Matthew 7:1-6 To Judge or Not to Judge

You are listening to recast Church of Mattawan's podcast. Join us as we are in a sermon series entitled not your average Savior study in the book of Matthew.

Opening Announcements and Sermon Series Context

Good morning to all of you. Thanks for coming. Glad that you're here. Have you guys had a good week things been going well? Kind of nice to see the sun shining out and hope of a warmer weather. I think we got a little trick played on us with the snow the other day.

There's anybody kind of like ugh about that. I know I was. Remember that we want this to be kind of casual get feel free to get up get coffee get doughnuts. In the middle of the service if that's what you need to do I say that every week.

But I really mean it and I recognize that actually since we've started people ever necessarily taken me up on that. But but really I mean it sincerely I get up do what you need to do to kind of keep your focus on the Word.

Of God.

We're gonna dive back into Matthew after taking a couple of weeks off to kind of look at Easter and focus on the Easter message. But now we now we're gonna jump back into Matthew for several weeks and then in the summer.

We're gonna pick up the book of Joshua. You're gonna notice that what I do here when it comes to my preaching Schedule is that what I tend to do is I go through a book of the Bible. So we started off last summer.

We went through the book of Ephesians and some of you were here with us at that time. We're going through Ephesians and we jumped into the book of Acts. We didn't finish the book of Acts because I don't want us to get so overburdened in one section of Scripture.

I mean at the pace that we're going through Matthew right now. We could spend two or three years in the book of Matthew. So I don't want that to be the case where we become so lopsided that here as a church.

We spend all of our time in one book of the Bible and it's like there's a lot of stuff. That's in here a lot of stuff that applies to us. So I want us to get into some of the Old Testament, which we haven't done yet but you'll also notice that I do go through books of the Bible that I'm going through and letting the text of Scripture dictate and Kind of where do we go next?

And what do we do? I could do some catchy things like five keys to good parenting or or You know all different kinds of life stages. Sermons or how to get your how to get your money in order or things like that.

I really believe though that the best. My perspective anyways that the best is that we go through God's Word that we don't this that I don't start with our culture and Say, okay. Here's five really key things that you can learn from the Star Wars movies or something like that and then try to Try to attach some scripture to that.

Which I've I've been guilty of doing that before. But what I really think we need to do is start with scripture and let scripture address our culture. So that all that to say kind of where we're at here now I am gonna be.

I'm gonna be here next week, but I'm taking off for a conference. Like I said earlier. So I'm actually dr. Whitmer is going to be back now. How many of you were here for the first time to hear? Dr. Whitmer speak.

You know look at who raised their hand go and talk with him so that you're not just taking my word for it. But he's an excellent excellent speaker. He brings a really radical perspective on.

The Value of the Material World

Valuing.

Valuing the world the earth the material stuff that's around us. And what is the correct balance of that because a lot of times in the church we tend to think spiritual things good. Material things evil and we've had that wrong in the church and he is a theologian.

He's a professor. He's a teacher up at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and he's got a really good quick wit about him a really good presentation. But what he's bringing to us can have a radical impact on the way that you view the world the things that you do day-to-day.

Granting value to the time that you spend not praying not reading your Bible a lot of times. We think maybe the most spiritual thing would be to just be reading our Bible all day. But there's a lot of stuff that we do that has value too.

So come come next week and hear him. I will be here. But I'm not preaching because I just can't really dedicate the time being going to a conference to really Focus on God's Word like I like I would if I were preparing a sermon.

The Sermon on the Mount and the Life of the Kingdom

We're coming back this week. We're gonna be in the Sermon on the Mount and just to kind of remind us of what the stage is because we've had a Couple weeks off. Jesus has taken his followers those who have said we want to be with you.

We want to follow your ways the things that you have set forward and he's taken them up onto a hillside. To explain to them the life of the kingdom. So now you have decided to be a follower of Jesus Christ now.

What does that imply for your lot for your life for your attitudes for the things that motivate you for your roles and your? Responsibilities and all these types of things. So we're still in that Sermon on the Mount this was one big long extended sermon that I've break broken down into about five or six, so this would have been just like a Fire hose from Jesus to these guys up on this hilltop, you know, and they're taking all of this in.

And our text this morning is going to take on the way that we think about ourselves and the way that we think about others. It's a pretty direct text pretty practical and straightforward as we read it.

Little bit of a challenge to us particularly in verse 6. We'll get there verse 6 can be a little bit of a tricky thing for us to consider. So we're gonna be looking at Matthew 7 1 through 6 you can turn over there.

That's page 16 691 in the Bible and seat back in front of you. But we're going to look at giving others the benefit of the doubt. Which may be easier for some of us. While others of us might be left with nagging suspicion consistently of others we have a tendency to jump to snap judgments or to really Be suspicious of the motives of others.

Some have been raised in a household that may be bred Judgmentalism into you where you were raised in kind of a kind of environment where you? were pretty quick to look at other people and judge where they stood in relationship to God and That's something that you've been working through.

Maybe you learn to be critical of others at both superficial and maybe even some deep level superficial like this. Have you ever been around the person who when you're watching TV with them? Or you're walking down the mall with them everything that they say is a put-down about somebody else.

They see somebody on TV, and they're like oh. They're overweight or they're underweight or look at their nose or look at this have you been around those people who are constantly? looking to nitpick others.

Ultimately it's like to what do you see in that you see that it's their desire to make themselves Elevated by putting down others, but there's there they can be quick to snap judgments. We don't want to be those kind of people who are constantly ripping on people using them as our constant punchline and That can be our tendency we can find ourselves falling into that cycle of Comparing with others looking down on others, so we're going to receive some balanced teaching.

So follow along with me in your Bibles or that Bible in the seat back in front of you. And I said 691 and that Bible is a free gift from us to you if you don't own an English Standard Version of the Bible you can Take that one with you.

Judge Not and the Difference Between Discernment and Condemnation

Matthew 7 the very words of Jesus. 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 out to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye?

But don't notice the log that's in your own eye. Or how can you say to your brother? Let me take the speck out of your own out of your eye when there is a log in your own. 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 to dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs. Lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. Let's pray father. We come to a text direct very very direct teaching from Jesus Christ.

Teaching that I believe applies to each and every one of us as Jesus points out two opposite extremes and contrast them. Where we are told to be a discerning people about where we cast our pearls. But we are also told to not be judgmental.

I ask that you would make this clear to us. How we ought to interact with people? Loving people. Father this is one of the greatest commandments to love our neighbor as ourself. I ask that you would help us to apply this that this would work out here in recast church and in our lives.

In all of our spheres of influence where we rub shoulders with other people. I ask this in Jesus name Amen, how judgmental is to judgmental you ever thought about that? At what point does it cross the line what I kind of mean by that question?

And I think you can kind of understand this at what point does my discernment cross the line into arrogance? Where I anticipate and expect that everybody ought to behave Like me I think we all. Do we all struggle with that to some degree of thinking that we kind of have things right and if other people were to live?

Like us well things would go better for everyone, right? They were just a little bit more like me because arrogance is ultimately believing that I am right or at least that I am better than others and That they ought to do things my way and the truth of the matter is a true follower of Jesus Christ.

Wants to get things, right? You want to live a good life you want to live the best basically to be the best Christian that you can be would you? Agree with that isn't that kind of what we're striving for but the problem comes in when we start to compare Ourselves to others looking at others and trying to figure out.

How are we doing in relationship to them? We're working to live out the principles that Christ laid down for us in Scripture and do the best that we can. But there's a very fine line between trying to be the best that we can be.

And in turn condemning others who are not up to our standards. So the first section here basically verses 1 through 5 are going to be about mental generosity. It's a word that I kind of coined for this but mental generosity towards others think about this consider this.

How do you think about others? What thoughts do you? Entertain in your mind as you get to know other people that are around you about their spiritual condition about their life about the things That they do or don't do the things that they allow into their home the things that they watch on TV the way they raise Their kids all of these different issues can come to bear on the way that we view other people.

And we can tend to become a judgmental people. It's primarily about asking yourself the question this morning. Do we give others the benefit of the doubt? See Jesus knew it was quite literally. He's sitting there on that hill and he's talking with his followers and he and he recognized our human tendency.

To make it a competition. To begin to look at others and say well, I'm doing this for Christ. What are you doing for Christ? I do this, you know and I get up in the morning and I read my Bible and I do this this isn't this this what do you do and all of these comparisons that can tend to Filter down into our grid of looking at others.

So check out verse 1 Jesus addresses it right away judge not. That you be not judged now. That's not kind of sounds like Yoda. Doesn't it those of you seen Star Wars, you know. It's kind of like we kind of and sometimes the translations of the Bible will do that to us, but literally straightforward.

He's just saying don't judge or else you're going to be judged yourself where the word judged now. We recognize that there's a court system out there, right? So is Jesus going against the entire court system and saying we shouldn't have courts and we shouldn't have judges because they judge people.

There's a couple of different Greek words for judge. This Greek word can be used in a variety different ways. But primarily the overtone is condemnation a final authoritative judgment of an individual's life.

Basically this kind of judgment is dismissing an individual. Dismissing them outright and saying I know that type of person. I know their character and boom, they're done. Saying God should be done with them and moving on.

That's the perspective. The person who doesn't pay attention to these words of Jesus has an attitude of condemnation towards others. Do you know the difference? Think about this in your mind. Do you know the difference between being discerning and being condemning?

Can you picture that in your mind what that looks like? Do you know if somebody's being condemning towards you versus being discerning towards you? Can you feel the difference?

I.

Think people are confused. I. My tendency myself is to say yes, I do I can tell the difference. Condemnation is a pretty heavy-handed. Authoritative thou shalt do this my way kind of attitude versus discerning people.

I generally will walk away from somebody who has addressed something in my life in a discerning way. I might be defensive. But I recognize the truth of what they're saying. Someone who's being condemning the walls go up and I don't hear a word that they say.

Can you relate to that? Okay. I Think that we recognize. I think that we we have the potential at least to recognize the difference. Now the question is head. Can you relate to being a condemning kind of person?

Have you been there in your life? I Have. I have looked down my nose at other people and said and by the way, my nose goes down. So I have looked down my nose at others and I'm pretty tall, too. And and just pictured where they are at and come to snap judgments about their character come to snap judgments about who they are.

How dare I? Jesus is going to draw that to he's going to take us to task for that kind of behavior for those kind that to that kind of thinking. He's going to give us some reasons for not having a judgmental attitude first.

He says you are going to be treated the way that you treat others. If you go around condemning others, you will ultimately be caught out as a hypocrite because guess what? You're a sinner, too. And as much as you can catch other people in their sins.

Guess what? They can do. Catch you in yours. And so when we go around condemning others. It's a little bit of a silly game that we put that we play. Because what we want to do is ultimately show that our sins are not quite as bad as other people's.

Isn't that really our perspective? We tend to Give ourselves the benefit of the doubt but not others. Verse two isn't focused on reciprocity as an ultimate, uh. Ultimate motivation that is if I do good to others, then they'll do good to me if I don't judge others.

They won't judge me. It's not really what jesus is saying ultimately. But what it does suggest in the text what jesus is suggesting is that in a proverbial sense? In a proverb a general life principle.

Here.

Is that the judgmental person? Will be judged. The condemning person will be condemned by others. Let me illustrate this so that it kind of hits home when you hear of a church that says things like Excuse me.

Thou shalt not dance. Have you encountered that before. Have you heard of that or has that crossed your mind before or been you know. Thou shalt not dance. Thou shalt not drink thou shalt not play cards.

When they lay these kinds of things down. What does our society think of them? Are they judged for that? Judgment that they've made do you see what i'm saying. Because they are judgmental in a sense they in turn incur Judgment and condemnation from our greater society and even for many christians.

So that we see that this principle actually bears out in some very Specific circumstances where if we find ourselves being judgmental and condemning towards others others are going to turn around and pour the same thing on us.

Those who are more judgmental are going to find themselves being judged. We see that very clearly in our society around people who are very vocal, you know, you talk about pat robertson or Jerry falwell or some of these people who are very outspoken about our culture and about our society and what comes back to them.

What do the cnn anchors have to say about them? You know what i'm saying. There's a lot of judgmentalism that goes in both directions. In these circumstances in these situations those who are more judgmental are going to receive a greater judgment on themselves.

But i'd like to liken this kind of human condemning one another.

To.

Standing on the bow of a ship. And that ship is going under. It's going to sink. And the the person who is condemning others. Is the person who is standing on the top the highest point of the ship from the water?

Laughing at everybody else going i'm higher than you. I'm higher than you. Do you know what they're all gonna hit the water? Isn't that kind of silly? Everyone is worthy of condemnation. All of us are sinners.

All of us are in the same boat. And it is a sinking ship. All of us are dependent upon the same grace. How dare how silly of us to stand on the highest point of the ship? And act as though we're in better standing than others.

Verses three through four. Jesus uses an intentionally humorous parable to explain the nature of hypocrisy this kind of hypocrisy. He uses a carpenter illustration which is His career that's what he did for as far as we can tell for 20 plus years.

He was a carpenter. So it's interesting that he uses an illustration from that. He says you have a tendency to see specks picture sawdust. Have you ever had sawdust in your eye? Some of you are going.

Yeah, or just a speck in your eye, you know, it's irritating. And how many of you had a hard time finding it? You're like there's something that's aggravating my eye right now and I can't quite find it and you're sitting there looking in the mirror.

That's the picture is picture a small small small thing that you have a hard time finding. But we have a tendency to see those in each other. This is a minuscule thing a small thing, but you have the tendency to see specks in other people's eye.

And you even want to help them, you know, because you're a generous person. So you want to help them remove their specks from their eyes? When in fact You have a huge beam In your eye, I mean you need help carrying this beam around.

Okay, you got this beam sticking out of your eye. It's meant to be humorous. You know, you can't even you can't even get in the door and you got to kind of move around to get Places because you got this beam.

This is the largest beam used in construction. It's a technical term that jesus is using here. We translate it log. It is the center beam for the floor joist. It would run right down the middle of a house or right down the middle of the roof.

But it's the central beam in construction the largest piece of wood used in that time For construction and you've got one of those in your eye. That's what he's saying. And yet you want to you're gonna have a hard time getting close enough to someone to remove A speck from their eye with this big beam sticking out of yours.

The question I have Something i've had to address in my life this week is what is your beam? What do you have sticking out of your eye. What what is the sin that has a hold of your life or that grabs you and pulls you down?

Consistently, what is that? Jesus is going to tell us to deal with those things I would recommend. If you need help figuring out what your beam is ask somebody else because they've already figured it out for you.

I'm, just kidding. But if you do need help, you can come and see me because i'm pretty good at this, too. So I could tell you what your beam is. Maybe that's not a good idea and to be honest. Some of our beams are pretty secretive.

Some of our beams are invisible to everybody else.

And.

Even to the degree that they might look like specks to everybody else around and you know the depth. You know how far that thing goes into your heart. Like a splinter or sliver in your heart. And it goes to the core of who you are.

And you're struggling and you're fighting and don't fight that battle alone. Find somebody else to share that with and talk with them. For encouragement i'm here for that. I want to help you through these types of things.

If you're struggling and you really have this beam and you know what it is and you are losing the battle. Come and see somebody about getting some help with that. You know, the thing is my own tendency.

Is to ignore my own sin. And to see other sin very clearly and that is a disgusting behavior it really is. Someone's struggling with honesty at work.

I think.

Maybe a more direct way of saying someone who's a liar Can be so fine-tuned to lying. That they're really quick to point it out in others because they are an expert in it. So to speak. Do you know what i'm talking about where they would be disgusted and offended by other people's lies, but they themselves are a liar.

Or have you noticed someone who's caught up in something like pornography can speak about other sexual sins like they are the worst. All these other sexual sins are extremely horrible, but they've got this beam in their own eye.

That they're dealing with. I give myself the benefit of the doubt and things like this. Listen to this. Tell me if you can relate to any of this. I make mistakes. But other people sin. I am misunderstood.

But other people are outright deceptive. They're liars. I fall into some minor sins from time to time, you know my standard my my. My default is to do pretty good once in a while. I might step into sin once in a while, but I ask for forgiveness and move on.

Other people are sinners. They're acting when they sin. They're acting out of who they are. Can you relate to that kind of arrogance that kind of thinking where I look at myself and I give Myself the benefit of the doubt and I everyone else i'm skeptical of them.

I question their motives. Am I the only one kind of looking out and do you guys feel that way. Do you tend towards that. I think we all do. Of course, it makes me feel better that other people agree with me on it.

It's horrible. In summary this first point then jesus is saying that we are to enter the lives of others with a significant level of self-assessment and humility. We are sinners. And we must take care to not condemn others because we are equally worthy of condemnation.

So in the process of helping someone through sin recognize that you have some major issues yourself now. I i'm, sorry. I missed I skipped a little bit here to really say that the process is not to not judge others.

When it really comes down to it. It doesn't say you can't help others. You are not to become detached from other people's lives because look at how he concludes in verse 5. You hypocrite? That's an encouraging title for us, right?

But it sticks you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye deal with these issues. And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. So it's not saying detach and remove yourself from relationships and there's no room To identify a brother or sister in christ who is struggling and offer assistance to help them.

But oh what level of humility you must have to enter into that type of a discussion? There's another person recognizing your own significant sin before god. And it's not saying you have to be perfect.

I'm saying you have to be perfect then no one could ever address a speck in a brother or sister's eye. But you need to enter it with such a significant level of humility. When you do so. And jesus actually outlines In matthew chapter 18.

So just in several chapters later from where we're at right now He gives the principles for confronting someone who has sinned against you. I'd encourage you to write that write that reference down matthew 18 a lot of problems in the church in the church in america and in churches.

Would be resolved if we followed matthew 18 where instead of first step instead of Going to your friend and telling them what they did what this other person did about you or did to you. To go to them first the person who offended you.

And go and try to reconcile and make that right. And instead we like to talk we like to Get other people's opinion. Oh, i'm just telling you just so that I could get some one else's opinion about this individual.

It turns into gossip and slander and winning people to your side. It's a horrible place for a church to be. Pray that we would be a church that actually applies. Matthew 18. We go to people when they offend us and go and try to reconcile and make things right.

And even when we've offended somebody we go and we try to reconcile and make things right. We're sinners. And we must take care to not condemn others because we are equally worthy of condemnation. So in the process of helping someone through sin.

Recognize that you have major issues in your life. So what motivates us to be condemning towards others? Why do we do that? What kind of things are factors to make us judgmental towards others. I would say one first is legalism.

If we give too much thought or we give too much of our faith over to the law. Then it's just it's just a short step to legislating morality telling others what they must do to be honoring to god. And coming up with our own hard and fast standards for life.

And pretty soon we're telling people the extent of what rating movie they're allowed to go to. We're telling people what they can do in their free time. We're telling people what they can and can't buy and how they can spend their money and all kinds of crazy stuff that i've heard.

Of.

And it can get pretty whack pretty fast. Really things can get out of hand in a church that is giving themselves over to legalism. By the way, i'm going to say this over and over again. But laying down laws for others to follow cannot lead them to a relationship with jesus christ.

It is antithetical to a relationship with god. Because we do not earn our way to heaven. It is a gift. A gift a gift. It is not our earning it. The old school tendency for churches to make up laws like don't drink don't dance don't play cards.

I don't know if you notice this, but they don't stop people from drinking dancing or playing cards. Have you noticed that? Matter of fact. You might find more card players and more drinkers and more dancers in those churches.

Because the law has a tendency to make my heart want to rebel. It's not to say that we throw the baby out with the bathwater there are standards for living there are things that we need to Do and we follow scripture, but what i'm talking about is making laws above laws adding to The text of scripture and coming up with our own laws and our own rules.

The second thing so legalism has a tendency to lead us to condemn others because we make up these laws. And then we condemn people based on the laws that we've made up so you can see how that factors in but Competitiveness is the other one.

I want to be the best christian. I know. You relate to that. If I see the christian life as a competition. Then it shouldn't be too hard to find someone struggling more than me that I can look down on.

And then I surround myself with people that make me feel pretty spiritual and pretty good about my life. I'm going to begin to avoid people who make my spiritual life look shabby because how many of you know.

If if you're in that competitive game, you're never going to be top of the class. There's always someone who's doing better than me. Well, there's always you know, so i'll just surround myself with people who are doing worse.

The third thing and last thing that leads us I think and there's more i'm just giving a Summary of my my three thoughts. But there's more things that i'm sure you can think of that leads us down the road of judging others but I think third is fear.

I think we can tend to get into a a circumstance where I fear that I might not be in. I fear that some people have more sensitive consciences than others, but i'm I fear. Maybe i'm not really a follower of christ.

Maybe i'm not really there In my relationship so I need to be. I get into this cycle of Trying to prove to myself that i'm better than others. That maybe if I look better than other people, maybe god will recognize me and notice me more.

And then i'll be more confident and assured that I am in. As if that's going to give any assurance at all. The the the ultimate defeat for all this monkey business of condemning others is preaching the gospel to ourselves.

You guys remember what the gospel is. What does gospel mean. Good news. It means the good news. What is the good news? The good news is the story that puts us in our rightful place. That jesus that we were so bad and so beat up and abused and and destroyed by sin by our own choice to sin.

That jesus christ had to come As god in flesh and pay the penalty for us. That is the good news that anyone by faith in him by believing and trusting in what he did for us on the cross. We can have eternal life.

Adam and eve sinned in the garden satan. Sinned before that and then in turn tempted them and what was his sin his sin was to put himself above god. And say I want to do things my way. Have you ever thought about the fact that saving faith?

Faith in christ actually reverses that fall. The fall is us saying god. I want to be above you. I want to do things my way. That's the nature of sin. The nature of saving faith is god. I put myself under you.

I humble myself and I put myself under your son. And I recognize that you are sovereign over me and without your covering me without your being over me I have no hope. It's the opposite. The way we are saved is the opposite of the way that we fell into sin.

As a recognizing our ultimate humility our ultimate need for a savior. The gospel is a story that puts us in a rightful place. There is no room for legalism in the gospel because in the gospel we are reminded that we were so beat up.

We were so bruised by sin that god had to come down and rescue us and he died in the process of rescuing us. No room for legalism there. There's no room for competition because the great news is that all come with nothing to offer.

All who come to the cross. All who come to christ with saving faith. Come with empty hands. It's not like we come and say hey. Well, you know i've got these just a couple of good things that i've done.

Would you trade that in for eternal life? Would you would you forgive me of my wrong because i've i've done a couple nice things. We all come before him with empty hands nothing to offer. And what's amazing is we are all credited with the same result.

No one comes out of the deal of salvation better than others. No one comes out with A little more grace a little more righteousness. We all come out of salvation. With the righteousness of christ. His righteousness credited to our account like we have a bank account of goodness of righteousness.

And we all walk out with the same balance. Perfect righteousness of christ. That is what salvation is. No room for competition at the foot of the cross. Also this issue of fear if you're scared enough about your own salvation that you're striving and working to try to prove it to yourself by competing with others.

You likely have a fundamental misunderstanding about the gospel of salvation. It isn't us versus everyone else. And whoever is the most righteous wins. It ultimately was that we were enemies of god. It was us versus god.

And guess who always loses? We always lose when we are trying to strive to Reach god's righteousness. We will not get there and that doesn't sound like good news until we realize that god made the way for us.

Through jesus.

Discernment About the Gospel and How to Handle Hostility

It is all about his provision for us. So here we've seen that we have. We are to have a mental generosity towards others. We are supposed to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to being judgmental.

But now jesus is going to counterbalance this teaching with an opposite illustration with a plea to be discerning people. Ultimately, he's saying that his followers are not to be involved in an inquisition style judgmentalism.