're guilty of is always going to be bigger in our eyes than whatever it is our brother is guilty of.

We know far more about ourselves than we know about another person. It was

Charles Spurgeon who said, I'm going to butcher this quote because I didn't write it down, but Charles Spurgeon said, if anybody ever makes a judgment about you, about your character, take heart because you're way worse than they think you are.

So whatever ridicule they have to say about you, our heart is far worse than that. God knows.

And so may we come humbly before the Lord and desire that he cleanse us and renew a right spirit within us.

Jesus goes on, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, you hypocrite, let me take... I'm sorry,

I skipped a line. How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there's a log in your own eye?

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

Galatians 6, 1 and 2. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

And so summarizing once again, why do I love this passage, Matthew 7, 1 through 6? Number one, because it caused me to self -examination.

And I need to realize the importance of looking at myself and seeing what sins that I need to repent of before God.

Especially when it comes to the role that I have as a pastor to be an example of godliness to the flock.

But we all have this same charge that is given to us that we remove the logs from our eyes.

That we may then be a benefit and remove the specks from our brother's eyes. So the second reason why

I love this passage, Matthew 7, 1 through 6, is it demonstrates to us the importance of looking out for and caring for one another when it comes to helping each other walk in righteousness and holiness.

And finally, the third reason why I love this passage is it sure seems to be that litmus test to expose whether or not a person really understands the words that Jesus says.

Are you just cherry picking a verse so that no one will make a judgment against you? Or do you truly understand what

Jesus is saying here? You must repent that you may help one another walk in holiness and uprightness before God.

Even to say to somebody, judge not lest you be judged, that's a judgment call. You're making a moral judgment when you tell somebody to judge not.

So if somebody tells you, hey, don't be so judgmental, you can reply, are you judging me for being so judgmental?

Well, let it not be that we become full of ourselves. Let us humble ourselves before the

Lord and He will lift us up. As we come before the

Lord's table today, I want to look lastly at this final verse in Matthew 7, 1 through 6.

Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

There's going to be occasions in which we do need to correct somebody with the word of God, but they hate that correction.

And that may be exposing that in their hearts, they don't truly love the word of Christ. Jesus saying in John 8, why can you not bear to hear my word?

It's because you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. And so there comes a point where our attempts to try to correct a person is not led to any sort of fruitfulness.

And we must instead turn to those who would desire to hear the word of God, proclaim that they may be made holy and righteous according to it.

But even as it comes to presenting the Lord's table today, these elements that we have before us here, the bread and the cup, these things are holy.

They represent the holy body of Christ that was broken for our sins and the cup that was spilled for the forgiveness of sins.

The cup that represents the blood that was spilled for us. These are holy things. And so we must examine ourselves that we may not be like dogs or pigs, trampling underfoot those things that are holy.

But in remembrance, partaking of these things, knowing what needed to be done for the forgiveness of our sins.

It took the holy sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us to be forgiven that we may be made holy before him.

Sin hath left a crimson stain, he washed in white as snow.

For now Jesus made it.

Sin hath left a crimson stain, he washed in white as snow.

For now his light

Jesus made it all. Sin hath left a crimson stain, he washed in white as snow.

And where I stand in him complete,

Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall still reap.

Jesus made it all, all to him

I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain, he washed in white as snow.

Jesus made it all, all to him

I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain, he washed in white as snow.

Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.